Devotional prayer | Beyond the Map

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Have you experienced the shift, yet?

There’s a very encouraging shift taking place in the prayer vocabulary of the saints. I think that it’s because we’re growing up. More than at any other time in history, we’re becoming aware of our elevated identity and favor in God. Our new upgrade is contrasted by our past vocabulary, where we used just launch our immature plaintiff petitions before our Father with little regard or responsibility for our language or position. Consider this:

1) Babies and plaintiffs don’t know their Father’s mind… they cry/pray out of their pain and need.
2) Mature sons know and are gripped with Father’s heart, more than their own needs.

I believe that our Father has always dreamed of a company of saints emerging on the earth, who know that they are truly kings (Rev 1:6) possessing a kingly authority that literally shifts atmospheres and calls our Father’s will into being on the earth. As saints mature, this kind of praying will become more commonplace, more effective and more contagious, creating desire in others to discover their identity and favor, too!

You may be asking, “Then what or how should we pray?” The simple answer is, “Pray what’s on His mind!” That seems easy… and most would probably agree… but few will take the time to find His mind… or know how. So here’s a simple approach to find out how to pray:

1) Look to the Word of God to find His will
2) Identify the rhema ‘words’ that have been made ‘alive’ to you.

Note: Almost everything we would normally ask for, has already been promised or addressed in Scripture.

To ask again after He has already promised it, is redundant and actually robs our faith. Now is the time for the sons of God to radically believe that God’s Word really means what it says… and then begin to co-rule with Him by using declarations that are becoming of kings.

This ‘kingly’ type of intercession by mature sons is empowered by our favored position in Heaven (Col 3:1-3). (More in this post) From our ‘new address’, we declare the mind of God down into the earth… and into the (second heavens) atmosphere. (See this graphic) We stand as kings (versus babies or plaintiffs) and move into our role as maturing co-rulers (Rms 5:17) with Christ.

To carry the authority of Heaven sufficient to shift earthly paradigms, we must spend time with our Father and search His mind in order to be confident that we’re not “praying amiss”. If we pray from the opinions or desires of our soul-man, it makes us vulnerable and in jeopardy of wandering outside the ‘covering’ of Father’s grace… or worse. We must become more responsible for what we pray and how we pray… because our words are spirit and life (Prov 18:21)… and as we mature, our words have more weight and impact.

In this process, we’re beginning to learn how to govern and take dominion (Gen 1:26, 28; Dan 7:27; Lk 10:19; Rms 5:17) over our God-given territory (which is earth and the second heavens). Since we’ve been raised and seated with Christ, we have a much better vantage point to govern! We’re not just mere humans any longer, praying loud desperate prayers. We’re not praying in hopes that Heaven will relent. We’re not plaintiffs. Rather, we’re duly authorized and empowered oracles of God speaking from Heaven… partnering with Him in establishing His Throne of righteousness on earth and in earthly situations.

“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.” – I Pet 4:11

Here are a few ways we can pray and still have integrity with our theology and with our current ‘heavenly address’.

1. Asking prayer… IF we don’t know our Father’s will for a matter
2. Declarative prayer… AFTER we know what our Father’s heart is

3. Thanksgiving prayer… for all His gracious acts
4. Praise prayer… for His character and nature
5. Devotional prayer… lavishing our worship and affection on Him
6. Conversational prayer… “as a friend speaks with a friend” – Ex 33:11
7. Affirming our theology… repeating our Biblical position back to God