God’s Purpose for Your Life - Myles Munroe

January 13

Praying does not mean convincing God to do your will, but doing His will through your will. Therefore, the key to effective prayer is understanding God’s purpose for your life, the reason you exist—as a human being in general and as an individual specifically. This is an especially important truth to remember: Once you understand your purpose, it becomes the “raw material,” the foundational matter, for your prayer life.

God’s will is the authority of your prayers. Prayer calls forth what God has already purposed and predestined—continuing His work of creation and carrying out His plans for the earth.

 

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. (Ephesians 1:11) The Father works out everything “in conformity with the purpose of his will.” In this way, your purpose in God is the foundational material for your prayers regarding provision, healing, deliverance, power, protection, endurance, patience, authority, faith, praise, thanksgiving, confidence, assurance, boldness, and peace, for the supply of all your needs. Everything you need is available to fulfill your purpose. All that God is, and all that He has, may be received through prayer. The measure of our appropriation of God’s grace is determined by the measure of our prayers.

 

Prayer:

Father, I do not want to accomplish my will, but Your will. Lead me to conform my prayers and myself to the purpose of Your will. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

Thought: Purpose is the raw material for your prayer life.

 

Reading: Genesis 30–32; Matthew 9:1–17

 

-Daily Power and Prayer Devotional

God’s Purpose for Your Life - Myles Munroe

Who Prayed the First Prayer? - Myles Munroe

January 11

Who prayed the first prayer? I would say Adam, since he was created first and received God’s instructions about tending the garden and the parameters of man’s authority on earth. The Bible implies that God made a practice of walking and talking with Adam in the cool of the day. (See Genesis 3:8–9.)

The fellowship between God and Adam formed the essence of the first prayer. Since Adam was in God’s presence, why did he need to pray? Adam needed to pray because the heart of prayer is communion with God in a unity of love and purpose. It is agreeing with God—heart, soul, mind, and strength—to bring about God’s will. Adam communed with God and agreed with His purposes.

 

Ever since the fall of mankind, we have needed to pray to enter God’s presence. Yet this is only for the purpose of taking us to the place of fellowship with God where Adam and Eve were before the fall—a place of purity before Him in which we reflect His nature and purposes and where our wills agree with His will.

This brings us back to an earlier question: Why do we have to ask God to do what He has already determined to do? When God gave man dominion, He placed His will for the earth on the cooperation of man’s will. God did not change this purpose when mankind fell, for His purposes are eternal. “The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (Psalm 33:11).

 

Prayer:

Father, Your purposes are eternal. Thank You for granting us dominion over the earth. Please help me to prepare my heart through prayer so I can enter Your presence. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

Thought: Prayer is not optional.

Reading: Genesis 26–27; Matthew 8:1–17

 

-Daily Power and Prayer Devotional

Who Prayed the First Prayer? - Myles Munroe

We Were Created for Dominion - Myles Munroe

January 7

God created humanity to carry out His purposes on earth. When God created man in His image, He gave him free will. Thus man has the ability to plan and make decisions, and to take action to fulfill those plans, just as God did in creating the world. Man is meant to carry out God’s purposes using his own will and initiative. He is to reflect the God who formulates plans and carries them out through creative acts. How is humanity to fulfill this vocation?

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule [“have dominion” NKJV] over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26, emphasis added)

Man was created not only to have a relationship with God, but also to share God’s authority. “You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet” (Psalm 8:6). “The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man” (Psalm 115:16).

The account of the creation of mankind shows that God never intended to rule the earth by Himself. Why? It is because “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), and He wants others to share in what He has. We must understand that the relationship of love that God established with mankind is not separate from the purpose God has for mankind. Rather, the relationship is foundational to the purpose. Both are essential keys to prayer.

 

Prayer:

Father God, I desire to have a relationship with You and to be a part of carrying out Your purpose on this earth. Please make this a reality in my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

Thought: Man’s vocation is to carry out God’s purposes on the earth.

 

Reading: Genesis 16–17; Matthew 5:27–48

We Were Created for Dominion - Myles Munroe