Recognizing the Power of God

Our Father

Which art in heaven

Hallowed by thy name

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth

As it is in Heaven.

Let's stop there for a moment.  Jesus is teaching prayer.  Did Jesus start out with - Our Father which art in heaven - give us this day our daily bread?  NO. No. And no. 

Jesus did not teach prayer in such a way for us to even remotely get the impression that we should start our prayers with requests.

Jesus started it by pointing us to God the Father. Naming God as our Father. Naming the location of our Father God- Heaven. Telling us that the very name of God is HOLY.  Continuing to say to us that Our Holy Father in heaven has a KINGDOM that will come.  Pointing out to us that our Holy Father in heaven whose kingdom is coming - that HIS WILL MUST BE DONE right here on earth as IT ALREADY IS in HEAVEN. All of this comes before any mention of personal requests become apparent.

So tell me, how many of us pray all that, NOT by rote, not by mimicking Christ's words to the letter but heartfelt prayer to our FATHER, recognition of the God we are praying to. Recognizing the power of our God in a really amazing way, not just in passing. 

Let's review-

Our Father- who lives in heaven. Holy is Your name!

HO'LY, a.

1. Properly, whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense. Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character; and man is more or less holy, as his heart is more or less sanctified, or purified from evil dispositions. We call a man holy,when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God, and his life is regulated by the divine precepts. Hence, holy is used as nearly synonymous with good, pious, godly.

Perfect is Your name!

Pure is Your name!

Thy kingdom come. 

Father in Heaven You have a kingdom! A KINGDOM! A Holy kingdom!

More on the kingdom of God tomorrow by HIS will, by His grace and mercy all through Jesus Christ our LORD, now and forever!
 

'A serious error concerning  prayer prevails in our common understanding, which is to say, that we often think of prayer as an outlet for expressing what we need-- as our cry to God for help. We do not see that prayer is the asking of God to fulfill HIS needs. We ought to understand that God's original thought is certainly not letting the believers achieve their own aims through prayer, rather it is God accomplishing His purpose through the prayers of the believers. This is not meant to imply that Christians should never ask the Lord to supply their needs. It is only meant to indicate how we need to first understand the meaning and principles of prayer.'   Watchman Nee- Let Us Pray

First and Foremost - God.

Is prayer an outlet for expressing our needs? Is prayer primarily a cry for God to help us?  How many people do turn to God and cry out for Him when unexpected trouble befalls them? How many have a prayer life that is rich in praise and thanksgiving? How many people truly pray for God's will even when it is contrary to their own desires? Can you pray God's will, and mean it, truly mean it when it means your loved one suffers horrifically? Does our love for God withstand the evil of sin at its worse?

'A serious error concerning  prayer prevails in our common understanding, which is to say, that we often think of prayer as an outlet for expressing what we need-- as our cry to God for help. We do not see that prayer is the asking of God to fulfill HIS needs. We ought to understand that God's original thought is certainly not letting the believers achieve their own aims through prayer, rather it is God accomplishing His purpose through the prayers of the believers. This is not meant to imply that Christians should never ask the Lord to supply their needs. It is only meant to indicate how we need to first understand the meaning and principles of prayer.'   Watchman Nee- Let Us Pray

ASKING God to fulfill HIS needs.

God did NOT bring prayer to us in order to create a GENIE in a bottle.

Too many people believe that God has to answer their most desperate of prayers or else He must not exist, or if He exists He doesn't love or care for us as He should. How many people have lost faith in God when they've not had a heartfelt cry to God for help, answered in the way they want answered? How many have fallen to their knees and opened their hearts to God in desperation only to watch a loved one die right in front of them? I could go on naming numerous situations- tragic situations- the worst of situations but we can all use our imaginations for that. Many, too many have lost faith for this reason.

God did NOT bring prayer to us, a way to communicate with Him in order for us to do our own will above His.

We call upon the CREATOR, the REDEEMER out of FAITH. Faith that God's WILL is superior to ours in ALL ways. That God's will is paramount. We have NO business praying at all if we are not willing to pray first and foremost that God's will come before anything at all that we may desire in our lives, in our finite, very limited way of comprehending what is best for ourselves and others.

More tomorrow by the GRACE and WILL of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST! 

