WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.200 --> 00:00:04.100 How you doing? I'm Miles McPherson and welcome to the First Mile. 00:00:04.100 --> 00:00:08.299 Show me a relationship where two people claim to love each other but hardly talk, 00:00:08.299 --> 00:00:12.559 or more than talk, lack intimate communication and I'll show you a 00:00:12.559 --> 00:00:16.309 relationship that won't last long. In the 36 years I've known my wife, 00:00:16.309 --> 00:00:20.360 I can look back on all our drama and we've had some drama and directly 00:00:20.360 --> 00:00:25.340 connect it back to a disruption in the level of our intimate communication, when 00:00:25.340 --> 00:00:29.570 we stopped being transparently honest with each other. In the end, it all comes 00:00:29.570 --> 00:00:34.430 down to good clear heart to heart communication and never letting our busy 00:00:34.430 --> 00:00:38.720 lives or attitudes create disconnect between our hearts. After 36 years we've 00:00:38.720 --> 00:00:42.410 known each other, we are still learning how to understand one another and 00:00:42.410 --> 00:00:44.000 improve our communication. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.050 It's an ongoing process. You cannot develop a strong relationship with God 00:00:48.050 --> 00:00:53.010 unless you have consistent clear two-way intimate communication with God. 00:00:53.120 --> 00:00:57.620 Prayer is two-way intimate communication with God. 00:00:57.829 --> 00:01:02.149 Prayer is simply you sharing your heart with God and more importantly Him 00:01:02.149 --> 00:01:05.359 sharing His heart and intimate thoughts with you. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:08.990 The Bible says in the book of Jeremiah chapter 33 verse 3 00:01:08.990 --> 00:01:13.639 God says, "Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things 00:01:13.639 --> 00:01:18.859 you do not know." I'm sure you have lots to say to God, things you want, things to 00:01:18.859 --> 00:01:23.600 complain about, things to ask about, but let me tell you, God has great and mighty 00:01:23.600 --> 00:01:24.920 things to tell you. 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:29.299 He wants to reveal truths about your past, your present, your future. 00:01:29.299 --> 00:01:33.920 He wants to reveal how He has designed you, your purpose in life, where to work, 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:37.609 who to marry. As important as your request to God are, 00:01:37.609 --> 00:01:41.899 I think that what God has to say to you is even more important. Prayer is the one 00:01:41.899 --> 00:01:46.520 place God can communicate His intimate thoughts and feelings and ideas to you. 00:01:46.520 --> 00:01:49.700 I want to share with you a guide on how to pray. 00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:53.869 This is a guide, not a formula. In other words, there's no magic in following 00:01:53.869 --> 00:01:54.859 this format. 00:01:54.859 --> 00:01:59.329 There's no one way to pray, so allow this guide to help you get started in 00:01:59.329 --> 00:02:03.079 learning how to communicate with God but don't become a slave to it. 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:06.619 Also, keep in mind that learning to communicate with God is a lifelong 00:02:06.619 --> 00:02:10.130 process, so you must commit to keep practicing. 00:02:10.130 --> 00:02:14.990 Now one of the keys to powerful prayer is praying one topic at a time. 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:19.670 This guide will direct you to spend one minute praying in one topic and then one 00:02:19.670 --> 00:02:24.320 minute listening for God's response. I'm gonna give you five topics and a form to 00:02:24.320 --> 00:02:28.850 help guide you. Remember, this is only a guide so you can add topics, themes and 00:02:28.850 --> 00:02:32.470 Bible verses to pray, but this is designed to get you started. 00:02:32.540 --> 00:02:37.100 The challenge will be to pray 12 minutes total per day, two minutes in each topic 00:02:37.130 --> 00:02:38.930 and during your listening time, 00:02:38.930 --> 00:02:43.280 write down something you hear God saying to you. Even if you're not sure, write it 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:43.760 down. 00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:46.700 This is very little time to commit to communicating with the God of the 00:02:46.700 --> 00:02:50.420 heavens and the earth but if you do this faithfully you will soon find yourself 00:02:50.420 --> 00:02:54.440 spending so much more than 12 minutes a day with God and more importantly 00:02:54.440 --> 00:02:57.950 developing a stronger and stronger relationship with Him. 00:02:57.950 --> 00:03:02.900 Using the Lord's prayers a guide, I developed an acronym, AWCIPA, where 00:03:02.900 --> 00:03:06.470 each letter represents a topic. Here are the topics: 00:03:06.470 --> 00:03:10.940 First, the letter A, admire or thank God. Spend one minute 00:03:10.940 --> 00:03:14.750 thanking God for things your life. Matthew 6:9 says, "Our Father in Heaven, 00:03:14.750 --> 00:03:17.090 Hallowed or Holy is your Name. 00:03:17.090 --> 00:03:20.900 Thank God for anything in your life for one minute and then listen for one 00:03:20.900 --> 00:03:21.530 minute. 00:03:21.530 --> 00:03:26.720 The next topic is asked for God's will to be done in your life. Matthew 6:10, "Thy 00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:29.180 will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:32.660 You want to ask God to and give God permission for Him to do whatever He 00:03:32.660 --> 00:03:36.420 wants to do in your life and then listen for one minute. 00:03:36.470 --> 00:03:41.240 Letter C is confess something that's wrong. Matthew 6:11 and 12, "Give us this 00:03:41.240 --> 00:03:45.260 day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." 00:03:45.260 --> 00:03:50.150 Confess your junk to God for one minute. Just focus on all the stuff you 00:03:50.150 --> 00:03:53.420 want Him to forgive you of and then listen for a minute. 00:03:53.420 --> 00:03:56.750 The I is intercede or pray for someone else. 00:03:56.750 --> 00:04:01.459 Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our 00:04:01.459 --> 00:04:05.990 debtors. For one minute, pray for other people and then one minute, listen to 00:04:05.990 --> 00:04:06.830 what He says. 00:04:06.830 --> 00:04:12.320 The next topic is petition. Pray for yourself. Matthew 6:13, "Do not lead me, us 00:04:12.320 --> 00:04:15.920 into temptation, but deliver us from evil." This is where you spend a minute 00:04:15.920 --> 00:04:18.160 asking for everything you want for you 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:23.710 for one minute and then listen for a minute. Finally A, admire and thank God. 00:04:23.710 --> 00:04:27.310 Again, you want to start by spending a minute thanking God and at the end of 00:04:27.310 --> 00:04:31.030 your prayer time, you want to thank God again for a minute. Tell Him how great He 00:04:31.030 --> 00:04:31.720 is, 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:34.810 how gracious He's been to you, how generous He has been to you and how much 00:04:34.810 --> 00:04:37.600 you love Him and then listen for a minute. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:43.570 Again, today's challenge is to spend 12 minutes a day praying to God one topic 00:04:43.570 --> 00:04:44.380 at a time. 00:04:44.380 --> 00:04:49.810 If you do this 21-days straight, you will form a habit of prayer and what a powerful 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:54.010 habit to have. If you are willing to accept this challenge, please let us know by following 00:04:54.010 --> 00:04:55.870 the instructions at the end of this video. 00:04:55.870 --> 00:04:59.020 If you want to listen to a whole sermon on prayer, check out the resource 00:04:59.020 --> 00:05:00.040 section. 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:06.460 God bless you and I'll be praying for you as you're praying to God.