Improving Your Personal Prayer Life: For Revival, Transformation and Victory

By Emmanuel O. Abbey

This book is very important at a time when the likelihood of false teachings creeping into the church in the form of modifications in praying, singing and worshipping Jehovah is high. The book is highly recommended to every individual, family and church leader in these perilous times.

Linda Vida Gyasi, Regional Director of Land Valuation Board of Lands Commission, Ghana.

If there was a time for being transformed from a sinful nature into a victorious life in Christ and His soon return, it is now. I can feel how useful this book is to the spiritual orientation of the Christian youth. Remember, the hour for improving your personal prayer life is now.

Francis Addo, Pathfinder Director of Adenta East district of SDA, Accra

Once again, our long-time teacher, pastor, and mentor has put together this inspirational and instructive material to help us grow spiritually. That with self-discipline and careful daily efforts this can be instrumental in drawing you to a deeper personal relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords is my prayer.

Appiah Kubi Kwarteng (PhD), President of North America Ghanaian Seventh-day Adventists (NAGSDA)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jun 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781984591890

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 by Emmanuel O. Abbey, Abbey Foundation.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, KING JAMES VERSION 2000 ®, KJV2000® Copyright © by Bible League International ® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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

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Other images are from Google images and those in public domain being used for illustration purposes only.

Original Publication: Revival, Transformation, Victory (1992) Second Edition: Improving Your Personal Prayer Life for Revival, Transformation, Victory. (2021)

Edited by Isaac Awuku

([e-mail])

Rev. date: 06/11/2021

Xlibris

UK TFN: 0800 0148620 (Toll Free inside the UK)

UK Local: 02036 956328 ([phone] from outside the UK)

www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk

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HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

1. Individuals. Those who accept the Christian faith can have personal copies for reading and careful study as well as practical use from Chapter 3, p. 24 – How to Revive Yourself. The book is handy to carry in briefcase or handbag for instant use at any time.

2. Family Members. Each family member should be guided by the person who completes the 3 days prayer plan for revival. It is better if every family member owns his or her personal copy of this book.

3. Local Churches and Bible Studies. This book is a useful training and study material in local churches. These training programmes must be well planned with every member owning a personal copy.

4. Departments and Groups. Church leaders at various levels can use the book as a study material at workshops and seminars.

5. Educational Institutions. Spiritual and character formation as well as ministerial training instructors can use it as a textbook or reference material. Students and fellowships will also find it handy.

CONTENTS

How To Use This Book

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Introduction

Chapter 1   Your Personal Prayer Life For Revival, Transformation And Victory

Prayer: What It Is And Does

A.  What Revival Is

B.  What Transformation Means

C.  Victory In Christ Jesus

Benefits Of True Revival

Chapter 2   Seeking First God’s Kingdom And His Righteousness

What It Means To Seek First The Kingdom Of God And His Righteousness

Seeking God’s Kingdom And His Righteousness

Diligence Is Vital In Searching

Seeking Is A Life-Long Process And Use Of What You Find

A Non-Negotiable Condition To Gaining Access To All These Things In A Victorious Living In Christ

What God Expects From Us

Our Major Concern In Life

Daily Maintenance Of The Revived And Transformed Life

Chapter 3   How To Revive Yourself

The Spark Of Life Within You Generates Revival

The Path To Revival

Personal Daily Revival

Personal Weekly Revival

Begin At The Mid-Week Prayer Meeting

Three-Day Revivals Through Prayers

Preparation For Day 1: Wednesday Prayer Meeting

Theme: Assurance Of Salvation And Full Submission To God

Fasting While Praying

Do The Initial Revival Alone

Wednesday Night, Midnight And Early Dawn Prayer Session

The Season Of Prayer

Steps To Take During Your Prayer Sessions

Day 1: Thursday

Theme: Confession, Repentance, Cleansing and Purity

The Seven Categories Of Sin

The Prayer Session

Day 2: Friday

Theme: Prayers of Intercession and Petition

Prayer Of Intercession

Petition – Your Personal Needs

The Need For Prayer Support (1)

The Need For Prayer Support (2)

The Need For Anointing

God Answers All Prayers

1.    Instant Answer

2.    Delayed Answer

3.    Replaced Answer

When Divine Favour Sets In

Divine Favour In My Path

Biblical Examples Of Divine Favour

Day 3: Saturday (Sabbath)

Theme: Thanksgiving And Praising God

Chapter 4   Claiming God’s Promises

God Keeps His Promises

God’s Promises Are Eternal

Even The Gentiles Claimed His Promises

Some Promises To Claim

Have You Been Claiming God’s Promises?

