Battle Plan for Prayer - Week 12

Teaching using The Battle Plan for Prayer by Stephen Kendrick & Alex Kendrick. Chapters 24 & 25.

The Wisdom of God

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously

to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5

In the Bible wisdom is the very important. The Bible instructs us to get wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is to get it even if it cost you all you have. And prayer is one of the ways we get wisdom.

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.

Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
Proverbs 4:7

Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge. With wisdom we can make better decision with the facts we have at our disposal. We can make better decisions about life, relationships, work, and parenting. Wisdom will show us how to do the ethical thing in a moral way. When we have wisdom we will not stumble our way through life.

I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.

When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble.
Proverbs 4:11-12

Wisdom allows us to see things from God’s perspective and know the cause and effect of the decisions we make. It allows us to learn in every situation. God has promised to give us wisdom when we ask. In James 1:5 the word ask, describes a type of begging or craving for wisdom.

God will give us wisdom without reproach or condemnation. He will not treat us as fools who lack knowledge of what is good. God wants us to succeed in everything we do. It brings glory to God when his children do well and are successful. God is glorified when his children have integrity, honesty, diligence, humility, faithfulness, and purity. When we are good friends, spouses, parents, and employees then God is glorified by us.

One of the ways God gives us wisdom is through the book of Proverbs in the Bible. The book contains numerous short verses on wisdom and foolishness. Learning a proverb and letting it sink into your heart is a way to increase your wisdom. Proverbs frequently tells us what is the better way compared to the lesser way.

Better a patient person than a warrior,

one with self-control than one who takes a city.
Proverbs 16:32

Better a little with the fear of the Lord

than great wealth with turmoil.
Proverbs 15:16

What a person desires is unfailing love;

better to be poor than a liar.
Proverbs 19:22

God is where we get wisdom. Praying for wisdom should be a daily habit, It should become a priority in our lives. When wisdom is the desire of our hearts then God will give it to us in abundance.

All this also comes from the Lord Almighty,

whose plan is wonderful,
whose wisdom is magnificent.
Isaiah 28:29

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great
and unsearchable things you do not know.’
Jerimiah 33:3

The Ways of God’s Spirit

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:10

Through prayer we admit to God we do not know how to manage our lives. We need his help and guidance to show us the way we should go. God understands our confusion and lack of ability. He knows we forget to pray about things large and small. He knows that sometimes we pray for the wrong things.

God encourages us to pray anyway. He has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts to help us. He is the rushing wind of God breathing life into our prayers.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound,

but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
John 3:8

The indwelling Holy Spirit of God helps us in our weakness and teaches us how to pray. He takes our feeble attempts and sends them forth to accomplish greater works than we imagined.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and

they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And
I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
John 14:12-17

God gives us many resources to use in pray. He gives his word, his will, his wisdom, and his names to help us pray strategically. Yet we still need the Holy Spirit to guide us in pray. He can remind us of a verse to pray. Or tell us which name of God to use. He can remind us of a sin we are not taking to God in our prayers. We are told to pray in the Spirit at all times.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds

of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert
and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Ephesians 6:18

Every Christian is given the indwelling Spirt to guide us.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel

of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the
promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the
redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14

We must submit to him and accept his guidance to live by the Spirit. If we continue to reveal in our flesh then we limit what the Spirit is willing to do in our lives.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary
to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever
you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Galatians 5:16-18

When we are walking closely with Christ we will be more able to understand what the Spirit is leading us to do. The Spirit will give us the mind of Christ, convict us of sin, produce the fruits of the Spirit in our lives, help us make decisions, and empower us to witness to others.

Paul instructed us to avoid being drunk with wine and to be filled with the Spirit and enjoy the joy he brings into our lives.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and
make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father
for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:18-20

The Spirit will do specific things in our lives. The Spirit will reveal God and his word to us. He will remain with us as a helper who comes from the Father and testifies about Christ.

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—

the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
John 15:26

He will guide us into the truth of God and reveal to us things we do not know. He will not speak on his own but rather will speak from what the Father tells him.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears,
and he will tell you what is yet to come.
John 16:13

The Spirit will pray for us. He will pray what we are unable to pray. He intercedes for us through prayer. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are our prayer partners helping us to pray and interceding for us with the Father.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,

because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in
accordance with the will of God.
Romans 8:27

The Spirit guides our praying. The Spirit guides us to cry out to the Father in prayer. This guidance is not so much a spoken word as an internal burden to do something or pray something. The Spirit tells us the way to walk.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears

will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Isaiah 30:21

The Spirit may bring a person to our mind and urge us to prayer or reach out to that person. The Spirit may direct us to one ministry rather than to another ministry. But the Spirit will never direct us to do something that is in opposition to the word of God. The Spirit always directs us to live out the word of God in our lives.

With the Spirit indwelling inside us we are not limited to what we see and hear. But we have the very wisdom and knowledge of God leading us in the way we should go and the way we should pray.