Dear Eric, Thanks for your question. My webinar on listening prayer was very intentional about pointing us to scripture, and I gave scripture to back up all of the many ways God speaks to us (I listed 10 ways). There are many Biblical examples of prayer, which is conversation with God. There are many examples in the O.T. of God's people hearing from God in the various ways I mention in the webinar. It started in Genesis with God speaking to Adam and Eve, (Genesis 3:8-13). God initiated dialog with His people in the Garden. Samuel as a young boy and also as an adult prophet, clearly heard the Lord's voice, for example. In the N.T. the examples continue. John 10:27 clearly states that "my sheep hear my voice". Phillip received his orders by hearing the Spirit, (Acts 8:26,29). Paul was also directed where to go and not to go (Macedonia) by the voice of God in a vision, (Acts 16:6-10). When Jesus taught us to pray as He did in Matthew 6:9-13 with the Lord's prayer, I would say the first 2 words give proof that God speaks. "Our Father". Did you ever know of a father who did not speak to his children? When we think of prayer as the means God has chosen to build relationship with Him as his children, it may seem more understandable that God listens to us but also speaks to us. It is our being quiet and still in prayer that composes the "listening" part of prayer. "Listening Prayer" is not a term found in scripture, but something that helps us to be aware of and continue to grow in our ability to listen so we can hear from the God who speaks in so many ways. Rev. Alvin VanderGriend, has taught us well in his little book, "Love to Pray", "Prayer is dialog between the believer and God - a dialog of love. It's a two-way communication that involves both talking and listening. That's the kind of prayer relationship God wants with us.....Prayer is all about hearing our Shepherd's voice. In fact, when we pray, it's probably more important to listen than to speak." (Love to Pray p 52). God bless you on this journey, Mary Sterenberg
This is an important question. Thanks for asking it Sam. In our church I periodically lead a one hour training class for those who will be praying with others after the service. I have led this in other churches as well upon occasion. I will give you an abbreviated quick summary of the course. Basically this session includes things like: 1. Self preparation (self examination, confession, humility, dependence upon the Spirit, not self, etc.) 2. A little teaching about the ministry of the Holy Spirit - as prayer servants we are totally dependent upon the gifts of the Holy Spirit as we pray for others and ask God to do His work. 3. We minister under authority of the governing elders of this church. We follow their leadership and direction. 4. General Etiquette (Bible, name badge, breath mints, anointing oil, modest dress, personal hygiene). Pray in pairs or teams when possible. Ask permission before laying on hands or anointing with oil. LISTEN! Avoid telling your own story, listen well to theirs. Keep one ear to the Holy Spirit and one ear to what person is telling you. In this context, you don't have too much time for them to talk, so you may need to gently say, "What I am hearing you say is you need prayer for ______; let's pray about that now." Then start to pray. Help redirect them from talking too much to seeking the Lord. Keep your eyes open and watch for visible manifestations of the Spirit's working and evidences of healing. For example, you may see tears stream down their face when you pray certain things and you know you are right on and the Spirit it working. You may witness peace flooding over a person. 5. After listening carefully to the person, seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, choose a prayer strategy. ex. PRAISE, Often if we start with praising God, our hearts and minds are opened up to what God may have in mind and clarity may come even if at first you have no idea how to pray. PRAY IN AUTHORITY OF JESUS, Always pray in Jesus' name and from our identity in Christ. INTERCESSION - LISTEN - LOVE - PRAY, Stand in the gap for the person bringing their needs before the Throne of Grace. BLESSING - If you don't have a clear direction on how to start to pray, you can always pray blessings over the person. Remember Al VandeGriend's BLESS acronym. Body, Labor, Emotional, Social, Spiritual. That will give you a good start and the Holy Spirit will flow as you obediently pray. 6. How to Pray for Healing - How to anoint with oil (James 5:14-18). Pray in faith believing God to provide answers. He may not do what we thought, but He will always do something! Pray expectantly! 7. Pray Biblically! Let the Holy Spirit remind you of scriptures and let them roll off your tongue as you pray. 8. Do not be judgmental or condemning. It is not our place to judge. Keep everything that you hear in confidence (unless someone is going to hurt themselves or others - or if you have their permission to tell the pastor or some other key person that should know about this.) 9. End the session also in PRAISE! Praise God for what He has done and what He will continue to do in this person's life. 10. Cutting Free Prayer. It is a good spiritual practice to always pray after you have ministered to others to give to God all of the things you have heard, all of the burdens, they are not ours to bear. Also cut free of any ways the enemy may try to attach, defile or transfer his ick to you. Refuse it in Jesus' name. Now that was indeed a crash course in prayer ministry! Go forth to love and serve Him and watch Him do all the work!
