Priscilla Shirer: Making Prayer a Priority

Priscilla Shirer joins Laurie Crouch and Holly Wagner on TBN’s Praise to discuss prayer, hearing the voice of God, and growing in our relationship with Him. Listen as they discuss different ways that we can actively pursue growing closer to God as we learn to pray intentionally.

“If I were your enemy, I’d disguise myself and manipulate your perspectives so that you’d focus on the wrong culprit—your husband, your friend, your hurt, your finances, anything or anyone except me. Because when you zero in on the most convenient, obvious places to strike back against your problems, you get the impression you’re fighting for something. Even though all you’re really doing is just . . . fighting. For nothing.”
― Priscilla Shirer

You’ll be amazed how you’ll begin to see the encounters that you have the circumstances that align the little beckonings and convictions of God’s spirit, how they all begin to work together to help you to realize you actually are hearing God’s voice and seeing His providence as he steers you in the direction of His will for your life.
It occurred to me that while I did value prayer, I had neglected intentionality with prayer.
Um being strategic in prayer, actually trying to detect where you see the enemy’s fingerprints at um at kind of his handiwork, meddling in your life.
Um where you anticipate He might want to take advantage of a weakness or a, or a, a bit of divisiveness.
Um and just being mindful of that so that when we pray, we’re not just randomly saying words that we’ve heard all along or words that we’ve kind of memorized along the way or words that are comfortable to us.
But we’re actually um praying in a way that is targeted.
It’s kind of exactly what you described a few moments doing the work to find the promises of God that actually apply and everything that we intentional prayer.
Um And then writing it down, sometimes we need to write our prayers down only because it keeps us focused.
It reminds us what we praying about. You know.
So when it’s posted there in that war room and you come back in there day after day, you’re reminded, this is your prayer.
This is where you’re focusing your um your prayer life on and, and until I see an answer, I’m gonna keep praying this prayer.
It also gives you a great track record with God.
Because then when God does answer, you can see that date at the top of that page of when you started praying that and then you’ll be able to put a date down of when God answered.
However, in his sovereignty, he chose to what a great track record, not just for you but your grandchildren and your great grandchildren to see how grandmama or uh grandpa prayed and believed that God would answer.
I think the thing I loved about uh you know, even and the prayer because in Ephesians six, it talks about the armor, you know, which we’re familiar with.
But then prayer is, yeah, that’s right. Kicks into to that sword.
It, it’s, and it’s not the, the, the prayer that’s oh God, why you know the whining?
I mean, you can do that for a minute because we all need to whine for a minute.
The complaining side, you can complain to God because the Psalms David complained for a bit.
I mean, you know, he went, he went on a journey with God.
He, he was in and real with his pain and agony before God.
And so there’s gotta be a rising and there has to be a point where you, that’s the thing.
So at some point, yes, do the complaining.
But at some point, you have to begin speaking the truth of what God has to say about your marriage, about your health and about your family, about reconciliation.
And I just remember even that for me with um just some situations and you know, family and extended family, that was hard, it was so hard and, and I remember moments of, you know, the complaining before God because of course, I was perfect and they were the problem.
Well, everybody else needs to change. Yes, they would, it would really help out my life totally.
Um then, but so I, you know, complained but then I started, you know, talking about pulling out the scriptures that talked about unity and reconciliation and, and together and faithfulness and just declaring that.
And I’ve seen God do what only he could do in the lives of people.
I mean, I saw it in my health, but I also have also seen in relationships with people.
And so I just think that that if, if people understood more about the power, you know, some people say, well, all I can do is pray.
No No, that’s not all that’s the, that’s the thing to do, right?
Is, is 2nd 2nd chronicle 7, 14.
If my people, right, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, right, then he’s gonna heal our land.
We’re too busy complaining about our land and our government and all that’s happening. It’s like, well, you can complain.
But if you prayed as much as you complained, maybe we would see something different.
And you know what if I were your enemy? What I’d want to do is devalue in your mind.
The potency of what I know to be the most powerful weapon you have against me.
So he’s made our churches focus on being a house of great programs or a house of great preaching and a house of great singing when they’re supposed to be a house of prayer because it’s the prayer that pushes back the kingdom of darkness.
So if I were the enemy, that’s exactly what I do. I devalue.
What I knew was the most potent weapon that you had in your arsenal against me.
So we do everything first except pray, pray. And so for you uh personally.
So how do you, when do you, when do you pray? Are you late at night person?
Are you the middle of the day person? Are you?
Well, I first of all, lest anyone think that my life is, you know, I’m up on a mountain top praying and God all day.
That’s right. Um My life is very much like everybody else’s that, it’s just laundries and laundering kids.
And it’s kind of that thing where, you know, once your feet hit the floor in the morning is over, it’s just full on for the rest of the day.
Right? And so um I have this ongoing uh actually part of my prayer is Lord, would you continue to help me to prioritize this in my life?
Because it can so easily kind of get pushed off of the, that, that position of priority.
So I just say, Lord, I need you to stir, I don’t wanna manufacture passion.
I want you to stir in me a passion to where I don’t wanna go a day without prioritizing prayer and then hearing back from you listening to you through the scriptures.
And so I try to do that in the morning because it seems like that’s the best time.
If I wait till the end of the day, I’m it, it ain’t gonna happen. That’s the same with me.
No. If I don’t, if in the morning, if I, if it doesn’t happen, then yeah, then it just gets, it’s like if it doesn’t happen just the very first time I know then once you get going, it’s, it’s true.
But I will say I learned a bit from Brother Lawrence that, you know, age old saint from that book, practicing the presence of God.
Um That really just gives us.
Freedom lifts that burden off of us, of feeling like if we don’t have an hour to spend with the Lord at the beginning of the day that it’s a waste of time to practice God’s presence all day long.
So my kids are a little bit older now, but I went through a season four or 56 years there where I would just write down scripture verse on a three by five card.
The same one on five different cards maybe.
And I’d put one on the bathroom mirror where I’d be washing little hands all day.
One where I was gonna be doing the dishes, one where I was folding clothes, one near the sandbox outside.
And I just would have the same verse for like two weeks.
So everywhere I went, I was just running into this verse.
And by the time I got to the end of the day, not only had me and the Lord talked about this one verse a lot.
Not only was it inscribed on my heart, but it became God’s word to me.
It became um something that really there was life in it.
It wasn’t just a verse I’d learned there was life in it because me and God been talking all day long for a couple of weeks about the sentiments that he’d um inscribed in this, in this passage of scripture.
So I think that idea of practicing the presence of God. Um It takes that guilt off of.
I didn’t have my quiet time and it didn’t look like this and it didn’t fit in a comfortable little box.
Well, look, do it however you gotta do it. Practice his presence all day long. How do we do that?
Well, number one, by being creative with how you can feed yourself on his word.
So my sister, five kids, she’s got this little clip on our dashboard.
She’ll do the same thing, write a three by five card down with scripture and she puts it in that clip.
And so, you know, running errands for two hours every day, trying to get kids to soccer practice and everything.
She’s just running face to face um in face to face with this with this verse over and over throughout the scriptures.
When things come up in the middle of the day that are problems, you might call a girlfriend about, you might, you can still call her, but also call on God, just ask him about it.
Ask him about what scripture verse applies to this particular uh circumstance.
How would he want to lead and guide you?
And you’ll be amazed how you begin to see the encounters that you have the circumstances that align the little beckonings and convictions of God’s spirit, how they all begin to work together to help you to realize you actually are hearing God’s voice and seeing His providence as he steers you in the direction of his will for your life.