The Power of Positive Praying!

Notes from
"The Power of Positive Praying"
by John Bisagno

Read from February 14th to February 18th, 2009
(comment added June 8th, 2014) This book had a lot of good ideas and probably got me thinking in the right way about a lot of things.  It is a book penned by one human and therefore is not perfect but it is John Bisagno's experience.  I have no doubt that he was inspired by God while writing or in the fact that this is the way that God deals with him daily.  

As I get to know God more and more, I am coming to understand that God is a God that is unchanging that is true but He is also a God that is capable of dealing with each of His children in unique ways.  He understands the heart and motives that we each come to Him with and in this there are no pat answers in the way to approach the throne of the one true King.

The key is to learn to listen to God's voice and be ready and willing to obey what the Holy Spirit is asking you personally to do.  God desires a unique relationship with each one of His children.  We can learn from other's walks with Him and gain understanding about God but to intimately walk with God takes time... no shortcuts.  Just like any other friendship it goes two ways but unlike human relationships... when we neglect our relationship with God he doesn't loose interest, however He does long to be with you again :-) 

A good place to begin to understand who God is and how He wants to relate personally to you is to Pray for understanding, Read your Bible, listen to what He is telling you, then Obey what the Lord shows you.  God is waiting patiently for time with you.  That is all He desires is we are in relationship with Him!  That is ultimately what we were created for.  To be in an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father and to be in relationship with those around us... we are relational beings.

Chapter 1 - Answered Prayer
-only about 10% of our prayers are specific, faith-centered petitions.
-Answered prayer is not a miracle, it is a law.
-He has prayed in faith believing, he has prayed in faith specifically and has thereby met the conditions of a loving Heavenly Father, and the Father has responded.
-Meet the conditions - pray and expect-and prayer will be answered.
-Carefully examine 2 Corinthians 7:14... answered prayer is not abnormal, it is normal.  It is not unusual; it is, or can be, your everyday experience - not to be marveled at, but to be expected.

Chapter 2 - The Prayer of Faith
-You must simply believe that God is going to answer your prayer.  It must be a prayer of faith.  To believe that He can answer, that He is able, that He does possess the power to do it, is not faith.  It is to believe unhesitatingly that He will, that He is on the verge of doing it, and that even now, the answer is on the way.
-The prayer of faith is simply, that, trusting, believing that God is honest and will therefore do what He says He will.
-Faith is not believing that God can.  Faith is believing that God will.

Chapter 3 - If it be Thy Will
-We are now dealing with the prayer of faith, the prayer that God is constrained to answer, the prayer that literally ties the hands of God that He must answer because His word is at stake.  His name and honor stand behind His promises.  When they are understood, claimed in faith, and presented at the throne room of heaven as a promissory note to be cashed, He must, He will answer.
-So do not ask God again to save that dear one.  Rather, go to your knees and begin to affirm, to believe, to receive.  Thank God that He is going to save them.
-Well, do you expect God to answer?  No?  That is exactly the reason He doesn't!

Chapter 4 - The Will of God
-Answered prayer=my faith to believe & God's willingness to bestow.  How may I know His will?
-Man in His original image of God was endowed with 3 capacities for knowing the Father - knowledge - emotion - will
-God is more willing for you to know His will than you are to know it.
-God wants you to know His will and is doing everything He can to make it obvious to you.
-many times the will of God is obvious
-normally guidance will come one step at a time
-God will guide you step by step
-God will always reveal His will in time for you to prepare for it
-God promises to give guidance but not always in advance

Chapter 5 - The Great Discovery
- The first step in knowing the will of God lies in being willing to do His will when you know it.
-He said you must be willing to accept me or you shall never know
-Before you pray that God will heal that person, go to God with a willing heart and ask Him to make you receptive to the knowledge of His will.
-Romans 12:1-2
-Be not conformed to this world
-It is absolutely impossible for a careless, worldly Christian to discern the keener things of God's will.
-If the Bible is clear on a particular matter you needn't pray about it.  Just do it.
-You will know the will of God when you know God.
-You will never know God until you learn to spend time in prayer with Him.  There is no exception.  Power with God, power to know the will of God, power in positive prayer that brings definite results, comes only through much time daily in prayer with God.

