A Prayer from Colossians – Ch 1 -3

Lord, fill me and strengthen me.

⁹Lord, I pray, asking and believing, that You will fill me with the knowledge of Your will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

¹⁰ Lord, fill me, so that I may walk in a manner worthy of you, and that I may be fully pleasing to You, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of You, my Lord and my God.

 Lord, I pray, asking and believing, that you will strengthen me with all power, according to your glorious might, so that I may have great endurance and patience with joy.

(Repeat above, believing this for yourself, personally.)

Thank You for bringing me into Your Light.

I thank you, Father, for you have qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ Thank you for delivering me from the domain of darkness and transferring me into the kingdom of your beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom I have redemption and the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵ I rejoice in You, Jesus, knowing that you are just like your Father, the invisible and eternal God, and that you were the firstborn of all creation.

Confession of Faith in Jesus and Who He Is.

 ¹⁶ I believe in You, Christ Jesus, that by You all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through You and by You. ¹⁷ You are before all things, and in You, Lord Jesus, all things hold together. ¹⁸ You are the head of the body, the church. You are the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and in everything You are preeminent [above all]. ¹⁹ For in You, Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and I believe that You are reconciling all things to yourself, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood that you shed on the cross.

²¹ Although I was once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil not good, YOU have now reconciled me - in your body of flesh by your death - in order to present ME holy and blameless and above reproach before You.   ²³ Be merciful to me that I may continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that I have heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation^[g] under heaven.

Rejoicing, working, proclaiming: Christ in me the hope of glory.

²⁴ May I rejoice even when I am suffering.  Thank you for calling me to minister and proclaim the Gospel, according to the unique stewardship that you give to me.  May I work to make your Word fully known. ²⁶   Lord, I pray that you will allow me to be part of revealing the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but revealed to us in Christ.  Make known again in my generation the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is YOU, Christ Jesus, dwelling in ME and in each of us. You are the Hope of Glory – You are in me! ²⁸ May I proclaim YOU, admonishing and teaching everyone whom you’ve given me, with all wisdom, that they may mature in Christ. ²⁹ May this be something I work hard for using your strength -  struggling with all Your energy that You powerfully work within me.

Ch 2

I pray that You will encourage our hearts, Lord, and knit us together in love, so that we may reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding.  I want to live in this reality: the knowledge of God's mystery, which is You, Christ Jesus.  In YOU are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴ 

May I know the mysteries of hidden treasure – wisdom and knowledge that are found in You, alone!

I pray that no one may delude me with plausible arguments. ⁵ I pray that I will retain the firmness of my faith in You, Christ Jesus.

⁶ Therefore, just as I have received you, Christ Jesus, as my Lord, may I walk in You, ⁷ rooted, grounded, and built up in YOU and established in my faith and may I live a life that is overflowing with thanksgiving.

⁸ I will see to it that no one takes me captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 

Confession of Faith

⁹ I confess that in Christ Jesus dwells the whole fullness of the Godhead in bodily form, ¹⁰ and I confess the reality that at the same time, I have been (and therefore I am) filled with Christ, who is the head of all rule and authority. ¹¹  In Christ I have also had my heart circumcised through Christ, by putting off the body of the flesh, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism.  And I also confess that I have been raised with Christ through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Christ Jesus from the dead. 

¹³ Although without Christ I was dead in my trespasses and flesh, You, the gracious God, have made me alive together with Christ, and you have forgiven me all my trespasses, ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against me with its legal demands. You set it all aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And I rejoice that YOU have disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Christ!

Rejecting Religious Pride

¹⁶ Because I know that Christ is alive in me, I will let no one pass judgment on me in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. ¹⁷ I recognize that these were and are simply a shadow of the things to come.  The substance – the eternal reality - belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ For these reasons I will pay no mind to those who would try to disqualify me, by insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions,^[d] puffed up with spiritual pride. 

