God says, ‘You know some things, BUT you must pray!’ Prayer is awareness! The spirit of prayer will be the corrective lenses thru which God’s view of the word is opened up to you. Prayer changes our posture from haughty to humble, from sinner to saint! Prayer unlocks the Mystery of Christ to you, within you and through you! Prayer will be the defining mark of what you have come to know and what you truly believe. Recently, I heard the question asked this way, ‘How is it that you believe in a supernatural God, but don’t believe in the supernatural?’ Prayer is the key to the mystery that changes your thinking to recognize Jesus is at the spiritual place of God’s right hand of power pleading for you! Don’t tell Him He’s changed and no longer moving in supernatural power. He is there interceding for you to grasp the concept of an open heaven so you might boldly come asking to receive His grace and power (Heb 4:16). I tell you truth, it is easier to listen to other preachers, read enlightening books, listen to spiritual music, and even read the Bible, but harder still to pray. Don’t misinterpret what I am saying, those things are good and necessary, but without the spirit of prayer, your life will be rather one dimensional missing the dynamic that can transform what you know in your head to what gets ahold of your heart! Psalm 40 is a psalm of powerful awareness in which David’s ears are opened in corrective fashion to realize the resources afforded him by the King of heaven. What do you have need of today? You must in faith believe “God IS, AND HE IS A REWARDER OF THOSE WHO SEEK HIM”. What is it that you seek? You will accomplish it in the place of prayer. It will require an extraordinary measure of faith above other forms of knowing God because of its intangible nature. But it is the Supernatural way to commune with The God who moves with might and power in the unseen, when we pray! Thomas Edison once said, “If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves.” While I believe that is sure enough, I believe by the Spirit of Prayer we recognize the things God is capable of doing so He might astonish us!
Tag: prayer
A Father’s Prayer
“My prayer for you this morning is that above all else you will be given strength to be a man/woman who loves what is good and right and abhors being intoxicated with evil, so you might be such a man/woman who is able and fit–divinely empowered to make His glory known like a light shining in a dark place. I pray your faith increases in might and power and you receive the extra-ordinary Spirit of Christ to accomplish God’s will above your own and you live your life standing in the stream of victory knowing; “You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you”. I pray for a fresh approach to what you know by the power of the Holy Spirit which causes you to rise above yesterday and find His glory today…. praying this knowledge inspires a love that endures all things for His sake and for the sake of His call.
The House of God
Someone recently confessed they were presently walking through a fog, but in spite of deep hurts they were choosing to trust God. They went on to say, “When life doesn’t seem fair, the Word can give answers man cannot give and when you commune with God moment by moment you learn to hear His voice alone, even amongst the noise.” I have a question for you. Are you hearing God “amongst the noise”? Isaiah declares those who come to minister to the Lord find the house God chooses to live in. Jesus said in Luke 19:46; “My house shall be called a house of prayer”. Did you stop to think that God lives in a place of prayer. In a place where men would call on His name for refuge and strength. David says in Psalm 61:1-2, “Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.” Are you about to faint on some things? Prayer is the address to God’s house. David’s prayer is not just any prayer; no, it is a cry–a prayer of desperation. He is saying, ‘Lord I am at the end of it all about to faint and I desperately need you to lead me to a higher plane of thinking–there on the solid place where you dwell. In Genesis 35, God tells Jacob to go to the house of God and live there, but doing that would require removing some things that were unwelcome in God’s presence. In Isaiah 57, God rebukes those disobedient children who had been so influenced by an idolatrous culture they had failed to understand God’s silence and their own subtile rebellion. His word came then as it does now to shake men from their numbness to understand only those who find a refuge in Him will have an inheritance. God says, ‘My house is a house of prayer and I dwell in a place of refuge and deliverance.’ In Psalm 32 David declares, ‘God You are my hiding place’. Colossians 3:1-3; reminds every believer to stand because our life is hidden with Christ. Simply put, life is found in a hidden place there in the presence of Christ when we stand and find His refuge. As I recall, the storm didn’t stop for the disciples, just because Peter chose to get out of the boat and come to Jesus. But there was clearly a place with Peter where the storm couldn’t touch him. This storm may have fogged you in, but you have God’s address, and He is refuge from the storm. There is a sanctuary in the inner place of God’s house and a song being sung by a heavenly choir. Can you hear it? God says I want you to hear it…Psalm 32:7, “You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.” If you understand the song it is more like a shout because living in the refuge of Christ produces victory–because He has already overcome and there in God’s House He lives and prays for you…
The Burning Bush
Somewhere on the backside of your wilderness there is a place in God’s presence that will draw you in to captivate your heart and arrest your complete attention. Like Moses in Exodus 3, the burning bush reminds us God is never finished — though we may have long given up. I have recently been reminded that we are living in the last days. Things are out of control, and it seems men’s hearts are so hard. Even believers seem so fixed in just what they know; there is no desire to receive any more than just what they have. It would seem all is well, yet something turns sideways because all is not well, and men are racing over a cliff to destruction with no one to hold them back. It is all indicative of the last times. There seems to be resistance to the truth no matter how hard you try. We are living in days where the people of God often find themselves in a wilderness from wanting to follow God, but genuinely not knowing how. Have you found yourself in a wilderness like Moses running — running from your fear, from your people, from what would be the plan of God for your life — all because you tried to follow God and failed? In these days you had better find that burning bush on the back side of the wilderness you are living in. I believe these days are to be a season of rescue and recovery, but you need the burning bush. You need the Spirit of God to draw you in to look at Him spending time in His presence beholding what consumes, but does not burn up. It is marvelous as Moses said it was. It causes you to remove what is unholy because you got a word from God that says put that down and away from your life and come to me … here on holy ground. There you actually can hear God confirming to you His desire to save — it was His desire all along, and you thought He had forgotten and left you in the wilderness. But He has not forgotten you. You, like Moses, may have had the right idea, but failed to get in on the full plan of God. But now with the bush He includes you, telling you, “I see the affliction of men’s souls, and now I want to use you.” You see, we need the burning bush experience that lies in the wilderness of our struggle, because without it we lack awareness of God’s care or concern. We lack understanding of His plan to include us in the work to liberate men’s bondage. We are in the last days, and men are surely in bondage. If you fail to see that, you are proving you need a touch of the marvelous bush from which God speaks. Somewhere, there in your dry place, He is telling you to stand and see — looking for that bush that burns. It is Christ in you the hope of glory. It is not so far, though you may believe it cannot be found. God will use these very words you are reading now to stir your heart and bring you to find that place. It is a place of power and privilege; it is a place of revelation and inclusion. It is a place in these days you cannot afford to be without. From the bush, He calls us to identity as sons. He says, “Come, and I will send you.” God is saying to us — I will touch your lips and give you a voice so that your slowness of speech will be met with the confidence to declare freedom to every bound place, so the captive souls of men can be made free.
GraceLife 