Rating: 
Summary: awful, awful, awful!
Review: "yeah, God, i want a mansion and a mercedes and 5 million dollars, please! i'll just repeat this prayer every day for 30 years and of course i'll get what i want and be happy, and screw what God has in store for me if this isn't what he wants!"why in the world would you ever think that God is as small as you are and that you can comprehend and conrol his thoughts and desires? yes, God wants to bless everyone so much, he loves us beyond our comprehension (for no reason on our parts) and is waiting to give us all he has in store for us. he wants to just dump his blessings down on us from the sky. but where do we get off thinking that we know what he has in store? in the trials and difficult times are where we normally see his face the brightest and the most clearly. they are also where we grow closer to him and learn to know more fully who he has made us to be. look at the saints and heroes of the faith, people God has obviously selected and approved of. they have often had unbelieveably difficult lives. so, when we ask for a life void of pain and suffering, filled with everything easy, aren't we actually asking out of our selfishness and fear? in that case we are fully sacrificing actually experiencing God and the life he planned out and desires for us to live. if we allow our fears to rule us, they become our god. yeah, this book sounds really nice to the person who wants to live on canned feel-good "christian" responses to life. but in reality, is it better to get a nice fuzzy feeling inside about something that doesn't ask anything of you at all, or to really live life fully and experience God in all his majesty and aweful glory, truly communing with him and knowing his heart as fully as a human being can? that's what i desire more than breathing. i challenge you to live a life of adventure instead of running from the true blessings God has in store for you. the blessings this book says to seek are only temporary, not at all fulfilling, and often stunt rather than promote personal and spiritual growth. live outside the box. instead of this book try 'the sacred romance' by brent curtis and john eldredge.
Rating: 
Summary: Good message, poorly communicated
Review: There is controversy about whether this book supports the unscriptural "prosperity gospel." And on balance, it doesn't. But either Wilkinson or his editors have opened themselves to that criticism by their carelessness presentation. On balance, the message is a plea for the Christian to ask God for more opportunities to serve Him, and a reassurance that He will supply supernatural resources for those who ask. But there's enough emphasis on getting earthly blessings to upset the modern-day Pharisee, unfortunately. Secrets of the Vine was much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Completely Blessed!
Review: Bruce Wilkinson has done a tremendous service in sharing this prayer with the world -- and then for unfolding the story behind the prayer so its full potency can be understood. We begin each business day with this prayer and our territory keeps expanding while our gratitude for God's gifts continues to increase as well.
Rating:
Summary: The hidden prayer
Review: I read this book and it lead me into a bible study that enriched my prayers. The Prayer of Jabez, is a wonderful example of the power of prayer.
This book also comes on a two CD set, for easy listeneing. Buy it! Read it! Live it!
Rating:
Summary: God Wants to Do Amazing Things For YOU!
Review: This book has increased individuals' (to include my own's) faith in God in many relevant ways. Learning how to pray individually, and yet not selfishly, is an amazing thrill ride, especially as God begins to use you to impact others. This book will greatly enhance your individual walk with the Lord. As far as a book that helps to reveal how God is at work in the world as a whole, you have to check out "Wake Up Church: The End is Nigh!", a book by Dennis Crump. In it, he shares with incredibly eye-opening relevance and plausibility how what is currently going on in the Middle East (Israel/Palestinians) as well as the US/Iraq conflict is straight out of the pages of Scripture. Crump gives a free preview and updates at his website (The Middle East and Bible Prophecy)...
Rating:
Summary: IT WORKS!!!
Review: Right after reading the book (which takes less than one hour), I attended a simulcast lead by Dr. Wilkinson, who emphasized how to pray the Prayer of Jabez....with great fervor, with total mind, body, spirit involvement. Well, I did, and my "territory" has been enlarged in every respect: wonderful relationships are even richer, problems have begun to fade in very dramatic ways, and I have stepped into an incredible new business opportunity that is overflowing with abundance! I prayed faithfully for 6 months before anything happened, but once change began, it came like Niagara Falls. Try it and you'll see for yourself. Amazing!
Rating:
Summary: A GOOD PLACE TO START!
Review: "Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my
territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep
me from evil." Pray this every morning. Keep a calendar in which
you mark off it everytime you pray. Write out the prayer and tape it
in your Bible, bathroom mirror, or some other place. Reread this
little book once each week during the next month, asking God to show
you important insights you have missed. Tell one other person of
your commitment to your new prayer habit, and ask him or her to check
up on you. Begin to keep a record of changes in your life. That's about it. If you feel that you would like to give
Christianity a try, or if you are already a Christian, this is a good
place to start or stabilize your belief in God. It's a nice little book. I have three books including this from Walk
Through the Bible Ministeries. Christianity is a fine religion. So go buy the book!
