Do not lay down your spiritual weapons, your spiritual armor - not for a moment!

'THE description of the Christian soldier given by Paul in the sixth chapter of the Epistle
to the Ephesians, is compact and comprehensive. He is depicted as being ever in the conflict, which has many fluctuating seasons -- seasons of prosperity and adversity, light and darkness, victory and defeat. He is to pray at all seasons, and with all prayer,
this to be added to the armour in which he is to fare forth to battle. At all times, he is to
have the full panoply of prayer. The Christian soldier, if he fight to win, must pray much. By this means, only, is he enabled to defeat his inveterate enemy, the devil, together with the Evil One's manifold emissaries. "Praying always, with all prayer," is the Divine direction given him. This covers all seasons, and embraces all manner of praying.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 62)

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

Ever at war.

Every waking moment is spent in spiritual warfare.

When we have lulls in our battles, even those can be used as tools of the enemy.  While we are regrouping the enemy does the same.

All our physical wars are nothing compared to the spiritual wars. I don't say that lightly, I say it with truth. Because even as our men and women fight the physical battles they are also simultaneously involved in a spiritual war.

The spiritual battle NEVER ends. Physical battles can end. You can come home from a physical war, but you cannot come home from our spiritual battle, you are in it until our Savior returns.

Can you afford to take a day off from the fight? No.

Can you take a day off? Yes. You can lay down your spiritual weapons, and you can take off your spiritual armor. Will the war pause for you while you set aside your warfare gear? No. It won't pause for even a single moment for anyone. The spiritual war never paused for our Savior as He walked the earth, it's just not possible.  When you choose to lay down your armor and weapons you are leaving yourself exposed to be attacked.  How often do we do this? How often are we left vulnerable by our own choice?

Truly being told this…

'Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit'

… we have to comprehend that it is TRUTH! We are to pray ALWAYS.  Ever ready in prayer.

Can we stress it enough? Never enough.

More tomorrow by the grace of GOD.

Please LORD, please Father in Heaven, please help us to comprehend, help us to be fully Yours in all things.

Help us as we continue to study prayer, bless us, help us please, by YOUR GRACE! In YOUR LOVE ALWAYS!

Trust and Obey- All Through Jesus

'The will must be surrendered to God as a primary condition of all successful praying. Everything about us gets its colouring from our inmost character. The secret will makes character and controls conduct. The will, therefore, plays an important part in all successful praying. There can be no praying in its richest implication and truest sense, where the will is not wholly and fully surrendered to God. This unswerving loyalty to God is an utterly indispensable condition of the best, the truest, the most effectual praying. We have "simply got to trust and obey; there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus -- but to trust, and obey! "

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 61)

Psa_20:7  Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Psa 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Psa_143:8  Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

Trust and obey.

It would be futile for someone to expect you to obey  without telling you what you are to obey, yes?

When you ask someone to obey you, you are telling them to listen to what you say and then do what you say, right?  You never ask someone to obey you and then turn around and punish them for  not obeying unless they know they've disobeyed.  People have to know what is expected of them in order to be obedient.

God has allowed us to know what is expected of us, He has told us how we are to obey, what we are to obey. When we are told we need to be obedient to God we know what that means, He doesn’t leave us clueless.  He doesn't expect anything from us other than what He has asked of us. And He has told us we will have HELP. He has given us a SAVIOR who makes it possible to obey, He has given us a Holy Spirit who will help us! He hasn't left us helpless. He knows our weaknesses-every single one of our weaknesses.  He would never make it impossible for us to be obedient to Him, never.

1Co_10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it

This is truth.

We want to pray, we want our prayers to be heard, we want to be our Savior's knowing Him and being known by Him. Please, Lord, forgive us and save us! We are truly weak. We know what we are to obey You've made it very plain, very clear to us, You have not shrouded Your truth in darkness. We would be wholly YOURS all by YOUR grace, YOUR love, YOUR righteousness, we depend upon You for ALL things! Guide us LORD, keep us in YOU! Keep us from evil! Please LORD we would trust and obey You all by Your power.

We are told to obey when we are told to keep God's commandments

'We must look well to our obedience, to the secret springs of action, to the loyalty of our
heart to God, if we would pray well, and desire to get the most out of our praying. Obedience is the groundwork of effectual praying; this it is, which brings us nigh to God.

The lack of obedience in our lives breaks down our praying. Quite often, the life is in revolt and this places us where praying is almost impossible, except it be for pardoning mercy. Disobedient living produces mighty poor praying. Disobedience shuts the door of the inner chamber, and bars the way to the Holy of holies. No man can pray -- really pray -- who does not obey.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 60)

Joh 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Why… I have to ask why, why would our Savior speak these words if they mean nothing, if His commandments mean nothing?

If we LOVE God, if we LOVE OTHERS we will keep the commandments.

Remember this?

Joh_10:30  I and my Father are one.

If this is true then the Father's commandments are the Son's commandments and the Son's commandments are the Father's.  How could this be otherwise? How could they disagree?

The moral laws will NEVER be done away with, they will remain forever because forever we need to LOVE GOD and LOVE OUR FELLOW MAN.

When we are redeemed to heaven when our Savior returns for us we will have kept all the commandments of our God, of our Savior.  Our love will be perfected in our LORD. We will love God perfectly, we will love each other perfectly!

Here and now we MUST learn obedience.  We are told to obey when we are told to keep, to actively live our lives in perfect harmony with the love of our Savior.

Will our lives be perfect? NO. All around us there is a world of tremendous imperfection and we must live in this world among all sorts of imperfection. The imperfection surrounding us will tear us apart if we aren't in God's hands always! Satan will use every means of evil to keep us breaking the commandments of God, to keep us from Loving God and Loving Each Other.

Please LORD, please help us to be YOURS in perfect OBEDIENCE so our PRAYERS will reach YOU.

All by YOUR GRACE!

Who do you obey?

'The difficulty in prayer is not with faith, but with obedience, which is faith's foundation.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 59)

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
*
2Co_10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
*

*******

Don't you know that to whom you obey as a servant, that's whose servant you are. If you obey sin it will be to death, if you obey righteousness it will be to life-- right?  Seriously, when we think of obedience- who do we obey?  Who? Do you know who you obey?  You can obey sin or God, you choose. So who do you obey?

Our every thought should be in obedience to Christ.  And just thinking about that - the wording- 'bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,' has to make us think!   Bringing into captivity.  When we are bringing something into captivity as a rule it's something that doesn't want to be captive. To capture something we set up traps, we put up snares, we play tricks all to get it trapped. We keep things captive sometimes for their own good, don't we? Some would rather capture the wild creatures that are threatening others than kill them.  When we think about captivity of our thoughts  we are thinking of caging thoughts that would keep us from obeying our Savior. The wild animal of our thoughts, our carnal nature, the thoughts that would keep us from obeying Christ must be brought into captivity. We have to do all we can to capture those thoughts and NOT allow them free reign because if they are not brought into captivity then we yield to disobedience, we yield to sin.

Truly many people will say they believe but then they turn around and disobey, when we read 'the difficulty in prayer is not with faith, but with obedience, which is faith's foundation.'  we have to realize that it's truth!

Obedience.  May God grant us the ability to obey! It is only through our Savior that we can obey. May the Holy Spirit bless us and keep us as we struggle to bring every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ!

By the LOVE of our God.

Just a note here- Thank You Lord for leading Chloe into her long sleep, ending her suffering. Please bless Alena, Diane, Lee, and Seb, and all who are mourning the loss of such a beloved pet, a true family member.

