The Power of Prayer with Michelle Mitchell, Jo Beth Ellis, and Cindy Ritter Part 2 - 4

This week we continue our discussion we started last week as we discuss the transformative power of prayer and elevate your spiritual journey with insights from our special guests Jo Beth Ellis, Michelle Mitchell, and Cindy Ritter. Discover how declaring God's Word can reshape your life, as Michelle shares the authoritative strength of aligning our words with divine truth and Jo Beth and Cindy emphasize the profound impact of scripture during life's toughest challenges. As we reflect on the beauty of contemplative prayer, inspired by Psalm 27:4, you'll gain practical tips to enrich your prayer practice and deepen your connection with God.

Explore creative ways to enhance your personal prayer routine with our innovative "prayer wheel" concept, making it easier to engage meaningfully with God regardless of your schedule. This episode is all about personalizing your spiritual practice, whether through waking up earlier for prayer or incorporating worship music into your routine. Dive into the nuances of intercession versus petition, and learn how responsive prayer can become a two-way conversation with God, ultimately strengthening your relationship with Him.

Journey with us as we uncover the multifaceted nature of prayer and aspire to grow beyond simply asking for things. Experience the spiritual empowerment of praying in the Spirit, as highlighted in Jude 20 and Romans 8:26, and explore how this form of prayer builds inner strength. We wrap up with a heartfelt message for those struggling with their prayer life, invoking the Holy Spirit to inspire a renewed passion for prayer. Join us on this transformative path to becoming dedicated individuals of prayer, and connect with us through our Rise Up website and social platforms as we share in God's grace and peace together.

Chapters

• 0:09 The Power of Prayer and Silence
• 12:50 Prayer Planning and Relationship Building
• 20:37 Growing in Prayer
• 28:43 A Call to Deepen Prayer Life

Transcript

Kim McIntire: 0:09

Welcome to the it's Time to Rise Up podcast. I'm your host, kim McIntyre. Thank you all for joining us this week. If you're not familiar with our show, please check out our website at itstimetorisuporg and there you will find our social media links For our podcast platforms. You'll find us on YouTube, apple Podcasts, spotify and anywhere else you find your podcast. I encourage you to subscribe, leave a comment, give us a thumbs up or, even better, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts.

Kim McIntire: 0:39

Today we're picking up the conversation about the power of prayer and the ways to pray different ways to pray and I want to welcome back to the studio Jo Beth Ellis, michelle Mitchell and Cindy Ritter. Ladies, thanks for coming back and being part of the show tonight. Yes, thank you for having us. You're welcome. So glad you guys are here.

Kim McIntire: 0:58

Last time we talked about prayer, we ended with persistent prayer and Jo Beth was sharing about her heart for why she doesn't stop asking. She knows that the prayers that she's praying are for eternity, and so if you didn't get a chance to listen to episode one, I would encourage you. Please go back and listen to that, because this is the second half of that interview. We're going to start out by talking about declaring, and I'm going to read the scripture from Hebrews 4, verse 12. For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Michelle, could you just share some thoughts on the power of declaring God's Word?

Michelle Mitchell: 1:52

Yeah, so when I declare God's Word, and what it means to me is there's power in our words, and when we speak, we give authority to what we speak. We give power to what we speak, so we have to be careful of the things that we're speaking. So, just like in Proverbs 18, 21, it says death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. So, since there's life in the power of the tongue, if we speak God's Word, which is truth, we can speak truth into our life. So when we declare God's Word over ourselves, we're speaking His Word, not our words, and His words don't go void. And he has all kinds of promises in His Word, and so we want to make sure that when we're praying for ourselves or for others, that we're constantly lifting each other up. Yeah, because we want there to be life in what we're saying. Yes, we want to give breath and life to what is being said.

Kim McIntire: 3:00

Yeah, and God's word, it doesn't fail.

Michelle Mitchell: 3:02

It just never fails, it always stands.

Kim McIntire: 3:05

It doesn't go void, yeah. So it's kind of that go-to prayer. It's a no-fail prayer really. I mean, I'll be honest, I've prayed some failed prayers, some selfish prayers, some prayers that really didn't take thought to God's heart or God's Word, or God's will, and declaring God's Word, it's will and declaring God's word, it's a go-to for sure. So I just thank him so much for giving us that and instructing us in his word to use it, you know. So thank you for sharing those thoughts. Michelle JoBeth, how about you?

Jo Beth Ellis: 3:40

This one was new to me, that I learned in Abide to declare, and it, honestly, when you practice it, when you are feeling down or you know no boldness, nothing, when you start declaring it really lifts you up. It gives you strength and power that God is on your side. Strength and power that God is on your side. He's fighting for you and you're in the battle too, and there's going to be victory because you're declaring those promises that are in the Word.

