prayerstrategists.net · Prayer as Strategy Discovery Bible Story Set

Prayer as Strategy

Prayer as Strategy Discovery Bible Story Set

Prayer as Strategy:

Team Evaluation, Discovery Bible Story Set, & Resources

Introduction to FPS’s Prayer Strategies Discovery Bible Studies Set:

Prayer—or engagement with God—is integral to every aspect of the lives of the team members and the corporate team, as well as to the strategy and approach they use. Within this docu-ment, you will find the following: a definition and explanation to the Prayer strategy, a set of questions to help you diagnosis the status of your team’s use of this strategy, a Discovery Bible Story Set to help you understand Scripture’s view on this strategy, and links for further re-sources related to this Prayer strategy. We recommend completing the team’s diagnostic first then adapt the Discovery Story Set to meet your team’s needs. Feel free to use the typical DBS questions, however, in addition we’ve tried to suggest you ask these much deeper questions to elicit specifics regarding this strategy. The Fellowship of Prayer Strategists have a set of nine-teen di ff erent prayer strategies. These are not intended to be the complete picture of this strat-egy but a glimpse at the use for this strategy. You can find more strategies at www.prayer–strategists.net. We hope these tools will prove helpful in considering ways you and your team can increase your capacity for extraordinary prayer for the sake of the King and His Kingdom.

Prayer as Strategy

Definition: Envisioning the God-sized reality from His heart and co-laboring to pray it into be-ing under His direction.

Explanation: As we engage in the spiritual battle into which we were born, the Christ-follower fights for the souls of a world enslaved to sin and held captive to its bondage, blinded by Satan so that he cannot even see the light of the gospel. Jesus now holds the keys of David that open the door that no one can shut and that shut the door no one can open. God’s heart is that none should perish. His thoughts and ways are as high above ours as the heavens above the earth. But, God reveals His divine strategies to those drawing close to Him listening for His in-structions. Those that war on their knees first bring the future into the present. They conduct a unique warfare as they are submitted to their Commander in Chief and serve as spiritual re-vivalists so that every aspect of the community is touched and changed by His Presence, His Word and the transforming world of the Holy Spirit of God. We know from studying modern day movements to Christ that what is referred to as “ex-traordinary prayer” characterizes every movement, yet it’s not always clear what exactly char-acterizes that “extraordinary prayer.” Since Jesus is our example in life and practice, observing how He developed disciples that became e ff ective disciple makers can help us follow His ex-ample. Luke 10:1-12 provides us a brief example of Jesus’ strategy.

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Diagnostic Questions for You & Your Team: 1. Do you have a prayer strategist or prayer strategy team in your leadership that focuses on “inquiring of God”? Sometimes the leadership team are themselves prayer strategists and other times specific members of the team focus on prayer as strategy in partnership with other leaders. Everyone prays but some may make it their special focus and full time e ff ort. 2. Is your strategy birthed out of intimacy with and listening to God? 3. Considering the costliness of stepping out without inquiring of God, how can you better ensure that you seek God as you pursue your call and assignment? 4. When you encounter opposition, is prayer your first response? How can you better encour-age one another to continually be listening and relying on God?

Discovery Bible Story Set:

