If a believer has any hope of a successful life they must know how to pray and then pray. Prayer moves the hand of God but we must pray according to God‘s will. Prayer is so important, God had the prayers we are to say recorded in His Holy Bible. Most of the prose I hear people pray does not come from the Bible, it‘s their description of the problem at hand.
Mathew 6:7 When you pray, do not think you will be heard for much speaking. The church has been conditioned to accept long, lofty prayers with little regard for what is actually spoken. There was a man in the Bible who spoke just one or two words when He prayed, and He got every prayer answered, His Name is Jesus. Long windy prayers will always offer a bunch of unneeded information. The Father knows what we need before we ask so we don’t need to read off our list. The Father wants to hear if we believe what He said in His Word, because what He said is our prayer. I have watched Kenneth Copeland, Jerry Savelle and Jesse Duplantis pray for hundreds of people. There was not time or place for long drawn out prayers. 1 John 5:14-15 If we pray anything according to His will He hears us. If we know He hears us then we have the petition we desire of Him. Our faith is not in how we pray, it’s in believing that He will confirm His Word with signs following. Every prayer must be according to His will, if you don’t know His will pray in the Spirit until you know it. One Sunday after church I visited an old friend in a nursing home, he was recovering from a stroke. His wife and family were there as well, I asked them what we are praying for. They all agreed that he would be healed if it was God’s will. Their prayers would be of no effect because they don’t know God’s will. It is not a sin to be ignorant of God’s will. Our ignorance is a hindrance to answered prayer, before I was illuminated I would have said the “rosary”. Ephesians 6:17-18 Take the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God praying with all prayers. God’s Word is His will and it doesn’t require a handbook to pray His will. The whole purpose for praying is to invite God to confirm things into His will. Prayer: the official communication that establishes God‘s will for our life. Prayer is serious business and it must be highly regarded by all believers, if we don’t pray we put ourselves at the mercy of the world. Now the prayer of intercession will require all different aspects of prayer because intercession must be prayed until every sinner comes to repentance. The Lord will have us target a specific need, but the sinner needs to come to the faith. It is God’s will that all men be saved and it all begins with intercession. We take a Scripture the Holy Spirit gives us and we declare it, and then we pray in the spirit because we don’t know how to pray as we ought. Praying in tongues builds us up, when we intercede for someone else, we build them up. When I was a sinner people were interceding for me, my resolve to get saved became more and more real. I would not be here today but God’s people made intercession for me according to God’s will.
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If you have lived in this present world for any length of time, you have to notice how spiritually ugly it has become. When I was a kid the heathen members of society respected the beliefs of the religious folks. I can remember on many occasions listening to my mom talk about a woman who had conceived. My mom would not use the word “pregnant”, she and her friends would say PG. My mom told me many times that a woman could not have a baby unless she was married. My older brother was a rank sinner because he and his girlfriend had a baby. Now in this present time some girls use abortion as a form of birth control, they call it reproductive health. The reason the world is changing so radically is because the majority of men do not respect God and His Word.
Genesis 6:5 God saw that the wickedness of man was very great and his every thought was evil. God regretted making man on the earth and He was determined to destroy all of them. However, He found one man among all men that would obey Him; that man was Noah. Noah demonstrated his faith by obeying God and he built the great ark, it took him over one hundred years to complete it. When the ark was finished, Noah got his family and all the animals on board and it began to rain. All of those wicked people died in the flood with all the animals. God began an all new creation with Noah’s three sons and their wives. There was one major problem, Noah and his sons still had the fallen nature of their great, great grand father Adam. 1 John 5:19 We know we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Adam’s nature survived the flood and Adam’s father the devil will always welcome new recruits. So what we have are two types of people living in this world. We have the children of the devil and the sons of God. Every man can choose his or her father. You will spend eternity with whatever father you choose and evil men are content with the status quo, they have not considered what is waiting for them. For the believer, evil and wickedness are things they hate and by the grace of God they avoid them every day of the world. Hebrews 11:25 By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Sinners are reluctant to shun sin because it gives them pleasure in their flesh, but the wages of sin is death. There are three types of death taught in the Bible, the first is spiritual death which is separation from God. The second is physical death that all of us can see. The last one is the second death which is eternity in hell. The wages of death begin with spiritual, then physical, and then the second death and the sinner has no clue because he takes pleasure in sinning. What God calls wickedness and evil, some men call fun and normal! Do you know how sinners deal with the reality of hell? They redescribe it and make it to be not such a bad place to hang out with their friends. The world is full of wickedness and evil, but most people don’t think it’s an issue that warrants their attention. I pray that all men would awake from their slumber and embrace the righteousness Jesus died to give us. Amen. As people of faith we know how to do warfare with the devil when he comes around. It seems like he is always coming around trying to put some hell in our lives. But have you ever considered a preemptive strike? What if we turned the tables on him and we start the battle?
