Chapter 7 Thrive

Beloved Believer Chapter 7 Thrive

High Privilege of Worship: Psalm 96:2-3 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! Psalm 96:7-9 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord Glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the Lord is the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! God’s people sing to bless His name. We tell of His salvation, we declare His glory. Our joy is in ascribing to the Lord all his greatness. We ascribe, believing it and living it, not merely describe from a cold knowledge. True joy in life for the Christian is when Jesus Christ is displayed in one’s life. We seek Him in secret, He shows Himself openly. We want, as God’s children to see the evidence of Jesus Himself living through us. Our whole lives are for Him and we are not really satisfied until we do see Him living openly through us. Jesus has not hidden Himself from us. His purpose is to bring about death in us that He may live through us. It is in worship, by faith, that this is accomplished. When we worship Jesus alone, we will see him. We will thrive and grow and be effective in all the work He gives us. It is when we are fickle and sporadic in our worship that is seems so hard to get a glimpse of Him. Jesus is not to blame. He is not playing hard to get. God requires that we bow to Him in full submission. This is the only way to see Christ and to see Him displayed through our lives. There is no partial worship and no partial seeing of Him. We can’t only submit what we are comfortable with and hope to have Him fill us with Himself. When we submit all of what we are and have for the love of Jesus, He will give us the faith necessary to continue. If our desire is to submit and we are aware of things that hold us, He is willing and able to help us with the faith to begin. We must realize our arrogance in trying to hold onto anything and Jesus at the same time. We also must realize our propensity for worshiping idols. If we want to be with Jesus and see Him live through us, we must be honest and ask God to eliminate from our hearts the desires for all but His Son. When God reveals the resistance of our flesh, let us thank Him for His light and not be afraid to go further with Him. He shames no one that comes in Jesus’ name and will take you where He can get close to you. Some of the smallest things can be pointed out as things that hold our hearts. There is always a deeper issue. Seek God and let Him hold you in conviction until you truly know freedom from what He shows you. Resist the temptation to be comfortable in your own skin and allow the fire to burn. We can cast off a thing, outwardly, but until we realize our desire for Jesus to be a higher one, we will return to it or something different. Idols are real today and many of us need to open our eyes to the threat they are to our peace and our salvation. Willingness to submit all to God is taken too lightly. We make jokes about giving things over to God and taking them back. If there is a taking back, it was never given to God. You do not hold it but it holds you. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (Jn 8:36). If we are sincerely seeking Jesus for Himself and asking for freedom, He

will not deny us. If there is any desire for an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ; it must begin and be sustained in worship. We must be willing to lose all to have Him. All that we might “lose” is only holding us in bondage. God is patient and gentle and will lovingly help us in our weakness. When we bow to Him, He will be faithful to show us the idols we worship instead of Him. He knows our weakness and we need to seek Him so that we will know it. He is patient but will not abide forever with people who will not worship Him alone.

Our danger is not so much from the idols themselves; in terms of their power to harm, although they do drag us into dreadful lives; our danger is in our blindness to them. Jesus can and will set us free if we will submit to Him and ask Him for his truth in our hearts. All who profess Jesus do not worship Jesus. All people, saved and unsaved, have an inner drive to turn from God. Jesus can and will keep us near Him but we must be careful and diligent over our hearts. All of creation will glorify God. All of creation praises God. On earth, only man is given the command and privilege to worship God. Birds and butterflies and all of nature show God’s power and beauty and imagination and mind blowing genius. Man and only man was created to worship God on earth. Heavenly beings worship God and are instructed to worship Jesus. (Heb 1:6, Ps 291-2). We are like the holy angels in our willing submission to the one and only true God in Jesus Christ or we are like the fallen angels in our worship of someone or something else. All of creation exalts God’s character in many ways but only those who worship Him will know His nearness and His dearness; His calm and his power in an intimate and personal way. Those who worship Jesus Christ will thrive and those who do not will perish. Ps 87:7 All worshipers of images are put to shame, Mankind is a creature of emptiness. We must worship something or someone. The Bible makes no mention of those who worship nothing or no one. All will worship the true God or a false one. We must be filled and led and instructed. All this happens when we worship. We are either filled, led and instructed with Jesus Christ or demons. There is no neutral ground. For those who profess to know Jesus Christ, it is a dangerous thing to not be continuously submitted to Him. Let us accept and embrace our given nature to worship and turn the whole of our beings to Jesus Christ. We are exiles and sojourners here. May God give us a longing for our real home. This is not our home. We have no part of this world. We do not have any right to expect anything from this world. This world and its’ kingdoms belong to Satan. We should neither expect nor desire what he has. True, God is in control of all things and God owns the whole earth. But this present world has been given over to destruction and we have no part of it. We have a glorious inheritance in the world to come. Jesus is our inheritance. And we will have Him to the fullest in the world to come. We are only traveling through. We do not belong here. We ought to be fighting the temptation to be distracted by the world in our worship. Instead we lay down worship because it distracts us from the world. May this place become more and more unfamiliar to us and its’ people more and more strange. Not that we shun those in need nor do we cease to preach the gospel in love and earnestness. We do those things more and more because we are aware of the temporary, evil nature of the present world. We do not need to adjust to our surroundings or settle in to fit in but should always long for our true home. Then, we are equipped with real help for those perishing. Certainly, we live in the land but we are not partakers in it. We cannot forget our business here. There are captives waiting to be set free and they must hear the gospel. We must not be so busy with the doings of this present life that we miss the point of our being here.

“ Where do you draw the line?” If a person has to ask where the line is in being busy with this world, he is probably too busy with it. All that we do and produce and protect and entertain with and enjoy is to be in the context of submission to Jesus. He owns us. We worship Him. Isaiah 44:9-10 All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Ps 115:2-8 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

We become like what we worship. Worship is a serious thing. We will be like the one we worship. Who are you like? Are you as the Lord Jesus on this earth or someone else? This is not meant to be a prickling question but an opportunity for self examination. Worship is an action of man toward God. It is willful and deliberate. It does not just happen automatically because one professes to trust in Jesus. Worship is something we do. It is the only correct response to God. Do not be fooled, we all worship. We bow our lives and hearts and attitudes to someone or something. We bend our tendencies to achieve maximum submission to whom or what we worship. Where are your tendencies inclined? What is your life bent toward. This is not a plea for legalistic living but a plea for honesty. All mankind worships. The question is: who or what are you worshiping? Worship seems to be an abstract concept to many people. It is not seen as a way of life so much as a thing that is performed periodically. Worship seems to have been reduced to mean the time spent singing in a church service or any type of “Christian” music. Now, surely, we all know it is more than that, don’t we? But worship is often referred to in only that way. Recently a female radio show host said, in speaking about a certain musical performance, “The sound of nature is worship”. What does THAT mean? This was on a “Christian” radio station. The sound of our natural surroundings, as beautiful as it may be, is not worship. Wind and trees and flowers and seas do not willingly submit themselves to God’s authority. They are submitted by the nature of their creation. On earth, only man submits himself of his own will, led by the Holy Spirit, to the authority and rule of God. Singing to God is not the all of worship. Singing to ourselves about God is not the all of worship. Singing to others about God is not the all of worship. Singing is an expression of our inner person. It is the expression of the heart and is part of worship when the expression of our hearts is what God has put in it. Song seems to loosen the hearts to communicate what is in it. Even for those of us who are not musically inclined, song seems to be a more free way of expression than talking. Maybe that is why it is so highly spoken of in scripture. When we continually seek God we are free to express his love and greatness so song is a great assett in praising Him. To worship God is the most honorable and important thing any person can ever do. We take worship far too lightly and as a body, we pay the price for it. If our worship consists of songs sang to God, and half-heartedly at that, on Sunday morning, what do we worship the rest of the week? What tune do we sing on Monday thru Saturday? Is it the march of money, the hum of family, the croon of comforts? May God grant us hearts that

