MOre

4.Agreement to not Get Offended with Styles:

These days, whether it’s a church prayer meeting or an inter-faith gathering, there are always people coming with different backgrounds on prayer and experiences.

Some people will pray in tongues, some will not. Some will stand, some will sit. Some will be loud, others will be silent. Some people get scriptures, some people get pictures - some people get songs.

It’s all important – and alright if it’s all different.

Don’t try and make everyone ‘hear’ from God the same way. Acknowledge that we’re all gifted differently and this is a time of blending those gifts together to work for the greater good of the The Body. Before a prayer group even starts, everyone must agree that they will not be intimidated by different styles or judge one another. We agree ahead of time that we are there IN UNITY to pray together for a specific need, and we release everyone to pray however they are comfortable.

Now, having said that, I must also remind us that we are to be preferring one another. That means that if someone’s style is very loud and dominating, they need to, out of love for one another be willing to ‘dial it down’ a bit, so that their style doesn’t dominate the flow in the room or intimidate others. In no way does that mean they should not pray, but we agree to be sensitive to one another, and not demand our own way! Look for ways to flow together in the Spirit – to find ways to be ‘one voice’. Remember that being united doesn’t mean all being the same – but it does mean flowing with one heart, one voice and in the same direction.

5. Be God focused

Be careful, when engaging in spiritual warfare in a prayer group that you do not become ‘enemy focused’, instead of God focused. By this we mean, do not engage your prayer group into focusing and speaking to the enemy and his forces, instead of God and His might!

Many prayer groups have been exhausted taking on battles that the Lord has told us are His. If a person in the group is continually calling down Satan, telling him this and that – the group needs to discern whether that is fitting in with their mandate, and IF that type of prayer is leaving a sense of refreshing or exhaustion.

Prayer that leaves a group feeling exhausted or defiled in any way, needs to be looked at again. Remember we call God down into the battle, call on Him to release His hosts to fight, and remind Him where the enemy is! He takes care of the rest! Speaking too much in a prayer meeting directly to the enemy or his demons, can often cause problems in that can eventually hurt the health, strength and unity in the group. ( We never want it said that we spent more time addressing the enemy, than we did talking to God!!)

If you need examples or teachings on this, there is a great teaching called “Warfare Praying in Psalms”. This teaching gives the examples that out of (approx.) 850 verses in Psalms that directly or indirectly deal with warfare, only 6 times does David rebuke the enemy for what he’s doing and only 3 times does David directly address the enemy. Yet 227 x’s he tells God where the enemy is, and calls God down into that! God does the battle. He calls God into the battle 75x’s more often, than he ever directly addressed the enemy himself. Often our prayer groups can get this statistic the other way around. We need to be alert to the enemy drawing us into battles that we should be calling God down into!

6. Be Willing to Learn

No one person knows everything about prayer. Be willing to learn from each other. Be willing to be instructed by those in the group, or by bringing people into the group. Be willing to share information, but give people the right to not always ‘get’ what you get out of book, or a teaching series. Be willing to develop your intercessory gifting – don’t get locked into thinking that your way of praying is the ONLY way.

More points to follow...but don't worry, I'm just about done now! If you have any comments or questions about points 1 - 6 that I've shared thus far - let me know!