The Dynamic Prayer Life of Epaphras: Life Changing Prayer Nugget!!!! [podcast]
Emulating Epaphras!
LIFE CHANGER! Who are those top 3-5 people you pray for every morning? (rhetorical question) Okay, ever wonder how to pray for someone? You will never again have that wonder after your grab this 1 Bible verse!
All who are learning to love God are then equally learning to love people – to love others and put them above ourselves (Philippians 2:3-5).
Why not assertively, proactively have a list of people you are lifting in prayer every morning? Isn’t that what we can learn from brother Epap? WHO? WHAT? … Let us learn from the life of Epaphras.
An enlightened prayer life requires the illumination of the Word of our God. Watch this:
“Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” Colossians 4:12
Gospel Key: Wondering how to pray for someone? Wonder no more! God told you exactly how to pray! Read the Bible verse above again and grab that last line in particular! BAM
GAME CHANGER! WHAT’s your prayer list looking like? Someone may say “But brother WHAT do I pray for the people on my prayer list?” GREAT QUESTION and don’t you know GOD has that answer! Boom. Excuse me while I get super excited about this divine nugget of HIS truth! (3 John 4)
Notice this as we widen the lense a bit by taking a look at the words following our main verse:
“Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. 13 For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.” Colossians 4:12-13
Notice how this beloved brother Epaphras cared deeply for and was concerned and praying for those of Christ’s saints in Colosse and also the surrounding towns – “for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis.”
What an example of Christlikeness! Epaphras interceded for the saints just like Jesus did in redemption and does now in intercession for those He died to save (Heb. 7:24-25). This man’s life was given over to the LORD and the power of the Holy Ghost was elevating him to bring God glory by blessing His beloved saints. Though Epaphras’ name appears only 3 times in the New Testament canon, His impact is great.
Notice that Epaphras was “one of you.” In other words, Epaphras was not an apostle or prophet but a simple saint of God, purchased by the blood of Christ. He served. He prayed. He interceded on behalf of Christ and His people. What a servant Epaphras was! What a Savior Jesus is!
Epaphras’ love for God and His people was profound. He labored deliberately, fervently, diligently, and perpetually in prayer communion with God for the saints. Epaphras was possessed or infused with the divine desire to see His beloved people for whom Christ bled brought to holiness and maturity.
“We are Epaphras to one another. Colossians 4:12.” Stephen Michels
ARE you praying for members of Christ’s body? Never think this to be a menial task. Oh no. Nothing could be more important than carrying one of God’s children to Him in prayer. Beloved of God, you are an Epaphras to Christ’s body, praying vigilantly and tirelessly that they will “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” (Colossians 4:12)
“GOD is our sustaining force via prayer.
The Holy Spirit praying for us from within,
Jesus, our risen Savior and High Priest praying for us at the right hand of God, Brothers and sisters in Christ praying for us on this earth, and us praying for believers everywhere, even those we’ve never met. Ephesians 6:18
Each member of Christ’s body should be assured of the constant prayer of other believers as well as lifting up in prayer other believers themselves.” Debbie Lord
WHEN we obey God by praying for other of His saints, we are walking in the mind of Christ as we esteem others better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3-5).
Like Epaphras, perhaps we should consider obeying the LORD in lifting up our brethren in prayer to the Father through Christ, the Great Intercessor, and spend less time judging them in our minds, hearts, and words.
What Epaphras did: “always labouring fervently for you in prayers”
What Epaphras desired of the LORD: “that ye (the brethren) may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God”
The LORD desires to “perfect and complete” His saints “in all the will of God.” Those who follow Christ closely desire what He desires – that His saints grow in grace and truth and are standing perfect (sinless, victorious, and maturing) in His sight. Does not the Word inform us that Jesus Christ perpetually intercedes for His own at His Father’s right hand? Is this your desire? Do you align with Jesus by praying for His children that they might be perfected and completed in relationship with Him?
Epaphras entrenched himself in prayer and interceded for the saints in his locale and day. Will you do the same? If not, who will? Epaphras answered the call of God to intercede for those of his day. He died to the self-life that he might please God by lifting His people to Him in prayer. What if Epaphras had not interceded for those believers in his day? As concerning this calling to intercede, will Jesus one day welcome you with “Well done my good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of the LORD”? (Matt. 25)
“…always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” Colossians 4:12
Saints, let us never leave our prayer closets until we have lifted God’s people in prayer – individuals and the entire body of Christ in general.
Do you have specific people you lift in prayer each morning?
“Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:” 1 Samuel 12:23
WHEN you ask someone to “pray for me”, you are asking them to bring you before the Almighty! Get ready!
