Two Kinds of Prayer

Did you know that there are two kinds of prayer? Though you won’t see these terms in Scripture, you will see these principles.

There is unceasing prayer, which is speaking with the Lord all throughout the day. Then there is intentional prayer, which is the setting aside of time.

Unceasing prayer is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

“Never stop praying.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, NLT)

Intentional prayer is found in Matthew 6:6.

“But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.” (Matthew 6:6a, NLT)

All prayer - whether speaking in tongues, intercessory prayer, spiritual warfare, and so forth - will always fall under the categories of either unceasing prayer or intentional prayer.

Unceasing prayer is spontaneous, in the moment, fluid. It is practiced during even the most mundane portions of your day. Unceasing prayer is carried out in the car, quietly within your heart, on the job, at school, and so forth. It can fill any gap of time, and can be practiced in any circumstance. But there is also a ceremony to prayer that must be regularly observed. Ceremony—that is, preparing the atmosphere—is necessary for intentional prayer. Intentional prayer takes place when I set the atmosphere to sharpen my focus on the Lord.

Unceasing prayer is for any atmosphere. Intentional prayer is for a certain atmosphere. The undisciplined struggle with intentional prayer. The structured have trouble with unceasing prayer. The undisciplined think intentional prayer is unnecessary. The structured think unceasing prayer is strange. Unceasing prayer is spontaneous. Intentional prayer is scheduled. Both are necessary. If unceasing prayer brings about spiritual longevity, then intentional prayer brings about spiritual depth.

By practicing both intentional and unceasing prayer, you can strengthen your prayer life.

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3 Kinds of Impartation

Impartation has the power to accelerate your spiritual growth and to help lay a foundation for the future of your ministry. Impartation is the spiritual transfer that takes place through relationship. When I open myself to the teachings of or relationship with an anointed individual, I become a recipient of impartation. A portion of what’s on their life begins to rub off on mine. 

So, here are the three kinds of Biblical impartation and how to experience them in fullness:

#1 Given Impartation 

#2 Shared Impartation

#3  Received Impartation 

Given impartation is when I reach down. Shared impartation is when I reach across. Received impartation is when I reach up. Given impartation takes place when I act as a mentor. Shared impartation takes place when I act as a fellow laborer. Received impartation takes place when I act as a student.

#1 Given Impartation

You may think yourself too spiritually undeveloped to teach anybody anything about the Lord or spiritual truths. But this is simply not the case. For example, let’s take the new convert. The new convert typically knows little to nothing about what the Bible says about various truths and life applications. However, even the new convert can share their testimony. In sharing their testimony with a non-believer, the new convert is sharing the gospel. And in sharing the gospel, the new convert is evangelizing. 

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, NLT)

Evangelism, fundamentally, is a form of impartation. So no matter where you are in your spiritual growth, there’s something you can impart to someone who is coming along the path after you. 

#2 Shared Impartation

The Scripture tells us that iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17); it also tells us that bad company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33). Impartation doesn’t just take place between a mentor and a disciple. It can occur between two spiritual peers. The anointing of your peers rubs off on you, and the anointing on your life rubs off on them too.

#3 Received Impartation 

Now, it’s important to note that all power comes from the Holy Spirit within you, and that power works in proportion to your time spent in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The more time you spend in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the greater the manifestation of power on your life.

But God has given to us gifts in the form of anointed individuals. For example, this is what the Word says in Ephesians chapter four:

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-12, NLT)

While receiving from anointed men and women of God, it’s important to keep this in mind: There is a big difference between impartation and imitation. You’re not the next anyone; you’re the first you. 

In fact, impartation makes you a unique expression of God’s power. As you glean from various servants of the Lord, you become a unique and uncommon blend of the anointing.

Impartation doesn’t just help to make you unique. It also accelerates your spiritual growth, as you learn by the Spirit from those with decades of experience. Growth from impartation should be a reality experienced by every single believer.

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10 Benefits of Fasting

There are different types of fasts in the Bible that were carried out for a variety of different purposes - and for differing lengths of time. But fasting, in the simplest definition of the word, is the discipline of abstaining from food for a given period of time in order to devote one’s self more to prayer and the Word of God.

For most believers, fasting is likely the most neglected of all spiritual practices, but this powerful discipline has the ability to increase the effectiveness of your prayer life. When the disciples encountered a demon that they could not expel from a boy, Jesus told them that certain demonic beings could only be removed through a combination of both prayer and fasting.

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:19-21, NAS)

For every natural act of faith, there is a divine reaction. Whatever it is that occurs in the realm of the spirit when we fast and pray, it’s safe to say that there is something to be said of acting in faith out of obedience to God’s Word. Even if we don’t understand exactly how or why fasting intensifies the potency of our prayers, we know that it does. Like a sledge hammer chips away at a brick wall, so our prayers chip away at stubborn spiritual barriers. And fasting adds more strength to the strike.

Furthermore, fasting helps us to weaken our greatest enemy - the flesh.

