Priscilla Shirer: Prayer is Necessary for Your Relationship with God | Praise on TBN

if I were your enemy what I want to do

is devalue in your mind the potency of

what I know to be the most powerful

weapon you have against me so he’s made

our churches focus on being a house of

great programs or a house of great

preaching and a house of great singing

when they’re supposed to be a house of

prayer because it’s the prayer that

pushes back the kingdom of darkness so

if I were the enemy that’s exactly what

I do I devalue what I knew it was the

most potent weapon that you had in Your

Arsenal against me so we do everything

first except pray

when we talk about

um you know the truth sets us free and

and Jesus always you know when he was

encountered by the devil he said get

behind me Satan he spoke truth to a lie

and then said get behind me I’ll no

longer look at you

so we know that speaking the word

that’s

that’s our battle right that’s right

that’s how we fight that’s right it’s a

sword of the spirit that’s right the

word of God it’s a sword of the spirit

and so that’s that’s help us help us to

know when you talk about prayer and your

your fervent book this one right here

um

a woman’s battle plan for serious

specific and strategic prayer

tell us a little bit about about that

yeah you know one of the things that I

walked away with from the from the film

from the recording of the film we we

filmed for about

um three months

and after saying those lines over and

over and really just being engrossed in

this storyline it occurred to me that

while I did value prayer I had neglected

intentionality with prayer being

strategic in prayer actually trying to

detect where you see the enemy’s

fingerprints at kind of as handiwork

meddling in your life where you

anticipate he might want to take

advantage of a weakness or a or a a bit

of divisiveness and just being mindful

of that so that when we pray we’re not

just randomly saying words that we’ve

heard all along or words that we’ve kind

of memorized along the way or words that

are comfortable to us but we’re actually

um praying in a way that is targeted

it’s kind of exactly what you described

a few moments doing the work to find the

promises of God that actually apply in

everything that we know intentional

prayer and then writing it down

sometimes we need to write our prayers

down only because it keeps us focused it

reminds us what we’re praying about you

know so when it’s posted there in that

war room and you come back in there day

after day you’re reminded this is your

prayer this is where you’re focusing

your um your prayer life on and until I

see an answer I’m going to keep praying

this prayer it also gives you a great

track record with God because then when

God does answer you can see that date at

the top of that page of when you started

praying that and then you’ll be able to

put a date down of when God answered

however in his sovereignty he chose to

what a great track record not just for

you but your grandchildren and your

great-grandchildren to see how Grandmama

or Grandpa prayed and believed that God

would answer wow I think the thing I

loved about or you know even the prayer

because in Ephesians 6 it talks about

the armor you know which we’re familiar

with but then

and it’s not the the the prayer that’s

oh God why you know the whining I mean

you can do that for a minute because

maybe we all need to whine for a minute

the complaining side of it you can’t

complain to God because honestly the

Psalms David complained for a bit I mean

you know he went he went on a journey

with God he was intimate and real with

his pain and Agony before God and then

there’s got to be a rising up and there

has to be a point where you that’s the

thing so at some point yes could do the

complaining but at some point you have

to begin speaking the truth of what God

has to say about your marriage about

your health and about your family about

reconciliation I just remember even that

for me with just some situations and you

know family and extended family that was

hard it was so hard and and I remember

moments of you know the complaining

before God because of course I was

perfect and they were the problems well

everybody else needs to change yeah it

would really help out my life totally

um but so I you know complained but then

I started

you know talking about pulling out the

scriptures that talked about unity and

Reconciliation and and together and

faithfulness and just declaring that and

I’ve seen God do what only he could do

yeah in the lives of people I mean I saw

it in my health but I was also seen it

in relationships with people and so I

just think that that if if people

understood more about the power you know

some people say well all I can do is

pray no no that’s not all about the the

thing to do right is right second

um Second Chronicles 7 14 If my people

right who are called by my name humble

themselves and pray yeah right then he’s

going to heal our land we’re too busy

complaining about our land and our

government and all that’s happening it’s

like well you can complain but if you

prayed as much as you complained maybe

we would see something different and you

know what if I were your enemy what I’d

want to do is devalue in your mind the

potency of what I know to be the most

powerful weapon you have against me so

he’s made our churches focus on being a

House of great programs or a house of

great preaching and a house of great

singing when they’re supposed to be a

house of prayer because it’s the prayer

that pushes back the kingdom of darkness

so if I were the enemy that’s exactly

what I do I devalue what I knew was the

most potent weapon that you had in Your

Arsenal against me so we do everything

first except pray pray and so for you

personally so how do you

when do you when do you pray are you a

late at night person are you the middle