Ready to be like the example the beloved Epaphras gave us? Ever wonder what to pray? Can you think of just 3 people God has put around you to pray for?
Ever run out of things to pray? Not anymore! God’s Word is God’s will so we pray God’s Word for God’s people.
“Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:” 1 Samuel 12:23
Prayerlessness is sin!
Every day God grants us the privilege to pray for His saints which gets our minds off of ourselves. This is one of the many benefits of developing a sincere and diligent life of prayer. It’s not hard – Just do it.
As you pray daily in your private prayer closet and throughout your day, feel free to try this prayer if you are so led beloved:
- “Holy Father, in Jesus’ holy name and by the power of His precious blood that speaks in Heaven for Your Church, bless _________________ to stand perfect and complete in the whole will of God, conforming their life to the image of Your Son. Thank You that You are continuing that good work You began in ____________________ and perfecting that which concerns their life until the day of the LORD Jesus Christ’s soon return. Amen.
YOUR PRAYER: Holy Father, bless me to love Your people. Please forgive my sin of prayerlessness and for judging Your people in my heart and mind – when I should have been praying for them. Help me to do what You came to do Jesus, to save and not condemn. LORD, I decide now to begin a whole new walk – one of continual intercession for Your beloved saints that they might stand perfect and complete in Your sight, in Your perfect will. I love You Jesus and thank You for loving, finding, and forgiving all my sin and I look eagerly for Your soon return as I trust You and fervently prepare and pray for others of Your children to be ready when You soon return. In Jesus’ name, amen.
LISTEN: Prayer Mission of Epaphras Podcast
Inspire your prayer life here.
Epaphras’ name is listed 3 times in the New Testament. Apparently, from the last one, we see he may have been in prison with the apostle Paul.
“As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;” Colossians 1:7
“Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” Colossians 4:12
“There salute thee Epaphras, my fellowprisoner in Christ Jesus;” Philemon 1:23
Support | STORE | Podcasts | The Crucified Life | Fasting and Prayer | True Repentance | Discipleship | Got Breakthrough? Here it is!




Articles
The Only Way Up is Down [podcast]
Chapter 8 from the book Raised Up (narration)
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18
The Down and Up Principle of God’s Kingdom
“And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root DOWNWARD, and bear fruit UPWARD.” Isaiah 37:31
The Scriptures follow a pattern of death and resurrection, a downward death and upward life. See if you can observe such a truth in the following verses:
“The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth UP all those that be bowed DOWN.” Psalms 145:14
Do you possess the blessed desire to be raised up by the Almighty? According to His divine wisdom given us in His precious Precepts, in order to be “raised up” we must first be “bowed down.” The LORD will not raise up any person who is still alive in his own power – He only raises up “those that be bowed down” in sincere humility before His majesty (Ps. 145:14; Jn. 12:23-25; Rom. 8:11).
“Those that be bowed down” will “take root downward” and be raised up in blessed fruitfulness (Isa. 37:31).
In order to “bear fruit upward,” one must first be planted in the house (kingdom) of the LORD and “take root downward” in the rich soil of His truth. The resurrection life of Jesus and ample fruitfulness will be the result.
Going deeper in God necessitates going down deeper into death and burial with Christ! Read Romans 6. There are no shortcuts (Galatians 5:24). Christ’s kingdom is a cross economy – one of utter humility and death to self that He might reign (John 12:23-25; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3, etc.).
“And whosoever shall exalt himself (upward) shall be abased (humbled); and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” Matthew 23:12
“He must INCREASE, but I must DECREASE.” John 3:30
“And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat FALL INTO THE GROUND (downward) and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (upward). He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life (downward) in this world shall keep it unto life eternal (upward).” John 12:23-25
“Humble yourselves (downward heart posture) in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” James 4:10
The life of Christ will raise a man upward and this is after that man bows down his life or humbles himself under the mighty hand of God – first at initial salvation then in the consecrated life that brings God glory. Blessed resurrection life is the upward result of the life planted downward and this is the place from which ministry springs. Look at what the apostle Paul wrote in this regard:
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” 2 Corinthians 4:10-12
Jesus declared to us that He came to make captives free from sin and Satan – “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Lk. 4:18; Jn. 8:31-32, 36).There is chain-shattering, freeing power (liberty) in the redeeming blood of Christ and by the power of the Holy Ghost (Lk. 4:18; Jn. 8:36; Acts 26:18; Col. 1:12-14; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rev. 12:11). The divine promise is that when one bows down before the LORD, every yoke shall be broken by Him who is above all (Isa. 58). No stronghold or bond of Satan has power when Christ’s blood is applied in sincere repentance and by the power of the Holy Ghost! The saint who is raised up after being bowed down, will glorify God in rich fruitfulness being “changed into the same image (Christ’s) from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
It is the divine Person of the Holy Ghost who raised up the LORD who was bowed down before His Father in death in order to purchase His Church with His own sinless blood (Acts 20:28). In like manner, it is the Holy Spirit with His resurrection power who raises up those who be bowed down before His throne of grace.