¹⁹ I will not turn from the TRUTH; instead I will hold fast to the Head (you Christ Jesus), from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰ With Christ I have died to the elemental spirits of the world.  Therefore I am not still alive to the ways of this world.  I will not allow myself to be duped into submitting to religion’s regulations— ²¹ “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” ²² (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings. ²³  I acknowledge that although these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body,  they are actually of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Ch3 Since I have been raised with Christ, I will seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  2 I will set my mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For I have died, and my life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And I know that when Christ who is my life appears, then I also will appear with him in glory. 5 I choose to put to death what is earthly and base within me:[b] sexual immorality, impure passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6  I recognize that on account of these the wrath of God is coming.[c] 7 Although at one time I walked in these paths, 8 now I choose to put all these behind me: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and unwholesome talk.  I won’t put others down.  9 Instead, I choose to tell the truth, build others up, and not lie; I will put off the old self[d] with its practices.  10 I will put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, [Catholic or Protestant; religious or free; or any other categories that divide us]; but Christ is all, and in all. 12 As one of God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, I put on a compassionate heart that is full of kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.13 I choose to bear with others in love, forgiving others, as the Lord has forgiven me.  14 And above all these I choose to put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And I choose to let the peace of Christ rule in my heart.; I choose to be thankful. 16 and to let the Word of Christ dwell in me richly.  I ask that you will help me, Lord, to teach and admonish others in all wisdom.  I choose a life of singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in my heart to You, my Lord and my God. I will sing in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, and live in the Spirit. I choose to 17do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through him. Prayer for Help in Family Life: 18 Help me, Lord, to submit to my husband, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Help my husband, to love me, and to not be harsh with me. 20 Help my children to obey their parents in everything, wanting to please you, Lord. 21 May my husband not provoke our children, lest they become discouraged.  May I Obey You as Your Bondservant 22 As your bondservant,[f] Christ Jesus, may I obey You in everything with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 In whatever I am called to do, may I work heartily, as for You, Lord, and not for men, 24 knowing that I will receive an inheritance from YOU as my reward. 25 May I not concern myself with those who do me wrong, knowing that the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, for You are just. I trust you, Lord, to be my great defender and my great reward.

Why Pray? God can do it without my help!

The other night as I was praying and starting to fall asleep, I was pondering, “Why do I really need to pray for others?  Wouldn’t it make more sense to just fall asleep and let God do what he intends to do anyway?”  It is that age-old question, “Why wouldn’t God just act according to his good will and his all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful nature?  Why should we have to pray for Him to work?” 

Unexpectedly, the Lord answered me quickly.  He reminded me that in the visible, natural realm we humans are almost always called upon to take action.  When someone needs help with a flat tire, a twisted ankle, or a lost wallet, we naturally come to that person’s aid – and we don’t question why God doesn’t step in on his own. In stepping in to help others, we are blessed with the opportunity to do God’s good work on earth.

If this is true in the traditional physical realm, why would I think that it should be different in the spiritual and quantum physical realm where prayer operates? 

Yes, God obviously could bypass us in meeting the needs of others.  Not only is He more than capable of meeting every need personally, He also has legions of angels at His disposal.  His choice to allow us to be His agents of mercy, compassion, help, and counsel, is His gift to us.  It is in the place of acting in accordance with God’s love, wisdom, and strength that we come to know Him more.  It is through co-laboring with Him that we become increasingly bonded to His heart.   Just as a father invites his young son to wash the car with him, knowing that the son is gaining far more from the experience than simply learning how to wash a car, so our Father invites us to partner with Him in helping others for much higher purposes than simply getting the help to the right place.

Helping others practically and physically (without prayer), though extremely valuable, has a weaker potential to bond us to God’s heart than prayer does.  When we engage in practically helping others, we may easily be tempted to think we are working in our own capacity only.  For instance, I can help my neighbor pack and move boxes without once thinking of the act as “co-laboring with God” (although if I am mindful of being God’s hands, feet, and incarnate love I will probably have a much more fulfilling day – and may naturally include prayer as part of the mission).  When it comes to prayer, however, it is practically impossible to think that I am a solo agent.  Prayer is a humble act of co-laboring in which I can know for sure that God’s power is essential to the equation.  When I  take the time to meditate on the act of prayer as joining my heart to God’s heart, tapping into his unlimited resources to bring positive change (healing, provision, even salvation), then I naturally become increasingly aware of the value of prayer as co-laboring with God.

When praying, the first and most important part is aligning my heart with God’s heart!  Much wiser souls than I have said, “Prayer isn’t about changing God’s mind.”  I am realizing more and more how important it is to remember this when we pray!  I must never put myself in a position of working against the plans and intentions of God, for His wisdom and his ways are vastly superior to mine.  (Isa 55:9). Like me, you have probably seen various models of prayer that seem to be geared toward getting God to change His mind about something, rather than working in accordance with (in agreement with) God’s heart.  When we are tempted to view prayer in this way, we must remember who God truly is – Creator, King, and Lord!  Then we will see that we must purposefully turn from the perspective of changing God’s mind and instead mindfully align our hearts (and our thoughts) with God’s heart from the very beginning.  

