"Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly ... '"
"And God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:20-21
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Before we continue in our study on prayer, I have two things on my heart.
1. Correction
It’s a good thing, a very good thing. It’s one way you know you belong to God! (Hebrews 12:8) When God corrects it may be in study with the written word or hearing Him within. Mature Christians have learned it is better for them to quickly yield to His ways. Stubbornness and rebellion have consequences that are not necessarily from God but because they have entered Satan’s territory. “… to obey is better than sacrifice…”
1 Samuel 15:22
2. Faith
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for …” Hebrews 11:1
Faith operates in the present, to change the future to what is hoped for. “I am healed by His stripes, NOW!” That substance is required on this side, in the spirit realm, before it can be seen in the natural.
In other words, in order for you to see it in the future, you must do something in the present. Jesus said, “Believe you receive when you pray.” Mark 11:24
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This is Part 3 of a study on prayer. To read previous lessons, just scroll down.
2014: Increase in Light and Progress
For several years I have noticed that every January The Church moves forward, propelled in strength to make progress and multiply. This year I believe there is great momentum thrusting us forward, upward and inward to make advancement in the Spirit that will be seen in the natural.
The Church arising is The Church revived! And The Church revived is a glorious witness to the unsaved.
This year our maturity in Christ will take us all the way through in His strength to persevere and not retreat from our purpose. Saints, this is God’s year!
We have Someone, unseen to the world, who is right now working in the heart of every Believer in every nation on earth to correct, establish and increase their strength and their power. Praise God!
As we have seen in our previous two lessons, Jesus entire life was prayer, complete oneness with His Father’s will. He said, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” John 5:30
Jesus, in His earthly ministry, set the example for His Church to follow so that we may do the greater works He desires and achieve the purpose of this end-days generation who have been predestined to live during this time. Ephesians 1:4-5.
In His present day ministry as Intercessor and Head of the Glorious Church, He is accelerating all things as He opens to us the mysteries of His Kingdom.
Each member of His magnificent Body has been born with a calling to fulfill their purpose to impact their city, county, and nation with the gospel of the Kingdom.
Why? His return is soon.
As we increase in strength and make progress, we can expect the Lord to change our prayer life from the traditional beggar’s mentality to the maturity of sonship which yields willingly to being led by the Holy Spirit.
“Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Galatians 4:7
“And the glory which you gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.” John 17:22
So, we see the result of a life of prayer is Oneness with our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is also oneness with each other, The Glorious Church!
My dear friend Norma, and PWP pray-er, graduated to Heaven nearly two years ago soon after celebrating her 90th Birthday. The last time her and her dear husband, Randy, were at our home for lunch, Norma and I were sitting on the couch and began to pray in the Spirit. It was not like any time previously. I don’t know why. It was just different.
As we continued to pray in tongues, we seemed to enter in to a holy unity of being one person in the Lord, and I knew we were touching the same thing but it was not made known to us what that was. Awareness of our surroundings was hardly noticed. There seemed to be no self-recognition. It was glorious!
Norma had met the Lord at the age of eight and spent her life devoted to Him. She served Him in different capacities over those years, alongside many of the well-known generals of faith, but I believe she would say of her life that above all, her life was prayer, following her Savior’s example.
Answered prayer is based on this: God is love. Love created the earth and supplied it with everything necessary to meet our every need, before man was formed.
The Creator is The Supplier of Everything! Everything!
We take so much for granted. Just think of this for a moment.
Your chair, desk, computer, and smartphone came forth from things in and on this earth. Your clothes, food, home, car, etc., were all once a different substance, in a different form from what God made when He created the Heavens and the earth. This magnificent planet can be traced back to a substance called faith, from which the worlds were framed by the Word of God. Hebrews 11:3
The next time you begin your prayer time, remember the chair you are sitting on was provided by Father. Your Father provided everything you would ever need before you were born, and is certainly capable of answering any prayer request that you might have need of.
And someone said, “Well then, why hasn't He answered my prayer?
If you asked that question you are not in faith believing you receive.
This is called doubt. We know the man who doubts will not receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:8) No condemnation should be received with that scripture but correction should open our eyes so that the problem can be fixed!
We have all experienced this at one time or another but God is teaching us how the Kingdom operates. Faith is the connector. Go back to our lesson dated December 31, 2013 for further instruction about being double-minded.
Religious Tradition
If a person learned that God is mean, hard to get to, or is trying to teach them something through disease, they might be waiting for their healing a very long time. They do not know the truth about Him, “… laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men …” Mark 7:8
Father is so good and desires to see His children in health with all their needs and desires fulfilled by Him. Faith in God’s love boldly declares, “My Father loves me so much, of course I can ask in faith believing I receive the answer.”
One thing that is vital to answered prayer:
It’s what you do after you have prayed.
You need to put on your prayer glasses! They cover your eyes to the natural realm and focus only on the answer, which is temporarily unseen. This is the time when patience and tenacity gird up your faith. Abraham was strengthened in faith by giving glory to God!
Take a few moments and read Romans 4:13-25 and write down the steps Abraham took to receive God’s promise of a son.
Never allow your circumstances to undermine what your heart believes.
Training is involved in this. It takes training not to allow what you see in the natural to eat away at your faith. “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18) If you begin to focus on what you don’t have yet, you’ll begin to speak what you don’t have and God’s promise will hang in the spirit realm without any connection to you.
Abraham and Sarah persevered with God’s promise to have a son even after their own carnal ways produced Ishmael. (Galatians 4:21-23) After thirteen years of silence, Almighty God visited Abraham again reminding Him of the promise. God changed their names and their identity. He instituted the sign of the covenant, circumcision, (Genesis 17:11), and they gave glory to God being fully convinced He was able to perform what He said. They praised their way into victory! Romans 4:11
We’re no different.
After our new birth, has not God changed our name to Christ-ian? Has He not given us a new identity as joint heirs with Christ? (Romans 8:17) Has He not circumcised our hearts? (Colossians 2:11) Is not the sign of our covenant the cross? Is it not our breakthrough behind the veil? Read Hebrews 10:15-23.
“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen.”
2 Corinthians 1:20
“God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do?" Numbers 23:19
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Continually Inquiring Within
Church, we are His Body the fullness of Him who fills all in all. See Ephesians 1:23
That fullness of Him—influencing every hour of our daily life—is prayer.
Let us no longer put God on the shelf when we have finished our prayer time, but release His Holy Spirit within us to affect every hour of our day’s activities. Why? Because the time is short!
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JANUARY ASSIGNMENTS:
For your edification, read one chapter of Revelation out loud every day. And remember that each Wednesday we are fasting and praying about the weather to bring order to the heavenlies. Scroll down to the lesson dated January 7, 2014 for complete details.
PRAYING FOR:
The Church—The Lost—Elected Leaders
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