Prayer Guard USA

http://pj4life1.blogspot.com

Local, National, and World News and Prayer

Take a look at your city, state, national, and world-wide news every day and pray for the things which are headlines and which grab your eye. Follow the Lord’s lead and pray for whatever weighs on your heart to pray about and make sure to keep track of these prayers in your journal.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: pj4life1@gmail.com

Not praying for one another is sin

1 Samuel 12:23a (New American Standard Bible)

²³"Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you.

If that verse doesn’t encourage us to pray for each other, what does?

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

http://alifeofseasons.blogspot.com

http://prayerguardusa.blogspot.com

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

How often?

Let's analyze our prayer lives for a moment. Grab your prayer journal and pray for God to reveal the truth of what is in you mind and heart today before you read ahead.

Now, would you define yourself as a novice in prayer, an intermediate, a prayer warrior? Explain your response.

This next question will sound like the last one, but there is a difference.

Are you a private/airman, a lieutenant, a major, or a colonel in prayer? Explain.

How often do you pray?

How long do you pray when you do?

How do you pray? What does it look like? Write a summary and answer both those questions.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)
Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals
Email: pj4life1@gmail.com

Monday, April 25, 2011

Pray to God about prayer territory

God has a specific territory each of us lives in, works in, and prays in (physically and spiritually).

Do you know what territory God has given you to pray? (Do you even know what I’m talking about?

Ask Him your purpose in prayer and what your territory is. Now is the best time to begin.

For some, the prayer territory is the workplace, their friends and family, the block they live on, the city, their state, their country, a specific country, a specific religion to convert to Christianity, the unsaved/lost etc. We are to pray for all of these things, every week at the very least, sure. That’s normal. But, one of these or a few of these things might be pressed even more so on your heart. God will share a passion about certain people, circumstances, or places in your life—or all three.

Pray to God to reveal to you what your prayer territory is.

Let give you an idea of sharing with you my territory. Conveniently, my prayer territory is also my writing territory/audience, I discovered:

Christian prayer warriors/prayer guards

Prayer Journal Keepers

The military and military spouses on the military installation closest to me

The military kids

The military families

My small group and other small groups

My church

Teens to fall in love with the Bible, prayer, prayer journaling—and become prayer guards

Christian women

The lost/unsaved

The USA as a whole and government (law, upholding Constitution, budget/spending, taxes, upholding Christian values and will of God, etc.)

I will pray the other Prayer Areas of Operation on a daily and weekly basis, but the things above are the those closest to my heart.

Does that help?

I am still praying for a clearer and more precise image of my territory, but I have a start.

So, shall we pray about what God wants from us and our prayer territories? You may want to prayer journal your thoughts and prayers regarding this issue. It’s a big one—an important one.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

Prayer Guard USA Order of Battle: Which Battle Fronts Should We Pray? (Version 3)

How should we pray and what should we pray for—every day, weekly, monthly, and so on—and do so effectively? The Order of Battle is the answer to that question.

First of all, there are areas or locations where we fight. Those are our areas or locations of our battle (operation). Take a look below in order to see what these are specifically.

Then, there are the Battle Fronts (or waves). What are these? Our prayer lives consist of people, circumstances, places, the church, and the unbelievers/lost. Take a look below in order to see what these are specifically.

There are units of prayer within each of the Battle Fronts. Take a look below in order to see what these are specifically.

Order of Battle: PRAYER AREAS OF OPERATION

~ Myself

~ Spouse

~ Children

~ Home

~ Spiritual Warfare Specifics

~ Prayer Requests

~ News (Latest News Events Reported)

~ A-S-K Prayers

~ My work and peers

~ My spouse’s work and peers

~ My children’s schools and peers

~ Family

~ Friends

~ The Block in which I live

~ My church

~ My city

~ Military base/station/post nearest to my house

~ My state

~ Military of my nation: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Cost Guard, Reserves

~ Government: laws and spending/budget

~ My nation

~ Wars of my nation

~ The Church (all the Christian churches in the world)

~ World

~ Unbelievers/Lost

~ Christian Radio and Ministries

Order of Battle: The PEOPLE Battle Front

~ 1. Prayer Request Specifics (if I know of any)

~ 2. Spiritual Health

~ 3. Circumstances

~ 4. Mental Health

~ 5. Emotional Health

~ 6. Family

~ 7. Work

~ 8. Finances

~ 9. Busyness

~ 10. Their dreams and goals

~ 11. Verses that come to mind for these people and their circumstances.

