21 Day Prayer Guide

Week 1, Day 1 - The Step of Humility

 

"How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?"

(Exodus 10:3)

 

Humility is the reality of our entire dependence on God for life and all of its dimensions. Pride, the very root of all sin, is the loss of the sense of who God is and the exaggerated belief about who we are. Until we humble ourselves before God, we cannot truly abide in God’s presence or experience His favor. Our failure or unwillingness to humble ourselves explains why God so often seems distant.

 

Humbling ourselves is acknowledging our position as God's creatures and yielding to His rightful place over our lives. Nothing is as dangerous as pride and self-assertion; nothing is more advantageous than the grace of humility.

 

Often, we make a pretense of humbling ourselves that is both shallow and feeble in its consequence. True humility requires us to empty ourselves and be filled with Him.

This is where we discover the reality of God's presence and power.

 

Prayer Points:

1) Jesus, grant me the grace of humility. I choose to empty myself of myself - fill me with You!

 

2) Jesus, forgive me for my independence and help me to be totally dependent on You for everything in life.

 

Day 2 - "Poor In Spirit"

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

(Matthew 5:3)

 

Humbling ourselves is being "poor in spirit" and meek. Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount by blessing the humble. To the poor, who have nothing in themselves,

the kingdom of heaven comes. To the meek, who seek nothing for themselves, the earth will become their inheritance. The blessings of both heaven and earth are

for the humble of heart!

 

Humility is our first step in submitting to God. It's a right response to His Lordship, leadership, the authority of His Word and the wisdom of His ways.

 

When we choose to humble ourselves, we deal with the very core of our sinful nature. Then, we are in a place where God's grace and mercy can be poured out on us. Very little spiritual progress will occur until we humble ourselves.

 

Prayer Points:

1) God, help me to understand that your strength is perfected when I choose to humble myself. Forgive me for depending upon my own strength and not Yours.

 

2) Lord, I choose to submit everything I am and have to Your Lordship! I choose Your ways over my own ways.

 

Day 3 - Jesus: Our Example

 

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God... but made Himself nothing.…He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”

(Philippians 2:5-8)

 

Jesus was the incarnation of humility. Apart from humility, redemption would never have occurred. Jesus voluntarily humbled himself. The incarnation is an eternal testimony of His heavenly humility that manifested in His humble life on earth.

 

Apart from us experiencing and modeling Jesus’ humility in our lives, our life in God and ministries will be feeble and fruitless. Therefore, we must be conformed

to His nature of humility and be "transformed by the renewing of our minds" (Rom. 12:2).

 

Jesus humbled himself before men and before the Father. He never sought his own honor before men, nor did He seek vindication before men. Jesus was willing to be rejected and misunderstood by men for the sake of redemption. Are we willing to do the same?

 

Prayer Points:

1) Jesus, I choose "nothingness" and take up my cross to follow after You. Renew my mind and transform my heart!

 

2) Jesus, forgive me for seeking ungodly favor and honor from men. Help me to humble myself before you and others.

 

Day 4 - A Life Surrendered

 

"I have not come to do my own will but that of the Father."

(John 6:38)

 

Jesus lived a life of humility before the Father. Jesus knew that He could do nothing of himself. "I can of my own self do nothing.. I seek not my own will' (John 5:30). Jesus said, "I do not receive glory from men” (John 5:41). He said, "I do nothing of myself' (John 8:28). "I seek not my own glory” (John 8:50). “The words that I speak are not from myself' (John 14:10).

 

Jesus emptied Himself of His divine prerogatives as the eternal deity and became a servant so that God might be all in all in His life. His life was one of absolute submission, trust, and dependence on the Father. In the end, Jesus lost nothing by giving everything to God. He humbled himself, and God exalted Him. Jesus' humility was surrendering Himself entirely to God. Jesus allowed the Father to do in Him and with Him what the Father pleased.

 

Prayer Points:

1) Forgive me for not trusting You with my life. I repent for trying to control my own life.

 

2) Teach me how to surrender myself, my family, my ministry, my finances, and the most important things in my heart to You.

 

3) I repent for my own personal ambitions, agendas, motives, fears, anxieties, self-protection, and human wisdom!