God Accomplishing His Purpose

'A serious error concerning  prayer prevails in our common understanding, which is to say, that we often think of prayer as an outlet for expressing what we need-- as our cry to God for help. We do not see that prayer is the asking of God to fulfill HIS needs. We ought to understand that God's original thought is certainly not letting the believers achieve their own aims through prayer, rather it is God accomplishing His purpose through the prayers of the believers. This is not meant to imply that Christians should never ask the Lord to supply their needs. It is only meant to indicate how we need to first understand the meaning and principles of prayer.'   Watchman Nee- Let Us Pray

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

We can't fool ourselves by using that word - lust to mean something it doesn't. You say you aren't lustful because you are using that word to only refer to a sexual lust, not lust in anything else.

Lust

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

'Lust is a strong emotion or feeling. The lust can take any form such as the lust for sex, lust for expensive objects (extravagance) or the lust for power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food as distinct from the need for food. Lust is a psychological force producing intense wanting for an object, or circumstance fulfilling the emotion'

We ask but we don't receive and we don't receive because we aren't praying as God would have us pray, we are praying for our own desires. And yes, some of those desires might be seemingly self-less like when we ask for help with a sick child, but our desire first and foremost must be for God's will to be done. For His plan to be worked out. We can't expect God's plan to be ours, we just don't know things as He does. The suffering of the innocent is unfathomable to us. Yet, God suffered that in His only begotten Son and He suffers it in every single innocent that hurts. The agony is felt by God and it wasn't His design that pain exist. That it does and must be ended with such finality that it never ever rises again is the ultimate end goal of all of it. We can't understand but through faith we must believe God's allowances, God's suffering is for an ultimate goal that we can scarcely comprehend.

How many choose to suffer short term for long term goals? Seriously. On a level that isn't eternal, how many people will endure hardship as they work towards a goal?  We can understand the idea of suffering short term, with the hope of something better. It is the long term, seemingly endless suffering that will often bring people to despair. If a goal seems to only get further away, some will give up suffering and the ultimate goal they were striving for. We have to believe that SALVATION, eternal salvation without any end at all whatsoever- the amazing, almost incomprehensible life promised by God's only Son, Jesus Christ to us all is a REAL, very REAL ultimate goal.

If I promised you ten million dollars if you suffer in a laborious job day in and day out for ten years would you choose to suffer? I'm willing to believe that a lot of people would choose to suffer because they'd be anticipating the end of that suffering and their guaranteed reward.

God's will.  God wanting to use us to fulfill his will.  Will we allow this? Will we pray to fulfil His will and not our own? Will we allow God to answer our prayers in His way, not our own?

More on this tomorrow by the grace and will of our LORD and SAVIOR- JESUS CHRIST.

Praying God's Will.

'…it can therefore be said that prayer is none other than an act of the believer working together with God. Prayer is the union of the believer's thought with the will of God. The prayer which the believer utters on earth is but the voicing of the Lord's will in heaven. Prayer is not the expressing of our wish for God to yield to our petition and fill up our selfish desire. It is not a forcing of the Lord to change His will and perform what He is unwilling to do. No, prayer is simply speaking out the will of God through the mouth of the believer. Before God, the believer asks in prayer for the Lord's will to be done. '   Let Us Pray - by Watchmen Nee

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 

Mat 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread. 

Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

God's will-  The Father God is in heaven and His name is holy.

God's will-  His kingdom will come.

God's will-  His will be done on earth- as it is in heaven.

God's will-  To give us daily spiritual sustenance.

God's will-  To forgive our debt- as we forgive others.

God's will-  To not lead us into temptation.

God's will-  To deliver us from evil.

Joh 6:38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 

Joh 6:39  And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 

Joh 6:40  And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 

Praying- God's will NOT ours.

Praying- Us working with God.

Truly, we are given a great gift in being not only able to pray but encouraged to pray.

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

Working with God always.

Honestly our entire life should be willingness to work with God for His will to be done- no matter what that will may be. We should NEVER set aside any ME time away from God, not ever! God in ALL we do from the worst thing to the best. When our flesh nature takes over and we know we are not living the will of God, we need to seek forgiveness- it is God's will to forgive us! If we need to seek forgiveness over and over again then we do just that! We don't give in to despair of ever being God's. We are God's, it is His will that we be His.

