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)

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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.

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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)

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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!