 

Day 5 - Pride: Enemy of God

 

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

(James 4:6)

 

Selfishness, carnal ambition, jealousy, and envy all have their origin in the condition of our heart called pride. Pride keeps us from honestly confessing our sin before God and man, and often manifests itself in a stubborn insistence about our own way.

 

Jesus clarifies that the origin of our sin comes from within: “out of the hearts of men come evil thoughts,... wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness…All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man" (Mark 7:21-23).

 

Pride comes naturally to us from Adam; the grace to humble ourselves comes from Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and awakens desire and hope within us that is holy and heavenly. Carnal desires are our nature from Adam; holy desires are our new nature from Christ. We inherit pride and self-preoccupation from Adam; we inherit humility and holiness in Christ!

 

Prayer Points:

1) God, help me to honestly confess my sin before You and others. Forgive me for my stubbornness & insistence in having my own way.

 

2) Reveal to me the true condition of my heart so l can see the hidden areas of pride, sin and compromise in my life.

 

Day 6 - Before God and Men

 

Therefore, walk with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.

(Ephesians 4:2)

 

Humbling ourselves before God requires bringing our mind, will, emotions and egos into submission to God and His Spirit. Humbling ourselves before God displaces self by enthroning God in our heart and beholding His beauty and majesty!

 

We must walk out humility daily before men. Humbling ourselves before others is the best evidence that we have humbled ourselves before God. We reveal who we really are in the unguarded moments.

 

God will remain distant and aloof, even opposing us, (Jam. 4:6) until we choose to humble ourselves. It is infinitely better for us to choose to humble ourselves before God than to wait until God humbles us before men.

 

Prayer Points:

1) God, forgive me for focusing so much on myself. Help me bring myself and ego into submission to You.

 

2) Forgive me for being fascinated with myself instead of You. Would You show me Your beauty, majesty and glory?

 

3) Conform me into Your image and teach me to walk in meekness and humility before You and others.

 

Day 7 - He Will Lift Us Up!

 

Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.

(James 4:10)

 

God promises He will exalt us if we will humble ourselves under His mighty hand. Jesus’ path to the glory of God was His humble submission to the cross and the grave; they are our path as well.

 

Following Jesus requires us to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23). In so doing, Jesus says we "save our lives" by "losing our lives for Him'. (Luke

9:24)

 

In everyday life the humble and self-effacing person eventually prospers and wins the respect of others far more than the arrogant, proud and powerful person.

 

Just as God gives grace to the humble, He also gives grace for us to humble ourselves in His sight. See that you do this one thing that God asks: humble yourself. God will see that He does the one thing He has promised: give you more grace and lift you up in due season.

 

Prayer Points:

1) Forgive me for not valuing humility and meekness but choosing pride and living according to spirit of the world and its value system!

 

2) Would You give me faith to see that You reward those who chose the path of humility?

 

Week 2, Day 8 - Seeking God's Face

 

Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord.

(Jeremiah 29:12-13a)

 

The Bible makes a distinction between “prayer" and "calling out" or "crying out" to God. In our impossible circumstances, which we cannot change with our own

resources, crying to God is a humbling reminder of our total inability to bring change apart from God’s intervention. God promises that if we will call out to Him, He will listen.

 

Not only will He listen, He promises to answer us from heaven (Jeremiah 33:3). God's response from heaven includes revelation: "I will show you great and mighty things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3). With supernatural power He will deliver and accomplish His redemptive purpose in our circumstances. The context of

this promise is the transformation of the city. He declares, "this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it" (Jeremiah 33:9).

 

Prayer Points:

1) God, I acknowledge I cannot change my own circumstances apart from you. In my hopeless situation I call out to you - I will seek you with all of my heart until I "find' You!

 

2) Lord, I cry out in desperation for deliverance and redemption in my life, my family and my community!

 

Day 9 - Desperate Hunger

 

Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled.

(Matthew 5:6)

 

People who are desperate for God's presence will move beyond convenience and personal comfort. They cannot be satisfied with worldly pleasures or religious routine. For them, Jesus is no longer a religious concept. He has

become their reality, their life, and the source of their longing and desire.

 

An initial hunger and thirst comes with the gift of salvation, but after the spiritual honeymoon is over we must intentionally cultivate our spiritual passion. It's so easy for our once-fiery hearts to grow cold in our love toward Him. Our first prayer must be to ask Him to increase our spiritual appetite.

