PRAYER, PEACE, and the PRESENCE of GOD by David Butts

As believers, we are supposed to walk in the peace of Christ, yet we all have stressful issues and circumstances that rob us of this peace. Subtitled “A 30-Day Journey to Experience the Shalom of Jesus,” Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God powerfully encourages the reader on how to hold onto that peace in any circumstance.

The author, David Butts, started writing this book and 10 days into it he got word that he was in stage 4 with a rare form of lymphoma. God allowed him to live, in a greater way, what he is challenging readers to do in Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God.

His 30-day devotional will encourage, inspire and challenge you that you, too, can experience and walk in the peace of Jesus no matter what circumstances you are walking through.

 Learn more about purchasing this book here

How does prayer actually work?  The best and simplest answer we have ever heard to this question involves a wonderful graphic developed by Dr. Alvin VanderGriend. Follow the directions below to get a good visual as we walk through the amazing miracle called prayer!

Do this quick exercise with a paper and a pencil or pen:
1. Draw a circle on your paper.
2. At the top of the circle write GOD.
3. Going clockwise, to the right of the circle write HOLY SPIRIT.
4. Continuing clockwise, at the bottom of the circle write BELIEVER.
5. Continuing clockwise, to the left of the circle write JESUS.

Next, we will work our way around the circle beginning at the top:
1. God – All prayer originates in the mind and heart GOD, for He is the Creator. His word says that God desires for His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). He created us, and created prayer as the way for us to have intimacy with Him and to communicate with Him. God wants us to seek His kingdom and righteousness first and then all of the rest will be added (Matthew 6:33). God cares about what we need, and hears the desires of our hearts. However, He wants us to focus our prayers on seeking His kingdom first…and then He will add the rest as it lines up with His kingdom plans and purposes. So, if prayer is about what God wants to have happen in His kingdom FIRST, how do we learn to pray the kingdom way rather than to focus on ourselves first?

Here is where the Holy Spirit comes into the process of prayer as we move around our circle.
2. Holy Spirit – In our humanity, we cannot know the mind of God. But the Holy Spirit knows the mind of the Father.
1 Corinthians 2:11 says: “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.” The Holy Spirit brings what is on the heart of God to the believers, so that we can pray the will of God. If we will pay attention to the Spirit, we will be able to pray effectively for the things God wants to accomplish on earth as it is in heaven.

We have an important role in prayer!
3. Believers – The Holy Spirit, having heard and knowing what is on the heart of God, brings the desires of the Father to God’s people – the Believers. This can come through the word of God, the prompting of the Spirit moving in our hearts, and through others who have heard from the Spirit. Always test anything you think you hear from the Spirit by making sure it aligns with and agrees with God’s word. Just because another person tells you he or she has heard from God, doesn’t mean they have heard correctly. It is the same with our own prayers. Be sure that what you think you hear doesn’t go against what God teaches. Sometimes we need to be submissive to the things we do not know, and recognize that we may be praying selfishly (“My will be done on earth” instead of “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”)

God’s best outcome is often outside of our knowing, which is why the Holy Spirit comes alongside of us to help. To punctuate this point, Romans 8:26-27 (TLB) says, “And in the same way—by our faith—the Holy Spirit helps us with our daily problems and in our praying. For we don’t even know what we should pray for nor how to pray as we should, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with such feeling that it cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows, of course, what the Spirit is saying as he pleads for us in harmony with God’s own will.” Isn’t it good to know that the Holy Spirit will help us pray what is on the heart of God when we don’t have the words, or when we aren’t sure how to pray in certain situations?

Jesus Himself tells us, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (1 John 5:14-15).

This passage compels us to believe that those things which we know are on the heart of God are things He wants us to pray. He states clearly that He will answer these kinds of prayers. Here are a few that prayers we can pray with full confidence that God wants to answer:

• Father, we ask that all people will have an opportunity to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ: “And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it, and then, finally, the end will come (Matthew 24:14).
• Lord God, I pray that Your people would be one, just as Jesus prayed: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:22-23).
• Father, please help me to love others as You have loved me: “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you (John 15:12).

