Book Recommendation--Stockholm Syndrome Christianity (Why Christian Leaders are Failing--and What We Can Do About It)--John G. West

I grew up reading books.  I am not sure if it was expected that I should read books but once I learned how to read, books became things that took my mind and spirit to places I had never been before.  I read all the Hardy Boys series, many of the biographies that were prevalent in the children’s library in Dothan, a host of stories about the advancement of America toward the west, and sports stories.  Duane Decker was a fictional writer that wrote about fictional major league baseball teams and the ups and downs of the players.  Beverly Cleary’s books about Henry Huggins were another big hit for me. 

Then I started reading the westerns that were written by Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey which led to Peter McCurtin and his Sundance series.  As I got older, I found Stephen Ambrose (recommended to me by Harold Hoffman) and read Undaunted Courage about Lewis and Clark and their expedition.  Then I started working through his books on World War II and that opened more books about the great war in the European theater.  Biographies by McCollough, Meachum, Chernow, and others were another avenue that I went down. 

Mixed in was another writer that I found about the time I started in RN school whose books captivated me for more than a decade—Robin Cook!  He has written more than 40 books, and I have read at least 35 of them, some of them multiple times.  Somewhere along the way I accidentally found A. J. Cronin whose writing, even to this day I find incredibly intriguing especially the two that I have read several times, The Citadel and The Keys to the Kingdom.  Another similar incidental find is The Lords of Discipline and The Great Santini by Pat Conroy, which pushed me to read all his other books—deep, melancholy, and provoking characters and twisting plots that have stayed with me for the long years since I have read any of his books.  I could go on and on about books and authors but that is not what this blog is supposed to be about—it is a book recommendation—so I shall commence with that task.

I found this book from an author interview podcast late one night while traveling.  It is by John G. West, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity—Why Christian Leaders Are Failing—and What We Can Do About It.  John West was formerly a professor at Seattle Pacific University that was a solidly conservative Christian college.  He taught there for more than a decade in a school that had been founded by the Free Methodists in 1890.  Its early days were marked by a strong commitment to the Word of God and the traits of devoted Methodists.  In those days, there was a great emphasis on personal holiness, devotion to prayer, and fostering strong discipleship traits among the youth.  A statement from their 1929 yearbook noted this:  “The Bible is the very Word of God, the Book of books.  In this day when modernists, skeptics, and faithless scientists and philosophers are doing their utmost to discredit the Bible as the Word of God and to prove it only a collection of myths and folklore of a primitive and semi-civilized people, our Bible School is glad to take its place in the front ranks of those standing for the inspiration and integrity of Scriptures.”  That is a telling statement in that you can see they were dealing with the barbarians at the gates almost 100 years ago and furthermore it acutely points out that not much has changed in our days either.  We still contend with the intellectual snobbery and loud guffaws of the enlightened religious elite.  For those of us who are earnestly contending for the faith that was once delivered we have our work cut out for us.  There must be a rigid and unyielding front that is presented to these barbarians at the gates of our homes and our churches.  Strong spiritual leadership is a necessity!

West tells a gripping story about how he became marginalized and finally silenced in some of his efforts to put the brakes on the push toward a more liberal approach to the education of students at SPU.  He writes about how that some of his colleagues who were supposedly bona fide conservative Christians had become embarrassed by the stances of those who believed in creation that was given by the biblical account in Genesis.  They had a strong tendency to lean toward what some have called “theistic evolution.”  West attempted to bring in some speakers who championed the biblical account he was thwarted in his efforts by slow moving admins who were pushing the minds of their students toward a much more liberal curve.  West does an excellent job of citing very clear plans that were worked through to silence anyone who might have an influence on the students.  As he tracks through his story, it becomes clear a nefarious pattern that was at work at SPU and in other institutions around the nation.  It is not very hard to see that kind of thing taking place even among us.  The drift is ultimately what takes down ministries, churches, and finally organizations and denominations.  When you see the move away from prayer, personal holiness, and dedication to the Word of God, you cannot help but to slide and to drift. 

