Tag Archives: praying

The Resurrection of Jesus demands that we live for Him!

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Thankfulness - sunsetOnce a year, most of the world comes together in the celebration of Christ’s triumphant entry, through the Passover, the crucifixion all the way to the empty tomb! Then it’s back to work on Monday as normal. Now, don’t get me wrong I love this season. It reminds me and re-aligns me with God’s purpose and love!

I am so glad the story of Jesus doesn’t stop at the cross or even at His burial? But, come to think about it, why do we even allow the story to stop at the resurrection? The Story of Jesus’ love for you and I goes on and on! It’s not over once the weekend is done, its actually just beginning. I do understand and have no problem with focusing on these three glorious foundational events annually. The basis of the gospel is most definitely the death, burial and resurrection of Christ! (1 Cor 15:1-4)

Yet, if we aren’t students of the scriptures we can miss so many things in the work of Christ. Peter brings to light that Jesus went to the chained demonic angels, who are awaiting their final judgment and proclaimed that His redemption of mankind was completed!(1 Pet 3:19) During these three days Jesus also took back the dominion from the devil that Adam and Eve had turned over to the deceiver(Gen.1:28, Lk 4:6, Col 2:15) , then Jesus gives it back to his children again once He goes to God the Father.(Matt 28:18-19, Jn 20:17-21, Lk 24:39) Where he also presents and leads the first fruits of the believing saints into heaven.(1 Cor 15:20) The story even continues, in the fact that He shows Himself to his followers over the next forty days before the great ascension.(Acts 1:1-2) But even after all this, Jesus which had foretold the disciples earlier (Jn 14:16-21) refuses to leave His followers by themselves, declaring in Acts 1:4-5, “He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father… “you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’”. The last thing Jesus the resurrected Lord, lets them know before He ascends to the Father in the glory cloud is that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit would empower them to be a witnesses all over the world for Him. (Acts 1:8-10)

What happened on resurrection day is what gives His followers the authority and dominion as His ambassadors and the infilling of the Holy Spirit empowers us to walk victoriously here on this earth. Being confident with our assignment of making disciples and establishing the kingdom of God, knowing Jesus is now seated in heaven next to the Father interceding for us. (Rom 8:34-35) You see, the work of Jesus still continues as He leads us. Not only does Jesus call Himself the Good Shepherd, but also we read in Rev 7:17 that He is still shepherding His people throughout eternity.

Paul writes to the believers in Colosse and says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith”.(Col 2:6-8) Paul is telling the Christian that once they accepted what Jesus has done for them to continue living their life in the benefits and authority of it. Jesus became our substitution and therefore our redeemer from the bondages of the wicked one. His works enable us and demand us to live a life worthy of His calling with confidence. Therefore let me ask you, “What are you doing with the Message of the Cross? Is it nothing more than fooliness to you or is it the Power of God to be His witness”. (1 Cor 1:17) The resurrection of Jesus demands that we live for Him!

Desperate Times call for Desperate Prayer

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477907061The Lord answers King Solomon’s prayer with incredible hope. It says in 2 Chron 7:14-15, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” It was after the dedication of the temple that the King had an encounter in the night from the Lord. King Solomon had asked the Lord in the dedication prayer to forgive the people of God if they repent from going astray from Him and finding themselves being carried away into bondage.

God’s answer was if His people would cry out to Him with humility and prayer, there would be a radical change. He wasn’t talking about a sweet little prayer before we eat or bedtime but a heart felt, gut-agonizing prayer for God’s intervention. We have relied on our own abilities to gather a crowd and just talked about prayer without much praying.

It’s time to humble our-selves and pray! Not just speaking eloquent words to be heard by man but to cry-out in desperation to God.   (tweet)

It’s time to humble our-selves and pray! Not just speaking eloquent words to be heard by man but to cry-out in desperation to God.