Our prayer ascends to the Father through Jesus Christ:
4. Jesus – When we have aligned our prayers with the will of God, and have put our hearts in a posture of submission to the Holy Spirit, we can confidently take our prayers to God through the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we now have direct access to God the Father.

This compels us to trust what God’s word says: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Praying “in the name of Jesus” isn’t a magic formula and doesn’t mean tacking on five words at the end of every prayer. It doesn’t mean that if we don’t say these words, God won’t hear our prayer. It does mean that we are taking our prayers directly to God our Father through the power of the Risen Christ because we are His followers and believe the words of Jesus. When we pray, we stand before our Father’s throne of grace and He hears us because we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We believe that Jesus and the Father are One. Here are two scriptures to help us understand what Jesus means:

• “Then you will present your petitions over my signature! And I won’t need to ask the Father to grant you these requests, for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from the Father “(John 16:26-27).
• “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you” (John 16:23).

Where is the weak link in prayer?
What’s so amazing for us to realize is that prayer is three-fourths GOD, interacting with the one-fourth that is…us! The Trinity is actively involved in prayer, and we, as the believers, have been invited into the process by our Creator, who made us in His image to commune and to communicate with Him.

So, if prayer breaks down on some level, where is the weak link in the cycle? If you said, “Me!” or “Us!” you are correct!

Many times we try to do everything on our own – to be the answer to our prayers apart from God, but “we do not have if we do not ask” (James 4:2). Sometimes our last resort instead of our first response to needs or situations is prayer…we try everything else first.

This should compel us to spend more time praying! Prayer is not simply something we are supposed to do because we are Christians. It is something God has told us we MUST do, and that He desires us to do. Sometimes prayer is our worship (loving on God). Other times, it is just sitting in His presence enjoying His company. It can also be listening to discern what the Holy Spirit is telling us about the heart of God, and what He wants us to pray about. Once we align ourselves with His will (plans and purposes), we can feel confident approaching God at this point to intercede (praying for others and situations) and petition Him (praying for our own needs). Seek first the kingdom of God a

Understanding this cycle of prayer will help you as you gain confidence in praying! Soon, connecting with God in prayer will be second-nature and you will be able to come to His throne of grace with boldness!

(c) Harvest Prayer Ministries

PRAYER, PEACE, and the PRESENCE of GOD by David Butts

As believers, we are supposed to walk in the peace of Christ, yet we all have stressful issues and circumstances that rob us of this peace. Subtitled “A 30-Day Journey to Experience the Shalom of Jesus,” Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God powerfully encourages the reader on how to hold onto that peace in any circumstance.

When author, David Butts (1953-2022), first started writing this book, he got word ten days into the project that he was in stage 4 with a rare form of lymphoma. God not only allowed him to complete the book, but to live for five more full-strength years. His 30-day devotional will encourage, inspire and challenge you to walk in the peace of Jesus no matter what situations or struggles you are walking through.

Learn more about purchasing this book here

By Kim Butts

One of the most neglected aspects of our prayer lives–whether individual or corporate, is the need for confession and repentance. We all know that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all know that when we ask for forgiveness with a truly repentant heart, it is freely given to us by the grace of God through the blood of Christ. So, if we as Christians know this and believe it….why are we so negligent in practicing it?

Why is confession so often overlooked or glossed over in personal and corporate prayer? Is it, perhaps, that the weight of guilt from certain sins sometimes leaves us paralyzed and unable to act? Is it because so many “little” sinful acts are not considered important enough to bring before God? The “white lie” or the “little bit of gossip” or the “fleeting thoughts” have become so insignificant that we don’t even look upon them as sin. Our culture has left us desensitized to the “little sins.”