Proverbs 4:22 God’s Words are life unto them that find them, and is medicine to all their flesh. Now we know that medicine will help in a time of sickness, but medicine can be taken to prevent sickness. My mother spent twelve years in a nursing home dealing with Alzheimer‘s. She had absolutely no memory, she could not even tell you her name. But her body was in good health and I asked the caregivers why that was. Finally they told me they were giving her supplements and asked me if they wanted me to withhold them, I said yes. In about three months my mom peacefully left her worn out body and went on to Heaven with the rest of the family. Medicine was keeping my mother in good physical health just as God‘s Word will maintain our health. Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. Do you know why God made this statement? God created the devil who began as an angel, so He obligates Himself to protect His people from His creation. Now if we won’t listen to Him then He cannot help us, so we must commit to obey Him so He can help us. If you tell a tourist to stay clear of a buffalo in Yellowstone and they ignore you, they have only themselves to blame. God tells us in His Word, give the devil no place, do not give the devil an opportunity to sift you as wheat. The devil is out for us but we don’t have to give him more occasions to do his business. Mark 16:17 These signs shall follow those who believe; in My Name they will cast out devils. Judge ye, what is better; standing firm and dealing with all the antics of the devil or casting him out? I hear people say, “every day when I wake up the devil is standing there waiting for me”. Why do you let him stand in your presence? Why do you give him such a place? I think that in a lot of cases we get so accustomed to peace we ignore the beginning of an intrusion. We must never forget that peace is the reward that comes from warfare. Israel loves to live in peace but they had to fight for every minute of it. If the devil had his way, none of us would enjoy even a minute of peace. John 10:10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that you might have life, and have it is abundance, to the full, until it overflows. We know the devil’s mission statement and we know Christ’s mission statement, it’s up to us to choose which one we want. Either way you will receive faith, we use our faith to cast off the devil and we use faith to have the abundant life Jesus said He would give us. Don’t wait for the devil to rob from you, tell him what he cannot do to you before he tries to do anything. Thank God for the blessings of the abundant life even before you collect on them. Stay a step ahead always Prayer is a very serious gift that God gives to all them who believe in Him. Prayer determines the quality of our life and it invites God into our lives. Prayer is so important, God had all the prayers we need recorded in His Bible. In the book of Ephesians He tells us to take the Word of God praying.
