The 21-Day Prayer Challenge – Week Two

THE CHALLENGE

1) Pick a time and a place and identify something or someone that you are going to pray for daily for 21 days.

2) The goal isn’t to force God’s hand and make Him answer your prayer within your 21-day timeline.

3) The goal is to establish the habit of drawing prayer circles.

DAY 8

 The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect.

As we enter week 2 of our prayer challenge – claiming the promises of God in our prayers – it seems wise to bring to bear A FEW of those promises. To begin this week, I present these promises for you to consider in your prayers:

Exodus 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that they may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

Isaiah 40:29 “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”Isaiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. He did not send His Son into the world to condemn it but that through Him, the world might be saved.”Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”Romans 10:9-10 “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart

that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”From Bible.com: Once you make Jesus Lord of your life, “All the promises of God in Him are “Yes,” and in Him “Amen” (2 Cor. 1:20). In His grand design, He has purposed you will never face any negative situation without a promise powerful enough to push you through the problem to sure victory.

Are you depressed? “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10).Do you feel weak? “He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isa. 40:29).Do you struggle with doubts? “Let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).Think God has given up on you? He said, ‘I will never leave you, nor forsake you!’” (Heb. 13:5)Afraid of death? Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

Regardless of the problem, there’s going to be a promise in the Bible to cancel it, conquer it, and carry you above it—one way or the other. So find the promise that matches your problem, believe it, confess it, then praise God in advance for the manifestation.

Power proclamation: I proclaim that I will never face anything in life without a promise from God sufficient to give me total victory, one way or the other.

There are MANY more promises from God and much about His character that we can lean on in this life. As you consider the question “What’s my Jericho?” – remember that God is able and God is for us. Things will not always turn out how we want and we won’t always understand the ways of God but we CAN boldly lay claim to the promises He gives to us in His word!

The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect.

DAY 9Stepping out in faith can sometimes FEEL a bit foolish. Think about Honi – before it rained, as he stood in that circle he had drawn, he had to feel a little foolish. I mean, standing inside a circle and demanding rain is a risky proposition and vowing that you won’t leave the circle until it rains is even riskier. Honi backed himself into a circle, and the only way out was a miracle. Drawing prayer circles often looks like an exercise in foolishness. But that’s faith.

Think about some of the ‘big names’ of Scripture:Noah looked foolish building a boat in the middle of a desert. He was building an ark before there had even been this thing called ‘rain’! The Israelite army looked foolish marching around Jericho blowing trumpets. This was not the best battle plan…or was it?

A shepherd boy named David looked foolish charging a giant with a slingshot. He couldn’t stand in Saul’s armor and set it aside for a sling and a stone.The wise men looked foolish tracking a star to a place they weren’t sure about. And they were traveling via camel from Persia or somewhere near Iraq across the desert.Peter looked foolish getting out of a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. “Walk on water” – even the catch phrase didn’t exist yet! And Jesus seemed at least unwise for coming down from heaven to wear a crown of thorns.

Does your prayer look at least a little foolish? It should. It should be risky. It should NEED GOD’S INTERVENTION to make it happen! Does it align with a promise of God? Does it align with God’s character? If it does, then be bold and pray well! Pray Strong! Pray Long! Pray in Faith!

Remember our list of ‘big names’? Their results speak for themselves. Noah was saved from the flood; the walls came tumbling down; David defeated Goliath; the wise men discovered the Messiah; Peter walked on water; and Jesus was crowned the King of Kings.

And don’t forget the audacity and boldness of Moses. He had to feel foolish going before Pharaoh and demanding that Pharaoh let God’s people go. He had to feel at least a little foolish raising his staff over the Red Sea. And he most certainly felt foolish promising meat to eat for the entire nation of Israel in the middle of the wilderness. But it was his willingness to look foolish that resulted in epic miracles: the exodus of Israel out of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and the quail miracle.

