'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!