Inward Spiritual Character

'The very end and purpose of the atoning work of Christ is to create religious character and to make Christian conduct.

"Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."  (Titus 2:14)

In Christ's teaching, it is not simply works of charity and deeds of mercy upon which He insists, but inward spiritual character. This much is demanded, and nothing short of it, will suffice.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 40)

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He gave Himself for US, that He MIGHT REDEEM US from ALL INIQUITY,   and in doing this, in cleansing us He is purifying unto Himself a PECULIAR people-  ZEALOUS of GOOD WORKS.

Our Savior died so that we might be made redeemable from all sin!  He wants to CLEANSE us, He wants to PURIFY us!  He wants us to live our lives filled with the good works that HE would do if He were with us in person.  This is truth! Our Savior wants to DO THIS FOR US!  Our Savior DIED so He COULD do this for us!

Truly it is the WORK HE does in us that matters more than any work we could do on our own. Through prayer we find forgiveness, through prayer we are redeemed unto Him and through prayer we must LIVE. We dare not stop at praying for forgiveness without truly repenting.  Repenting is comprehending the horror of our sins and regretting the fact we committed those sins. Repent and then we find forgiveness.

If Satan just mouthed the words - 'Forgive me.'  Would they hold meaning? No. Why? Because there would be no sincerity in his words, no repentance in him.

We repent of our wrongs and we seek forgiveness and we ASK for this forgiveness and the asking is prayer.

Our lives must be lived in prayer!

We must be 'instant in prayer.'

Rom 12:12  ...continuing instant in prayer

Instant in prayer.

Life will constantly present us with opportunities to pray. I'm not talking about making a show of prayer. I'm not talking about the times you set aside for prayer. I'm talking about the daily opportunities that come up where speaking to our CREATOR, to our HEAVENLY FATHER who wants us to speak with him, to be instant in prayer, is necessary.   If we are instant in prayer, if we are redeemed by our Savior we will be close to our God and the closer we are the more we will reflect our God. Our lives, our conduct, the actions that make up our lives should be directed by our God and His will for us in all things!

By HIS GRACE!
By HIS LOVE!

We're forgiven by Praying- Asking our Savior to Forgive Us

'PRAYER governs conduct and conduct makes character. Conduct, is what we do; character, is what we are. Conduct is the outward life. Character is the life unseen, hidden within, yet evidenced by that which is seen. Conduct is external, seen from without; character is internal -- operating within. In the economy of grace conduct is the offspring of character. Character is the state of the heart, conduct its outward expression.

Character is the root of the tree, conduct, the fruit it bears.

Prayer is related to all the gifts of grace. To character and conduct its relation is that of a helper. Prayer helps to establish character and fashion conduct, and both for their successful continuance depend on prayer. There may be a certain degree of moral character and conduct independent of prayer, but there cannot be anything like distinctive religious character and Christian conduct without it. Prayer helps, where all other aids fail. The more we pray, the better we are, the purer and better our lives.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 39)

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Prayer governs….us.

Governs-  (Definition) conduct the policy, actions, and affairs of (a state, organization, or people).

Conduct the actions of us, governs our lives IF we let it.

Prayer is powerful and we use it so scarcely and oftentimes so wrongly.

It is true, prayer is related to 'all' the gifts of grace. We pray for FORGIVENESS. We ASK for forgiveness, and how else do we that other than by prayer? Can you be forgiven of your sins without asking for it? NO! A thousand times NO. We must ask for forgiveness.  Sure you might say that Moses prayed for others and gained atonement for them through His prayer and that's true. Someone PRAYED for them. Someone ASKED for them, using PRAYER, using the only means of true communication we have with our Father God.

How important is prayer? More important than most people are willing to admit, more important than people want to believe, more important than so much!  Because through prayer we live in touch with our God, we make Him first in our lives. We make it so we have NO other gods before Him!

When we pray upon waking we ask God to be first in our lives. We set ourselves aside and ask for HIS will to be done, not ours. We recognize our need of HIM for our lives.

Please LORD help us comprehend that all we do, all our conduct, all our behavior is greatly influenced by our praying.  Help us to PRAY as we need to PRAY.

Please.

