James 1:2-8 – “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let, not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” NKJV

James 1:2-8 – “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” NASB

Today I felt that the LORD would have me simply let the Scripture speak with almost no comment from me.  I give you the same passages from two different translations.  Notice the subtle differences and similarities.  The message is powerful in both. 

The Book of James is an incredible book that gives vital insight as to how we should, could, and must learn to live. Patience and/or endurance results in faith. Faith is a growing element in our hearts. It finds completion in the Lord and His incredible Love. It produces the quality of NOT DOUBTING! I try to look for the rainbow in the storm. I try to find the silver lining in the clouds. I try to seek the answer in the trials. I seek to use the troubles of life as steppingstones to God’s higher calling in Christ Jesus and thereby minister to others at the point of their need!

May the LORD bless you richly is my prayer and desire!

Psalms 122 – “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”  2 Our feet are standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem,  3 Jerusalem, that is built As a city that is compact together; 4 To which the tribes go up, even the tribes of the LORD  An ordinance for Israel — To give thanks to the name of the LORD.  5 For there thrones were set for judgment, The thrones of the house of David.  6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. 7 “May peace be within your walls, And prosperity within your palaces.” 8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, ” May peace be within you.” 9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.” NASB

David’s love for Worship is unparalleled in Scripture.  His love for the Lord, his desire to be in the presence of the Lord, and his quick response to a revealed sin through repentance caused him to be identified by God as, “a man after My own heart.”

It is good to learn to worship and praise God while alone but there is something irreplaceable in gathering with others for the express purpose of Worshiping God.  You draw strength from those around you as their joy, exuberance, faith, and presence encourage you to enter in and continue.  No man is an island.  No man or woman lives or dies to themselves; we need others for this journey.

David recognized that God’s presence was the key to life and in the second portion he identified a need to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.  Why?  Jerusalem represented the seat of the government of God.  David was crying that God not only be Lord in Jerusalem but in so doing be Lord in the hearts of all men.  It is only as God is the center of our lives that we walk in victory on a continuing basis.

God is to be sought first and foremost.  He is to be placed above all else. He is to be relied on and trusted explicitly. He is to govern our lives in every aspect and dimension.  As we allow His love to permeate our hearts and lives, we become vessels of honor to be used by Him in the labors of His Kingdom.

May God bless you as you go through your day.

2 Chronicles 15:1-2 – “Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded, 2 and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”  NASB

Wow!  That is a declaration that needs to be heard and heeded into today’s church and world.  Consider what Azariah said to King Asa and let it settle on your mind and begin the work of liberation in your spirit.  He said, “if you seek Him, He will let you find Him…”  That is powerful, but it is not the whole picture presented by the prophet.  He followed that up by saying, “but, if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”  That is incredible!

First, the declaration that God is willing to be found by those who seek Him should produce a sense of excitement in our hearts.  God can be found in these troubled times.  He is not dead.  He is not asleep. He is not hiding.  He is standing in the open waiting for us to seek Him. 

I am reminded of the words of the Psalmist, “The LORD looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.” (14:2).  The apostle Paul spoke of the benefit of seeking God in Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  The prophet Isaiah echoed these sentiments and revelation in Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”  The benefit and promises are incredible.

The directive of our LORD Jesus in Matthew 6 is that if we make God first in our lives, seeking Him with a whole heart, we will not only find Him, but He will become or provider and benefactor.  He will provide all the THINGS that have consumed our focus and quiet all the FEARS that are flooding our minds. 

I believe that God desires to be found, otherwise, the directive of Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer would be cruel and unjust.  If we are to pray for the Kingdom of God to come to the earth and His rule be recognized and submitted to but God is unfindable, that would be ridiculous.  God wants to fellowship with us and enjoys our interaction with Him.  He created us in His image and likeness.  He declared through the prophet Zechariah, “Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; behold I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst…” (2:10).  Why do that if there is no desire to fellowship with us?

God’s expressed desire to dwell with His people is found throughout the Bible.  It is seen in Exodus 29, Leviticus 26, Numbers 35, Deuteronomy 12, and 1 Kings 6.  It is seen in the New Testament in the declarations of Jesus and the writings of the apostles. 

I find the declaration in 1 John 1:1-3 incredible,“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

Are you searching for answers?  Seek God.  Are you in need of healing?  Seek God.  Are you in need of a miracle?  Seek God.  Do you need forgiveness and peace?  Seek God.  What is the answer in life and the solution to the turmoil we are facing?  God!  Let’s set our hearts to seeking Him and when we do, He will allow us to find Him, discover Him, uncover Him, and encounter Him in a transforming way.  He will renew our minds and thereby transform us moving us from glory to glory and we will become what we are beholding.

Make it your purpose to Seek God!  Have a Great Day!

Nehemiah 4:6 – “So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”  NASB

I love the account in Nehemiah of the Jews rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem that had laid in ruin for so long.  I appreciate the battles they incurred and the success they had.  Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites resisted them and attempted to discourage and prevent the restoration of Jerusalem.  That is always the case when God’s people attempt to do something for God or follow the directives of the Holy Spirit.  There is always resistance.

