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If you have your ear turned toward God these days, I suspect you've heard Him say something to you about prayer. He's been calling you to spend more time in it, to make it a higher priority in your life.

How do I know? Because He's been telling me the same thing. In fact, the more people I talk to about it, the more convinced I am that God is calling all His people to prayer.

We Have To Walk In The Spirit
The reason is simple. These are the last of the last days. God is ready to move through us in magnificent and supernatural ways. But He can't do that if we're not walking in the spirit. He can't work through people who are so busy with the affairs of the flesh that they can't hear His voice.

He needs people who will pray - not just when they happen to think about it, but every day. He needs people who will build their whole lives around prayer and make it their number one priority.

Have you ever noticed how Jesus operated when He was on the earth? He placed great importance on prayer. His prayer life was absolutely amazing. The night before He chose the twelve disciples, He was in prayer all night long!

Well, Jesus didn't do things one way and tell us to do something else. He expects us to follow His example. First Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to "pray without ceasing." Ephesians 6:18 tells us to pray "always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." All through the New Testament we're told to pray! And now it's time for us to do our job. I don't mean just one or two of us - I mean the whole army of God.

Your natural human reaction to that call for prayer may be to say, "Hey, I hardly have time enough to handle all the crises in my life as it is now. I can't afford to spend any more time in prayer!" But, the truth is, you can't afford not to. You need to tap into what time spent with the Father can do for you.

That's what I did. Some time ago, God spoke to me that if I'd give Him a tithe of my time - just an hour or two a day in the Word and prayer - all would be well with me. And not only with me, but that I'd be a blessing to the people around me.

He's made that same promise to you. It's right there for you to read in Romans 8:28. There the Holy Spirit says: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

It's when we begin to make prayer our priority - to lay aside the natural things and take up the things of God and walk in the power of the Spirit - that the glory of God will be reflected in us.

If we want to have the power of God in our lives, we have to get rid of this tunnel vision we've had. We have to quit spending all our time thinking about our little surroundings, our little life, and what we're doing day to day. We have to start giving ourselves to things that will make an eternal difference. We have to start giving ourselves to prayer.

God has glorious plans for us in the spirit realm. But if we don't spend time in that realm, praying and listening to God, we're not going to get in on those plans.

Think of your spirit like a kind of inner radio. If you don't tune it to exactly the right frequency, all you get is static and meaningless noise. But if you tune in to the station exactly, everything comes in loud and clear.

God wants us to fine-tune ourselves in the realm of the spirit. He wants us to tune our spirit so we can pick Him up clearly and definitely. He wants us to be able to hear His voice so we can obey it.

That's why He's telling us to put prayer first, to make communication with Him top priority, to shut out the world and spend time in prayer and in the Word. When we do that, He can begin to fine-tune our spirit to hear His voice. His voice is indistinct to us because we spend so much of our time caught up in natural things.

As we begin to come into this place of hearing, we'll be in one accord because we'll all know what the mind of the Spirit is. We'll have our minds and hearts in tune with what God's doing - and then when we come together, there will be an explosion of God's power that will turn the world upside down!

This calling to live in the spirit and in power is drawing us forward. In my spirit, I can see it like a carrot dangling in front of a horse. It is so close to us. All we have to do to reach it is to take a few more steps, to learn to listen to the Spirit of God, and make the adjustments He tells us to make.

"Oh, Gloria," you say, "you just don't know how hectic my life is. I just can't do that!"
Yes, you can. It's just a matter of rearranging your priorities.

Think of it this way. If you walked through your kitchen tomorrow morning on your way to work and Jesus was sitting at your kitchen table, what would you do? Would you say, "Jesus! I'm so glad to see You! I wish I had time to visit. If I'd gotten up earlier, I could spend some time with You. But I watched television so late last night and I've been so busy lately - so much work at the office and everything. How about I try to catch You later?"

Ridiculous, isn't it? What would you really do if Jesus were physically sitting at your kitchen table in the morning? You'd fall on your face before Him. You'd hang on to every moment and say, "I'm not going to work today, Jesus. There are so many things we need to talk about. I can't pass up an opportunity like this."

It wouldn't matter that you were tired. It wouldn't matter how busy things were at the office. You'd get before Him and begin to worship and enjoy times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord until your body wasn't tired any longer.

Do you understand that Jesus actually is closer than your breakfast table? His Spirit is in you -waiting to fellowship with you. When you're tempted to sleep late tomorrow, think about that.

Think about the sweet Spirit of God saying, I want to help you this morning. I'm here to strengthen you. You know that problem you've been having? I want to apply spiritual power to it so it will disappear from your life.

Think about the fact that God is waiting on you. That He has some things He wants to show you. Things you've been beating your head against the wall trying to figure out. He's just waiting to counsel you, to show you the answer.

I'll tell you this: God is not going to make you pray. Jesus is not going to make you pray. The Holy Spirit is not going to make you pray. But they are all three calling you to it. They're preparing to go into action the moment you begin.

The eternal, all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth, the Almighty God, is ready right now to meet with you in prayer. He's made your prayers His priority. The question is, have you?

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Author Biography

Gloria Copeland
Web site: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
 
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
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