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Episode 2 of The Purpose Practice and Power of Prayer series. This is a church small group Bible study series from Buddy Owens at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.
CHECKING IN
CHECKING IN
1. Share something you are thankful for today.
2. How did our last session about spiritual armor impact you this week?
KEY VERSE
Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of
Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of
prayers and requests.
Under the “Getting Organized” section of the message outline, Buddy talked about five ways to organize your prayer life. Which of these do you want to try to incorporate into your daily life? Be intentional with setting yourself up to succeed. If it’s scheduling, stop right now and set alarms on your phone. If it’s memorials, make a list for yourself of what different memorials could be for you. Whichever method you choose, take five minutes right now to get yourself set up to begin this new part of your prayer life.
If you need help getting started, a simple way to begin the habit of daily prayer is to text “Pray21” (all one word) to 83000 and you will be subscribed to receive one text prayer prompt every day for the next 21 days.
PRAYER DIRECTION
PRAYER DIRECTION
As you listened to the message, did anyone come to mind who needs prayer? Take a moment in silent prayer to pray for that person. Then send them a text that says, “Praying for you today.”
Share your prayer requests and pray for each other before you finish your meeting. Ask someone in the group to write them all down and then email them to all your group members. Commit to pray for each other throughout
the week.
DIVING DEEPER
Seven Types of Prayer Thanksgiving
Seven Types of Prayer Thanksgiving
Thanking God for what he has done should always be the starting point of prayer. So make it a habit to always begin prayer by saying thank you before asking God for anything.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Psalm 100:4 (NIV)
We always thank God . . . when we pray for you.
Colossians 1:3 (NIV)
This series was created for Saddleback Church's small group curriculum series. For more great Bible studies and small group curriculum, visit pastors.com
And for more great podcasts, visit Lumivoz.com
And for more great podcasts, visit Lumivoz.com
Creators & Guests
Host
What is The Purpose, Practice, and Power of Prayer: A Saddleback Church Small Group Study?
The Scripture makes it clear that we are in a great cosmic battle. It is not a battle against people. It is a battle against spiritual forces of evil that are trying to destroy the work of God—in the world, and in our lives. But God has equipped us, empowered us, authorized us, and called us to partner with him in accomplishing his purposes on the earth. And we do it primarily through prayer. This is a small group Bible study series by Buddy Owens from Saddleback Church. Download the study guide here: https://saddleback.com/watch/the-purpose-practice-and-power-of-prayer
A Lumivoz podcast
00:00:13:23 - 00:00:37:19
Buddy Owens
Hi. And welcome back to session two of our study of the Purpose, Practice and Power of Prayer. I finished our last session by stating that there is a huge difference between being in a war like a refugee who's trying to escape it and being at war like a warrior who is in it to win it. You have an enemy who hates you.
00:00:38:05 - 00:01:05:10
Buddy Owens
He never takes a day off. That's why Paul says in Ephesians six and verse 12, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities and against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And if your enemy can't defeat you through discourage meant that he will try to lull you to sleep through complacency.
00:01:06:11 - 00:01:34:20
Buddy Owens
As Paul goes on in Infusion six, he describes our spiritual armor and weapons. That's what our last session was all about. And then in verse 18, he tells us the strategy in verse 18, he says, And pray and pray. Pray in this 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 Saints.
00:01:35:12 - 00:02:03:19
Buddy Owens
In today's English version, it says, and pray on every occasion as the Spirit leads the king, James says, praying always. The contemporary English version says, Never stop praying. Well, how is that possible? Well, I'll give you a few ideas in a minute, but before I do that, I want to talk about what's at stake in this war, and I'll give you five simple ways to organize your prayer life.
00:02:04:20 - 00:02:22:18
Buddy Owens
So first, let me answer the question What do I pray for and the answer to that question. I want to draw you a picture. I want to show you something. Now, I have to warn you, you're about to discover something about my artistic abilities. I was a pretty good student in school.