Sin exists because of disobedience to God

'How great and manifold are the misconceptions of the true elements and functionings of prayer! There are many who earnestly desire to obtain an answer to their prayers but who go unrewarded and unblest. They fix their minds on some promise of God and then endeavour by dint of dogged perseverance, to summon faith sufficient to lay hold
upon, and claim it. This fixing of the mind on some great promise may avail in strengthening faith, but, to this holding on to the promise must be added the persistent and importunate prayer that expects, and waits till faith grows exceedingly. And who is there that is able and competent to do such praying save the man who readily, cheerfully and continually, obeys God?

Faith, in its highest form, is the attitude as well as the act of a soul surrendered to God, in whom His Word and His Spirit dwells. It is true that faith must exist in some form, or
another, in order to prompt praying; but in its strongest form, and in its largest results, faith is the fruit of prayer. That faith increases the ability and the efficiency of prayer is true; but it is likewise true that prayer increases the ability and efficiency of faith. Prayer and faith, work, act and react, one upon the other.

Obedience to God helps faith as no other attribute possibly can. When obedience --
implicit recognition of the validity, the paramountcy of the Divine commands -- faith ceases to be an almost superhuman task. It requires no straining to exercise it. Obedience to God makes it easy to believe and trust God. Where the spirit of obedience fully impregnates the soul; where the will is perfectly surrendered to God; where there is a fixed, unalterable purpose to obey God, faith almost believes itself. Faith then becomes almost involuntary. After obedience it is, naturally, the next step, and it is easily and readily taken. The difficulty in prayer is not with faith, but with obedience, which is faith's foundation.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 59)

*******

Obedience to God.

Sin exists because of disobedience to God,  the rejection of perfect love.

How can we imagine we can disobey God, continuing to reject perfect love and yet have God hear us?

Do we one to another like to listen to those who reject us?  Yet we want God to constantly listen to us as we pray to Him while we constantly reject Him through our disobedience.

Eve knew right from wrong and chose wrong, she chose to disobey.

We too are allowed to know right from wrong, God hasn't hidden it from us expecting us to work it out on our own. Plainly we are told right from wrong and once we are told right from wrong we make choices for one or the other.

We choose to obey or disobey.

It is so true that prayer, faith, and obedience are all together, if we fail to see this we are choosing ignorance over truth, we are choosing blindness over sight.

Please LORD, please help us to comprehend all we need to in order to pray as You would have us to pray, to have the faith You desire we have, to obey You as we must all through YOUR LOVE!

By YOUR GRACE!

Rom_6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

'No name, however precious and powerful, can protect and give efficiency to prayer which is unaccompanied by the doing of God's will. Neither can the doing, without the praying, protect from Divine disapproval. If the will of God does not master the life, the praying will be nothing but sickly sentiment. If prayer do not inspire, sanctify and direct our work, then self-will enters, to ruin both work and worker.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 58)

This is TRUTH!

Truly this is the 'circle of life' if you will.  We do God's will and our prayers are effective, we pray and are enabled to do God's will.  They go hand in hand, there is no ONE without the other there cannot be.

People want to stop at whatever sounds best, whatever seems easy. People might be willing to go just so far into something difficult and stop, they set limits on what they'll do so far as believing and living is concerned.

I can't get out of my mind right now how Jesus spoke these words--

Joh_5:14  Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

Joh_8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

He was TRULY in fact telling them to go and keep God's law! Because to say go and sin no more means to go and do not transgress the law any longer.

If CHRIST did away with the law, there would be NO sin because there is NO law to transgress from.

People love to say Jesus gave NEW commandments that replaced the old ones.  Soooo what did He mean when He said this--

Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Mat 19:18  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Mat 19:19  Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 19:20  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Mat 19:21  Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Jesus was quoting what commandments? Where are these commandments taken from?

Exo 20:2  I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
ONE Exo 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
TWO Exo 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exo 20:6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
THREE Exo 20:7  Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
FOUR Exo 20:8  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
FIVE Exo 20:12  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
SIX Exo 20:13  Thou shalt not kill.
SEVEN Exo 20:14  Thou shalt not commit adultery.
EIGHT Exo 20:15  Thou shalt not steal.
NINE Exo 20:16  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
TEN Exo 20:17  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.


Deu 5:6  I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
ONE Deu 5:7  Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
TWO Deu 5:8  Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
Deu 5:9  Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
Deu 5:10  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
THREE Deu 5:11  Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
FOUR Deu 5:12  Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.
Deu 5:13  Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
Deu 5:14  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
Deu 5:15  And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
FIVE Deu 5:16  Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
SIX Deu 5:17  Thou shalt not kill.
SEVEN Deu 5:18  Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
EIGHT Deu 5:19  Neither shalt thou steal.
NINE Deu 5:20  Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.
TEN Deu 5:21  Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Exo 25:21  And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.
Exo 25:22  And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

Deu 10:1  At that time the LORD said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood.
Deu 10:2  And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark.
Deu 10:3  And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand.
Deu 10:4  And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me.
Deu 10:5  And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the LORD commanded me.

Jesus is quoting from the TEN COMMANDMENTS, the commandments that were placed in the ark of the covenant. Jesus was telling this man that it was GOOD that he kept them. Jesus did NOT tell the man he no longer had to keep them.  He did tell them that it wasn't ENOUGH just to keep them, there was more needed. Jesus MAGNIFIED the law, He broadened it, He expounded upon it, He revealed the HEART of the law which is to LOVE GOD and LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS.  If we are TRULY loving God and Others we automatically will desire to keep the laws of God. This is fact!

So when Jesus told people to SIN no more, He meant go and no longer transgress the law but live by the law as revealed through HIS compassion something that was stripped from the law by people over time making the law something harsh and loveless even as it tells us to love. The love we imagined we were giving to God was something hollow and lifeless without compassion and true caring.  Saying you love God is not the same thing as LIVING as you love God.  Doing good to others by not hurting them is not the same thing as doing good to others through caring for their needs.  Don't just NOT steal, lie, cheat, hurt but give, be truthful, help and heal others.

No other laws of the many hundreds of laws given in the old testament were put into the ark of the covenant, just those ten commandments, and that was done for a reason we dare not overlook.

Rom_3:31  Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Rom_6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Rom_7:7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

There was a law that was done away with, there was an old covenant that was done away with- that which pointed to a Sacrificial Lamb.  Our Savior is the Lamb of God!

So yes, we need to live our lives in accordance with the will of God and pray in accordance with the will of God.  This is something we cannot afford to not fully comprehend as God reveals it to us. To pray without obedience is to tell someone you love them all the while doing awful things to sadistically harm them- it is wrong and untrue. To obey without prayer is like loving someone without ever communicating with them in any way at all when all means are available to you, there is no real connecting your obedience to your love of them.

Please LORD GOD, PLEASE help us to LOVE and OBEY, to PRAY and OBEY, to live in YOU, for YOU.

Please LORD bless us! Save us from our unworthy, sin-filled selves. Please!

THANK YOU!

Psa 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins

Psa 19:12  Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Psa 19:13  Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

We've been talking about obedience and prayer this past week or so and truly how many seem to believe they can live a blatant life of disobedience and still call upon God.

What do I mean by disobedience? It's not what I mean that matters, it's what God means.

What is God's standard and don't you dare say He hasn't one. Don't get up on your high horses and declare that Jesus did away with all the obeying stuff and put love in its place. Don't tell me that Jesus loved sinners, He went to the sinners and hung out with them so obviously we aren't to be concerned with not being a sinner.   I'm asking you not to tell me all that stuff because it's the stuff of lies. All that nonsense has been propagated by Satan and all those he uses as his minions in order to deceive. Satan wants you to be among the many who cry out to Jesus- Lord! Lord! Didn't I serve You!  And Satan will rejoice when he hears the Savior tell you to get away from Him, that He doesn't know You.

