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Prayer

  1. Praise as you enter the gates of prayer
  2. Repentance and confession at the altar of sacrifice
  3. Daily cleansing, rebaptism, emptying of self and sin at the laver
  4. Daily asking for the fullness of the Holy Spirit at the lampstand
  5. Growth: obedience and action as we eat at the table of shewbread
  6. Intercession for others at the altar of incense
  7. Judgment: investigation, discipline, and instruction, in the Most Holy Place

This model keeps my prayer time interesting. Like King David I have discovered more about God through the sanctuary illustration than I have in any other study.

“I have seen You in the sanctuary,” David said,

“and beheld Your power and Your glory.           

Because Your love is better than life,                 

my lips will glorify You.                                       

I will praise You as long as I live,                       

and in Your name I will lift up my hands.”        

Carrol Johnson Shewmake, author of Sanctuary Secrets to Personal Prayer.

Different Types of Prayers

1. Prayer of Praise and Adoration:

We find many prayers of this type in the Bible. This is prayer centered wholly upon God and His eternal characteristics–His majesty, glory, and power; His beauty and lavish love; His mercy and grace. Personal devotional prayer should begin with this type of prayer.

Click here for a Biblical Prayer of Praise and Adoration.

Biblical Prayer of Praise and Adoration:

King David's prayer, quoted in 1st Chronicles 29:10-13, is one of many scriptural examples of a prayer of praise and adoration to God:

“Praise be to You, O Lord,

       God of our father Israel,

       from everlasting to everlasting.


Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power

         and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,

         for everything in heaven and earth is Yours.


Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom,

         You are exalted as head over all.


Wealth and honor come from You;

          You are the ruler of all things.


In Your hands are strength and power

           to exalt and give strength to all.


Now, our God, we give You thanks,

          and praise Your glorious name.” NIV

2. Prayer of Penitence:

This is the next step in personal prayer, asking for forgiveness of sin. Psalm 51 is our best known prayer of penitence in the Bible.

Click here to read Psalm 51.

Prayer of Penitence:Psalm 51

( A psalm of King David, written when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed Uriah, her husband.)

3. Prayer of Petition:

Petition means to ask for something. Because we are wholly dependent upon God for life He loves to have us ask for things. Perhaps this is the most used and misused prayer of all time. We all want material prosperity and popularity-but whenever we ask for material things we should remember to add, “Your will be done.” Although God cares about anything that concerns us and He wants us to ask Him for what we need, yet it pleases Him most when we ask for the Holy Spirit and the characteristics of Jesus.

4. Prayer of Thanksgiving:

This is a prayer of appreciation for the gifts God has given us. Learning to be thankful is one of the best ways to combat depression and self-pity. Thanksgiving should be a part of every prayer.

5. Prayer of Intercession:

When we intercede for others we come closest to God's heart. Jesus, in heaven, is our High Priest and His ministry is to intercede with the Father for mankind. When we join Him in praying for others we are most like Him.

Click here to discover the Biblical elements involved in praying for others.

A Lesson in IntercessionParable of the Needy Friend–Luke 11:3-13

The elements of true intercession are illustrated in this parable told by Jesus. A man received a surprise visit from a friend in the middle of the night. His friend was starving but this man had no food in his house. Notice the elements involved in praying for others:

1-Urgent need: The friend was hungry and needed immediate food.

2-Willing love: The poor man loved his friend and wanted to supply his need.

3-The sense of inability: ‘I have nothing to give!'’

4-Faith in asking: ‘But I have a rich friend who will be glad to give.’

5-Persistence that prevailed: The poor man met an unexpected obstacle. The rich friend objected to being disturbed at an inconvenient time. But the same love that sent the poor man out at midnight to find bread for his hungry friend would not let him give up. He kept on asking until the rich friend gave what he asked for.

6-Certainty of a rich reward: Unlike the rich friend in the parable, God delights to answer prayer. Sometimes He delays the answer to increase our faith or we do not readily recognize the answer. But the door is always opened and the bread given.

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How did God the Father speak to His Son when He became a human being? Did Jesus hear an audible voice or did He hear with the inward voice of the Holy Spirit as we do? All that we can know of this is what we read in scripture.

The Bible records three times that God spoke audibly to His son:

  1. At His baptism
  2. On the Mount of transfiguration
  3. In the outer court of the temple just before Gethsemane

The third time, Jesus told the people around Him that the audible voice was for their benefit, not His (John 12:30). Evidently Jesus received as much strength from scripture and the inward voice of the Holy Spirit as when He heard His Father's audible voice.

How did Jesus daily hear His Father's voice in answer to His prayer?

In just the same way that you and I do–from reading scripture and from the inward voice of the Holy Spirit.

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