 

The Word of God promises us that if we are hungry and thirsty, we shall be filled! Spiritual hunger is the currency of heaven. Hunger is what causes us to empty ourselves of compromise. It creates a holy dissatisfaction that drives us to our knees and makes us depend on God.

 

Prayer Points:

1) Forgive me for filling myself with worldly pleasures. Help me to empty myself of the spirit of the world and fill myself with You.

 

2) Jesus, would you take my cold heart and turn it into burning fire? Would you renew in my life a fresh hunger and thirst for You?

 

Day 10 - Are You Thirsty?

 

If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

(John 7:37-38)

 

Anyone! If you are thirsty, you qualify! Every believer’s rightful inheritance is having a heart overflowing with the Living Water of the Holy Spirit. Jesus sets forth this promise in His Word.

 

Do we have a desperate, aching, unspeakable thirst for Jesus? How thirsty are we? If we are already full of the lesser pleasures of this world, how can we really have an appetite for God?

 

We must abandon ourselves to the pursuit of God until the nature of Jesus is formed within us and His life flows out of us like a river. We must cry out in desperation for God's presence to be restored in our lives, our churches, and ultimately in our cities.

 

We must treasure the manifest presence of God, because as Jesus said in John 15:5,

"Without Me you can do nothing.”

 

Prayer Points:

1) Jesus, please salt my heart and give me an unquenchable thirst for Your presence.

 

2) Forgive me for pursuing the pleasures of the world and give me a heart that is abandoned to you!

 

3) Lord, form Your nature in me until I become a river of living water to those around me.

 

Day 11 - The Heart Cry

 

One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.

(Psalm 27:4)

 

A desperate cry is growing in the hearts of believers for a real, tangible encounter with God. We want, like Moses, to see Him face to face. We don't want only to read about Him, talk about Him, and pay homage to Him on Sunday mornings.

 

What are we longing for? Our deepest heart cry should be for the presence of God in the midst of His people, the manifestation of His nearness, and an awareness of His love that is both real and relevant.

 

Jesus wants us to desire Him above all else and to encounter Him in tangible, life-changing ways! Is there a cry in your heart for a deeper connection to the Lord? Are you longing for more? Are you tired of feeling like you are just going through the motions in your spiritual life?

 

Prayer Points:

1) Forgive me God for having a divided heart. Change my desires and lead me into a place of encounter with You!

 

2) Forgive me for chasing after other “lovers" to satisfy my longings. Take me to the deeper realities of who You are, and change me forever in Your presence.

 

Day 12 - Our Whole Heart

 

Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face continually.

(1 Chronicles 16:11)

 

When David became Israel's king, He gave his heart and attention to bringing back the Ark of the Covenant, i.e., the presence of God. In the midst of rejoicing when the ark returned, David made this passionate plea: "Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face continually" (1 Chron. 16:11). David knew the principle of seeking the Lord with all his heart.

 

Often we give the Lord token time and attention, the kind of attention that would be an insult to someone we loved. David understood that to know God, we have to

give Him time and attention from our heart, not just token duty or obedience. God wants intimacy with His people. He is overjoyed when His people seek His face with undistracted devotion.

 

Many of our prayers are self-serving and self-centered. We must become so united with God in prayer that it is truly His heart and His face that we seek. This kind of prayer takes hold of the promises of God and pulls them into the present in fulfillment!

 

Prayer Points:

1) Help me set my face before You in undistracted devotion not token obedience.

 

2) Jesus, challenge my self-centered, self-serving Christianity!

 

Day 13 - Prayer for Revival!

 

The Lord is far from the wicked but He hears the prayers of the righteous.

(Proverbs 15:29)

 

Prayer for revival is a special kind of prayer. Elijah demonstrated this kind of prayer and James refers to it as "the prayer offered in faith" (Jas 5:15), and "the prayer of a righteous man" (5:16). The earnest man prays this prayer when he asks for rain after a 3 ½ year drought. Prayer for revival is persistent; Elijah prayed again and again until "the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crops” (James 5:17-18).

 

Elijah could pray right because he was right with God and living righteously. No one can live wrong and pray right! David said, "If I regard sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Ps 66:18).