Kim McIntire: 4:13

Yeah, that's true. How about you, Cindy?

Cindy Ritter: 4:15

Well, I go back to Scripture, which is one of my favorite Scriptures I'll share is Romans 4.17, call those things that are not as though they were. And there's been many seasons in my life where I've gone through situations and I've gotten in my prayer closet and I've asked the Lord what scripture can I speak over the situation? And when you hear that from the Lord, it is a promise and his promises are yes and amen. So when I get that deep in my spirit, it doesn't matter what man or anyone else says, when I know that I've heard the voice of God, and then I will declare that scripture and that promise until I see that promise come into existence.

Kim McIntire: 5:04

Yeah, yeah. Well, one thing I love about having you three ladies be in the studio is I have been with each one of you when you're praying and I've witnessed how God uses specific things in you to pray over others, and I will say I've been a benefactor of that. And so, michelle, when we do deliverance ministry at church, one thing I love is when you affirm God's Word, when you're praying over people, and so you know, it really is the difference, you know, because we can speak beautiful, eloquent words, right, but when we're affirming what God says about someone, when we're affirming the truth, it overcomes the lies.

Kim McIntire: 5:45

Yeah, you know what I mean. And so we've witnessed that with deliverance ministry that we do together, and I appreciate so much just being in a circle of women that know declaring God's Word is power and not one word falls to the ground. So thank you all for sharing that. Cindy, let's talk about silence and listening. Psalm 27, verse 4, says I want to live in the Lord's house all the days of my life so I can gaze at the splendor of the Lord and contemplate in His temple. Cindy, will you talk to us about that word? Contemplative. Thank you, contemplative. I keep getting stuck on that word. I knowative.

Michelle Mitchell: 6:23

Thank you Contemplative, I keep getting stuck on that word.

Kim McIntire: 6:26

I know this is a practice. You live out.

Cindy Ritter: 6:30

It's funny. I was talking to someone earlier today about contemplative prayer and they're like we don't use that terminology anymore and I was like, oh, I didn't know that I would say for me it's something I've practiced for over 20 years. Um, I, I, it's just a time to come into the presence of god, practice listening to his voice, going into your prayer class and, for me, into your prayer closet. For me it's a place where the Lord and I become one. It's a very intimate place. It's a place where you hear his voice, you hear his heart.

Cindy Ritter: 7:10

And again, I always go back to scripture, because even Jesus said I tell you the truth, the son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the father doing. So even if Jesus went away to pray to the father, to get his heart and listen to what the father's saying, how much more should we? And I'm just going to be very honest. I'm going through a season right now where it's extremely busy and me and a coworker have started praying in the mornings because we're both got so much on our plate and the Lord said because we're both got so much on our plate, and the Lord said go back to the place that you know, go back to practicing my presence and hearing my word. And he gave us a scripture and I want to share it because I think it's important, because we often get into a time of prayer and we all want to talk because we feel like we have petitions and things that we need to do, and all of those are great, but we also have to understand the heart of God and not just the things around us.

Cindy Ritter: 8:12

So in Proverbs 4, 20 through 22, it says my child pay attention to what I say. He tells us pay attention to what I say, listen carefully to my words and don't lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they will bring life to those who find them. So when we spend time in his presence, listening to what he has to say brings um healing. It brings a sense of center again, it brings things into an alignment.

Cindy Ritter: 8:49

And just going back to that romans 4, 17 and declaring, when you have heard the voice of god in your personal prayer time, listen what he has to say, you know, know, without a doubt, your faith is unwavering and when you begin to declare it, you're going to see it come to fruition. The Bible tells us that in order to be effective in our praying, that we have to have the right motives. We have to have the right motives, and the way we have the right motives and not pray out of selfish ambition is to get into our prayer closet, listen to what God is speaking to us so that when we do pray it is effective.

Kim McIntire: 9:31

Yeah, yeah. And for people who struggle to say the word contemplate, think, silence and listening that's really whenever I do prayer different prayer groups I would just, you know, say we're going to have a time of just silence and listening. That's really whenever I do prayer different prayer groups I would just, you know, say we're going to have a time of just silence and listening, where we're really purposefully not talking but listening for the voice of God, and I think it's kind of rare for people to practice that kind of prayer and it's definitely one that I'm still growing in. But I appreciate you sharing that. Jobeth, michelle, do you guys have anything you want to add to that?

