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Three Levels of Prayer
January 29, 2023 / First Baptist RussellAsk, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7
Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.
John 15:4
Prayer is – to the of God and with His will.
Effective prayer is wrapped up with His for our lives.
If we know His will in a matter, we are to “”.
If we don’t know His will, we are to “”.
If we know His will but the answer has not , we are to “” until the door opens.
Many believers never rise above the first of prayer to the level of ,
much less to the level of .
Effective prayers are those that to the of grace on all levels.
1st The level of a petition – “Ask, and it will be given you.”
- We must !
- There are those who are too or too – to ask.
When you know God’s will you can “ask” and have the that you will receive.
There are times we have asked for certain things and did not them because it was God’s .
2nd The level of a petition “seek and you will find.”
This is the prayer we pray when we know the will of God in a matter, and we until we it.
This is a and more level of prayer because it puts aside and is motivated by a deep desire to know God’s will in a matter.
This prayer involves an intense search for the of God with a regular pattern of Bible reading.
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you,
Colossians 3:16a
God does not want to His will from us; He desires that we it and in it.
3rd The level of with a petition “knock and it will be opened to you.”
When we reach this higher level of prayer, it becomes apparent who is really and who is not.
And He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to serve him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet because of his shamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Luke 11:5-8
We pray on this level of persisting with a petition when we feel certain we know God’s but it has not yet come to happen.
We keep on asking…keep on seeking…keep on , and hold on to the promise, “it will be opened to you.”
God always answers prayer – but how?