While we are waiting for what others have to say, I remembered a couple of very important and accessible resources that will address this very question. Pastor Dave Huizenga has prayer resources that can be accessed on the web through Empowerment Institute, www.empowermentinstitute.org.
Harvest Prayer Ministries has a brochure called "Praying Through The Worship Service" - Training for Intercessors - The Praying Church Series 2000. It can be downloaded from www.harvestprayer.com. Topics are Preparation for Prayer, The Place of Prayer, How to Pray through the Worship Service, Additional Suggestions.
that is so exciting that you and a group are going to the Formational Prayer Training. I have had that on my to-do list for several years. Pastor Bob Boersma and a group from Providence CRC in Cutlerville also went to that training this year. It is good training for those who will be involved in deeper level of healing prayer than the "after church" altar ministry. Mary.
Just very quickly in a nutshell, after church prayer team prayers are going to be fairly quick, but that does not mean necessarily "light". I have seen persons healed in this time frame and I believe that God is delighted when persons come to church and walk out healed and transformed. That is church! That is the gospel! That is the Kingdom at work! I pray that would happen every week at every church.
A deeper healing prayer appointment, that would be set up for a couple of hours or more, digs way down to spiritual roots that may be causing the trouble or dysfunction. Sometimes things are systematically confessed, forgiven, delivered. Some times deep inner wounds from childhood are healed in these sessions. Your after church prayer ministry time is kind of like Triage, and some of those persons ought be referred to someone for more intensified healing prayer by those who are trained in such.
Praise Jesus! I love that He has us on similar journeys even though they were not overlapped.
We did a once a month healing prayer time for anyone that would like to come at Discovery CRC Church (in Cutlerville) for a couple of years while we were all learning. I am thinking of starting something like that up again. So I guess I will just throw it out there. I would be open to anyone to come, those who have been through the Embers to Flames prayer training, those who want to come and receive prayer, those who want to come and learn, those who want to come to be together with the body of Christ in the Presence of Jesus....
Posted in: Synod 2016 Days of Prayer - Week 1
Thanks for sharing this devotional. I look forward to seeking God each day in my day planner to pray for Synod!
Posted in: Listening Prayer Webinar
Dear Eric,
Thanks for your question. My webinar on listening prayer was very intentional about pointing us to scripture, and I gave scripture to back up all of the many ways God speaks to us (I listed 10 ways). There are many Biblical examples of prayer, which is conversation with God. There are many examples in the O.T. of God's people hearing from God in the various ways I mention in the webinar. It started in Genesis with God speaking to Adam and Eve, (Genesis 3:8-13). God initiated dialog with His people in the Garden. Samuel as a young boy and also as an adult prophet, clearly heard the Lord's voice, for example.
In the N.T. the examples continue. John 10:27 clearly states that "my sheep hear my voice". Phillip received his orders by hearing the Spirit, (Acts 8:26,29). Paul was also directed where to go and not to go (Macedonia) by the voice of God in a vision, (Acts 16:6-10).
When Jesus taught us to pray as He did in Matthew 6:9-13 with the Lord's prayer, I would say the first 2 words give proof that God speaks. "Our Father". Did you ever know of a father who did not speak to his children?
When we think of prayer as the means God has chosen to build relationship with Him as his children, it may seem more understandable that God listens to us but also speaks to us. It is our being quiet and still in prayer that composes the "listening" part of prayer. "Listening Prayer" is not a term found in scripture, but something that helps us to be aware of and continue to grow in our ability to listen so we can hear from the God who speaks in so many ways.
Rev. Alvin VanderGriend, has taught us well in his little book, "Love to Pray", "Prayer is dialog between the believer and God - a dialog of love. It's a two-way communication that involves both talking and listening. That's the kind of prayer relationship God wants with us.....Prayer is all about hearing our Shepherd's voice. In fact, when we pray, it's probably more important to listen than to speak." (Love to Pray p 52).
God bless you on this journey,
Mary Sterenberg
Posted in: How Are Elders and Prayer Leaders Equipped to Pray for Worship and With Others After Worship?