The answer to our problem is not in the politicians, it’s not in building physical walls and it’s not just in gathering a group for the sake of unity, the answer will only come from our Heavenly Father’s response to His people’s prayers. We have moved from acknowledging that God is our only answer to focusing on our own ability as the answer. It’s that same independent controlling attitude that says, “We can Fix it Ourselves”, that we also see as we read the account of those building the Tower of Babel in Gen 11:1-9 . They were going to do it their way not Continue reading →

I am So Tired that I can’t Keep Watch!

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I recall a story of Alexander the Great that I had heard sometime back, whether true or folklore. It went something like this. He was walking through his military encampment and came across a sleeping soldier who was supposed to be on guard. With total disgust and rebuke Alexander awoke him and demanded to know his name. The trembling soldier muttered that his name was also Alexander. In a tone of dismay, Alexander the Great replied, “Either change your name or live up to your name.”

How many believers or children of the most high have fallen asleep because they are naive of who they are in Christ. If they understood that they had the name of Christ and were His ambassador. They wouldn’t be falling asleep and slacking in their responsibilities.

The Bible and history itself confirm that God uses those called by His name to stand watch in prayer for His purposes. The Spirit will prompt us in intercession, yet we will probably never know the entirety of the impact our prayers have, until we are in Heaven.

In the garden the night before our Savior, Jesus Christ, went to the cross to carry all of humanity’s sin, He stood in the gap for us. He denied His own flesh and pursued the will of the Father for the entire world. The scripture reveals His passion for us in Luke 22:44-46, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.’”

              As Christians we either need to change who we’re representing or start living up to His name!     (tweet)

In the most crucial time of church history, we find Jesus standing in prayer and intense intercession. It was so intense that He sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44-46). Jesus was so focused on what lay before Him, and the purposes of God, that He agonized in prayer for the Church and its redemption. Yet, the disciples, in the most important time, were sleeping and unwilling to stand in watch with Him.

Moses was also an intercessor that spiritually stood guard and watched for the people of God. In Exodus 32:1-12, we see the children of Israel straying from God and worshipping a golden calf. They had been delivered from bondage through a mighty show of God’s power but quickly slid
back into Egyptian idolatry when left to themselves. God’s anger was stirred toward the people so that He wanted to get rid of them. But Moses quickly stepped into the place of intercession and pleaded that God would spare them (Ex. 32:13).

Because Moses stood in the gap all were spared except for the instigators and the rebellious. Moses later came down from the presence of the almighty God and radiated His glory in such a dimension that the children of Israel couldn’t look upon him (Ex. 34:29-30). There is a reward for intercessors that watch and stand in the gap for God’s people. I believe in reply to Moses asking, that God showed Him enough of His goodness and glory that it changed him forever (Ex. 33:18).

There is a reward that the intercessor receives from God that can only be obtained through a relationship of intimacy in intercession. Therefore, either we need to change who we’re representing or start living up to His name!

Normal People Can Do Great Things Too!

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Many Years ago, in the year 1787 at Hampton Sidney College in Virginia, there were three students who prayed out in the woods once a week, in the morning. As you can imagine when the other students found out, they began to make fun and persecute them. The president of the college, John Smith, was so impressed with their commitment that he invited the three young prayer warriors to hold their weekly prayer meeting at his house.

The result of those three young students taking a stand in prayer was two hundred students coming to Christ that first year. By 1795 Yale University was experiencing revival as well. By 1802 one third of the student body converted to Christ. Many say this was a direct response to the seeds that were sown in prayer years earlier.

If you think about it, those three students were nothing but normal students with a tenacious burden for God to move on their campus. They weren’t well known preachers or highly talented individuals. They were normal! History doesn’t tell us that they had anything but a desire and boldness to prayer. And maybe we can’t even say they had boldness because they were praying in the woods, possibly to hide from everyone. But these normal students prayed to a God that holds the whole earth in His hands and history records the rest of the story.

We will probably never know the full impact of our prayers until we get to Heaven. But one thing is certain there is power in prayer. In James 5:16-18 we read, “Pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” I translate this verse like this, “The persistent powerful prayer of a believer brings radical results.”