“And he (Jesus) was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God… And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.” Luke 13:10-13, 16-17
There can be no resurrection until there is first a death. A seed is dead or dormant then is planted and then germinates and brings forth bud, then a stalk and ultimately fruit – but first it must be buried downward in order to bear life-giving fruit upward. The life buried with Christ will be lifted up by divine power and bear much fruit to God’s glory (Jn. 15:8).
“But if the Spirit of him that raised UP Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised UP Christ from the dead shall also quicken (make alive upward) your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Romans 8:11
Our LORD had to first die and be buried “downward” in order to be raised “upward” by the Father in resurrection life to raise up and justify all those who would call upon Him in repentance (Rom. 1:4; 8:11; 10:13). In order for fruit to be borne “upward,” the disciple must first be planted “downward” in “the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” (Isa. 37:31; Phil. 3:10).
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” Romans 6:3-5
“Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” Colossians 2:12
He created man with a choice (Josh. 24:15). In the end there will be “the resurrection of life” and also “the resurrection of damnation” (Jn. 5:28-29). Each of us will be in one of these resurrections – either everlasting life or eternal death (conscience separation from God in hell). The entrance into Heaven or termination into hell will hinge upon whom we served – God or self (Rom. 6:16).
Real promotion comes only from the Giver and Sustainer of all life – from the north (Heaven).
“For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Psalms 75:6-7
That person who freely chooses to believe God, taking Christ at His Word, bowing under His infinite Majestic glory, will be raised up both now and forever and eternally glorified with the Alpha and Omega (Phil. 2:5-11; 2 Thess. 2:13-14).
“The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” Psalms 92:12-14
PRAYER: Please draw me deeper into You LORD Jesus. Father in Heaven, You sent Your only begotten Son to die for me in order that I might be raised up in new life in this brief life and eternally. I love You Jesus and ask You to lead me to that crucified life that you lived when here on earth and as You gave Your life blood on the cross to save Your people. Please quicken me by Your Holy Spirit and fill me afresh O LORD, that this life You gave might be fully one with You and fruitful and pleasing to Thee. Lord, I am watching and praying in light of Your soon return. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
If you truly desire to know more about how to really know the LORD, go here okay: Born Again: What is It?
Sign up for free email devotional HERE… The Moments with My Master email devotional is sent out for the edification of the body of Christ.
Feedback:
“Awesome message. Thank you for sharing it. I would like to encourage everyone to read this and to look at the scriptures in their own Bibles! Wonderful message.” Linda C.
Support | STORE | Podcasts | Jail/Prison Ministry | Mexico Mission here | All Ministry Updates | Prayer | Manhood | The Conquering Cross of Christ [podcast] | The Cross Victory | Sin – Man’s Core Problem





Articles
Mother Sings to her Baby [video]
Dare you to try to stop this from playing continually….
If we’ve given our children everything in this world and not JESUS, we’ve failed miserable and clearly prove to be lost souls ourselves.
Support | STORE | Podcasts | Jail/Prison Ministry | Mexico Mission here | All Ministry Updates | Because You Care Page | Bible/Word of God | Gifts | Prophetic or Pathetic? | Christology | Final Divine Authority | At His Feet | Prepared to be Used of God | Grace and Truth Bible School [modules] | 7 Study Guides to a Greater Foundation in Christ | Knowing God | The Cross Life |

Articles
Love in the Body [podcast]
Read 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. King James Bible
Support | STORE | Podcasts | Jail/Prison Ministry | Mexico Mission here | All Ministry Updates | Evangelism | Jesus, Light of the Word | Compassion in Light of Christ’s Soon Return | Striving Together for the Faith of the Gospel [podcast] | Prepared to be Used of God | The Return of Christ | Christ’s Compassion Audio | Our Approach to the Lost | Kindness is a Soul Winning Weapon | Stop Sinning? Really? How? | Angry Street Preacher Warning


-
America11 months agoThe Drugging of America: The Pharmakeia Sorcery Deception [podcast]
-
Articles2 years agoChildren being Rescued in Tunnels: Happening Now – UPDATE!
-
Articles8 years agoSelf-Examination in Preparation for the Lord’s Return
-
Apostasy2 years agoSHOCKING List of False Prophets Most Believe are True