steadily bow to Him and sing of freedom to serve Him forever. We will be like the one we worship. Psalm 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! To worship is to make oneself low before the one worshiped. We are required to bow, stoop, and kneel before God. We make ourselves lower than Him in our own estimation. We are, in fact, lower than Him. God does not make us worship Him. He does give us grace to worship Him. No man will naturally make himself lower in his own eyes or other’s to anyone else. The knowledge of God’s greatness must be given by the Spirit of God in order for one to willingly bow before God. That being said, it is not forced. Worship is a voluntary action. It is an action in all of the Christian life. It is a ceasing to recognize any authority besides Jesus Christ over a person’s body, mind, emotions, and all he possesses. It is recognizing Jesus as the authority over the whole person forever. Does this mean we should physically bow down? Well, it wouldn’t hurt. It is a good thing for a person to follow the attitude of his heart with the action of his body. That is what the body is for, to follow the mind. However the bowing will only be beneficial if the heart is truly submitted to God. The definition of worship is simple enough but any follower of Jesus knows that human flesh does not easily bow to God. We must seek grace to worship and practice it continually. There is a pre-requisite to worshiping the only true God. We must have the attire of holiness. Psalm 96:9 is one of three places that we are directed to “Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness”. Jesus Christ is our attire of holiness and in Him alone do we bow to God. It is not possible any other way. We can be encouraged that we are always able, in Christ, to submit to God.

We may not always understand our feelings and may be aware of the resistance of the flesh but we always can. We are always able, in Christ to submit to God. Just as He submitted wholly to the Father, so do we through Him. Possibly, it is the simplicity of worship that makes it so easy for us to disregard it. After all, we are a sophisticated people. We have much knowledge and resources and understanding. Bowing to God in recognition of His authority and greatness is so simple it is easily overlooked. Maybe this is the reason we, as a church, are not flourishing as scripture indicates we ought to be. We have neglected deliberate, personal and corporate worship. We have diminished the meaning of the most meaningful thing we can ever do. We pick and choose what commands to obey and to what degree we will obey them; as if partial obedience were obedience. We decide our lives, or so we think. This is not worship. This is betrayal. We would do well to reflect on the simplicity of worship. God is the boss. He has everything we need and our needs cannot be met in any other way than in submission to Him. He has everything. We have nothing. We add nothing to Him; we bring nothing for Him in the way of improvement. We do nothing for Him in the sense that He has needs. He is the creator. We are the creation. That seems pretty simple. Worship of God in Jesus Christ is a privilege and a serious matter because we were created to worship. God is very serious about his people worshiping anyone or anything other than Himself. His discipline and pleas and anger toward Israel were over her persistent whoring after other God’s. We cannot help but worship and it is good for us to recognize that fact and be careful to direct our affections and desires to the one and only God. We have all the grace we need in Jesus and in His mercy He will help us and direct us and correct us gently if we will humble ourselves and ask for His help. The fact that it was such a struggle throughout history should alert us to our nature. We in Christ have the Holy Spirit to draw us and He gives us great love for Jesus. However, we still need to be

wary of wandering affections. God’s word has much to say about idols and we would do well to listen. Isaiah 41:24 Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you. Isaiah 41:29 Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind. Who wants to be looked through by God? Who wants God to regard them as an abomination and to not even be regarded by Him? What a tragedy! What a waste! We will be like who we worship. We need to check ourselves and see who we resemble. Idol worship is not an issue of the past but is very real today and to disregard the threat to our souls would be a dangerous and foolish thing. God will not be mocked and only those who worship Him will have peace and safety from his wrath. He has reclaimed from Satan a people for Himself and we, those people, are warned repeatedly to remember and to show allegiance to the one who has saved us. 1 John 4:16b-17 God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in the world. When we bow to our master and king, Jesus Christ and submit our whole selves to Him in worship, we will thrive. We will be as he is in this world. We will not be ashamed at His coming. Do not be fooled; simply professing to believe is not active worship. Those who worship Him will become as He is and it will be evident. Those who do not will have reason to be ashamed when He comes.

Mighty and awesome God, have mercy on your people. We are easily turned to foolish things and vanities. We have become ignorant in our abundance. We depend and hope for your patience to continue with us. Help those among us who are weak to return our affections to you, completely. Give power to those among us who are strong to patiently teach and urge the weak to forsake all but you. The Love of Money: Eccl 5:10-12 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. Matt 6:24

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other: You cannot serve God and money.” 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Heb 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” The love of money is alive and well in American Christians. There is need for directness here because many hearts have been hardened by the deceitfulness of this sin. God has given us freedom from this evil but we spend so much time denying it’s reality that we do not live in the freedom we have. Oh! How we hate to hear about this! We guard our possessions and our “right” to have them with vehemence. The love of money is not only the desire to have more but is also seen in the anxiety over losing possessions, salary, positions and status in our culture. We are largely occupied with getting and keeping our wealth. It is also seen in our stinginess. We guard what we have been given and call it “stewardship”. We defend our tendency to hoard our great wealth with the Bible. If, at the mention of this subject, you quickly turn out the biblical verses encouraging wisdom and planning with money, you may be defending your sin and evading the point. We all know the love of money is a huge issue in our culture. Even unbelievers can see it. We all condemn it as evil but surprisingly it never seems to apply to anyone we know closely (like ourselves). We are lying to ourselves, each other and God if we are saying this sin has not touched, tempted, or held us. The great sadness is in the fact that Satan has found an easy hold on American Christians. We have, at this point, huge freedoms to preach the gospel here. We have abundant resources to send others to foreign missions and to reach people in our own land. We have many who believe. God has sent the nations to us. What more could we possibly want to live out the “Christian Dream”? Forget the “American Dream” and dream of great graces from Christ. What holds us back when we have so much and so many open doors? In large part, it is the love of money. We are held in great fear of losing what we have. We compare ourselves to each other and struggle to keep up or excel over others. We tremble at the thought of being one among the poor and those who are poor are easily consumed with the task of improving their financial position. Forget the idea that the poorest in our country still have more, materially, than most in other countries! In every culture, the Christian must be guarded against the temptation to practice the evils of the society he lives in.