Chapter 5   The Period Of Waiting

It Happened To The Apostles Of Christ

The Waiting Period Can Prolong

Filling The Emptiness Of Waiting

Going Through Similar Experiences

Some Known Periods Of Waiting

Chapter 6   Members Of Your Family After Your Personal Revival

Involve Everyone In The Family

Beyond The Family Unit

Reviving The Extended Family

Friends And Revival

The Church’s Prayer And Fasting Programmes Versus Yours

Chapter 7   Beware Of ‘False Christs And False Prophets’

1.    ‘Seed’ Sowing

2.    Vows, Covenants

Caution Worth Noting

Measure Of Effective Prayer

The Issue Of ‘Prayer Warriors’

1.    Offensive Or Defensive Prayer – Which Way?

2.    ‘‘Prayer Warriors’ And Offensive Prayer - Taking The Kingdom ‘By Force’

3.    The True ‘Prayer Warrior’

Miracles Will Follow You

Chapter 8   When Pressing Days Come

1.    Unable To Heal

2.    Failure To Take Advantage Of A High Spiritual Environment

Missing Spiritual Opportunities

When Pressing Days Come Your Way

Method No. 1 - (1 Day Emergency Exercise)

Method No. 2 - (2 Days Emergency Exercise)

Method No. 3 - (3 Days Emergency Exercise)

Chapter 9   Living Testimonies

1.    The Akesse-Mensah Family – Swindon, Uk.

The Difficult Times Were Revealed By God

Evidence Of God’s Continuous Sustenance

‘Amazing’ Testimony Within ‘A Living Testimony’

A Deadly Blow, A Bold Response

A Beautiful Miracle With A Double Answer

The Ultimate Answer From God Was Spectacular

A Tough Battle That Became Victorious

The ‘Dream’ From God And The Last Laugh

Early Signs Of Victorious Living

The Verdict Finally Arrived

The Icing On The Cake

2.    The N’guessan Family – Bracknell, Uk.

3.    The Boafo Mensah Family – Accra, Ghana

Conclusion

Weekly Revivals - The Weekly Wednesday Prayer Meeting: Essential To Maintain A Transformed Life

Summary Of The Three Days Revival Programme – The Process Of Effective Personal Prayer

Maintaining The Momentum

Epilogue – Sober Reflection

Appendix A - On My Knees (A Song)

Appendix B - Summary (1) Of Chapter 3

Appendix C - Summary (2)

References

The Author

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife, Hannah Vera; our children: Vivian Naa Yaborley Boafo Mensah, Henrietta Yaabokor Akesse-Mensah, Samuel Nii Abe, and Emmanuel Abbey III; our grand-children, Aba Nhyira Egyireba Akesse-Mensah, Jojo Abaka Nyamekye Sackey Akesse-Mensah, Hannavera Naa Nai Abbey, Makayla Aaten Anmokor Abbey and those yet unborn; the larger Abbey family; and close friends of the Abbeys whose involvement in revival and reformation exercises based on the concepts of the previous edition of this book and of the scripts of this new edition offered me the opportunity to reproduce this new book.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Lord God Almighty takes all the glory. It is He who inspired me to see this very important gap in His children’s spiritual growth. The idea of becoming spiritual through church gatherings and programmes is not new. However, becoming personally revived ahead of church gatherings and remaining so always was the gap God revealed to me as far back as 1989. The result was the book Revival, Transformation, Victory, which was published by the Advent Press in 1992.

My sincere thanks go to the fore-runner presidents of Southern Ghana Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (then West African Union Mission), Pastors Paul K. Asare and Ebenezer O. Sackey, during whose tenure (1989–1995) the first edition of the book was published and circulated among church members. Officers, pastors and elders of Central Ghana Conference, South Ghana Conference, Mid-West Ghana Mission and North Ghana Mission deserve commendation for their patronage of the book.

