Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Pray Without Ceasing #2



Whether we are weak or strong we need to pray.

We need to pray until peace comes. Phil 4:6-9

We need to pray till the answer comes Luke 18:1f

We need to pray till Jesus comes. John 6:21 - The answer to our life
is Jesus being with us.

We need to pray till the Holy Spirit comes. Acts 1:8

We need to pray Luke 6:29 - We are only being religious if what we do
is not based on belief in Jesus.

Prayer is the expression of reliance on God and not our self.

To ignore prayer is to ignore God.

We need to pray till the rain of the Spirit comes - Elijah

We need to pray till the light comes to see in the spirit. Elisha and
the armies surrounding him.

We need to pray for the right attitude. Phil 2:5

Believing prayer is the life blood of the Spirit.

God is a creator and He wants us to be creators by His direction.
Romans 4:17,18 God calls into being that which does not exist.
Abraham praying for a son.

Christ backs up our believing prayers in heaven. Heb 3:1

Believing prayer must have action. - Moses before the Red sea and the
hordes of the Egyptians coming from behind. Ex 14:15 "Then the LORD
said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel
to go forward."

Sunday, May 3, 2009

A Life Lived in the Presence of God


This is my 8th post on things we should always be doing. All of them are impossible without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. For years I would consider it ridiculous to attempt to live according to these instructions. Yet God does not put these instructions in the Bible to be ignored. I don't consider failure to be discouraging. I just refocus and move forward.

Now I have to be honest here. I sometimes am discouraged. But 1 John 1:9 is put there for spiritual life to be restarted. If I am only going to live according to what is possible than why would I pray for God to change things? God wants us to look for His supernatural intervention in this fallen world.

“Psalm 16:8 “I have set the LORD continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

Psalm 25:15 “My eyes are continually toward the Lord,
for He will pluck my feet out of the net.”

Set the Lord continually before me.
I see this as a life lived in the presence of God.

Here is an example that the Lord brought to my attention a while back. I had a job where the leader did not come around often to see what I was doing. So I became lax and did not do my work as I should have. It was a counseling job. One day as I was chatting with my coworkers it occurred to me, how would I be acting if Jesus showed up? I knew I would be more diligent in doing my work if Jesus was there.

In reality Jesus was there, I was just not conscious of it. Jesus is with us now, whether we are aware of it or not. He sees our heart and our attitude as well as our actions.

What is the value of knowing this? Yes it will keep us on our toes, but with the proper attitude being awake spiritually is a much more fulfilling way to live than being naive or ignoring God. I can be aware of what is going on around me not just in the 3 dimensions, but also spiritually.

Colossians 3:4
“When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

This could be referring to the 2nd coming or in our spiritual understanding in the present. Using the meaning in the present:
Keeping Jesus before us, as we walk through the day, we will be with Him (spiritually) in heaven in glory. The glory is the place of God's power. The power flows from the glory of the Father. Romans 6:4 So when we are with Jesus in glory we are with Him in power.

As we sit with Jesus at the right hand of the Father we rule with Jesus.
Psalm 110:2 “The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
Jesus rules and now He asks us to rule. Matt 28:18,19 All authority has been given to Jesus therefore go and make disciples.

Be awake.
Listen to the voice of the Spirit constantly.
Also be aware that Satan will try to knock us off course.
Jesus is our friend and will guide us as we look to Him for help.

The book “The Practice of the Presence of God" by Brother Lawrence is a good book on this discipline.