What I really liked about this book was the more than 700 footnotes that he strongly documents what he is proving to the reader.  I tracked down several of the sources that he named and found them to be disturbing and even discouraging to see what kind of mentality we are facing nowadays. Sadly, we have come to a time in America’s history that we are not only post-modern but we have come to a place that we are post-Christian.  While there are still some swaths of the nation that do adhere to some semblance of Christianity, outside of a national revival (which could always happen), we will continue to see the secularization of religion and our steps are mirroring that which Europe is experiencing presently.

One of the most valuable chapters in the book is chapter 10.  West entitles it “A Call to Wisdom” and provides some very good points to help to navigate through the spiritual darkness of our day.  I am very much in agreement with his observations and advice concerning the matter of entertainment.  It is my belief that once television programming and the ills that it brought into the homes of America, it pretty much began to slowly pound the nails in the coffin of the mind and soul.  Discernment and direction needs to gain a prominent place in the life of the Christian soul and mind for any serious potential of recovery to take place.  May God help us! 

I recommend this book to you and hope that you will read through it thoughtfully and carefully.  If you are a preaching pastor or fill the role of a Bible teacher, it is my hopes that you will use this book as strong illustrative material.  Beware of the pushback that you will receive from the carnal and worldly members of the churches that you serve in.  But just keep on preaching and pushing!!!!!

 

Thanks for reading. . .

Philip Harrelson             

 

          

The Kitchen Table

I have spent a bit of time reading back through some of the old Barnabas Blog posts to stir up my thoughts and memories.  One of the series that created a “time warp” was those that I had written about the various characters of Pilgrim’s Progress.  Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was initially recommended to me by Brother Harrell, the long-time pastor in Bridge City, Texas.  As I mused on that character series, I was pulled back toward a kitchen table.  In fact, I went back and looked through my preaching record in Excel to pinpoint the exact dates that I spent at a specific kitchen table.  These dates (3/2/96; 11/22/97; 6/20/98; 12/15/01; 6/1/02; 7/26/03) were the times that I spent with the Raggio’s in Birmingham, Alabama.  These specific dates were on Saturday nights prior to me preaching at Bible Tabernacle where Brother Ken Raggio was the pastor.  All these dates were when I was still working at Flowers Hospital here in Dothan.  He would invite me up to preach and I would usually make the drive on a mid-afternoon on Saturday and stay in their home.  We would go eat somewhere and then be back at their home by 7-7:30. 

Then we would gather up at the kitchen table in their home.  These were the days when study Bibles were not nearly as available as they are now.  So, for me, I had my “go to” Thompson Chain KJV which has been my primary sword of choice for a long time now.  Brother and Sister Raggio also had Thompson’s as well.  I can’t even begin to tell you how rich the experience was at that time.  Even now, time pulls me back to those powerful moments of fellowship over the Word.  You may think that the description of powerful is an exaggeration but in my mind that word doesn’t even nearly tap what all that we would get into as far as biblical content.  Another memory that I cannot shake free of is Sister Raggio’s Bible, I have only seen one other woman’s Bible to this day that has been as marked up as what hers was.  It was a Thompson as well and there was no doubt in my mind that her proficiency with the Word was incredible.  Not only did her contributions to the discussion bear that out but her Bible was unbelievable.  The golden gilted page edges were no longer there because of constant use and there were marks all through the Scripture columns in the classic Thompson text block.  But here is another matter, she also had marked up the index and the charts that were in the back of it.  Brother Raggio’s Bible was in the same condition, well-used, marked up, prayed over and preached with.  I look back at those times with great fondness with my only regret being that I was not actively journaling at that time, so the details are now lost to time.