Drawing prayer circles often feels foolish. And the bigger the circle you draw, the more foolish you’ll feel. But if you aren’t willing to step out of the boat, you’ll never walk on water. If you aren’t willing to circle the city, the wall will never fall. And if you aren’t willing to follow the star, you’ll miss out on the greatest adventure of your life.

In order to experience a miracle, you have to take a risk. And one of the most difficult types of risk to take is risking your reputation. Honi already had a reputation as a

rainmaker, but he was willing to risk his reputation by praying for rain one more time. Honi took the risk and the rest is history.

The greatest chapters in history always begin with risk, and the same is true with the chapters of your life. If you’re unwilling to risk your reputation, you’ll never build the boat like Noah or get out of the boat like Peter. You cannot build God’s reputation if you aren’t willing to risk yours. There comes a moment when you need to decide to stand still or make the move. Circle makers are risk takers.

Continue to circle your prayer in boldness as you seek God to intervene in big way!

Day 10Our passage for Sunday was Numbers 11. After 400 years of slavery, God delivers the Israelites out of Egypt. As Pastor Mike said, it was much harder getting “Egypt out of the Israelites” than getting “the Israelites out of Egypt.” Despite the memories of slavery and miracles of deliverance, the Israelites want to go back to Egypt.

The people of Israel began to complain, “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember all the fish we ate used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic that we wanted. But now our appetites are gone, and day after day we have nothing to eat but this manna!”

The Israelites complained a lot – this time, it was that instead of manna, they want meat to eat. And isn’t it just a little ironic that the Israelites were complaining about one miracle while asking for another one? Their capacity for complaining was simply astounding, and we laugh at the Israelites for grumbling about a meal of manna that was miraculously delivered to their doorsteps every day, but don’t we do a very similar thing?

There are miracles all around us all the time, yet it’s so easy to find something to complain about in the midst of those miracles. The simple act of reading involves millions of impulses firing across billions of synapses. And while you’re reading, your heart goes about its business circulating five quarts of blood through a hundred thousand miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries. And it’s amazing you can even

concentrate given the fact that you’re on a planet that is traveling 67,000 mph through space while spinning around its axis at a speed of 1,000 mph. But we take those manna miracles, the miracles that happen day in and day out, for granted.18 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

God patiently responds to their food tantrum with one of the most unfathomable promises in Scripture. He doesn’t just promise a one-course meal of meat. God promises meat for a month. And Moses can’t figure out how it’s going to happen: 21 But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ 22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

Moses is doing the math in his mind and it doesn’t add up. Not even close! He is trying to think of any conceivable way that God could fulfill this promise and he can’t think of a single scenario. He doesn’t see how God can fulfill His impossible promise for a day, let alone a month.

Have you ever been there? You know God wants you to take the job that pays less, but it doesn’t add up. You know God wants you to go on the mission trip, but it doesn’t add up. You know God wants you get married, go to grad school, or adopt, but it doesn’t add up.

What is it that God is asking YOU to do but it doesn’t add up? Begin to circle this ^^^ in prayer in addition to your chosen prayer!

Day 11

John 6:1-14 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near. 5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” 8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

A crowd of five thousand is listening to Jesus speak and he doesn’t want to send them away hungry, but there aren’t any eating establishments anywhere. Then a nameless boy offers his brown bag lunch of five loaves and two fish to Jesus. It’s a nice gesture, but Andrew verbalizes what all the other disciples must have been thinking: “How far will these go with so many?” Like Moses, Andrew starts doing the math in his head and it doesn’t add up.

In terms of addition, 5 + 2 = 7. But if you add God into the equation, He multiplies it so that 5 + 2 = 5,000. Not only does God multiply the meal so that it feeds five thousand, they actually end up with more leftovers than they had food to begin with. Only in God’s economy! The twelve baskets of remainders means the most accurate equation is this: 5 + 2 = 5,000 R12.

If you put what little you have in your hand into the hand of God, it won’t just add up. God will make it multiply.

