I Love to Pray the Word June 26, 2012

I am honored to share what it means to “pray the Word.”  I talk about it all the time, and I try to share every time I’m given the chance.

The LORD says, “Freely you have received. Freely give.”  So, let me make perfectly clear that I have not always prayed the Word, and, in fact, I have not always known how to pray the Word.
 

I believe it was in September of 2002, Mama and Daddy had been living with us for a year or maybe 2.  Time gets away from me, unless I have some event to compare to.  It was after my niece,  Beka’s wedding and before Ivey, my oldest granddaughter, was born.

That would have been after I went with my sisters to Israel…my Mother’s desire that we all go…and she paid with the money she got from their house. 

Well, that September, a friend of mine and I went to Toccoa, GA…to hear Bobbie Jean Merck…at the Baptist Retreat Center  there.  Between meetings, we were walking along a breezeway when the LORD’s presence was so powerfully strong, that I had to lay prostrate on the ground…and could not get up.  I was crying…gut-wrenching type crying…not what I do normally…and not what I would have chosen to do. 

Prostrate’s definition is: To put or throw flat with the face down, as in submission or adoration

Yes, that is the right word! But, I didn’t put myself flat…it was more like I had help…thrown flat more like it…not like a vicious throw…but more of a not out of choice throw…hope you will stay with me.

At this time of my life, I had heard the LORD on occasion, and certainly I had heard Him in the Word…I was the prayer director in my Sunday School, and I was called on to pray a lot!  I was told that I prayed well, and I guess I had no idea that pride might be there…because the Word said to pray.

I had friends that had a hard time praying aloud…but I was trained to pray aloud…both parents prayed aloud in public…and prayer was part of it all.

But, on that day…in that place…something changed mightily!!! The LORD, Himself, said, “Stop praying your prayers and pray Mine.”

That was all I heard at that time…and, I, after awhile of not being able to get up…got up and I didn’t even look like I’d cried. Amazing…I’m usually an ugly booger when I cry…

I could almost give you a blow by blow detail of all that has gone on since that day…but, it would be a long book…and I’m wordy as it is…so, let’s just say, since then, I’ve prayed the Word. Why? Because He said, Pray My prayer. 

Hear what He’s saying? His Word is His prayer…it is His covenant with us. 

Now, how do we do this?

As I began to do what my God asked of me…I mean to obey…I was so relieved when He told me that I did not have to re-invent the wheel! He told me that I had Stormie Omartian’s books the Power of the Praying Wife…and Parent.

In fact, I had prayed one for each day, over my husband and boys for quite awhile.  Also, I had, for many years,  been empowered by Germaine Copeland’s book, Prayers that Avail Much. 

We also had the Prayers and Proclamations for Israel, America, and Youth.  Derek Prince had written the ones for Israel, and Jim Goll had had these on his website. 

I have actually been praying the Word for like 25-30 years now, but I would have to find the scripture that fit…or I would have to go find one of these books…with the prayer for whatever circumstance or family member, etc., and I’d have to set myself aside and get ready if someone needed me to pray in Faith.
 

I mean, just like any of you…I had to get ready. I mean working full time and being among the world all week, and then, trying to get along with family…husband, children, parents, siblings…well, anyway, I would fall far short of praying for anybody with Faith.

It was like exercise…I’d be spiritually out of shape.  I was not exercising my Faith every day.

I thought I was to do what the LORD wanted of me…alone.  I did that for like 6 months.  I shared with Gloria and Emily, and others who were my prayer partners…Dixi, also.  While being with Daddy in the hospital, I shared with Gloria how I was praying.

We knew that when we prayed together…Gloria and me…for many years…many miracles had taken place…from Frank being healed…to Daddy and Mama being healed over and over…to Jews in Israel and one Muslim being saved.  We knew the power of agreement…of 2 or 3…that is!

Well, one day Emily and Dixi told me they wanted to join me.  “Oh, LORD, how can I give up this intimate time with You?…in the Secret Place of the Most High?  It had taken sooo long for me to find it…and now, these precious sisters of mine want to pray with us?”

He said, I wasn’t giving anything up…that I was bringing them in with us…in a 3-bonded cord…praying in agreement…all that He had showed me to pray.

Well, we just celebrated our 9^th full year…praying every day…for more than one hour.  At first we laughed at ourselves and each other at how hard it was to do this.  Getting up before we went to school or started our day…and praying    every   single    day. 

We met all sorts of obstacles, and we tried to understand what God was saying and to help Him many times.  Only what God actually said to do worked, and even what He said to do sometimes was only temporary. 