Here in America, we readily see and attempt to flee from (for the most part) drunkenness/drugs, sexual sins and other sins. But you don’t hear of many battling the temptation to love money. Perhaps this is not because we are so successful in avoiding this sin; but that we are just not dealing with it. It is absolutely necessary for us to see this real and active threat to our faith. If we give in to the love of money it will dictate where we live, where we go, who we associate with and how, where and when we serve others if at all. We may be grooming our children for financial success rather than spiritual success and service. We seem to ask for God’s guidance but it is within parameters we have set.

That is not living in the freedom we were meant for. Many justify and protect this sin mightily. We are so in love with our money that we build whole businesses and studies and seminars around how to get it and keep it. We call it practical, we call it stewardship or we call it wisdom. Let’s just call it what it is; SIN. We are so defensive over our tendency to love money that there seems little point in clarifying that not everyone is in it. One could not possibly say that every Christian in our culture is in this sin; that would be untrue. Possibly, we could agree that 99% of us have either been at some point; will be at some point or know someone who is. This is a huge disability. If you are not involved in this sin, pray for those around you and be honest about what you see in others lives. Speak the truth in love to them that they may see also. If you see this sin or temptation in your life; be honest with yourself and seek God’s help. Satan holds this sin over many and many live in fear. We so fear not having according to our standard that the love of money dictates all we do. It sets the courses of our lives. What can we afford? How can we get more? What we give is not decided by the need or by earnestly seeking God, but by what’s left after our standard of living has been met. Should we not use what we’ve been given according to God’s leading as our first priority? If we opened up all we have and asked God to dictate what we should do with it all, what would our lives look like? It would probably look like He was in charge. Radical concept. This is where Satan holds us in fear: We tend to think if we offer our possessions and money to God’s interests first, that we will be left out of the loop. Are we not also His interest? We are; he is greatly interested in us and in meeting our needs. We secretly hold to our standard of living because we are convinced that if we give it to God, he will lower it. All the while we give Him thanks for all we have. That doesn’t make sense. There is a great difference in relying on God to meet our needs as determined by us and relying on God to determine our needs and provide for them. In the first, we set the standard and fearfully hope God will meet it. In the second, we trust that He knows our need and we are flabbergasted at what He does give us and grateful for what He doesn’t. If God has not given you the wealth you see other have, He is likely protecting you against great temptation. God is dishonored in the assumption that He will give us less than what is best and that His best always means pain for us. Satan distorts his character in our minds and our permission of this paralyzes our love for Him. “Our needs must be met first”, people say. Says who? And, who is determining what your needs are? This refers not simply to a lack of giving money but to where we spend our energy and time. It is possible that for many, their minds are set largely on the pursuit of money rather than the pursuit of the growth of God’s kingdom. To honor God with our wealth we need to acknowledge His goodness. We need to turn from the lie of Satan says that God will always take away from us to teach us. He may or may not but our focus on this fear that He will needs to be set aside. If we know Jesus, we have a desire to live free of sin. We are able, according to His power, to live in freedom from the love of money. I am asking you, child of God, to seriously seek God with regard to this sin. Ask Him to open your life up to Him and others and cleanse you of this and all sin. Ask Him to guard your heart from the temptation to return to it. This sin has so permeated our culture and us that we can fail to see it. Realize this; as God’s, you are free to go where He says, to do as He says, to enjoy all that He gives without guilt and to give what He says to give. Trust that what He will lead you to do with regard to money will be most joyful for you. His intention is not that you are miserable but that you live in freedom.

Spirit and Truth: John 4: 23-24 “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” There are inward and outward indicators of whether or not one is worshiping God. There is evidence of worship and there are things that accompany worship. Some of the things that accompany and are fruit of true worship are: repentance, obedience, humility, submission to God in all things, faith, peace, proclamations of God’s glory and gospel, song, celebration, zeal and exclusivity to God. When we want to know if a thing is true we look for evidence. Worshiping in truth is a display of evidence of worship in spirit. It is not enough to say that one worships in his spirit. There must be outward evidence for it to be the true worship that Jesus describes. Spirit and truth is the living out of the inner life. A life led by the Spirit of God is lived out in accordance with His character and word. God is honored, respected and esteemed and it is evidenced by our words and actions. We have been given prayer and God’s word to tell us what is true and to work it into our hearts. The two always coincide and God who does His work inwardly causes us to pray out of knowledge of His word until it becomes evidence of His worthiness and greatness in our lives. This is a life of worship; displaying evidence of God’s power in us. It is not something we can work out but we certainly must show up for it to be worked out. Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brother, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, Spirit: Submit the body. God is the rightful owner. Submit physical members as well as mind and emotion. Seek grace for a willingness to be vulnerable to God. He can be totally trusted. Acknowledge that God has the right to do as He pleases with our bodies and that all He pleases is good. In order to submit our bodies in spiritual worship we must make a habit of meeting with God and talking to Him. Submission of the body is not simply physical doing or refraining. It is the awareness of Christ’s presence on a continual basis and sensitivity to His Spirit and yielding to the moving of the Spirit. Since obedience to God is more than refraining from what we were saved from – we must yield to what we were saved to. In order to know specifically what this means in our everyday lives, we must be in prayer. We must have contact with our God that is active and seeking to know Him and his will for us to truly submit spiritually. The life of a relationship is not what people do for each other in the outward sense but the inner closeness they share that cannot be shared with anyone else. So even though we share in Christ, equally as brothers and sisters, our inner closeness with Him is unique and is the life of our individual relationships. If there is no inner closeness through prayer, what kind of relationship do we have? Employer/employee? Even more cold than that. People react to other people not based on what they ought to do or think but based on their personal experience with that person. Where there is no personal experience, we fall to duty; which is good, socially speaking. We have acceptable behaviors and social codes of how to treat one another. These will rule in the absence of personal experience. Where people have a personal experience of another, their behavior is largely ruled by this

experience. This is why we treat our most beloved better or sometimes worse than strangers. We base our treatment of them on our experience with them. The closer they are to us, the more vulnerable we are and more likely to be helped or hurt.

One who is closest to us has the most ability to nurture and help and heal us. So our pouring out of love to them is based on that experience of them and more. If we don’t have a personal experience of God, our relationship with him will be based on duty. We will act and live as if we have second hand knowledge rather than a first hand personal knowledge. Our treatment of others should be based on biblical and spiritual experience of God. When He is not our closest relationship, it cannot happen. How can He be our closest relationship without prayer? If we experience God personally on a regular basis, we will love what he loves and hate what he hates. We will not merely fall to duty but will draw on our experience and knowledge of Him personally. The offering of our bodies to Him will be personal and spiritual because He knows us to the core. Our vulnerability to Him will be recognized and His power over our flesh seen in a real way. Real worship will come with the absence of self. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. We must totally submit our whole selves to God. Our jobs, our activities, our children and their activities; even our religion is too often all about proclaiming who WE are to the world. That is not worship. That is not ascribing to God the glory due His name nor proclaiming His excellencies. We try to show the world God by displaying “a better us”. Our aim is to show who Christ is and that will only be accomplished by Him through the power of His Spirit in us. Let us submit our bodies for His use. Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Truth: When His power over our flesh is seen and known in personal ways, known only to the inner person, it changes our outward life. This is worship in truth. God is given rule. He has all authority and power but He tells us to give Him rule over us. It is to be willful and deliberate and personal. We are in danger of legalistic living when we withhold ourselves from God. When we pour our hearts out to God and invite Him to change us with His truth and love, we are not anxious over whether we are following all the rules correctly. We become preoccupied with the miracle of love that Jesus is in us. He knows all and sees all and understands our hearts but because He has declared a relationship with us, not a dictatorship, we must openly and purposefully offer him our whole selves. What comes out of our bodies in the way we use our members and what we speak is our worship in truth; or not. What God has wrought in our spirits by His Spirit is proven true by our outward actions as well as our thoughts and emotions. The knowledge of God’s word is good and necessary but without submission to God of our bodies it will not be seen lived out in us. We desire to speak as He speaks, to gently help others and proclaim the gospel with zeal as He does. As Christ’s we deeply desire to be his hand and feet on earth. We can take encouragement that God intends for it to be so. John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

