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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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"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)

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Truth.