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. (Galatians 5:17, NLT)

Whatever strengthens my Spirit weakens my flesh. So if my spirit is strengthened through fasting and praying, then my carnal nature is weakened by the same. Therefore, every benefit that you can receive from a weakened flesh or from empowered prayer, you can receive from fasting. Though there are many more, here are 10 benefits of fasting:

1: Fasting can bring clarity to the voice of God. (Acts 13:2)

2: Fasting can help to properly establish a new ministry. (Acts 14:23)

3: Fasting can bring favor. (Esther 4:16)

4: Fasting can bring healing. (Psalm 35:13-14)

5: Fasting can prepare you for the call of God. (Matthew 4:1-4)

6: Fasting can prepare you for temptation. (Matthew 4:1-4)

7: Fasting can bring about freedom. (Isaiah 58:6)

8: Fasting can bring protection. (Ezra 8:21)

9: Fasting can increase Spiritual Authority. (Matthew 17:19-21, NAS)

10: Fasting can teach you dependance on God. (Matthew 4:3-4, NLT)

If you will respond with faith to the Word of God and implement fasting as a frequent discipline in your life, you will see spiritual growth, such as you never imagined possible. Begin to see the effectiveness of your prayers increase and the desires of the flesh weaken. Step into depths of the Spirit that you’ve never known. Take God at His Word. Watch what begins to happen in your life as you fast and pray.

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The Crucified Life

“Your dreams are about to come true."

“Your breakthrough is on the way.”

"The toughest times come just before the greatest blessings.”

“God is getting ready to catapult you into greatness.”

Statements like those find their power by pulling on a person’s deep longing to be successful, wealthy, put-together, respected, and otherwise well-positioned in life. In fact, the Word “breakthrough” has become a Christian code word that means “The day I never have any more struggles.” We have sermons that give you steps to a better you and keys to success in this area or that area. It seems that every message you hear is about how your dreams are just within arm’s reach. But the reason we have so much preaching on climbing mountains is because we don’t have the faith or power to move mountains. And we lack faith and power because we lack the preaching of the cross.

Sadly, many are promising a life without troubles, trials, sacrifice, or commitment. Honestly, that’s just contrary to what Jesus told us:

John 16:33

In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Sure, the blessings of God abound in the life of every believer. He prospers, provides for, protects, and loves His people. God does not despise the prayer request. God does not become angry with His child’s request for a blessing. But one thing we should all remember is this: God’s cause takes precedence over the believer’s comfort. So let me just be real with you - many are deceived by a false gospel that requires nothing of them.

Mark 8:34-35

34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.

Jesus spoke those challenging words just after prophesying His own death. His disciple Peter was resistant to the idea of Jesus giving His own life on the cross. The Lord rebuked Peter, saying, “Get away from me, Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Get away from me Satan? Those harsh words exposed the source of Peter’s resistance to the cross. Resistance to the cross is Satanic. Think of how the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Satan offered to Jesus a cross-less path to glory. Yet Jesus, filled with both the Word and the Spirit, overcame the temptation to deny the cross. He chose instead to deny Himself.

A cross-less gospel is a Christ-less gospel. The gospel is not about self-improvement; it’s about self-abandonment. It’s not about our dreams; it’s about God’s will. We must stop trying to build what the Word of God has told us to crucify.

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Carry Your Cross

Yesterday, my aunt and uncle, who are missionaries to Romania, gathered with several of us family members at my grandmother’s house. We gathered to celebrate my Aunt’s birthday. It was a rare but very much enjoyed moment. Gatherings like that are, for us, few and far between. Our family is scattered seed, purposefully planted by the hand of God in various regions of the world.

Though my immediate family gathers quite consistently, we have, for the most part, settled with the reality that it may not always be that way. We are committed to going anywhere the Lord might lead for the sake of the gospel.

In fact, I remember saying good-bye to my grandparents when I was only 7 years old. After a wonderful season of them having lived with us, my grandparents, in an unexpected season of life, saw an opportunity to get the gospel into Russia. The night before they flew out of the country, my parents and my siblings spent time talking with them. I remember the entire family crying together. It was heartbreaking.

Yet, even then, we knew why it had to be done.

Now back in the States, my grandparents still pastor here in Southern California, as do my parents.

So we gathered on Sunday evening. I stood at my grandmother’s house until about 11pm, talking about politics, old family stories and the Lord’s agenda for the nations.

But that got me thinking about the price of ministry. We often hear of God’s blessings, and I believe in God’s blessings – the ones that make us smile.

But we’ve also been blessed with a cross. We have the honor of sacrificial response. (And I use “sacrificial” hesitantly, for the reality is that we end up being blessed anyway, so there really is no such thing as sacrifice for us – we always come up with more than we put in.)

We all have a cross to bear for the sake of the Kingdom.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” - Matthew 16:24

Notice that Jesus says this to his disciples. He doesn’t say this to admirers, listeners or fans. He says it to those who are committed to doing what He does.

To be saved, you just need faith. However, to be a disciple, it takes the rest of what you have.

The cross is a place of death. When following Christ, when doing His work, there will be things in your life that have to die. But that’s where the real power is found – in the surrendered life.

We must graduate from elementary faith, and we must pick up the cross. Not everything will be easy. Christ never promised easy. If you want to be used of God, then you must die daily, surrender all and commit totally to His purposes. My encouragement to you today: pick up your cross!

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