Welcome to the Prayer class.
There are three parts to this class. The first part consists of reading the text book and watching a video presentation. The text is a great book on prayer by Timothy Keller. The video is a timeless message about the relationship between prayer and revival. The second part includes praying from the Bible. You will learn to converse with God from the different genres of Scripture. Eventually, everyone will discover the power of communing with God from His written word. |
I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray. — Psalm 17:6 NLT |
The third part involves some unique and creative applications. You will take part in prayer walks, learn how to create and lead a prayer meeting, form and run a prayer team, and pray for unreached peoples.
Unless a lesson is defined by a specific reading assignment or activity, spend two hours to complete each lesson.
Don't forget to join the Modesto Bible College (MBC) Group so you can have your paper reviewed and review others.
Unless a lesson is defined by a specific reading assignment or activity, spend two hours to complete each lesson.
Don't forget to join the Modesto Bible College (MBC) Group so you can have your paper reviewed and review others.
Text Book
Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, by Timothy Keller
Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, by Timothy Keller
Lesson 1
Lesson 2

Lesson 3
Lesson 4
- Read chapters 13-15 in Prayer by Timothy Keller.
- Write a Summary paper.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 5
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Revival is...usually proceeded or accompanied by passionate corporate intercessory prayer. — Patrick Johnstone |
Lessons 6-13
Pray the Scriptures. Praying the Scriptures involves reading from the Bible and then having a prayerful conversation with God about a word, phrase or verse that speaks to your heart from what you read. It's simple yet powerful.
Don't rush this. Speak from a deep place. Allow yourself to form thoughts and express words that you may have never included in prayer. When your conversation is complete, resume reading until another portion of Scripture prompts another prayerful conversation.
Don't just look for places where prayer is mentioned. You'll be surprised the words God will to use to prompt communication with Him. You may find yourself confessing sin, giving thanks, offering praise, declaring a commitment, asking a question, making a request, etc. You may even end up reaching out to someone as a result of your time in prayer with God.
Pray your prayers aloud. Even if softly. Be sure you hear yourself praying. Saying something is more meaningful that just thinking it. There is something that completes prayer when we respond aloud to God.
You'll be reading and praying from key sections of both the Old and New Testaments.
Don't rush this. Speak from a deep place. Allow yourself to form thoughts and express words that you may have never included in prayer. When your conversation is complete, resume reading until another portion of Scripture prompts another prayerful conversation.
Don't just look for places where prayer is mentioned. You'll be surprised the words God will to use to prompt communication with Him. You may find yourself confessing sin, giving thanks, offering praise, declaring a commitment, asking a question, making a request, etc. You may even end up reaching out to someone as a result of your time in prayer with God.
Pray your prayers aloud. Even if softly. Be sure you hear yourself praying. Saying something is more meaningful that just thinking it. There is something that completes prayer when we respond aloud to God.
You'll be reading and praying from key sections of both the Old and New Testaments.
Lesson 6
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I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. Habbakuk 3:2 NLT |
Lesson 7
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Immersing ourselves in the Psalms and turning them into prayers teaches our hearts the grammar of prayer... — Timothy Keller |
Lesson 8
- Read and pray from any of the Proverbs.
- Write a Summary paper.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 9

- Read and pray from any Gospel.
- Write a Summary paper.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 10
- Read Matthew 6:5-15. Rewrite the Lord's Prayer in your own words without using any of the words from the translation you are using. Then pray it back to God.
- Write a Summary paper.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 11
- Read and pray from anywhere in Acts.
- Write a Summary paper.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 12
- Read and pray from any Epistle.
- Write a Summary paper.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 13

- Read and pray from anywhere in Revelation.
- Write a Summary paper.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 14-20
These lessons involve unique assignments and different activities. They consist of the four types of prayer ideas described in the Prayer section of the Great Commsision Church at GreatCommission.com. The four ideas are: an annual prayer campaign, a prayer meeting, text team prayers and personal prayers for unreached peoples.
Lesson 14
- Read about the Annual Prayer Campaign on GreatCommision.com
Take three 30 minute prayer walks. They must be done one day at a time. That means this lesson will last at least three days. Remember to read Scripture before (and even during) your walk. - Write an Activity report.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 15
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Prayer is a nourishing friendship. — Timothy Keller |
Lesson 16
- Run a prayer meeting. Use the sample prayer meeting you designed in the previous lesson. Invite others to your meeting. You might even say, "An assignment for a class I'm taking on prayer requires that I run a prayer meeting. Would you attend?" If no one accepts your invitation, then run it for yourself. But try to get others involved. Decide the time, length, location, etc. Review Prayer Meetings again from GreatCommission.com.
- Write an activity report.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 17
- Read about Text Team Prayers on GreatCommission.com.
Set up and run a text team prayer ministry. Recruit a team of at a lest five people who agree to pray once a week for one month via text reminder. This lesson will take a month to complete so after one week, move to the next lesson but continue to manage the team for the remainder of the month. You might even post a comment in the MBC Group about how it turned out. - Write an activity report (after the first week).
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 18

- Read about Personal Prayers for the world at GreatCommission.com. This activity has several steps.
- Harvest a word, phrase, or verse from your personal devotions that you can use in prayer for the world. If you don't have an effective devotional method, you may want to try a One Thing Study.
- Pray for a country. Pray from a One Thing Study for a country by day of the year as found at Operation World. Just click on the date and pray.
- Pray for an issue/country. Pray for what is revealed on the home page of Prayer Cast. You can watch the video or just pray for the issue being promoted. Sometimes the landing page changes daily, sometime it stays static for a week at a time.
- Pray for an unreached people group. Pray for one of the people groups revealed on the 100 largest unreached people groups list at Joshua Project. Just click on a people group and pray. Look at how many people you're praying for!
- Harvest a word, phrase, or verse from your personal devotions that you can use in prayer for the world. If you don't have an effective devotional method, you may want to try a One Thing Study.
- Write an activity report.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Lesson 19
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You should not begin to pray for all you want until you realize that in God you have all you need." — Timothy Keller |
Lesson 20
- Spend one hour in payer without asking God for anything.
This may be the most unique assignment in the class. Prayer is not just about the ask, it's about the relationship. The greatest thing God give us is Himself. God's greatest desire (and our greatest delight) is to be in communion with Him. We treat God like Amazon Prime; we focus on the ask and expect immediate results.
Read Scripture to trigger different types of prayer. When you've exhausted a topic, resume reading until another thought comes to mind. You'll be amazed at the results. - Write an activity report.
- Post a request for a review and availability to review a paper in the MBC Group.
Feedback
Congratulations! You finished the class. We hope this has been a rich experience. You may print the certificate of completion for this class. Once you have completed all the lessons for all the classes you may print your diploma.
Feel free to contact us and let us know about your experience. We would be encouraged to know how you may have been blessed as well as how you think this class might be improved.
Feel free to contact us and let us know about your experience. We would be encouraged to know how you may have been blessed as well as how you think this class might be improved.