Post by Les Brewer on Mar 20, 2012 11:56:46 GMT
John Wolf
Calvary's Cross Ministries
Preaching Christ Crucified...I Cor.1:18-25
From the Pastor's desk and heart...
The Whole Armor of God
... Ephesians 6:10-20
Continuing on with "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,..."
Praying always, seems at first glance,to be impossible.How can anyone pray all the time,you may ask?It's not so impossible as you may think.Prayer is,in it's simplest form, communication with God.The one attribute of God that no one else has,is the ability to know our "thoughts afar off" (Ps.139).
If anyone is needing encouragement from the word of God,I would recommend that you read with thoughtfulness and understanding this Psalm,it explains alot about the will of God for your life.I prefer the KJV or the NKJV version the best.
At any rate,getting back to the matter at hand.Prayer is commincation with God,It can be done at anytime,in any place,in any manner that suits us.According to Ps.139,God knows everything there is to know about us.There is nothing hidden from His sight when it comes to His children.
This is especially comforting to me at this time,because I know that He already knows about my jobless situation.In fact He knew it before I did,and I believe He has already put into motion the next steps and the next doors that will open for me,that will provide for my family and I.All I have to do is continue in faith and perseverence,believing God for the rest.
There are multitudes of people who pray all over the world,even athiests pray,but to no avail.Why is this? Because they are not in right relationship with God through the Son of God.Prayer is the locked door,faith is the key that opens to us all that God has for us.We must use the art of prayer in it's proper perspective in order to see results.
Jesus taught us the model prayer,known as the Lord's Prayer,in Matthew 6:5-15.There are many lessons to be learned from this perfect example of prayer,which will be the subject of my next series of posts.Suffice it to say that Jesus knew what He was talking about when He taught the disciples to pray.We can pray all day long,and until we are blue in the face,but if we do not pray with faith in God and according to His word and will for our lives,we will not be very successful at it.This fact alone could very well be the reason why so many do not pray.They do not know how.
In Matthew 7:7,Jesus said that we should ask,seek and knock to see answered prayer.I don't know how many of you have ever noticed,but if you take the first letter of ask,seek and knock,and put them together,it spells the word "ask".I don't think this is coincidence.I believe the Lord is trying to show us that we receive not because we ask not.We ask,and receive not because we ask wrongly,wanting to spend it on our own lusts (James 4:1-3).Prayer according to God's will and not our own is a gaurentee of answered prayer.What is God's will? The word of God is God's will for our lives.Pray accordingly and you will receive your answers.
Is it wrong to ask for things from God?Of course not,except when we ask for the wrong things,or we ask for the right things at the wrong time.The only time that having things is wrong is when we begin to seek things rather than the Provider of those things.God will never take backseat to our desires,even if they are good desires.He must be first and foremost at all times in our lives.We must be willing to let God bring about His will for our lives,with much patience and perseverence.
If God gave us everything we asked for when we asked for it,we would be like many children today,who have been given everything,without learning the responsibility that goes along with it.We would grow to think that someone owes us a living.
Communicating with our heavenly Father,through the name of Jesus Christ,is the first step in answered prayer.Jesus said,"if you ask anything in My name,I will do it."
Keeping our thoughts on the Lord is not always easy.It's a discipline that we must learn,and with all that the enemy has out there to distract us from prayer,it becomes even harder,but we must overcome him and his tactics.We must discipline ourselves in the art of spiritual warfare.
Tomorrow,we will look at different types of prayer.....Until then,God bless you all.................JW
Calvary's Cross Ministries
Preaching Christ Crucified...I Cor.1:18-25
From the Pastor's desk and heart...
The Whole Armor of God
... Ephesians 6:10-20
Continuing on with "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,..."
Praying always, seems at first glance,to be impossible.How can anyone pray all the time,you may ask?It's not so impossible as you may think.Prayer is,in it's simplest form, communication with God.The one attribute of God that no one else has,is the ability to know our "thoughts afar off" (Ps.139).
If anyone is needing encouragement from the word of God,I would recommend that you read with thoughtfulness and understanding this Psalm,it explains alot about the will of God for your life.I prefer the KJV or the NKJV version the best.
At any rate,getting back to the matter at hand.Prayer is commincation with God,It can be done at anytime,in any place,in any manner that suits us.According to Ps.139,God knows everything there is to know about us.There is nothing hidden from His sight when it comes to His children.
This is especially comforting to me at this time,because I know that He already knows about my jobless situation.In fact He knew it before I did,and I believe He has already put into motion the next steps and the next doors that will open for me,that will provide for my family and I.All I have to do is continue in faith and perseverence,believing God for the rest.
There are multitudes of people who pray all over the world,even athiests pray,but to no avail.Why is this? Because they are not in right relationship with God through the Son of God.Prayer is the locked door,faith is the key that opens to us all that God has for us.We must use the art of prayer in it's proper perspective in order to see results.
Jesus taught us the model prayer,known as the Lord's Prayer,in Matthew 6:5-15.There are many lessons to be learned from this perfect example of prayer,which will be the subject of my next series of posts.Suffice it to say that Jesus knew what He was talking about when He taught the disciples to pray.We can pray all day long,and until we are blue in the face,but if we do not pray with faith in God and according to His word and will for our lives,we will not be very successful at it.This fact alone could very well be the reason why so many do not pray.They do not know how.
In Matthew 7:7,Jesus said that we should ask,seek and knock to see answered prayer.I don't know how many of you have ever noticed,but if you take the first letter of ask,seek and knock,and put them together,it spells the word "ask".I don't think this is coincidence.I believe the Lord is trying to show us that we receive not because we ask not.We ask,and receive not because we ask wrongly,wanting to spend it on our own lusts (James 4:1-3).Prayer according to God's will and not our own is a gaurentee of answered prayer.What is God's will? The word of God is God's will for our lives.Pray accordingly and you will receive your answers.
Is it wrong to ask for things from God?Of course not,except when we ask for the wrong things,or we ask for the right things at the wrong time.The only time that having things is wrong is when we begin to seek things rather than the Provider of those things.God will never take backseat to our desires,even if they are good desires.He must be first and foremost at all times in our lives.We must be willing to let God bring about His will for our lives,with much patience and perseverence.
If God gave us everything we asked for when we asked for it,we would be like many children today,who have been given everything,without learning the responsibility that goes along with it.We would grow to think that someone owes us a living.
Communicating with our heavenly Father,through the name of Jesus Christ,is the first step in answered prayer.Jesus said,"if you ask anything in My name,I will do it."
Keeping our thoughts on the Lord is not always easy.It's a discipline that we must learn,and with all that the enemy has out there to distract us from prayer,it becomes even harder,but we must overcome him and his tactics.We must discipline ourselves in the art of spiritual warfare.
Tomorrow,we will look at different types of prayer.....Until then,God bless you all.................JW
