Prayer: April 2011

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PRAYER – SPIRITUAL COMMERCE WITH OUR CREATOR

Praise God for the Celebration of Easter - a time when we remember that our Holy Father God paid the wages for our sin and shortcoming, with His precious, perfect Lamb - Jesus Christ - His Son.

An amazing thing happened when Jesus died on the cross, taking our place, so that we CAN be REUNITED with ALMIGHTY GOD, the Holy One.

The Temple comprised of three parts, the outer court where one cleansed and washed before entering the temple, the Holy Place where people could gather before the Lord, and the Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies - where nothing spotted or sinful could enter. Only the High Priest could enter to intercede for the people, presenting an offering to our Holy God for atonement of our sins. There was a Veil that shut us out from the living God. JESUS - our High Priest, took our sin on Himself and went to hell for us. When He did, the Veil was torn in two, giving us access directly to Father God, through Jesus the Son. Hallelujah.

True prayer is an approach of the soul (will, mind and emotions), by the Spirit of God to the throne of God. When we really want to know God, our desire is to find out who He is and what He says. Then we deeply crave and aspire to have His character and nature with in ourselves.

My Dad found an old book written 100 years before my birth. In it C. H. Spurgeon writes:

“Prayer is not a mental exercise, nor a vocal performance, but it is far deeper than that - it is spiritual commerce with the Creator of heaven and earth. God is a Spirit unseen of mortal eye, and only to be perceived by the inner man, our spirit within us, begotten by the Holy Ghost at our regeneration, discerns the Great Spirit, communes with him, prefers to him its requests, and receives from him answers of peace. It is a spiritual business from beginning to end; and its aim and object end not with man, but reach to God himself.“
(Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, pg 673).

Hebrews 4:16 (Amp):

Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].

As you pray, pray and intercede some more. As you pray, see yourself entering God’s Great Throne Room. By the blood that has redeemed us, approach the throne of God with pleasure and gratitude, find the help you are desperately searching for. The way to God is open - see yourself in the splendor of that great room, with a loving Father who only wants to give you good gifts (James 1:17). As you see God answer, pray more, and seek Him more! Mark prayed for our friend, who has suffered for 11 years, and today she is healed and whole. Jesus is alive. Father God, the Great King, is listening as you pray in faith. Watch Him to what He has committed Himself to do ... Come boldly, receive grace humbly, rise up in victory... pray for others, ask God for the salvation of your city, your state, and your country!

TRUST HIM ... HE HAS DONE IT!
Praise the Lord ! He is alive and doing great things TODAY!

Written by Colleen Aitkenhead. Colleen is the wife of Mark Aitkenhead, pastor of Christian family Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

SEVEN THOUGHTS ON PRAYER

Rev. Tony Cooke

Taken from: Tony Cooke Ministries March-E newsletter

This article presents seven simple thoughts on prayer, and then shares insights from different individuals. I didn’t feel that a lot of explanation or amplification was needed on these.

1. Prayer is not a religious ritual.

“Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth, but from falling in love.” (Richard Foster)

“I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming.” (George Mueller)

"Unless I had the spirit of prayer, I could do nothing." (Charles G. Finney)

"Beloved, it is not our long prayers but our believing God that gets the answer." (John G. Lake)

“There is no need to get to a place of prayer; pray wherever you are.” (Oswald Chambers)

2. Prayer is not a one-way conversation.

“God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him.” (John Stott)

“The true spirit of prayer is no other than God's own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints. And as this spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy breathings and pantings. It naturally leads to God, to converse with him by prayer.” (Jonathan Edwards)

Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

3. Prayer is not a matter of talking an unwilling God into doing what you want Him to do.

"Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold of God’s willingness."  (Phillips Brooks)

“Prayer is not a means by which I seek to control God; it is a means of putting myself in a position where God can control me.” (Charles L. Allen)

“A sinning man will stop praying. A praying man will stop sinning.” (Leonard Ravenhill)

"I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Remember, we don’t pray to change God. Prayer allows God to change me.

4. Prayer is not a substitute for action.

“Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.” (A.W. Tozer)

"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs." (Frederick Douglass)

“We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism...To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don't hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist!” (C.T. Studd)

5. Prayer is not informing God about things He didn’t know.

“Prayer is not designed to inform God, but… to humble man’s heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, and to raise his soul from earth to heaven.” (Adam Clarke)

6. Prayer is not an exercise in hyper-technical precision.

Some get excessively concerned about technicalities when they pray. Granted, we want to pray accurately, according to the truth of Scripture, and according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. But people can get so caught up in hyper-technicalities that they get off track when it comes to simply trusting God.

• Was I binding when I should have been loosing? 
• Was I interceding when I should have been supplicating?
 • Was I praying to the Father when I should have been talking to Jesus?

As Corrie Ten Boom said, “Nestle, don’t wrestle.” The simplicity of David’s faith is expressed beautifully in Psalm 131:1-2 (NLT): “I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

7. Prayer is not a peripheral activity of the church.

“Prayer is not just getting ready for Christian service. Prayer is Christian service.” (Adrian Rodgers)

“It is obvious that Paul did not regard prayer as supplemental, but as fundamental—not something to be added to his work but the very matrix out of which his work was born. He was a man of action because he was a man of prayer. It was probably his prayer even more than his preaching that produced the kind of leaders we meet in his letters.” (Oswald Sanders, from Dynamic Spiritual Leadership)

"I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach." (Charles Spurgeon)

“You could remove the powerful preaching from our church and it would still continue. You could remove the administration of pastoral care through the cell group system and the church would still continue. But if you remove the prayer life of our church it would collapse.” (David Yonggi Cho)

May your walk with Him will be rich and sweet!