All in Prayer, Armor, and Wrestling
Do you perform the work that Jesus left for us to do? Maybe you are doing so and don’t even know it. Do you go to help someone and pray for them along the way? Do you go to a soup kitchen and begin the evening with a prayer for all those that will come there that evening, and the meal they will receive? Do you visit someone in the hospital or pray over a sick friend? These are the works of Jesus... are you asking them in His name, and trusting in The Father to do them? I mean really trusting...
Have your prayers been stale lately? Are you having a tough time in your prayer closet and it is as if there is a sheet of glass between you and God? Oh, you can see Him, and you know exactly how you ought to pray, but this invisible wall of glass is preventing you from getting there. You are not alone in this regard, and there is a way to overcome this prayerful malaise.
Have you entered a doldrum in regards to your faith and prayer life? Perhaps you are new to prayer and are seeking that first gust of wind in your sails; the one that you know should be there. Or perhaps you are a salty Christian that has somehow become becalmed. Times such as this require that we lean on our faith all the more, and continue to pray. Believing should become the hope that carries us through those times when we seem to be going through the motions of our religion without any forward progress. We must believe, hope, trust, and continue to lift up our prayers.
Have you ever asked for healing prayer and received relief from your illness as a result? When this happened did you elevate those who prayed for you? If someone sick came to you for prayer, and as a result of your praying for them they were healed did you have a feeling of accomplishment as if you had done this, or felt some small part in the miracle? If either of these is true, then you have misappropriated God’s glory.
We wait on God for those things we ask of Him in our prayers, the healing, the provision, the protection, and sundry other requests, but even more than those, do we wait on Him to reveal and return His Son Jesus Christ to claim us? Do we pray every day, throughout the day, for the return of Christ, or are we perfectly satisfied in this life? Certainly we have daily needs in this world to pray for, but none greater than the homecoming of our Lord Jesus.
When we have fully accepted the Holy Spirit to reside within us we are declared to be a child of God... not by human birthright, but by power which comes through the resurrection of Jesus. It is at that moment in which our spirit receives the entirety of the power promised to us. Are you prepared to submit fully to The Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, and our Father’s will?
Do you know that the fullness of God is available to you? Has anyone ever prayed for you and asked that you be granted spiritual power? Has someone asked in prayer that Jesus dwell within you and that you be filled with the fullness of God? Well if we are to follow in the example set by the Apostle Paul then that prayer should be prayed, because this is precisely what he prayed for all those at the church in Ephesus... Pastors, Deacons, and Saints, pray for your churches today!
In the midst of our own troubles do we think to pray for others? When we are suffering, or the enemy is knocking at our door, do we ask God for help, and then include our neighbors in that prayer as well? It is hard to think beyond our own circumstances when the situation is dire, because our true nature is a selfish one. Can you overcome the “ME” in your prayers long enough to lift up a stranger as you ask for personal deliverance? While you are waiting on God, try spending some of that time in prayer for others who are facing trials and hardship of their own... maybe while you are waiting on God He is waiting on your intercessory words for another.
Before we come to that point in our faith in which we understand that our relationship with God and Jesus Christ is what is of paramount importance, we seek the ancillary things pertaining to the promises in God’s Word. We search for such mysterious ingredients as knowledge, wisdom, eternal life, power, joy, and peace, but in doing so we are like any child who prefers eating the icing over the cake. We see those things that are the fruits of an intimate relationship and mistake them for its purpose.
Keeping the Word of God in our hearts and mulling over it all the day long is the way we glean from it the intricate details of what has been placed there for us. By quietly chewing every syllable over and over again we find that we can extract all of the flavor it contains, and then every bit of nourishment. In this way we are thrilled, and then fed. In this way we see God in our everyday world.
One of the most frequent responses I receive from readers of my morning devotionals is a request for prayer. More often than not it is to join them in a specific prayer that they have been praying for some time without receiving an answer. Do you have prayers like this? Well if so, don’t be discouraged because the disciples failed in prayer too, and Jesus taught them a powerful lesson in it.
Do we forgive others so that God can forgive us? Do we believe in God so that we open the way for his belief in us? Do we trust in God’s Word which allows Him to trust ours? So often we say “God did not answer my prayer”, but I ask you... did you believe, forgive, answer “yes” to His will, that He might respond in kind to you?
Jesus said that whatever we asked in His name He would do, so why is it that you are praying and He isn’t doing what you are asking of Him? This is a common question asked about prayer, and one that causes many pastors to begin making excuses for Jesus and God. The inability to understand prayer based on one verse of scripture, taken out of context, leads to the downfall of many.
How many churches are there within your congregation? How many groups of different mind, and various agenda, are milling about one another, and often find themselves at loggerheads? This is what happens when we lose focus on maintaining ourselves in the image of Jesus Christ. This is what occurs when a marriage ceases to be of one flesh.
Have you ever healed someone by praying over them? Perhaps not, but if you are a believer then someone certainly prayed with you as the confession, and contrition for your sins were lifted up, and you were healed by the acceptance of your faith... healed of the wretched sin-filled soul you once harbored, and joined with Jesus as a joint heir of God. Sickness comes in all forms, and so does healing.