SEVENTH DAY
What to Pray – For the Power of the Holy Spirit on Ministers

I beseech you that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. -Rom. 15 :30.
He will deliver us; ye also helping together on our behalf by your supplication.. -2 Cor. 1:10, 11.

What a great host of ministers there is in Christ’s Church. What need they have of prayer. What a power they might be, if they were all clothed with the power of the Holy Ghost. Pray definitely for this; long for it. Think of your minister, and ask it very specially for him. Connect every thought of the ministry, in your town or neighborhood or the world, with the prayer that all may be filled with the Spirit. Plead for them the promise, “Tarry until ye be clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49. “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you. ” Acts 1 :8.

How to Pray – In Secret

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. -Matt. 6:6.
He withdrew again into the mountain to pray, Himself alone. -Matt. 14:23; John 6:15.

Take time and realize, when you are alone with God: Here am I now, face to face with God, to intercede for His servants. Do not think you have no influence, or that your prayer will not be missed. Your prayer and faith will make a difference. Cry in secret to God for His ministers.

Special Petitions

EIGHTH DAY
What to Pray – For the Spirit on All Christian Workers

Ye also helping together on our behalf that for the gift bestowed upon us by means of many, thanks may be given by many on our behalf. -2 Cor. 1:11.

What multitudes of workers in connection with our churches and missions, our railways and postmen, our soldiers and sailors, our young men and young women, our fallen men and women, our poor and sick! God be praised for this! What could they not accomplish if each were living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Pray for them; it makes you a partner in their work, and you will praise God each time you hear of blessing anywhere.

How to Pray – With Definite Petitions

What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? – Luke 18:41.

The Lord knew what the man wanted, and yet He asked him. The utterance of our wish gives point to the transaction in which we are engaged with God, and so awakens faith and expectation. Be very definite in your petitions, so as to know what answer you may look for. Just think of the great host of workers, and ask and expect God definitely to bless them in answer to the prayer of His people. Then ask still more definitely for workers around you. Intercession is not the breathing out of pious wishes; its aim is – in believing, persevering prayer – to receive and bring down blessing.

Special Petitions

The evangelization of the world depends first of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for men – aye, deep down at the bottom of our spiritless life, is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer.
As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul. Then when they had fasted and prayed, they sent them away. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed. -Acts 13 3, 4.

Pray that our mission work may all be done in this spirit – waiting on God, hearing the voice of the Spirit, sending forth men with fasting and prayer. Pray that in our churches our mission interest and mission work may be in the power of the Holy Spirit and of prayer. It is a Spirit-filled, praying Church that will send out Spirit-filled missionaries, mightily in prayer.

How to Pray – Take Time

I give myself unto prayer. -Ps. 109:4.
We will give ourselves continually to prayer. -Acts 6:4.
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. -Eccles. 5:2.
And He continued all night in prayer to God. -Luke 6:12.

Time is one of the chief standards of value. The time we give is a proof of the interest we feel. We need time with God – to realize His presence; to wait for Him to make Himself known; to consider and feel the needs we plead for; to take our place in Christ; to pray till we can believe that we have received. Take time in prayer, and pray down blessing on the mission work of the Church .

Special Petitions

What the world needs today is not only more missionaries , but the outpouring of God ‘s Spirit on everyone whom He has sent out to work for Him in the foreign field. Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be My witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth. -Acts 1:8.

God always gives His servants power equal to the work He asks of them. Think of the greatness and difficulty of this work, – casting Satan out of his strongholds – and pray that everyone who takes part in it may receive and do all his work in the power of the Holy Ghost. Think of the difficulties of your missionaries, and pray for them.

How to Pray – Trusting God ‘s Faithfulness

He is faithful that promised. She counted Him faithful who promised. -Heb. 10:23; 11:11.

Just think of God’s promises to His Son, concerning His kingdom; to the Church, concerning the heathen; to His servants, concerning their work; to yourself, concerning your prayer; and pray in the assurance that He is faithful, and only waits for prayer and faith to fulfil them. “Faithful is He that calleth you” (to pray), “who also will do it” (what He has promised). 1 Thess. 5:24. Take up individual missionaries, make yourself one with them, and pray till you know that you are heard. Oh, begin to live for Christ’s kingdom as the one thing worth living for!

Special Petitions

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth labourers into His harvest. – Matt. 9:38.

What a remarkable call of the Lord Jesus for help from His disciples in getting the need supplied. What an honor put upon prayer. What a proof that God wants prayer and will hear it. Pray for laborers, for all students in theological seminaries, training homes, Bible institutes, that they may not go, unless He fits them and sends them forth; that our churches may train their students to seek for the sending forth of the Holy Spirit; that all believers may hold themselves ready to be sent forth, or to pray for those who can go.

How to Pray – In Faith, Nothing Doubting

Jesus saith unto them, Have faith in God. Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith shall come to pass, he shall have it. -Mark 11:22, 23.

Have faith in God! Ask Him to make Himself known to you as the faithful mighty God, who worketh all in all; and you will be encouraged to believe that He can give suitable and sufficient laborers, however impossible this appears. But, remember, in answer to prayer and faith. Apply this to every opening where a good worker is needed. The work is God’s. He can give the right workman. But He must be asked and waited on.

