heaven's tree book club

Use the Right Tool
Today is another day of waiting. It has been for the most part an ordinary day. Not that I am looking for an extraordinary day, but it is approaching the half way mark of August and no signs of breakthrough. However, even though I woke up fairly early and did not get good sleep, I still had this sense in the morning that everything will turn out fine. I had a very encouraging dream where I was to make a presentation. I slipped out and while outside was so gripped with anxiety about the presentation as I am often in the past. Moments later, a familiar sister sat with me to encourage me in my fears. I woke up from that dream feeling really ministered to. I rarely if ever remember such a dream where I woke up from and felt this calm sense of God's sovereign grace. It also help that I was able to recall God's faithfullness in my life. Last night as I broke forth in spontaneous worship, the song that struck out to me the most is "There is none like you". It is with this context that I must approach prayer.
The author believes that not all prayer is the same. We need to use the right kind of prayer for the situation. He lists six different types of prayer. The first is the prayer of agreement.
"In Matthew 18:19, Jesus introduced the prayer of 'agreement when He said:
Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
Right off the bat you can see that for the prayer of agreement to work, people involved in the prayer have to... agreel You cannot know what someone else wants—what someone is believing for— and God cannot answer your prayer for someone else against his or her will. To use the prayer of agreement, you must be sure that the person with whom you are agreeing is in line with what you are asking for. If someone asks me to pray in agreement with them, I ask, "What specifically do you want me to pray for?" Even husbands and wives sometimes are not in agreement over what to pray for when they use the prayer of agreement. If they are praying for a new car, the husband might be praying for a sports car, while the wife is praying for a small SUV. Neither of them can get their prayer answered because they are not really in agreement.
You absolutely must be on the same page when using the prayer of agreement. It is even difficult to set yourself in agreement with people over their healing, because often healing to you may mean something totally different than what healing means to a sick person. Some sick people just want to be out of pain. A person may be praying for a doctor to provide a cure—and there is nothing wrong with that, unless you are praying for the person's supernatural healing."
This is a very interesting catagorization. I never heard of the prayer of agreement but it appears to make sense. I guess that is why we say "amen" after a time of praying in groups. It has been some time since I have prayed with one other person for very specific things. It is interesting how he says that we can have different ideas of what we are praying for like the different kind of car or different meaning of healing. That is why it is important to pray specifically in the prayer of agreement. The author goes on to share that he prayed for a woman to be healed while she was praying to die. They were not praying in agreement. The second type of prayer is the prayer of faith.
"The prayer of faith, also known as petition prayer, is the prayer that most people think of when they use the term prayer. Petition prayer is between you and God. It is you asking God for a particular outcome, whether it's a job, money, a lifetime mate, or whatever. The key verse for the prayer of faith is Mark 11:24, where Jesus says:
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
The rule to consider here is when you pray—not after you pray... not when you feel something... not when you see something. When you pray (the moment that you pray) you must believe that you receive what you asked for.
This is a difficult concept for some people. God is a present tense God. He doesn't operate in the past or in the future, but in the now. Whenever you pray, at that moment you are in the present. At that precise time, you must believe that you receive what you are praying for. At the moment you pray, believe that you receive what you have requested. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Your faith is substance—it is something real, something tangible. It is evidence of things you cannot see."
"Part of the faith required to make a prayer transaction, to activate your faith request, is that you can only pray one time for something—because if you believe you have already received it, why would you ask for it again? Imagine I'm standing in front of you, and I say, "Please give me your Bible."
You reach down, pull out your Bible, and hand it to me.
Then I say, "Please give me your Bible."
What? You would rightly say, "Are you crazy? I just gave you my Bible." If you have asked God for something once, you must have faith enough to believe that He heard you and that He has answered your prayer. That's what Jesus meant when He said, "Believe that you receive them" (referring to things you prayed for).
God answers prayers, and He will answer your specific prayer in line with His Word (more on that later), but it is your faith that brings that answer out of the spiritual world and into the physical world. How many times in Scripture does Jesus say to someone, "According to your faith...," or "Daughter, your faith has made you whole"? He referred to peoples' faith constantly, and even though it was His power that healed them, He always credited their faith with being the catalyst. In fact, when Jesus went to His hometown, we are told: "Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matt. 13:58)."