We had to learn how to hear from Him and to add or leave off…to change hours…or whatever…it was following Him on a dime.  I mean when He stopped if we went on it was in our power,and we ran out of gas.  


If we didn’t do what He said, or waited…we would have to wait for Him to trust us again.  I mean He was always Faithful.  He was always there.

We, however, are His creation, created for His pleasure…and not Him for us.  It may be only this disciple who has tried to lead the leader…or who has questioned what He said do…but, every single time…I mean every single time He said, DO! …and, I DID! Then, the promise with it came to pass.

It was not His failure to answer prayer…it was my unwillingness…or my overtiredness…or my questioning Him…or doubt and unbelief…or my traditions…or my hard-headedness…or my fear that others wouldn’t like me…etc., that caused any delay.

I mean sometimes delay is patience of God…and I’ve had to realize that if He answered immediately…a whole lot of people would not be in the Kingdom … or healed…or whatever…that it was and is not about me.

Mama (Baba) gets credit for telling me to get up earlier and pray before I went to work.  So, in order to tarry an hour, I only needed to get up like 30 minutes earlier.  Then, to accomplish the prayer of agreement, where any 2 ask anything in His Name, all we have to do is ask and it shall be given us, I needed to pray with at least one.

Emily is my at least one as she and I have done this for the 9 complete years plus 7 days, today. The LORD showed us the power of 3 as if one falls, 2 pick them up. If one is battling like Moses, the other 2 are their Aaron and Hur. 

Bobbie Jean Merck preaches the power of the Believer from the Old Testament. I know she’s a woman, and I know that she holds meetings often for women only, but in these last days, she’s called into churches all over this nation and around the world.  Bobbie Jean and her tapes, and my mentor Barbara Beeler taught me how to fight the good fight like the Old Testament saints, but with our spiritual weapons…not carnal ones.
 

For years, I’ve been told I sound like a soldier…and it is because I am one!  I wield the sword of the Spirit…morning, noon, and night…first, by praying the Word for about 1 hour and 50 or more minutes. 

Wielding that sword each morning as I arise sets my day in order.  I’m no longer ambushed.  I’ve taken care of the enemy through prayer…and I continue to wield it as I go…so easy to speak the Word when I pray it every day. 

It is the practice of prayer…just like practicing anything…it makes perfect!

Where 9 years ago, I could recognize the Word many times when I’d hear it, but I would not know where to find it.  I mean as I spent more time studying and prayng, I would know like that sounds like Paul or Jesus or David, but if I didn’t have my Bible around I was at a loss.

Now, it’s in my mouth most always.  I may need more exactly or from a different translation…but I usually can say it by just meditating on it to bring it up from my heart.  The Word says, out of the issues of my heart, my mouth speaks.

I have not perfected…;) …that’s a smiley face with a wink. When I do, I will most probably be face to face with Jesus.  However, I never say I will never be perfect anymore.  He says that we are to be perfect as He is perfect.  He’s growing us into a perfect man…a complete man…all ONE in Him…a Bride without blemish…and it’s not only taking time and patience to come to pass…it is very real!

We are not to continue living the life of the flesh, as the Spirit of Him, who raised Jesus from the grave is in us.  Why? In order to perfect us…but we have to allow Him to do that.

This morning I heard…I thought I saw the words…”rooted in the Word.”  I called Emily and she and I looked for it.  I did not find those words in anything we prayed this morning, and as I looked it up I saw “rooted and builded up in Him…” (Colossians 2:7) and “…rooted and grounded in love…” (Ephesians 3: 16-17)

Rhizoo is Greek for rooted and means that a believer is established, fixed, and grounded in Christ.  And, what does John 1 say?  Jesus  is the Word made flesh.  We talk about hearing words or a person being anointed, but it is the Word that is anointed. And the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, is the anointed …the Chirst…anointed ONE!!! Woo Hoo!!

Now, each of us can tarry and hour, and each of us can dwell in the Secret Place. 

The LORD said, “Why chase 1000? When you can chase 10,000? Or one million?

In other words, if Jill prays chasing 1000, and Gloria also chases 1000, that’s 2,000 chased.

But as Judy Jacobs sings about in her song “Will You Be My Praise Partner…Help Me Praise the LORD”…she sings  about this same multiplication plan of God. 

One chases 1,000…2 chases 10,000…3 chases 100,000…and instead of 4,000 being chased by 4…4 in agreement chase one million.

You know, I thought that this would give me less time to hear from the LORD, myself, but I hear from Him more and more…not less as I pray His design.

It is hard to pray the prayer blanket alone….it is harder to pray my own prayers alone for an hour…

I used to do this, and I would be through in about 15 minutes if I was lucky. 

