Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 185
TRANSCRIPT
Father God says, “Come talk with Me.”
When you get together with a good friend, have you ever noticed how your conversation changes? You may start out with a greeting, but then you might move into a time of sharing information about your life or about a specific situation. Then you might share something funny and you laugh together. Then you might tell them about something painful that happened in your life. Then you might ask them if they can help you with a project at your house. This is the normal flow of conversation with a friend. It is also the normal flow of conversation with Father God in prayer. We often give these different ways we communicate with God different titles. In this podcast, I am going to talk about a few of the different types of prayer found in the bible. All of these different types of prayer are invitations from a loving Father God to “Come and talk with Me!”
I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundations, and I welcome you into this Hope Healing and Freedom Podcast. In this podcast, I am going to address the different types of prayer we discover in the bible. I took a class in seminary where we studied these different types of prayer from a theological standpoint, but the one thing we did not do during that class was to actually pray. Each of these different types of prayer are an invitation from our Father God to talk with Him. In each type of prayer, we approach God a little bit differently because the purpose of the prayer is different. These are not the only ways we can pray to Father God, they just happen to be a few that I want to point out today. Remember that each of these is a loving invitation from our Father God to come and talk with Him. There is not a right or wrong way to pray. Prayer is talking with our Father God no matter how you do it.
The first type of prayer is a prayer of Praise and Adoration. In this type of prayer, we have the joy of acknowledging and exalting the character and greatness of God. This is one of the most fun types of prayer because we get to tell God how wonderful He is to us. As we learn to be proactive in this type of praise and adoration, our feeling of praise and adoration for God actually grows. The more you do it, the easier it is to do. In this type of prayer, we exalt His holiness, faithfulness, and love for us. We get to acknowledge Who God is. It is difficult to run out of things to praise Him for. Think about it. We can praise Him that He is the Alpha and Omega, that He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that He is eternal and all powerful. It is nearly impossible to run out of things to praise Him for when we praise Him for Who He is. Then we can move into praising Him for all that He has done. We can spend almost unlimited time praising Him for all that He has done. We can start with praising Him for sending Jesus to die for us on the cross, for the resurrection, and that now He is seated at the right hand of God in Heaven. We can praise Him for this amazing creation. When we think about all that we have been given us, praise Him for just flows out of us. I am awe-struck at God’s provision for us. We can walk into almost any grocery store and see all of the meats, fruits, and vegetables that He has provided. We are so blessed.
The next type of prayer God is inviting us to talk with Him about is the prayer of Thanksgiving.
Psalms 100:4-5 encourages us to, “Enter His gate with thanksgiving, and come into His courts with Praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.” The bible is full of verses about giving thanks to God. Let me list just a few.
Psalms 107:1, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.”
1 Chronicles 16:34 “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and His love endures forever.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
There are many more verses that encourage us to give thanks. Why is thanksgiving so important? Being thankful shifts our attention away from our self-centeredness where everything is about us, and it puts our attention toward God as our provider. It is recognizing that every good and perfect gift comes from Him. Thanksgiving breaks us out of being self-focused and causes us to recognize that God is the source of all good blessings. It shifts our perspective away from what is lacking in our lives to God’s faithful provision. This will, in turn, foster in us the Joy of the Lord. It is impossible to be bitter and thankful at the same time.
Another way that God invites us to come talk with Him is to bring our petitions to Him. Petitions are asking God for the things we need. He wants us to bring our needs to Him. He is never too busy and our needs are never too petty for Him. Philippians 4:6-7 says, 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.” Knowing the character of God, we can bring our petitions to God with great confidence. 1 John 5:15 says, “And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked Him for.” God wants us to bring our petitions to Him, and might I add, even our little petitions. He invites us to come and talk with Him about everything going on in our lives.
Another very important type of prayer that God invites us to bring to Him is intercession. Intercession is simply praying on behalf of someone else. 1 Timothy 2:1 says, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.” Intercession is another way that we stop focusing on ourselves and we focus our conversation with God on others.