Rating: 
Summary: Faulty Theology
Review: Although there are some merits in this book, such as elements of prayer and being where God wants you to be, the whole thrust of this book tends to be built around one Bible verse, and allegedly it has brought wealth, prosperity and health to its author. This is unfortunate, because the author is highly respected, and here he is, marketing this incredible series to make an incredible amount of money. Maybe he should read Jim Bakker's "I Was Wrong," and get some tips.
Rating:
Summary: The Vow of Jabez: A Warrior in Holy War
Review: The "Prayer of Jabez" is really the vow of Jabez (the "if" construction of 1 Chronicles 4:10 can be confirmed in the free Net Bible which is available on the internet). The prayer of Jabez starts with an "if" in the original Hebrew and also in the Ancient Greek Old Testament. Jabez was a man who, like Joshua and Sampson, enlarged Israel's holdings in Canaan by military conquest. Such is the context of his vow-prayer, that God would multiply his territory. That he was "more honorable than his brothers" is that he was a valiant warrior in the conquest of Canaan (like Joshua). This "warrior" context of the word honorable is confirmed in 1 Chron 11:21,25 where men are more honorable due to their fierceness in battle. For Jabez to be honorable meant that he was a valiant man of Holy War. The vow has a decidedly Abrahamic context. Abraham was promised Canaan, and now Jabez was obtaining the inheritance. The word for "multiply" in the promise made to Abraham is the same word translated "enlarge" in 1 Chron. That is, Jabez's vow has the land inheritance promised to Abraham in view. Christians no longer inherit the land of Canaan through military conquest, but they inherit the blessing of Abraham through the Spirit (in fact, Paul in Galatians calls the Spirit the inheritance!). Jesus has already enlarged the Abrahamic inheritance to its ultimate extent, and now we wait for it to be revealed in glory - when the heavenly realm is united with the Earth in the final new creation. The land that Jabez wanted to conquer (the Abrahamic Promised Land) was a shadow of the heavenly kingdom that Jesus has already secured (the Real Inheritance which is not of the Law, but Spirit). Thus, the prayer of the Christian is not for enlarged territory, as if Canaan was still our inheritance, but now we have a different prayer, namely: "Come Lord Jesus, Come!" We pray for Jesus to come and consummate that which he has already enlarged beyond measure. The vow of Jabez has a context which the book by Wilkinson must account for if it is going to do justice to the Ancient Near Eastern Israelites who were under the Theocracy and land-conquest edicts. Jabez was under the same theocracy, and his vow is packed with theocratic implications, especially given the literal Canaan that he helped to cleanse through battle (such battle that today would be condemned by the UN). God granted Jabez his request. In 1 Chronicles 2:55 we find that he had a city named after him, indicating that an inheritance in Israel was his indeed. To have a city in Israel under the Theocracy was to have a city in the very Kingdom of God. Jabez was a mighty man of war, honored by God for his zeal in battle, and his place in the Kingdom of God was established. This view of Jabez will be helpful as you read Wilkinson's book and try to determine for yourself if he is using the Old Testament wisely or out of context.
Rating:
Summary: A dangerous concept
Review: "The Prayer of Jabez", one of the most talked-about religious books in years, has its share of disciples and dissidents. Wilkinson presents this prayer, found buried in the midst of genealogies in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles, as "a key" to effective prayer life. He breaks the prayer into four pieces: a request for 1) blessing, 2) enlargement of territory, 3) God's hand with [him], and 4) being kept from evil. While Wilkinson does allude to the fact that these blessings are to be used for God's glory, the book did seem to have hints that those who pray the prayer will be more blessed than those who don't. One story makes reference to a room full of blessings that a man didn't receive simply because he never asked for them. The end of the book even offers that you should pray the prayer of Jabez for 30 days and notice the difference in your life. Thus, it is difficult to say that this book is simply a call to prayer in general. However, this book has some serious theological flaws. First, the only Scriptural source for information about Jabez consists of these two verses of Scripture in 1 Chronicles. We have no other information about Jabez other than his birth, the prayer, and the fact that God blessed him. Trying to extract ~70 pages of theology about this otherwise obscure character is very dangerous. Also, Wilkinson tends to bring more detail out of the prayer itself than is readily supported by the short text. Furthermore, the writer of 1 Chronicles likely never INTENDED for Jabez or his prayer to draw special attention. 1 Chronicles is primarily an historical account of the nation of Israel and is not meant to be doctrinal. Jesus--whom Christianity claims is the divine Son of God--never mentions this prayer; He instead gives His own model prayer which is significantly different. Paul, writer of over half of the New Testament books, does not make a reference to Jabez either. Throughout the histories of Judaism and Christianity, this prayer has remained obscure; are we to believe that now Bruce Wilkinson has uncovered a secret to prayer and the Christian life that has never been discovered?
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