1. “Jesus’ Strategy to Multiply Disciple Makers” – Luke 10:1-12 A. Pray as a group before beginning that God would speak to us and open our hearts to hear Him. B. Read the entire passage aloud at least 2 times or listen to an audio version twice through. If your group uses storying, present the scripture in this way. Then, have the group practice re-telling the story together. C. Discussion questions: • Where do the disciples begin—in Whose Presence are they? How might this relate to prayer? • How are they sent out by Jesus? Why might this be important? • Where are they sent to go? How do they know “where He was about to go”? If we copy this model, why would listening prayer be important to us at this step? • What is the condition of the harvest according to Jesus? What does He command His disciples to do as a result of this condition? • In what condition is He sending His disciples to the fields? Why might prayer be impor-tant here? What might we expect to encounter as we go out? • What does Jesus mention about provision for His disciples? How might prayer be im-portant here? • What does Jesus command them NOT to do as they go along? Why do you think He does this? o This narrative assumes the disciples will enter a house—what are they to do when they do this? How might prayer be involved here? • Does Jesus give a hint about how they will have their needs met? • Jesus says, “Stay there…Do not move around from house to house.” With whom will the disciples then likely be building their relationships, if they obey this command of Jesus? • How would Jesus command to “eat what is o ff ered to you” have been challenging for Jews going into Gentile homes? How might that apply to us today? • In verse 9, how would we obey this command and does this relate to prayer? Read Mark 16:20 together and see how Mark encourages us that Jesus is working alongside us as His disciples. • From Luke 10:10, how do the disciples know when to move on elsewhere? D. Take a few minutes to quietly listen to God. What is He instructing you to do from what you’re hearing? Share with each other what you’re sensing. Are some of His instruc-tions quite di ff erent than you might have imagined? How? E. Who is God asking you to share this story with? When will you do it? Share with the group.

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F. What key principles about prayer can you draw from this passage? 2. “God’s Strategy for Israel” – Joshua 1-11 A. Pray before beginning that God would speak to us and open our hearts to hear Him. B. Read the entire passage completely through. C. Discussion questions: • What do you like about the story? What is di ffi cult or what don’t you like • What do you learn about people from this story? What do you learn about God? • Did God give the same strategy for every battle to Joshua? • Did Joshua always take time to inquire of God before every battle? If not, what hap-pened when he did not inquire of God?

listen to God D. Take a few minutes to quietly. What is He instructing you to do from what you’re hearing? Share with each other what you’re sensing. Are some of His instruc-tions quite di ff erent than you might have imagined? How?

E. Who is God asking you to share this story with? When will you do it? Share with the group. F. What key principles about prayer can you draw from this passage? 3. “God’s Strategy for Nehemiah” – Nehemiah 1-6 A. Pray before beginning that God would speak to us and open our hearts to hear Him. Read B. the entire passage completely through. C. Discussion questions: • What do you like about the story? What is di ffi cult or what don’t you like? • What do you learn about people from this story? What do you learn about God? • In Nehemiah 1, when Nehemiah received the bad news, what was his response? • From verse 11 of chapter 1, Nehemiah prays for favor—in verse 4 of chapter 2, Ne-hemiah presents a specific request to the king after praying. Would it be fair to presume that as Nehemiah fasted and prayed upon hearing of the tragedy that had befallen his beloved city, that God gave him a strategy to undertake a solution? • Describe the other situations where you see Nehemiah engaging in prayer, either specif-ically or implied in the story. • Nehemiah 6:16 “When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” How was the rebuilding of the wall a testimony of God’s greatness to the surrounding nations? D. Take a few minutes to quietly listen to God. What is He instructing you to do from what you’re hearing? Share with each other what you’re sensing. E. Who is God asking you to share this story with? When will you do it? Share with the group. F. What key principles about prayer can you draw from this passage?

Further Resources on Prayer as Strategy: o Bibliography Prayer as Strategy: https://prayerstrategists.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/prayerasstrategybibliography-docx.pdf o Article: “What is a Fellowship of Prayer Strategists?” by Liz Adleta https://prayerstrategist–s.net/about-2/o Article: “History Belongs to the Intercessor” by Reese Howells https://prayerstrategists.–files.wordpress.com/2016/01/historybelongstotheintercessorv1-docx.pdf

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o Article: “The Masters Plan” https://prayerstrategists.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/the-mas–ters-plan-end-vision.docx o The Attack Lambs: Prayer That Changes the World Mark Geppert – Genesis Books – 1999 o These Signs Shall Follow: The Miraculous Memoirs of a Foot Dragging Disciple Neil W. Gamble – 2013 Further resources and connection with other prayer strategists are available through the Fel-lowship of Prayer Strategists and their website www.prayerstrategists.net.

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