Jo Beth Ellis: 10:09

I think that is one you really have to work at, you have to be intentional with it and you have to train yourself to shut everything else out where you can hear God and just listen.

Kim McIntire: 10:22

Yeah, yeah, but it's worth it. It's worth it. So I just want to encourage people take the time and try. Don't just not try, because it's hard Fish through. Cindy, did you have something else?

Cindy Ritter: 10:39

Yeah, I wanted to add. You know, oftentimes we go into this place of quiet time and sometimes you get into that quiet place and you feel unproductive and the thing is, five minutes in the presence of God is greater than five hours of sermons or somebody ministering to you. So don't ever underestimate that time in silence and listening. If you come out of that prayer closet with a scripture or with one word or just spending time with him, it makes all the difference and we have to remember that God wants to meet us in those places. He wants to spend quality time with us. So it's about relationship in this prayer and just don't underestimate. You know why I didn't get too much out of this or whatever. You are getting something out of it because you have spent time in the presence of God and the word of God tells us where the presence of the Lord is, there's fullness of joy. Where the presence of God is, there's freedom and there's liberty. So going into that place, it does change and shift you in your daytime.

Kim McIntire: 11:55

Thank you so much. We're going to talk about taking the time and if you were listening to Episode 1, you heard Michelle talk about. It's not just about the secret place, it's about allowing prayer to flow all through your day, and I think that's just so very important to recognize that prayer isn't contained within a prayer closet, that there is definitely a place for that and it's important and it is where we get the anointing of the Lord. A place for that and it's important and it is where we get the anointing of the Lord. But taking time to pray looks different for different people and I know that part of this interview is just to give people some ideas, to give them some tools, maybe even talk about some things that they haven't really thought about before in the realm of prayer. But, JoBeth, you have a tool that you use that I think would be really awesome for you to share with our listeners.

Jo Beth Ellis: 12:48

I come across this. Several years ago we were praying a very long night four or five hours, if I remember right and I remember thinking what on earth are we going to do for four or five hours? How are we going to fill the time? And it was really awesome because when you brought this out, kim, and it was a wheel and just imagine a piece of pie, that it's a pie and it's cut into different sizes and you can fill in your pie with different things, Like, for example, time in worship could be 10 minutes and you think that may be longer.

Jo Beth Ellis: 13:46

It may not be, but two songs fill that 10 minutes pretty quick with a lot of the praise and worship songs, five minutes in silence, or two or three minutes. You fill your pie up with the time you have. And when I get stuck or I'm just thinking I'm doing the same thing, same thing. I go back to this and I have in mind I have 10 minutes of worship, I have five minutes of just thanks, I have a five-minute devotion, five minutes of silent, then I had 20 minutes that I'm praying and then 45 minutes in the Word and that's 90 minutes and I know a lot of people don't have that big of a block, but if you even take 15 minutes and break it down in your pie, you spent 15 minutes that are amazing and filled that in, and it got bigger and bigger as time went on with me.

Kim McIntire: 14:47

So that was a great tool for me that I go back to every once in a while just because yeah, and I want to stress you know, if you have 15 minutes, that's not 15 minutes you will waste, and don't measure yourself against other people and how much time they spend praying or reading the Bible. I think that's so important because everyone has a starting place and it grows over time. And, jo Beth, you're in a season of life that you're able to spend more time in the morning. You're not working full time anymore, you have more time in the morning. And then I know sometimes people just get up earlier, much, much earlier, to spend time. But the important thing is, like Cindy said, if it's five minutes in the presence of the Lord, that's powerful and God will meet you there. So thank you for sharing those ideas. Does anyone else have ideas on how they plan for time with God?

Michelle Mitchell: 15:46

I think you just have to make the time you know, set your clock so that you're waking up 30 minutes earlier. Yeah, I know it's made a difference for me. Yeah, I can spend. You know, just as I'm waking up, I can just immediately turn on the worship music, just soak in His presence for a little bit and then just begin to ask Him questions. You know, where do you want me to read in your Word? Where do you want me? And then just begin to give Him thanks and praise and just really spend that time with Him and in His Word. And really spend that time with Him and in His Word and just building that relationship with Him, and it changes the way that your day flows Right.

Kim McIntire: 16:31

Yeah, it really is all about relationship. Well, one way that I pray that I feel like is kind of the abide class in a nutshell, is I used to just read God's Word. But when I started reading God's Word and allowing that to speak to my heart, where it was more than words on a page but it was the voice of the Lord to my heart, as I would read verse by verse, I felt like it became a conversation and that, as I would read, you know, maybe one or two or three verses, just pause and let that soak into my heart and spirit and then respond to the Lord with my voice, either out loud or silently. And if that's not something you've ever tried, I would so encourage you. Go to Psalm 23.