Jesus showed the world the Father by signs and wonders. He was totally submitted to the Father’s will. We are commissioned to show the world Jesus – also by outward acts, which sometimes include signs and wonders. For this to be true of us, we must be totally submitted to Jesus as He was to the Father. We must believe in our hearts that the better honor and glory and joy is to be found in submitting to Him and not following our nature to hold ourselves up. Those who believe, worship and those who do not will fall away.

Freedom!: Gal 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We have been set free to Christ; to live in the new nature that God has given. When we were unsaved, we were in bondage to Satan. Our hearts desired evil but God gave us a conscience and on it put His law. God, in His goodness, kept us from carrying out all the evil desires of our heart. Man’s heart is full of evil and God restrains him from practicing it fully. We were not free to follow the evil of our hearts to the full. The evil we did practice was a means of torment for Satan as he would accuse us and burden us with a guilty conscience. He loves when we do evil yet wants us to feel bad about it at the same time, attempting to plunge us into hopelessness. So although we were free from the “bondage” of righteousness, we were in bondage to our conscience and need for self preservation. This is why society is eager to get rid of guilt by making all things permissible and acceptable. Romans 7:7 and 11-12 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment in holy and righteous and good.

Say you had an employer when you were unsaved that you hated. You did not want to tell him your mind because you might get fired and you knew it was the wrong thing to do. You were not free to fully hate him but you had no power to desire to love him either. You were in bondage. We who are saved by God are free to live out ALL the desires of our new nature. God does not restrain us from following the desires of our heart in our new nature. We have been set free from Satan to God. Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. We are slaves to righteousness. Being a slave in our new nature is our security; God will take care of us. Our God is good, so being His slave is pleasing and good. God has not purchased us to put new restraints on us. He has purchased us to live free in our new nature. We are free to carry out the deepest longing of our hearts in our new nature. We need only ask and He will fulfill all our new desires.

We ought to be ecstatic over being set free from our old nature! However, if we only rejoice in the leaving off of the old, our obedience will become a duty and obligation. God is not watching and waiting to see if we will obey; as if we are to bring Him something. He is eager to give us the power to obey. We are free to live in our new nature. When we live according to our old nature, we have bitterness of heart. God reminds us, in His goodness that we have returned to the way of bondage. When we turn once again to Him, He will show us the free way and give us the power to follow it. We can’t live in freedom with a bondage perspective which chains us in guilt and unbelief of the forgiveness Christ bought for us. A bondage perspective sees forgiveness only as a pardon from death not as a call and in fact, an invitation, to move forward to eternal and abundant life. We leave so many of our “new nature” desires unfulfilled because we don’t truly believe we are free to have them. So, you still have that employer whom you hate. Now, being God’s child, you desire to do what is good. You seek God to help you to refrain from speaking your mind. Your right desire doesn’t necessarily come from the fear of being fired but from the new nature which desires to please God. God helps you and you praise Him; Great! If that is all that happens in your heart, however, the freedom has been cut short. This refraining from wrongdoing will only be temporary because you have not acted in faith in the freedom granted you.

God offers freedom to truly have a change of heart and mind. We are not only free to restrain from evil but we are free to do good. So you are not only free to not be rude to your boss; you are free to treat him extravagantly well. You are free to love him. Really Great! When we only embrace our freedom partially, we actually nurture our flesh and create a new kind of bondage. Instead of trying to soothe our guilty conscience when we have done evil, we try to appease the tugging of the new nature to obey fully by doing a partial “good”. We dampen the desires of the Holy Spirit in us with this practice. 1 Thess 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit. Many of us have jumped off the boat of sin but have not taken hold of the rope that will lift us to full freedom. We are just treading water. When you’re treading water and you raise up both arms to grab anything, you will sink. Eureka! Our God is good! The “rope” is there, so sink down and take hold with BOTH hands. Jesus is with you and He will not only place your hands on the rope when you raise your arms but He will strengthen your grip with His own hands. Mighty God! Remind us of all the desires you have given us that we have laid aside. Help us to see more of the true freedom you have given us. Forgive us Lord, for not fully trusting you. We want to see your greatness. Renew our perspective of who You are and all your ways. Amen 1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. We have been given glorious freedom in Christ. Jesus’ work on our behalf gives us freedom from slavery to sin and Satan, freedom from our God hating, self destructing selves, freedom from eternal damnation and death, freedom from condemnation from anyone, freedom from the lies and ways of the world. God’s children are free! Do we know this? Do you know this to be true for you? We are free to cease from our works and

rest in God’s work. We are free to stop trying to make ourselves perfect and accept that all that we are not, Jesus is for us. We are free to enjoy God in a personal, safe relationship. We are free to love Him and to be loved by Him. We are free to do all that He commands and makes us able to do. Do you know this freedom? Or is it a foreign concept. Do you personally and regularly experience God’s freedom purchased for you as you were purchased for Him? Maybe it sounds just too good to be true or too hard to achieve. People of God, this is our good news! It is for freedom that we have been set free. (Gal 5:1). All our labor and work and striving is to take hold of this glorious freedom by resting in Christ. We HAVE been set free from sin. We are free from destruction and free to salvation. To realize that we in our natural selves, apart from grace, would betray Jesus in less than a second is a good realization. That is why we need the gospel. That is a reality that keeps us running to Jesus and forces us to rest in His work in us because we have absolutely nothing to offer. This reality is not the same as the lie that says we are constantly in sin. That is contrary to the gospel. It more than implies an inability on God’s part; it spits on Christ’s sacrifice for us as insufficient and a sham. Not believing in God’s power and intent to bring us to obedience to His will is a serious error and is warned against in many of the epistles. We are warned of not holding to the hope we have in Christ. We are warned that those who fall away from the confidence in His ability to save us from SIN will not be saved. The hope we have in Jesus is the hope of everlasting life which is given to those who love and obey God. If the power of God cannot help us to obey and give us power to not disobey, then we have no hope and the gospel is meaningless. We should not confuse this with the delusion that we, in ourselves will be made perfect. Jesus Christ will be seen in the lives of those He lives in. If He is not evidenced by love and obedience; we can conclude that He is not there.

