Prayers That Marked My Journey June 24 – July 2, 2020

King Jesus, awaken us and empower us to stay awake. Pour strength into us to endure with joy all the way through these very hard times.

King Jesus, You are the provision we need. As we receive you today, come and live in all we do.

We are overwhelmed that you laid down your life for us and all creation. Open our eyes so that we can be transformed by the fact that you rose again.

We freely confess that on our own we don’t have what it takes to keep it all together. But, you don’t expect us to make this journey alone anyway. So, we aren’t ashamed to say that we need help, support, strength, perseverance… we need YOU. Thank you for telling us the truth. You are the one who announced that the kingdom of heaven has come. And, you are the one who dwells in us… the hope of glory. Fill our conversations with hope today because we know you are with us. 

We exalt you as the One who laid down your life, your body and then raised it up again. Awaken us, renew in us what it means that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Awaken the youth of our region so that they come alive in your Spirit.

King Jesus, teach us to pray with boldness and courage. Awaken us to your presence as the only path to wellness. 

Prayers that marked my journey, June 16-23 2020

Every Friday I am going to share SEVEN prayers that have marked my path toward a prayer-soaked life. It’s a blessing to share these. ENJOY!

God, we agree with the prayer of King Jesus. Make us One as you are One.

In this time of transformation, empower us to be humble and to release heaven’s joy on earth.

Restore our hearts so that we will welcome others and bless them the way you do.

King Jesus, help us pray the way you did at your friend’s tomb as you called him back to life.

Open our eyes and our understanding to beauty on earth today. Our world misses so much of your glory. It is all around us but we don’t see it. Change us by helping us see you and your new creation here and now. We lift our voices today on earth and we join with heaven saying “Alleluia! The Lord our God, the Almighty, has become king!

We need grace to trust you more. You are the spring of living water. We are resilient because you are in us.

King Jesus, your authority comes from heaven. Mere human authority cannot overtake you. We pray that heaven’s authority would be revealed more and more on earth today.

Through Christ Jesus Our Lord – AMEN

Prayer is Living With God

All of Creation is God’s place. There is nowhere that God doesn’t belong. Anywhere that there is life, there is God. Discovering prayer is discovering God. Discovering God is discovering prayer. Our prayer must expand to make room for us to live. Our lives must expand to make room for our prayer. Together we are a dwelling place for God. God is a dwelling place for all of us together. Prayer is you hearing God’s voice. Prayer is God hearing your voice. Prayer is where we are shaped. Prayer is us shaping things. There is no life outside of prayer. There is no prayer outside of life. Your life is meant to be a prayer. So God make our lives a prayer and make prayer our life. Through Christ Jesus Our Lord. – AMEN

Be Yourself

“Be yourself, not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.” – Henry David Thoreau 

This quote from Thoreau inspires something deep inside of me. I am more than I imagine myself to be. I move through each day governed by motivations that I experience consciously as an after thought. They are real and powerful… these motives. 

Like the world around me, I am always interacting with forces around me. As a human being, I have the unique skill of self-awareness. God has blessed me with the capacity to make choices. 

Like you, I have a love-hate relationship with my God-designed function of choosing how I will work on my life today. The vineyard awaits me every day. Our father instructs me to work in his vineyard today and every day. Yesterday’s work may or may not feel the same as today’s. But it will be unique because this is always a new day… a day of renewal. 

Thoreau’s coaching tip to be myself, not my idea of someone else’s idea… intrigues me. It does inspire me to humble myself in the presence of God (who actually is present with us), and place “myself” under his mighty hand. He promises to lift me up in the right way and the right time. 

Prayer: God, being myself is so core to my sense of well-being. It is too much for me to leave to an afterthought. Help me to get better at surrendering every day to your amazing invitation to work creatively in your vineyard. This is your world and you have a concept of me in the midst of its pulsating life of renewal. You see me as more than any human’s idea including any of my own. Why wouldn’t I trust you? Inform my being today with your thoughts about me. Through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

Unrefined ponderings on a tired midweek morning…

Holy Spirit, reside in me, in us.

In Jesus, I am in heaven. Because Jesus is in me, heaven is on earth.
It is a “right here, right now” thing. The living, breathing, moving union of heaven and earth is overflowing with the glory of God.

Somehow to live every moment in the faith that in Christ, heaven and earth have been joined.