00:02:25:01 - 00:02:54:28
Buddy Owens
But there was one time I was in danger of failing a class. It was my seventh grade art class and my teacher bless her heart. She was one of those. Oh, there's an artist in every child. We just have to release the artist and the child. Three weeks into the class, I was trying to draw something. She leaned over my shoulder and she said, Are you sure you wouldn't rather take Spanish I'm not.
00:02:54:28 - 00:03:08:08
Buddy Owens
I'm kidding. I'm not kidding you. This is. This happened, OK? She didn't release the artist in the child. She released the child from the art class. Anyway, I want to show you something. I'm going to try to draw a circle and see if I can pull this off.
00:03:14:10 - 00:03:40:11
Buddy Owens
I guess that's not bad for three years of Spanish anyway. In 1983 the United States Navy deployed the first battleship that was equipped with something called the Egis Defense System. So this would be my little battleship. Here's my battleship. All right. It's got a gun on it. Here we go. Deployed. This battleship was something called the Egis Defense.
00:03:40:11 - 00:04:14:25
Buddy Owens
It was developed by Lockheed Martin. And Egis is the world's premier naval defense system. It is a radar tracking system. That can search, track and destroy over 100 targets on land in the air on the sea and under the sea all at once. And it and it it tracks them within a 115 mile radius. So 115 miles in every direction.
00:04:19:18 - 00:04:54:22
Buddy Owens
It can also because it's in a fleet, it is defending the rest of that fleet. It's directing these attacks against these hundred targets and direction simultaneously, while at the same time it is deploying defenses, defense systems to protect that fleet from incoming attacks by surface missiles, from surface vessels, from aircraft that might be coming after them, from torpedoes under the water and even from missiles it fires missiles at missiles.
00:04:54:22 - 00:05:21:14
Buddy Owens
It's like shooting a bullet at a bullet. And they called this system Egis. It's the Egis defense system. So why did they call it Egis? It's an interesting word. And what does that have to do with prayer? Well, let's look at the meaning of the word Egis. Originally back in Greek mythology, Egis was the name of Zuma's shield.
00:05:21:14 - 00:05:50:13
Buddy Owens
So Egis originally was the shield of God. But today it has a different meaning. I want you to write this down because it's really important for us to to to grasp this right this down. Egis means the realm or reach of authority inflow science protection, responsibility and advocacy. Let me say that all again. I know that's a lot.
00:05:50:25 - 00:06:27:25
Buddy Owens
It's the realm or reach of authority, influence, protection, responsibility and advocacy. So I have a question for you to write down. You got all of that. Here's my question. What is the Egis of my prayer life? What is the extent of the territory that you cover? What targets are you tracking? What's in your circle of influence when you might think, well, you know, I don't really have any authority or influence?
00:06:27:26 - 00:06:56:15
Buddy Owens
Sure, you do. You have influence over people. You have influence over decisions, you have influence over the direction maybe of an organization. Let me give you some ideas to write down your realm or reach of authority, influence, protection, responsibility and advocacy. Write these things down. They include your family your spouse, your parents, your kids, your siblings. It also includes your friends.
00:06:56:15 - 00:07:21:27
Buddy Owens
Write that down. Your friends you know, if God has given you friends, then you have a divine call, a privilege, a responsibility to pray for your friends. Something else in the egis of your prayer life is your church that includes your pastor, your kids, Sunday school teachers, the impact of the ministry and the reach of your church and your community, which also then leads to your community.
00:07:21:27 - 00:07:50:16
Buddy Owens
That's something else that's in the egis of your prayer life. And that includes not only your your neighborhood or your city. It also includes your nation praying for our government leaders, not just complaining about them, but praying for them. Another part of the egis of your prayer life is work or school. This is your your coworkers, your boss, your kids, teachers, your classmates.
