Priscilla Shirer: Making Prayer a Priority | Praise on TBN

Priscilla Shirer joins Laurie Crouch and Holly Wagner on TBN’s Praise to discuss prayer, hearing the voice of God, and growing in our relationship with Him. Listen as they discuss different ways that we can actively pursue growing closer to God as we learn to pray intentionally.

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you’ll be amazed how you’ll begin to see

the encounters that you have

the circumstances that align the little

beckonings and convictions of god’s

spirit

how they all begin to work together to

help you to realize you actually are

hearing god’s voice and seeing his

providence as he steers you in the

direction of his will for your life

it occurred to me that while i did value

prayer

i had neglected intentionality with

prayer

being strategic in prayer actually

trying to detect

where you see the enemy’s fingerprints

kind of his handiwork meddling in your

life

where you anticipate he might want to

take advantage

of a weakness or a or a a bit of

divisiveness

and just being mindful of that so that

when we pray we’re not just

randomly saying words that we’ve heard

all along or

words that we’ve kind of memorized along

the way or words that are comfortable to

us

but we’re actually um praying in a way

that is targeted it’s kind of

exactly what you described a few moments

doing the work to find the promises of

god

that actually apply in everything that

we know intentional prayer

um and then writing it down sometimes we

need to write our prayers down only

because it keeps us focused it reminds

us what we’re praying about you know

so when it’s posted there in that war

room and you come back in there day

after day you’re reminded this is your

prayer

this is where you’re focusing your um

your prayer life on and

until i see an answer i’m going to keep

praying this prayer

it also gives you a great track record

with god because then when god does

answer you can see that date at the top

of that page of when you started praying

that

and then you’ll be able to put a date

down of when god answered however in his

sovereignty he chose to

what a great track record not just for

you but your grandchildren and your

great-grandchildren to see

how grandmama or uh grandpa prayed and

believed that god would answer

wow i think that thing i loved about uh

or you know even

the prayer because in ephesians 6 it

talks about the armor you know which

we’re

familiar with but then prayer is we’re

saying yeah that’s right

kicks into after that sword it goes

right to prayer and it’s not the

the the prayer that’s oh god why you

know the whining i mean you can do that

for a minute because maybe we all need

to whine for a minute

the complaining side of it you can’t

complain to god because honestly the

psalms david complained for a bit

yeah i mean you know he went he went on

a journey with god he was intimate and

real with his pain and agony before god

and then there’s got to be a rising up

then there has to be a point where you

that’s the thing so at some point yes do

the complaining

but at some point you have to begin

speaking the truth

of what god has to say about your

marriage about your health

and about your family about

reconciliation i just remember even that

for me with

um just some situations and you know

family and extended family that was

hard it was so hard and and i remember

moments

of you know the complaining before god

because of course i was

perfect and they were the problems well

everybody else needs to change

yeah if they would it would really help

out my life totally um

but so i you know complained but then i

started you know

talking about pulling out the scriptures

that talked about unity and

reconciliation

and and together and faithfulness and

just declaring that and i’ve seen

god do what only he could do yeah in the

lives of people

i mean i saw it in my health but i i’ve

also seen it in relationships with

people

and so i just think that that if if

people

understood more about the power you know

some people say well all i can do is

pray no no that’s not all

that’s the that’s the thing to do right

second

second chronicles 7 14. if my people

right who are called by my name

humble themselves and pray yeah right

then he’s going to heal our land we’re

too busy complaining about

our land and our government and all

that’s happening it’s like well you can

complain

but if you prayed as much as you

complained maybe we would see

something different and you know what if

i were your enemy

what i want to do is devalue in your

mind the potency of what i know to be

the most powerful weapon you have

against me

so he’s made our churches focus on being

a house of great programs or a house of

great preaching and a house of great

singing

when they’re supposed to be a house of

prayer because it’s the prayer that

pushes back the kingdom of darkness

so if i were the enemy that’s exactly

what i do i devalue what i knew

was the most potent weapon that you had

in your arsenal against me

so we do everything first except pray

pray

and so for you uh personally so how do

you

when do you when do you pray are you

late at night person are you the middle

of the day person

are you well i can’t tell you first of

all lest anyone think

that my life is you know i’m up on a

mountaintop praying and through

my god that’s right um my life is very

much like everybody else’s

that it’s just laundries and laundry and

kids and it’s kind of that thing where

you know once your feet hit the floor

in the morning it’s over it’s just

full-on for the rest of the day right

and so um i have this ongoing

actually part of my prayer is lord would

you continue to help me to prioritize

this in my life because it can so

easily kind of get pushed off of the

that position of priority

so i just say lord i need you to stir i

don’t want to manufacture passion

i want you to stir in me a passion to

where i don’t want to go a day

without prioritizing prayer and then

hearing back from you

listening to you through the scriptures

and so i try to do that in the morning

because it seems like that’s the best

time

if i wait till the end of the day it

ain’t going to happen no that’s the same

with me

no if i don’t if in the morning if i if

it doesn’t happen then yeah

then it just gets it’s like if it

doesn’t happen just the very first time

i know that once you get going it’s it’s

yeah but i will say i learned a bit from

brother lawrence that you know age old

saint from that book

practicing the presence of god um that

really

just gives us freedom lifts that burden

off of us of feeling like if we don’t

have an

hour to spend with the lord at the

beginning of the day that it’s a waste

of time to

practice god’s presence all day long yes

so

my kids are a little bit older now but i

went through a season four five six

years there

where i would just write down scripture

verse on a three by five card the same

one on five different cards maybe

and i’d put one on the bathroom mirror

where i’d be washing little hands all

day

one where i was going to be doing the

dishes one where i was folding clothes

one

near the sandbox outside and i just

would have the same verse for like two

weeks

so everywhere i went i was just running

into this verse

and by the time i got to the end of the

day not only had me and the lord

talked about this one verse a lot not

only was it inscribed on my heart

but it became god’s word to me it became

um something that really

there was life in it wasn’t just a verse

i’d learned there was life in it because

me and god been talking

all day long for a couple of weeks about

the sentiments that he’d

um inscribed in this in this passage of

scripture so i think

that idea of practicing the presence of

god

it takes that guilt off of i didn’t have

my quiet time and it didn’t look like

this and it didn’t fit in a comfortable

little box well look

do it however you got to do it right

practice his presence all day long

how do we do that well number one by

being creative with how you can feed

yourself on his word

so my sister five kids she’s got this

little clip on her dashboard she’ll do

the same thing write a three by five

card down with scripture and she puts it

in that clip and so you know running

errands for two hours every day

trying to get kids to soccer practice

and everything she’s just running face

to face

um in face to face with this with this

verse over and over throughout the

scriptures

when things come up in the middle of the

day that are problems you might call a

girlfriend about you might

you can still call her but also on god

yeah just ask him about it ask him about

what scripture verse

applies to this particular uh

circumstance

how would he want to lead and guide you

and you’ll be amazed how you’ll begin to

see the encounters that you have

the circumstances that align the little

beckonings and convictions of god’s

spirit

how they all begin to work together to

help you to realize you actually

are hearing god’s voice and seeing his

providence as he steers you in the

direction of his will for your life