Plans for Prayer

Praying with an Outline

What Manner of Prayer is This? – Part 4

Praying in a manner is simply praying with a pre-set agenda. It’s having a plan for your prayer exercise, a workout routine. Having plans for prayer is essential to having success in it. Without a plan, one plans to fail, even when it comes to prayer. Keep in mind that there are no rules surrounding which outlines you should use or even if you have to use an outline when you pray. A prayer outline, or prayer workout plan as we choose to call it, makes prayer with a pre-set goal possible for you to achieve the goal. Let’s take a moment to acquaint you with this concept using five workouts or outlines for prayer. Three of the five prayer workout plans will be familiar, but the last two won’t be familiar. We will use the last two to demonstrate how you can lay out your very own prayer workout.

Familiar Prayer Plans

• The Lord’s Prayer: What are your thoughts about The Lord’s Prayer?
  Let’s perform an exercise here by going through the prayer.
  
  “In this manner, therefore, pray:
  Our Father in heaven,
  Hallowed be Your name.
  Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
  Give us this day our daily bread.
  And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
  And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
  For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” ^[1]
  
  When you break each line of this prayer apart, you can use it as a topic for prayer. I won’t do this line by line as that might take a while, but I will take a couple lines to give insight to how praying in a manner is done.
  
  “Our Father in heaven.”
  The common prayer would acknowledge God as our Father. We’ve heard that a time or two, but this is next level prayer. Because God is our Father and resides in Heaven, why not when you pray ask Him to tell you about the place in which He resides. In this way, you can find out about Heaven and generate some excitement that one day you will get to be with Him, your Father, there. What would you like to know about your Father and the place where He lives? That’s just the tip of the iceberg with what that one line can do for you and your time of prayer.
  
  “Give us this day our daily bread.”
  I’ve often heard people explain it like this. Ask God for your daily provisions. While that’s good and you should do this, how can you take this phrase beyond what’s normal? When I pray, I use my faith in that I envision what I want this unique day to look like from beginning to end. In other words, I envision the ideal today and then I ask God to help me create the day in which I’ve envisioned. Father give me this day. What day? The one I’ve imagined. This is next level prayer.

   

• Prayer of Jabez
  [Background] “There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel,
  [The Prayer] “Oh, that you would bless me and
  expand my territory!
  Please be with me in all that I do, and
  keep me from all trouble and pain!”
  [The Results] And God granted him his request.” ^[2]
  
  There are three parts to this most famous prayer: 1 – bless me indeed, 2- enlarge my territory, and 3 – may Your hand be with me.
  While praying each of these parts in and of itself is powerful, what if you took it to a new level?
  What if you asked God for the blessing you desire or need? What if you defined it with your thoughts and lips?
  What if you identified the territory you were determined to concur? What market areas would you like to improve? What geographically area would you like God’s help in impacting?
  What if you asked God to go with you on your journey? What path do you have to walk that you’d like God to walk through with you?
  What if God is asking you, what blessing do you need?
  What if God is asking you, what territory best fits your plans?
  What if God is asking you, what mission are you working that needs His help?
  This is next level prayer! You heard me say this before; prayer is easy, but then again it isn’t so easy.
  
  Use the Jabez Prayer Workout Plan to help you pray in a new way. Remember, the goal isn’t to stay the same, it’s to get better. I daily ask God that when I come into His presence that I leave changed, transformed, not the same as when I entered. This is next level prayer.

   

• Tabernacle Prayer
  This prayer is growingly becoming more popular. I certainly can ‘t get into all its details, but I’d like to mention its three main parts which are used as an outline:
  1 – The Outer Court [with Brazen Altar and Laver]
  2 – Inner Court or Holy Place [with Candlestick, Table of Shewbread, and Altar of Incense]
  3 – Holy of Holies or Most Holy Place [with the Ark of God]
  
  These pieces represent the layout of the Old Testament temple which housed the Ark of God. God’s presence was there. In other words, it represented what it was like to be a priest who went in before the presence of God. The priest would enter in a progressive order, first the Outer Court, then the Inner Court (Holy Place), and lastly the Holy of Holies (Most Holy Place). Each area played an important part for the priest to enter God’s presence.

   

  1. The Outer Court was the place for thanksgiving, praise, sacrifices, cleaning and preparation. You can research the details behind the Inner Court further online. But for this exercise in next level prayer and using this model as an outline, know that when you pray using this manner, the first steps you take are thanksgiving, praise, sacrifices, cleansing, and preparing yourself.
     
     Thanksgiving & Praise: the average person gives general thanks and very little praise, like thank you for this day. Next level pray-er gets more specific. What about this day are you thankful for? What about this day can you be thankful for? What praise can I offer God? How can you transform today into a day of thankfulness?
     