So while you are clinging to the belief that disobedience is the way to go, putting your own idea of what God wants from you in place of the moral laws He created Himself, thinking about the Jesus who walked among the sinners coming back and saying to sinners- 'Get away from me'.  You don't want to think about that Jesus, do you?!  Those are HIS WORDs, that is HIS PROPHECY!  That is Him saying 'Get away!'  It's not Him saying, 'Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.' Not any more.  The time for people to come to Him and find HIS rest is past, they've either accepted Him and live for Him truly without guile, or they've rejected Him- even those who profess His name and profess love for Him --if it is not in truth and without guile they will be rejected.

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Are you reading Jesus' words? Are you? How do you equate this with the idea that Jesus doesn't care if you obey? He says plainly-  'He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.'   This is OBEDIENCE!

WHY can't people understand?! WHY must they choose blindness over the truth?! Why do they serve a false God believing they serve the true? Why will they have to cry out that they prophesized in His name, that they cast out devils in His name, that they did many wonderful things in His name never realizing that the One whose name they used never knew them. Why did He never know them? Because they weren't doing the WILL of the FATHER IN HEAVEN, but their own misguided will.

Psa 19:12  Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Psa 19:13  Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Can we understand our errors and cleanse ourselves from secret faults? No, we need the understanding and cleansing that our Savior offers us. We need our God to keep us from presumptuous sinning so that it doesn't rule over us! Only when we have God keeping us from this sinning will we be upright and innocent from the great transgression.  We need our words, and our hearts, our every thought to be acceptable in the sight of our God, He is our STRENGTH, He is our REDEEMER!

God will cleanse us, God will make obedience possible because it is not of our own accord. What is of our own accord is the willingness to yield to Him and allow Him to work in us showing us the ways He would have us walk in.  He wants us to go and sin no more every time He forgives us. He never wants us to go and sin some more every time He forgives us.

And if we are to go and sin no more- He is telling us we should keep His moral laws- because- SIN is a TRANSGRESSION of the LAW, the MORAL LAW! So sinning no more means keeping His law. He wants us to Keep His moral laws! He wants us to go and NO longer break His laws.

1Jn_3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

May we THROUGH the power of our Risen LORD live our lives in obedience to His Father's will!  May HE KNOW US in that Day!

Please LORD, know us undeserving ones, us who are desperate to know and do YOUR will, through YOU and YOUR power!

Please LORD.

Thank YOU!

Not everyone...only those who do the will of the Father

'True praying, be it remembered, is not mere sentiment, nor poetry, nor eloquent utterance. Nor does it consist of saying in honeyed cadences, "Lord, Lord." Prayer is not a mere form of words; it is not just calling upon a Name. Prayer is obedience. It is founded on the adamantine rock of obedience to God. Only those who obey have the right to pray. Behind the praying must be the doing; and it is the constant doing of God's will in daily life which gives prayer its potency, as our Lord plainly taught:

"Not every one which saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto Me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name have cast out devils? And in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that worketh iniquity."

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 57)

*******

When we call upon the name of the Lord, when we say- 'Lord, Lord,'  we are praying to Him. We cannot talk to God without calling it prayer. Any conversation we have with the Lord is prayer. Whether or not it is true prayer, sincere prayer is between the Lord and the one praying.  We have to take to heart what our Savior is telling us though. We have to listen to Him as He speaks.  When He plainly tells us that 'NOT EVERYONE WHICH SAITH UNTO ME, LORD, LORD, SHALL ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN'  Jesus is telling us plainly that NOT everyone who prays to Him will be HIS. He doesn't leave it there though, He goes on to tell us who of those who say Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven…

'HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN'

Those who DO the will of the Father God.  Those who OBEY!

If we are praying to our Lord and not obeying our Lord we will not BE our Lord's. He will ONLY know those who DO- His will.

His will is to love and love is God and God gives us a moral code of LOVE to follow.  Our Savior lived the moral code, our Savior magnified the moral code.  His life is our example, if we live our lives as He lived we will be doing God's will, and we will be following His moral code fully.

He that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven…

Do we do God's will? Do we?

Shouldn't we?

Please, LORD, please help us to do Your will in all things!

Bless us, help us, keep us, save us! By Your grace! Through Your righteousness, your love.

We walk before God

'In the instance of King Hezekiah, it was a potent plea which changed God's decree that he should die and not live. The stricken ruler called upon God to remember how that he had walked before Him in truth, and with a perfect heart. With God, this counted. He hearkened to the petition, and, as a result, death found his approach to Hezekiah barred for fifteen years.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 56)

Isa 38:1  In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
Isa 38:2  Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
Isa 38:3  And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
Isa 38:4  Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
Isa 38:5  Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
Isa 38:6  And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
Isa 38:7  And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
Isa 38:8  Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

Hezekiah DID pray, and we are talking about prayer. Told by a prophet of God that he was going to die, telling him to get his affairs in order, Hezekiah did not do what he was told. Instead of setting his house in order he turned away from everyone and faced a wall, and then he prayed. Remember, Hezekiah was SICK, very, very sick and that sickness was going to kill him. In his sickness he turned from everyone and prayed.  His words….

REMEMBER,  O LORD…

He was asking the Lord to remember, God does not forget.  He was reminding God, wanting Him to remember…

...HOW HE WALKED BEFORE HIM IN TRUTH, WITH A PERFECT HEART, DOING WHAT IS GOOD IN GOD'S EYES.

Can we say the same to God?

Are we walking before God in truth?
Are we walking before God with a perfect heart?
Are we doing what is good in God's eyes?

Can we, like Hezekiah, pray that prayer? Can we? And if we cannot, we have to ask ourselves why not?

No, we are NOT perfect and we will not be perfect, only our SAVIOR is perfect and He and He alone will forever be perfect and ANY perfection we reflect is HIS. We are told to be perfect as God is Perfect…

Mat_5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

We cannot ignore what God wants from us. We must be devoted to Him and devoted to a life pleasing to HIM!

We must walk in GOD'S TRUTH, we must walk with a PERFECT HEART, and we must be doing what is GOOD in GOD'S EYES.

ALL through HIS grace, HIS LOVE!

Spirit of Obediece

'Prayer puts into those who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for the spirit of disobedience is not of God and belongs not to God's praying hosts.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 55)

Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8  This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you

When we don't obey the truth we are not honoring God, we are not God's.

Read the following...

Rom 2:7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
Rom 2:8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Rom 2:9  Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
Rom 2:10  But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile

When we DO NOT OBEY the truth we are obeying UNRIGHTEOUSNESS!

Tribulation and anguish waits for those who do evil!

Those who work good will have glory, honor, and peace.

How can we say our obedience doesn't matter? How?

'Prayer puts into those who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for the spirit of disobedience is not of God and belongs not to God's praying hosts.'

A spirit of obedience is something we truly need! If we are SINCERELY praying then we will receive a spirit of obedience!  If we aren't praying in sincerity we cannot expect to have a spirit of obedience, a desire to obey rather than disobey.  We must PRAY, we must obey.

By the grace of God may we obey, and pray to obey.

Why can we ever imagine God would have us disobey, ever?

Please, Lord, help us!

In YOUR LOVE!

