Hill of Crosses, Lithuania 

 

Prayer

The typical leader of a disciple-making movement prays an average of two hours a day—not to deliver a laundry list of requests, but especially to align with God's heart for the world and especially for the lost (2 Cor 5:14–6:3), release workers for God's harvest (Luke 10:2), and so on. Here is a short video on the topic from movement catalysts in east Africa.

This doesn't necessarily mean two consecutive dedicated hours, though many do that. It does mean a constantly open line of communication with God, so that one's whole day is a kind of dialogue.

Want to move in these direction? Here are some models to draw from, starting with a set of prayer guides you can try out and adapt, either for extended times or for shorter intervals throughout the day, alone or in a group.

For longer dedicated times, This guide, from Zúme training, structures an hour's worth of prayer into a 'prayer circle' with twelve elements. You can go through it alone or with others. At first I set a five-minute timer, but soon I could just move on when the time was right—and that would often take more than five minutes.

I myself really can't sustain such a long dedicated prayer time on a daily basis; like working out every day, it taxes me. But it's rich and productive when I do it.

  1. PRAISE: Start your prayer hour by praising the Lord. Praise Him for things that are on your mind right now. Praise Him for one special thing He has done in your life in the past week. Praise Him for His goodness to your family.
  2. WAIT: Spend time waiting on the Lord. Be silent and let Him pull together reflections for you.
  3. CONFESS: Ask the Holy Spirit to show you anything in your life that might be displeasing to Him. Ask Him to point out attitudes that are wrong, as well as specific acts for which you have not yet made a prayer of confession. Now confess that to the Lord so that you might be cleansed.
  4. READ THE WORD: Spend time reading in the Psalms, in the prophets, and passages on prayer located in the New Testament.
  5. ASK: Make requests on behalf of yourself.
  6. INTERCEDE: Make requests on behalf of others.
  7. PRAY THE WORD: Pray specific passages. Scriptural prayers as well as a number of Psalms lend themselves well to this purpose.
  8. THANK: Give thanks to the Lord for the things in your life, on behalf of your family, and on behalf of your fellow believers or church.
  9. SING: Sing songs of praise or worship or another hymn or spiritual song.
  10. MEDITATE: Ask the Lord to speak to you. Have a pen and paper ready to record impressions He gives you.
  11. LISTEN: Spend time merging the things you have read, things you have prayed, and things you have sung and see how the Lord brings them all together to speak to you.
  12. PRAISE: Praise the Lord for the time you have had to spend with Him and the impressions He has given you. Praise Him for His glorious qualities.

Multiplying Prayer Using a Calendar

One person praying like this is terrific! But flourishing movements recruit whole legions (LOL) of praying disciples, because they've found that "before every disciple-making movement is a prayer movement." A useful tool for doing that is a 30-day prayer calendar you use to pray for people once per month. You keep in touch by asking them how you can pray for them, and encourage them to start their own calendars. On my phone's Google Calendar is an entry for each person that repeats monthly. Simple!