Special Petitions

I will send the Comforter to you. And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin. -John 1:7, 8.

God’s one desire, the one object of Christ’s being manifested, is to take away sin. The first work of the Spirit on the world is conviction of sin. Without that, no deep or abiding revival, no powerful conversion. Pray for it, that the gospel may be preached in such power of the Spirit, that men may see that they have rejected and ,crucified Christ, and cry out, What shall we do? Pray most earnestly for a mighty power of conviction of sin wherever the gospel is preached.

How to Pray – Stir Up Yourself to Take Hold of God ‘s Strength

Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me. -Isa. 27:5.
There is none that calleth upon Thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee. -Isa. 64:7.
Stir up the gift of God which is in thee. -2 Tim. 1:6.

First, take hold of God’s strength. God is a Spirit. I cannot take hold of Him, and hold Him fast, but by the Spirit. Take hold of God’s strength, and hold on till it has done for you what He has promised. Pray for the power of the Spirit to convict of sin.

Second, stir up yourself – the power is in you by the Holy Spirit — to take hold. Give your whole heart and will to it, and say, I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.

Special Petitions

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion shall be called holy: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, by the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning. -Isa. 4:3.

A washing by fire! a cleansing by judgment! He that has passed through this shall be called holy. The power of blessing for the world, the power of work and intercession that will avail, depends upon the spiritual state of the Church; and that can only rise higher as sin is discovered and put away. Judgment must begin at the house of God. There must be conviction of sin for sanctification. Beseech God to give His Spirit as a Spirit of Judgment and a Spirit of Burning – to discover and burn out sin in His people.

How to Pray – In the Name of Christ

Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do. If ye shall ask Me anything in My name, that will I do. -John 4:13, 14.

Ask in the name of your Redeemer God, who sits upon the throne. Ask what He has promised, what He gave His blood for, that sin may be put away from among His people, Ask – the prayer is after His own heart – for the spirit of deep conviction of sin to come among His people. Ask for the spirit of burning. Ask in the faith of His name – the faith of what He wills, of what He can do – and look for the answer. Pray that the Church may be blessed, to be made a blessing in the world.

Special Petitions

FOURTEENTH DAY
What to Pray – For the Church of the Future

That the children might not be as their fathers, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. -Ps. 78:8.
I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring. -Isa. 44:3.

Pray for the rising generation, who are to come after us. Think of the young men and women and children of this age, and pray for all the agencies at work among them; that in associations and societies and unions, in homes and schools, Christ may be honored, and the Holy Spirit get possession of them. Pray for the young of your neighborhood.

How to Pray – With the Whole Heart

The Lord grant thee according to thine own heart. -Ps. 20:4.
Thou hast given him his heart’s desire. -Ps. 21:2.
I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord. -Ps. 119:145.

God lives, and listens to every petition with His whole heart. Each time we pray the whole Infinite God is there to hear. He asks that in each prayer the whole man shall be there too; that we shall cry with our whole heart. Christ gave Himself to God for men; and so He takes up every need into His intercession. If once we seek God with our whole heart, the whole heart will be in every prayer with which we come to this God. Pray with your whole heart for the young.

Special Petitions

As for Me, this is My Covenant with them, saith the Lord: My Spirit that is upon thee and My Words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. -Isa. 59:21.

The future of the Church and the world depends, to an extent we little conceive, on the education of the day. The Church may be seeking to evangelize the heathen, and be giving up her own children to secular and materialistic influences. Pray for schools and colleges, and that the Church may realize and fulfill its momentous duty of caring for its children. Pray for godly teachers.

How to Pray – Not Limiting God

They limited the Holy One of Israel. -Ps. 78:41.
He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. -Matt. 13:5.
Is anything too hard for the Lord! -Gen. 1 8. 14.
Ah, Lord God! Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power; there is nothing too hard for Thee. Behold, I am the Lord: is there anything too hard for Me! -Jer. 32:17, 27.

Beware, in your prayer, above everything,of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, above all that we ask or think. Each time you intercede, be quiet first and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of your place in Christ, and expect great things.

Special Petitions

Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and will save thy children. -Isa. 49:25.

Every part of the work of God’s Church is His work. He must do it. Prayer is the confession that He will – the surrender of ourselves into His hands to let Him – work in us and through us. Pray for the hundreds of thousands of Sunday School teachers, that those who know God may be filled with His Spirit. Pray for your own Sunday School. Pray for the salvation of the children.

How to Pray – Boldly

We have a great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. -Heb. 4: 14, 16.

These hints to help us in our work of intercession – what are they doing for us? Making us conscious of our feebleness in prayer? Thank God for this. It is the very first lesson we need on the way to pray the effectual prayer that availeth much. Let us persevere, taking each subject boldly to the throne of grace. As we pray we shall learn to pray and to believe and to expect with increasing boldness. Hold fast your assurance: it is at God’s command you come as an intercessor. Christ will give you grace to pray aright.

Special Petitions