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January 29 - February 2, 2023
Prayer and praise are both expressions of faith, but praise is a higher dimension of faith. Prayer is asking God to do something, future tense; praise is believing that God has already done it, past tense.
God does miracles for one reason and one reason alone: to spell His glory. We just happen to be the beneficiaries.
There are moments in life when you need to stop pleading and start praising. If God has put a promise in your heart, praise Him for it. You need to celebrate as if it has already happened. You need to stop asking, because God has already answered. And for the record, even if God doesn’t answer the way you want, you still need to praise through.
Resurrection is something we celebrate every day in every way. Prayer has the power to resurrect dead dreams and give them new life — eternal life.
Imagination is the road less taken, but it is the pathway of prayer. Prayer and imagination are directly proportional: the more you pray the bigger your imagination becomes because the Holy Spirit supersizes it with God-sized dreams.
You’re never too old to go after the dreams God has put in your heart. And for the record, you’re never too young either. Age is never a valid excuse.
He never stopped dreaming because he never stopped praying.
If you keep praying, you’ll keep dreaming, and conversely, if you keep dreaming, you’ll keep praying. Dreaming is a form of praying, and praying is a form of dreaming. The more you pray the bigger your dreams will become. And the bigger your dreams become the more you will have to pray.
dream is often a subtle form of idolatry. We lose faith in the God who gave us the big dream and settle for a small dream that we can accomplish without His help. We go after dreams that don’t require divine intervention.
Nothing honors God more than a big dream that is way beyond our ability to accomplish. Why? Because there is no way we can take credit for it. And nothing is better for our spiritual development than a big dream because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence on God.
his willingness to look foolish resulted in epic miracles
Drawing prayer circles often feels foolish. And the bigger the circle you draw the more foolish you’ll feel.
But if you aren’t willing to step out of the boat, you’ll never walk on water. If you aren’t willing to circle the city, the wall will never fall. And if you aren’t willing to follow the star, you’ll miss out on the greatest adventure of your life. In order to experience a miracle, you have to take a risk. And one of the most difficult types of risk to take is risking your reputation.
You cannot build God’s reputation if you aren’t willing to risk yours. There comes a moment when you need to make the call or make the move. Circle makers are risk takers.
There are miracles all around us all the time, yet it’s so easy to find something to complain about in the midst of those miracles.
If you put what little you have in your hand into the hand of God, it won’t just add up; God will make it multiply.
He thanked God for the miracle before the miracle happened.
one of the craziest visions he ever cast. It doesn’t add up, but the will of God never does add up by human calculation.
I learned that if you aren’t willing to put yourself in “this is crazy” situations, you’ll never experience “this is awesome” moments. If you aren’t willing to run off the cliff, you’ll never fly. I also learned that paragliding is amazing for your prayer life. You can’t not pray when you are running off a cliff. The same is true when we take a flying leap of faith.
It often seems like circling the promises of God is risky, but it’s not nearly as risky as not circling the promises of God. The greatest risk is failing to circle the promises of God because we forfeit the miracles God wants to perform.
believe in the law of measures. If you give big, God will bless big.
God doesn’t just provide in dramatic fashion; God provides in dramatic proportion.
If you give beyond your ability, God will bless you beyond your ability.
God isn’t offended by big dreams; He’s offended by anything less. Your dreams may start out small, and God will honor those humble dreams, but as your faith grows so do your dreams until you dare to dream thirty-, sixty-, hundredfold dreams.
If you aren’t careful, the will of God can become a cop-out if things don’t turn out the way you want.
We’re giving this gift because you have vision beyond your resources.”
It’s tough to discern between natural desires and holy desires, but I was about 90 percent sure it was the Holy Spirit who put that promise in my heart.
think I was trying to manufacture the miracle for God. This is what we often try to do, isn’t it?
But when we try to do God’s job for Him, it always backfires.
If we repent, God always recycles our mistakes.
God answered those selfish prayers, they would actually short-circuit the purposes of God in our lives. We would fail to learn the lessons God is trying to teach us or cultivate the character God is trying to shape in us.
Finally, I learned that we shouldn’t seek answers as much as we should seek God. We get overanxious.
If you seek answers you won’t find them, but if you seek God, the answers will find you.
When you circle a promise in prayer, you can’t never always sometimes tell. Anything could happen!
You never know when or how or where God will answer it. Prayer adds an element of surprise to your life that is more fun than a surprise party or surprise gift or surprise romance. In fact, prayer turns life into a party, a gift, a romance.
I’m in awe of the strange and mysterious ways in which God works, but I have come to expect the unexpected because God is predictably unpredictable.
The only thing I can predict with absolute certainty is this: the more you pray the more holy surprises will happen.
When you draw a prayer circle, even if that circle is limited by your ignorance, you never know how or when or where God will answer it.
“Lord, do something unpredictable and uncontrollable.”
And you can’t have it both ways. If you want God to surprise you, you have to give up control. You will lose a measure of predictability, but you will begin to see God move in uncontrollable ways!
Anything could happen. Anyplace. Anytime.
afternoon.” But that’s what I love about it. When you pray regularly, you never know when God will show up or speak up.
You know that coincidences are providences. Any moment can turn into a holy moment.
Yet how appropriate that this holy surprise happens on the birthday of the church. God threw a surprise party!
It’s at this place where God wants to do something unprecedented that many of us get stuck spiritually. Instead of operating by faith, we switch back to our default setting of logic.
Are you willing to be perplexed? Are you open to holy surprises? Do you have the courage for God to move in unpredictable and uncontrollable ways?
Never underestimate the power of a single prayer. God can do anything through anyone who circles their big dreams with bold prayers.
With God, there is no precedent, because all things are possible.
So go ahead and plan, but make sure you circle your plans in prayer.
So keep planning like it depends on you, but make sure you pray like it depends on God. Prayer is the alpha and omega of planning. Don’t just brainstorm; praystorm.