Numbers 11:31-32 Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It scattered them to up to two cubits deep all around the camp, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers.Based on the Hebrew system of measurement, a day’s walk was approximately fifteen miles in any direction. So we’re talking about an area that was almost 700 square miles. To put that into perspective, our nation’s capital, Washington, DC is 68.3 square miles. Not only is that an area that is ten times larger than the nation’s capital, the quail were piled three feet deep.

Can you imagine seeing that many birds fly into the camp? It was a like a bird blizzard. Quailmeggedon. Once the quail stopped falling, the Israelites started gathering. Each Israelite gathered no less than ten homers. Ten homers multiplied by six hundred thousand men equals six million homers at a minimum. A homer equated to roughly 200 liters, and assuming that the quail were of an average size, it rained somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred and five million quail. You read that right: One hundred and five million quail. God provided in abundance.

Is there a promise you need to circle? Maybe you need to circle a promise for your marriage or your children. Maybe you need to circle a promise for this stage of life.

Maybe you need to circle a promise for a fear you are facing or a dream you are pursuing.

23 The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

Is God asking you today, “Is there any limit to my power?” What is your answer? It’s one of the biggest questions you will ever need to answer because it will decide how you pray.

Day 12

The obvious answer to that question is no. God is omnipotent, which means by definition, there is nothing God cannot do. Yet many of us pray as if our problems are bigger than God. So let me remind you of this truth: God is infinitely bigger than your biggest problem or biggest dream. And, His grace is infinitely bigger than your biggest sin.

A. W. Tozer, believed that a low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils, but a high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems. I believe this is true. What it means is that in order to regain a godly perspective on your problems, you have to answer this question:

Are your problems bigger than God or is God bigger than your problems? Our biggest problem is our small view of God. That is the cause of all lesser evils. And it’s a high view of God that is the solution to all other problems.

Is there any limit to my power?

Have you answered the question? There are only two options: yes or no. Until you come to the conviction that God’s grace and power know no limits, you will draw small prayer circles. Once you embrace the omnipotence of God, you’ll draw ever enlarging circles around your God-given, God-sized dreams.

Moses was perplexed by the promise God had given him. How could God possibly provide meat for a month? It didn’t add up! But at that critical juncture, when Moses had to decide whether or not to circle the promise, God posed the question.Is there any limit to my power?

The size of prayers depends on the size of our God. And if God knows no limits, then neither should our prayers. God exists outside of the four space-time dimensions He created. We should pray that way!

There was a man who was sizing up God and asked, “God, how long is a million years to you?”

God said, “A million years is like a second.”

Then the man asked, “How much is a million dollars to you?”

God said, “A million dollars is like a penny.”

The man smiled and said, “Could you spare a penny?” God smiled back and said, “Sure, just wait a second.”

Sometimes we apply our own limitations to God and this limits our boldness in prayer. What if God is REALLY FOR YOU? What if God REALLY LOVES YOU? What if God REALLY WANTS THE BEST FOR YOU?

Do we choose to limit our prayers because of our own lack of belief?

And what if we believed that His response to our prayers is best for us? We can still pray boldly and audaciously with the understanding that God will provide the CORRECT response for our specific prayers for our specific life that puts us correctly in the will of God!

Pray Boldly! Pray audaciously!

God IS for YOU! God IS faithful!

Day 13

With God, there is no big or small, easy or difficult, possible or impossible. That is difficult for us to comprehend because all we’ve ever known are the four dimensions we were born into, but God is not subject to the natural laws He instituted. He has no beginning and no end. To the infinite, all finites are equal. Even our hardest prayers are easy for the Omnipotent One to answer because there is no degree of difficulty.

If you’re like me, you tend to use bigger words for bigger requests. You pull out your best vocabulary words for your biggest prayers as if God’s answer depends upon the correct combination of words. Trust me, it doesn’t matter how long or how loud you pray. It comes down to your answer to the question.

When God gives a vision, He makes provision. We just need the courage to step out in faith when God is calling us to get out of the boat. Otherwise we’ll forfeit the miracle. We have to believe that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He can send a west wind that brings 105 million quail into the camp. But we need to do our part and our part is taking a step of faith in pursuing the dream God has put in our hearts.