There is a key in this story that has always intrigued me, inspired, and challenged me.  They achieved incredible results in the face of serious opposition.  What was the key that enabled them to follow the directive of the LORD?  It is found in our text, “…for the people had a mind to work.”  I was raised to believe that if you set your mind to something you could always achieve more than you thought you could or achieve what you desired.  The key is in ‘determination’ and ‘commitment.’

The inhabitants of Jerusalem who responded to Nehemiah’s call to fulfill this vision of rebuilding the walls and rebuilding the temple had to make numerous choices in this process.  They had to believe in the validity and necessity of the work.  They had to believe in the God who inspired this action.  They had to believe in their leaders. They had to make a commitment of themselves to the cause even if it meant the possibility of financial or physical harm.  They had to ‘make up their minds’ as to what they were willing to do and ‘commit’ to that cause.

That is what we need in today’s world, Commitment.  We need to develop a ‘mind to work’ and believe that what we are working for is achievable.  If the Bible is true, and I believe it is, then we have the sure promise of God that “All Things Are Possible” for us.  We have the assurance that God will “Never leave or forsake us.”  We have the promise of empowerment, guidance, and protection by the angels and through the work of the Holy Spirit. 

God has given us a job to do and we have His promise that He will go with us through the process and armed with that knowledge and confidence we can commit to the task.  It is at that point success or failure lies in the key, of developing “a mind to work.”

Work, for many, is an ugly four-letter word and hated.  We have allowed an entitlement mentality to become pervasive in our society and it is infiltrated the church.  We seem to believe that if there is any opposition and difficulty it is not the mind or will of God.  We wait for ease and in that hesitation, we fail to achieve what God desires, souls are lost, and the Kingdom of God is not advanced. 

If I could inspire anything in the hearts of Christians today it would be to “set your mind to the task and allow the Holy Spirit to inspire, in you a Mind to Work.”  I think of Gideon and the impossible odds he faced, but he had a ‘mind to work’ and achieved greatness for God.  I think of Moses and the dangerous and implausible task of freeing Israel from Egyptian bondage. However, he set his mind to the task, made a commitment to God, believed the promises, and developed ‘a mind to work’ and Israel walked out of Egypt with the spoils of war without fighting a battle.  I think of the Early Church and the directive of Jesus to ‘Go into all the world’ and the impossibility of that task, but they had ‘a mind to work’ and a commitment to God and His purposes and turned their world upside down for God.  Thank God they did!

Let’s make a commitment to God and as Romans 12 directs, make our entire beings a sacrifice to God and allow the Holy Spirit to help us ‘gird up the loins of our minds for action’ and develop ‘a mind to work.’  We can and will achieve incredible things for God and see multitudes won into the Kingdom.

God bless you as you labor with God and enjoy His blessings!

Ephesians 2:13-16 – “But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.”  NASB

I love the ‘but now’s in the Bible.  They are always filled with incredible revelations and promises.  Here the apostle is speaking to Gentile Christians who were under fire from the Judaizers in their area.  He informs them that although they were once ‘afar off’ and ‘separated’ from God without hope and without God, BUT NOW… 

But now?  But now, through the Blood of Jesus and His work on the Cross they have been made one with the Jewish Christians.  They were grafted into the Body of Christ and were fellow members of the Family of God.  It was exclusively the work of Jesus that brought about this completion and opened the door for access to God for the Gentiles.

But Now, the barrier or dividing wall between the Jew and Gentile had been abolished through the Blood of Jesus.  His sacrificial death on the Cross abolished the division and made both groups into ‘one new man’ and brought God’s indescribable peace to both groups. 

There are still those in Christianity who erect dividing walls between sects and insist they are the ‘only ones’ with the truth.  They exclude other believers who do not see everything as they see it.  They exclude those who do not embrace the same interpretations as they.  They become separatist and legalists insisting that everyone does, it their way or they are not Christians.  That is not what Jesus came to do.

In the basics or the core foundational principles of God’s Word, we must agree.  I won’t give you a list of the essentials but if we do not believe that God is creator, Jesus is the virgin-born sinless son of God who died for our sins, we have little avenue to God’s grace.  Jesus declared, contrary to the opinion of some who want to be overly inclusive, “I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life.”  He said in John 14:6 – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”  That is anything but ambiguous.  It is definitive.

I’m sorry if you disagree and believe that there are many roads to God, the Bible disagrees, and I will stake my eternity on God’s Word, not man’s opinion.  We were aliens and sinners separated from God BUT NOW through the finished work of Jesus, we have access to the Father through Jesus. 

The Bible is clear in 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  The apostle Paul informed us in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” 

We are informed in Acts 4:12 that, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Jesus told John in the vision of Revelation, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in with him and eat with him, and he with Me.”  (3:20). 

Paul reminded us in Romans 10:9-10, “…if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

You were lost and undone without God or His Son BUT NOW…  Receive the But Now and call upon Him before it is everlastingly too late.  Receive Jesus today!

Have a Great Day!