I have known about how faith is what activates miracles and healings and how Jesus could not perform mighty works in His own home town because of their unbelief. What is most interesting about his thoughts is that we can only pray once for something. His illustration makes sense about asking someone for their Bible. It makes sense to ask once in that context. The author appears to ignore Jesus's encouragement in Luke 18 about a persistent widow. In that context Jesus used the story to encourage people to pray continually for something and not give up. Although this idea of asking once makes sense theoretically, I am not sure if it is Biblical. We can say that the people who asked for healing asked once, but then again Jesus healed them on the spot. I am just really unsure about this one,. What is further puzzling and controversial about what he says we can pray for.
"So what should you pray for? The answer to that question is simple: you pray for those things that God promises to you in the Bible. "Does that mean cars? They didn't have cars in Jesus' time. How could I pray for that?"
Maybe some technologies, specifically, did not exist in the past, but that doesn't mean that the concept isn't in the Bible. Cars serve a purpose—to transport us from one place to another, to  our lives easier. So do houses, and so do bank accounts. They all fall under the rubric of prosperity or wealth. A better question would be, "Does God promise me prosperity?" Yes, He does.
Many—though certainly not all—of God's promises are outlined in a tremendous chapter in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28, where God tells the children of Israel that if they "hear and obey" God's Word, He will bless them. Just look at a few of the promises God makes in chapter 28:
Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
—Deuteronomy 28:3-8
  Now, while cars are not specifically mentioned, it seems pretty clear that if you are blessed in the above manner, you'll be able to buy any car you want. Certainly "herds" could have referred as easily to horses as to, more likely, cattle. If we Christians are indeed the "seed of Abraham," as Paul says, then we are promised prosperity. So you can either pray for a car, or pray for the money to buy a car—either way, it has been promised to you. And God doesn't care if you have a Volkswagen or a Ferrari or a Ford. They are all the same to God. (He has heavenly chariots!) Some Christians can't really believe for the car they want because they feel unworthy or guilty asking for something that is very expensive. God does not care about the expense. He lives in the most luxurious, wealthy city to ever exist. Our earthly concepts of wealth are dwarfed by His riches—and I don't mean just spiritual riches. Don't think your request is an affront to God. If He has provided for it and promised it, you are fully within the rights He has given you to ask for it."
Some conservative Theologians believe certain promises like this one only refer to Israel. They were made to a particular people at a particular time. Others like this author think we are Abraham's seed and all promises apply to all God's people. I would like to agree with the author. He makes a valid point about how we feel guilty and unworthy for asking for a sports car or something beyond our own means. I don't think he is trying to promote a prosperity gospel even though this comment is on the borderline of that type of thinking.. I struggle right now even believing that God can provide for me employment. I have been through so many failed applications. I imagine that the author is able to believe that God can provide all these things is because he has seen it in his own life. I personally have not seen God come through in these ways.



"In Luke 22:41-42, we see outlined the prayer of consecration and dedication:
And He [Jesus] was withdrawn from them [Peter, James, and John] about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."
Jesus knew that God was the Creator and Ruler of the universe. If there was any way man's salvation could be accomplished, God would know how to do it. Jesus was looking at separation from the Father for the first time ever—not just in His earthly life but through all eternity. He was praying, in essence, "If there is any other way to do this, let's do it that way." But the key for Jesus, and for us, is, "Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." You pray that God's will be done only when you don't know that will or do not know if an alternative path that appears is equally "correct" or godly.
I was ministering in a denominational church when God began to deal with me about leaving that church and starting an independent ministry. But even though I was certain God was telling me to leave, He didn't give me explicit instructions on where to go. In other words, God didn't say, "Frederick, thou shalt go to Hollywood and startest thy ministry there," or "Frederick, take thyself and thy family to Compton, and there shalt thou teach." (Actually, God doesn't speak in King James English to modern Americans, but I just used that for effect.) Like Abraham, I had some marching orders but no specific direction. So I prayed the prayer of consecration and dedication: "Father, if it is Your will that I go to Los Angeles to start a church, I'm willing to go to Los Angeles; but if it's Your will that I go to Santa Monica, then I will go there."
In the absence of direct instructions, the prayer of consecration and dedication says you will allow God to set your direction or make your decisions."
The author states this is the time when we say "if it is your will". Because there is no uncertainty in this situation, we ask using a prayer of dedication. Sometimes we have a general calling or vision like the author for a particular ministry. We might even have two or more choices. In my case, I had three options for grad school. I got no specific directions on which one. However, using some indicators such as location, opportunities, and disability services, I made a choice for New York and committed the choice to God.