I thank Pastors Samuel A. Larmie (D.Min.) former president of Southern Ghana Union Conference (SGUC), Accra, and Kwame Kwanin Boakye (D.Min.), president of Northern Ghana Union Mission (NGUM), Kumasi, for accepting to write the Preface and Foreword, respectively, for this book.

Executive secretaries, treasurers, departmental and NGUM as well as the local conferences and missions of Seventh-day Adventists in Ghana since 2014 deserve mention for providing the opportunity for members to access this book.

Pastor Solomon K. Asante, former president of Mid- South Ghana Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Cape Coast, for allowing me to pastor New Town and Akweley churches in Kasoa where I wrote the manuscripts of this book is appreciated.

Special thanks go to Prof. Daniel Buor and Prof. Daniel Bediako (former and current vice chancellors, respectively, of Valley View University, VVU) for their motivation.

Pastors I. N. Dowuona and Samuel Dorgbetor, chaplain and assistant chaplain of Valley View University, for allowing me the use of the one-page 3-Day Personal Revival summary of this book as a practical pre-testing material during the week of spiritual emphasis I conducted at VVU in November, 2017.

Deans, colleague lecturers, staff and students of the VVU School of Theology and Missions, who continue to lend support to my personal revival efforts at the university, are greatly remembered. Pastor Gabriel Nsiah, Ed D, dean of School of Education, VVU, and my daughter, Elder Henrietta Y. Akesse-Mensah (Mrs.), Swindon, Wiltshire, UK, who reviewed this book and made meaningful suggestions, are graciously appreciated.

Pastors Sinisha Horvat and Vicentiu Dranca, the elders and friends of the Bracknell Seventh-day Adventist Church, the central support base of the Akesse-Mensah family, deserve all the blessings of heaven for their selfless effort. Other pastors and members of the Adventist community in the UK, USA and elsewhere who cannot all be mentioned but have been so supportive are very much appreciated.

Dr. Samuel Aryee of Bracknell, UK, Elder Ernest K. Nyame, Slough, UK and other such friends supported the Akesse-Mensah family immensely, and for allowing themselves to be used as a hand of God in those critical moments, deserve deep appreciation.

Mr. and Mrs. Kwesi Akesse-Mensah, UK, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin N’guessan in the UK and Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Boafo Mensah in Ghana deserve appreciation for allowing their families’ living testimonies to be part of this book.

May God’s eternal life be ours forevermore. Blessings!

The Author.

INTRODUCTION

Introduction.jpg

Ellen G. White, a renowned Christian leader of the 19th century, wrote this on revival: "A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs. To seek this should be our first work."— (Review and Herald, March 22, 1887).

Revival is very essential to every person. This is so, because weakness and lukewarm attitudes are not conducive to promoting life and growth (Rev. 3:15, 16). Thus, spiritual growth is very essential to every human being, especially the Christian. Often Christian leaders frantically design programmes to develop and grow their members’ social, physical and material well-being but fail to provide the corresponding personal prayer and spiritual nourishment fundamental to the success of every venture. However, the realization of the oversight dawns on them when they begin to implement the programmes they have designed. The absence of spirituality manifests itself at every stage of the implementation. When this happens, the soul struggles to do things in the physical realm without spiritual support oftentimes resulting in frustration, defeat and suffering.

Day-to-day living as Christians requires daily revival in order to exude sweet fragrance from the righteous relationship that exists between God and us. Unfortunately, we occupy ourselves with elaborate planning and preparation of religious programmes with no thought of reviving our spirituality first.

A busy life makes prayer harder, but a prayer life makes life easier.

—Anonymous

This is why the world leadership of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA, has been initiating annual 10 days of prayers at the beginning of each year for every church member to be revived and remain committed to the Lord throughout the year. After you have been through a spiritual exercise such as this, what do you personally do to maintain your spirituality and ensure continuous growth as you continue to live in this world of sin? Remember the Lord’s prophecy concerning these last days: . . . behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried; and you shall have tribulation ten days: be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life. (Rev. 2:10 – KJV 2,000).