This promise of power for lives of obedience through and to Jesus is to bring us rest. It is the rest in God’s promises for freedom that we are to endeavor to obtain. As the power of Christ works in us, we become more aware of the enmity against Him from within and from the world and the devil. We are powerless and we trust in Him to keep us. It is God who convicts and teaches and causes us to cling to Him to the point of dying gladly to our flesh. Resting in this truth is not the same as denying the power of temptation from without and our rebellion from within. We are well aware of the dangers without being fearful of them. If we simply turn our backs on what we know to be sinful we will continually fall back into the same sin pattern. Turning our backs on the world and even on our selves is only partial belief, if there is such a thing. We must turn toward God. We must reach and strive and stretch toward Jesus. We must determine that we will hold Him as He holds us and let that be our great motivation in all things. It would seem that these points are most obvious to the average believer. Certainly, most know that there is power from God for right living. But do we really understand the power and invitation into heavenly living? Are we partaking of the divine nature as the Apostle Peter states we are able in Christ? (2 Pet 1). Many who say that they know they are saved do not speak or live as if they know they are being sanctified. God saves, through faith. God sanctifies, through faith. If we do not seek grace and exercise our God given gift of faith for our sanctification, we will not grow to maturity in Christ and are in danger of falling away. Eternity: The eternal life is here, now. We live in endless and infinite power when we walk in the Spirit. Abiding in Christ is abiding in eternity because He is the Alpha and Omega. He is timeless and beyond comparison. Of course, we are bound to time but as our new Spirit

is from God and from His nature, he makes us eternal. Eternal life does not simply begin after we die but it exists today. By limiting the attainment of it to after death, we make it about us by binding it to our time-ness. We put off the pursuing of eternal life because death seems so far away. We don’t take hold of the promises of eternal life because we think it will all come to fruit later. We have awesome communion with God that we must patiently wait for. But we have eternal life today! Let us take hold and ask and seek and pursue eternity today. 1John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Som. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Why does the Apostle John write what he did so that they would know they had eternal life? He was speaking to the church so one might assume they would know they have eternal life. He explains what that life is (Jesus) and wants to make sure they know they have the Son. Apparently there were those who did not know this. There are those today that do not know this. They believe they know that they will have eternal life but they don’t know they are free and have eternal life today. God’s Spirit brings a desire for eternity with Jesus. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, (Prov 13:12). God gives us desire to pursue eternity in Jesus. The Holy Spirit causes us to long for a life lived in a higher way than the earthly way we are used to. We must pursue this longing with all that we are. Unfulfilled desires of the Spirit will shrivel and die and leave a bitter spot on our hearts. The flesh must be denied and starved of its desires and we must simultaneously feed the desires of the Holy Spirit. We do this by asking that they be fulfilled. We need to allow the desires of the Spirit to consume us so that our asking will be fervent and persistent. We are far too effective in bracing ourselves for disappointment and telling ourselves not to hope for too much. When God quickens an eternal desire in us, we need to be on the pursuit of that desire and hold on until He gives us as He pleases. He ALWAYS gives us more than we even know to ask for.

We need to ask with expectations that have grown from knowledge of God’s word, not from what other people say we should have. Your relationship with Jesus Christ is not limited to what others may or may not experience. Knowing God’s word will guide our asking and it will also increase our desires. The more of God’s word we store up, the greater things we know to ask for. If we only store up knowledge without asking for the reality of it to bear fruit in our lives, we will only be puffed up and ignorant. But if our knowledge is for seeking the person of Jesus and asking for all we see along the way, we will grow in faith. It is better to ask in faith with little knowledge than to have knowledge with no asking. Is that not how we come to Jesus? We ask for what we really do not know and he gives us Himself. It is better to ask wrongly than not at all. If we ask in ignorance (not belligerence), God will show us our error and use it for our good and we will have even more faith to ask rightly. We are free to enjoy, experience and obey God. Let us seek our God with whom all things are possible and who is bountiful in giving and puts no restrictions on us concerning our gain in the knowledge of Jesus. 2 Cor 6:11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthian; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.

Phil 3:10 That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his suffering, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Talk about desire! Read the context of this passage and see how the Apostle Paul reaches to the Lord Jesus for the fulfillment of all his dreams. It is also amazing that he claims he has not attained this. All his writings urge his readers to take hold of, confidently, as if they already have, eternal life. Yet here he speaks emphatically of what he does to obtain it. He suffers all things, he presses on, he strains. He is labors hard to take the place beside Christ that has been given him. We must do the same. In fact, he tells us to imitate him. He is not laboring to bring his flesh into submission to his mind because of religion. He labors to throw off all so called accomplishments of the flesh. He throws off any self strength and he gladly wears weakness. He wants to gain Christ, our eternal life – by faith and outlines all he does to accomplish this goal. We must labor in pursuit of Christ. Jesus is and will be gained by faith. The life of faith is a labor and test and sweet reward. We don’t know the heavenly reward the Apostle Paul had for his labors, but we can see some of the rewards he had here. He records them in his letters. He received sufferings, yes, and hardships in abundance. It was all to work in him the greater reward of Jesus Christ. He had joy, joy, joy! He had revelations from God. He had fellowship with Christ and insight into God. He had a conquering love. He had more, surly, than these. God is not a respecter of persons. We too can dream of and have great joys and fellowship with Christ. Each is assigned his place and portion of faith but we all need to dream much bigger than we do. We are free to have Jesus. We must labor to hold and keep our faith to realize this freedom. There is no other time appointed to you as God’s child to adore Him to the fullest other than today. Yesterday is gone forever and not one of us knows if we will have a tomorrow. But you, being uniquely created by God for God are given this day to joyfully seek Him and take hold of all of Jesus you are given. Love of Fear: Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. We worship what we fear. If we fear poverty, we will worship money. If we fear loneliness, we will worship a person or a relationship. If we fear disapproval, we will worship ourselves. If we fear the wrath of God, we will worship God.

If we understand that he is serious about His glory and about making it known in all the earth, we will submit to His ways. We will bow to whatever or whoever we think can assure that our worst nightmare never becomes true for us. What is your worst nightmare? There isn’t a single thing that cannot confidently be placed in God’s hands. There is no worst with Him. Usually our big “worst thing” is death. As believers, our worst is just the beginning of our best. Even the fear of the death or harm to others is swallowed up in God’s love and righteousness. He does all for good. Even in the wake of sorrow that will always be true. To fear a person or a thing is to attribute power to it. When we fear God; it is a sign that we understand Him. He holds all the cards, He calls all the shots, and

He is able to do all things that please Him. Praise Our God! He is good, He is righteous, and He is mighty to save. You do not want to be His enemy. Job 42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job had much to say about his friend’s accusations. He also had much to say about his trust in God and he worshiped God in his affliction. Yet, when God answered him, he just had to shut his mouth. His questions were gone and his defenses all went dry. When God spoke to him he could only respond with repentance and despising himself. Job was a wise man. He knew the fear of the Lord. He was a righteous man. How will it be for the unrighteous when Jesus returns? God loves Job for He has saved Him. If those who are saved despise themselves and tremble in fear at God’s voice, what will become of those who deny Him? We must remember God’s wrath. We must not set aside His jealously for His people and His hatred for His enemies. Let us despise ourselves in wisdom and repentance. Let us know and love our fierce and gentle God in Jesus Christ. Hear what God says to His enemies in Ezekiel: Ezek. 39:4 “I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the Lord.” Ezek 39:7 “And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.” Ezek. 38:22-23 “With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones and fire and sulfur. So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” Lest we are tempted to think those kinds of threats are only for those openly against God or only apply to the Old Testament times, hear what Jesus says about a wicked servant. This is supposedly one who serves the Master. Matt. 24:48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Let us seek to see the Lord with the faith He has given us that we may despise ourselves as Job and know the fear of the Lord. It is wise to take God at His wonderful, powerful and loving word. We will only be wise to the extent that we know to fear Him. There is no circumstance or threat that can be worse than to be an enemy of God. Let His power and ability to slay forever comfort us.