The time that we spent at that table in Birmingham was fantastic!  It was nothing for us to start at 7:45-8:00 PM and still be working through Scriptures at 1:00-1:30 AM.  I can remember that there were themes and trails that we followed and even though it was almost 25 years ago, I can still remember with great clarity the themes that we discussed although sadly the finer details have escaped me.  If you know Brother Raggio, one prevailing theme that we spent a lot of time with was the matter of personal holiness and how crucial it was for spiritual life to flourish.  I suppose the first time I had ever seen what I call “loops” in Scripture was in his Bible.  He had and Sister Raggio as well would take verses related to holiness and underline them, make small concise notes out to the side followed by another verse reference.  As you turn to the next reference, you will find similar notes and a verse reference that would move you to the next one.  Therein was where I defined the “loops” in the Word.  In Exodus and Leviticus, I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to consider there were at least 100 references and insights they had made toward holiness.  The pieces of furniture, the colors, the materials, and the hangings all pointed obviously toward Jesus Christ and the work of atonement, but holiness is woven all through it.  It is called kitchen table talk!  Thank God for all of that and how it shaped my mind and life at that point.  There were angles on holiness that we would discuss, and it affected my personal devotion, and I look back now and realize it had a tremendous influence on my public ministry as well. 

Another well-run subject was the matter of prayer.  The Raggio’s were praying people!  The prayer focus they had was not only effective, but it was also intense.  The parables on prayer, the prayers of the characters in Scripture, and even anecdotal stories they would talk about praying men and women they had been exposed to in and around the apostolic movement mainly in Texas and Louisiana was both inspiring and convicting.  While my own upbringing has been deeply imprinted by praying parents, a praying grandmother and a praying great-grandfather when you are at a kitchen table talking about prayer, it does so much for the soul.  I am drawn to wonder what would happen if we were able to replicate that kind of commitment to prayer and table talk in the beginning of 2026.  What could God do with my little efforts if they became even more steeped in prayer?  If we become praying preachers and pastors, it will be because we choose the good part (Luke 10:42).  We don’t just fall into change; it is because we make a vigilant and strenuous effort to do so.  I commend Brother Raggio’s book on prayer to you (which I have read at least twice and several portions more than that).  When I read through that book it is like time travel back to the kitchen table in Birmingham.

We also spent a significant amount of time on the matter of fasting as well.  We don’t fast because it “works” but rather because we have a commandment to do so in the Word.  I will let you look all of that up on your own.  But suffice it to say that the regular and disciplined practice of fasting was something the Raggio’s did consistently and that was more kitchen table talk that shaped me.  With the matter of fasting was also the sub-topic of carnality that would play into the conversation.  Most people in our present day have hardly even a hint of an idea of what carnality is, what it entails, and how much God hates carnal living.  Fasting has a way of being very destructive to our flesh and to worldly thinking.  I have a feeling that if pastors/preachers and churches would give great effort to fasting it would move us toward a more concerted direction of seeing the Kingdom principles come to life among us. 

We spent a lot of time talking about preaching as well.  At the time, I did not know who Brother Harrell was, but the Raggio’s talked about the tremendous impact that his preaching had on them in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s.  Brother Raggio also loved Brother C. M. Becton, the former general secretary of the UPCI.  Another minister whose preaching and teaching had influence on him was Brother E. L. Holley, the long-tenured district superintendent of the Texas district.  All these elders have now passed on to their reward, but when they would talk about the specific sermons these men had on them, it brewed something so deep in my soul!  I wanted to be a better preacher!  Not for the sake of personal notoriety or recognition, that is nonsense!  It’s foolish for us as preachers to fall into the traps that Balaam and Diotrephes were destroyed in!  But if you are a preacher, have you ever longed to have tapped into what Jeremiah alludes to as a brewing soul fire that not only sets the soul ablaze, but it lets the words of your mouth pour out with eternal influence.  Not of the preaching of yourself and your little fleshly accomplishments but the radical and drastic change that Word-driven preaching draws out of those who hear you.  Spiritual ambition is not sinful, not detrimental if it has been crucified, denied, punished, disciplined, reproved, and had motives tested by the Word and Spirit!  Even now as I write these words, I feel intensity and passion stirring in my soul and mind longing for spiritual influence.  Not crowds, not marquees, not recognition because all these matters amount to nothing more than spiritual pottage that Esau will sell his birthright for.  I can point out so many shipwrecks and as Paul would say about men who have become enemies of the Cross because of ambition that was never crucified.  No!  I am speaking of something so far beyond that which will impact eternity.  This kind of preaching will shape commitment, move hearers toward spiritual destiny, and will result in real heart change.  But I we cannot leave a great matter on the kitchen table; it is this:  there is a price that you will have to pay for that kind of ministry.  I wish it was simply a matter of you getting a theology degree from some seminary somewhere.  I wish it was just because you took up the call and it becoming effective and everything working out for you.  But that is not the case with this kind of ministry.  I wish it was just a matter of personal development and so forth but if you will be effective it will be because you have suffered.  There is no other way around it; there are no shortcuts.  I learned some of that at the kitchen table.