Through aligning our hearts with God, we come to know His heart!  And this is the highest call – to know Him!  (Php. 3:8-11).  In prayer, I commune with God.  And it is through prayer – calling upon Him - that I come to know Him like in no other place, for prayer operates in the same dimension in which the Spirit operates.  In prayer, I am saying, “God, show me your heart for this person; show me your will in this situation; show me what you want.”  Then I am taking the next step and saying, “Yes, Lord!  Your will be done in this person, in this way; your kingdom of healing and wisdom and power come, right here in this place just like in heaven.”  Prayer transports me into the place of union with the very heart of God.  It is much like me sitting on the Father’s lap, listening to the cry of his heart, and then saying, “Oh, yes, Father!  Yes!  May it be so!” 

If God acted without involving us, through prayer, we would miss out on the opportunity to co-labor with Him and know him.  Thus, it makes sense that prayer should be integral to the accomplishment of God’s purposes on earth, just as the actions of our hands and our feet are integral to the accomplishment of His purposes on earth.

In prayer, I must trust God’s Word and obey the call to pray.  I am just beginning (barely beginning) to understand how (in a quantum physical sense) prayer operates to take the love and power of God and transform it into healing, life-changing power that intersects the lives of others.  But I do not need to know HOW in order to trust that it works any more than I need to understand the internal workings of an automobile to get in one and drive.  So, I refuse to allow my lack of understanding to keep me from obeying the call to pray.  Faith is all that is required.

I must believe the truth that God has commanded me to pray.  I must believe that God's Word promises me that my prayers are “powerful and effective.”  I must embrace the reality that God planned from the very beginning that my prayers would be an integral part of fulfilling His plans.  My obedience is precious to the Lord, and even more so when I do not fully understand how it all works.  My faith and trust are firmly established in the hope that He who has called me is faithful and true; he cannot lie; and he who began a good work will be faithful to complete it.  The only question then is this:  Will I be faithful to obey the call? 

My Prayer:  Father, forgive me for doubting even for a moment this truth: that prayer is the highest call!  Remind me that the place of prayer is where I come to know you more than in any other place.  Remind me of the glory of participating in bringing your will to pass on the earth. Help me to continue to develop an understanding that prayer is powerful and effective.  Remind me that I don’t pray to change you, and I don’t pray simply to change me, either.  I pray to fulfill my role in the kingdom to bring true change and true healing power.  Just as you spoke everything in the universe into existence by the power of your words, so you have called me to call into existence the answers to prayer that you have placed on our hearts.

I have such a limited understanding, and yet I trust you Lord, that you hear the cry of my heart.  You hear and answer, and while you listen and I listen, we are communing in a way that is truly bonding our hearts together as one.  I will obey the call to pray without ceasing, more and more, each day, because I know that prayer is pure devotion, pure pursuit of You and Your Kingdom, and a powerful and effective force beyond my comprehension!  

Christ in Me the Hope of Glory

Now these three remain – faith hope and love.  Faith expressing itself in love.  Christ in me the hope of glory.  Where then is my hope?  My hope is in him who loves me and gave himself for me.  My hope is in YOU alone, Lord!  You are the author and finisher of my faith.  I abide in your love because you have prayed and the father has answered, that the love that is in the Father for the Son may also be in us.  I am living and breathing all day long an atmosphere of faith, hope and love.   Together this faith hope and love is grace to me, is goodness to me, and provides all that I need, beyond what I can ask or imagine.  May I walk today and every day in this atmosphere of faith hope and love.

May I walk more deeply in faith, cling more tightly to hope, and embody more completely your love.  Everything that comes against my faith, or tries to attack my hope, or tempts me to not love is of the evil one.  I will remain in love, remain in hope, remain in faith.  Faith that moves mountains.  Hope that never dies. Love that fills and heals even the deepest of wounds.  Give me your heart, Lord.

For what is prayer if it is not the joining of my heart to yours?  What is life worth if it is not lived in your presence and from your presence?  There should never be anything that I desire that is not consistent with placing all my hope in you and walking out a life of love and of faith in you. 

Help me to unlearn every unhelpful idea of prayer that I have heard and practiced.