While we may desire a certain thing be accomplished for very good, very valid, very loving reasons, it may not necessarily be God's will.  God has the big picture in His will, not the very small pictures we are only capable of. We don't see twenty-thirty years down the line… in truth we don't even see tomorrow that well for all our planning of our days. God's will may seemingly go starkly against all you imagine it should and yet in that big picture He views that will of His is going to accomplish what a true Christ follower desires most- salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord,  God's will being done. All the pieces that need to fall into place are not ours to know, but through the Spirit, through grace we may trust in the will of God as our hearts break in a billion, trillion pieces.

May We Love.

Loving others. Love, love, love!

What is love?

It is SACRIFICE.

Love is God, God is love.

God SACRIFICED. Rather than destroy us messed up sinful human beings that allowed ourselves to be seduced into sinning, into disobeying our Creator, He decided we were worth redemption. The only way to receive redemption is through SACRIFICE. God with God, the declared SON of God chose to make the sacrifice of His own LIFE. He would give up his God-life, and subject Himself to decaying flesh- flesh and bone that begins its descent into death slowly as various bits and pieces of us wear out, or become mutated from their given state, killing us minute by minute. Jesus took on the flesh that was able to die after never being subject to death, never being subject to pain, Jesus took all of it on.

Sacrifice.

Love is sacrifice.  We sacrifice our SELFISHNESS. The tiniest bit of selfishness to the greatest selfishness we possess- all needs to be sacrificed, by the GRACE of God!

When we sacrifice self- we love.

May we love!

Joh_13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Joh_13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

As Christ loved us- we love.  He sacrificed Himself for us.

Joh_15:12  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

Joh_15:17  These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Rom_13:8  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

1Th_3:12  And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you

1Th_4:9  But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

1Pe_1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently

1Jn_3:11  For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

1Jn_3:23  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

1Jn_4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

1Jn_4:11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

1Jn_4:12  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

2Jn_1:5  And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.

The Truth- Loving Others.

1Jn 3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. 

We can know that we are of truth.

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 

We need to LOVE OTHERS!

Something that sounds so simple is truly so hard for so very many people.

Loving others.

Joh_13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Joh_13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Joh_15:12  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

Joh_15:17  These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Rom_13:8  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

1Th_3:12  And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you

1Th_4:9  But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

1Pe_1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently

1Jn_3:11  For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

1Jn_3:23  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

1Jn_4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

1Jn_4:11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

1Jn_4:12  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

2Jn_1:5  And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.

It isn't faith if we hear, if we see.

Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Rom 14:22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

On a show I watch a member of the clergy went to his higher up and told them that they were having problems believing. Told to pray about it, the clergy member said I do but I can't hear God any more. The higher up told him, if we heard God then it wouldn't be faith.

It wouldn't be faith…

Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is also the substance of things hope for and the evidence of things not heard, right? 

To have faith means we believe when everything around us shouts at us not to believe.

Every circumstance that can deter us from Christ will happen, make no doubt about it! Around every corner lurks another obstacle to our faith. We cannot let our guard down, and yet we do all the time. We become lackadaisical in our faith not counting on it being tested to the extremes it will be tested.

Faith-believing no matter what!

We have to give an account of ourselves to God, every single one of us. Those who are unbelievers and haters will also have to give an account of themselves. The self-deceiving Christian who lie to themselves about being true followers of Christ, they too will have to give an account. ALL- will have to from the least to the greatest, from the closest to the farthest away stand before God. There will be no running away, no turning our backs, no hiding, we will each stand before God and give an account to Him. If you don't believe it, you don't have to believe it for it to be truth. Many will not believe truth, MOST will not believe truth, but it won't make it any less truthful.

It doesn't matter if the majority of people think the world is flat- it will always be round.

We must have faith before God. In all we do believe of His truth we must be convicted of that truth in His sight. We cannot waffle back and forth in our belief, but rather stand strong before our God.

Please, Lord, please let us hold our faith firm in You! Let us give an account to You in the day we are to stand before You and may they be only words You long to hear from us! We would be Yours!

All by the grace, by the mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!