Kim McIntire: 17:30

Read a verse or two, hear what the Lord is saying and speak back to Him. And this is David, of course, saying the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. But that's David's prayer, but it's God's heart and the Lord wants us to live in response to his word. And so I call that responsive prayer.

Kim McIntire: 17:52

It's when I'm reading God's word, but I'm not just reading, I'm speaking back to the Lord. Lord, thank you, you are my shepherd, I want for nothing. And the truth is God's given me everything I need. I have food, clothing, shelter. You know I have a place to rest in the Lord. So I just go verse by verse and just speak back to Him and I feel like that has helped me build a personal relationship with the Lord, where the Bible isn't just a book to me, it's His love letter, and time in prayer isn't just time to talk to God, it's time to hear from God. So I would encourage people if you've never opened the Word and just read through it and prayed through it, you should just try that and try little pieces at a time, because it grows and grows and grows, just like everything else. Intercession and petition let's talk about that. How do we distinguish between the two of these? They're both asking prayers, like they have a form of asking, but is there more to know than that?

Jo Beth Ellis: 19:00

I relate intercession to praying for others, that I'm interceding for them, even if they don't know it. I'm praying on behalf of them and when petitioning it's more personal or me that I'm petitioning for, but intercession it's when I'm praying for other people.

Kim McIntire: 19:19

Yeah, that's so good. Anyone else want to speak into that?

Cindy Ritter: 19:25

So I'm kind of like Jo Beth when I think of petition, I think of the needs. Like you know, maybe you're praying for finances or you need something.

Cindy Ritter: 19:42

You just need something, whether it's you need a new car. You're asking, like JoBeth said, but I think of intercession. I feel like intercession for me is led by the Holy Spirit. I feel like he gives us an unction in our spirit to pray for someone and when I'm interceding I'm asking God how do you want me to pray for that person and then allow the Holy Spirit to pray through me for that person?

Kim McIntire: 20:09

Yeah, and I love that. When the Holy Spirit gives us those promptings, it's so good to know that God has that person on His heart. You know, we may have them on our prayer list, but when we're led by the Spirit and God speaks to us about that person, it's just so comforting to me because I'm like, oh, you know, jesus is praying for this person. It's not just me. The part one of this interview I talked about how, if you were stuck in a pattern of asking, in a pattern of asking, you're praying kindergarten-level prayers, and that thought stuck with me all through the past couple of weeks. And I want to just clarify something. You know, asking is very evident in the Lord's Prayer. Jesus gave an example of this is how you should pray and as you go through the Lord's Prayer, our Father, who art in heaven, holy, is your name. That is praise, but most of that prayer is actually asking, and so I don't want to diminish the ask. So I just want to clarify that asking is part of our relationship with the Lord. He says ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you. So the Lord invites us to ask and I don't want to diminish or minimize that, but the point that I was making was there are so many ways to pray praising Him, worshiping, declaring, standing on the promises of God, confession, listening, silence, praying God's Word, praying through God's Word, just responding to Him as he speaks to us, interceding for others and then, of course, petitioning for our personal needs. So I just wanted to let everyone know I didn't mean to be unkind in that statement of kindergarten prayer, but I did have a point and that was don't just stay in that one kind of prayer, grow and stretch yourself. Because I'm so glad I did, because my prayer life looks so different than it did 10 or 15 years ago because I really did have a checklist and that was. My prayer life looks so different than it did 10 or 15 years ago because I really did have a checklist and that was my prayer life. And thankfully, that's not all it is now.

Kim McIntire: 22:35

It's worship, it's praise, it's declaration, it's confession and listening and reading the Word and praying through the Word. So thank you, jesus, for growing me Praying in the Spirit. Not everyone knows what this kind of praying is, but we don't want to ignore or neglect it. We don't want to avoid speaking on this form of prayer. So we're going to take a moment to talk about the importance of praying in the Spirit. In Jude, verse 20, it says but you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit. So, cindy, would you like to lead out our discussion about praying in the Spirit? Sure.

Cindy Ritter: 23:20

The Bible clearly tells us in Galatians that our spirit is always basically in competition with our flesh and there's a spiritual warfare that's going on. There's a battle between our flesh and our spirit. And I think that you know the Lord gave us this gift of praying in the Holy Spirit so that we can become stronger and strengthened in him. So when we're praying in the spirit, he is strengthening our inner man, our spirit. And if you think about, you know when your body's hungry you're going to go grab something to eat and if you're really hungry you're going to go grab a steak. But in the same way that we feed our body, we also have to feed our spirit and we do that by reading his word and by praying in the spirit. And what's great about that type of praying is that it's a perfect language that only the Lord understands. The enemy doesn't understand it, right, other people don't understand it, but we can know that we are praying in the most perfect heavenly language that we have.