In order to become victorious and benefit immensely from being a committed Christian, it is important to submit yourself completely to the Lord through daily prayer and revival. This will enable you to stand firm and face trials, temptations and persecutions at any time. If you are able to do this, you will become a practical example to members of your nucleus family and your close friends. You will stand as Daniel and Joseph, or as Hannah and Esther, and become victorious for our Warrior and Mediator Jesus unto eternal life. You can do this effectively while engaged in the prayer of faith and fasting in these last days in the guiding spirit of humility and sacrifice.

Have you ever noticed how fire burns inside a hearth or a coal pot? It looks as if the blazing fire you see is just one whole fire but no, the fire is either at the tip of each firewood, or coming from each of the charcoals in the pot. If you take the burning firewood or charcoal apart, there will be no more blazing fire. In fact, the fire dies out on each firewood or coal. In the same vein, if individuals would get personally prepared spiritually and come to the hearth with fire at the tip of their hearts, their coming together would generate a spiritual bonfire at church gatherings.

Likewise, the power from electricity does not depend on only one cable. It takes all three cables performing their individual functions to relay the required energy to lighten the electric bulb. Thus, it is important that each of us exercises his or her own personal revival as required of us by the Scriptures. Then, coming together, the entire church will generate a spiritual bonfire to finish the work of God, against the devil’s scheme to keep us spiritually lukewarm. It is essential that each of us prepares spiritually ahead of meeting the Lord together at such functions as camp meetings, conventions, communion services, and constituency sessions as delegates. Others are all-night or all-day prayer services, youth and women congresses, ministerial conferences, marriage services, evangelistic campaigns and even the weekly Sabbath divine services, in order to derive maximum benefits from them. Listen to what Ellen G. White said about Jesus ahead of important events in His life. Jesus, when preparing for some great trial or some important work, would resort to the solitude of the mountains and spend the night in prayer to His Father. A night of prayer preceded the ordination of the apostles and the Sermon on the Mount, the transfiguration, the agony of the judgment hall and the cross, and the resurrection of glory. (Help in Daily Living – HDL, p. 56).

Jesus is the best example of personal revival. The Scriptures indicate, And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. (Mat. 14:23). Study more of Christ’s examples in Mar. 1:35-39 and Mat. 26:36.

Ellen G. White intimates that It was in hours of solitary prayer that Jesus in His earth life received wisdom and power. Let the youth follow His example in finding at dawn and twilight a quiet season for communion with their Father in heaven. And throughout the day let them lift up their hearts to God. At every step of our way He says, ‘I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand . . . Fear not; I will help thee.’ Isa. 41:13 (Education, p. 259). What Christ did was personal revival.

Jesus taught His disciples to prepare spiritually ahead of major events. And after six days Jesus took with him Peter, and James, and John, and led them up into a high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. (Mar. 9:2). "Before the disciples went forth on their mission, they were called up into the mount with Jesus. Before the power and glory of Pentecost, came the night of communion with the Saviour, the meeting on the mountain in Galilee, the parting scene upon Olivet, with the angel’s promise, and the days of prayer and communion in the upper chamber." (Help in Daily Living – HDL, p. 55)

Both clergy and laity need to work on their personal spiritual lives for their revival. From afar a thick forest looks like a massive green foliage; but when you get nearer, you discover that it comprises of individual trees standing apart from each other. As the saying goes, A single tree does not make a forest (Anon). It takes our individual spiritual revival and growth to build a dynamic church.

In order to benefit immensely from the guidelines set forth in this book for personal spiritual growth and revival, it is essential that you secure a personal copy for your own use at any time. No heaven-bound Christian can afford to look on unconcerned when others are seriously engaged in their personal spiritual growth into Christ.

We cannot solve our problems with the same

thinking we used when we created them.

— Albert Einstein

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YOUR PERSONAL PRAYER LIFE

Reviews for Improving Your Personal Prayer Life

[Emmanuel Abbey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's relevant for today's hustling 'lifestyle' when it is becoming more difficult to set aside time for personal prayers. It is handy with guidelines for daily, weekly and monthly approaches and guidelines. It's also relevant for the family. It enhances one's chances of living a constant revived and sanctified life as Christians.