We cannot accept our sinning

'Obedience to God counts tremendously in the realm of prayer. This fact cannot be emphasized too much or too often. To plead for a religious faith which tolerates sinning, is to cut the ground from under the feet of effectual praying. To excuse sinning by the plea that obedience to God is not possible to unregenerate men, is to discount the character of the new birth, and to place men where effective praying is not possible. At one time Jesus broke out with a very pertinent and personal question, striking right to the core of disobedience, when He said: "Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?" Luke 6:46

He who would pray, must obey. He who would get anything out of his prayers, must be in perfect harmony with God. Prayer puts into those who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for the spirit of disobedience is not of God and belongs not to God's praying hosts.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 54)

*******

Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Jesus ASKS us WHY we are calling Him Lord, Lord when we are NOT doing the things He says!

Then Jesus goes on to say those who hear what He says and then do what He says that, that person is protected against the storms because they are founded upon HIM- the Rock.

Jesus doesn't stop there, He goes on to say that those who do not do what He says are not protected against storms.

So why, I have to ask something I've asked a lot of times, why do we imagine that we do NOT have to do what Jesus says? WHY?!

Truly, as E.M. Bounds wrote-

'To plead for a religious faith which tolerates sinning, is to cut the ground from under the feet of effectual praying'

-we CANNOT tolerate sinning!   We cannot excuse our sinning!  We cannot ACCEPT our sinning!  We cannot be among those who say we cannot obey! To do that is to say we do not want to be among God's saints.

Read this--

Rev_14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

HERE are those KEEPING the COMMANDMENTS of GOD and the FAITH of JESUS!

They are obeying! Here are those who are obeying!

Why would we be told such a thing if such a thing were impossible? We wouldn't be! God would never tell us that there will be saints who keep His commandments if there can't be saints who keep the commandments.  The sooner we BELIEVE it is possible through CHRIST to keep the commandments, the better. The sooner we can truly be obedient to OUR God, our Savior!

By God's grace may we be HIS, may we OBEY as He would have us OBEY, may we hear and do what He says so that we may truly be HIS as this life of a storm beats as us daily.

All in HIS GRACE! All in HIS LOVE!

Jesus said- Before Abraham was, I am

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven."

To this great deliverance may be added another:
"If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept my
Father's commandments, and abide in His love." Joh_15:10

"The Christian's trade," says Luther, "is prayer." But the Christian has another trade to learn, before he proceeds to learn the secrets of the trade of prayer. He must learn well the trade of perfect obedience to the Father's will. Obedience follows love, and prayer follows obedience. The business of real observance of God's commandments inseparably accompanies the business of real praying.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 53)

*******

IF you keep Christ's commandments….

Are you reading this?  IF you keep Christ's commandments you WILL abide in His LOVE.

Jesus KEPT His Father's commandments and abides in His Father's love.

Does this mean then if Jesus did NOT keep His Father's commandments He would not have abided in His love?

That's exactly what it means.

To be SINLESS- Jesus could not have broken a single commandment given by His Father. The same commandments that JESUS gave, Jesus was there as the moral law was given. Jesus did NOT contest a single commandment given by His Father and HE COULD HAVE, HE WAS THERE!

Joh 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Jesus fully agreed with the moral law, the only law put into the ark of the covenant.

Romans 7:7, 12 -- I had not known sin, but by the, law, the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Wherefore the law is holy.

Note - The law that contains the commandment - "Thou shalt not covet" - is the Ten Commandment law. This law Paul declares to be holy.

Jesus kept the commandments and those commandments are the same we should keep they are HIS.  Loving God and loving our fellow man are summed up in the ten moral commandments.

To ever imagine the ten moral laws were done away with is foolishness, there could be NO sin without them because sin is the breaking of those laws!

Is it any wonder that we need to OBEY? We do! We need to live by the moral law our God has given to us to live by. When we fail we do need to repent and seek forgiveness, but we must NEVER imagine we should disobey that law, NEVER.

By the GRACE of our LORD we are able to keep HIS LAW through HIM!

All in HIS LOVE!

We receive because we obey and seek to please God, not ourselves

'John gives the reason for answered prayer in the passage previously quoted: "And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things which are pleasing in His sight." 1Jn_3:22

Seeing that the keeping of God's commandments is here set forth as the reason why He  answers prayer, it is to be reasonably assumed that we can keep God's commandments, can do those things which are pleasing to Him. Would God make the keeping of His commandments a condition of effectual prayer, think you, if He knew we could not keep His statutes? Surely, surely not!

Obedience can ask with boldness at the Throne of grace, and those who exercise it are the only ones who can ask, after that fashion. The disobedient folk are timid in their approach and hesitant in their supplication. They are halted by reason of their wrongdoing. The requesting yet obedient child comes into the presence of his father with confidence and boldness. His very consciousness of obedience gives him courage and frees him from the dread born of disobedience.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 52)

*******
Yet as I read the above I can't help but continue to think of my constant failure to keep God's commandments. They are SO much more than rigorous duties.  They are so much more than the mere keeping from thievery,  from the taking of another's life, from the letter of the law so to speak. Jesus came and revealed that the intents of hearts are the truth of God's commandments. Our thoughts, those we dwell upon and feed, are just as evil as the act committed. Refraining from physical adultery while indulging in mental adultery is evil. Fantasizing about murder is just as bad as murder. No sin should be entertained, not even in our thoughts.

Thoughts do creep in that we would rather not have and they must immediately be thrust out, not indulged! Even if they continue to come back over and over we have to fight against them, it is a spiritual war!

So when I read the above I really can't help but think on the constant fight I'm battling and oftentimes failing at. It's a FOREVER need of FORGIVENESS, something I don't think we can ever forget. To say we obey the commandments of God and therefore can come with confidence to Him in prayer, is truth. I didn't write this…

 "And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things which are pleasing in His sight." 1Jn_3:22

E.M. Bounds did not write that. GOD wrote that! Our actions matter! Our obedience matters! How can we divorce the two?  We kneel at the throne of grace and we seek to obey, we don't kneel at the throne of grace and then go our way and sin willfully! We struggle, we war, we fight against all that would keep us from obeying our God. And when I say we struggle, we war, we fight I mean we do so, spiritually we are at war! No, we aren't to physically war with others that would keep us from obeying, but spiritually war against all that would stop us from keeping God's commandments and doing that which is pleasing in HIS SIGHT.

We must obey and the commandments tell us to love and all that means! We are to love GOD, and love each other and when we disobey this and fail in our love towards God or our fellow man then we need to seek forgiveness and that is obeying. We need to repent- to give up doing that wrong, truly give it up even if that means giving it up every single day as we war. We cannot hold onto any sin - we cannot hold onto any failure to love God or our fellow man- we must seek forgiveness and find love and forgiveness through our Savior. Even if we must pray for forgiveness for loving- cherishing any sin- for loving sin, we need to repent and pray for it, pray to come to despise the sinful thing we love.

Satan has warped us in many, many ways and will not stop his work upon us. Thank God, Jesus Christ has the victory over him and that victory is ours!

Please, LORD, keep us in You. Forgive us, help us as we seek to keep Your commandments and do those things which are please in Your sight.

All in YOUR LOVE!

We have no excuse

'Obedience is love, fulfilling every command, love expressing itself. Obedience, therefore, is not a hard demand made upon us, any more than is the service a husband renders his wife, or a wife renders her husband. Love delights to obey, and please whom it loves. There are no hardships in love. There may be exactions, but no irk. There  are no impossible tasks for love.'

