"If you're a parent, you know how incredibly good it feels when one of your children spontaneously thanks you for something. God is our Father, and he, too, is moved when we express our thanksgiving."

"Supplications are requests that you make of God. And truly, nothing is too big for God to handle or too small for him to be interested in."

"How do you pray a prayer so filled with faith that it can move a mountain? By shifting your focus from the size of your mountain to the sufficiency of the Mountain Mover and then stepping forward in obedience."

"Job learned the wisdom of silence before God, but it appears many Christians have abandoned this value in our wordy world."

"As you walk with God, your faith will grow, your confidence will increase and your prayers will have real power."

"God is committed to developing a people who will reflect his character in this world, and his character always expresses concern and compassion for the afflicted."

"Developing prayer fitness is similar to developing physical fitness: we must follow a pattern in order to stay balanced."

"Sensing the carelessness and one-sidedness of our prayers, we start to feel guilty about praying. Guilt leads to faint-heartedness and that in turn leads to prayerlessness."

"Out-of-balance praying leads to no praying at all!"

"Playing around is one thing; following an established regimen is quite another. It's true with exercise equipment and it is true with prayer."

"I soon began writing out my whole prayer and reading it back to God. Previously I'd get no further than "Dear God" and I'd already be thinking of the person I was going to meet for lunch or the board meeting agenda or what my family members and I would be doing later that evening. But when I began to move pen across paper, it became much easier to remain focused."

"The key is to practice praying - and to practice praying regularly, privately, sincerely and specifically."

"One prayer routine that is balanced and easy to remember is found in the word ACTS, an acrostic whose four letters stand for adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication."

"I can write about prayer, you can read about prayer...but sooner or later you have to fall to your knees and just plain pray. Then, and only then, will you begin to operate in the vein of God's miracle-working ways."

"God-honoring prayers are not simply shopping lists. They are more than cries for help, strength, mercy and miracles. Authentic prayer should include worship, submission, requests, and confessions."

"The Lord's Prayer is an excellent model, but it was never intended to be a magical incantation to get God's attention. Jesus gave this prayer as a pattern to suggest the variety of elements that should be included when we pray."

"Adoration in prayer reminds us of God's identity and inclination. As we list his attributes, lifting up his character and personality, we reinforce our understanding of who he is."

"If Christ's followers aren't growing, it is because they are not making a habit of evaluating their lives. They don't step back and ask, "What's working and what's not working?""

"When the spirit of adoration takes over and we begin pondering God's attributes, we soon say from the heart, 'I am praying to a tremendous God!' Which only motivates us to keep on praying."

"Adoration in prayer purges our spirit and prepares us to listen to God."

"Confession is probably the most neglected area of personal prayer."

"When I lump all my sins together and confess them en masse, I neglect to feel the pain or embarrassment or shame that should be elicited in me."

"If you've ever been part of a ministry that had it, you knew you were part of something special. In other words, you knew it when you saw it. And it was an awesome work of God that couldn't be contained, couldn't be harnessed, and couldn't be explained."

"Who do you love? If you love God, you should love people. If you don't love people, you don't love God. It's that simple."

"If your ministry has become focused on the already-convinced, I'll bet that your ministry doesn't have it."

"When we love deeply, love makes us do things we wouldn't otherwise do."

"A church that has it recognizes that reaching people is not just the pastor's job. It's everyone's job."

"The it-rich are those who have chosen to face their fears rather than live with regrets."

"Get out of the boat. Face your fears. Fail. Learn. Adjust. Try again. And watch God do more than you can imagine."

"Is your ministry becoming more faith-filled or more risk-aversive?"

"Stuntmen and stuntwomen are paid to fall. They fall, get beat up, and get blown up...gracefully. We need to learn to fail gracefully."

"Without-it ministries can be filled with very sincere Bible-believing Christians; unfortunately, they're simply more concerned about themselves than the lost."

"As you seek God and he rekindles it in your heart, I believe he is going to speak to you."

"Sometimes the fruit of your steps of faith is measured not so much by what God does through you as by what God does in you."

"Let God turn fear into faith. Instead of becoming a hesitant leader, ask God to make you bold and aggressive."

"Across the board, almost every with-it church I've observed is virtually obsessed with reaching those who don't know Christ."

"Ministries without it are usually the ones playing it safe, doing only what is sure to succeed."

"Failing often can help a ministry experience it. Being overly cautious can kill it."

"It-owners know that setbacks can be setups for better things to come. They study their failures and learn from them."

"The it-ish understand: failure is a part of success."

"Don't put your faith in the innovations. Keep your faith in Christ."

"To have it, we have to care about those who are far from God."

"Your greatest ministry innovation could come from your greatest limitation - if you have a sincere passion to reach and care for people."

"What obstacle are you facing? Ask God for breakthrough thinking. Don't think about small changes. Think radically."

"For the sake of those who don't know Christ, think big."

"Limitations often reveal opportunities."

"If you don't have something you think you need, maybe it's because God wants you to see something you've never seen."

"Those with it recognize that God brings it. It is not found in the things the eye can see."