of the day person are you well I don’t

know you first of all lest anyone think

that my life is you know I’m up on a

Mountaintop

yeah that’s right

um my life is very much like everybody

else’s that it’s his laundry kids and

it’s kind of that thing where you know

once your feet hit the floor in the

morning it’s over it’s just full on for

the rest of the day right and so

um I have this ongoing actually part of

my prayer is Lord would you continue to

help me to prioritize this in my life

because it can so easily kind of get

pushed off of the that position of

priority so I just say Lord I need you

to stir I don’t want to manufacture

passion I want you to stir in me a

passion to where I don’t want to go a

day without prioritizing prayer and then

hearing back from you listening to you

through the scriptures and so I try to

do that in the morning because it seems

like that’s the best time if I wait till

the end of the day I’m it ain’t gonna

happen no that’s the same with me no if

I don’t if the morning if I if it

doesn’t happen then yeah then it just

gets it’s like if it doesn’t happen just

the very first time I know then once you

get going

but I will say I learned a bit from

Brother Lawrence that you know Age Old

Saint from that book practicing the

presence of God

um that really just gives us freedom

lifts that burden off of us of feeling

like if we don’t have an hour to spend

with the Lord at the beginning of the

day that it’s a waste of time to

practice God’s presence all day long yes

so my kids are a little bit older now

but I went through a season four five

six years there where I would just write

down scripture verse on a three by five

card the same one on five different

cards maybe and I’d put one on the

bathroom mirror where I’d be washing

little hands all day one where I was

going to be doing the dishes one where I

was folding clothes one near the sandbox

outside and I just would have the same

verse for like two weeks so everywhere I

went I was just running into this verse

and by the time I got to the end of the

day not only had me and the Lord talked

about this one verse a lot Not only was

it inscribed on my heart but it became

God’s word to me it became something

that really there was life in it wasn’t

just a verse I’d learned there was life

in it because me and God been talking

all day long for a couple of weeks about

the sentiments that he’d inscribed in

this In this passage of scripture so I

think that idea of practicing the

presence of God it takes that guilt off

of I didn’t have my quiet time and it

didn’t look like this and it didn’t fit

in a comfortable little box well look do

it however you got to do it right

practice his presence all day long how

do we do that well number one by being

creative with how you can feed yourself

on his word so my sister five kids she’s

got this little clip on her dashboard

she’ll do the same thing write a three

by five card down with scripture and she

puts it in that clip and so you know

running errands for two hours every day

trying to get kids to soccer practice

and everything she’s just running face

to face um in face to face with this

with this verse over and over throughout

the scriptures when things come up in

the middle of the day that are problems

you might call a girlfriend about you

might you can still call her but also

okay God yeah just ask him about it ask

him about what scripture verse applies

to this particular uh circumstance how

would he want to lead and guide you and

you’ll be amazed how you’ll begin to see

the encounters that you have the

circumstances that align the little

beckonings and convictions of God’s

spirit how they all begin to work

together to help you to realize you

actually are hearing God’s voice and

seeing his Providence as he steers you

in the direction of his will for your

life it doesn’t have to be so mystical

yeah

yeah a little more just what you’re

saying it’s a practical thing just

seeing it’s like it’s like

um Philip the reason I know his voice

when he called he doesn’t have to say a

long sentence he goes hey babe I

recognize it’s because that’s your man

with him all day that’s right right if I

only talked to him once every blue moon

that would be a little trickier that’s

right to me it’s the same with God it’s

if you just you spend those moments yeah

you know talking listening talking

listening reading the word it becomes

um very familiar yeah like Anthony’s

voice compared to your dancing that’s

right I’ve talked about that and I’m

sorry the voice of God that my brother

and my dad they have the same name they

walk alike they talk alike I’ve seen my

brother take advantage of the fact that

he’s got my dad’s name I tried to milk

that as much as it’s like I want to hear

that story

oh everything

oh Anthony a few times throw him under

the bus that’s right but even though

he’s fooled a lot of people before not

you not me because I know the two-way

voice right you know his voice and so

you know there are things for example

that people could say to me that Jerry

said my husband Jerry said this but if

it is totally out of the character that

I know to be of my husband of 18 years

then I would be able to confidently say

to them I know my man didn’t say that

because I know him you know and so

that’s why we read God’s word because we

get to know his personality we get to

know the character of God we get to see

the kinds of things he says and doesn’t

say and so it occurs to us when our ego

is speaking or when fear is trying to

get a word in because fear always has

something to say and pride and

insecurity is also speaking the enemy is

speaking you’ll be able to detect well

God didn’t say that because that’s

totally out of out of alignment with

this character or out of alignment with

his personality as it’s displayed in

scripture and so the more you know God

the more clearly you can hear him