“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and TRY Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10
Some of you know that my New Year’s resolution for 2025 is to “pray without ceasing.” I’ve asked God to help shape my prayer list; I’ve asked him to help me learn to pray under the direction and guidance of His Spirit.
I’ve never been so amazed in my entire life!
Now my prayer list is vastly different from any list I’ve ever had in the decades I’ve been a born-again believer! 95% of the list concerns spiritual needs instead of physical needs. God is showing me how to wage effective spiritual warfare through prayer. This verse in Malachi has inspired me to pray:
“God, I want to test the outer limits of Your power through prayer—show me how!”
The first time I prayed this, it was groundbreaking. It wasn’t the words; it was the wide-open heart asking for spiritual direction. This was not a “name it and claim it” prayer which centers on physical prosperity—far from it. Rather, it inspires prayer as directed by God’s Spirit which looks like this:
“Lord, I’m putting You to the test because You promised that the ‘effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much’. So I am asking you to purify my life and create a clean heart in me. Guide my prayers like strong arrows—right straight to the mark. If I’m asking anything that is not in Your will, then change my prayer; otherwise, answer my prayers in Your power; for Your glory. Shoot Your Word by your Spirit straight into the souls of men and women and draw them to You. May Your Truth reveal the thoughts and intents of their heart. Shine Your light. Work redemption and sanctification all for Your glory!”
My friend, I am amazed and am seeing the power of the Spirit work mightily.
As I was sharing with a friend this idea about testing the outer limits of prayer—she raised her eyebrows. “You’re doing what??? Like, are you testing God?” I said, “Well, I’m really just pushing the outer limits of His promises. And I’m asking Him to show me how to do that.” I told her my inspiration came from Malachi 3:10 where the Lord says to “try me“ in relation to tithing. God lays down the gauntlet and basically says “Look, if you will give me 10% I’m going to bless you from the windows of heaven.“
Well, this has to be true in a broader sense for giving everything we have, right? I mean—the most valuable asset we possess is our time because we can always make more money, right? So what percentage of my time do I dedicate to my prayer life? And within my prayer time, how much of that is being guided by God’s Spirit instead of simply being dominated by requests for physical help? Giving in God’s Word has never been just about money, but rather, it is all we own, including our time. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is there your heart is also.” (Matthew 6:21) So, if in my prayer life, I am giving him 100% control over everything I have—including my time and talent—then God promised He will “open…the windows of heaven and pour out…such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”
Unfortunately, our tendency is to think about the best “blessings” in terms of the poorest and weakest of things; that is, the earthly blessings we can’t take with us. But if we understand that God gives us the opportunity to have “heavenly blessings from spiritual places,” (Ephesians 1:3) then the Spirit has liberty in our life to direct our prayers much differently.
We then begin to pray for God to direct our resources to produce eternal, heavenly blessings.
The only blessings that last forever are the things that outlast this earth which are—the souls of humanity. Thus, when we allow the Spirit to build our prayer life, our prayer list becomes focused on bringing people to Jesus and making disciples. Ah, this is beautiful.
When God guides our prayers, He takes us over the edge of what is possible and into the realm of what is impossible without Him.
God honors these prayers because it is His will that none should perish, and that all should have everlasting life. (2 Peter 3:8-10) When we are praying in His will, we are asking Him to point and sharpen the arrow of our prayer by His Spirit so that it meets the target every time.