It is a comfort to know God’s hatred of sin; we can know He will not leave us with it. It is a comfort and encouragement to know of God’s wrath against His enemies since our enemy is the same. We need not strive or fuss but we can rest in God’s vengeance and power over the evil one, our evil flesh and the evil world. We can pray in faith for all the Holy Spirit gives us to desire because we can see in God’s angry words, His love for His name. He does not leave the work to us. It is far too important. To fear anyone or anything but God is as much a betrayal as trusting another. They are really the same. Whose word do we believe? It must be God’s. It is not a matter of simply limping into heaven but possibly a matter of being cut into pieces. Let us know in our own hearts whom we serve. May God grant us fear that will bring us to honestly examine our devotedness to Him. The knowledge of the Holy One is insight (Prov. 9:10). Knowing Jesus brings this insight: Lowliness is our greatest need. The fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of wisdom. Not the end of it or on the way or even the goal. Without the fear of the Lord, We have not even begun to see Him. How vast is our great God! Lord Jesus, we are in great need of your lowly spirit, attitude and way in us. The fear of the Lord brings the knowledge of our absolute sinfulness and nothingness in His presence. To fear the wrath of God is only sensible and wise. To live in the fear of the Lord is that and more. It is also more than recognizing our sinfulness in His eyes. Those who know God as Father also fear in having the knowledge of being completely blank, nothing without Jesus. We are nothing – which is actually more than being sin filled. As we have been cleansed we rise from sin stained to be a clean slate. In faith, by grace we are blank, clean, nothing on us. This is our great hope in Jesus. In His name, we are clean. All that will be in us is Jesus and it will always be in Jesus, never as an extension of our selves. When we are “nothing”, we cry out to be “something” in Jesus. We long for Him to lay His life in us so we may have life. So this nothingness is a state of death and we reach and plead and wait for the life of Christ in us. God is faithful and works all things in and around us for the purpose of making His name great through His Son in us. When we know we are nothing and experience this in the presence of our perfect, just and beautiful God; that is a part of the fear of the Lord. We are low, low, low. He is high, high, high. The high serves the low. And being low, how can we be anything but served? Nothing cannot serve itself but must be filled by another. Nothing must be made something if it is to have any purpose or reason. The fear of the Lord; nothingness before Him, is the beginning of wisdom. We will spend our lives here striving against the something of our flesh to be nothing before God that Jesus may be everything in us. And that is just the beginning. God is huge! Prayer: Imagine talking with the one who created the universe. Imagine hearing from the one who created you. This and much more is what we are given in prayer. God, who knows all and to whom all will give an account, wants to speak to each of His children on a personal level. Much work and many lives have been given that we might hold God’s word in our hands today. Praise God for His goodness to us and His faithfulness in bringing his word to His children. It is a waste of the efforts of others when we set aside. Prayer, our other great weapon, cannot nor will not be bound by anyone ever. There may be laws against praying to God through Jesus Christ at some point but it cannot be taken from the believer. Prayer is always available and is used in powerful ways by God. Prayer opens the door that we may see Our Savior and our own selves at the same time. It is always clear that one must go, and it’s not Jesus. Led by The Holy Spirit, we come into living connection with our head in prayer. When we pray in the Spirit, we surpass asking for temporary favors – although that is a part of it – and we seek the eternal life of Jesus Christ. When we pray, truly pray, we listen, we wait, we hear and mostly we know the love of God in Jesus. This love, given and available to us, God’s own, surpasses anything

we could ever desire. When we enter into the knowledge of God’s love, we are able to hate even ourselves for the sake of Jesus. Jesus has given himself to us. That is a miracle. This miracle is realized as we pray, with the knowledge of God’s word, and see just how completely He has made himself available to us in all things great and small.

The miracle unfolds as we become so entrenched in His love and so sure of it that we actually pray for all of our selves to be displaced by Him and mean it. This is another great miracle of love: that the Holy Spirit brings us to pray out the desires of Jesus for another to the Father. Prayer is a gift of God that is very much neglected in the lives of God’s people. Prayer is urgently necessary and vital to our spiritual lives. Prayer is often misunderstood as being an optional duty in the life of a believer. If Jesus wanted to come to your home for breakfast, would you deny Him access? Well, he does want to spend time with you personally. He loves His children and only our knowledge and assurance of His great love will work faith and subsequent self denial in us. This can’t be had in the head knowledge of what God says in His word alone. It has to be worked in the heart. This is what God does for us in prayer. His word becomes realized in a deeply personal way that can only be reached in prayer. God works circumstances in our lives to draw us to Him and to show us Himself and to grow our faith. These circumstances, although powerful, are only partially realized in their benefit when we fail to pray through, in and about them. Many have testified to God’s faithfulness in answering prayer. Many lives have born testimony to God’s willingness to hear and give His children what they ask for in Jesus name. Most Christians would say that they believe God answers prayer. If most Christians truly believed that God answered prayer and they truly wanted what Jesus wants; there would be a lot more praying. So apparently, the saying and the reality are not the same. Let us examine what we really do believe and set it before our Lord in PRAYER and ask Him to help us with it. Possibly, many believe the testimonies of others but they secretly wonder,”Will God hear my prayers?” They find some reason to disqualify their own prayers, yet maintain God does answer prayer (of others). God gives all of His children His Holy Spirit. Therefore, all can pray and be heard and answered. All God’s Children are pardoned in Jesus, so there is a place for each one of us before His throne. We need to come to an understanding of prayer as a time of petition and communion with Jesus submitted to God for God and our good. Father in heaven, return a love for prayer to your children. Increase our desire for Jesus so that we will desire to speak with Him more. Strengthen us to believe your love for us and all you have done to bring us to yourself. We need you and we miss you. Time: We love and guard our time as we love and guard our money. Investing in God’s kingdom will pay the best. Investing times with God in prayer is the most practical and wise thing we can do in our lives. We need to persevere in prayer, to continue in it, knowing we will benefit. God desires to meet with us. He is not limited in speaking to His people. We are limited in our ability to listen and focus. Our attention spans are very small when it comes to God. Why would we not want to put ourselves in the best position possible? What could be more worthwhile than speaking with God? If you were paying for an education – you would be careful not to miss class, you would listen attentively. As far as it was up to you, you would position yourself in the classroom where you would be able to hear and see the best. You certainly would not enroll and then not show up for class! You wouldn’t expect your teacher to just pop into

your home at anytime – so long as it suited your schedule – to teach you. That would not only be nonproductive to both of you but arrogant and disrespectful on your part. God is our teacher, at least. We must position ourselves before Him to learn. Do we know so much that we don’t need his instruction? Are we so “free” that God should just come to us if He has something to say to us? Where is the respect and honor due Our God? God makes it clear that He does all the work and that we are the benefactors. It only makes sense that we ought to have a mind to eagerly receive what He would give us each day. How foolish to think God should chase us down and press His goodness on us. True, God does cause us to stop in our tracks at times to mercifully help us to receive benefit from Him.

