Honoring the Father Through Prayer: An Overview of the Book of Isaiah

By Brenda Stanford Southerland

For author Brenda Stanford Southerland, honoring the Father through prayer is more valuable than gold or silver, and it truly yields precious rewards. In Honoring the Father through Prayer, she presents a guided study of the book of Isaiah to show how prayers can greatly impact the lives of Christians.

The book of Isaiah, often referred to as the mini-Bible with its sixty-six chapters, demonstrates the importance of prayer and studying Isaiah yields rich fruit. With emphasis on biblical examples, Brenda helps Christians by delivering a model for prayer. Her model:

teaches about Isaiah the man, a prophet of God provides a perspective on Israels historical backgroundnational and international discusses the prophecy of Babylonian exile explores Gods grace through divine deliverance and restoration delivers a true perspective on prayer as it relates to honoring God, focusing on God as the Father, and describes the prayer guidelines that are divine instructions to create a practical method of daily prayer.

In Honoring the Father through Prayer, Brenda helps Christians focus on God and facilitates a more meaningful prayer life to change lives and deepen relationships with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475951547

Brenda Stanford Southerland

Brenda Stanford Southerland, formally trained as a chemist and biochemist, has also studied world religion, Christian ethics, Hebrew, and the Old Testament. She is an intercessor, Bible teacher, author, and the founder and president of Praying with Purpose Ministries. Brenda and her husband, William, have a son and daughter-in-law.

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Brenda Stanford Southerland.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Chapter 5, Prayer Guidelines, was previously published in I Shall Live and Not Die and Declare the Works of the Lord & Praying with Purpose: Guidelines by Brenda Stanford Southerland. Washington, DC: 1st Books Library (now Author House Publishers), 2001.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-5153-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-5155-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-5154-7 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012918313

iUniverse rev. date: 09/29/2012

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 Covenant

Chapter 2 The Prophet, Isaiah the Man

Chapter 3 Historical Background

National Perspective

International Perspective

Prophecy of Babylonian Exile

Chapter 4 Divine Deliverance and Restoration

Jesus: The Suffering Servant, The Messiah (Isaiah 49:1-6)

Chapter 5 Prayer Guidelines

Praying with Purpose Introduction

Prayer Schedule

Devotional Prayer Opening Prayer (Sunday)

Prayers for Family/Families Opening Prayer (Monday)

Prayers for Church/Churches (Tuesday)

Prayers for Family/Families Opening Prayer (Wednesday)

Prayers for Country/Government/School System Opening Prayer (Thursday)

Prayers for Family/Families Opening Prayer (Friday)

Personal Prayer Opening Prayer (Saturday)

Appendix

Bibliography

Dedication

To all the beloved children of the Most High God who desire to honor their Father through prayers that are simple, scriptural, and Christ-centered.

To all who will enter the Kingdom of God through intercessory prayer.

To my beloved family.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my dear friend, Fay Acker, for her helpful comments and assistance in preparing this manuscript.

My sister, Dorothy Stanford Griffin, who has always been an inspiration to me, for her encouragement and support.

My devoted husband, Bill, for his patience and understanding during the preparation of this manuscript.

Foreword

The Word of God tells us in Ephesians 6:2-3 to honor our father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it will be well with you and you may live long in the earth. As a child, I always obeyed my parents, and as I developed my relationship with our Father God, it has been my desire to obey Him. For when we are willing and obedient, we shall eat the good of the land.

Honor means to esteem, look up to, hold in high regards. It is our actions that demonstrate the honor bestowed unto our Father. When we speak of the goodness of our Father and who He is in our lives, daily, the more we are giving place to honor. Psalm 34:2 tells us to make our boast in the Lord. The more we openly verbalize our thoughts, the freer we become in our relationship with our Father—Abba (Daddy God).

Prayer is our communication with our Father God. When we speak the words of the covenant, God gets involved in our affairs. He wants a relationship with mankind, and prayer is our path. The Divine Prayer Guidelines, written by Brenda, is included in this book and has been used for more than fifteen years. It has been used to instruct many in their life of prayer. The more we pray, the more we will want to pray. When we commune with God, we are exercising our spiritual man. We are spirit, soul, and body. Our spirit man yearns to know God our Father. It is the part of man that must be satisfied in order to be at peace with ourselves. For it is written: He whose mind is stayed on God, He will keep him in perfect peace.

As you embrace the understanding of the book of Isaiah as explained in Honoring the Father through Prayer: An Overview of the Book of Isaiah, your entire life will become richer. You will yearn and look forward to your prayer time and fellowship with God. It will become something you can’t live without. It will change you from the inside out.

You will begin to imitate God. When you are around a person, the more you take on their way of doing things. You began to think and act like that person.

Brenda has always been very studious throughout her childhood. As we were growing up, she was a very serious student who enjoyed learning and worked diligently to complete each task with excellence. So it is in her prayer walk with our Father and in each assignment He places upon her heart. She does it with zeal. This book radiates how much she honors our Father, and it will cause you to do the same. Each time you read, may the blessings of the Lord increase in every area of your life.

Dorothy Stanford Griffin

Your loving sister

Introduction

As I was preparing to speak at a women’s conference in April 2001, I heard the Lord speak to me: I want My children to honor Me just as you want your earthly children to honor you.

How can you honor Me? I heard Him ask. Then he quickly answered the question He knew would cross a human’s mind. Simply by taking the time to pray every day whether you feel like it or not.

That day, God planted the seeds that would become not only the foundation of this book, but much more. Those seeds would grow into timeless, prophetic wisdom to guide us as Christians and Americans through the historic and challenging shifts in the years to come. As He spoke, I was reminded of the scriptural text Ephesians 6:18, which admonishes Christians to pray always:

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

Show them how they honor Me by praying consistently. And when one develops a consistent lifestyle of prayer, I become the Lord of lords in their lives, who is over their everyday life situations and circumstances, and then they are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.

Before I continue, let us define some key words using Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.

Pray & Prayer

Merriam-Webster’s has this definition of pray: to entreat, or implore; to get or bring by praying; to address God with adoration, confession, supplication or thanksgiving.

It defines prayer:

a devout petition to God, or any form of spiritual communion with God or an object of worship

a spiritual communion with God or an object of worship, as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or confession

the act or practice of praying to God or an object of worship

a formula or sequence of words used in or appointed for praying: the Lord’s Prayer

In essence, prayer is communication with God, whereby we talk and listen to the Father. Through prayer, we enter into His presence by faith and have communion and fellowship with Him. When we go to God to pray on behalf of someone else, that is called intercessory prayer. Note: we are not praying for ourselves, but for someone else—interceding (standing in the gap).

Honor

Webster’s defines honor:

a good name or public esteem: reputation

a person of superior standing; one whose worth brings respect or fame; an exalted title or rank

a keen sense of ethical conduct; integrity; one’s word given as a guarantee of performance

Homage

The definition per Webster’s is, a reverential regard; deference.

Homage adds the implication of accompanying with love, devotion, or awe. Deference implies a yielding or submitting to another’s judgment or preference out of respect or reverence.

Therefore, honor is reverence—profound respect. It is mingled with love, devotion, or awe shown to the Father with praise; and yielding to the Holy Spirit and submitting to the Father’s judgment and commandments out of respect or reverence.

Covenant

This is defined as:

a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement

a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action

Covenant is a relationship of love and loyalty between the Lord and His chosen people.

* * *

As covenant people of the Most High God, with the fruit of our lips, we are to exalt His name with praise and thanksgiving. We can do this through the avenue of prayer, but we first need to know something about this God whom we serve and who is our heavenly Father.

God instructed me to focus on the book of