     Sacrifices: this represents turning our attention to the ultimate sacrifice, the Cross of Jesus. Did you know that most Christians rarely give thought to Jesus’ sacrifice on a regular basis. This prayer workout ensures that we give some attention to the sacrifice He made and gives us the opportunity to offer words of prayer in return for His sacrifice.
     
     Cleansing and Preparation: this final component of the Outer Court gives us an opportunity to check our hearts, minds, and lives. It reminds us of how sinful we are and how He has washed us of it all. How can you ask God’s help in cleansing you and preparing you to experience His presence?

      

  2. The Outer Court was the place the priest encountered the spirit of God, the word of God, and their response in worship.
     
     God’s Spirit: many times we leave out God’s entire personality. His Spirit is misunderstood normally, but precious. During this time of your next level prayer workout, it’s time you get acquainted with God’s Spirit in truth. This is where His word comes into play.
     
     God’s word: you can’t separate God from His word. It’s the foundation for our encounters with Him and for our prayer. His word is how we get to know Him better. During prayer, take His word and use it to assess your life with one goal to better it for His sake and yours. That’s what next level prayer does.
     
     Worship: is the response (I might add only response) one can have when one encounters God’s Spirit and His Word. Take this moment to express God’s worth in your own words as well asking how you can increase His worth to you.

      

  3. Lastly, the Holy Place: this represents the place where God dwells in totality.
     At this point, you are ready to make requests, for yourself or on behalf of others. In fact, now you have God’s undivided attention, so to speak, in this prayer workout. Don’t miss this opportunity to ask God anything you wish? There’s a Bible phrase that says it like this. “You have not because you ask not.” ^[3] Let’s ask God. Stop asking others when you can ask God. This is next level prayer.
     
     This manner of prayer can be exhilarating. It may take you from extreme joy and excitement to appreciation and even to tears of joy. This is next level prayer.

Using Your Own Prayer Plan

• Praying With Your Child
  We decided to throw in one prayer outline what we use as a family. It’s the outline we’ve used with Tamia her entire life. It gives her a sense of order and direction in prayer. She knows where it starts and where the exercise ends. In this way, she doesn’t have to wonder if and when we’re finished. Here’s the outline:
  • Today is God’s gift to me.
    We start with giving God this day and asking Him for His help in making today great.
  • Influence others.
    We ask God to help us influence others for Him. In other words, be a light to the world and make disciples for Him.
  • Using my gifts.
    God’s given each of us unique talents. We desire to use our for Him.
  • Make friends.
    We live by this motto, if not us, then who? [URL] If we’re not praying for our friend and family then who is. We take that responsibility.
  • Positive attitude.
    As a person thinks of herself or himself determines who they are and who they become. So we ask God to help us with our thoughts and attitude.
  • Beautiful inside as well as outside.
    Finally, we ask God to help us from the inside out. He sees the heart and people see the exterior. Therefore we pray about them both.

This is next level stuff!

• Prayer of Jesus: Why not the Prayer of Jesus?
  We decided to add in a prayer of Jesus. Just the outline as the text is a little lengthy. Why? It’s not often that people, the church, believers, or anyone else talk about the prayers Jesus prayed Himself. The one we’ve decided to share is said to be the longest recorded prayer Jesus prayed. ^[4]
  
  Here a gist of what He prayed:
  • Work with me so that what I do gives glory to You.
  • Help Me define the path and plan for those who have accepted eternal life.
  • I reconnect to the original assignment for which I was created.
  • I specifically pray for those who have made the decision to follow Me. Protect them from the evil one.
  • Make them uncommon, exceptional, extra-ordinary, holy.
  • Help not only these disciples, but those to come, to work together.
  • Let Your love for Me be in them as I will be in them.

What if we took the prayer Jesus prayed Himself and used it as an outline, a prayer workout? I bet we’d go to the next level.

These are outlines for prayer. Like exercise workouts, use them at different intervals, but use them. Have a routine of prayer, but don’t make praying routine. Know that you’re sowing seeds into a field. The more seeds of prayer you plant, the larger the harvest you can expect. Don’t allow not knowing what to pray keep you from praying when all you need is an outline to get you going. This is next level prayer.

Question: how can praying in a manner help you take your prayer exercise to the next level?

[1] ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:9-13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed September 12, 2022, https://www.bible.com/114/mat.6.9-13.nkjv
[2] ‭‭‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭4:9-10‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed September 12, 2022, https://www.bible.com/116/1ch.4.9-10.nlt
[3] James 4:2 NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed April 5, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JAS.4.2.NLT
[4] John 17:1-26‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed September 12, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.17.NLT

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.