00:07:50:16 - 00:08:32:12
Buddy Owens
If you're a student, here's another one. Projects and events. Projects and events. Projects and events include opportunities, threats, challenges, the things that you are working on, what is on your horizon and in what areas are you or your family or your friends vulnerable to attack? Is each area being watched and covered is any area being neglected? You see, if we attempt to sail into dangerous waters without the egis system of prayer in full operation, we risk failure.
00:08:32:27 - 00:09:01:10
Buddy Owens
We won't even know what hit us. And the failure will come not because of God's heavy handedness, but because of the absence of his empowering hand. You say, Lord, why did you let this fail and God will say, Well, why didn't you ask me to help you succeed? Paul says, Be alert and always keep on praying. Jesus said in Matthew 26, Watch and pray.
00:09:01:11 - 00:09:28:18
Buddy Owens
Notice it's not enough just to pray. We must be watchful, be alert, vigilant, we must pay attention, we must be watchful and we must be prayerful. Watch and pray. In other words, keep an eye out for what's going on around you. There is so much at stake not to pray. Eternal lives are at stake. Life on earth is at stake.
00:09:29:25 - 00:09:58:01
Buddy Owens
Think of the people, the responsibilities and the opportunities that are in your life. Imagine what could happen if you prayed for those things regularly, or to put that in a darker way. Imagine what could happen if you don't pray There is so much at stake. So I come back to my question What is the egis of your prayer life now?
00:09:58:15 - 00:10:23:27
Buddy Owens
Does this sound overwhelming? Hang on. OK, I'm going to make it simple in a minute. All right. So don't give up. I'm not done. Just hang in there with me. But first, I want to answer another question. Paul says, Pray in this spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests so what does he mean by all kinds of prayers and requests?
00:10:24:16 - 00:10:55:04
Buddy Owens
Well, in the Bible, we read about many different kinds of prayer, such as intercession supplication and petition, and there are many others. So what's the difference between them? Are they all the same thing? No, they're not. And I don't have time to talk about them now. So in your study guide, I have included a description of seven types of prayer, and I want to encourage you to look those things over and talk about them during your discussion time.
00:10:55:27 - 00:11:29:18
Buddy Owens
So now let me try to make things simple and doable let me talk about how to organize your prayer life to be sure that things are being covered. Now, you may be thinking, Look, I don't have time for all this kind of prayer. I'm sure you do. Every prayer doesn't have to be lengthy. You can pray momentary prayers but even just mentioning a person by name and prayer, in fact, the Apostle Paul did this many times in the Bible in Ephesians 116.
00:11:29:24 - 00:11:56:17
Buddy Owens
He says, I never stopped being grateful for you as I mention you in my prayers. And first Thessalonians one, he says, We always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers and in Philemon. He says, I always think, my God, when I mention you in my prayers. So you're not praying for an hour for everybody, you know, you can just mention their name to the Lord.
00:11:56:21 - 00:12:20:18
Buddy Owens
I give you an example I do this often as I'm driving to work on my friend Lord. I just I just want to thank you for my friends Pete and Janet and Ron and Sandra and Doug and Fay and Steve and Cher and Stan and Connie. I thank you for their friendship. And I'm asking this date would you just bless them with grace and peace today and watch over them?
00:12:21:14 - 00:12:48:26
Buddy Owens
That's it. Simple. I've mentioned them in prayer. Now, if something serious is going on in their life, well, I might pray longer for that specific issue. But not only do you not have to pray long, drawn out prayers for everything and everyone, you also do not have to pray for everything all at once. It's up to you you can take 30 minute.
00:12:48:26 - 00:13:14:06
Buddy Owens
You talk about what you need to pray 30 minutes a day. I don't have. I don't have the what's the word? I'm looking for. There goes my brain attention span. That's what I'm trying to say. I don't have I only have the attention span to pray for 30 minutes uninterrupted. I'm sorry. A lot of people do that. Awesome. I know.