So what step of faith do you need to take? What decision do you need to make? On what promise do you need to put down a stake?

Day 14How to Pray God’s Promises by Folasado Oladapo

The challenges of life can be overwhelming and we often don't know the way out. In the face of heartbreak and disappointment, what do we do?

We need to look up beyond our situation to the One from whom our help comes. We need to search the Scriptures, and find promises that relate to our situation and start praying them, trusting God to bring them to pass in our lives. We need to learn how to pray God’s promises.

In order to see fulfillment of the promises of God, we need to first come to terms with the fact that these promises are available specifically to us! He wants to fulfill His promises in our lives. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a part to play in their fulfillment: we need to believe His promises and confess them.

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God”  (2 Corinthians 1:20).

There are many examples in Scripture of how God made — and fulfilled — His promises to His people. Here are just a few: Abraham: God promised to give Abraham a son through his wife Sarah, even

though both of them had passed child-bearing age. It looked impossible, but Abraham chose to believe God; and when he was 100-years-old, his son Isaac was born!

Solomon: When Solomon became the king, he asked for wisdom. The Bible says that God gave Solomon a “breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.”

The Israelites: When they cried out to God to give them rest, He did. In fact, all of the promises God made to the Israelites through Moses were fulfilled.

David: God made a covenant with David to protect his family. And because of that promise, his house was spared from destruction.

Mary: The Lord sent the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary to tell her that she would conceive and give birth to a son. Even though this was against the laws of nature, she chose to believe the word of the Lord, and it happened exactly like she was told!

The Bible tells us Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If He made promises in the past and fulfilled them, then He will do the same today. He hasn’t changed.

WHY SHOULD WE RELY ON HIS PROMISES?He cannot lie: “...in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time”(Titus 1:2); "God is not human,  that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill" (Numbers 23:19)?

He is faithful: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

He is able to bring it to pass: “...being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised”(Romans 4:21).

WHAT’S OUR PART?We need to believe and trust Him who has made the promise. It might take a while for God to fulfill His promise, so that means we have to persevere when things don’t happen as quickly as we would like. But that’s where patience comes in. We can't just sit around and wait, but we need to actively hold onto the promises of God, declaring them by faith, regardless of the situation or challenge we are going through.

There are promises that cover whatever area of challenge you may currently be facing. Do you need healing? Wisdom? The ability to pay the bills? Whatever it is, you can pray one of God’s promises that relates to your issue, and hold onto it.

5 STEPS TO PRAY GOD’S PROMISES1. Search the Bible to find God’s promises and thank Him for each one of them “At midnight I rise to give you thanks  for your righteous laws” (Psalm 119:62).

Some of the promises you can believe God for are healing , provision , protection , salvation , and His unfailing love .

2. Meditate on them “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).To mediate means to think deeply and carefully about something for a period of time. Focus your mind on the promise that you are trusting God for, and think about how great a God you serve!3. Personalize them “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).Personalizing God’s promises simply means to make the promises yours. For example, if you are believing God for healing, use a verse like Isaiah 53:5 to shape your prayer: “He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

4. Speak them daily in faith “It is written: ‘I believed; therefore, I have spoken.’ Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak”  (2 Corinthians 4:13).Our words are like seeds. What we speak determines what we eventually see as harvest.

5. Exercise patience “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a little while,  he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure  in the one who shrinks back" (Hebrews 10:36-39).

Why do we need to have patience? Because some of these promises might take some time before they manifest. There can be various reasons why, either known or unknown. Regardless of what your situation looks like today, remember that He is faithful, and He has promised to never leave or forsake you.

As Week Two ends, remember the close of Week One:

1) Don’t just read the Bible. Start circling the promises. 2) Don’t just make a wish. Write down a list of life goals. 3) Don’t just pray. Keep a prayer journal.

4) Define your dream. 5) Claim your promise 6) Spell your miracle.

It’s time to start circling!

(I am already hearing about prayers being answered in the congregation! Continue to circle Arbor Pointe Church @West Jackson!)