We are daily becoming more morally corrupt–one “minor” sin at a time. When we can continually stretch what we will allow our minds to absorb and our eyes to take in from our social media, televisions, movies, the books we read, the people we are around, etc. we are becoming more and more a part of the world and less and less a part of the kingdom of God. If we would just stop to think how the Lord of the Universe, who lives in us, views the things we consider “acceptable,” our mind-sets would change drastically.

If we would continually ask the question, “Is this pleasing to God?” we would have no difficulty discerning what we need to stay away from. Instead, we gradually begin to look more like those who are in the world rather than reflecting the image of Christ.

Dick Eastman, in The Hour That Changes the World, says, “Confession is a heartfelt recognition of what we are. It is important to God because it indicates that we take seriously our mistakes and failures. Of course, God does not ask us to confess our sins because He needs to know we have sinned, but because He knows that we need to know we have sinned.”

Many of us, when we do confess, take a matter-of-fact, less-than-contrite approach. We expect God to immediately forgive us for saying the right words…like when we were children apologizing only to keep from being punished or only because we were caught–not because our hearts were repentant. “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit” (Psalm 32:2); “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

What God wants from us is holiness–which can only come from a truly repentant heart. The Lord has called our hearts to purity and moral uprightness–under whatever circumstances we find ourselves. Bending God’s standards for our lives is never acceptable, and yet over and over we rationalize them to please others, or to be accepted. E. M. Bounds has said, “Men do not love holy praying, because they do not love holy living.” Settling for less than God’s best for us allows the enemy to chip away at our moral character. When we let our guard down –as individuals and as the Church–the enemy is waiting to advance, and to take advantage of our weakness.

God’s people need to be holy as He is holy. Holiness doesn’t “settle” for small amounts of sin. Any sin grieves the Father who loves us. Our standards should never be set by others–only by God, whose standards are clear and commanded. He is under no obligation to answer our prayers if we have sin in our lives. Dick Eastman has some wonderful insights into the necessity of confession in prayer. He says, “My prayer life will never rise above my personal life in Jesus Christ. If my personal life touches too much of the world, my prayer life suffers.”

“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18). “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).

Eastman continues, “According to Scripture there can be no effective prayer life where sin maintains its grip in the life of the believer. This is why confession is critical to our praying and should be implemented early in prayer. It clears the conscience of faith-killing guilt and opens the heart to truly believe God will hear our petitions.”

Confession gives God access into our hearts and removes any hindrances to effective prayer. Harold Lindsell, in his book, When You Pray, describes confession as a type of spiritual surgery when he says, “It (confession) works healing to the wound incurred in the heart. Just as the surgeon lances a boil to permit the infection to drain and to heal from the inside, so confession opens the sore, drains the poison, and heals from within.”

Our sins, large or small, should grieve us enough to desire never to do them again. “No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him” (1 John 3:6). Let’s not wait until the burden of our sin drives us to our knees (Psalm 32:3-5). Instead, let’s go to God regularly, willingly asking Him to examine our hearts and “see if there is any offensive way in us” (Psalm 139:23-24). We should make a prayer habit of “keeping short accounts” with God. According to John Allan Lavendar, “Before you pray for a change in circumstances, you should pray for a change in character.” As we confess before Him, and true repentance takes place in our hearts, then fruit will be the result. “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance….” (Luke 3:8).

God is waiting to pour out revival on a repentant, earnestly praying Church. He is waiting for the prayers of His people who are grieving over the moral condition of this nation and this world. “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). Coming into God’s presence with repentant hearts in the act of confession paves the way for His grace in the act of forgiveness, and frees us for the ultimate goal of prayer: glorifying God with world-changing prayer!

Kim Butts is the co-founder and Executive Director of Harvest Prayer Ministries. She has authored several books, some with husband, Dave (1953-2022), including: The Praying Family and Pray Like the King

© Harvest Prayer Ministries

PRAYER, PEACE, and the PRESENCE of GOD by David Butts

As believers, we are supposed to walk in the peace of Christ, yet we all have stressful issues and circumstances that rob us of this peace. Subtitled “A 30-Day Journey to Experience the Shalom of Jesus,” Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God powerfully encourages the reader on how to hold onto that peace in any circumstance.