"In this prayer, you are not asking God to do something for you or to give you something. You are not even asking for direction and dedicating your life to whatever it is God has called you to do. Rather, you just want to praise the Lord, to thank Him for His many blessings and mercy. You want to tell Him how much you love Him. A good example of this type of prayer appears in Luke 2:20, discussing the reaction of the shepherds who had seen the baby Jesus:
Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told them.
This means that it happened just as the angel of the Lord said it would. In Luke 18:43, we see the blind man "glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God." Ostensibly, they prayed prayers of thanksgiving." (p. 20).
This prayer like the prayer of faith appears to be the most common types that we practice from day to day. This kind of prayer is missing in churches today.. I have been to so many prayer meetings where we are long on asking for things but short on thanking and praising God for who He is. I often why this is.. We focus more on asking God for things. We need to cultivate a heart of worship and have times when we come to God only to worship and nothing else. I am guilty of treating me parents also in this way of asking. It is often been said that when a college student calls home it is usually for money. More so now, I ask my parents for things because of my health condition such as reaching for things I cannot get to. I value my relationship, but too often it is more about asking rather than merely being with.
"Intercession means you are interceding—acting in prayer—on behalf of someone else. This person may be incapable of praying for himself or herself. Perhaps the person is on drugs or mentally confused by demonic doctrines. Perhaps the person is so sick he or she can't muster the energy to stay awake, let alone pray. On a general level, intercession involves praying in a general sense for others. For example: "Father, bless and protect our troops overseas in the war zone that they would return home to their families." You aren't identifying a particular individual or even a particular unit. In general intercessory prayer, you pray, for example, for the church or for our government.
In Ephesians 1:15-18, Paul wrote:
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
This goes on, but Paul is making it plain that he prays for the church at Ephesus, and for the individuals there to receive these blessings. He does not set himself in agreement with anyone, so this seems to be a good example of intercessory prayer. Likewise, in his greeting to the Philippians, he wrote: "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy" (Phil. 1:3-4). The fact that Paul said he made requests^r them suggests that this also was an intercessory prayer."
This is another form of asking prayer but it is not focused on ourselves but on others. In our prayer meeting this is the most common when we pray for the church, different ministries and individuals. We pray also for our nation. With this being the second to last form of prayer, most of this makes sense so far. I guess the major thing I have issue with is the prayer in faith and how we ask only once for something and also asking for extravagant things.
"6. The Prayer of Binding and Loosing
This prayer is found in Matthew 18:18-19, where Jesus says:
Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
There are several important nuggets in Jesus' statements here, with the first being that we have authority here on this earth by virtue of our covenant rights through Jesus.

The second thing we notice is the direction of the action. Things do not begin in heaven and come to earth, but rather the action starts here on earth. Notice that it says, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Like all things in God's system, this prayer only works in line with God's Word and His laws. You cannot bind things willy-nilly. Binding a team to lose in the Super Bowl won't work any more than loosing someone to love you will work. You can bind foul spirits that are at work in people's lives or loose angelic spirits to work on your behalf in those areas where God has already promised you results. When you pray in that manner, God affirms it in heaven and puts His seal of approval on your prayer. Binding and loosing have to be based on the authority that God has granted you in Scripture, not on some desire you have."
More and more of this author's charismatic Theology and practicies is starting to come out. I have only heard of the prayer of binding and loosing in charismatic circles. I am not even quite sure what it means. He spends a little bit over a paragraph explaining it. Now, with this sixth and final prayer, I am not sure if I gained any new knowledge. I might have been made more confused than when I first began. What I do know now is that I need to worship more and ask less. That was not in the chapter but is this sense that I have been having.
Prayer:
Father, I just finished chapter one of this book and it feels like it is far from the quality of the last one. There are no powerful testimonies, and the insights from Scripture seem a little bit shaky. I ask for discernment. I don't even know what the prayer of binding and loosing is about either. Right now, I don't know if it is Biblical to ask You for things that seem too much. Actually, I don't want a nice car or a million dollar home. Right now, I am asking for the basic needs of employment, companionship, ministry, and health. Like the persistent widow I pray continually and I ask for the wholeness and health of my body which You have given to me. I thank You that You hear prayer. I thank You for the ability to come to You on the basis of what Christ has done. I long desire to see Your majesty and provision. I am praying for breakthrough in these different areas. Please help me in my times of discouragement and doubt.