Tony Evans - Praying like a Kingdom Hero

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

All Scripture quotations are taken from the (NASB) New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.

Cover design by Bryce Williamson

Cover photo Foryou13 / Gettyimages

Interior design by Rockwell Davis

The prayers in this book were inspired by Dr. Evanss teaching but were written with the help of his writing assistant, Heather Hair.

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Praying Like a Kingdom Hero

Copyright 2022 by Tony Evans

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97408

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-8446-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-8447-8 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021937790

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I want to thank my friends at Harvest House Publishers for their long-standing partnership in bringing my thoughts, study, and words to print. I particularly want to thank Bob Hawkins for his friendship over the years, as well as his pursuit of excellence in leading his company. I also want to publicly thank Kim Moore and Jean Bloom for their help in the editorial process. In addition, my appreciation goes out to Heather Hair for her skills and insights in collaboration on this manuscript.

CONTENTS

G od created you on purpose for a purpose. You have a calling to fulfill. As you live out your purpose, you will find yourself making choices and exhibiting character qualities reflective of those named as kingdom heroes in Scripture. This is because the general makeup of a kingdom hero reflects and resembles Gods character and heart. Living as a kingdom hero means living under and according to Gods rule over every aspect of your life.

In this book, Praying Like a Kingdom Hero, Ive given you a multitude of guided prayers to help you explore these heroic kingdom qualities and character traits so you can develop and increase their existence in your own life. These prayers have been crafted to walk you through many characteristics of kingdom living simultaneously, so you will come to know them and learn to develop them more in your daily living. As you go through this book, I hope your understanding of Gods purpose for your life will become clearer, thus enabling you to live out your calling of advancing His kingdom agenda on earth.

Numerous kingdom hero character qualities and traits are found in Scripture, and each one relates to an expression of Gods heart through humanity. As you pray prayers based on kingdom virtues, you come to know these qualities and traits more and apply them in your own life. As a result, you will also come to experience Gods love and power infused in you on a higher level than ever before.

To help facilitate your prayers for kingdom hero qualities and traits to be made manifest more fully in your life, Ive provided four prayers related to each of the main ones found in kingdom heroes in the Word of God. Prayer is heavenly permission for earthly interference. Prayer is communication with God. He longs to be involved with you on a personal level, and prayer opens the door for this to happen. I encourage you to pray regularly, because abiding with God through prayer is one of the most important things you can do in life.

As in many of my guided-prayer books, each prayer has four sections based on the prayer acronym ACTS. This prayer acronym is not a magic formula; rather, it provides structure so our prayers can cover important aspects of communication with God: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.

You can pray these guided prayers word for word, or you can use them as a springboard to your own prayers directed toward the attributes or personal qualities of God youre praying about. Or you can pray a combination of the two. It doesnt matter. What matters is that you pray.

I also encourage you to use this book to help you focus more intently on getting to know God Himself more fully. As you do, you can follow this helpful outline to nurture your time with Him:

Identify a time each day when you can spend concentrated and focused energy on pursuing a greater relationship with God.

Consider several ways to nurture your relationship with God during this time. It could be freely writing thoughts you have toward Him or thanking Him for any of His attributes in a journal. Or it could be looking up Scripture on a given attribute of God and meditating on it for a few minutes.

Evaluate how your relationship deepens as you spend consistent time with God in His Word and with Him in prayer. Also assess whether praying these prayers makes it easier for you to proclaim Jesus to others through your words and actions. That should be a natural outgrowth of knowing Gods heart more deeply.

Repeat this practice. After youve put it into play for at least a week, continue to incorporate the various prayers into your daily intimate time with God.

Knowing Gods heart and the kingdom qualities He wants you to live out will bring you stability in times of crisis and change. Weve gone through a significant number of difficulties and challenges in our culture over the last few years, and everyone could use more calm in their hearts. This guided-prayer book has been designed with the hope that it will bring you just thatcalm. As you get to know God through relational communication with Him, may He reveal Himself more fully to you and give you greater grace and peace each day. May He empower you to live as the true kingdom hero He has designed you to be.

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.

R OMANS 15:1-2

Adoration

Heavenly Father, You are the model for what it means to be a kingdom hero. You exist above and beyond all the virtues and character qualities that embody our definition and understanding of heroes. Reliance as a friend is one of these qualities. The ability to be found faithful and helpful in times of need defines a hero, and it defines You entirely.

You are always present and able to help in times of trouble. I praise You and lift up Your name to glorify You for Your dependability and helpfulness to me when I need You the most. Just knowing You are there enables me to find the courage I need to get through each day with strength and resilience.