00:13:14:08 - 00:13:48:13
Buddy Owens
I can't do that. So what I do is I spread things out over time. I'll take just a minute or so often throughout the day and I'll just pray as long as I feel prompted to pray so you can pray. Momentary prayers. Here's another suggestion to help you get organized, schedule your prayers schedule your prayers, put them on a calendar, set an alarm, do something to remind yourself to pray the time and the frequency are entirely up to you.
00:13:49:09 - 00:14:10:02
Buddy Owens
Now, some things you're going to pray for on a daily basis like your family. Some may be on a weekly or even a monthly basis. You just put it on a calendar. You don't have to pray for everything every day. Some things are just a one time request, a test that maybe somebody is going through. So you write to on such and such a day, right at this specific time.
00:14:10:15 - 00:14:35:25
Buddy Owens
Well, I'll pray for my friend who is having surgery or my daughter who's having a job interview. Right. You just write it down. Some things require daily prayer for a specific period of time. That must be pressed through in the spirit to accomplish their purpose. I'll give you an example. I have a friend named Dave who travels to the Philippines a couple of times a year to train pastors.
00:14:36:11 - 00:15:03:13
Buddy Owens
So I'll put on my calendar the day he's leaving and the day he's coming home. And in those ten days, I pray for my tent. My friend Dave once he gets home, he's on his own, you know? No, but it's just that period of time, that season, I'm praying for him. A season of opportunity might be where some kind of a challenge may be, where far reaching decisions must be made, like buying a house or changing a job.
00:15:03:27 - 00:15:26:02
Buddy Owens
Or a turning point in a dating relationship. Here's another idea you can set up what I call prayer memorials. Now, here's where I got this idea. My mentor is a man named Jack Hayford. In fact, he's the one who told me about Egis to begin with. But I spent a couple of days with him at his house a few years ago, and I was asking him about his prayer life.
00:15:26:02 - 00:15:44:06
Buddy Owens
So he took me out in the front yard of his house. He has a long sort of ranch style house with a big, long front yard wide front yard. He took me on the front yard and he pointed over to to his his right and he said, You see those two pine trees right there? He says, That's Ken and Lloyd.
00:15:45:02 - 00:15:59:22
Buddy Owens
He said, When I come out in my front yard and I see those trees, I think of my friends. They're my two best friends in ministry, Ken and Lloyd. I pray for them when I see when I look at those trees, he just mentions them. And then down underneath those trees, there was a little a little like a bench, a little park bench.
00:16:00:14 - 00:16:20:14
Buddy Owens
And he said, that's Dean and Lori and those are his and his wife's closest personal friends. He said, I pray for them. And then along the front of his yard was a fence that had these brick columns in between the fence pieces. And he said, that's the church where he pastors he said, that's the college that he had started.
00:16:20:19 - 00:16:44:10
Buddy Owens
And he just sort of identified what these little pillars meant. And then in the middle of the yard was this beautiful fountain right in the middle. And he said, That's Anna his wife said she's a fountain of life. And then behind that fountain still makes me emotional, just thinking about this. There was a birch tree on the other side of the fountain.
00:16:45:22 - 00:17:08:17
Buddy Owens
He said, That's you to think that my friend, my mentor, would pray for me that way. So I stole that idea from my mentor. And I adapted it for myself. I'll give you some examples of what I've done. I have a son in law who is a sheriff's deputy, so whenever I see a police car, I pray for my son in law.
00:17:08:17 - 00:17:34:27
Buddy Owens
Micah. I have another son in law who's a firefighter. And so whenever I see a fire truck, I pray for my son in law. Sean and if all I do is hear a siren, but I don't see any vehicles, I pray for both of them. It's a little memorial, little a little trigger to remind me to pray I have another friend who, for reasons too long to go into he kept he would post.
00:17:34:27 - 00:17:51:23
Buddy Owens
I would see every now and then in social media, he'd post just 11, 11, 11, 11. Guy's name is Eric. And I thought, I don't know what all this means. But whenever I see 11, 11, I'm going to pray for Eric. And I can't tell you how many times that happens. I can't tell him how many times it happens.