(My interjection- All too often today the 'obey' part of wedding vows is left out, why? What does that tell us? It tells us that more and more mankind has inched away from the belief they need to obey anyone.  Seriously. Children are more defiant than ever refusing to obey not only parents but teachers as well. People are more defiant to law enforcement as well. They defy so many and believe they have the right to do so, because they will not be treated what they call 'disrespectfully'. And if they are told to do something they believe it has to be in the proper manner, do not dare give an order but rather a request. Do you see what we've done? We've made the word 'obey' into something bad, something overbearing and too controlling. Telling someone you obey your spouse would garner some very strange reactions. And now we are left with being told we should obey God and right away Satan is there to tell us obeying is for those who cannot think for themselves. Satan tells us we shouldn't have to obey anyone, we should actually be the one obeyed, or at the very least able to live in obedience only to our own selves. )

'This is obedience, running ahead of all and every command. It is love, obeying by anticipation. They greatly err, and even sin, who declare that men are bound to commit iniquity, either because of environment, or heredity, or tendency. God's commands are not grievous. Their ways are ways of pleasantness, and their paths peace. The task which falls to obedience is not a hard one. "For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."  

Far be it from our heavenly Father, to demand impossibilities of His children. It is possible to please Him in all things, for He is not hard to please. He is neither a hard master, nor an austere lord, "taking up that which he lays not down, and reaping that which he did not sow." Thank God, it is possible for every child of God, to please his heavenly Father! It is really much easier to please Him than to please men. Moreover, we may know when we please Him. This is the witness of the Spirit -- the inward Divine assurance, given to all the children of God that they are doing their Father's will, and that their ways are well-pleasing in His sight.

(My interjection-  This is truth- it is MUCH easier to please God than to please men! This is so true!)

'God's commandments are righteous and founded in justice and wisdom. "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." Rom_7:12 "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints." Rev_15:3 God's commandments, then, can be obeyed by all who seek supplies of grace which enable them to obey. These commandments must be obeyed. God's government is at stake. God's children are under obligation to obey Him; disobedience cannot be permitted. The spirit of rebellion is the very essence of sin. It is repudiation of God's authority, which God cannot tolerate. He never has done so, and a declaration of His attitude was part of the reason the Son of the Highest was made manifest among men: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

If any should complain that humanity, under the fall, is too weak and helpless to obey these high commands of God, the reply is in order that, through the atonement of Christ, man is enabled to obey. The Atonement is God's Enabling Act. That which God works in us, in regeneration and through the agency of the Holy Spirit, bestows enabling grace sufficient for all that is required of us, under the Atonement. This grace is furnished without measure, in answer to prayer. So that, while God commands, He, at the same time, stands pledged to give us all necessary strength of will and grace of soul to meet His demands. This being true, man is without excuse for his disobedience
and eminently censurable for refusing, or failing, to secure requisite grace, whereby he may serve the Lord with reverence, and with godly fear.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 51)

(My interjections continued…

'The Atonement is God's enable act' !  TRUTH! We are without excuse!  We cannot willfully disobey and claim the commandments are too hard, they are too unjust for us. Our GOD divested Himself of divinity and relied solely upon the power of the Father God to keep the commandments and because He did that we too are able to keep the commandments, and we do it by the GRACE our Savior gives to us.  More on all of this tomorrow, by the grace of God!

We cannot excuse away our sinning, it doesn't work.

In HIS amazing love!

Bless us Lord! Keep us Lord!

Would God ask us to keep His commandments if it were impossible?

'Does God give commandments which men cannot obey? Is He so arbitrary, so severe, so unloving, as to issue commandments which cannot be obeyed? The answer is that in all the annals of Holy Scripture, not a single instance is recorded of God having commanded any man to do a thing, which was beyond his power. Is God so unjust and so inconsiderate as to require of man that which he is unable to render? Surely not. To infer it, is to slander the character of God.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 50)


God will never ask us to do the impossible, yet so many believe what He asks is impossible. Why? Because we don't want to obey. Our carnal nature wants to rule and that carnal nature is in opposition to God.

Our natural selves do not want to obey, yet when we CHOOSE to serve God we are choosing to obey God. When we choose to obey God we submit to Him and HE HELPS US to obey Him. He doesn't leave us alone to do this on our own He offers us help.

Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Joh 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Joh 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Joh 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

If you love Jesus- OBEY His commandments.
If we obey His commandments the FATHER will give us a Comforter that will live with us forever.

The OBEYING we do is SUBMITTING to the truth that God's commandments are JUST, they are GOOD, they are RIGHTEOUS. They are NOT impossible if we CHOOSE to OBEY.

What point is there in asking someone to obey the impossible?

There is NO POINT at all.

We have to STOP thinking it is impossible to choose to obey. We make choices, hard choices, choices that have us uncomfortable as we fight against our SELFISH desires, our very, very SELF SERVING desires.

If you are asked to choose between self and God, who would you choose?

We almost always choose self first because we have this belief that we are everything, that everything revolves around us and our existence- even God. We believe God only exists because we allow Him to exist and if we choose not to believe He will no longer exist. We are fools!

God is EVERYTHING, without HIM we are NOTHING! So when we choose self over God we are choosing nothing over everything, yet Satan would have us blind to this truth.  We must choose GOD this is choosing self really. When we obey God we are obeying truth and serving ourselves through serving God, this is truth!

Please LORD help us to choose to obey we would choose YOU always YOU.

By YOUR grace!  YOUR love!

Obedience- Pray!

'UNDER the Mosaic law, obedience was looked upon as being "better than sacrifice, and to harken, than the fat of lambs." In Deuteronomy 5:29, Moses represents Almighty God declaring Himself as to this very quality in a manner which left no doubt as to the importance He laid upon its exercise. Referring to the waywardness of His people He cries:

"O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children after them." Deu_5:29

(Truth! Oh that there was such a heart in me so that I would Fear God and keep all His commandments ALWAYS.  We need this HEART! We need a heart cleansed!

Psa_51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

God then, and God now would have us love Him and in loving Him, obey Him. His commands are commands of LOVE and nothing more.)

Unquestionably obedience is a high virtue, a soldier quality. To obey belongs, preeminently, to the soldier. It is his first and last lesson, and he must learn how to practice it all the time, without question, uncomplainingly. Obedience, moreover, is faith in action, and is the outflow as it is the very test of love. "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." Joh_14:21

(When I read about a soldiers's first and last lesson is obedience it rings incredibly true.  The first thing the army does is strip the young men and women of their individuality and make them obey their commands. They do this for sadistic purposes? Not unless you get a cruel leader. The leaders do this not out of pleasure but to assure that the young man and woman will obey in order to save their lives. Our Heavenly Father wants no less than our lives spared. Obeying without question is not a sign of weakness, it is not a sign of inferiority, it is not a sign of stupidity, it is a sign of the greatest intelligence, the greatest strength, the greatest superiority in comprehending that our Creator, our Savior wants us to obey Him out of LOVE.  Obedience, we can comprehend it as human soldiers in a human army so we HAVE to comprehend obedience in spiritual soldiers in God's army.)

Furthermore: obedience is the conserver and the life of love.

"If ye keep My commandments," says Jesus, "ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."

What a marvelous statement of the relationship created and maintained by obedience!

The Son of God is held in the bosom of the Father's love, by virtue of His obedience! And the factor which enables the Son of God to ever abide in His Father's love is revealed in His own statement, "For I do, always, those things that please Him."

(This is TRUTH! People don't want to talk about Jesus' obedience.  They want to talk about His love as if it is separate from His obedience and it is not! Why can't we comprehend this? Why can't we see? Jesus KEPT his Father's commandments. Jesus OBEYED His Father, and this is LOVE. We make love something else, something mushy and something more about getting things.  We talk about love but we leave out obeying, when love is obeying. )

The gift of the Holy Spirit in full measure and in richer experience, depends upon loving obedience:

"If ye love Me, keep My commandments," is the Master's word. "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever."

