The 40 Day Prayer Challenge: Unlocking the Power of Partnered Prayer - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

SQuire Rushnell is a popular speaker and New York Times bestselling author who has coined the term “Godwink,” now in mainstream usage. Within more than one million books in print, SQuire’s Godwink stories are a popular monthly feature on the NBC Today Show. He has also appeared on several national television programs including Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends and CBS Sunday Morning. As a veteran ABC Television Network executive, he led Good Morning America to the number one spot and oversaw the acclaimed Schoolhouse Rock! series and the ABC Afterschool Specials. Programs under his direction have captured more than seventy-five Emmy Awards. 

Louise DuArt costarred with Tim Conway and Harvey Korman in sold-out performances for fifteen seasons. Clean and funny, Louise executes fast-paced conversations between herself and Bart Simpson, Judge Judy, Barbra Streisand, Hillary Clinton, and dozens more. She was a popular Women of Faith speaker and has coauthored three books with her husband, SQuire. She hosted a popular daily talk show on the ABC Family channel for eight seasons, Living the Life, and has starred in various Broadway productions, garnering rave reviews.

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The 40 Day Prayer Challenge

CHAPTER 1

HOW PARTNERED PRAYER WORKS

SPEAK IT! BELIEVE IT! EXPECT IT!

Everything that exists comes from God speaking it into existence.

He spoke, “Let there be light” . . . and there was.

He spoke, “Let us make mankind” . . . and He did.1

God began everything with the awesome power of the spoken word, and He beckons you to emulate Him through a magnificent gift that is delivered through your lips and the passion in your heart. His promise is in the Bible: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”2

Let’s look at the key words to opening your gift: first, to ask in prayer—through the power of the spoken word; second, to believe that God is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do; and third, to expect to receive “whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer.”

How do you assure that your prayer reaches God’s attention?

You speak it!

When you learn to speak it, you hurtle every prayer through time and space directly to the ears of God. Like an arrow placed in the archer’s bow, when you speak it, your prayer gains trajectory and velocity to the Almighty. And when you engage with a partner to pull back on the bowstring—to speak it together—the words of your prayer can move heaven and earth!

The tongue has the power of life and death.

—PROVERBS 18:?21

THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST WERE SPOKEN INTO BEING

When Jesus looked at the two blind men and said, “Do you believe I can do this?” they replied, “Yes, Lord.”

Jesus then spoke these words: “According to your faith, let it be done.” And the blind men were healed.3

When a great storm alarmed the disciples in the boat, Jesus said, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?”4 Then He rebuked the winds and the sea . . . He spoke to them . . . and they became perfectly calm.

When Jesus came upon two violent, demon-possessed men, He spoke to them, saying, “Go!”5 The demons came out, went into the swine, and perished in the sea.

Christ spoke miracles into being.

THE THREE KEYS TO YOUR PRAYERS BEING ANSWERED

The first two keys to unlocking God’s promise to you are: speaking prayer fervently and believing that God hears your every request. But the third key is equally essential: expecting your prayer will be answered, sometimes before you have even finished speaking or before your request has come into existence.

The Ancient Scriptures of Isaiah affirm “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”6

In Romans we are assured that God “calls into existence things that don’t yet exist.”7

Christ confirmed those promises: “Whoever . . . does not doubt in his heart, but believes what God says is going to happen, it will be granted him.”8

Therefore, how does effective prayer work? Speak it. Believe it. Expect it!

Jesus reiterates: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”9

THE MIRACLES OF TODAY ARE SPOKEN INTO BEING

In this book you will see how speaking words of prayer, in faith, will plug you into the greatest power strip in the universe.

You will read how a mother spoke life over the body of her fourteen-year-old son, dead for nearly an hour, with the words, “Holy Spirit, give me back my son,” and suddenly a doctor shouted, “We’ve got a pulse!”

How an unseen voice spoke to a mother in Vermont, commanding her to stand during her pastor’s sermon and boldly speak out to ask for immediate prayer for her son, a soldier in Iraq, and for her to later learn that her son was supernaturally dodging a deadly bullet at that very moment.

How a woman forcefully spoke scripture to a man who was holding her at gunpoint. He suddenly turned around, walked away, and subsequently said his getting caught was a “God thing.”

How a child’s daily prayers to have a pet bird, spoken in earnest, and with faith, were answered by a stranger, out of the blue.

How a dilapidated church of twenty people, about to close its doors, spoke out together in fervent prayer and, soon thereafter, crowds came through the doors, growing it into one of the largest, most prestigious churches in America.

Story after story will confirm that when you speak a prayer to God in faith—especially when you speak it together with a partner—you can tap into a limitless reservoir of spiritual promises.

You will be astonished by evidence of how the supernatural comes into the natural, overcoming your most insurmountable obstacles, as it did with a Florida cardiologist who, after pronouncing a man dead of a heart attack, heard a voice from God telling him to speak specific words of prayer over the man.

CHAUNCEY CRANDALL: A DOCTOR’S EVIDENCE THAT PRAYER WORKS

“I prayed for the dead man and today he’s alive.”

There was stunned silence throughout the medical conference as Dr. Chauncey Crandall, the noted cardiologist, unveiled compelling evidence that he had prayed for a patient who had just died and, as the man was being prepped for the morgue, came back to life.

The renowned Florida cardiologist was speaking to 120 physicians, representing fifty countries.

“The fifty-three-year-old man had had a massive heart attack. The medical team worked on him for over forty minutes . . . then declared him dead,” said Dr. Crandall.10 Having been called in to evaluate the patient toward the end, Dr. Crandall confirmed the man was dead. The doctor turned and started to leave.

Then, something odd happened.

“The Holy Spirit told me, ‘Turn around and pray for that man.’?”

Dr. Crandall walked back to the side of the bed, noting that the man’s face, feet, and arms were completely black with death. Aloud, he prayed, “Lord Father, how am I going to pray for this man? He’s dead. What can I do?”

Then, as if by supernatural means, words moved through the doctor’s lips: “I cry out for the soul of this man if he does not know you as his Lord and Savior: raise him from the dead now, in Jesus’ name.”

Dr. Crandall told the spellbound audience at the conference that all of sudden a heartbeat showed up on the monitor. It was a perfect, normal beat, and then the man’s fingers and toes started to move and he began mumbling words!

The nurse was startled. “Doctor Crandall, what have you done to this patient?”

The doctor calmed the nurse, then rushed the patient to intensive care, where, he says, “after a couple of days, he had an amazing story to tell.”

The man told how he was in a dark place. There was no light. He felt as though he’d...