Focused Praying: Shifting Gears from Passive to Fervent Prayer

By Lemuel Baker Phd

This book was written during a period of my life when my spiritual life shifted to an understanding of the authority of every believer as it pertains to prayer. I realized that the Holy Spirit can help each of us break out of passivity and shift into fervent focused prayer exercising full authority over the enemy in prayer. The information in this book helps to accommodate that shift.

The principle of speaking to the mountain is not an optional exercise but critical to our fulfilling a long satisfying life. I pray you receive the divine shift in your spirit as you read this 141 page book.

There comes a time in every Christians life when the thought comes to mind even more than once this situation has gone too far and is out of control. During these times we begin to yearn for answers to our circumstances that are magnanimous. Initially we may blame men for the circumstances but intuitively and scripturally we begin to suspect there is an evil force called the enemy who controls and influences people and situations.

Many times we end up in such a pickle it takes a miracle to get us out of the situation. The Holy Spirit is always ready to raise a standard against satan through us and this requires a genuine spiritual shift in our spirit man from a passive mode to a commanding mode mixed with strong faith.

This book grants awareness of this spiritual shift and shows how critical it is and how logical and how natural it is to make this spiritual shift as part of functioning in Gods Kingdom to achieve longevity.

Some of the topics covered are the role of angels that minister for us, only mature Christians can fight successfully, dealing with the enemies within us before we can address the enemy outside us and so on.

God wants to see us experience the victory through Jesus Christ along with character to have faith in God during severe hopeless trials.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469173979

Lemuel Baker Phd

Dr. Lemuel Baker is the President and CEO of Lemuel Baker Ministries. He is an evangelical Christian and currently holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Jewish Studies 2007, an MBA in Business Management 2004 and a Bachelors of Art in Public Policy and American Government 1983 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has a special calling to the Nation of Israel and to the Jewish people group. Lemuel desires to see peace between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac. If Abraham were alive today he would desire peace among his grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2012 by Lemuel Baker, PHD.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4691-7396-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-7397-9

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CONTENTS

AN INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER 1  WHY FOCUSED PRAYER

CHAPTER 2  YOU ARE GOD’S HUSBANDRY AND BUILDINGS

CHAPTER 3  A REVELATION OF GOD

CHAPTER 4  BABIES CANNOT FIGHT

CHAPTER 5  A TIME AND A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING

CHAPTER 6  THE LORD IS A MAN OF WAR

CHAPTER 7  AIDS TO OUR FAITH

CHAPTER 8  AN INWARD BATTLE

CHAPTER 9  WINNING THE WAR

CHAPTER 10  SPIRITUAL POWER IS NOT OPTIONAL

CHAPTER 11  BENEFITS OF SPIRITUAL POWER

CHAPTER 12  ANGELS WHO MINISTER FOR US

CHAPTER 13  THE WORD AND PRAYER TOGETHER

CHAPTER 14  CONFESSIONS OF FAITH

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wonderful daughters Deborah Jane and Abigail who gave up much play time with dad to allow me to write this book. I appreciate their continual love and kindness during this process that continues even today. I also thank Clair Ho Sang for her selfless attitude and the countless hours she donated to type hundreds of pages for this manuscript. I pray God’s greatest blessings for all of you.

With deep love and affection

Dad

AN INTRODUCTION

BY THE AUTHOR

When I received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, my Christian life took on a new dimension. God lead me to a Christian retreat during this time, where the Holy Spirit as a person became real to me. I realized that I was naturally inhibited by many things and I needed to let go and allow Him to take full control of my life. I started to understand that in order to enter into a new realm with God, I had to lose my life to find it in Him.

Losing my life means, regardless of what others may think of me, I need to allow the Holy Spirit to express Himself through me in whatever way He wants. Remember that He is God, and that His ways are higher than our ways. Also, when you ask for bread, you must believe you will get bread, not a stone. In other words, He won’t give you anything that’s bad. James 1:17 says, every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights.

Interestingly, Jesus said He only did and said what His Father instructed Him to do. Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit on every single occasion. If we reflect briefly on the life of Christ, we’ll remember that He preached boldly at times, while on other occasions He acted tenderly with compassion. After Jesus completed His forty day fast, the bible says He returned in the power of the Spirit. On one of His visits to the temple, He turned over the tables indignantly. This same Jesus wept over Jerusalem’s destiny because His own people rejected Him. The anointing of the Holy Spirit operated in Jesus’ life and there was never a time He wasn’t led by the Holy Spirit. He did what the Holy Spirit did because they were one.

