I would be the first to admit that my prayer life is anything but normal. I’m not much of a believer in daily devotions or prayers that are always the same. “O Lord, keep this person….. heal this person……. help this person with their marriage…… change this heart to accept your salvation.” That is not a criticism of anyone else´s prayer life, just of mine.

From what I can discern, my personality doesn’t adjust well to mindless repetition which I try to keep up every day as if I were earning gold stars on my spiritual prayer chart. I have a deep aversion to anything that smells like the religious spirit (even though I still have it in other areas of my life).

Prayer, for me, needs to be passionate and focused on what matters and what I am personally involved in. For me, prayer is a ministry not just because praying for someone is good for them but because my prayers force me to actively participate in what I am praying about.

So, I do a lot of “spot” praying where I talk to God in particular situations. Whether in the hospital with four or five other people getting chemotherapy, when I am writing a post, or when my wife and I get together to pray for our ministries and our children. In each case, I am there involved in one way or another. Sometimes there are words and petitions and sometimes just a groan that so many people are suffering so much, and they don’t have the hope of eternal life to give them some comfort. Sometimes it is a cry of frustration that I don’t know how to get through to them with the good news.

Whatever it is, it happens in the moment.

That doesn’t mean that my way is right, and your way is wrong, just that it works for me. I have to say that I do use a few “props” to help me focus my mind and heart on what matters. I must have over a hundred notebooks full of notes, business ideas, book outlines, and prayers. I’m looking at them right now. In many of them, the very first page has a Spiritual Prayer Map that I developed over time, and within the notebook, there are several written prayers (among the rat’s nest of other ideas and thoughts). A prayer journal, for me, has been a great help. It usually is in the form of a letter to God which I start by saying, “Dear God….” Or “Good Morning, Lord….”

But the Spiritual Prayer Map is the key. It focuses my mind on what’s important, where I have the authority to pray, what matters to me the most, and where my area of ministry and anointing is so that my prayers can be more effective. It has taken years to develop it to where it is right now, and I find it quite helpful.

It will be different than what you expect but it is essential to pray using something like the Spiritual Prayer Map if you want to be an Anointed Leader, break the curse of church politics, and do battle in your church against the religious spirit that has so weakened us in recent years. I know that is a strong statement, but you will see what I mean as we go along. For now, I will just say that this Spiritual Prayer Map is based on the Way of the Cross in the Ministry of Reconciliation and that is key to everything else we do in the ministry.

You may come up with your own adjustments and changes, but my suggestion is to stay with the basics so that your prayers become “powerful and effective” (James 5:16 NIV) to tear down strongholds and “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV). That is key if you want spiritual change in your church.

There is no spiritual authority without effective prayer and the more people you can train in this kind of effective prayer, the more spiritual authority you will have and the more God can “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (I Corinthians 10:5 NIV). Which is another way of saying "the religious spirit" and the curse of politics.

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So let me describe in words this Spiritual Prayer Map (see image above) so that we can look at each element in detail and discern how it all works together. It is a picture of a cross since the cross is central. I call it a “12 point” cross because there are twelve corners on it which represent twelve special prayers that I sometimes like to pray. We will talk about them in another post.

At the top of the cross is the word CONFESSION and at the bottom of the cross the word REPENTANCE. We remember that Pilate put a sign at the top of the actual cross of Christ which declared that Jesus was the king of the Jews (John 19:19 NIV). But it doesn’t matter which arm of the cross you put it on. The two side arms of the cross say FORGIVENESS and RECONCILIATION. The key is to leave enough room under each name to make some notes. Each of my notebooks lasts about a month and then I create a new one with a new Spiritual Prayer Map on the first page.

This is the heart of the Spiritual Prayer Map. The goal is to keep us focused on the Ministry of Reconciliation in terms of our relationships with people. Under the word CONFESSION, for example, I might write the names of two or three (or more) people that I need to confess my sins to. You don’t need to confess all of your sins to everyone (most of the time) but rather to a specific person for a specific sin. The same would be true for REPENTANCE, FORGIVENESS, and RECONCILIATION.

I’ve written extensively about all of these four steps on the Way of the Cross but here I will give a general overview of how I use each of them in different ways as an initial exercise. For example, I can’t in good conscience write down the name of someone under CONFESSION and talk to God about it without making concrete plans to contact that person and actually making my confession. Scary stuff but necessary if you want to actually walk the walk and not just talk the talk. That goes for me as well. Perhaps that is why confession is the first step. It is the hardest. If you can get started there, then anything can happen, good and bad.

So, what would I do with a note written under REPENTANCE? First of all, this is probably not a name but rather an attitude, a path, a change of some sort that reflects the godly response to the Confession that I just made. I may want to elicit the help of the person that I have offended in the process of repentance by telling them (and asking them) about my plans to change and be accountable to them. That is the best-case scenario. It doesn’t always work out that way so you will have to be flexible. But some sort of accountability will be necessary. Maybe write down the name of the person to whom you are accountable here.

As a bit of an aside, we know that repentance is discipleship with specific areas of change that have to do with you and your background, personality, and experience. Discipleship has many things in common, but it is the differences that make change truly possible. God is trying to create a certain type of person, and that person is not just a fine, upstanding, family man or woman who is indistinguishable from someone who is not a Christian. We need to go deeper than that.

The point is that each of us needs someone to disciple and each of us needs to be discipled by someone. If that isn’t happening in our discipleship, then make it happen, somehow, in some way. That way you may get accountability from the one you offended about a particular offense, but you also have a more general, life-wide, accountability from the person you are being discipled by. That will get you started down the right road.