Other matters that came up at the table were biblical prophecy.  If you have been exposed to the ministry of Brother Raggio, there is not a need to spend a lot of time on this subject in this posting.  Suffice it to say that our world is moving closer and closer to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ for a church that is pure and holy.  We must make our calling and election sure!  We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling!  God save me from this untoward generation! 

Thanks for reading. . .

Philip Harrelson                       

 

   

 

My Poor Blog!

January 17, 2026

 

Twenty years ago, I started the Barnabas Blog on a whim.  At the time, blogs or weblogs were sort of coming into existence from a variety of amateur writers and a few more serious ones on the religious scene.  I can remember there were two blogs that I do not even remember how I found them, but they had a very strong influence on my thinking at the time.  One of them is still in existence and the other one has long been reduced to an inactive state.  So, once I sort of gathered my “sea legs” so to speak, I started writing about things that piqued my interest and what I thought might gather a small following of preachers and ministers. 

 

It has been ages since I have written anything besides sermon notes and Bible studies that primarily are for where I pastor in Dothan, Alabama.  On this rainy, cold Saturday night, once again I am in my study at the Pentecostals of Dothan.  It is much larger and has a whole lot more volumes in my library than it did twenty years ago.  Twenty years ago, I was literally working out of a small room that had become a cleaning closet for the old fellowship hall.  In December 2005, I had made the transition from working full-time in an Interventional Radiology Cath lab as an RN to a very part-time basis that I would continue until the fall of 2014.  So, I had gone from a high-tech medical procedure lab to a dusty, dilapidated “broom closet” and that is where the Barnabas Blog started.  The space was 12 feet by 16 feet with a noisy window unit that cranked out very cold air but also sprayed mildew all over creation as well.  In those simple surroundings, I wrote and prayed, wrote some more and prayed some more, and wrote even more and prayed even more.  Prayer is far more important than writing, however prayer will set your mind and pen on fire while you are writing.  So, I wrote!  Honestly, I had no idea how many people would come to read the Barnabas Blog in that first decade.  It never crossed my mind that it would inspire, convict, encourage, and in some cases aggravate.  So many people came up to me at various conferences and introduced themselves as readers, to the degree that it was amazing.  Once there was a time when I got hemmed in by a couple of preachers who felt like I had no business writing content like I did.  I look back at those days and ask myself what I asked just before I started this blog post: Why did you quit writing?! 

 

I am not sure if there is a good reason or excuse as to why I stopped writing.  I still do a tremendous amount of writing, but it is rarely put out for public dissemination because it is sermon notes and Bible studies for local ministry.  The very feeble excuse might be to say that I have been busy but everyone productive person I know is busy!  You’ve heard it said that if you want something done to ask someone who is busy to do it for you.  That is truer than you can ever realize.  It is my great intention to do my best to resurrect the Barnabas Blog in memory of its start two decades ago.  Please know that I tend to lean toward very long-form writing patterns and also I do very little editing as you may already know if you used to read the Barnabas Blog; I feel sure that will continue to be similar.  What is remarkable as well is that I have a cheap journal that I have dragged around for a long time now with a lot of writing prompts and sadly they are in the stages of just that: prompts waiting on prayer and a keyboard to give expression to these thoughts.  I have experienced a lot of living in the last two decades.  I have gathered in some of the most tremendous friends that a man could ever ask for as well.  My brother-in-law, Mike Patterson have always been close, but he is a missionary in Romania so my connection with him has been hindered by geography.  Two friends that I have gotten extremely close to are Wayne Naylor who pastors in Danville, Kentucky, and Nate Royer, who pastors in Rio Linda, California are men I talk to on an almost daily basis.  Generally speaking, the content of the conversation is almost always about Scripture, hashing out how to breakdown biblical passages, and the reading of books.  There are others who have been hugely encouraging to me as well but my circle is fairly small.  Sadly, many of the elders who have made profound marks on me from a distance have passed on to their rewards.  May God invest in me the faithfulness that was in those men as I move forward into my seventh decade of life in a few months.  I want that seventh one to be the most productive of my life—some of that starts now. . . with this first post of 2026 in the Barnabas Blog!             