Obedience to God is a condition of spiritual thrift, inward satisfaction, stability of heart. "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the fruit of the land."

 Obedience opens the gates of the Holy City, and gives access to the tree of life.    Isa_1:19

"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates, into the city."    Rev_22:14

(TRUTH! So much truth! We need to pray for a cleansed heart. We need to pray for the will to obey. We need to pray and NEVER stop praying, all by the GRACE, the LOVE, the MERCY of GOD!)

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 49)

Prayer and Obedience

'UNDER the Mosaic law, obedience was looked upon as being "better than sacrifice, and to harken, than the fat of lambs." In Deuteronomy 5:29, Moses represents Almighty God declaring Himself as to this very quality in a manner which left no doubt as to the importance He laid upon its exercise. Referring to the waywardness of His people He cries:

"O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children after them." Deu_5:29

Unquestionably obedience is a high virtue, a soldier quality. To obey belongs, preeminently, to the soldier. It is his first and last lesson, and he must learn how to practice it all the time, without question, uncomplainingly. Obedience, moreover, is faith in action, and is the outflow as it is the very test of love. "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." Joh_14:21

Furthermore: obedience is the conserver and the life of love.

"If ye keep My commandments," says Jesus, "ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love."

What a marvellous statement of the relationship created and maintained by obedience!

The Son of God is held in the bosom of the Father's love, by virtue of His obedience! And the factor which enables the Son of God to ever abide in His Father's love is revealed in His own statement, "For I do, always, those things that please Him."

The gift of the Holy Spirit in full measure and in richer experience, depends upon loving obedience:

"If ye love Me, keep My commandments," is the Master's word. "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever."

Obedience to God is a condition of spiritual thrift, inward satisfaction, stability of heart. "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the fruit of the land."

 Obedience opens the gates of the Holy City, and gives access to the tree of life.    Isa_1:19

"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates, into the city."    Rev_22:14

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 48)

*******

By YOUR grace LORD, may we OBEY.  More tomorrow!

In His love!

Repentance means change

'The best-prepared, most eloquent sermon can be marred and rendered ineffective, by questionable practices in the preacher. The most active church worker can have the labour of his hands vitiated by worldliness of spirit and inconsistency of life. Men preach by their lives, not by their words, and sermons are delivered, not so much in, and from a pulpit, as in tempers, actions, and the thousand and one incidents which crowd the pathway of daily life.

Of course, the prayer of repentance is acceptable to God. He delights in hearing the cries of penitent sinners. But repentance involves not only sorrow for sin, but the turning away from wrong-doing, and the learning to do well. A repentance which does not produce a change in character and conduct, is a mere sham, which should deceive nobody. Old things must pass away, all things must become new.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 46)

*******

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Truth! Men preach by their lives, not their words.
Our actions, and as E.M. Bounds writes- '...and the thousand and one incidents which crowd the pathway of daily life.'  This is how we preach. Yes, there are those called to be preachers, and if they are called to preach they are called to live a life acceptable to God, with Godly conduct, not a life of unending self-indulgence.

Too often we use the excuse, we are only human. Too often we may excuses for our self-indulgent ways. Too often no one sees the agony of spirit over giving into the carnal nature. Instead they see us indulging our passions whether it's the passion of a bad temper, the passion of a self-righteous attitude, the passion of derision, the passion of impatience, the passion of self-protectiveness at the cost of another, there are an untold number of passions we get caught up in and we label them- 'just us' saying… "That's just the way I am. I was born with a bad temper and that's it, end of story."  Instead of lamenting that temper, instead of crying out for forgiveness for that temper, we indulge it and accept it, we accept the bad conduct until we can no longer even view it as bad conduct, instead it's just the way it is and oh well, who cares.  We should care! We need to care! Every bit of bad temper, every bit of self-indulgence, every tiny bit of self serving should be despised!  Satan however would have us deemed crazy for such talk. Satan would have us believe it is impossible for us to change our bad conduct.  Satan wants us to make excuses for it, not repent of it, seeking to have it no longer a part of us.

Yes, I'll be the first to admit that it does seem like an impossibility, us being able to rid ourselves of all our bad conduct. We are wretched, we are miserable, we are poor, blind, and naked and this is why we have to look constantly to CHRIST JESUS our SAVIOR and away from ourselves. We have to constantly live dependent upon our God for any good conduct that comes from us. We can't take credit for any of our good conduct. It is by God's grace we can do the least little bit of goodness.

This is truth-

'But repentance involves not only sorrow for sin, but the turning away from wrong-doing, and the learning to do well. A repentance which does not produce a change in character and conduct, is a mere sham, which should deceive nobody. Old things must pass away, all things must become new'

Sorrow for sin.
Turning away from wrong-doing.
Learning to do well.

Jesus said this-

Joh_5:14  Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

Joh_8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Sin no more.
Jesus' words.
Sin no more.

No longer commit the sin. No longer indulge in that carnal act.

We don't know what the man did that caused his agony for 38 years, but we do know that if he continued on in sin, it would be worse!

Sin no more.

Our conduct matters, our repentance matters.

Truly a repentance that does NOT include change isn't really repentance at all.

We sin and we repent! We desire to KNOW longer sin. We hate that we might enjoy the sin, hate that we might get pleasure from sin, we don't WANT to want to sin!  It's not easy and it will never be easy.  It's not about being easy, it's about eternal life with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! It's about truth, not ease. It's about suffering for truth if need be. Please, Lord, help us to repent as we need to repent as we pray to You, longing to be Yours!

In Your love!

How dare we believe God will listen to us when we don't truly repent.

'Here, it is plainly stated, that unholy conduct is a bar to successful praying, just as it is clearly intimated that, in order to have full access to God in prayer, there must be a total abandonment of conscious and premeditated sin.

We are enjoined to pray, "lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting," and must pass the time of our sojourning here, in a rigorous abstaining from evil if we are to retain our privilege of calling upon the Father. We cannot, by any process, divorce praying from conduct.

(1Ti 2:8  I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.)

"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in His sight." (1Jn_3:22)

And James declares roundly that men ask and receive not, because they ask amiss, and seek only the gratification of selfish desires.

(Jas_4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. )

Our Lord's injunction, "Watch ye, and pray always," is to cover and guard all our conduct, so that we may come to our inner chamber with all its force secured by a vigilant guard kept over our lives.

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares."

Quite often, Christian experience founders on the rock of conduct. Beautiful theories are marred by ugly lives. The most difficult thing about piety, as it is the most impressive, is to be able to live it. It is the life which counts, and our praying suffers, as do other phases of our religious experience, from bad living.'


Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 45)

*******
Is this truth?

Are we to take heed to ourselves?

Are we to guard against our own natural desires, our natural tendencies?

Yes, yes, yes. The answer is yes to all of those questions.

To not stand guard over ourselves is to allow ourselves to give into the basest nature inside of us.  Truly we might stand up and say that our basest nature isn't all that bad. We aren't bad people. Our natural tendencies don't hurt anyone. We point our fingers at the worst of the worst society has to offer and say that those people, those are the ones who are who have to take heed, they have to look at their awful behavior and stop.  Tell me, why don't they stop? Why are people evil and happy in their evil ways? What makes a sadistic murderer keep murdering? What makes a thief keep stealing? What makes a horrific torturer capable of committing his horrendous acts? Why don't they see their own horrors and stop themselves? Why do people continue in evil when they know it's wrong? I'm not talking about any that have medical conditions that cause them to do these things, I'm talking about the ones who enjoy doing what they're doing and know fully well what they are doing.  Part of me would LOVE to believe that only those who have medical conditions can be this way, but that's not true at all.