The author, David Butts, started writing this book and 10 days into it he got word that he was in stage 4 with a rare form of lymphoma. God allowed him to live, in a greater way, what he is challenging readers to do in Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God.

His 30-day devotional will encourage, inspire and challenge you that you, too, can experience and walk in the peace of Jesus no matter what circumstances you are walking through.

 Learn more about purchasing this book here

by David Butts

“Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed,” he said.“Peace! Be strong now; be strong.” When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my Lord, since you have given me strength.” (Daniel 10:19)

Have you ever had such an amazing encounter with God that you thought you were going to die? Time and again in the Scriptures, we read of those who had such encounters. Without exception, there was great fear as they came into contact with God, whether it was Moses listening to God from a burning bush, or Mary receiving a message from the angel Gabriel.

The prophet Daniel had one of the more spectacular encounters as he was given a vision of an angelic being, who in all probability was the Lord Jesus in his pre-incarnate state. The similarities of the description in Daniel 10 of the angelic being and the clear description of Jesus as seen by the Apostle John in Revelation 1 are striking. Daniel’s response was to lose all strength and fall down before the Lord.

God dealt with Daniel’s fear in ways that are encouraging to us all. He spoke his peace to Daniel and everything changed. God’s peace always has that sort of dramatic effect in our lives. The Lord assured Daniel of his love for him and then spoke peace over him. More than words, the speaking of peace into someone’s life becomes a conduit for peace actually to begin to flow into an individual’s life. With the peace of God coming into Daniel’s life, the Lord could speak of strength and courage, and it had real meaning to Daniel.

It was in this place of peace where Daniel was strengthened that he could finally summon the courage to ask the Lord to speak to him. Do you suppose that it is often fear and lack of peace that prevents us from hearing what the Lord might be saying to us? We so often play the “what if?” game, which breeds fear and uncertainty to the point that we really don’t want to hear from God for fear of what He might say. His peace though, clears out those fears, brings strength, and puts us in a good place for the Lord to speak into our lives.

We often use the phrase, “paralyzed by fear.” That’s what fear does when it takes charge of our lives. We become too frightened to make decisions or to choose which way to go. Whether the fears are based on reality or fantasy is not even the issue. It is fear that prevents us from action. That’s why we so often quote the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as he attempted to calm the fears of a nation paralyzed by the Great Depression, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

God has a supernatural way for us to deal with fear. It is accepting his peace into who we are. Receiving His assurances of love as Daniel did, we hear his words of peace and our fears begin to melt away. Strength comes as fears melt away, and peace resumes its rightful place over our heart.

My Prayer
Lord, I am so thankful that you understand the fears that I face. You don’t ever simply tell me to get over it. Instead, you assure me of your love and give me your peace. I confess my great need for this in our day of confusion and turmoil. I desperately need the peace that only comes from you.

Prayer Point
Ask the Lord not to allow you to be paralyzed by fear but always to be strengthened by his peace.

From Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God: A 30-Day Journey to Experience the Shalom of Jesus by David Butts ©PrayerShop Publishing, 2017

PRAYER, PEACE, and the PRESENCE of GOD by David Butts

As believers, we are supposed to walk in the peace of Christ, yet we all have stressful issues and circumstances that rob us of this peace. Subtitled “A 30-Day Journey to Experience the Shalom of Jesus,” Prayer, Peace and the Presence of God powerfully encourages the reader on how to hold onto that peace in any circumstance.

When author, David Butts (1953-2022), first started writing this book, he got word ten days into the project that he was in stage 4 with a rare form of lymphoma. God not only allowed him to complete the book, but to live for five more full-strength years. His 30-day devotional will encourage, inspire and challenge you to walk in the peace of Jesus no matter what situations or struggles you are walking through.

Learn more about purchasing this book here