 

Isaiah 59:1-2 says it this way: "Surely the arm of the Lord is not short that it cannot save, nor His ear dull that He cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." A righteous person honestly faces his or her sin issues, confesses them openly, and receives the forgiveness and cleansing of Christ.

 

Prayer Points:

1) Jesus, cleanse me from my sin so that my prayers are heard in heaven!

 

2) Forgive me for thinking I can live wrong and pray right! Forgive me for thinking you will give me what I want no matter how I live!

 

Day 14 - Covenant Prayer

 

Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us.

(2 Chronicles 29:10)

 

Effective prayer is covenant-prayer. Covenant praying is done in covenant relationship with God and takes God’s Word and promises seriously. Many of God's promises are conditional as in 2 Chronicles 7:14. "If My people will . . . then I will." The covenant promises of God provide a clear basis for faith and obedience. They provide ground for being persistent in both prayer and faith, so we don't give up easily!

 

Living in covenant with God has always been the key by which men and women of faith have contended before the throne of God. That kind of prayer produces power results on the earth.

 

Covenant praying is selfless praying; this prayer focuses not on what we want but on the glory of God and the welfare of others. It even is a willingness to lay one’s life down for the sake of God's glory. This kind of prayer says,

"Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Your name give glory for Your mercy and for Your truths’ sake” (Psalm 115:1).

 

Prayer Points:

1) Forgive me for breaking covenant with You! Help me to see that Your covenant promises are conditional.

 

2) Jesus, conform me into Your image that Your will and heart will become mine!

 

 

Day 15 - Holy Desperation!

 

As the deer pants for water...so my soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

(Psalm 42:1-2a)

 

We need holy desperation for the presence and ministry of Jesus to be delivered from our complacent, satisfied existence.

 

Desperation is the underlying fuel that ignites our hearts. If we aren't longing for Jesus, our lives and ministry activities will be routine and hollow.

 

To be desperate means to be without hope in our current condition, knowing that in our own power we don't have the necessary resources required to change things. We must become desperate enough to change our lifestyle and priorities, our time commitments and resources. Everything else must be a secondary activity to the desperate pursuit of God in our midst.

 

The cry of desperation pierces through religious veneer and rhetoric; the very act of crying out to God wakes up the human heart. We are people in desperate need of the manifest presence of Jesus in our midst!

 

Prayer Points:

1) God, forgive me for my complacency. I recognize my lack of desperation. Would You make me desperate for Your presence!

 

2) Forgive me for my religious veneer & rhetoric. I cry out to You God, realizing there is no hope in my life, family, church and city without Your presence!

 

Week 3, Day 16 - Fire of Repentance

 

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.

(Acts 3:19)

 

Repentance, like sin, is first a heart issue. Until we are willing to face the Holy Spirit's probing of our own heart, a revival of repentance will not happen on a larger scale. During corporate confession of sin is often the point when revival fire is ignited.

 

Repentance, along with prayer and faith, is integral to God fulfilling His promises. Repentance is not a negative emotion! It is a posture of humility and submission to God and His Word. It is an alignment of our heart with God's heart and with His promises.

 

A humble, prayerful, desperate seeking of God with sincere repentance is a posture and action that God will not ignore. May God grant us the gift of repentance, fresh faith, and fresh breakthrough from heaven as we turn away from sin and return to Jesus.

 

Prayer Points:

1) Holy Spirit, I invite You to probe my heart and convict me of sin & compromise.

 

2) Jesus, would you align my heart with Your heart and give me courage to look at my sin and compromise before You?

 

3) I repent for my current and past sins and I turn to You with all of my heart. Help me to see the sin in my life that separates me from You.

 

Day 17 - Immorality

 

And I gave her time to repent for her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

(Revelation 2:21)

 

The Church in recent years has been riddled with accusations of immorality among leaders. Hardly a week goes by that we don't hear a charge of sexual abuse, corruption or moral failure among members of the clergy. The Lord is exposing our sin, just as the prophet Hosea warned: "I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers….. " Hosea (2:10)

 

The immorality in the Church has weakened our authority to speak about issues like morality, honesty and trust. Why should the world believe our message? Churches are either ignoring their basic tenets of faith or simply rewriting them to suit their compromised position on morality.

