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Antioch Baptist ChurchSeptember 10, 2006

Dynamic Prayer Meeting

Dynamic Prayer Meeting Study Guide (Week 7)

The Importance of the Heart - Practice # 2 – They Responded

from the Heart

Review - How did all the prayer meetings of the Bible

begin? Or what practice did

they exercise in the prayer meetings of the Bible?By ___________________

_________ __________Focusing On God

How do you connect with God?

SelfBy moving from a _________ orientation to a

________orientation.God

Connection with God occurs when we gain or are

renewed in His perspective, bring

our desires into alignment with His, submit our agenda to His, or really hear the cry

of His heart.

The Importance of Responding with Your Heart

The second practice of great prayer warriors was that they always

responded to God from the heart.

1. Read the following verses Jer 29:13, Matt 5:8, 13:15, and Heb 10:22. List the

basis for which we find, see, hear, understand, and draw near to God.

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jer 29:13

Blessed are the pure in heart,For they shall see God.

Matt 5:8

For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears Bare hard of

hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their

eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their

hearts and turn, So that I should heal them

Matt 13:15

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Heb 10:22

2. In the Bible God did not separate the prayer request from the condition of

the heart of the onepraying. In Gen 4:1-5 God rejected Cain and his offering, but accepted Abel and his offering. God response to them was based on the condition of their heart.

We see this same pattern in other Scripture:

Ps 66:18, 2 Chr 34:27, Eze 14:7-8.

Two people can ask for the exact same thing, but God may grant it to one and

not the other as is intimated in the case of Jehoshaphat and Jehoram

2 Kings 3:1-14.

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.”

2Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of

sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3And in the process of time it

came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the

LORD.

4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, 5 but

He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and

his countenance fell.\GEN 4:1-5

If I regard iniquity in my heart,The Lord will not hear.

PS 66:18

because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place

and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you

tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the LORD.

2 Chr 34:27

7 For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and

sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the

LORD will answer him by Myself.

8 I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb,

and I will cut him off from the midst of My people. Then you shall know that I

am the LORD.Eze 14:7-8

1Now Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the

eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. 2And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but

not like his father and mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3Nevertheless he persisted in the sins of Jeroboam the

son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin; he did not depart from

them. 4Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheepbreeder, and he regularly paid

the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred

thousand rams. 5But it happened, when Ahab died, that the king of Moab

rebelled against the king of Israel.6So King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel.

7Then he went and sent to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, saying,

“The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?” And he said, “I will go up; I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” 8Then he

said, “Which way shall we go up?” And he answered, “By way of the

Wilderness of Edom.” 9So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and

the king of Edom, and they marched on that roundabout route

seven days; and there was no water for the army, nor for the animals that

followed them. 10And the king of Israel said, “Alas! For the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.” 11But

Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire

of the LORD by him?” So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered

and said, “Elisha the son

of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.”

12And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the LORD is with him.” So the king of

Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

13Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the

prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.”

But the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the LORD has called these

three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.” 14And Elisha

said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not

that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not

look at you, nor see you. 2 Kings 3:1-14

3. We must cultivate the lifestyle practices that keep our heart toward

God. We cannot live as wewant and then burst into his presence

in times of crisis with our requests.

4. Godly prayer (not any kind of prayer) is a necessary practice to keep our

heart toward God. Muchprayer is nothing more than sanctified worrying, self-centeredness, or asking

amiss.

Implication

There needs to be time in a prayer meeting to prepare our hearts, and/or

allow our hearts to respondto God. You will see the “heart” symbol

to represent the reminder of responding to God from the

heart. We need to know how to prepare our hearts.

How Are Our Hearts Prepared?

Through three ways in particular

1. The habit of remembering or reviewing. We can have a time of focusing or meditation to remind

us of the basic truths. For example, we may deliberately reflect on the blessings of God to us. Or we

may have a list of Scripture we review that examines our heart. This intentional exercise is often

used by God to remind and renew. (Psa 100)

1 Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! 2 Serve the LORD with

gladness; Come before His presence with singing. 3 Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us,

and not we ourselves;We are His people and the sheep of

His pasture. 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts

with praise.Be thankful to Him, and bless His

name.

5 For the LORD is good;His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations.

Psalm 100 :1-5

2. His word, a testimony, a song, or something else that leads to spiritual

insight. We may hear apassage, be stirred by a truth, or have

the eyes of our hearts opened. The Spirit of God will use

these means to point out what we need to hear to be ready to encounter God.

3. Practicing a lifestyle habit of responding to God.

Time of PrayerWhen God renews or directs us in this manner, we will be ready to get off our

agenda, denyself, or have a greater desire to serve

Him.

1. Have you ever noticed God doing this in your heart before?2. What have you sensed Him

doing in your life in the last week?3. If you can’t identify this as a regular occurrence, why not? Is God looking to take you deeper?

1. What are the areas in which God has been impacting your heart?2. Do you have any motives or

desires that need to be confessed and cleansed

3. Does the thought of confessing sin seem like a burden or a joy?

Pray for the requests you have tonight.

Time of Prayer