Transformative Power of Praying from Scripture

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Praying and worshiping the Lord from the word of God is powerful and life-changing. There's a difference between a psalmist and a musician. A psalmist is someone who worships and prays in the word of God. David was a word guy, the psalmist David. [00:00:59]

David gets into the word of God, and then he starts going deep in the scriptures, starts praying, and starts pressing into it. As he's going deep in the word of God, then it expounds and expands in his heart, and when he writes the Psalms, he's writing from the overflow of his worship and prayer relationship with scripture. [00:03:14]

The words of the Lord are pure words like silver tried in a furnace of the earth purified seven times. So before God ever utters a word from his mouth, he puts it into a fiery furnace, pulls it out, puts it back in number two, pulls up word back in the furnace number three, pulls it out, puts it back in number four, number five, number six, seven times over. [00:03:53]

When you worship and pray from the word of God, truth enters you; it becomes you. Truth moves from your head to your heart. I don't simply want to know about holiness; I want to embody holiness. I don't simply want truth in my head; I want truth to penetrate my heart and infiltrate my being until everything inside of me resonates with the truth of God's word. [00:06:04]

Praying from the scripture renews the mind. When you are praying from the scripture, and this scripture enters your heart and your mind and your being, your mind begins to conform to the truth of God's word. You are renewed in how you think. Second, it brings our emotions into alignment with truth. [00:07:34]

The word of God is a prayer manual. When you're praying the word, now you know what to pray for. It helps me; it directs me in my prayer life. It puts authority on our prayer life because when you're praying something from the word of God, there comes this boldness. You just know the Holy Spirit inspired that thing. [00:10:43]

Remember to solve your prayers with thanksgiving and praise. Sometimes I forget to say thanks. I just assume that I'm a thankful guy, but when I stop and think about it, you know what, it's been quite a while since I just said thank you, Lord, for this and this, and to give praise. [00:11:56]

Use any and every form of prayer as Ephesians 6 says, praying always with all prayer. There's an entire spectrum of prayer that I would encourage you to just get used to exercising yourself: worship, praise, thanksgiving, intercession, petition, meditation, repentance, adoration, prophetic declaration, warfare, listening. [00:13:32]

I aim to pray through the Bible every year. Reasons for that: for Bible knowledge, I want to know the word of God. The more you pray the scriptures, you start praying every time you're in the Bible. It's like when you get into read mode and you're just reading, you find yourself praying every time you're in the scripture. [00:26:07]

I desire to be changed into the image of Christ, and I know that it's the word of God as it touches my heart that transforms me. It challenges me, it rebukes me, it edifies me, and so I basically want every portion of the Bible to have a shot at me. [00:28:16]

I encourage you to have a Bible reading plan, not just a hit and miss. I suggest that you have a specific plan so that it will take you through the entire Bible. For me, I'd like to know it once a year, and I encourage you in the same. [00:29:47]

I start all the time in Psalms or Proverbs. I go through Psalms and Proverbs every year, and I find personally that if I'll just pray the way I enjoy praying, I can just be just, I go through the Psalms once a year. Sometimes I do a Psalm a day. [00:32:29]

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