Take Care Fellow Travelers

This is a snail mail letter that I send out to about 80 ministers.  

June 10, 2025

Dear Fellow Traveler,

I hope that all is well with you and with these letters I try not to clutter up your life too much with junk mail.  I frequently am in conversation with pastors and ministers throughout the apostolic movement both in and out of various organizations.  Wherever you may be serving, you need to know that I have never seen the pressure that the ministry is under at this current time so don’t fall into the lie that something is wrong with you, this is the spirit of the age.  There is much resistance to almost any kind of spiritual leadership these days and some are dealing with outright rebellion in their local assemblies.  At times it is mind-numbing and soul-withering what we have to soldier on through.  But if you are wondering, I do have your name in my prayer journal and I pray for you on a regular basis.  To some degree I was texting some of you on our prayer revival nights in a group text but have backed off from that since there were times that I felt that it was perhaps self-serving to do so.  We need the strength of the Spirit and the power of the Word to surround us because we cannot accomplish the purpose of God without it. 

North Dakota District UPCI--Day 5--Bible Study Notes--Philip Harrelson

The following notes are the actual notes that I used in the July 14, 2023 session.  As you can see there is a lot more content than what was covered in the session.  

The Saint Builds, Prays & Remains—vv. 20-21

 

• A true saint will be one who builds his life on the Word of God (v. 20a).

• A true saint will pray in the Spirit (v. 20b).

• A true saint will remain in the love of God (v. 21).

 

Jude affirms that the Holy Ghost helps us to pray.  While we are praying, there is a steady flow of the grace of God given to those who would pray.  Zechariah 12:10 is notable for its promise that a spirit of grace and supplication will come to those who are given to prayer.  A regenerate man should be drawn very easily into the presence of the Lord during his times of prayer.  The priests were to wash in the laver before they went to the altar of incense in the Tabernacle, therefore a New Testament believer needs to come to the laver of regeneration by the work of the renewal of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5).  However, even though we are regenerated we still do not pray as we ought (Rom. 8:26) so Jude urges us to pray in the Spirit because of the need to earnestly contend for the faith.   

 

This matter of building up your most holy faith by praying in the Holy Ghost is a very important matter in the life of every minister and every saint.  Perhaps one of the most challenging of the Christian disciplines is the matter of prayer.  Prayer is hard work and prayer needs to be something that we need to learn (Luke 11:1-13).  If you will really have a productive prayer life, it will have to be more than 5-10-minute snippets here and there throughout the day.  A devilish trap to excuse prayerlessness is the idea that we are constantly praying “in our minds” amidst all of the busyness of an overloaded schedule.  But if we could be honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that some of the serious issues that we face in our lives have a direct correlation to our prayerlessness.  Prayerlessness to a saint is like breathlessness to a human being; just as a person needs air, a child of God needs prayer. 

 

Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession—We have far too little conception of the place of intercession, as distinguished from prayer for ourselves that ought to have in the Church and in Christian life.  In intercession our king upon the throne finds His highest glory too.  Through it He continues His saving work and can do nothing without it.  Through it alone we can do our work, and nothing avails without it . . . where . . . we work more than we pray; the presence and the power of God are not seen in our work as we wish.

 

Arthur Mathews—Born For Battle—Prayer was never meant to be incidental to the work of God.  It is the work of God . . . in all work for God; prayer is the working power of all that God could do through His people.

 

Robert Murray McCheyne—What a man is alone on his knees before God, that he is, and no more. 