I enter into your heart by faith now, coming boldly before your mercy seat and your throne of grace, and I ask that you will forgive me for every idle word, every unloving thought, and fill me instead with a holy fire of your love for all whom I would encounter.  Let my heart be vulnerable to the mercy that you want to pour through me.  Let me be a humble servant that is solely motivated by your heart of compassion, not being moved by perceived need, but rather moved by the real power and love that can come only through you, laying aside the flesh and embracing spirit as life.

I boldly confess and declare this truth:  I respond to each new thing with expectancy and hope!  I do not fear!  I am bathed in perfect love and therefore all fear must flee!  I am a conduit of God’s love, mercy, hope, power and wisdom.  And everywhere I go I bring God’s “more than enough” to those who are thirsty, hungry, discouraged, and broken.  I bring HOPE because Christ in me is HOPE, and he is power and love and wisdom.  And everywhere I go, I bring Him.  Christ in Me is not just my hope of glory.  Christ in me is HOPE to the world, to every single person.  May I walk with great assurance and confidence!  I expect great things, because the one who is IN ME  is greater than any fear, any doubt, any pain.  HE is HOPE.  HE is LOVE.  HE is all I need and all that is needed in this world.

Words from the Lord are in italics below:

Love casts out fear of man, because if you really love the person before you, you will want everything good I have for them, and you will not worry about how they react to you.  To be rejected is not something to fear.  Your reward comes from your obedience, not results.  Sure, results are fun and good, too!  But when you turn your ears and eyes to me and determine to obey all that I say, then you cannot lose.  Every prayer, every kind word of encouragement – even those that are rebuffed – are building an eternal glory. 

To love me is to obey me.  Obedience comes from trust.  Trust comes from knowing who I am and what I am is good and loving and powerful.  Those who are called will have eyes/ears opened.  Whoever is called today is ready.  And those who are called and open have their hearts ready, just waiting, though they may not always realize it.  Out of a 100 people in a store on any given day, there may be one who is open and ready to receive a touch of my spirit on her life … but consider this - there are many more who might be open to a friendly and encouraging word, and it is never wrong to show my love!  Do not be discouraged.  Just love.  Just smile.  Just ask for the right word at the right time, and I will give it to you.  Do not let the naysayers get you down.  Do not listen to lies.  There is one liar with many tongues, but a lie is still from the Liar.  Do not listen to lies!

The truth will set you free – free from fear, free from a sense of inadequacy, and free from people-pleasing.  Embrace the truth that Christ in you is the hope of glory.  And so as you walk around today, remember that you are filled with a GLORY and a HOPE that the world craves.  You are walking HOPE.  You are walking Glory.  You are walking around with the Hope of Glory inside you.  Let that sink in.

I confess and declare:  I am walking HOPE.  I am walking GLORY. 

Daughter, you must discard the old view of yourself – the “Who am I to do anything special?”  That is a lie, a false self, and one that keeps you from love and compassion and power!  

Who are you?  [you ask, and I answer] - You are a walking fountain of Holy Spirit love, joy and peace!  

You are filled with CHRIST and, therefore, you are filled with Christ’s HOPE and Christ’s GLORY!   

What will it take for you to see yourself rightly?! 

That is what these [teachers and preachers, the ones] who “get it” are trying to tell you – to tell the rest of my bride.  This is what Todd White and Reinhard Bonnke and Corey Russell are trying to get across – There is no reason to walk around in timidity, because the ONE who walked on water and raised the dead and set the captives free – HE is in YOU!  I AM in you!

 If you will accept and acknowledge and grab hold of this Truth, then this Truth will indeed set you free to live the life you are called to live – with boldness and love and power!

Lord, take me from here and move me to there!  Give me divine wisdom and understanding that will open my eyes to see you as you really are and to see me as filled with you.  I believe that you are filling and indwelling me.  Show me how to walk in this reality today!  Without fear!

The enemy would like me to believe a lie that there is reason to fear – that I will somehow screw it up.  Help me Lord to close my ears to this lie!!!

I cannot screw it up if I am filled with your love.  Help me to walk the walk of love today and every day, looking at everyone with fresh eyes – eyes that see each person as a uniquely created person who is loved by You, LORD

Unlearning [the lies, and patterns of habitual thought] takes time and focus.  Keep coming back to the TRUTH.  The TRUTH will set you free to be WHO you are called to be in ME!