How much more will He give if we thoughtfully ask and wait to receive? Thank God for His great kindness and mercy. But our mindset ought not to be that it should always happen that way. He is eager to give and if we are eager to receive and humbly submit ourselves to be taught by Him, we would grow more steadily. This takes time and it takes focus. Not because God is limited but because we are. We are like preschool children in a classroom. It is quite a strain for us to pay attention to God for very long. We must be taught to be still and to be attentive and to wait. We need to sit before our teacher for that. We can’t make our lives about one task after another; running here and there continuously and expect to hear much from God. We must show Him more respect than that. Being “too busy” for God is not a sign of faith because God can speak to anyone, anytime. It is a display of disrespect. If you do not have a mind to submit yourself before God and outwardly position yourself to disconnect from the business of the world to listen to Him, it will not be surprising that you find yourself feeling far away from Him. God has made Himself always and completely available to us in Jesus Christ. Show Him some respect! Seek His face with plan and purpose. Ask for His grace and be still long enough to hear an answer; should He decide to answer in that time. Probably this disregard for God’s generosity is not realized much of the time. For many, they simply don’t believe God is eager to give all they need and to speak with them personally. They have believed a lie that prayer is something they must bring to God and since is seems so hard and they feel they do it so poorly, God will not miss it. He can’t really require us to do such a hard thing. Often, this is justification for the so called sophisticated manner in which many Christians will say “it’s not about the time spent”. It IS about time. How we spend our time is like how we spend our money; it shows where our heart is. That may not apply to all the world but it is a reality in our society. Those who won’t spend time with their children are considered bad parents. Those who don’t spend time with their spouses are considered bad spouses. What do we consider ourselves when we won’t spend time with God? Obviously, He does not need our time. But we live in a society of time – keepers. Time is as much a commodity as money. We spend our time on what and who we love. Possibly time with God is not considered the best investment. After all, how do we know he will deliver? What If I set aside watering my plants or polishing my shoes or my favorite TV show or something equally as important and kneel to God to find I have nothing to say? It will just be boring and frustrating. What if I go to the trouble and come away empty handed and behind in all my work to boot? Isn’t that really the fear; that God won’t show? Is God so fickle that He after all He has done He will decide to not reveal himself to us? We know we don’t deserve it and Satan will be sure to remind us of how disinterested we have been in the past. So why should God bother to grace us with His presence when we have ignored Him? Well, for one, our fellowship with Him is his idea and His work and of great interest to Him. Also, He knows we are but children in our thinking and He is patient with us. And He rewards those who seek Him (Heb 1:6). He rewards them, he doesn’t punish them. Persevere, wait on Him. Believe He is with you and in you and interested in your life and your needs. Trust, as a well known fact, that if

you submit yourself to Him He will not withhold Himself from you. Feeling or no feeling, great thinking and prayers or not; God will be your teacher and much more. He will show up if you will. Work of the Spirit: Prayer is not something we bring to God. It is a gift from God to help us enjoy and maintain our relationship to Him. It is not simply a show of submission to God; as if to remind us of who is the boss. God puts us in a position in prayer, to personally communicate with Him. It is part of God’s way of completing His work in us. When we received the life of Christ in us, our salvation, it was in answer to our request, by the power of the Holy Spirit. God does not cease to work in just that way in our sanctification. It does not do to simply, habitually, ritualistically, ask for help to be like Jesus. Requests made to God that are not heartfelt and born from the conviction of the Holy Spirit are no more effective than if we pray for salvation through Christ but it is not a true conviction of our heart. If we simply pray the “right” things because we think we should, we are not praying in faith. He does not force us to lay our lives down before Him and in fact, to gain Him.

We must ask. In prayer, we come into His presence in a unique and personal way that causes us to desire the death of our flesh. This is the kind of wonderful desperation that causes us to bank all on God. It is the same kind of realization of His power and our need that we realize, at least on some level, when we pray to be saved, initially. When we pray for God to work the death of Christ in us, He will answer and as we see this transformation increase; we increase in faith, holiness and love. This is God’s will for us and prayer is necessary for it. Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father”. It is the Spirit of God who cries to the Father in us and through us and by whom we cry to the Father. All that God requires that we do, he provides the ability and power by His Spirit to accomplish. We tend to think of prayer as the one thing that we do for God or the one thing that is only our part. Prayer is a serious tool for God. He does not entrust it to us but to the work of His Spirit in us. Jesus calls us to a rest that is all encompassing. He gives us rest in prayer also. Too often, we fret over our inability or our little desire or our disqualifications to pray. We cannot allow the enemy to hold us back from crying out to our Heavenly Father. Not only do we have great need to pray in faith but to pray for the faith for praying. We are given all we need in Jesus Christ. We can depend on him to teach us and lead us here too. If we would take seriously all God promises concerning prayer, we might more earnestly seek help in taking it by faith that we can and should pray at all times. Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep

for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Just in case a person starts to think he knows something, Paul reminds us that we don’t even know how to pray. At first, this may seem a little deflating; as God’s truth always is, to our egos. In reality, we have been given a great freedom from the pride driven guilt we often face when praying. Many, if not all, struggle with times of going to God and having nothing to say. That will put a damper on your day like nothing else can. But when we realize that God is aware of all our weakness and that he has already supplied the help we need we are able to pray because we are not paralyzed by the pride that tempts us to despair and give up. Paul is not saying here that the Holy Spirit is our stunt double in prayer. He doesn’t just step in when we can’t make it or if the circumstances are too dangerous and our own emotions too confusing for our little minds. It is not as though we normally do know what to pray for as we ought and we sometimes are just too sleepy and then we need help. No, we do not know what to pray for as we ought. Let us be thoughtful about what and who we are to pray for. Let us prepare our minds for our time with God. Let us be open to the leading of God’s Spirit so that we can truly pray.

