Teaching Outline on Prayer (Draft)

Outline:

1. What is prayer
2. Types of prayer
   1. Adoration/exaltation/praising
   2. Intercessory
   3. Imprecatory
   4. Inquiry
   5. Other
   6. Other
3. Prayers God hears
4. Prayers God ignores
5. How not to pray
6. How to pray
   1. Pray according to God’s revealed will (aka “In Jesus’ name”, Jn 16.24)
      1. Model prayers demonstrating this principle
   2. Pray informed.
      1. Knowing God’s Scripturally-revealed will (like the model prayers)
      2. Informed of surrounding issues via the Scripture-mandated decision-making process
         1. Search out all the info you can
         2. Obtain the counsel of mature Godly people emotionally-uninvolved/uninvested with your decision
   3. Pray with submission
      1. Submission about God’s answer
      2. Submission about God’s timing, Ps 69.13
   4. Pray with thanksgiving
      1. Ps 69.30-31 Praying in a lengthy situation of oppression, David still prays with thanksgiving.
      2. Phil 4.6-7 With requests needing Divine peace, still pray with thanksgiving.
   5. Pray persistently
      1. Don’t give up
      2. Don’t prejudge the outcome or speculate on it
      3. Be like Jacob who wouldn’t let go of the Lord until he got his blessing, Gen 32.26.
   6. Pray Continuously
      1. A sense of “walking” with God every conscious moment
         1. “Practicing the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century Carmelite friar.
7. How not to pray
   1. Prayers God refuses to hear/heed
   2. Don’t pray to satisfy your carnal lusts, e.g. strong controlling desires apart from God; Jas 4.3
   3. Don’t pray presumptuously (trying to dictate how or when God will answer, “If such-and-such happens I’ll know it’s God’s will.”)
   4. Other
8. Help in prayer
   1. When in distress you cannot pray, your brothers and sisters pray for you
   2. The Holy Spirit prays for you
   3. The Lord Jesus intercedes for you
9. Encouragement to pray
   1. God commands it, so obey and thus show Him you love Him (Jn 14.21)