Cindy Ritter: 24:31

And in Romans 8, 26, it states and the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words, and so he helps us pray when we don't know how to pray. He helps us build our spirit in only the way that he can do and that you know just going back to being in his presence and taking a few minutes a day, or whatever it looks like for you if it's more 15, 20 minutes a day and just getting before the Lord and praying in the spirit, you're building up your inner man and and you don't know what you're praying for. But I can tell you, if you come across someone in Walmart and God gives you hey, can you go pray for that person. You're going to know what to pray, right.

Cindy Ritter: 25:21

You know he goes before us and all things. Sometimes we just don't know that God will lead us and we're ready for it. The words says to be ready in season and out of season and we have to be ready by building ourselves up so that we can give. That makes sense.

Kim McIntire: 25:37

That's so good. Thank you so much for that. Does anyone else want to speak into that?

Michelle Mitchell: 25:42

No.

Kim McIntire: 25:42

Okay, well, I want to encourage people to read in the Bible about praying in the Spirit. There's many scriptures that you can go to and ask the Lord Lord, teach me. He's the best teacher he really is and open your heart to this because it's real and it's a gift and it's a way God uses us and helps and strengthens us in the realm of prayer. So I would encourage everyone to do that. I want to share a couple of thoughts about the prayers of Paul and the model prayer of Jesus in John, chapter 17. Model prayer of Jesus in John, chapter 17.

Kim McIntire: 26:36

I have really grown to love finding the prayers of Paul in the scripture to pray over my family and my friends and my church and just people in my close circles, because this is what I know If you're praying spiritual prayers, they're aligned with God's heart and you can't miss it. It's kind of like praying in the Spirit. You can't really miss the will of God or the heart of God if you're praying in the Spirit, because it's perfect and I believe that the prayers in the Bible that are outlined by Paul and by Jesus are ways that you can go and you can just pull thoughts from those prayers and you can trust that when I'm praying this over my family, this isn't going to fall to the ground. These are, they can't return void. The prayer in John 17 is called the high priestly prayer. It's Jesus's final prayer with as he's praying for his disciples, he's praying for himself, he's praying for future believers, and it's a beautiful guide and I would just encourage people.

Kim McIntire: 27:37

You know, I sometimes I think people just need to hear ideas Like I don't even know where to start, because it's amazing to me how many people I talk to when I ask them about prayer. There's a lot of people that don't and Christians that don't pray, and so I feel like this could be just a great resource for people. I know you guys have given some really good thoughts and ideas. Are there any other thoughts before we conclude this interview?

Jo Beth Ellis: 28:05

I would just encourage people to start somewhere. I would just encourage people to start somewhere, even if it's, you know, a minute, two minutes. Start somewhere. You have to start somewhere. You don't grow yeah.

Kim McIntire: 28:18

You have not because you ask not. That's right. Yeah, that's good. Okay, well, I'm so grateful that you guys joined us again today and, ladies, thank you for everything you've shared. I know that many people are going to be encouraged and blessed by this interview, so thank you for your yes. Since this is about prayer, I'm going to close this episode with prayer over our listeners and I ask God to just bless each person. As you're listening right now, I believe the Holy Spirit is going to do a work in you, especially if you're in a season of struggling to pray, and these sisters of mine are going to join in this prayer too.

Kim McIntire: 28:56

Father God, thank you for our listeners. We just come to you in the name of Jesus. We ask you, through the power of your Holy Spirit, god, stir up hearts for prayer. We pray that people would have a desire, a hunger, to be in your presence, to seek your face, to call out to you, lord, to declare your word, to listen for your voice, lord, to worship you and praise you, to seek you in the Spirit. Lord, we believe that you have a purpose for this interview and, lord, that there will be hearts touched and moved to prayer, to deeper levels of prayer.

Kim McIntire: 29:36

So, god, if someone is only praying one minute a day, I just pray God, in that one minute, you meet them in a very special way, in such a way that they want to spend two minutes tomorrow and three minutes the next day. God, and we just pray that you would grow your people to be men and women, and boys and girls of fervent prayer. And it is in the mighty name of Jesus we pray, amen. Well, thank you all for listening today. Be sure to check us out on the Rise Up website at itstimetoriseuporg, our Facebook page or Instagram at the underscore official underscore rise underscore up. May God's grace and peace be with you in Jesus' mighty name.