The glorifying, the hallowing of His name this is why we pray in the first place. Radical Prayer The power of being bold and persistent Moody, 2015 MAR 28 Monday Manny Mill CEO of Koinonia House National Ministries My Wake-Up Call On October 7, 2010, I was having lunch with some ministry partners at a local restaurant when I got a call to inform me that my dear wife, Barbara, had been involved in a car accident. A friend drove me to the site, and my anxiety turned to shock when I saw our car turned upright on the driver s side. I wanted to rush to free [Barbara] from the wreckage, but the police chief, a believer in Jesus and a personal friend, restrained me. [He said,] Manny, I need you to be calm, cool, and collected. The only thing you can do is pray. Those words hit me hard. As the chief began to pray, the Spirit of God began exposing my own shallowness toward God. Inside, I cried out a question that continually filled my thoughts in the weeks following Barbara s crash: How can I treat God like a paramedic, calling out to him only when there s an emergency? Barbara s trauma became my wake-up call. God began to methodically expose my spiritual hypocrisy and replace joylessness with greater love for the Savior and a boundless passion for prayer. PRAYER FOR THE WEEK Lord, never let me lose sight of the privilege it is to come to you in prayer. Please give me an insatiable desire to spend time with you throughout my day. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. EPHESIANS 6:18 JOHN 15:1 11 31
MAR 29 Refocusing on Prayer Tuesday I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. REVELATION 3:19 REVELATION 3:14 22 I decided to take a spiritual retreat, all by myself, at a friend s cabin. I was convicted that my prayer life was putrid. Foul smelling. Stinky. Like the prophet Isaiah, I became totally undone before a holy God (Isa. 6:5). In my prayerlessness, I had [failed] my wife, our children, and grandchildren. I failed the investors in the ministry as well as [the] men and women in prison and their families for whom I had been called to be a voice (Prov. 31:8 9). I had neglected the precious bride of Christ, the church, which I had been called to serve. I had blindly contented myself with a lukewarm ministry. The Holy Spirit revealed to me that my prayer patterns and purposes were focused on the human trinity me, myself, and I not on the Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Right then and there, after getting the real perspective and picture of the damage a prayerless life causes, I repented of I cried out to God my Father and adopted David s prayer of repentance from Psalm 51 as my own. my hypocrisy and nonexistent prayer life. I cried out to God my Father and adopted David s prayer of repentance from Psalm 51 as my own. The Holy Spirit gave me not only fresh mercy but a fresh abundance of undeserved grace. After praying Psalm 51 as my own prayer of confession and repentance, I was reassured that although sin has major consequences, God is willing and able to forgive any repentant sinner, regardless of the sin and its gravity. 32
The Obstacle of Fear Three basic fears block our path to prayer. First, we fear having our sins exposed. As I wrote about in my first book, Radical Redemption, my life was all about the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. I had every vice available to me. I was totally comfortable with my sin. Totally comfortable, that is, until the Spirit grabbed ahold of me [when I fled to South America to escape drug charges in the US]. It was during [a] momentous phone call with my father back in America that I found myself suddenly being drawn into the presence of the very one who is holy, holy, holy. His light began to expose the dirt inside me. And it wasn t pretty! Not surprisingly, such exposure leads to the fear of pain. Spiritual transformation the uprooting of self and replacing the idol of me, myself, and I with the triune God is usually painful. Coming into the presence of God for Isaiah involved a vision of an angel touching his unclean lips with a burning coal in order to transform his mouth into a pure vessel that could proclaim the messages of God. Suddenly the very words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts are not our own but God s. And that can be troubling. Finally there s fear of losing control. When you seek another s help in shared times of prayer, you give up control and indicate a willingness to do things in ways you have not considered. Coming into the presence of the one who is Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, means his will and not yours be done! MAR 30 Wednesday Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord. And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. PSALM 32:5 PSALM 32 33
MAR 31 God s Perfect Love Thursday So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. HEBREWS 4:16 HEBREWS 4:12 16 Fear is the roadblock to effectual prayer. But the answer to our fear may surprise you as well. It s not courage. But rather, love. And not just any kind of love, but a specific, supernatural love that the apostle John describes as follows: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us (1 John 4:18 19, NKJV). The perfect love of God is the answer to our fear. For only through the love of God can we enter into a relationship with him and his beloved Son Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6, NKJV). And it is only with this love that we can overcome the fear of exposed sin, the fear of transformational pain, and the fear of completely surrendering self to the awesome creator himself. And who is this awesome God? He is loving and merciful, abounding in goodness and truth (Ex. 34:6, NKJV). He pardons iniquity and does not retain his anger forever. Why? Because he delights in mercy and will give us truth (Mic. 7:18 20, NKJV). He desires all men to be saved [that is love] and to come to the knowledge of truth: He is the one God, and his Son, the God-man Christ Jesus, gave himself a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:4 6, NKJV). This is the love that will conquer every fear that exists. 34
Prayer Warriors God the Father s love is real, liberating, transforming, and compelling. Knowing this is essential to overcoming the roadblock of fear and developing a sense of urgency in our prayers. I observe such urgency whenever I participate with a group of men who meet together for prayer each Saturday. They are serious prayer warriors, demonstrating their love for others by interceding for them early each and every Saturday morning. Our leader announces what Scripture passage will be read and asks someone to pray that God would illumine our minds (1 Cor. 2:14) and open the eyes of our hearts (Eph. 1:18 19) to understand that portion of his Word and to fuel our prayers. After the Scripture is read, we go directly to prayer. As the Holy Spirit leads, men raise their voices like orchestral instruments playing a symphony of praise, confession, and petition before God our Father. Praise be to our great God! Fear is overcome by God s love. The Father s great love has been revealed to us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, who, though being God himself, became man in order that he could become the perfect sacrifice required to pay the penalty of our sin and fully and permanently satisfy the wrath of his Father s righteous judgment against us. Praise be to our great God! Fear is overcome by God s love. APR 1 Friday Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. COLOSSIANS 4:2 1 TIMOTHY 2:1 8 35
APR 2/3 Confidence in Christ Weekend Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God s presence. EPHESIANS 3:12 HEBREWS 10:19 25 SPEND TIME IN PRAYER Ask God to show you anything that hinders you from coming to him. Repent of anything that keeps you away and ask him to help you pray with a heart that longs to spend time with him. I urge you now to take a moment to examine your relationship with this amazing God. Do you believe that only those who trust in Christ can be declared not guilty of treason against the Most High God? Do you believe that because of Christ s death on the cross we can be saved from the slavery of sin, the guilt of sin, and an eternal hell? If not, I implore you to stop right now and take a radical time-out. Reflect on this liberating truth that will free you from self, sin, and hell. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 10:9 10). If you do believe, then cry out to God to give you a greater understanding of his great love for you. Let his perfect love drive away the fears that have been hindering your prayers, oppressing you, and stealing your joy. Then begin to pray in the confidence we have in Christ. Our confidence is not in our prayers, it is not even in our faith. Rather, our confidence is in the person of Christ who has opened the way for us to have access to God the Father (See today s Key Bible Verse). Manny Mill in Radical Prayer Weekend Bible Study STUDY PASSAGE HEBREWS 10:19 25 1. Why is prayer important? 2. How does Christ s death and resurrection shape the way you approach prayer? 3. What role do others play in your prayer life? 36 Adapted from Monday through Saturday: Radical Prayer by Manny Mill with Harold Smith and Barbara Mill (Moody, 2015) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.