Order of Battle: The CIRCUMSTANCES Battle Front

~ 1. Identify the circumstance that needs prayer. Label it. Name it.

~ 2. Who does this impact directly?

~ 3. How does this impact you directly?

~ 4. How does this impact you indirectly?

~ 5. Why does it need prayer? What is the prayer?

~ 6. What do you HOPE happens? How do you hope to change regarding the circumstance?

~ 7. If it’s not God’s will to change it, then it’s also important to release the result of the prayer and circumstance to God. In other words, pray that His will be done.

~ 8. Verses that come to mind for these people and their circumstances.

Order of Battle: The PLACES Battle Front

These are buildings, organizations, states, cities, schools, nations, etc.

~ 1. Identify the place. Name it. Label it.

~ 2. What specific prayer requests do you have, or have you heard about the place that comes to mind?

With each prayer request, look at each of the following:

~ 3. Who is there?

~ 4. What is the importance of this place?

~ 5. How does this touch your life directly?

~ 6. How does this touch your life indirectly?

~ 7. How is God working in that place presently?

~ 8. How is the enemy at work in this place?

~ 9. How is this place glorifying to God? Pray for more of that.

~ 10. How does this place not glorify God? What change does it need in order to glorify God?

~ 11. What is the spiritual health of this place?

~ 12. How does this place build the people up within that place? Pray for more of that.

~ 13. How does this place tear down the people up within that place? Pray for less of that.

~ 14. Pray anything else that God puts on your mind.

~ 15. Verses that come to mind for these people and their circumstances.

Order of Battle: The CHURCH Battle Front

Pray this 1^st for your church. Then, once you do this, pray for your denomination. Then, pray these things for the Church as a whole.

~ 1. Prayer Request Specifics (if I know of any)

~ 2. Spiritual Health

~ 3. Circumstances

~ 4. Mental Health

~ 5. Emotional Health

~ 6. Family

~ 7. Work

~ 8. Finances

~ 9. Busyness

~ 10. Their dreams and goals

~ 11. Verses that come to mind for these people and their circumstances.

Order of Battle: The UNBELIEVERS/LOST Battle Front

List all of the people in your life that are close to you that are lost. Then, list people that you consider friends. Then, list the people you come to in your life and are acquaintances. Then, pray these things for the unbelievers of your block, city, church, state, nation, and world.

~ 1. Prayer Request Specifics (if I know of any)

~ 2. Spiritual Health

~ 3. Circumstances

~ 4. Mental Health

~ 5. Emotional Health

~ 6. Family

~ 7. Work

~ 8. Finances

~ 9. Busyness

~ 10. Their dreams and goals

~ 11. Verses that come to mind for these people and their circumstances.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: pj4life1@gmail.com

Saturday, April 23, 2011

When is the best time to pray?: pj4life thought to ponder

Now.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

Your prayer life will definitely be tested: a warning about prayer

I guess now is the time to warn you about the bad news about prayer. But, the good news is that you know you’re doing it right, and are doing the right thing regarding prayer, when this warning comes to pass as more than a warning—and becomes reality.

So, what is the warning?

Your prayers and faith will most definitely be tested. Without fail. Undoubtedly.

The more you read this blog, and the more you apply it to your life, and the more serious you get about this thing called prayer, the more tested you will be at times. It’s those times which give you ample opportunity to put into practice what you’ve learned.

I hope you know that I am being very serious about that.

You can choose to focus on those challenges as something awful and challenging. Or, you can look at it as an opportunity to practice—prayer. The choice is up to you.

Look at my last blog that I wrote today—the one before this one. If you already have, look at it again and prayer journal about it again. Pray about these prayer opportunities now so you can overcome later. Make your life easier. Make it where you become more faithful and more dependent on God, His Word, and prayer between now and during that time of challenge—rather than have be the chance to fall apart. Prayer can change this. Use it now. It’s a weapon and a tool to help you be proactive and keep you from being reactive during those times.

Re-read this blog post during your times of challenge. I know I will.