Hebrews 1:3 Jesus is upholding all things by the power of His Word and has sat down on the right hand of the Father Himself. Jesus spoke the word His Father gave Him and He was able to uphold or carry everything He was sent to accomplish. Jesus did not know where to go or what to do until He prayed, the Father would give Him an assignment and the empowerment. The Jews were dead set on killing Him but His prayers sustained Him. His prayer life was so successful that His disciples came to Him and asked Him to teach them how to pray. Romans 10:9 Confess with your mouth (pray) the Lordship of Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. Your life depends on your willingness to pray to God and ask Him to save you. The sinners prayer is the beginning of your prayer life, you must continue to pray in order to maintain your new life in Christ. The devil hates everyone who bows their heart to the loving God, he wants all your attention and affection. He will do everything he can to separate you from God because he is the only alternative. Prayer is our divine connection to God, there is no other system in the entire world. There is no middle man, we are divinely tapped into the very heart of our Lord and Savior. Some religions pray to Mary or other so called saints, this sounds very spiritual but none of these are true. Ephesians 6:18 Do all this in prayer, asking for God‘s help. Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up, pray always for all God‘s people. Seven days without prayer makes one weak. How do we access the promises of our Father who art in Heaven if we don’t consult with Him? If we don’t pray we are never sure of what God’s will is for our life nor how we obtain it. Prayer is so important the Father sent the Holy Ghost to lead us in the prayer we need the most at the time. The Jews put Peter in jail planning to kill him in the next few days, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. While the church was praying, an angel went into the prison and got Peter out. Peter went to the church where they were praying for him and they were in shock to see Peter knocking on their door. Our job is to pray, it’s God’s responsibility to hear and answer our prayer however He sees fit. We must never tell God how we want Him to answer our prayers, just pray and let Him be God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing. The Bible instructs us to establish a daily prayer life and never quit, our lives depend on our willingness to take the Word of God praying. Sometimes it’s hard to pray because the devil knows he will be dealt with after you pray, but don’t let him stop you because he can’t. In the game of life everything we do will come back to us in the form of a blessing or a consequence. Most people are aware their actions will cost them and they just don’t care. One day a United States sailor went AWOL(absent without leave), he came back to his ship after twenty-nine days and turned himself in. If a service man is AWOL for thirty days, he is labeled a deserter and they send the authorities after him. This sailor turned himself in and while they were “writing” him up he took off and was AWOL again. The shore patrol finally caught him and brought him back to his ship. He appeared before the captain and he was busted two pay grades, then confined to the ship and had to clean the bilges for thirty days.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived; God will not be mocked, a man‘s harvest in life will depend entirely on what he sows. The world has a similar term they call “kharma”(one’s acts determine their fate). The world thinks it founded this term, but God made it a spiritual law six thousand years before they realized it. People who are prone to regular bouts of trouble don’t stop and think of the consequence of what they do! People who avoid the pit falls and troubles in life live by God’s law of sowing and reaping. This is a spiritual law, that means it works every time and God won’t be ridiculed or scorned for not enforcing His Word. How does a man consistently cash in on the positive side of this law? How does he live a blessed life? 2 Corinthians 5:17 If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. A new creature has a new nature, he is now in the image of God and is empowered to do the works of righteousness. This new man must make his own decisions, he did not lose his freedom to choose. But if he chooses to sow to the Spirit, he has the power to hold fast to the promise. He is a new creature created by God but he will still reap whatever he sows, even if it is hardship. Now it seems like to me that if a man wants the blessings in his life, he would be willing to sow good seeds of behavior. Some Christians just stumble through life dealing with whatever comes their way. God will deal with our ignorance with mercy, but for only a season. He gave us His Word and the freedom to obey it or ignore it. He won’t be mocked, He will give us what we sow for. Proverbs 6:2 You are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth. If you want to be consistently blessed, then you must change your vocabulary and be conscious of everything you say. The spirit world does not respond to what we “mean”, it responds to what we say. God is hearing and the devil is hearing. God will bless and the thief will rob, steal and kill. Our confession will attract God or the devil depending on what we say. If we constantly complain about our aches and pains, we glorify the works of the devil. If we speak the Word of God, we glorify the works of Christ on the cross. Kenneth Copeland says we must learn the vocabulary of silence. A wise man speaks because he has something to say, a fool speaks because he has to say something. All of us would be well served to put a filter on our mouths. |
TEXT FOJCHURCH
TO 84576 OFFERING DECLARATION
My heart is God’s garden, He plants the seed of His Word. Now the devil comes immediately, he is after my precious seed. So I must guard my heart, out of it flow the issues of life. Prosperity is always spirit, soul and body, so I will have a goodly harvest. |
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