Transformation happens at the pace of a plant growing. And it grows up out of the mess and chaos of our lives.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Thank you, Jesus, for your faithful, undying, life infusing presence in us and with us especially when we think we are at our worst.

Teach us to see in every moment at least a hint of your kingdom flowing on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen

Same World, Multiple Dimensions

While the strong but deceptive pull of the religious spirit is a real thing, in Christ we are welcomed to live today from the dimension of heaven. The disconnect happens for me when I carelessly, recklessly enter the day as if I have no choice. I foolishly let someone else choose. Same world, multiple dimensions. With Jesus, we can engage today from heaven. We can walk in the same situations from a different place. The dull current of religion feels strong and it will mesmerize us if we let it. But, the chains break and fall to the ground when we enter each earthly moment from the dimension of heaven. After all, that IS what Jesus taught us to pray.

You are a blessing!

The Prophetic is Anchored in Love

A few days ago, I posted this prayer online, “Father, keep changing my heart with the love you have for Jesus so that your voice fills my voice and your words fill my mouth.” It was inspired by the prayer of Jesus in John 17:20-26. For the past decade, the Holy Spirit has taken me into deep connection with God through my surrender in agreement with his prayer.

Jesus is praying for the love that our Father has for him to be in us. Over the years, this prayer has become an anchor for my life. Recently, a “prayer warrior” friend of mine gave me an anchor pendant that now hangs on my desk lamp. She explained to me that she asked the Lord to show her someone she could bless with this gift as a sign that they are an anchor for others. I was so honored that she was led to give it to me.

The credit for any anchoring dynamic to my life goes to Jesus’ intercession for me and the fact that I have been invited into his relationship with the Father. My ability to bring glory to God in any way comes from being rooted by his grace into their unity. Any fruit that is prophetic in any way comes from being driven deep into the love shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The prophetic, for me, is perceiving, receiving, and sharing the living word of the Lord. It comes from revelation… God reveals his truth to those whose spiritual perception has been opened to see and hear. As powerful and life-altering as the prophetic is, it is contained and fueled by love.

But, it has not been human love that has unlocked and empowered the prophetic for me. It hasn’t been a type of love that I could figure out or strategize or attain. It is a gift that I had to ask for and wait for according to God’s response.

In his faithful way, the Father has changed my heart by giving me his love for Jesus, the Son. It has become a deep desire of my heart to move in the type of prophetic that shakes the world around me through a relationship with God… one person at a time… starting with me and with you.

Will you join me in ongoing prayer for the Lord to keep changing our hearts with his love?

You are a blessing!

God’s power all over us

I was leading a prophetic prayer session a few nights ago. A good friend in our prayer family shared a vision. She was seeing us standing in a narrow space between two walls. All of us had a hand on each wall and ready to push the walls apart.

She sensed that the Lord was inviting us to push the walls back in order to create space for his presence to rush in. The walls represented sin and/or evil mindsets with which we had grown way too familiar. It was time to name them, call them out and expel them in the power and authority of Jesus’ name.

One of the prominent evil strongholds that I saw was powerlessness. As our prayers began to heat up, we knew that we were moving with the Spirit of the Lord. The phrase, “having the appearance of godliness but denying its power” came to mind. 2 Timothy 3:5 speaks about us when we are powerless… “They may pretend to have a respect for God, but in reality they want nothing to do with God’s power. Stay away from people like these!” (TPT)

This morning as I was waking up, the Holy Spirit was stirring me to think about operating in the power of God. After I grabbed my coffee, I looked at 2 Corinthians 13:4. It talks about Jesus being “robed in God’s power”. You and I were put into Christ by God when we through faith received our adoption into his family. That means we are also covered in the awesome mantl/robe of his power.

I am praying today for the oil that cycles through the engine of the Church on earth. May God transform it into the fresh, golden oil from heaven instead of the sludge of recycled powerlessness. Most of us need a reawakening to the disrespect we show toward Jesus when we neglect his power. If we see it, our hearts will begin to break for change.

This is a new year and a new day. In Christ, you are robed in the power of God. That is a great honor and privilege. Don’t let selfish or lazy thinking cause you to take it for granted. You are better than that as a member of his household.

You are a blessing!

Grace is better than details

Grace is a more valuable treasure from God to me than details. In my time of need, what matters most is remembering where to go. All of the resources of heaven are available to us on earth because of what Jesus has accomplished. Those resources are accessed at the throne of grace.