There is so much more to say about Confession and Repentance but that will have to be left for the next book in this series on Spiritual Power (as well as my book called Seeking Jerusalem already written).

Now, let’s go to the two sections on the sidebars of the cross called FORGIVENESS and RECONCILIATION. Here we can put names again. This isn’t about who you have sinned against but those who have sinned against you. The list may be long but start with those that come to mind and continue to pray for them throughout the month. Next month you can add others as you work your way backwards through your life. This needs to be done in a particular way. No cheap forgiveness allowed. The only basis for true forgiveness is the blood of Christ shed on the cross.

God is asking you whether you will accept the blood of Christ as sufficient payment for the sin against you. That doesn’t cheapen the sin against you but makes it so important that only the blood of Christ is enough to satisfy the justice of God. We may not be able to forgive every sin that someone commits, but we are given the authority to forgive the sins made against us.

“Lord, I forgive ________________ for his sin against me (describe it in general not in detail). I know that this was no light thing that he/she did but rather it was so important that it took the death of your son to deal with it. I accept the blood of Christ as sufficient payment for this sin against me. Amen.”

And every time it comes up in your mind, together with whatever negative emotions it evicts, pray this prayer again and again and again. Not as a way to remember the sin but as a way to deal with it. You are not forgetting this sin but rather transforming it into reconciliation which comes next.

For now, forgiveness is necessary in your own heart. If the blood of Christ is not sufficient for that sin against you, then how can it be sufficient for your sins against others? And don’t forget to think through very carefully your part in this “sin” event. The log in your eye may be greater than the speck in their eyes. If you discern anything that may be your fault, any attitude, any action, or any belief that would be an offense to the other and may be the context for their sin against you, then you need to go back to the section on Confession and do that process at the same time.

One final thought on the area of FORGIVENESS. I find that I need to forgive myself quite often as well. There are many things that I have done in my life that constitute sin against myself, my body, my spirit, and my walk with God and I need to confess those sins and forgive myself by accepting the sufficiency of the blood of Christ on my own behalf.

I don’t have to remind you that all sin committed against someone else (including yourself) is also a sin committed against God. Confess your sins to him and accept his healing forgiveness as well. God also accepts the blood of Christ as sufficient payment for the sins of the world against Him. In that way, we are imitating God (not just Christ).

Finally, we get to the area of RECONCILIATION. Here there is TRUE Reconciliation and FULL Reconciliation. True reconciliation happens on your side only. It is powerful and can bring some anointing to your ministry. Paul tells us to live at peace with everyone so far as it depends on us (Romans 12:18 NIV). What that means is that it doesn’t always depend on you. You can want reconciliation, but the other person may not be interested.

Here again, God asks us a key question that gets at the heart of TRUE and FULL reconciliation. “Will you treat this person as they are in Christ, even if they continue to sin against you?” That is TRUE reconciliation.

FULL reconciliation happens when both sides are willing to do so. That is truly powerful. That will happen between Christians before the throne of God on the final day but when it happens on this side of the grave, God can use it to empower our witness and bring about effective ministry.

I know of entire revivals that have started because people, and churches, have made TRUE and FULL reconciliation the focus of their ministry by walking the way of the cross, picking up their cross daily, and following him as he suffered and died for the gospel.

Again, we are imitating God. That’s what he does with us. He treats us as we are in Christ, spotless and blameless before his throne. But he does so already now because he has the promise of his son that it will be done. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2 NIV) and promises his Father that he will present us without spot or blemish before his throne (Jude 1:24 NIV).

Don’t for a moment think that this is easy. Treating someone as they are in Christ (even if they aren’t Christians) is no easy task. When you confess your sins, it can be used against you. When you start a process of repentance, as broken and inconsistent as it usually is at the beginning, it can cause even more accusations to come your way. Perhaps you are forgiving someone for something, but they are not innocent in the matter either. It usually takes two to tango, as we say in Argentina. Now what? They may make it look like it was entirely your fault, especially if you confess and they don’t. That proves it, doesn’t it? You were the one at fault. You may lose money, lose friends, lose reputation, lose your job. That is the price you may have to pay.

That is why we pray and pray fervently. The ministry of reconciliation is spiritual warfare. Forget about casting out demons and the like. You can do that later when you are in a place of anointing and have a ministry team in spiritual unity backing you up. For now, the true spiritual battle is right here in the ministry of reconciliation.

This is why Jesus came to earth to die on the cross. Not just to feed the poor or heal the sick or cast out demons. All good things in and of themselves but not the point. Jesus came to deal with sin and rebellion and broken relationships between us and God first of all and then between us as a family of God. That is our witness. That is the transformation that the world is looking for. People don’t wish for riches or fame on their deathbeds. Their regrets have to do with relationships, with loved ones, with a partner, with a friend.

We have the greatest power ever known on earth at our fingertips, the power to heal relationships, really heal relationships, permanently. But only through the cross of Christ and his blood shed for every sin committed by us or against us. That is the truth that the Devil spends so much time distracting us from. It is the heart of effective ministry, but it must be surrounded by prayer.

And that is what we are talking about here. Yes, we must go out and do it. Confess, Repent, Forgive, and Reconcile. We need to have spiritual conversations that are difficult to have. We need to approach people who hate us, dislike us, or are just not interested in bringing up the past. We cannot afford to let time pass or sweep things under the rug. It may work for a while, but we sacrifice our access to the anointing of God on our ministry and lives, eternal lives are at stake.