Dear Prayer Warriors, We are excited to announce the publishing of our workbook – Lord Teach Us To Pray. This workbook has been developed and revised over a period of more than 20 years in our discipleship ministry with individuals, couples and families.
If you do not find it at your local bookstore you may order it online directly from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/ - type “Lord Teach Us To Pray Mahon” in the search box; or, simply Google “Lord Teach Us To Pray Mahon.” It is available both in softbound workbook format and as an EBook, whichever is most helpful for you. Or… For your convenience I have also included the deep link to the Amazon webpage http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Teach-Us-Pray-Daily-ebook/dp/B00VAL0YJK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434674402&sr=8-1&keywords=lord+teach+us+to+pray+mahon&pebp=1434674405530&perid=0AR72ZP84HY73V4BBG73
It has long been available for free on our website (www.gciweb.org) but we have had more and more requests for a published copy by those who did not want to print it at home or have it printed and bound at their local copy shop. We were very excited and gratified when Westbow Press (a subsidiary of Nelson Publishing) contacted us about publishing it.
All proceeds from the sale of this workbook go to the GCI account to purchase Bibles, Bible study aids and Bible reference works for ministries in Africa and Russia.
God has greatly used this workbook in marriages as the husband and wife develop a lifestyle of praying together through a shared devotional time. It culminates in the formation of your very own prayer notebook, which you and your spouse can use together. It is also very useful as a family devotional guide for your daily family altar - again, resulting in each member of the family having their own personal prayer notebook, which they will use for years to come.
My daughter, Lizzy, and her husband, Joe, are using it for their small group. I have used it in this way very successfully, as well as a one-on-one discipleship tool. Last, but not least, it is a stand-alone workbook that can be given to anyone who wants to develop a lifestyle of prayer. I trust it will be a blessing to you, to your family and to those whom you seek to disciple for Christ.
This workbook arose from a need which has transcended every aspect of culture and ministry in which I have been involved since the early 1970s. During the last 40 years of discipleship ministry I have often asked myself, as I listened to modern praise music, to Christian radio and TV, “Since when did faith change from our trusting God as we seek to do His will, to our getting God to do our will?” When did man begin to place his faith in belief as opposed to Christ? The current mantra of the fasting movement, the night in prayer movement, the storehouse movement is, “If I can only believe enough then I can get this thing to work.” Of course that is not the case. We do not place our faith in belief but, instead, in Christ. We do not believe in the power of faith but in the power of the resurrected Savior to save us for eternity. In prayer, faith in Christ and belief in Christ are both important. There is, however, a BIG difference between placing faith in Christ and placing faith in belief. When you place faith in Christ, the outcome resides with another. When you place faith in belief, the outcome resides in your mental process. When you believe in Christ, the outcome resides with another. When you believe in faith, the outcome resides in your mental process. In prayer, since faith and prayer are aligned, it is important to remember… 1. God is not what we believe. By faith, we believe what God is, as revealed in His Holy Word. 2. God’s will is not what we believe. By faith, we believe God’s will as revealed in His Holy Word. 3. God does not do what we believe. Instead, by faith we believe what God does as revealed in His Holy Word. 4. By a “word of faith” command, God does not do our bidding. Instead, by faith in Christ, we do His bidding --as revealed in His holy, eternal, inerrant written Word. 5. Faith is not the ability to get God to act on our behalf. Instead, by faith we believe that He has acted and is acting on our behalf and trust in His sovereign, good and holy will. 6. By faith, we do not get God to get up off His throne and run here and there doing our will, but, instead, we get up off our knees and run here and there doing His will. 7. By faith we do not thank God for something which we do not know for certain He will give us but, instead, by faith we thank God for the privilege of serving Him and speaking to Him, irrespective of His decisions concerning our requests.
Remember: God can do anything, but He doesn’t. He only does His good and holy will, as revealed in the holy, eternal, inerrant written Word of God.
This brings us to prayer, because how we pray is important to God. By “how we pray,” I also include what we say in our prayers. Though many know this truth, the reality is that, for many, prayer is little more than the disciplines of confession (“Don’t do anything bad to me when I sin”) and supplication (“Get busy and fix my health, job, finances and relationships.”) However, payer is much more than these two disciplines. The error in this prevalent thinking is revealed in the popular song, “You don’t have to know how to pray, you don’t have to know what to say, as long as you say Jesus.” Nothing could be further from the truth, as clearly taught in James 4:3-- “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” From the earliest teachings in the Law concerning prayer (such as Deuteronomy 12:13,14; 14:23; 16:5, 6,) God- not man- defines prayer and worship--what is and is not important in worship and how, when and where to worship. Man has never been free to worship God in any way he chooses. God has and will always instruct man on prayer. In prayer, we are not equals conversing one with another but man, in humble obedience, approaches his Creator--the Lord of the universe, the Judge of the living and the dead. In fact, in Holy Scriptures there are many examples of the tragedy of men deciding that they can pray on their own terms. These include I Sam 13:9 – 14 Saul and the hasty evening offering, I Sam 15:15 – 23 Saul and the spoil of the Amalekites, I Kings 12:30-33 Israel, the northern kingdom, sins by worshiping God on the high places and many more.
This, then, was the impetus and driving thought behind the development of the “How To Pray” Workbook--to offer a tool whereby disciples of Christ might learn directly from God the Holy Spirit how to “pray in the Spirit,” which means to pray in accordance with the holy, eternal, inerrant, written Words of God the Holy Spirit. For messages on our website concerning how to pray, just follow this link. http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?sourceOnly=true&currSection=sermonssource&keyword=gci&subsetcat=topics&subsetitem=prayer
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Grace Community Int.
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