Relationship: Prayer is all about relationship. Prayer is about our relationship to Jesus Christ. Our relationship to Jesus effects and rules all other relationships we have. Prayer is also about others relationship with God through Christ. All of our praying depends on our relationship with Jesus. What about faith? It is the same thing. As we increase and grow in fellowship with Jesus in prayer and as a result of prayer, we see more and more the sheer foolishness of relying on ourselves and we rely on Him more and more. It is a personal knowledge of Jesus that brings us to hate ourselves. When He shows up in His beauty, you are made aware of just how dangerous and Christ hating is your flesh. Nothing will bring us to truly cast ourselves on Jesus than this view of the reality of our natural person. The wonder of His mighty love is ours for the asking. God shows himself to us in the most personal ways that can only be experienced when we live consistently in prayer. When the Holy Spirit leads us in prayer to face our flesh in the light of Jesus love, we plead to be set free from it. We learn to believe that we are indeed free, only in Jesus Christ. And we ask to never be allowed to forget or set aside the knowledge or our need for Him. The Holy Spirit was sent to seal and possess God’s people and patiently works and waits for us to pray to die, and for Jesus to live fully in us. Jesus gave His life and we must give ours. We will not ask this without the reality of our need being working in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. These are not the kind of prayers that just come to you when you’re pumping gas or shopping at Wal-Mart. Be prepared to seek God earnestly; setting aside appropriate time to seek Jesus and grow in your relationship to Him. James 5:16 The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. John 15:7

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” It is not as though there are those who are occasionally righteous and who occasionally abide in Christ and get some things and then there are those who are really righteous and who always abide and they get all things. In Christ, all conditions are met. We need to seek Jesus, trusting His Spirit to help us. Let us make sure of our relationship to Him. He will not grow weary in assuring us of His love until we can come before Him boldly. In growing more assured of Jesus’ love for us personally, we begin to understand His intense love for others. Jesus love for others, especially His people, immediately takes charge of us when we pray to give Him charge over us. We learn His love as not what we thought we knew love was. We are surprised at the depth, the tears, and the simplicity. We quickly realize it as not from our flesh. In seeing his love for others in us, we have great encouragement in our faith and our prayers expand in boldness and subject. Desire: Psalm 27:4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. There are times when our praying seems to have no effect inside or out. We begin to feel like we are performing a duty. We know this is not where we want to nor ought to be but can’t seem to correct the problem. When this problem comes up, let us not fall to the lies of the enemy. Satan always wants to keep us from praying because he knows our Father in Heaven hears us and will answer us and that is bad news for him. The best way to keep a Christian from praying is to keep him thinking that he is praying. This deception sometimes can take hold of us and our prayers seem dry but we just keep talking.

We do not feel the presence of God but we begin to believe that doesn’t matter. We take a husky attitude that says “just do it”. When we see no answer to our “prayers”, we blame God. We either diagnose the problem as either God just didn’t think it was best; so just live with it or we probably didn’t ask right. Consequently our prayers become general so we will not be disappointed if God does not answer. We begin to clarify every prayer with “your will be done”; not because we love God’s sovereignty so much but in case we haven’t asked for the right thing. We forget that we have access to the knowledge of God’s will, at least on many important things. Soon we really doubt that God is interested in prayers, at least in ours. The next step is we begin to doubt His love for us personally and then we start to think he is cruel. The gift of the Holy Spirit in us is to teach us all things and remind us of the Word (Jn 14:26). The Holy Spirit ALWAYS points us to the Son. We have been given desire for Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. When we cannot pray, we should always ask the Spirit to search us with regard to Jesus Christ alone. We will often find that we have wandered from just wanting to be with Him to wanting what He has. Our enemy is deceptive. We can pray for what is right and good and Holy Spirit inspired and if we are not leaning on The Spirit to continue; we will fall into chasing the gift rather than the giver. Our affections have wandered from Jesus to self. We must seek, continue in, and return to the desire for Jesus Christ. If we do not have a desire for Him and for Him alone, we will have nothing. Our pursuit is to be for nothing LESS than the person of Jesus Christ. We must have Him; not what He can do or

who He will make us or the lives and happiness of others. We must have Jesus. This is so critical and simple it is hard to overstate and yet needs little explanation. If a person has never had desire for Jesus Christ – Himself, alone, he has good reason to doubt if he has ever met Him. To know Him is to love Him. To wander from deep affection for Him is spiritual suicide. The great freedom we have in knowing that our praying is in the hands of the Holy Spirit is the assurance that when we pray for desire for Jesus, It will be given us. God will not fail to answer this prayer to any of His children. If you don’t remember what passion for Jesus feels like; ask God to renew it in you. If you are unsure if you have ever known love for this man/God, prayer is still the place to be. Our Father will not save us and leave us to wan away in prayerlessness. Sometimes we do not realize we have little or no desire. We are very effective in busying ourselves and can be deceived that our doing equals desire. Look at your praying. Is there fruit of faith and rest and answered prayer and desire for praying? If not, likely you need to seek the help of the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with desire for Jesus. Nothing else will do. We need not be ashamed but we do need to be honest. Jesus knows what we are made of and He is eager to fellowship with us to free us and to live through us. He is zealous to make Himself known to you and through you. Let desire for Jesus; His companionship, His friendship, His understanding, His teaching, etc. lead you to pray for Jesus and Jesus alone, solely for Himself. When a person prays from this desire they will find that they will do all things and pray all things in order to be close to Him. Small Things: There are few things as amazing as when God answers small prayers. When we trust Jesus with our hearts and are not afraid to be rejected by Him, we are free to talk to Him about anything and everything. Our love for Him and our confidence in Him grows when He answers small, personal needs. When we go to Jesus with our heartaches and problems in life, he is honored as God and Friend. He confirms this with loving care. He is always more understanding than we thought He might be. He does not typically scold as we imagine He will. We are His little ones and we can take all things to Him. When we are misunderstood or hurt or sad or feeling the weight of our lives, we can go to Him. He cares and rises to show us compassion. Whether we are in the right or not; He will help us to have His perspective, which is always love. It is in these small emotional types of issues that we are least likely to pray. We may read our Bibles to instruct us on how we SHOULD feel about issues. We determine to change our attitudes. We may confide in a friend or spouse but will typically not be satisfied in the matter, even when they are very sympathetic. If we pray it is after we have decided on what we need. We do need to be reasonable mature people with regards to our emotions. We need to practice self control. We also need to take advantage of the moment to learn of God.

We need the counselor who created us. Before our Father, we are never grown but always children. If we will resist the temptation to clarify and analyze ourselves and go to Jesus with all we hold, we will be surprised by His love. Often, God does mighty works through the smallest things. The smallest things are often the most personal. We guard them and stuff them and work around them as best we can. We do not really understand our own selves. When we give them to God; He transforms our view of Him with them. When our view of God is transformed, so are we. Often He shows us a need we did not realize or a sin we had been hiding and sometimes He simply holds us together and assures us that it is OK to cry. Our God is good, and we are not as grown up as we like to think. He will be faithful to correct us but he will NEVER reject us.

Thank You Jesus, for the privilege and gift of prayer. Thank you for giving us yourself as our safe harbor in all circumstances. Thank you for calling us “friend” and always being one. Thank you for hiding us and for covering us and for making this wonderful life in you possible. Your love is incomprehensible. Your power is unimaginable. Your compassion is hard to understand. Your mercy is miraculous. You are altogether indescribable and we love you.