10 Ways to Pray-Read the Word of God
“Praying the Bible helps our prayer lives because it brings an entirely new focus to what we are praying.” Wesley and Stacey Campbell
Did you know that God wants us to talk with Him as we read His Word? He loves it when we dialogue with Him over what we are reading. He wants us to actively talk with Him in our heart. We gain so much strength as we read His Word and engage in conversation with Him. It’s so simple but makes so much difference in our prayer lives.
The Bible gives us the conversation material for our prayer lives. Prayer becomes easier and more enjoyable as we do this. We speak and pray God’s Truth back to Him. We commune and abide with Him on a deep level. Over time we see great change in our lives and especially in our prayer life.
When the famous missionary, David Livingstone, started travelling across Africa he had 73 of his most valued books with him, weighing 180 pounds. After his party had gone 300 miles, he decided to throw away some of his books because he was totally exhausted from carrying them. As he continued, his library grew smaller and smaller. By the end of His journey He had one book left, his most important one – His Bible! Having our Bibles and pray-reading God’s Word should be our most precious possession as well.
When we pray-read the Bible, God teaches us in a way that is tailor-made for us personally. We say new things to Him and we pray with more creativity. It’s amazing. The Holy Spirit prays through us and gives us new insights as we pray, but how can we do this in the most effective way? How do we pray-read God’s Word?
How to Pray-Read the Word of God
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide (live) in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).
Here are 10 ways to pray-read the Bible:
- Pray the promises to believe – When we read a promise in the Bible, we turn it into a conversation with Jesus.
- Thank God and declare trust – With the promises in Scripture, we thank God for the promise and declare our trust in it.
- Ask for more understanding – We ask for more understanding of a particular truth.
- Pray the exhortations to obey while reading – These exhortations can relate to our speech, work, food, attitudes, service, relationships, and more.
- Commit to obey the truth – Make simple declarations of our resolve to obey it.
- Ask God for empowerment – We ask God to help us to obey by giving us wisdom, motivation, and power to obey.
- Pray slowly and softly – Short phrases are good. We don’t need to shout or preach to God.
- Take time to journal – Record your thoughts as you pray-read the Bible. Journaling helps us to capture the truths that God wants to give us.
- Pray-read the descriptions of Jesus – There are 30 descriptions of Jesus in Revelation 1-3 alone. We can worship God with these descriptions and ask Him for more insight into what they mean to our lives.
- Use the acronym A-R-K – Think of the Ark of the Covenant where God’s presence dwelt, and then do the following three things:
A – Agreement – Agree with who Jesus is in a specific way. Declare truth about who He is.
R – Revelation – Ask for revelation as to each of the 30 descriptions. Ask for more insight and a spirit of wisdom and revelation (Ephesians 1:17).
K – Keep the prophesy – Ask for help to apply the commands and plans of Jesus in the book of Revelation, and ask Him to give you faith and help you to obey.
I encourage you to start pray-reading the Word of God on a regular basis. You will be amazed at all that God has to say to you from His Word as you dialogue with Him. You will grow in your effectiveness in prayer, as God leads you into thrilling depths and greater heights in your relationship with Him.
This Intercessors Arise course will help you to develop a life that powerfully prays God’s Word.Pray-reading the Bible and a multitude of other dynamic teachings to help you grow in praying the Bible are included. It’s called: “How to Powerfully Pray God’s Word for Breakthrough.” Check it out here:
How to Powerfully Pray God’s Word for Breakthrough
“The Bible is actually a whole book of spiritual words! The Bible will teach you the language of God so that you can effectively communicate to Him. When you speak from the Bible in your prayers, you will be led to an entirely different place in prayer—one you might’ve not thought was humanly possible, simply because the language of the Bible is so absolutely different than our own.” Wesley and Stacey Campbell
By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC)
www.intercessorsarise.org
The Fire of Prayer 