2 Chron 7:12-14, Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 
	We are going forward with our study of effective prayer that blesses and honors the Lord God Almighty. We have been giving expression to some very key foundational truths that need to be at the forefront of our consideration of what will bring honor and glory to God in the manner of our prayers. 
	In line with this, one of the key truths of effective prayer is held in Col 3:1-3, where the Apostle Paul highlights the focal point of all operational entreaties and communication unto and with Our Lord God. Col 3:1-3, If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 
	Our prayer lives need to manifest the full core emphasis that our hearts are set on the plans and the purposes of God in Jesus Christ. As we pray, we need to do so with the Lordship of Jesus Christ at the forefront of our heart-to-heart communication with God. 
This is not to say that we ignore the things that are taking place around us. Jesus never did. But what He did, while He was on earth was to see it all in relationship with how God the Father would receive the further glory through each event. His prayers were focused on that reality. He did not pray with a heart that was being swayed by the earthly elements and situations and circumstances and dilemmas. He always placed all the earthly aspects back into the focus of how God would receive the glory through His ruling and overruling in each crisis. Jesus’ constant focus, and our continual focus should be the bringing of every earthly detail into line with the glory of God. 
	Rather than allowing the earthly and natural forces to derail our prayers and distract our focus from Christ, they all need to be reduced to the core aspect of coming into line with what will bring honor and praise and worship and glory to God. We need to learn to pray with the view toward not letting circumstances rule us. We need to be taught to see how the Lord’s Sovereignty will be further enhanced and evidenced in His dealing with each earthly strife and stress and dilemma. 
     	In John 6:35, we have the very sustenance of life proclaimed by Our Lord Jesus, Himself. John 6:35, Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. He has promised that He will deal with every detail of the needs of our lives if we will come to Him and seek Him and honor Him and obey Him.
	This is reinforced to us, again by the Lord Jesus Himself, in Rev 2:17. Rev 2:17, 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.' 
Jesus is the hidden manna. Just as the Lord sustained the Children of Israel throughout their wanderings in the wilderness with the provision of the heavenly bread to meet their physical needs for health and nourishment and sustenance, so will Jesus meet our every need on this earth. We are to trust Him and rely on Him and to commune with Him and to let the cares and the frustrations and the anxieties that plague this age be set aside as He fills our lives and our hearts with Himself. Our prayers need to reflect this sustaining truth in the every detail as should be evidenced in our day to day walk with Him, Jehovah Jirah, Our Provider and Our Sustainer. 
	Now then, let us begin to build on the foundation so laid. For the remainder of these lessons, we will be using material adapted from The Battle Plan for Prayer Bible Study Curriculum, developed by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. Many of you have seen their movie, The War Room, dealing with prayer within a family that was falling apart. This will be an encapsulation of much of their scriptural studies dealing with prayer as our means of adding the finishing touches on our deliberations of effective prayer within the Body of Christ.
	As members of the Church of God on this earth, in the full measure of seeing how His glory is to be further evidenced in the daily activities of His Chosen people, we need to be devoted to prayer. True effectual prayer is not a matter that is to be taken lightly or just done when the issues begin to overwhelm us. There needs to be a focal, effectual change in the manner in which we look at and practice prayer, both individually and corporately.
	The current day is too perilous and too much laxness has infiltrated the hearts and minds and behaviors of the members of the church. There is no true sense of the vital nature and essence that is developed in the prayer lives of the called saints of God. There needs to be instilled within each of us a devotion and a dedication to prayer. 
We have, as the current generation of Christians, lost sight of the need of constant communication with God in prayer. Whether it is because of the current societal stress and strains on our mental faculties, or the hurried and harassed emphasis on too many things to do and not enough time to do it, we have relegated prayer to being the last course of our dealing with issues. 
Our age has placed so much prominence on the self-worth of humanity and the self-reliance of mankind to the point that we are often more inclined to forget about prayer unto the Lord and we just try to make it on our own. We do so with no prerequisite thought that we should be taking everything to the Lord in prayer as the primary focus of all our decisions and actions. We are basically cutting the Lord out of the picture of our daily walk and only coming to Him in prayer when everything else we have tried has failed.
Prayer, communication with God, communion with Him, talking with Him, and fellowshipping with Him should be the very beginning of each day, the course of each step of the day, and the final focus of every day. There needs to be a return to the fountainhead of our source of living water in a constant measure that means that we are relishing Him as the One Who will answer the every question and concern and problem and course of understanding. Prayer, communication, and fellowship with Him should be the very first and primary manner of dealing with the day, rather than as the last resort.