Prayer moves God, we must pray daily

'There can be no question but that importunate prayer moves God, and heightens human character! If we were more with God in this great ordinance of intercession, more brightly would our face shine, more richly endowed would life and service be, with the qualities which earn the goodwill of humanity, and bring glory to the Name of God.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 38)

Prayer. Such an amazing gift! The ABILITY to talk to our CREATOR and the KNOWLEDGE through faith that HE HEARS us. We aren't speaking to thin air. We aren't speaking to fables and fairy tales. We are speaking to the source of ALL life! Our Creator wants us to communicate with Him.

Do you believe in our Savior? If you say, "Yes."  Then you have to believe that our Heavenly Father WANTS us to communicate with Him.

Jesus taught the disciples to pray- to communicate with the Heavenly Father. Why would Jesus teach them to pray if they weren't to pray? 

He taught US.

And He taught us in that prayer to PRAY DAILY.

'Give us this day our daily bread.'   Can you pray that once a week and have it hold full meaning?  Sure you can think as you pray that you want the Heavenly Father to provide for you all week long, all month long, all life long, but when you say 'give us THIS day, our DAILY bread' aren't you in reality asking for the sustenance you need that very day?  The Temple service of old had prayer twice a day, Daniel prayed three times a day, praying daily is something we MUST do. Praying importunately is something we are blessed to be able to do.  Praying in sincerity is something we MUST do. 

Should we SET aside time to pray? I think we must.  We have been given 24 hours in a day and in each day we take time to eat- we set times to eat don't we? We've portioned our day into meal times- at least the majority of us. Very few people do not eat every day. Very few people do not have some sort of idea of when they're going to eat in a day. Morning's are reserved for breakfast, afternoons for lunch, and evenings dinner and some people are used to adding snacks to their day as well. We take time to eat. We put things on a daily schedule and we MUST add PRAYER to that daily schedule because if we don't, just how important is our God to us? How much of our life to we want our God to be a part of? All if it, right?! And if that's the truth then we NEED to set aside time for GOD! And in that time we need to PRAY to our God.

Please LORD, please FATHER GOD, please help us to do this, help us to meet with You DAILY!

By Your GRACE! Your LOVE, Your MERCY!

Let delay and denial increase our prayers

'We have need, too, to give thought to that mysterious fact of prayer -- the certainty that there will be delays, denials, and seeming failures, in connection with its exercise. Weare to prepare for these, to brook them, and cease not in our urgent praying. Like a brave soldier, who, as the conflict grows sterner, exhibits a superior courage than in the earlier stages of the battle; so does the praying Christian, when delay and denial face him, increase his earnest asking, and ceases not until prayer prevail. Moses furnishes an illustrious example of importunity in prayer. Instead of allowing his nearness to God and his intimacy with Him to dispense with the necessity for importunity, he regards them as the better fitting him for its exercise. When Israel set up the golden calf, the wrath of God waxed fierce against them, and Jehovah, bent on executing justice, said to Moses when divulging what He purposed doing, "Let Me alone!" But Moses would not let Him alone. He threw himself down before the Lord in an agony of intercession in behalf of the sinning Israelites, and for forty days and nights, fasted and prayed. What a season of importunate prayer was that!'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 37)

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Deu_9:25  Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you. Deu 9:26  I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Deu 9:27  Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin: Deu 9:28  Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. Deu 9:29  Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm. 

Deu_10:10  And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also, and the LORD would not destroy thee

Truth!

Forty days and forty nights Moses fell down before the Lord because he didn't want the people of Israel destroyed.  We talk about instant answers, instant satisfaction, instant acknowledgement, and yet men of God- CHOSEN by God- found themselves in importunate prayer that was anything but instantly response to.  They prayed desperate prayers. They prayed LONG prayers. They lived in prayer as they sought the Lord's help, the Lord's favor, the Lord's mercy.  As they prayed they KNEW the LORD loved them and only wanted what was best, never ever refusing to answer their prayers, He always heard and they knew He did and His responses were given out of LOVE.

May WE pray this way! May we look to our examples in God's word.

All by HIS LOVE!

Prayer must be- pressed, pursued, and persistent

'The imperative necessity of importunate prayer is plainly set forth in the Word of God,
and needs to be stated and re-stated today. We are apt to overlook this vital truth. Love
of ease, spiritual indolence, religious slothfulness, all operate against this type of
petitioning. Our praying, however, needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy
that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 36)

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Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

Spiritual laziness.