00:17:51:23 - 00:18:07:06
Buddy Owens
He'd think it's creepy. You think I'm like stalking him because it happens almost every day. Something happens. It's either on a clock. The other is just a couple of weeks ago, I was with my wife. We were riding a bicycle through Washington, DC. We stopped at a corner. I looked at the building on the corner, and the address was 11, 11.
00:18:07:12 - 00:18:28:17
Buddy Owens
I prayed for Eric. It just happens all the time. The point is, I'm setting up these little memorials, these little reminder ers to pray for people, and they happen at random. They're not planned. They just happen at random. Here's another time management idea that you can use to make things easier. You can pray what I call first minute prayers.
00:18:29:19 - 00:18:55:22
Buddy Owens
First minute prayers. So the first minute, when you walk into work, you just pray silently for your company, for your boss, maybe a coworker or a project that you're working on, just for a minute, just a moment, or when you drop your kids off at school, you just take a minute as you're driving away to pray for their school day, pray for their teachers, pray for any challenges that you're your kids are having at school that maybe they've told you about.
00:18:56:11 - 00:19:22:16
Buddy Owens
These are first minute prayers and they happen throughout the day. The minute before you make an important phone call, the minute before you meet with a friend for coffee, the minute before you meet with a client, that first minute when you get in the car in the morning, the first minute when you're driving home. Now, of course, there are times when you get on your knees and wrestle with God in prayer over something.
00:19:22:25 - 00:19:49:13
Buddy Owens
But I find that most often it is the simple, short moment by moment prayers that keep me aware of God's presence throughout the day because I'm talking to Him throughout the day. I'm inviting him into every situation and every part of my life. With simple, short, momentary prayers. Lord protect me, Lord bless this project. Lord, give me wisdom.
00:19:49:13 - 00:20:10:12
Buddy Owens
Lord help me to be strong. Lord thank you for your faithfulness. Lord help my friend, et cetera. Just those kinds of prayers, constant short prayers that just keep me in a constant conversation with God. Here's another idea. So what I call pray for drop in visitors, pray for drop in visitors. Now what am I mean by a drop in visitors?
00:20:10:27 - 00:20:27:29
Buddy Owens
A drop in visitor is the person who randomly pops into your mind out of the blue. It might be someone you haven't thought of in a long time, but just all of a sudden there they are and you're going, Why am I even thinking about this guy? Well, I take that as a signal that I need to pray for them.
00:20:28:20 - 00:20:47:23
Buddy Owens
I mean, what harm going to do right so whenever that happens, a drop in, I just take a moment and I pray for them. And if they're in my phone, I pull out my phone. I made this a habit I pull out my phone and I text him and I send him four words. That's it. Four words. Praying for you today.
00:20:48:15 - 00:21:08:15
Buddy Owens
Praying for you today. I just sent him a text. It is amazing how often I hear back from How did you know? You know. And then they want to tell me, but it happens all the time. The Bible says in First Samuel, 1223. Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.
00:21:10:01 - 00:21:34:18
Buddy Owens
So again, these can be momentary prayers. Sometimes they're long prayers, but with a little practice, it'll become a habit and as you put these things into practice, you'll find that you are spending a lot less time talking to yourself. And a lot more time talking to God. Now, I know I've given you a lot to think about in this session.
00:21:34:28 - 00:22:01:08
Buddy Owens
So as you go to your group discussion, talk about the concept of Egis as it applies to your life, and then in your notes, write down some things and that in those Egis categories, write some names down some situations down in those categories that I mentioned, and then in your prayer time together will take a minute to pray for somebody you know who needs prayer and then send them that text praying for you.
00:22:01:08 - 00:22:14:03
Buddy Owens
Tonight, in our next session, we will see what the Bible says about your authority in prayer and what it means to pray in Jesus name. I'll see you next time.
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