Matthew 6:9-13 – “Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10’Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11’Give us this day our daily bread. 12’And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13’And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.]’  NASB

As we opened this discussion in the previous session, we identified Six (6) Topics and Actions or Activities in Prayer.  Today, I would like for us to turn to Four (4) areas of focus and launch into a new journey of prayer.

THE FOUR AREAS OF FOCUS:

• Yourself.

It is important and necessary that we place ourselves on the altar of service daily.  It is important we continually renew our relationship and commitment to God and His purposes.  We must allow the Holy Spirit to establish the will of God and His priorities in our lives and help us to stay focused on the commission and command.

We must determine that we are going to stay before Him in prayer until the course charted before us for that day is clear.  That might mean that we will go throughout the entire day in prayer and meditation.  I understand that you may have to go to work or do other things and cannot stay in the prayer closet all day, but you can remain in a consciousness of His Word, Purpose, and Presence.  (Pray without ceasing).

• Your Family.

I believe that it is important that we make it a daily practice to pray for your mate, their needs not our wants for or from them.  We need to bring our children before the throne of heaven and dedicate them to God, daily.  We must pray specific prayers and ask for God’s guidance in their lives, not just a confirmation of what we want for or from them.   We need to pray for other members of the family and allow the Holy Spirit to direct us in our prayers and involvement with them.

• Your Church.

Let’s begin with the Pastor or Pastors.  We should be praying for God’s anointing, guidance, leadership, wisdom, and strength to be infused into their hearts and minds.  We should be praying that God would develop a shepherd’s heart in them.  We are not going before the LORD to tell on them but ask His help in their lives.  We should pray that God would anoint them with the Spirit of God and allow the gifts to flow through them and enable them to become vessels of healing to the community.

We should pray for the Leadership of the Church.  Call their names in prayer and as God to give them wisdom and favor so they can lead and help others rise to the place God desires.  (Equipping the saints for the work of ministry.)

We should pray for the other members of the congregation that God would help them overcome difficulties and enable them to live victoriously in every dimension of life. 

We should pray for the Harvest.  God desires to give every church a spiritual harvest.  Pray for the harvest (Isaiah 43:4-6). Pray for the Holy Spirit to draw people into your church from the north, south, east, and west. 

You will discover that the devil will prolifically resist you when you commit to that kind of prayer but if you will persist you will find a new awakening take place in you, your family, your church, and your community.  We can reach our world.  God’s commission is never impossible.

• The Nation.  This goes without saying that it is vital that we pray for the nation because if the nation fails our liberties and freedoms are destroyed.
• Israel – The Bible instructs us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalms 122:6).

We can be more effective in prayer, but we cannot be selfish in our prayers and we must recognize that our commission and directive are to enforce the victory of Jesus.  That is done largely on our knees!

God bless you as you enjoy this day in Him!

Matthew 6:9-13 – “Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10’Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11’Give us this day our daily bread. 12’And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13’And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.]’  NASB

In Jesus’ Prayer Strategy we find six (6) definite Prayer Topics, which, when followed as a guide lead to tremendous spiritual victory for ourselves and others.  Victorious Prayer affects others!  We are dealing with the supernatural in a natural world.  We are engaging in warfare in the heavenlies.  We are pulling down strongholds and demonic fortresses.  We are standing against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places.  Jesus has given us a plan for Victorious Spiritual Warfare on our knees.

THE SIX TOPICS:

• Praise – – The appropriation of the Promises. “Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.”

• Priorities – – The submission to the will of the Father. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

• Provision – – The pathway to appropriate God’s Daily Supply. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

• Peace – – The method and means of getting along with others all the time. “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

• Power – – How to consistently and effectively defeat the devil. “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

• Praise – – How to obey God’s Word. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”

For the believer to become mighty in God, we must learn to pray!  For us to fulfill the commission of our LORD, we must learn how to pray!  Prayer is as vital for spiritual victory as breathing is to natural life.

I see two specific steps involved in this process.  First is Praise.  In praise, we shift our focus from self and circumstances to God.  As we turn our attention to Him and focus on Him, His will, His Kingdom, His glory, power, and purpose we create a place for faith to grow in our hearts.  Confidence begins to flourish, and we become strengthened enabling us to engage in the more difficult aspects of spiritual warfare and enforcing the victory Jesus won at Calvary.

Step two is Submission.  Until we reach the place of total submission to God, we will never discover the true power of prayer and the place that God intends for His body to function.  It is important, to begin with, Praise, and invite God into our time of prayer and intercession. Once we have done that, we need to move to step two and submit ourselves totally to Him.  We make up our minds and set our will to do the will of God.  We make God the first priority in our lives.  We totally surrender ourselves to Him, body, soul, and spirit. 

Then and not until then can we effectively pray.  Effective prayer is praying the will of God and if we pray his will according to 1 John 5:14-15, He hears us and if He hears us, He grants the petition.  We verbalize the will of God with our tongues and allow the tongue to become a rudder to guide us into God’s purposes. We learn to pray in agreement with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God and that charts the course for our lives.

If you are interested in developing a more powerful and effective prayer life, I ask that you join me in the next session as we turn our attention to some specific areas of focus and attempt to make this practical and applicable to daily living.

God bless you as you enjoy this day He has provided.