God has granted us an unbelievable privilege in prayer. The problem is that many times we don’t understand the opportunity we have. We fall prey to the thoughts and false understanding that we have to be great to do great things for God! In I Kings 18:41-45 it tells how Elijah, instructed by the Lord, tells King Ahab that it wouldn’t rain for years except at his word. We then read in James 5:17 that Elijah prayed and it didn’t rain for three and a half years.

Then the same normal man prayed again and a cloudburst broke the drought. The Bible says that Elijah was a man just like us with the same opportunities and hindrances to his prayers. (James 5:17) In other words, he wasn’t anything special nor was he God’s favorite. He was just a normal person like you and me. Galatians 2:6 tells us that God is not a respecter of persons. He treats us all fairly and equally, therefore if Elijah had that kind of result so can we.

God uses Normal people that know Him and trust Him to do extraordinary and great things in the earth. Don’t allow the lie of the enemy keep you from doing great things for God. The enemy is always trying to tell us that we are nothing special and can’t be used by God. Being normal doesn’t keep you from doing great things! Being normal positions you to be used by a great God when we trust and rely on Him.

We Must Have a Change!

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Ifootball8t would seem every direction we look there is unrest and turmoil in our cities and abroad in the earth. The majority of the news is filled with tragedy and upheaval.  Whether it’s racial tension in our cities, misuse of power in the government or terrorist activity in different parts of the earth, it seems to be one thing after the other. We must have a change!

When things are not going the way we think they should, in our lives, in our communities or even throughout the world, what should one do?  I believe it’s time to pursue a change that can only happen through God. Let me share a portion of scripture that is addressing this same scenario.

In 2 Chr 7:13-16 we read “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people…”. Here God gives His people the answer of what to do when there is turmoil and catastrophe in their land and all about them. This passage goes on to say, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways…” I love how God doesn’t beat around the bush but says, “if My people” which is talking about Christians or those that believe in God.  Then it goes on to say that if they bend their knee or come into subjection to the authority of God and pray, along with seeking His face and turning from wickedness then God says He will respond.  By hearing their prayers, forgiving their sins and healing their land God will move in their behalf.  In verse 15 He then declares with promise that He would stamp His name there, indicating His approval, as well as, He would be attentive to their prayers in that place forever.

God is talking to the children of Israel in a time of serious trouble.  Letting them know that He has a promise to those that will get serious and begin to move towards Him.  The believer must humble themselves before God, which is an act of surrender and acknowledgment of His Lordship. Then with a heart of desperation we must turn away from the things that have our attention and time and turn towards God and His purposes.

There is more to seeking God than just talking to Him, even though that is part of it.  Seeking is being aggressive in finding Him, doing whatever it takes to do His will. Too often we handle our prayer time as if we were giving our wish list to Santa Claus. God wants us to cry out to Him with a heart that desires His purposes, being willing to flee from the wickedness that entangles us and keeps us from Him.

If the believer does these things then things will be turned around and changed for the better. God gives us the promise that He will change our circumstances when we make a change in ourselves.

When we turn our hearts towards Him through the place of prayer, God will take notice.  He will respond to us in power when we seek Him with all of our heart. There will be a change when we finally surrender our ways to His ways. He has promised that if we turn towards Him and obey Him, He will move in our behalf.

Living from the Place of Prayer

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ImageLiving a life of prayer will always be a life of adventure and power.  Reading in Eph 6:18 we read, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”(NKJ)  As we pray let us not forget to uphold one another in prayer.  Standing and holding each other up in their time of need.  Persistence and commitment in prayer will always bring a fruitful and rewarding result.  Let us not be found sleeping as were the disciples in Gethsemene.  But, let us be as Anna in Luke 2:37 where it says she, “served God with fastings and prayers night and day.”(NKJ)  She was an example of a life committed to prayer.  Let us follow in her example.  Living in the place of prayer brings power in any place!  I thank the Lord for those that have stood on the wall of this community and have been watchful through prayer.