Prayer journal your thoughts and about your action plan about how you’re going to deal with your hard times, your life of seasons, now—rather than later.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

The challenging times: pj4life thought to ponder

How do you handle the challenging times? How do you handle the pain? How do you handle it when nothing ever is easy and that things always have to go the hard way? How do you handle things where it seems like the shoes keep falling, and falling, and falling?

Do you pray first or react first?

Do you trust God and keep praying?

Do you trust that God will provide all the answers—all in due time?

Be absolutely honest with yourself when you think about these things. Make sure to pray about them. Your prayers today, right now, will influence the next time you go through any of these times. So, pray up. Do it now before you go and do the things you know you shouldn’t. Give God the opportunity to orchestrate things, according to His purpose, according to His timetable, and in His way.

Take several minutes now, or as soon as you can, to prayer journal about these things. Take some time to prepare for the next challenging season. It can, and WILL, make all the difference.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: pj4life1@gmail.com

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Every prayer journal entry

Whenever you do a prayer journal entry, make sure to do the following:

~ 1. Number it. That way, you can refer to it by number if you refer to it again. It saves time when you write and journal.

~ 2. Date it. And also write the day.

~ 3. Write the time you wrote the entry.

~ 4. Leave space to write the answers to prayer. Sometimes, you don’t get the answer all at once. Sometimes, it builds. Make sure to leave plenty of space for the answer—if it’s a paper journal. If it’s a digital journal, you don’t have to worry about doing that.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

The people you pray for: pj4life thought to ponder #15

15. Make a list of everyone you have in your life in your prayer journal. Start with the following list:

List of Family Members to Pray for:

~ Mom

~ Dad

~ Siblings

~ Grandparents

~ Great-Grandparents

~ Aunts

~ Uncles

~ Cousins

~ Nieces

~ Nephews

~ Grandchildren

~ Great-Grandchildren

~ Family/Friends (Those friends who are close(r) than family)

Other people in your life:

~ What friends do you have?

~ What acquaintances do you have in your life?

~ Co-workers

~ Online buddies

~ People you text

~ People you email

~ People from church

~ Government

~ People at the grocery store you see on a regular basis

~ People at a restaurant you frequent

~ Your hairstylist

~ People at your doctors’ offices and dentist offices

~ Lost/unbelievers in your life (list them here—even if they are listed previously)

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: pj4life1@gmail.com

How do I move from praying 5 minutes a day to praying without ceasing?

I have a few tips on how to do this.

~ 1. Have a Daily Quiet Time. (Start off with 5 minutes a day and increase by 10 minutes per week until you are having a Daily Quiet Time of 1 to 3 hours per day/7 days per week.)

~ 2. Develop cues to help you pray:

Pray every time you look at a clock.

Pray every time you take a sip of something to drink.

Pray at a red light.

Pray when driving.

Pray as you brush your teeth and take a shower.

When you do dishes or laundry, pray.

~ 3. Memorize verses of the Bible. Any time you do this, you’re praying. Also, recite old memory verses.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

How do you pray without ceasing and work (or do any activity)?

So, when I started the journey of learning how to pray without ceasing, not only did I wonder how you slept and did this, but how you did any activity, like work, and pray without stopping. So, here are a few things I’ve discovered along the way:

~ 1. Prayer is more than words. It’s a state of heart and mind—focused on God and His Word. It’s focusing your heart and mind on God and on His Word.

~ 2. It’s possible to pray and work or talk with people—at the same time. It takes some practice. But, I can actually work, talk with people, and pray at the same time. It’s multitasking.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

How do you pray without ceasing and sleep?

When I first decided to try to become a prayer guard (prayer warrior), I heard the phrase, ‘pray without ceasing.’ That sounded like a good idea to me. I made the decision to try to do so.

Then, it hit me… How do you pray without ceasing and sleep?

It took me a while to figure out what that means. I’ll share it with you now so you don’t have to lose sleep.

How do you pray and sleep?:

~ 1. Fall asleep praying. No. It’s not rude. Use it as the ‘drug’ to help you fall asleep.

~ 2. Whenever you roll over, or wake up, pray again until you fall asleep.

~ 3. When your alarm goes off in the morning, pray some more.

~ 4. If God wakes you and tells you to pray, do it.

~ 5. Repeat the next night.