 

Jesus gives us a sober warning! He makes clear that there are serious consequences for the church that condones immorality. He warns the unrepentant church of the consequences of sickness and tribulation!

 

Prayer Points:

1) Jesus, I repent for sexual immorality in my life. Forgive me for lusting with my eyes, my thoughts, and my actions. Be ruthless with my heart and mind. Help me to walk in purity, holiness, & righteousness.

 

Day 18 - Violence & Bloodshed

 

By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed. Therefore, the land will mourn...

(Hosea 4:2)

 

Violence and bloodshed are primary reasons for God’s presence remaining at a distance from His people. The shedding of innocent blood defiles the land and cries out for justice. Our human institutions cannot deliver us from the impact of sin on society.

 

We are living in communities that are "mourning," and the families who dwell in them are wasting away because of our sin. We are living in the consequences of our broken covenant with God. In the vacuum of His presence, the enemy has filled our land with every evil practice and brought destruction and death.

 

A large percentage of our entertainment dollars is spent on watching the occult, sexual immorality, or violence and bloodshed. More and more we are entertained by what is becoming reality in society itself. We may protest societal immorality or

violence, while simultaneously spending our time and money being entertained by them!

 

Prayer Points:

1) God, forgive me for participating in bloodshed & violence through TV, movies, video games, my speech and my thoughts.

 

2) Forgive me for adding to the defilement of my community because of my lifestyle.

 

Day 19 - Idolatry

 

Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to drive Me away from My sanctuary?

(Ezekiel 8:6)

 

Judah's temple leaders were actually worshipping the sun god inside God's temple! The Lord turned away from them because of their idolatry and said He would not hear them. God withdrew His glory first from the temple and then from the city. God held the people responsible for His presence leaving the city.

 

Idolatry always causes the Lord's presence to withdraw. In Ezekiel 8-11, God's presence left the temple because of the leaders' idolatry. This isn't an example of a lack of God's presence, but rather God deliberately choosing to withdraw because of their idolatry!

 

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:16-17, "And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God…Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. 'Do not touch what is unclean. And I will receive you.”

 

Prayer Points:

1) Jesus, I repent for all forms of idolatry in my life: I repent for materialism, love of money, desire for honor, and the lusts of the flesh. Father, please identify and root out every other form of worship in my life!

 

Day 20 - Loss of Our First Love?

 

“Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works..."

(Revelation 2:3)

 

Anything that competes with our love for Jesus can become a substitute for our affections and worship. In His letter to the Church at Ephesus in Rev. 2, Jesus wasn't rebuking them for simply diminished passion. He told them if they didn't return to their "first works” (intimacy, prayer), He would remove their “lamp stand" which represents their place of influence.

 

Most believers spend more time watching television and social networking in one day than in all spiritual pursuits combined for an entire week!

 

The Church is in danger of continuing to give token devotion to God on Sundays, while assimilating to our culture's idolatry during the week. Where are we spending our time, our money and our affections?

 

Prayer Points:

1) Jesus, forgive me for pursuing other “lovers" and neglecting my relationship with You. Burn in me a renewed first love for You!

 

2) Forgive me for not spending time with You and indulging myself with the spirit of the world.

 

3) Show me the depth of my sin so that I would also see the depth of salvation that You have made possible.

 

Day 21- Turning

 

I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

(Joshua 7:12)

 

When Joshua and the men of Israel were defeated at Ai, the Lord explained why: "Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant... they have taken some of the devoted things… they have put them with their own possessions (Jos 7:11).

 

God warns us repeatedly in Scripture to be separate from the world, not to be influenced by it. He also warns us not to take into our possession those things "devoted to destruction.”

 

Once we cleanse our hearts from unrighteousness, it’s important to also cleanse our homes from anything that is defiled and represents sin we have indulged in. Whether it is videos, books, music, things that carry unrighteousness memories, etc.

 

True repentance requires more than a prayer or temporary heart change. Repentance means to turn around and go the other way. It requires breaking ties with everything that offends the presence of God.

 

Prayer Points:

1) Lord, reveal to me anything in my life or my home that is defiled and offensive to you. Bring revelation to my heart and courage to remove everything "devoted to destruction"!