How to Create a Prayer Schedule

Hi Everyone!

I’d like to thank each and every one of you again for joining me at the Prayer Boot Camp on FaceBook. Even though every one of us is accountable directly to God for our walk with Him, it is also wonderful to be a part of a family of like-minded people who can encourage each other to press on further into God and into the fullness of the image of Jesus Christ to which we have been called.

So, I’m glad you’re all here with me to learn how to be faithful and effective in the place of prayer. We need it more than ever. More than ever we need to help each other develop an all-consuming passion for the Presence of God so that we can truly know Him and develop the substance we need to touch the world for Christ.

You are God’s hope in the earth. Each of you has a calling, a gifting, a measure of faith (Rom. 12:3). Contained within your measure of faith is everything you need to fulfill your call here on the earth and go home to an awesome reward. God has already given you everything you need to fulfill your ministry…imagine that.

There truly exists a place you can get to where your walk with God is not a mystery. The next step for your life is not something you wonder about briefly in between changing the diapers and fighting traffic and then the thought disappears until next Sunday. It is a very real walk with God that He has made available. But how do we get there?

We get there by knowing Him. There is no shortcut to fulfilling your destiny in Christ. Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” That pretty much sums it up. And we know Him through prayer and the Word. If you’re serious about getting to know the Lord, you have to make time for prayer. If you’re too busy to pray, then don’t count on doing anything that has His stamp of approval on it.

We cannot afford to be too busy to pray. Whose work are we trying to do? If it’s His work, then it means we must have His mind. Even when you have His mind, you must also have His method.

So, we must pray and pray much. Before we get to the prayer itself, I’d like to talk about creating a prayer schedule. Let me tell you, having a vibrant prayer life is all about strategy. Your flesh will fight you all the way to the prayer room. The devil’s going to fight you, so you have to stay ten steps ahead of yourself to make sure you win the battle for the prayer closet. I don’t know if you guys can believe this, but I have had to pray about my prayer life to get it going sometimes.

Our faith wasn’t really designed for believing for material things. Our faith was designed for us to win spiritual battles and getting into prayer is a hard fight. But we have the victory and having a prayer schedule is the first step.

You want to pray? You want to spend time with God? Good. When are you going to do it? You don’t know? You’ve got to know if you’re really going to do it. You need to set that time down on paper and stick it up on your mirror where you dress up every morning to remind you to pray.

Today is the day that you create a prayer schedule for your prayer time and get a prayer life.

1. Set aside a quiet time

2. Have a pen and paper

3. Pray for wisdom

4. Take a look at your current schedule and pick a time when you are dog-tired to pray. No two person’s schedules will look the same. The schedule for a stay at home mother will be different from someone who works 9 to 5 and from someone who works a four-day shift.

5. Pick as many large slots of time during your week as you can. Basically, it’s better to have four two-hour prayer sessions during the week instead of seven thirty-minute sessions. If what you can do is 30 minutes a day, that’s fine. However, you may not have as much time to spend praying and then also waiting upon the Lord, reading the Word etc.

6. As you pray in the Spirit, the longer you pray, the quieter your spirit gets. You may have to pray in the spirit for several hours before your spirit gets quiet enough for you to hear the Lord. This is especially the case if you are not by reason of use an expert at hearing the Lord.

7. Now, once you have those times earmarked, write out your schedule on a piece of paper and stick it up where you can see it. If you use a computer or cell phone, put reminders on your calendar that will pop up and remind you that you have prayer coming up that evening or morning or whenever.

Now, it is very important to keep in mind that the minute you set out on a journey to pray like this, the devil is going to be on high alert to stop you. Why? Because if he can stop you at this early stage, he doesn’t have to deal with you when you become a spiritual giant.

One thing you’ll face is discouragement. The first couple of prayer times, you may find that you fall asleep (that would be me) or your boss asks you to stay late at the office, or something, whatever it is comes up. No matter what comes up, you need to commit in your heart that you will never, ever quit. A righteous man falls down seven times, but he also gets up seven times. If he stays down on the seventh time, he’s failed. You have to outlast the devil. One thing he cannot overcome is a Christian who will never quit.

Second, the enemy will attack with condemnation. Listen, God loves you. You are His beloved. If you never pray another day in your life, God loves you and He will do anything He can to bless you here and get you to heaven. Now we know that this is not a license to blow God off and just spend all our time seeking money at the office or a social life. It is a license to tell the devil to “Shut Up!” when he tries to bring sorrow and depression on you because you didn’t pray as much as you were supposed to. As we said earlier, never, ever give up, because we have the victory.

One last word to the people who have excuses and “good reasons” why they can’t find time to pray: If you are a believer, there is no good reason not to pray. Granted, it’s not easy to get a prayer life, but just because it’s not easy doesn’t mean that we can justify the lack of prayer. We cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit, the power of God.

If ministry is keeping you out of prayer, kiss the power of God in your ministry goodbye. If your children are keeping you out of prayer, how do you expect to hear God’s mind about how to raise them or how can He get you into intercession for their future? If your job is keeping you out of prayer, ask yourself if you are serving God or money.

Once you let all of your excuses go, then God is free to bring you His grace and strength to see you through all the way to a vibrant, powerful prayer life.
So, recapping, your assignment today is to write down your prayer schedule. Post your thoughts, question and new prayer schedule if you would like in the discussion area of the group.

Grace and Peace to you,

Sade.

Category: Worship