We grow spiritually lazy don't we? We like it better the easier things are. We are taught that the easier things are the better. We are told to take shortcuts to get to the end goal as long as they are good shortcuts. If we have something to do the faster, the easier, the better it is. To tell someone that something was easy -is a good thing, they're happy to hear it was easy.  We don't want things to be hard, we despise the hard things. Yet some of the best things take a lot of long, hard work.  When we pray- we can't take the easy way of it! We can't look for the fastest route to prayer. We can't pick the shortest prayer and say it as fast as we possibly can and expect that to be true prayer!

Truly our praying does need to be "PRESSED and PURSUED with an energy that never tires."  with "a PERSISTENCY which will NOT be denied." As well as with "a COURAGE which NEVER fails."

Do you pray this way?! Should you pray this way?!  With passion? With depth? With heart?  Yes! We must, we must understand that our prayer is something amazing, not something to be taken for granted, not something to be taken lightly, not something we ignore.  Prayer is something so incredibly special, so incredibly important that we have to take it seriously, a lot more seriously that Satan ever wants us to.

Please, Heavenly Father, please bless us! Open our hearts to You, teach us to pray with a faith unwavering. Teach us to pray to You as You would have us pray. Please, all by YOUR grace! Help us be Yours as we need to be Yours. All in YOUR LOVE!

Persistent Faith- Prayer

'Faith has its province, in connection with prayer, and, of course, has its inseparable
association with importunity. But the latter quality drives the prayer to the believing
point. A persistent spirit brings a man to the place where faith takes hold, claims and
appropriates the blessing.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 35)

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Luk_21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

It takes patience 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

Faith takes hold...faith- believing. We should never pray unless we believe and if we lack belief we must pray for faith to believe. Truly, we must! It sounds contradictory, but it's the truth.  Sometimes you have to do the very thing you're unsure of doing, and in doing it you become sure.  Praying is necessary to a spiritual life. If you are God's you are spiritual. If you are spiritual your spirit feeds on prayer.  As babies first drink milk, not capable of chewing or swallowing solids, we have to drink the milk of prayer. That drink of prayer may be tentative and unsure, but if we continue to grow by continuing to drink we will move on to solid foods, we will move on to strength in our prayers. The faith we have to believe will come, we must never stop praying, always hoping, always believing.  Faith does have it's place in prayer, a place that makes prayer work.

Heb_11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Persistently praying, praying importunately from the heart, through sincerity of spirit is something we MUST do!

Believing, praying.  We must, we have to, we can't ever believe we have no need of prayer in our lives, not ever!  Not when our Savior placed such importance upon praying. It is clearly something we HAVE to practice, until it is a part of our life as much a part as breathing.

By HIS grace, HIS love!

Prayer- intensity, perseverance, patience and persistence

Importunate- (Dictionary Definition)

1  troublesomely urgent :  overly persistent in request or demand
2  troublesome

Importunity- acting importunate.

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'Importunity is made up of intensity, perseverance, patience and persistence. The seeming delay in answering prayer is the ground and the demand of importunity.

In the first recorded instance of a miracle being wrought upon one who was blind, as given by Matthew, we have an illustration of the way in which our Lord appeared not to hearken at once to those who sought Him. But the two blind men continue their crying, and follow Him with their continual petition, saying, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on us." But He answered them not, and passed into the house. Yet the needy ones followed Him, and, finally, gained their eyesight and their plea.

(((Mat 9:27  And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.
Mat 9:28  And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.
Mat 9:29  Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.))))

The case of blind Bartimaeus is a notable one in many ways. Especially is it remarkable for the show of persistence which this blind man exhibited in appealing to our Lord. If it be -- as it seems -- that his first crying was done as Jesus entered into Jericho, and that he continued it until Jesus came out of the place, it is all the stronger an illustration of the necessity of importunate prayer and the success which comes to those who stake their all on Christ, and give Him no peace until He grants them their hearts' desire.