Confession and repentance is a vital part of our ongoing conversation with God. This is a time of great intimacy and honesty with God. It is admitting our shortcomings. Who are the people in your life you admit your shortcomings to? You confess your wrongs to the ones you trust the most. Confession and repentance is based on knowing the goodness of God. Repentance in the bible means a change of mind. When we repent, it is as if we change direction and go in another direction. The reason we repent is that God only asks us to give up something because He is offering us something better. Acts 3:19 says, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” When we turn from our sin God always offers us something better.
Another type of very intimate prayer is the prayer of faith. This is a prayer offered to God when there is no other hope. It is usually seen when praying for the impossible. When someone is sick and in need of healing, the prayer of faith will make them well.
James 5:15 says, “The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.”
Also in Mark 11:24, it says, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believing that you receive it, it will be yours.”
And again we see the prayer of faith in John 14:13: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
There are many other types of prayers that are mentioned in the bible, but I want to end with this one: Corporate Prayer. Corporate prayer is a very powerful form of talking with Father God together as a group. Matthew 18:20 says, For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” When we come together, even with just two or three, and pray together, it says that Jesus is in our midst. Wow! There is something that happens when we gather together and pray in agreement. Matthew 18:19 says, “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” There is power in the corporate prayer of agreement. Cindi and I have attended six or seven mass corporate prayer gatherings on the mall in Washington, D.C., where 100,000 people or more have gathered to pray. I love those gatherings because of this principle of the power that is in the corporate gathering. I can’t point to anything specific that resulted from those gatherings, but by faith I know that things are different because of them. What would our nation be like if those events hadn’t happened?
I want to end this podcast by leading us in prayer. I don’t want to just talk about prayer, but I want us to pray. I am going to lead in prayer in several of these types of prayer, and I invite you to join me as I am praying about specific things that are important to me. I encourage you to use this time to pray about things that are important to you. Use this as a time to talk to your Father God. He loves that. I would encourage you to pause the podcast and spend some one-on-one time with Father God before moving on to the next type of prayer.
Lets begin by giving God praise and Adoration. You can follow along with me or pray from your heart.
Father God, I praise you for who you are. You are the giver of life. You are the alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I praise you for you are a good good Father who only has good gifts to give to your children. I praise you for all that you have done. (Pause this podcast and give Him praise from your heart.)
Father we enter your gates with thanksgiving and come into your courts with praise. Father, I thank you that you are good and trustworthy. I thank you that your love endures forever. I thank you for the gift of Your Son Jesus who gave His life as a ransome for all of mankind, people who did not deserve His sacrifice. Thank you for your incredible provision.
Father, we bring our petitions to you. God I ask you to provide for our financial needs. I ask you to bring my children closer to You. Father, I ask you to heal our physical bodies. I ask you to bless RTF as we continue to take freedom and healing to the world. (This is a time for you to bring your personal petitions to God. Pause the podcast and talk with your Father God about your personal petitions.)
Let’s move into intercession for others. Father, I bring my church before you. I ask you to pour out your spirit in a powerful way. Lord, I pray for my children that they would come to know you in a more intimate way. Lord, I pray for our country that you would pour out your spirit on our nation. I pray for our President and his cabinet. I pray for Congress. Would you let your spirit fall on our government?
Now move into confession and repentance. Father, I repent on my behalf and on behalf of my nation. We are so divided, and in the process, we are not fulfilling the calling that you have placed on our country. Would you forgive us and heal our land? I confess that I am not doing all that I can to bring about more unity and peace. Will you forgive me for my passivity in this respect?
Let’s conclude our time with a corporate prayer. Father, we ask you to move on our nation by your spirit. Please touch our spiritual leaders and give them the courage they need to lead according to your spirit. Please touch our political leaders and give them righteous wisdom to lead well. Please heal the division in our world with your spirit.
Father, we ask that you continue to bless Restoring the Foundations. The body of Christ needs healing and freedom. Would you provide for our needs, would you lead others to join us in this mission.
Thank you for joining me in this unusual Hope Healing and Freedom Podcast. I encourage you to use these different types of prayer to talk with your Father God regularly.
We look forward to being with you again next week on the Hope Healing and Freedom Podcast.