This is an important question. Thanks for asking it Sam. In our church I periodically lead a one hour training class for those who will be praying with others after the service. I have led this in other churches as well upon occasion. I will give you an abbreviated quick summary of the course. Basically this session includes things like: 1. Self preparation (self examination, confession, humility, dependence upon the Spirit, not self, etc.) 2. A little teaching about the ministry of the Holy Spirit - as prayer servants we are totally dependent upon the gifts of the Holy Spirit as we pray for others and ask God to do His work. 3. We minister under authority of the governing elders of this church. We follow their leadership and direction. 4. General Etiquette (Bible, name badge, breath mints, anointing oil, modest dress, personal hygiene). Pray in pairs or teams when possible. Ask permission before laying on hands or anointing with oil. LISTEN! Avoid telling your own story, listen well to theirs. Keep one ear to the Holy Spirit and one ear to what person is telling you. In this context, you don't have too much time for them to talk, so you may need to gently say, "What I am hearing you say is you need prayer for ______; let's pray about that now." Then start to pray. Help redirect them from talking too much to seeking the Lord. Keep your eyes open and watch for visible manifestations of the Spirit's working and evidences of healing. For example, you may see tears stream down their face when you pray certain things and you know you are right on and the Spirit it working. You may witness peace flooding over a person. 5. After listening carefully to the person, seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, choose a prayer strategy. ex. PRAISE, Often if we start with praising God, our hearts and minds are opened up to what God may have in mind and clarity may come even if at first you have no idea how to pray. PRAY IN AUTHORITY OF JESUS, Always pray in Jesus' name and from our identity in Christ. INTERCESSION - LISTEN - LOVE - PRAY, Stand in the gap for the person bringing their needs before the Throne of Grace. BLESSING - If you don't have a clear direction on how to start to pray, you can always pray blessings over the person. Remember Al VandeGriend's BLESS acronym. Body, Labor, Emotional, Social, Spiritual. That will give you a good start and the Holy Spirit will flow as you obediently pray. 6. How to Pray for Healing - How to anoint with oil (James 5:14-18). Pray in faith believing God to provide answers. He may not do what we thought, but He will always do something! Pray expectantly! 7. Pray Biblically! Let the Holy Spirit remind you of scriptures and let them roll off your tongue as you pray. 8. Do not be judgmental or condemning. It is not our place to judge. Keep everything that you hear in confidence (unless someone is going to hurt themselves or others - or if you have their permission to tell the pastor or some other key person that should know about this.) 9. End the session also in PRAISE! Praise God for what He has done and what He will continue to do in this person's life. 10. Cutting Free Prayer. It is a good spiritual practice to always pray after you have ministered to others to give to God all of the things you have heard, all of the burdens, they are not ours to bear. Also cut free of any ways the enemy may try to attach, defile or transfer his ick to you. Refuse it in Jesus' name. Now that was indeed a crash course in prayer ministry! Go forth to love and serve Him and watch Him do all the work!
Posted in: How Are Elders and Prayer Leaders Equipped to Pray for Worship and With Others After Worship?
While we are waiting for what others have to say, I remembered a couple of very important and accessible resources that will address this very question. Pastor Dave Huizenga has prayer resources that can be accessed on the web through Empowerment Institute, www.empowermentinstitute.org.
Harvest Prayer Ministries has a brochure called "Praying Through The Worship Service" - Training for Intercessors - The Praying Church Series 2000. It can be downloaded from www.harvestprayer.com. Topics are Preparation for Prayer, The Place of Prayer, How to Pray through the Worship Service, Additional Suggestions.
Hope this all helps!
Posted in: How Are Elders and Prayer Leaders Equipped to Pray for Worship and With Others After Worship?
Joel,
that is so exciting that you and a group are going to the Formational Prayer Training. I have had that on my to-do list for several years. Pastor Bob Boersma and a group from Providence CRC in Cutlerville also went to that training this year. It is good training for those who will be involved in deeper level of healing prayer than the "after church" altar ministry. Mary.
Posted in: How Are Elders and Prayer Leaders Equipped to Pray for Worship and With Others After Worship?
yes of course Katy, and others, that is why I typed it all out. Use it!
Posted in: How Are Elders and Prayer Leaders Equipped to Pray for Worship and With Others After Worship?
Sam,
Just very quickly in a nutshell, after church prayer team prayers are going to be fairly quick, but that does not mean necessarily "light". I have seen persons healed in this time frame and I believe that God is delighted when persons come to church and walk out healed and transformed. That is church! That is the gospel! That is the Kingdom at work! I pray that would happen every week at every church.
A deeper healing prayer appointment, that would be set up for a couple of hours or more, digs way down to spiritual roots that may be causing the trouble or dysfunction. Sometimes things are systematically confessed, forgiven, delivered. Some times deep inner wounds from childhood are healed in these sessions. Your after church prayer ministry time is kind of like Triage, and some of those persons ought be referred to someone for more intensified healing prayer by those who are trained in such.
Mary
Posted in: How Are Elders and Prayer Leaders Equipped to Pray for Worship and With Others After Worship?
Praise Jesus! I love that He has us on similar journeys even though they were not overlapped.
We did a once a month healing prayer time for anyone that would like to come at Discovery CRC Church (in Cutlerville) for a couple of years while we were all learning. I am thinking of starting something like that up again. So I guess I will just throw it out there. I would be open to anyone to come, those who have been through the Embers to Flames prayer training, those who want to come and receive prayer, those who want to come and learn, those who want to come to be together with the body of Christ in the Presence of Jesus....
Anyone interested?