Mark puts the whole incident graphically before us. At first, Jesus seems not to hear. The crowd rebukes the noisy clamour of Bartimaeus. Despite the seeming unconcern of our Lord, however, and despite the rebuke of an impatient and quick-tempered crowd, the blind beggar still cries, and increases the loudness of his cry, until Jesus is impressed and moved. Finally, the crowd, as well as Jesus, hearken to the beggar's plea and
declare in favour of his cause. He gains his case. His importunity avails even in the face of apparent neglect on the part of Jesus, and despite opposition and rebuke from the surrounding populace. His persistence won where half-hearted indifference would surely have failed.'

(((Mar 10:46  And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.
Mar 10:47  And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
Mar 10:48  And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.
Mar 10:49  And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.
Mar 10:50  And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.
Mar 10:51  And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.
Mar 10:52  And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way. ))))

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 34)

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TRUTH-

'Importunity is made up of intensity, perseverance, patience and persistence. The seeming delay in answering prayer is the ground and the demand of importunity. '

INTENSITY.
PERSEVERANCE.
PATIENCE.
PERSISTENCE.

Do we have these? Or are our prayers void of any real desire?

We CANNOT live in this world and NOT have petitions for our Heavenly Father!

Jesus did NOT live in this world and NOT have petitions for His Heavenly Father!

We cannot expect to have a REAL relationship with our Heavenly Father is we are not praying REAL prayers.

You CAN have a false relationship with our Heavenly Father, and you can pray prayers that are empty, that are meaningless.   And in that false relationship with your false prayers you can be under the delusion that you are in a real relationship and really praying.  Satan LOVES to deceive us! Satan LIVES to deceive us! At every step He is there trying to trick us, to trip us up. Satan is NOT God however, and Satan does NOT know everything! Satan does not know the end from the beginning, to believe that he does would mean putting him on the same level as God and that's where he wants us to believe he exists. Satan wants us to give him the same powers as God, because if we do that then we believe him to be a god and not an angel at all, not a creation of God's, but a god in his own right which is what he wants to be- it was THAT pride which filled his heart that caused his downfall. He wants to be like the Most High.

'Isa_14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. '

So I ask you, is your praying REAL? Is your relationship with God, our Heavenly Father,  a real relationship?

When we settle down to say our prayers- is there any earnestness in those prayers? Is there any intensity at all?

Jesus set Himself apart to do a lot of His praying--

Mat_14:23  And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone

Luk_6:12  And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Luk_11:1  And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Jesus is our example.  When we are told that He went to pray, when we are told He went alone to pray, when we are told He continued all night in prayer to God, what are we to get from this?  Our SAVIOR needed to PRAY! And our Savior needed to pray CONSTANTLY!  If our SAVIOR, if the Son of GOD needed to pray to the Heavenly Father, we do we imagine that we can get by on a short simple pretend prayer, a prayer that is prayed by memorization, by rote? Why do we think that suffices?  Do you imagine as Jesus spent an entire night in prayer that it was just a constant repetition, without any real feeling, without any real importunate behavior?  Or can you imagine Him praying deeply, earnestly, and revealing His heart to His Father in His prayers. We have this example…

Joh 17:1  These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
Joh 17:2  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Joh 17:4  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
Joh 17:5  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Joh 17:6  I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
Joh 17:7  Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
Joh 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
Joh 17:9  I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Joh 17:10  And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
Joh 17:11  And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
Joh 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Joh 17:13  And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Joh 17:14  I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Joh 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Joh 17:19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
Joh 17:21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Joh 17:23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Joh 17:24  Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
Joh 17:25  O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
Joh 17:26  And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Joh 18:1  When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.

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SUCH PRAYER!  A prayer we've been blessed to know, to read, to comprehend, to read over and over knowing that OUR SAVIOR prayed this to HIS FATHER, to OUR HEAVENLY FATHER. Jesus did NOT simple recite what has come to be known as 'The Lord's Prayer', Jesus spoke from HIS heart to His Father!  This too is our example! This too is something we must comprehend and realize as we too PRAY as our Savior prayed!  We need to glorify our God in our prayers and seek Him earnestly as Jesus sought Him as Jesus petitioned Him for us!

Please LORD, Bless us! Help us to PRAY as we ought to pray! Let the Holy Spirit intercede for us! Let us be One with You Heavenly Father and One with our Savior, Your Son who gave His life for us!

Please LORD, please! Bless us! We will NOT let You go lest You bless us!

All in YOUR LOVE, by YOUR GRACE and MERCY!