It is in prayer that we seek the direction of the Lord for the way we are to live our lives. We seek the wisdom of the Lord to be our wisdom, our understanding, our ability to deal with the matters of each day as unto the glory of the Lord. We will also find that prayer is our protection from the distractions that this age flings at us in its ceaseless efforts to draw our attention and our hearts away from being utterly focused on the Lord Jesus Christ.
	It is in prayer that we find a deeper intimacy with and passion for the Lord. Accordingly, our living relationship with God is maintained and developed as we spend dedicated time with Him in our personal and corporate appointments of prayer. As we offer Him the sacrifice of our time and our priority with an attitude and inclination toward constant communication with Him, He will make Himself ever more open to our hearts and to our minds and to our whole beings. There will be an increased closeness and fellowship and reliance upon the Lord God Almighty the more often that we spend time with Him in prayer.
	In all honesty, within your heart and within my heart, how often and how urgently have we asked God to teach us to pray in the manner that would show that He is our everything and that we do not want to be in charge of our own lives? That we fully desire for Him to direct and to guide and to maintain and to show us the way to walk by His Holy Spirit in constant communication with Him. We need to come to the place in our lives, in our marriages, in our families, and in our fellowship, where we pray, with all sincerity and desire in our hearts and minds and beings for Him to teach us how to more perfectly pray.
	As a most practical encouragement in the development of our dedication and our devotion to learn to pray as His Church on earth, a keystone truth is that we need to be in the presence of people who pray. We need to join ourselves as those who pray together for the kingdom of Christ to be established in our lives, in our homes, in our communities and in our country. We should be praying in our private times. We should also be praying with our spouses. We should be praying with our families. And, we should be praying with the other members of the Church. 
Many of you might be aware of the fact that, as a fellowship, we have two opportunities each week in which we gather in corporate, intercessory prayer. We meet on Wednesday evenings at Therese’s home at 7:30. We also meet Sunday mornings here at 9:15 before worship. There is a need for the growth of the prayer warriors who will take the stand for the way and the will of the Lord on this earth as it is in Heaven. These are vital times that are in desperate need of the members of the Church to gather together in the responsibility of calling unto the Lord, beseeching His Hand upon us in the full measure of being His Church on this earth. 
The Apostle Paul placed this burden upon Timothy as the overseer of the churches in Asia as recorded in 1 Tim 2:1-8, if you would please turn to it. He was to teach all the churches of the need for their earnestness in prayer. It was not a matter of when the mood was right or when the times were desperate or if the time permitted. He was urging them to prayer. He was pushing them to give themselves over to this service. He was insisting and pressing upon them that prayer was necessary for all men. 
1 Tim 2:1-8, I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. 
I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. Because there is a need for us to …lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty…prayer is required of us for all those in authority over us. This includes presidents and senators and members of the House and judges and governors and the members of the assembly and city council and homeowner’s associations. It includes bosses and principals and teachers and it especially includes pastors.
I hope to express very clearly and concisely that I need your prayers to continue in the Word of God. Greg needs our prayers as he prepares to teach the youth. Sandy needs our prayers as she prepares the messages for the ladies on Wednesday. Kip needs our prayers as he deals with Isaiah for the men’s meetings. Beverly and Sandy need our prayer covering as they prepare the messages that are sent out through email and text across this nation. 
Prayer is vital for all those who have been given a place of teaching and counseling and encouraging within the Body of Christ. If the ministers and the teachers are not covered in prayer, there will be no true feeding of the flock. It is the responsibility of the members of the Church to hold those in such positions constantly before the throne of God’s grace for His wisdom and His understanding and His spiritual food to be apportioned in accordance with His requirements and the meeting of the needs of His Chosen People. 
Quite simply, where there is no prayer in the flock of the church, there is no growth in Christ! That is why the Apostle Paul was so insistent that the church be filled with men and women who know how to pray and stand in earnest and effective prayer. We need prayer warriors who constantly hold up the teachers and ministers and leaders with hearts that look to God to meet the every need of the flock every moment of every day. 
Next time, Lord willing, we will consider the purposes of prayer and why our devotion to pray and our dedication to prayer is the very course of our spiritual relationship with God. So be it!
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Neh 8:10. Then he said to them, "Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." Amen.