STEPS TO THE REVIVAL OF A COLLAPSED PRAYER LIFE

. STEPS TO REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER LIFE
If you realize that you have backslidden ‘with respect to your prayer life or that your prayer life has never been what the Lord intended it to be, then you should take the following steps to restore it to normalcy:

Step One:
Accept the fact that you are prayer lukewarm and backslidden. Call it by name. Do not say, “My prayer life needs to become better”, say, “I have backslidden in my prayer life.
I have been a backslider. I have committed the sin of prayerlessness. I have hindered God and myself by my prayerlessness. I have caused people to perish or to go astray because I did not pray.”
“I have given the devil an undue in-road into my life because I did not take prayer seriously”.

Step Two:
Repent of the sin of prayerlessness. It is not enough to say that you have sinned. Pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to the gravity of your sin and to its enormous consequences.
True repentance means that you are determined to put away your sin at once and to put it away completely and commit yourself to the righteousness of praying.

Step Three:
1. Initiate a regular prayer hour. One of the greatest lies of Satan is that we do not have enough time to pray. As soon as we realize that prayer is important, yea, more important than sleeping, eating and bathing, we will be amazed at how much more time will be available to us for prayer (Acts 3:1; Mark 1 :35).
2. You will never find time for prayer, you must make out time. Have a strong and dependable altar of prayer.
3. Begin your prayer time with worship. Psalm 100; John 4:23-24; II Chronicles 20:21-35.
4. When you do not feel like praying, pray anyhow; that is the real time to pray. Pray on until you breakthrough, for the enemy cannot stand the Holy Spirit’s pressure for long. Sometimes, it has taken me one and a half hours of ‘singing’, ‘tonguing’ and’ wording to breakthrough in prayer.
5. Pray when you feel like praying, pray when you do not feel like praying and pray until you feel like praying.
6. There is nothing too small to pray over; therefore, acquire the habit of praying over little things.
7. When you are in a tight coner spiritually and it seems you cannot pray for long, pray anyhow, your words are music in God’s ears. I have prayed in only two sentences before, I could not just pray any more even though I wanted to, and God surprised me. He needs my faith and availability not my feelings.
8. Practice being in the presence of GOD. Prayer is actually communion and fellowship with God. When a person says that his prayer is “dry” or “hit the ceiling” or “empty” he simply means that he does not believe God is present at his altar (Genesis 28: 16). You must recognize and believe that the Lord is present right where you are to effectively pray. When you enter into prayer, recognize that Christ is present. And you will be inspired to pray.
9. Always let the Spirit of God (the anointing) pray through you. Romans 8:26; I Corinthians 2:9-11; John 16: 13-15. Pray with your understanding and in the Spirit.
10. Ask an anointed minister to pray with you for a spiritual release.
11. Take spiritual authority over all the spirits of prayerlessness and dryness.
12. Pray as you have not prayed in the past.
13 Plan prayer times and keep to them.
14. Lengthen your prayer times.
15. Permanently or temporarily join a prayer fellowship or prayer band and repeatedly listen to prayer tapes in order to catch an immediate fire in your spirit.
16. Pray silently under your breath when you are not consciously engaged in a duty.
17. Pray in tongues for at least thirty minutes every day.
18. Do not allow the devil to put you off by telling you that you should stop praying because you are feeling sleepy. Stop sleeping because you have to pray. You have an appointment with God to pray. You do not have an appointment with sleep to sleep.
19. Ask the Lord to give you the power to concentrate in prayer.
20. Ask the Lord to give you a prayer burden.
21. Pray even when you have no burden. As you pray, the burden will come.
22. Do not maintain one posture during prayer. Stand at times. Sit at others and walk at others. Feel free to change from one posture to the other during the same prayer session.
23. Pray silently.
24. Pray loudly.
25. Shout your prayers to God.
26. Go on long prayer walks.
27. Have a hide-out where you always withdraw to pray. This could be on a hill, farm, garden or any such place.
28. Pray when you do not feel the presence of God.
29. Pray when you feel the presence of God.
30. Pray when you are happy.
31. Pray when you are unhappy.
32. Pray when you have come to the end of yourself.
33. Pray when answers come quickly.
34. Pray when there seems to be no answers.
35. Pray in the morning.
36. Pray late into the night.
37. Discipline yourself to pray for at least one to two and a half hours every day (Prayer and meditation in the word of God).
38. Attend your church’s weekly prayer meetings and night vigils.
39. Join the prayer band of your local church/fellowship.
40. Learn to help other people by carrying their problem and burdens to God in daily prayers (Job42:10).
41. Go on personal prayer retreats and attend intercessors’ gatherings.
42. Fast often, praise and worship often, pray in tongues often and weep over poor unsaved and afflicted souls often.
43. Have a definite prayer project. It could be praying for a notorious sinner, school, college or hospital etc.
44. Pray along these lines every day: Ephesians’6:18-19; Colossians 4:2-4; I Timothy 2:1-4. This means praying for gospel ministers, the saints of God, the Church of God, your relations, sinners, and all those who are in positions of authority.
45. Learn to wait on the Lord (fast) at least once a week.
46. Pray that the new fire of God upon your altar (heart) will never go out again.
47. Confess and renounce all known sins because any form of sin is a fire extinguisher.
48. Determine to walk and live in absolute obedience to the Holy Spirit in all things.
49. Purpose to walk in love and faith.
50. Stay away from too much of everything: food, talk, visits, televisions, sex, etc.
51 Receive your total and permanent victory over the spirit and sin of prayerlessness. Amen.

“The more prayerful you are, the less sinful; and the more sinful you are, the less prayerful. Prayerfulness and sinfulness are inversely proportional to each other.”