It takes discipline…practice…to pray for an hour…to tarry…as the LORD asked Peter, James, and John …and He said why they did not do it…He said their spirit was willing but their flesh was weak…

Like exercising your Faith by believing…you exercise your prayer life by praying…the more you pray the more capacity you have for prayer…

If you are a new teacher, you are so glad to be given the teacher’s manual that has the same that the children have but you have all the ideas and even estimated amounts of time each idea takes…in other words you are not the inventor…you are not left to your own devices…you have help.

Well, I believe I was helped by Germaine Copeland, Larry Lea, Bobbie Jean Merck, Barbara Beeler, Beth Alves, and Stormie Omartian…even Beth Moore…and I have practiced for many years individual parts alone and with prayer partners like Barbara, or Emily, or Gloria, etc. So, when the LORD let me in on His plan and said the goal of the prayer blanket was to cover the earth and was beginning with me/us/…I was surprised, astounded, thrilled…and a bit anxious.

All along the way, He has showed us that we are in the accumulated prayers of the saints before us…and we are praying corporately the Word of God…now, like a huge snowball…with each new person being a snowflake…or a group being a snow ball…etc.  We all become ONE!!!

And, the power of the prayers of the saints is demolishing strongholds galore!

I know each time I pray individually now, that I am in this prayer blanket…and bringing each new person and new circumstance under the protection of this tent…I love the prayer of Jabez and Isaiah 54…lengthening my cords and strengthening my stake…expanding my territory. 

Most all my prayer now is in 3^rd person singular…”WE”…like We who dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High will abide under the shelter of the Almighty!  We will say of the LORD…He is our Refuge and our Fortress … In Him will we Trust!!!

The LORD is our Shepherd…we shall not want!!!

I find myself able to go on and on about the LORD and what He’s done for me!

Obedience is better than sacrifice.  No matter how hard we work to be a Christian and to live the Christian life…to walk in the Spirit…to walk the walk as well as talking the talk...and I’m talking about Believers…saved by Grace…until we, the Church, realize we are a Mighty Fortress, then, we aren’t finished.  Our work is not done. 

We are not standing there like a building that is being battered by the gates of hell…

We are moving forward…and everywhere, like Joshua…that we place our foot…shoe, tire, airplane, address by email, internet, fb…we claim for His Kingdom.  The violent take the Kingdom by force…the force of the Holy Spirit. 

I used to lay back …in bed…and go to sleep as I prayed…at night.

Or, later on, I prayed in the AM over coffee…and half asleep…or even dozed off…

Not anymore and not for a long time!

The enemy likes to invade…to infiltrate our prayer time.

Beginning with praise and worship…sitting straight up and being ready to speak when it’s my turn every day…has helped me be alert with my armor on and battling the enemy.

I’m armed and ready every day, walking circumspectly as the LORD says…armed and on duty…evading the ambushes I once experienced daily and sometimes many times a day.

The day does not control me…not smitten by the sun nor the moon…I’m walking to a different drummer…I hear the voice of the Shepherd only.

If I fill my thoughts …my time with the things of the world…I will get cloudy in my mind.  I won’t make clear, concise, good decisions…I will be wishy-washy at best.  My mind must stay on Him to be at peace.  


Why? Because He says so. 

I challenge you…

I’ll send you the prayer blanket.  I challenge you to pray it every day.

You will find that that is quite a challenge.

The LORD wrote it…I mean He used people…us …but it’s the WORD and you will be sure of that when you see it.

Why do you need it? It’s a tool…a very good tool to teach you to pray the Word of God.  Some of it you will already know by heart…you’ve memorized it or prayed it yourself.

Some of it will be new…and you may not have seen how spelled out the Word is about any circumstance that can come up in our lives.

Just like I’m glad that Paul did what He did. He wrote 13 books of the New Testament, I believe. I’m glad that I don’t have to let the LORD give it to me myself…I’m glad that I can take it from the LORD’s vessel, Paul.

The LORD has trusted me to wield this sword every day for 9 years plus…I ask that you trust me, too.

Pray the prayer blanket. You will not only be joining us who pray each morning on the conference line…or those praying on Tuesday and Thursday evenings…or all the ones in the different nations who pray daily from what I’ve emailed our or what they find on the website…but you will be participating in the tool being used to enlighten the darkness in India.  


Saturday, Vijay, made the presentation of the prayer blanket…in its 2^nd printing in Tegulu.  He will translate into Hindi soon and Afrikaan for South Africa.

The LORD said it is a blanket of light for that darkened nation…and I saw like a comforter of light over India…which has like only 1% Christians in that huge nation.

God bless you!  In Jesus’ Name and for His sake,

 Teddi