 

I believe that one of the reasons that people have a problem with prayer is not so much a spiritual problem as it is the method of attempting to pray.  As Apostolics, we frequently come to this verse in Jude with the concept that praying in the Spirit is praying in tongues.  Certainly, that is one element of prayer and we cannot get away from.  In fact, there are times that we are so distressed and burdened that we hardly know what to pray and the Spirit rescues us and then ushers us into a place of fruitful prayer (Rom. 8:26).  But on the other hand, learning how to use the Scriptures as an avenue of prayer will keep your mind from wandering about while you are actually praying.  A wandering mind leads to repetitive prayers that the Lord spoke against in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6:5-8).  When we fall into the trap of repetitive, mindless prayers we are not accomplishing the true intent of prayer.  But prayers that become rooted in Scripture literally opens up the purpose of God into the life of a saint, as nothing else will.    

 

As Apostolics we are accustomed to hearing people praying aloud in a church service or in a corporate prayer meeting.  Over my lifetime, I have been guilty of listening to the prayers of others as they prayed, and it has uniquely shaped the way that I pray both positively and negatively.  What are the common things that you hear people praying for in public church meetings?

 

• Family—Spouses, children, parents, etc.

• Future—Decisions for jobs, change in place where they live, upcoming events, etc.

• Finances—Seeking God’s provisions generally for material matters; cars, homes, bills, schooling, etc. 

• Christian Concern—Political matters, church related, personal ministry work, someone who is suffering

• Current Crisis—We average having to deal with a major crisis about every six months—it may be good or bad.  Birth, death, marriage, job changes for one you want or don’t want, and other things that devour our attention. 

 

While all of these needs are acceptable to pray for, in fact they are necessary to pray for, if our prayers never venture out of this pattern our prayer remains on a very basic level.  Praying the Word allows us to move into realms that we normally would not go.  There are benefits of praying the Scripture:

 

• Your mind will have less of a tendency to wander.

• Your prayer will be more about the purpose of God than about yourself.

• You will find that the time in prayer will seem to be shorter.

• You will seem to be in a real conversation with God.

• Your prayer will speak directly to the life situation you are currently in.

• You will think more deeply about what the Bible is saying.

• You will have a greater assurance you are praying the will of God.

• You will begin to pray about things you wouldn’t normally pray about.

• You will pray about things you normally pray for but in a new and different way. 

• You won’t pray the same old things about the same old things. 

The first time I can distinctly remember discovering the power of praying Scripture was on a Saturday PM at the church when I was just musing over the Psalms while I was praying.  I turned to Psalm 51 and as I read through it, I just started to read out loud those words and it turned into a tremendous prayer meeting.  The second passage of Scripture that came to my attention around this same period of time was 1 Timothy 6:11-21.  Both of those events were at least 20 years ago and at the time there were very few resources that were available in this area of praying the Scriptures. 

 

John Piper—If I try to pray for people or events without having the Word in front of me guiding my prayers, then several negative things happen.  One is that I tend to be very repetitive . . . I just pray the same things all the time.  Another negative thing is that my mind tends to wander.

 

Effective prayer is focused prayer.  Once we enter into the matter of praying the Word it can assist us in overcoming strongholds in our lives as well.  By praying Scripture, we can even pray for the overarching need to let the will of God be the priority for our life.  We can pray the Scriptures in such a way that helps us to overcome idolatry, unbelief, pride, deception, besetting sins, guilt, bitterness, un-forgiveness, and depression.  The components of human emotion can at times overwhelm even the strongest believer, but Scripture-guided prayer can literally incorporate the mind of God into our soul over our own human agenda.

  

Assessment of our personal prayer life should be ongoing, and it should cause us grief if there isn’t any progress being made by God and the Word in that spiritual discipline.  Furthermore, as we probe our own prayer life, it is important that we are willing to make adjustments as we move along in our race. 

 

• Is prayer a delight or drudgery?

• Is there a sense that we have met with a holy God at the throne of grace?

• Are there periods of prayer where we can come away with the notion that we have prevailed before God, as did Jacob and Moses?

 

Provoking questions give way to an inner assessment as to how well our prayer life is functioning.  

