Aligning
Aligning your prayers with God is different than confession. Confession is agreeing with God that He is God and you are a sinner in need of a savior. Aligning is a step of reasoning with God until you can pray in His will.
Isaiah 1:18 says: (AS)
"Come now, and let us reason together,"
Says the LORD,
"Though your sins are as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be like wool.

We recently sang a song in church with the words: “It’s all about you, Jesus.” By the term ‘aligning’ I mean our prayers need to be focused to what Jesus wants. We are bringing a situation to the Father – but we are praying in Jesus name. We should be praying that HE will be gloried and His will be done. But we don’t always know or understand or want what Jesus wants. So the first thing that we have to do in effective prayer is to focus ourselves to what Jesus wants in each situation.
Preachers around the turn of the 20th Century (R.A. Torreyhttp://www.freewebs.com/ratorrey/ and E.M. Boundshttp://www.prayerfoundation.org/prayer_tips_e_m_bounds.htm) called this process “praying through”. This isn’t praying until God gives in and does something your way. It means praying until you have the ability to understand and pray according to His purposes. Jesus has promised that if we pray according to His Will (in His name) we will receive what we ask.
John 16:23
"In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.
John 16:24
"Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.
John 16:26
"In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf;

We also know that we often do not have answered prayers because we pray not according to God’s will:

James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

As members of the prayer chain, we pray for requests as they are made and we should pray as the person requests. However, the Lord has an ultimate purpose in everything that goes on. As you pray and discuss the person or situation with our Lord, listen to His responses and adjust your praying accordingly. It is true that we must first learn to listen to God’s prompting before we can have a two-way conversation.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus gives us the best example of aligning our prayer. Jesus had come to earth to die on the cross. He KNEW his father’s will. He was and would be obedient to what God the father had planned to do. But at one point either the human instinct of self preservation took over him or more likely the thought of HIS father turning his back on Jesus became too much. Jesus had always known and communicated with his father. They are one. But at one point in history the Heavenly Father had to turn his back on the Son as our sins were placed on Him because God can’t look on sin.
Jesus had come to earth for this purpose — he was made to be sin so that we could experience eternal life. He loved his disciples, he loves you and he KNEW what must be done in order to bring salvation to the world. But a few hours before the crucifixion Jesus prayed to the Father,
Mark 14:36 (AS)
And He was saying, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will."

Jesus was without sin and so this prayer, asking God to allow him not to follow through with God’s eternal plan, was not a sin. It wasn’t an answered prayer either. (Thank you, Father!)
Mark 14, Luke 22 and Matthew 26 all report the story. Each state that Jesus agonizes over this. He prays and agonizes, and then sees that his disciples are asleep. He wakes them and rebukes them.
The first time he wakens them: Mark 14:34 (AS)
And He *said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch."

And the second time Jesus wakens the sleeping disciples:
Mark 14:37-38 (AS)
And He *came and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?
"Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

He asks them to watch with him. Then he goes away and does the same thing again. The third time he prays and comes to wake the disciples, but something has changed. He has changed.

Matthew 26:45 (NAV)
“Then cometh he to the disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

Mark 14:41 (NAV)
“And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough; the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

The change is quiet and might be missed. But it is profound. Jesus is no longer agonizing or feeling stressed. He has peace. The time has come. He can share the peace with his disciples. If you noticed that I changed versions of the Bible, I did it because the change is so quiet that you may not catch it in your version,
The disciples didn’t have much time to sleep and the significance of what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane often goes unnoticed.
Jesus never committed a sin, yet he had to align himself with the father. How much more, then, do we have to agonize and pray that God’s will is done! As Jesus said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
1 Corinthians 2:9-16 “…but just as it is written, ‘THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.’ Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.”

God promises to search out all things and reveal to us the wonderful things that he has for us. The problem is: How do we get to a place where we can accept His perfect will?

Alighting
Dutch Sheets http://www.dutchsheets.org/ called this type of praying “butterfly praying”. The term seems a bit fanciful for me, but it describes how one goes in to the process of the alignment prayer. The term refers to praying ‘hit and miss’ — fluttering around the prayer situation.
If you don’t know God’s will or you do know God’s will as Jesus did, but you can’t accept His will, God still wants you to pray about it. Begin by telling him why you don’t agree. Pray what you know from Scripture about the final outcome of the circumstances. Discuss with the Lord what you know about the situation or person. Give thanks for the person and God’s love for them. Give thanks for what the Lord is bringing about in the person’s life. Pray that the person can accept the good of what is happening.
Philippians 4:6
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Everything includes the good and the bad. Tell God what stinks, what hurts, what makes you angry. Pray around the situation until you can pray with confidence, “Let Your will be done.”

Romans 8 shows us that God’s sent us his Holy Spirit to help us when we do not know how to pray:

Romans 8:25-28 (AS)
But if we hope for that which we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for it.
And in like manner the Spirit also helps our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself make intercession for [us] with groanings which cannot be uttered;
and he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to [the will of] God.
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, [even] to them that are called according to [his] purpose.

As you pray around the situation usually you come to a place where you have peace about what you are praying. I call this ‘finding the key”.

John 9:31
We know that God hears not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and do his will, him he hears.

Enlightening

Some people might call this enlightening. When God sheds his light on the subject, when you have peace that what is being prayed for is God’s perfect will, then you know that the prayer will be answered.
If we know that he hears us than we know that we will receive.
Philippians 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Here are some verses to review.
James 5:16
1 Chr. 21:8
1 Peter 3:7
Numbers 9:23
Psalms 16:7-8
Proverbs 3:5,6
Matt 21:22
John 14:13,14,26
John 15:16
John 16:23,24

Something to ponder:

In his book The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer describes how the average person learns to recognize God's voice: "First, a sound as a presence walking in the garden. Then a voice, more intelligible but still far from clear. Then the happy moment when the Spirit begins to illuminate the Scriptures and that which had only been a sound or at best a voice now becomes an intelligible word, warm and intimate and as clear as the word of a dear friend."

How does the concept of listening to God presented in this quote by A.W. Tozer make you feel about the possibility of hearing God’s voice?


In The Power of a Praying Woman, Stormie Omartian writes, "One of the most priceless gems you will find in God's Word is his voice. That's because he speaks to us through his Word as we read it or hear it. In fact, we can't really learn to recognize God's voice to our soul if we are not hearing him speak to us through His Word.”

How does the concept of listening to God presented in this quote by Stormie Omartian make you feel about reading the Bible?


Reading of God’s word and praying should be done together as you learn to hear God’s speaking. Maybe you want to write down what the scripture is saying to you. Maybe the scripture reading for the day will give you insight to the prayer requests that you bring before the Lord today.