Cain and Abel.  The first sons. They had nothing medically twisted in their brains. And Cain turned on Abel, and did not seek repentance after being warned of God that something could happen if he didn't. Instead of doing the 'right' thing for himself and all, Cain murdered Abel. Why?

Is there something inside of people that makes them believe they truly are unaccountable for their actions, some deep down deceptive belief that they only live for here and now and whatever their basest desire is that it is okay to give in to it?

Why did 1/3 of the angels decide that they needed to give in to their basest nature? They lived in view of GOD and they still made that choice!

So why do we believe that we do NOT have to really and truly be concerned with our conduct? Why do we believe that we do NOT have to take heed to ourselves? Why?! In the light of history, why do we ever entertain the idea that our conduct is irrelevant?

Yes, we know just as Paul the apostle knew, that we are wretched beings! That we do things we DON'T want to do. Our carnal nature overwhelms our spirit nature, but with our spirit, with the part of us that makes the choice to serve God or ourselves, we recognize this! We see it in our lives! We repent of our deeds, we lament our bad conduct, we are horrified by our own actions and we seek true forgiveness from God, we seek His help in overcoming that bad conduct. We don't stop and believe that we are the end all. We realize  that we are CREATURES with a CREATOR and we answer to that CREATOR for our conduct.   Our Creator tells us to take heed to ourselves, to watch out because left unheeded out carnal nature will rear up and control us. We will succumb to over indulgence with food, drink, and let all the cares, all the many, many worries of this life overwhelm us so much so that the things of Christ won't matter at all.  Our bad conduct will cloud our minds, consuming us if we let it, if we do not TAKE HEED.

Truly how can we expect our prayers to be prayed in truth, in sincerity, when we don't care how we live? When we aren't at all concerned by bad tendencies? When our carnal nature is encouraged rather than discouraged or lamented over? How dare we believe God will listen to us.

John the Baptist told His followers to REPENT and be BAPTISED.

But people want to forget the repenting part, and the fact they are in need of constant repenting.

Please, Lord, help us to repent of our wrongdoings. Help us to recognize our wrongdoings. Please, Father in Heaven, please keep us from evil.  We come before You now repenting and asking forgiveness for all the wrong conduct within us! We would be YOURS, Lord. We don't want to be overcharged with surfeiting, drunkenness, or cares of this life.  We want to be Yours, ready for You when You return!

All glory, honor, and praise unto You God!

In YOUR LOVE!

I will not hear

'Feebleness of living reflects its debility and langour in the praying hours. We simply cannot talk to God, strongly, intimately, and confidently unless we are living for Him, faithfully and truly. The prayer-closet cannot become sanctified unto God, when the life is alien to His precepts and purpose. We must learn this lesson well -- that righteous character and Christlike conduct give us a peculiar and preferential standing in prayer before God. His holy Word gives special emphasis to the part conduct has in imparting value to our praying when it declares:

"Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am; if thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth the finger, and speaking vanity."
Isa_58:9

The wickedness of Israel and their heinous practices were definitely cited by Isaiah, as the reason why God would turn His ears away from their prayers:

"And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood."

The same sad truth was declared by the Lord through the mouth of Jeremiah:

"Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto Me for their trouble."

Here, it is plainly stated, that unholy conduct is a bar to successful praying, just as it is clearly intimated that, in order to have full access to God in prayer, there must be a total abandonment of conscious and premeditated sin.

We are enjoined to pray, "lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting," and must pass the time of our sojourning here, in a rigorous abstaining from evil if we are to retain our privilege of calling upon the Father. We cannot, by any process, divorce praying from conduct.

"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in His sight."

And James declares roundly that men ask and receive not, because they ask amiss, and seek only the gratification of selfish desires.

Our Lord's injunction, "Watch ye, and pray always," is to cover and guard all our conduct, so that we may come to our inner chamber with all its force secured by a vigilant guard kept over our lives.

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares."

Quite often, Christian experience founders on the rock of conduct. Beautiful theories are marred by ugly lives. The most difficult thing about piety, as it is the most impressive, is to be able to live it. It is the life which counts, and our praying suffers, as do other phases of our religious experience, from bad living.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 44)

*******
"Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am; if thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth the finger, and speaking vanity."
Isa_58:9

The word we need to look at here is IF.

Such a small word but one with great significance.  The Lord will answer and say…. HERE I AM,  IF   ….

IF.  Here I am IF.

God will not be mocked He will not be used, abused, or otherwise mistreated by us. When we call upon Him if it is without sincerity, if we have bloody hands we want to stay bloody, God will NOT hear us!  What fools we are to believe that we can indulge in the thing God HATES willfully, happily, lovingly indulge and then stand before God, petitioning Him, wanting and expecting Him to hear us.  God is NOT MOCKED.

Gal_6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Here I am…. IF.

Also…

"And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood."

"Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto Me for their trouble."

When you make prayers I WILL NOT HEAR.
I will NOT HEAR THEM.

This is truth! We can hide from it if we want and ignore that the truth means we have accountability. We must pray in TRUTH, not with guilt upon us. We must come before God and bare our spirit to Him. He knows us, He know everything about us and He knows if our desire for Him is real.

I keep hearing the man cry out- Lord, I believe… help Thou my unbelief.  

Lord forgive us our sins,  NOT… Lord let us sin and enjoy our sin, let us enjoy disobeying You, let this be something we can do without repercussions.  We are to pray for forgiveness for our sins, with a desire to NO LONGER sin, not a desire to keep sinning.  Yes, sin is tempting, meaning it's something we desire in our carnal nature, but our spirit knows that all the carnal pleasures in the world will not fill the void we have when we separate ourselves from God.

More tomorrow by the grace of God.

All in HIS love!

Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9King James Version (KJV)

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

*******

A gift of God.

Grace through faith.

We have nothing to boast of when it comes to salvation, when it comes to grace. We do not create grace, we do not work for grace. We can never be good enough to earn grace. God is not a human being who deals with any sort of deception. Human beings often make gifts conditional. Be good and you'll get a good gift. Work hard and you'll get a better gift. Be nice to me and I'll gift you with something. We realize this is how humans work with each other. God doesn't work like we do.  There is NOTHING we can do to create salvation for ourselves. Salvation came as a GIFT from God, not because we deserve it in anyway at all.

When we pray we recognize God's authority over us. We recognize that we have a Heavenly Father who wants us to be HIS loving children and He's provided a way to make that happen.  That Way is His Only Begotten, His Only declared Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.We must accept the GIFT that is His Son.

In HIS LOVE!

Our Prayers Suffer When We Indulge In Bad Conduct

'Feebleness of living reflects its debility and langour in the praying hours. We simply cannot talk to God, strongly, intimately, and confidently unless we are living for Him, faithfully and truly. The prayer-closet cannot become sanctified unto God, when the life is alien to His precepts and purpose. We must learn this lesson well -- that righteous character and Christlike conduct give us a peculiar and preferential standing in prayer before God. His holy Word gives special emphasis to the part conduct has in imparting value to our praying when it declares:

"Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am; if thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth the finger, and speaking vanity."

The wickedness of Israel and their heinous practices were definitely cited by Isaiah, as the reason why God would turn His ears away from their prayers:

"And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood."