 

As a beginning to praying Scripture, we may start praying the Psalms.  Obviously Psalm 23 might seem like a very elementary place to start.  But notice what can come to light in your prayer when you pray this psalm. 

 

• Shepherd—Thank the Lord that He is your shepherd.  He is a good Shepherd.  Lord, shepherd my family today; guard them from the ways of the world; guide them in the ways of God.  Lead them not into temptation, deliver them from evil.  Pray for your children and your family to be sheep that are not going to wander.  Shepherd me in my decisions . . .

• Want—Thankful that I have never really been in want.  Haven’t missed too many meals.  Everything I have has come from You.  I am thankful for your provision!  Never let me take it for granted.    

• Green Pastures—Thankful for the peace that comes in these pastures.  Thankful for the nourishment of the Word that comes from being in a green pasture. 

 

Not only is the book of Psalms a prayer book it is also a songbook.  The book of Psalms was also designed for singing (Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16).  When we come to the Lord in our prayer, we can use some of the following from the single-verse psalms:

 

• Psa. 3:3

• Psa. 8:1

• Psa. 16:11

• Psa. 36:7

• Psa. 51:17

• Psa. 71:19

• Psa. 77:13

• Psa. 86:5

• Psa. 104:1-2

• Psa. 119:105

• Psa. 139:1-2

• Psa. 145:13

 

As for praying entire psalms, some of the following might be a good starting place:

 

• Psalm 23

• Psalm 27

• Psalm 31

• Psalm 37

• Psalm 42

• Psalm 66

• Psalm 103

• Psalm 139

As you start to branch out into praying the Psalms, it will not be long until you run across some that seem to have a different direction to them.  There are some sections of the Psalms called “imprecatory psalms.”  The psalmist is calling for the Lord to bring judgment on his enemies (Psa. 58:6, 8; 137:9).  I have to balance this out with Matt. 5:44-45 and that will change the tone of the prayer.  Therefore, we can pray about specific sins that God will smash their teeth before they devour our soul or someone that we love.  Sometimes we can pray this on a national level that the Lord would destroy abortion, sexual immorality, racism, injustice, etc.

 

There are times when we have to endure the challenges that suffering brings to us in life.  It is rare that any human being will ever be brought to the dark anguish that Job came to in his life.  He literally lost everything except for his life but even his body was tormented by sickness and pain.  There are forty-two chapters in the book of Job of which some is a historical retelling of his story followed by a conversation with Job and four men who came his way.  There are also several conversations that Job has with God that are recorded as well.  Mixed in this entire book of suffering, calamity but ultimate victory for Job is some of his prayers.  These are effective maps for prayer as well:

 

• Job 6:8-9; 7:17-21—A prayer for pity.

• Job 10—A prayer against injustice (in my opinion this is probably one of the darkest chapters in the Bible especially v. 10 as Job is describing his plight). 

 

There are multiple prayers that are seen in the OT prophets.  Just reading through the prophets will help to point out the places where they prayed so that we may incorporate them into our own prayer life.  One such prayer is found in Jeremiah 12:1-4 which is a prayer of great perplexity by Jeremiah.  He again notes the common theme of the prosperity of the wicked.  There are two principles that are evident in his prayer:  Don’t lose faith when we observe their prosperity and don’t allow the apparent injustices in life confuse us. 

Another one of the great blessings of Scripture affords us an ability to get a bit of insight into the prayers of the Lord.  He was one who was given to prayer as an example for us to follow.  There are some human traits that we see in the incarnate Christ that are evident in his prayers:

 

• Sincerity

• Humility

• Repentance (Seen in the parable of the prodigal son)

• Obedience

• Faith

• Forgiveness

• Persistence

• Need for privacy

 

All of these characteristics are seen in his prayers because he had a human body.  But there is one prayer that really seems to encapsulate what it really meant for him to pray.  That is the great high priestly prayer that we find in John 17 that is really the Lord’s Prayer, as we would define it.  The prayer given in Matthew 6 when the Lord instructed his disciples in prayer could really be understood as the disciples’ prayer while this prayer in John 17 is at the heart of the entire mission of his incarnation.  It follows the preaching in the upper room (John 13-16) and gives a principle that preaching should be followed with prayer.  There are three sections which at the heart is for faithfulness and fruitfulness:

 

• vv. 1-5—A prayer for himself

• vv. 6-19—A prayer for his disciples

• vv. 20-26—A prayer for his church

 

In his prayer for the church, there are some characteristics that should be prayed for every church to have present:

 

• Joy—v. 13

• Holiness—vv. 14-17

• Truth—v. 17

• Mission—vv. 18-19

• Unity—vv. 20-23

• Love—vv. 25-26

 

These are matters that are crucial to every church in existence!  If we are to be an effective church, we must have these qualities among us. 

 

Lastly, we look to the epistles of Paul and take notice of his prayers.  While Paul was a missionary evangelist, he also filled the role of a pastor.  When we look at his prayers for the churches that he established and wrote to, his prayers for them are very insightful.  In fact, his prayers for those saints are perhaps a far cry from what many in our modern era would be. 

 

• Ephesians 1:15-19—A prayer for enlightenment (Doctrinal in nature).

• Ephesians 3:14-21—A prayer for enablement (Advancement of the church).

• Philippians 1:9-11—A prayer for holiness (Fruits of righteousness).

• 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12—A prayer of thankfulness for growth in virtues.

 

These are the ones that I have chosen to focus on in this lesson on praying in the Holy Ghost.  However, for the sake of convenience the following are Paul’s prayers through his epistles that will be helpful to use in your private times of prayer:

 

• Rom. 1:8-10

• Rom. 10:1

• Rom. 12:12

• Rom. 15:5-6

• Rom. 15:13

• Rom. 15:30-33

• 1 Cor. 1:4-9

• 1 Cor. 16:23

• 2 Cor. 1:3-7

• 2 Cor. 2:14-16

• 2 Cor. 9:12-15

• 2 Cor. 12:7-9a

• 2 Cor. 13:7-9

• Gal. 6:18

• Eph. 1:3-8

• Eph. 1:15-23

• Eph. 3:14-21

• Eph. 6:19-20

• Php. 1:3-6

• Php. 1:9-11

• Php. 4:6-7

• Php. 4:23

• Col. 1:3-14

• Col. 4:2-4

• 1 Thess. 1:2-3

• 1 Thess. 2:13-16

• 1 Thess. 3:9-13

• 1 Thess. 5:23-24

• 1 Thess. 5:28

• 2 Thess. 1:3-4

• 2 Thess. 1:11-12

• 2 Thess. 2:16-17

• 2 Thess. 3:2-5

• 2 Thess. 3:16

• 1 Tim. 1:12

• 1 Tim. 2:1-2

• 2 Tim. 1:3-7

• 2 Tim. 1:16-18

• 2 Tim. 4:22

• Titus 3:15b

• Philemon 4-7

• Philemon 25

As you can see this whole matter of praying the Scripture can really shape our prayer life as nothing else can. 

 

In conclusion, it is not my desire to overwhelm you with information at the expense of leaving us hanging as to what can make our prayers more Scriptural and with a depth.  A very worthy undertaking in conjunction with praying the Scriptures is to use a prayer journal.  A number of years ago, I had an old accounting record book that initially I was going to use for something else.  But as the providence and blessing of the Lord would have it, one day I picked up that record book and started simply writing down names of people that I had prayed for.  After a while, this book took on a very different use as I would write down the names and some snippets of the reason that I was praying for them.  Over the years this has been a great encouragement because I can read back about things I was praying for and can literally trace the hand of God at work in the situations that I was praying for.  Obviously, the privacy of this journal is crucial, but it is a very helpful way to chart the progress of what is taking place in personal prayer times.  

 

Some other resources I would recommend to you that will help you in praying the Scriptures:

 

• Nave’s Topical Bible

• Thompson Chain Reference Bible

• Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

• Herbert Lockyer—All the Prayers of the Bible

 

It is my hope that this lesson has been effective in stretching your prayers to a higher level for the glory of God.

Philip Harrelson

July 14, 2023