Chapter 6 - Praise the Lord
-you must do everything physically possible to get alone with God
-get away from people and things
-have the same place to pray all the time
-do not rush hurriedly into the presence of God
-wait a moment that you might know the conscious presence of Him that said "Be still, and know that I am God" Psalm 46:16
-The first step of prayer is praise
-tell the Lord how great He is
-Praise God through the Psalms
-Read the Psalms aloud, read it again, memorize it, say it to God.  Make it your own.  Say it in your own words
-Praise God through music.

Chapter 7 - Thanksgiving
-Second step in praying is thanksgiving.
-examine Psalm 100:4
Thanking God is a great antidote for depression, doubting and unpleasantness
-pause for Him to remind you of every blessing
-physical and spiritual
-everyday blessings

Chapter 8 - Sin
-confessing our sins
-the forgiveness of our sins is conditional, not automatic
-the child of God who has been born again by a personal act of faith between himself and the Lord Jesus lives in a state of right relationship with God, and that relationship cannot be broken.
-the daily confession of our sins (individually) to God is not a condition of our relationship with Him, but rather of our fellowship.
-black dog/white dog fighting inside - the one who you feed the most will win.
-to confess means actually "to agree with God as to His opinion of..."
-pray that God will give you a holy hatred of sin.
-our every thought, desire and act, must be brought into submission by the Holy Spirit.
-When you are reminded of the slightest wrong, forsake it, confess it, repent of it, kill it, despise it, destroy it, else the sore may become a cancer and the thought a personality, the deed a life.

Chapter 9 - Asking
-Philippians 4:19
-Psalms 37:4
-You can pray in faith when you pray for men to be reconciled with each other, for broken homes to be mended, for lives to be made at peace with God.
-John 7:38
-Ask God to form afresh the Lord Jesus in all His beauty and power in your innermost being, that you might pray His prayers, think His thoughts, desire what He desires.
-This is the secret to praying for others.  That God would raise up men and women so able to cooperate with Him, so willing to be yielded, that He might perform His perfect will through them.
-The world has yet to see what God can do with one man completely yielded to Him.
-Thanking God in advance is to affirm, strongly assert, and confirm our confidence in the forthcoming answer.
-So when you have finished your prayer of intercession, do not get up, but rather stay on your knees and affirm over and over the answer to your prayer.
-Thank God in advance that He is going to answer and then get up and go your way, acting as though it had already happened.  Do not check up on God your make other provision in case He doesn't do it.  Merely believe Him, Thank Him for the answer, receive it in faith and leave it with Him.

Chapter 10 - Waiting on God
-We wait on Him to be found anew within us and for our desires, thoughts, and ambitions to be brought into submission to His.
-In all of our service, and most of all at prayer, we must conscientiously be alert and strive to give Him our best.
-when you go to God with a problem that has many possible solutions - go to Him with each, one at a time- as you go to God with each, try to get your questions narrowed down to a simple yes or no answer
-as you begin to pray ask God to cleanse not only your heart and mine and soul, your tongue and every part of your being, but also to cleanse even your subconscious mind in the blood of Jesus.  Ask Him by the power of the blood to subdue every evil thought and desire of which you are not conscious
-when you know God and His will you can with the utmost of confidence, with no uncertainty, approach boldly the throne of grace and pray with the positive faith that brings the result for which you so earnestly long.

Chapter 11 - In Jesus Name
-John 14:13

Chapter 12 - A Final Word
-Potentially, all of the grace, attributes, virtues, and powers of God the Father, and of Christ His son are yours.  Do not ask God to give you more faith.  You do not need more faith.  You need to appropriate the faith you already have
-Receive Him, know Him, find His will, ask Him to do it, thank Him for having done it, and go your way, rejoicing that the victory is already won, the answer already given.
-My prayer for you is that you might, by learning to practice the principles set forth in this little book, know the power that is your birthright, the power of positive praying.