Last night I was with some prayer warriors from my church family. It was our weekly prophetic prayer night. Over the past few years, we have nurtured a prophetic prayer culture of surrender. When we get together, we lay down our individual agendas to move with what God wants and where He wants to lead us in prayer.

Receiving and declaring the living word of the Lord over the life of our church family is the lifeblood of our intercession. Last night it seemed that I was struggling to connect with what the Lord was speaking over us. Then one of our men prophesied, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

The word of the Lord began to stir me up and my soul came alive with hope again. I don’t need details from God’s throne. I need grace. Grace from God is an unlimited resource for us in Christ.

The prophetic is all about living with confidence. But, it’s not about always having the right details. Through our faith in Jesus, we have access to the throne room of heaven. He has brought us back to life from the inside out. We are perfectly designed to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells with us and in us.

That means his throne of grace is an inward journey. The hope of glory is within you. It is the living presence of Jesus in you that gives you confidence in your time of need. Colossians 1:27 refers to “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Don’t believe the lie that you need to make an impossibly long journey somewhere outside of yourself in your time of need. The throne of grace in Christ is accessed from within you. In fact, you are hidden with Christ in God. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see it and understand what that means for you.

You are a blessing!

Praying with your spirit…

Here is a little personal history. Thirty years ago this weekend, my dad, John Lamos passed away at sixty years of age. Since 1962 (the year I was born), that man showed me how to live in friendship with Jesus. By the time I was eighteen, I had surrendered my life to Jesus as my father did.

In friendship with Jesus, I have learned that I am a living soul. That is a complex but foundational reality. As a living soul, I need to pray. Prayer is like breathing. It keeps me alive. I have to breathe. I also have to pray to stay connected to the life God intended for me… eternal life. (John 3:16)

I feel like I will always be in training when it comes to prayer. I am always learning to pray more effectively. Through prayer, we engage with God’s agenda… to see his kingdom come and his will done on earth as it is in heaven. I want to grow as a prayer warrior in every season of my life.
A half-century of friendship with Jesus has shown me much about prayer. I have discovered that as a living soul, I have a spirit and a mind. Both are active in prayer. But, not just randomly. It matters whether I lead in prayer with my mind or my spirit.

The Apostle Paul taught us, “…pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” and “I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also” (Ephesians 6:18, 1 Corinthians 14:15) Through his teachings, I am convinced that no one knows my mind like my spirit.

It is the same with God. No one knows the mind of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11) So, I am continually learning to pray in the Spirit. To do that, I intentionally engage with the Lord with an expectation that the Holy Spirit will help me. My objective is always to pray with my spirit and with my mind. But, it is crucial that I train my spirit to lead the way. My mind has to stay submitted to my spirit for prayer to be effective.

With my mind submitted to my spirit, I can trust the Holy Spirit to protect and guide me to pray with the heart and agenda of God. Can you learn to do that in a day or a week? No. This will be a life mission for anyone who wants to fully explore their potential in prayer.

The more I pray in the Spirit, the more I perceive the prophetic. With my spirit, I discern access points where heavenly doors or windows or wells are open making God’s provisions available to me for earthly issues. Praying in the Spirit empowers me to receive and declare the living word of the Lord.

Without a commitment to grow more and more in prayer, I would never have taken my journey in the prophetic. It has been a desire to pray that has fueled the prophetic.

If the idea of praying with your spirit is new to you, I encourage you to make a habit of asking God in the name of Jesus, to help you activate your spirit in prayer. Don’t pressure yourself to copy someone else in this. The Father can be trusted to lead you based on the way he designed you.

One gateway into this sort of activation is to watch or listen for impossible things to come before you in prayer. Your spirit is designed to agree with the Holy Spirit for impossible things to be accomplished for the glory of Jesus Christ. As impossible things come before you in prayer, don’t back off. Instead, lean into them and say something like, “Yes, I believe in the name of Jesus that it will happen on earth as it is in heaven”. Allow yourself to worship and to become more aware of who you are in the spiritual dimension. The Lord will help you gain awareness and fluency as you practice and persevere. Be patient with yourself and ask a father or mother in the Lord to help you.

My prayer for you is that you will not settle for a default prayer position with your mind constantly leading the way. We need you, the church needs you, the world needs you to pray in the Spirit on all occasions. Don’t lose heart and keep going after it.

You are a blessing!