The same sad truth was declared by the Lord through the mouth of Jeremiah:

"Therefore, pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto Me for their trouble."

Here, it is plainly stated, that unholy conduct is a bar to successful praying, just as it is clearly intimated that, in order to have full access to God in prayer, there must be a total abandonment of conscious and premeditated sin.

We are enjoined to pray, "lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting," and must pass the time of our sojourning here, in a rigorous abstaining from evil if we are to retain our privilege of calling upon the Father. We cannot, by any process, divorce praying from conduct.

"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in His sight."

And James declares roundly that men ask and receive not, because they ask amiss, and seek only the gratification of selfish desires.

Our Lord's injunction, "Watch ye, and pray always," is to cover and guard all our conduct, so that we may come to our inner chamber with all its force secured by a vigilant guard kept over our lives.

"And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares."

Quite often, Christian experience founders on the rock of conduct. Beautiful theories are marred by ugly lives. The most difficult thing about piety, as it is the most impressive, is to be able to live it. It is the life which counts, and our praying suffers, as do other phases of our religious experience, from bad living.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 44)

*******

Truth.

Prayer creates a distaste for sinning

'Prayer produces cleanliness of heart and purity of life. It can produce nothing else. Unrighteous conduct

is born of prayerlessness; the two go hand-in-hand. Prayer and sinning cannot keep company with each other. One, or the other, must, of necessity, stop. Get men to pray, and they will quit sinning, because prayer creates a distaste for sinning, and so works upon the heart, that evil-doing becomes repugnant, and the entire nature lifted to a reverent contemplation of high and holy things.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 43)

*******

Psa_51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

This is a PRAYER!

This is asking the Father God to CREATE a CLEAN HEART, to RENEW a RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN.

Prayer DOES produce cleanliness of heart and purity of life because GOD hears our cries for this through our prayers. We cannot talk to God at all without it being PRAYER.  Sure you can yell at God, you can talk to Him as if He were right there with you, but that is a FORM of PRAYER and don't think for one moment it is not.  Prayer was said standing up, sitting down, laying down, on the knees, prayer was cried out, whispered, silent and it's ALL talking to God. How can you talk to God if it isn't prayer?  If we call upon God, it is PRAYER because PRAYER IS TALKING TO GOD!

Prayer and sinning truly CANNOT keep company with each other… and yet, I hear you say that you've prayed as you are sinning to stop, as you loath yourself for succumbing to the temptations. That prayer to stop is the war going on between the evil and the good, and it is a war, something we cannot ever forget. We are not perfect, Christ alone is perfect. We have to fight, we have to pray because prayer is the power of the fight, our connection to victory in Christ. Remember once we have that armor on we are to pray always!  We have to pray and pray hard, pray real, pray without guile.  We need prayer to create that DISTASTE for sinning within us. We need evil to become repugnant to us!  We need to have our entire selves uplifted to CHRIST.

By the GRACE of GOD may we be HIS in PRAYER. May we pray and keep praying until we see our Savior face to face, until we can talk with Him in person.

In His love!

Prayer changes us

'The office of prayer is to change the character and conduct of men, and in countless instances, has been wrought by prayer. At this point, prayer, by its credentials, has proved its divinity. And just as it is the office of prayer to effect this, so it is the prime work of the Church to take hold of evil men and make them good. Its mission is to change human nature, to change character, influence behaviour, to revolutionize
conduct. The Church is presumed to be righteous, and should be engaged in turning men to righteousness. The Church is God's manufactory on earth, and its primary duty is to create and foster righteousness of character. This is its very first business. Primarily, its work is not to acquire members, nor amass numbers, nor aim at money getting, nor engage in deeds of charity and works of mercy, but to produce righteousness of character, and purity of the outward life.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 42)

*******
First I have to note that the CHURCH is simply those who are GOD'S- those who 'KEEP the commandments of God and the FAITH of Jesus.'  The church is NOT any of today's organizations, it can't be. So when E.M. Bounds speaks of 'the church' above to me he is speaking of those who are truly God's, not any one denomination.

*******

Prayer is used to change us. We are changed from SINNERS into SAINTS by the POWER of PRAYER. The power is JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD and SAVIOR.  We pray and ASK for forgiveness. I know I keep on saying this over and over but it's so paramount that we truly recognize that it is through prayer we live- that is HOW important prayer is!

Be instant in prayer.
Pray always.

These aren't idle suggestions, these are truths we must recognize!

'Primarily, its work is not to acquire members, nor amass numbers, nor aim at money getting, nor engage in deeds of charity and works of mercy, but to produce righteousness of character, and purity of the outward life'  --  This is truth isn't it? Jesus wasn't interested in gaining numbers. There were 5000 people who followed him and who left him the next day because He spoke hard truths. Jesus wasn't interested in money at all, except for the means of survival but the riches He spoke of were heavenly treasures. Jesus wanted the sinners to go and sin no more. Jesus wanted to find no guile in people. Jesus truly did want the righteousness of character in people, His righteousness in them, His purity.  Time and again Jesus talked about the people who were not His.

This Bible tells us this…

1Co 6:9  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1Co 6:10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Read all of Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 and you'll see what I mean. Jesus talks at great length about our conduct so why shouldn't we believe we need to listen to Him?

Why do we say things like our works (our actions) don't matter, it's the love we have.  Our conduct and therefore our actions do matter.

Please, Father in Heaven, please help us to be those You would have us be. Help us to be YOURS, for You are righteous, any righteousness we have is through YOU. Please Father, we need You desperately.  Guide us to YOU in all things.  We live in the world, but we can't be OF the world. Our treasures must be in HEAVEN.  We must long for Our Savior's return, for with His return we are taken to be with Him in heaven!

Please, Lord, please. Your will. All by Your love, Your mercy, Your grace. All in You!

Earnest, persistent, faithful prayer

'Elsewhere in the Scriptures, too, it is character and conduct which are made preeminent.

The Christian religion deals with men who are devoid of spiritual character, and unholy in life, and AIMS so to change them, that they become holy in heart and righteous in life.

It aims to change bad men into good men; it deals with inward badness, and works to change it into inward goodness.

And it is just here where prayer enters and demonstrates its wonderful efficacy and fruit.

Prayer drives toward this specific end.

In fact, without prayer, no such supernatural change in moral character, can ever be effected. For the change from badness to goodness is not wrought " by works of righteousness which we have done," but according to God's mercy, which saves us "by the washing of regeneration."

And this marvelous change is brought to pass through earnest, persistent, faithful prayer. Any alleged form of Christianity, which does not effect this change in the hearts of men, is a delusion and a snare.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 41)

*******

Praying always!

Eph_6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

We gain forgiveness when we ASK and ASKING is praying.

Jesus PRAYED for all HE ever did.

Joh_5:19  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Joh_5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Joh_8:28  Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

The FATHER, Jesus was reliant upon the FATHER for ALL THINGS!

When Jesus prayed He prayed to the FATHER.

We too are reliant upon the FATHER through JESUS for ALL THINGS!

When we see the awful things in our lives, the things we are prone to do, the things we do that we don't want to do, when we get a good look at our inward man, when the carnal nature is ruling us we have to PRAY for GOD to intercede for us, because WE cannot change ourselves! We can only LET HIM change us. We have to pray, and pray always! In praying always we are in connection with our GOD always allowing Him to work through us! He is our SOURCE of all strength, He is our all in all.

Prayer alone can help us. We don the armor of God and we PRAY ALWAYS that is how the armor is effective, through our praying always.

Prayer, may God help us pray as we seek to be the men and women of God He desires!

All in HIS LOVE!