In the next blog post, I will talk about how you pray without ceasing and work (or do any activity).

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: pj4life1@gmail.com

Developing Your Prayer Muscles

So, how do you develop prayer muscles to move from praying a few minutes here and there to praying without ceasing? That’s what this blog post will discuss.

~ 1. First of all, write down to the side, and preferably in your prayer journal how long, in minutes, you think you prayed today.

~ 2. Do NOT beat yourself up for your answer from #1 or #3. We’re just getting a starting point.

~ 3. How many minutes did you pray yesterday?

~ 4. Make it your goal to increase by 5 minutes every day for 5 days. Write down at the end of each and every day how long you prayed that day. Keep the record. Put it in your prayer journal is the most ideal.

~ 5. Review and analyze. How did Days 1-5 go and were you able to increase every day by 5 minutes? If so, good for you! If not, you have every day for the rest of your life to try. So, keep the faith and persevere.

~ 6. Repeat steps 1-5 every 5 days for the rest of your life. In time, you will be praying without ceasing.

~ 7. Practice, practice, practice.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

Keep it simple and prayer: the #1 Rule of thumb

Whether we’re talking about prayer or prayer journaling, there is one rule to always, without fail, keep in mind.

KEEP IT SIMPLE.

If you haven’t been praying before for more than a minute here or there, you can’t start off and pray without ceasing. Start off in little chunks.

So, how do you develop prayer muscles to move from praying a few minutes here and there to praying without ceasing? Check out my next blog post.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs:

Prayer Journaling (Notebook) Ideas, Suggestions, and Inspirations (aka pj4life Thoughts to Ponder) #1-

I’ve mentioned in a few blog posts that it’s essential to prayer journal, keep a prayer notebook, keep a record, or whatever else you want to call it. I call it pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life). But, I’ll keep is simple and call it either pj4life or prayer journaling. When I use these terms, I mean any way you write down your prayers for when you have your Daily Quiet Time.

I’m going to start to give you a few pointers with prayer journaling—starting in this post.

PJ4LIFE THOUGHTS TO PONDER:

~ 1. Keep it simple.

~ 2. Journal every day—preferably at least morning and night.

~ 3. Journal ANYTHING God puts on your heart.

~ 4. There is no such thing as journaling too much.

~ 5. Tailor a system that works for you. Make it your own. I will give you tips in this blog, but they are just suggestions.

~ 6. Remember that your journal is where you write your prayers and answers to prayers. But, it’s also your record of your walk with God. Therefore, include your memories made through your day.

~ 7. Keep track of what you say to God and what He says to you.

~ 8. Keep sermon notes and Bible study notes here.

~ 9. Keep track of your prayer requests.

~ 10. Use it to WRITE. (See earlier blog posts today for this definition.)

~ 11. There are two types of journals: paper and digital (one you put on the computer).

~ 12. If you keep a paper journal, switch it over sometime to the digital kind. The digital kind lasts forever and never loses quality.

~ 13. If you do a paper journal, consider using mainly black ink. Blue fades faster over time.

~ 14. If you do a digital journal, save it in several different ways. Save one copy that you email to yourself, keep a memory stick (or 2 or 3 just to be safe) copy, keep a copy on your computer, keep a copy on an eternal hard drive. Then, it will last forever. You may even want to write an online journal or blog in which you are the only one who has access to it, or a select few—but not the public (unless you don’t write names and use numbers instead for confidentiality reasons and protect privacy).

I will add more pj4life thoughts to ponder every now and then and will continue with the numbering.

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: pj4life1@gmail.com

Daily Quiet Time Prayer: More Information

Our Daily Quiet Time Prayer consists of:

~ 1. WRITE and write (see other blog posts from today)

~ 2. Different types of prayer

~ 3. Bible reading

~ 4. Memory verses

~ 5. Bible study

~ 6. Devotional reading

Just a reminder about WRITE and write:

WRITE is:

Write (prayer journal and notebook) and:

Word-Based

Review

Ignite

Time

Examine

~ Stacy Duplease

Remembering Your Present, LLC, Prayer Guard USA, and pj4life (Prayer Journaling for Life)

Author of Biblical Fiction, Bible Studies, and Devotionals

Email: Pj4life1@gmail.com

Blogs: