Submitted by: Joe Putnam (Irvine, CA)
Recently, I’ve been enjoying an uplifted view of pray-reading, particularly that pray-reading means we’re praying over the words of the Bible and we’re using the words of the Bible as our prayer.
Based on the first definition, to pray-read is to pray over the words of the Bible that we’re reading. As we read any portion of the Word, we can turn that portion of the Bible into prayer, both for ourselves and for others. As we read Matthew 5:8 , for example, we can pray, “Oh Lord, my heart is not pure. Lord, purify my heart.” By praying in this way, we apply the words of the Bible to ourselves in order to experience what we’re reading.
We can also do this for others. Ephesians 6:17 speaks of taking “the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the Word of God,” and verse 18 goes on to say, “by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit concerning all the saints.” What we see here is that this “by all means of prayer and petition” is not just for ourselves but is for all of the saints. As we read the Word, we can apply what we’re reading to others. Using the example above, we can pray, “Lord, purify ‘so-and-sos’ heart. Cause his/her heart to be pure and to be the good earth for your life to grow.” In doing so, we have the utterance and the way to pray for others and to help them to grow in the Lord.
However, pray-reading doesn’t stop here. Pray-reading also means to use the words of the Bible as our prayer. This can be in a prayer meeting, a table meeting, a home meeting, or when we’re alone with the Lord.
To do this, we use the words of the Bible as our prayer. We may be in a prayer meeting and pray, “Lord, bind the strong man and plunder his house. Release ‘so-and-so’ to be saved!” Or, “Oh Lord, strengthen ‘so-and-so’ with power through your spirit into his inner man and make your home in his heart. Make his heart the good earth and cause him to grow.” By praying this way, we use the words of the Bible as the utterance for our prayer and allow the Lord to carry out what He desires.
As we’ve seen, pray-reading can be richer than simply repeating the words of the Bible as a group prayer to the Lord. This can be considered ‘Pray-reading 101.’ We want to go on to experience 201, 301, 401, and 501. May the Lord grant us His mercy that we would all have a deeper experience of pray-reading by learning how to both pray over the words that we’re reading and to use the words of the Bible as our prayer to the Lord.
Praise the Lord for ‘Pray-reading 101’! Hallelujah for our spirit that we can regularly use to inhale the Triune God into our being and then exhale Him into others so as to build up the Body of Christ!
Lord Jesus, bring us onward in our pray-reading!
Amen brother. To pray-read the Word can also be likened to eating it. The Lord Himself is the Word of God (John 1:1), and He is also the heavenly bread (John 6:51). Therefore to pray-read the Word is simply to eat the Lord! Yet our eating must be with the mingled spirit, so that we will touch the reality of the prayer, which is just the pneumatic person of the Lord Jesus Himself (John 4:24, 20:22). And if we touch the infinite and all-inclusive Christ, how can the prayer then be stopped? It’ll certainly be carried out. Amen.
To practically aid other saints, pray-reading can also be an mnemonic of REAP: Repeat the verse verbatim; Emphasize a particular portion or item; Apply the verse to a particular situation/person (like brother Joe’s example); and Personalize the verse concerning yourself.
May our pray-reading build up the Body and prepare the Bride, amen!
Amen! We were recently enjoying with some students about the matter of praying over the words of the Bible. The whole Bible is our prayer book, and we need to learn to daily breathe the word of God by musing over it, praying over it, and breathing it in.
Even when we wait for the train or the bus, or when we drive, we can take some words from the Bible and chew them, mix them with our prayer, and pray many short and living prayers to open to the Lord. The Word of God is living, and it becomes spirit and life to us as we pray over it!
We need to take the word of God into us by means of ALL prayer and petition. All prayer means thanking, praising, begging, asking, musing, repeating, petitioning, consecrating, and many other kinds of prayer.
…. we are learning! We need to be continually learning to uplift and deepen our practice of praying over the Word of God that we may be washed by the water in the Word, so that the Lord may gain His spotless Bride!
This indeed an uplifted view of pray-reading.Based on Eph 6:17-18
“by all means of prayer and petition” is not just for ourselves but is for all of the saints. As we read the Word, we can apply what we’re reading to others.
And it continues…to use the words of the Bible as our prayer. This can be in a prayer meeting, a table meeting, a home meeting, or when we’re alone with the Lord.
And even in the prayer meeting of the church.need to use the word as the ex.shown.
If this is our continuous practice we will all be fully constituted with the word.And in all of our meetings will be filled with the Spirit,word,life and light.This is much much richer.
I am very much help and enrich through pray-reading and my life is full of vitality.I just want to pray.Dear Lord Jesus,bring all the saints in Your whole recovery to practice the uplifted view of pray reading.Make us willing to let Your word dwell in all of us richly.
Thank you for posting this.
Amen. pray-reading is the way to enjoy and digest the Lord, for Him to saturate our whole being, from spirit, soul and body