Extending the umbrella of prayer

In seeking to strengthen the faith and deepen the prayer relationship, there can be a belief and a run towards greater possibilities in extending the coverage of prayer.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. From Isaiah 12. 8 in the NIV translation of the Bible.

Other translations substitute the word springs for wells.

The idea is that there is not just one drop of water available to cover all your bases and the bases of others, and while it is important to be able to approach the Lord on specifics in prayer, however small they might be, right can also be right from the get go the ability to expand the umbrella and go further in your coverage of prayer for both yourself and others

Part of the favor of the Lord, part of the smooth sailing from the Lord are small favors but nonetheless warmly greeted favors.

The Our Father prayer is an example of expanding the coverage in prayer where it says' let your will be done on earth.' The whole planet is mentioned in this particular prayer, a prayer meant to come from the lips of one person. This shows that we are meant, despite being only one person,big prayers who are to pray for anything and anywhere..

Isaiah 45.22 says using the King James Version of the Bible, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else

This gaze towards the heavens, can be from many or it can be just from the one, who is calling as the one, to all the ends of the earth.

One way to extend the coverage of prayer is to spend more time doing it.

Within the day or week, more time can be spent on prayer. You might try to spend a half or full day praying, drawing near to the Lord to hear what he has to say for you and to you..

This on the surface may seem counterintuitive or counterproductive by the running standards of society.

It is interesting how the idea is just about always towards more rather than less and a greater effort in all areas will supposedly bring greater results in all areas As they say, sometimes, you need to check your boots as this can end up being the mad dash to no where.

But first take care to see that you are tapping the correct wells in the first place. The springs of salvation are the waters of life and this is not only life generally speaking but the waters of your life in particular and you might as well draw from the waters of your life, rather than running away afraid.

But truly today in the increased noise level of society, where there is the ongoing information explosion, totally tapping into that explosion of info may not be the way to get your way as all this painting of the wall is not personalized to you as is the prayer relationship where you are receiving personal messages earmarked to you from the Holy Spirit.

Getting quiet and alone with the Lord may be the way to go to find power, strength and expanding coverage in all the realms of power including the material which overlaps with the spiritual.

This is not just to be an isolated once in a blue moon approach but an actual strategic plan for going ahead for landing on and following good and fruitful personal paths and global paths.

Isaiah Chapter 41 verse 1 says from the NIV version of the Bible:

1 "Be silent before me, you islands!
Let the nations renew their strength!
Let them come forward and speak;
let us meet together at the place of judgment.

Basically, this verse indicates intructions from the Lord to stop focusing in on the noise out there and keen in on the Lord and this is where renewed strength is harvested.

The last sentence in the verse which says, Let us meet together at the place of judgment is where there can agreements with the Holy Spirit as to paths and possible actions deemed appropriate and good.

When things don't seem to be going great or smoothly, the thing to do is not to tap in additional noise but to get quiet in prayer and contemplation in the presence of the Lord as the strategic plan.

Self believe might be limited but that doesn't limit what prayer is all about and what you can do on your own is important and is to be seen in a greater light.

The individual person can be the great intercessor for many in prayer and expanding coverage is needed to know and understand that in the light of your walk with the Lord.

What if Elijah believed he could just pray for the local weather, but his keen relationship of prayer let him know that he could expand the umbrella of prayer to pray for with results the full weather patterns of the earth for years on end?

Elijah knew how to extend the umbrella of prayer and get results doing it.

An example might be someone praying for their own health concerns.

There might be a long standing health issue that just doesn't go away like a chronically bad back.

A person in this position can extend the umbrella of prayer and use the theme of healing in many wide ranging prayers for others in all the ways they do need healing and can be healed. He or she can turn there own situations into wide ranging prayers for others who are also in need of various kinds of healing and this is the way of bring up the prayer approach a notch or two, where there is renewal of spiritual strength and power as mentioned in Isaiah.There and now the Lord wants greater togetherness to the prayers, at the place of judgement. And greater togethers involves at times extending the prayer to be more wide ranging and more inclusive of many others, and your own healing can be found as the islands of many meeting together in place of judgement and agreement with the Lord.

By calling for healing for others in prayer, the prayer image for this person's own healing is expanded and they do know that like Dorothy who had those special slippers she just had to tap together to get home to Kansas, they can also tap the running springs of healing from the wells of salvation not just in drips and drabs but in the full wash of running springs of healing for both themselves and others.

Ten lepers met together in their healing from the personal presence of Jesus, at the place of judgement and agreement. The healing was extended to ten, not just one.Yet each one did find their own healing in this link up or together situation as each island was healed together.

Each leper was under the one umbrella of healing in that moment. The washing waters from the wells of salvation hit upon all ten.

Even healing can extend to seperate nations simultaneously as they come under the same umbrella of healing.

The prayer vision of healing is extending to all sorts of prayers for all sorts of people of places that can be cited for healing in the prayer of presence of prayer before the Lord.

And it is indeed partly a prayer of persence first as it says, let the islands be silent before me, meaning be present to the Lord.

With this approach to prayer, healing seems like less of an elusive concept and faith is built up to higher levels that indeed can move the mountains that had been looking to big, too ominess a task, from earlier perspectives in the forest of noise out there..

This does represent a conversion, a personal conversion into the belief that you can expand your own prayer vision, broadly, widely and anywhere and any time in future generations as being the prayer warrior you can be.

Thiese are not only prayers that look good on paper but prayers that witness results that can be seen and known, such as in the case of Elijah when he saw and witnessed the rains and there extending coverage into and amongst distant lands..

In the story of Rebecca at the well, in the book of Genesis, she in unexpected fashion went out of her way of her usual duties  to draw water for the full contingent of camels of perfect strangers and expected nothing in return.

It is interesting that this contigent of strangers included an angel.

As it says it Hebrews, you may be entertaining strangers unawares and this is an example of that.

Rebecca had done exactly that.

Hebrews 13.2:

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

It doesn't say in the account that she wanted a husband at the point of this meeting or that she was looking for one, but the Lord must have looked beyond what she was doing and saying and read into her heart's desires that she did want a loving husband and later when she choose to return with the group the account gives vision to the the romantic sighting of Isaac from afar showing just how wonderfully the Lord met these maybe hidden and unspoken desires of Rebecca's inner person.

Yet despite any reticence to maybe speak of what she truly wanted, she liberally drew water from the springs or wells, for others and this is symbolic of the springs or wells of prayer and salvation, which can be tapped liberally in prayer and in works as in the case of Rebecca.

Perhaps Rebecca had been secretly praying to the Lord and had a heightened sense of sensitivity to the ways of the Lord from this.

When Jesus met the woman at the well, he asked her to draw some water for him. This also is symbolic of access and invitation to the wells of salvation for her. Yet she was to participate in the drawing of the well, for others including Jesus at this point of their discussion, and the umbrella of this great moment for her extending into that place of meeting mentioned in Isaiah 41, where Jesus and her met together and she was giving full opportunity to speak and the meeting was a discussion together between her and Jesus and there was also discussion about judgement as to where she was at.

In their ensuing discussion Jesus read into her heart and knew of all that she had experienced previously.

The springs of salvation had her in their sightings

From the King James Bible, John 4. 14:

14] But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

This directly relates to the invitation to draw from the springs of salvation and in this CASE as he was addressing here, it was I shall give you or give her The indivitation was direct and point blank in this face to face encounter with Jesus.

There are many ways and many examples of how we can extend the umbrella of our prayers to cover much more.

The prayer of St. Francis that has survived in writing with popularity to this day is an example of an extended prayer that is drawing on many themes from the wells of salvation...

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.