My goal in this book is to allow readers the privilege of becoming one with God the Holy Spirit. I believe He’ll begin to operate in you in marvelous ways, one of which is Spiritual warfare. My prayer is that He’ll break down strongholds as you allow Him to, and help you experience all authority over the devil. Let’s be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as we read this book, and pay special attention to all the scriptures used in each chapter.

This book was originally penned in 1990 and stored away until recently. May God richly bless you as He releases it in His time.

CHAPTER 1

WHY FOCUSED PRAYER

This is a question each Christian should ask the Holy Spirit and then listen closely to His reply. After we get a reply, we must make a decision to allow Him to be Lord of our lives. Many of us are not aware that the Holy Spirit is real, and is a wonderful person. He is waiting to teach us and to guide us into all truth.

When I began speaking in tongues, I sensed I had to allow the Holy Spirit to have His own way. As He revealed Himself to me, I began to yield to Him. To my discovery, there were some costs involved in my decision. Some of them were, not being understood and accepted by fellow Christians who once were my friends and ultimately losing them as friends.

Naturally, we want to be accepted by our peers and it is a safe feeling to be liked by others. A heavy cost we must pay at least potentially, is exchanging the acceptance of man for the acceptance that comes from God. To desire God’s acceptance above everything else, requires transformation of ones inner man by God’s Spirit. We must be prepared to please God at all cost, if we really want all of Him.

Enoch is my favorite example of one who walked with God at all costs. Many bible scholars believe Enoch had all the responsibilities of a father and husband yet he was still able to overcome and walk with God.

I finally made up my mind that I wanted to make the Holy Spirit Lord of my life regardless of what it costs. I received a taste of the glory of God that accompanied that kind of lifestyle. I came to understand that I needed to get into total agreement with what the Holy Spirit wanted to do. Every time I yielded the end result was an abundance of peace. I received divine spiritual healing when I pleased the Holy Spirit. He wanted to become my friend.

Some other things involved in walking with the Holy Spirit and allowing Him free reign were number one, allowing Him to speak through me in prophecy while I was in church, and two finding His heart while I was at a prayer meeting. I had to cooperate with Him to see what and how He wanted to pray. For example, there were times I could pray in tongues using a moderate level voice, while at other times the person of the Holy Spirit would operate forcefully. I could sense in my own spirit that the Holy Spirit was either grieved, concerned about a particular situation, or raising up a standard against the enemy as the enemy tried to come in like a flood.

It was during these times especially, that the Holy Spirit would become indignant towards the devil and express Himself in the form of loud tongues. These new experiences not only brought challenges but rewards as well. The greatest reward I experienced was having God’s Spirit and my human spirit become one and to literally feel what He felt. If He was grieved with the behavior among a specific part of His Church, for the first time I could experience this as well because whatever the Holy Spirit felt, I could now feel.

You see speaking in loud tongues is not an emotional experience alone, but it is an expression of the Holy Spirit through us as He ministers on the earth and on behalf of Jesus Christ. Just as parents become hurt when their children go astray, so does the Holy Spirit. He never stops loving us but He chastens those that He loves, as natural parents do. One might be used as a vessel to bring a message to a congregation that is strong and contains reproof. If the message comes by way of tongues and interpretation then this would be an instance where we would encounter loud tongues.

LACK OF UNDERSTANDING

I’ve seen a lack of understanding about prayer among Christians especially in the area of spiritual warfare that requires loud tongues. Some have an attitude of apathy toward loud tongues, some feel it’s not necessary for their Christian life, and others lack information on the subject. From my experience, those who lack information or revelation in this area, aren’t certain if praying in loud tongues is scriptural or merely just a Pentecostal tradition.

It is this situation, which I consider a dilemma, that causes me to go to God for answers in prayer and by way of scriptures. I believe it is imperative that this generation who will see the coming of Christ, possibly, not leave this issue nebulous.

LABORERS TOGETHER WITH GOD

For we are laborers together with God: Ye are God’s Husbandry, ye are God’s Building. 1 Cor. 3:9

Jesus is coming soon, and He doesn’t want His precious children fighting over speaking in loud tongues. I believe above everything else we should know that if Jesus came at this moment it would be well with our souls.

In the third chapter of First Corinthians, verse one through verse nine, Paul the Apostle exhorted the Corinthian Church to grow up spiritually. Usually as Christians we aren’t cognizant of our spiritual maturity until it’s brought to our attention. In this case the Holy Spirit used Paul to awaken the Corinthian Church to their childlike (carnal) behavior. They were envying, striving with one another and in division. These are all signs of spiritual immaturity.

Among several Full Gospel Churches, the temperature of prayer, praise, and worship varies. Some pride themselves with speaking in quiet tongues while others pride them-selves with engaging in militant tongues. If we are in any of these camps, we are still carnal and aren’t spiritually mature Christians. As the Corinthian Church