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.
Before we begin our day do we join ourselves anew to the power of God? Before we do anything else, do we immerse ourselves in the Holy Spirit, and seek God in fervent, and reinvigorating prayer? As we lay out our day are we praying that God will show us His will for us in it? If we aren’t doing these things in prayer each day, perhaps that explains the trouble we have in life. So... Pray each morning before you begin those worldly things you are chomping at the bit to rush into alone.
Do you allow God to dwell with you? Is His spirit within you, and does it repair and revive your brokenness? When we first believe, we are inclined to wear our faith like a new suit; we feel good in it, and want to wear it all of the time, but it is still just a garment... never going any deeper than our skin. However, when the Holy Spirit arrives, and we breathe Him deep into us, something remarkable happens... our faith suddenly wells up from within us like a spring, and the external faith that we once put on, and could take off, becomes the person as well as the clothing.
Do you believe that your prayers will be answered? I mean, do you believe unconditionally that your prayers will be answered? I am as guilty as the next of saying “God answers prayer”, and then immediately making excuses for Him by saying such things as “If it is His will.” By doing this I am rewriting his Word, and I am asking forgiveness for this doubt, and lack of faithfulness, today... will you join me?
Must we be Holy to come into God’s presence? This has been a point which has kept so many Christians marginalized in their faith. Such thinking makes Jesus into a halfway house, or an intermediary between ourselves and God, but He is much more than that... He is our key to the Holy of Holies, the one who opens the door and ushers us into the presence of God, and more.
Even before you waited on the LORD He was waiting on you. I know a man who would like to think that God’s mercy and grace is bestowed cart blanch to even those who do not believe in Him... the one true God of Abraham, Moses, and Isaac. This man would like to think that he can obtain the grace and forgiveness associated with Jesus without believing in Him as the Son of God, or obeying His commandments and teaching. This is not so, and yet God waits on this man with open arms.
Do you tell God what you actually want, or need, when you come to Him in prayer? Perhaps you don’t really know yourself, you just know that you are hurting, or that you are in distress. Depression is such an illness. We don’t know why we feel this way, and yet we do. Most of the time though you know what it is, but God always wants you to tell Him. He wants you to take the time to understand your own needs, and to determine if what you desire is something within His will for you... and then call out to Him.
Whether you are a believer or not, rest assured that this world will come to an end, and for those of faith... you will meet God face to face. So how do we prepare ourselves for this meeting? Should we be perfect in our recitation of scripture, or study diligently the nuances of faith? No, any scholar can do such; we should be doing those things we read, and are told by God... we should live holy lives, and conduct ourselves in a godly manner.
Do you think that God doesn't see what we do under the cover of darkness? Well, think again because God is more than familiar with darkness. We associate God with light because He created it... He radiates it, and where it exists, darkness is overcome; so if you define darkness as the absence of light then prior to creation there was only darkness, and yet God was there. God sees us, and all that we do... even in the dark.
Are you listening to the voice of Jesus in your life, and in your Church? Do you obey His commandments, and do the will of the Lord? Are you loosely attached to the gospel of Jesus Christ and susceptible to being shaken free of it? If so then redouble your efforts towards Him, and become one in Him because the shaking comes to all.
How does your life fit together with your faith? Does your life contain your faith, or does your faith contain your life? The answer to this question dictates how you will approach the Holy Spirit, and even more than that, what your perception of faith is. Will there joy flowing from your faith, or will you study its details looking for perfection, and fail. Perhaps you have solved the mystery... that by living within our faith we find perfection and joy through Jesus alone. We are imperfect yet live encapsulated by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus, and surrounded in grace by the will of God.
In the name of Jesus Christ rests great power. We call upon it in faith, and by so doing it heals, saves, and provides for our forgiveness of sin. No other name has such strength in it, or reaches the Father’s ear, but before we can call on His name we must believe in the man, the Son of God, and obey. We can add nothing to it that will improve upon it. Call His name, but call it in faith, precision, and certainty.
Who will join us in heaven, and will We recognize them with a hug, and a holy kiss, embracing them as equal believers and loving them as fellow Sons and Daughters of God? We say that we look forward to that day when we will dine at the table of God, but do we really? Are we ready to lovingly walk those streets, and are there similarities between them and the streets of our town that we walk today?
In this age of selfishness, and the hoarding to ourselves the riches of the earth, it is easy to give a tithe, and say it is enough, but that is just what God told us to set aside for His purposes. Is this, or our words, the only way we are asked to praise God, or is there more? Are we to adhere to the law, or go beyond it as Jesus did to feed the hungry, and give drink to the thirsty... even as He did for us with His own blood and body.
Have you ever been living out your life and suddenly realized that something you were doing wasn’t what Jesus would have done? In our early years of faith this might be an obvious diversion from a major teaching of Jesus, but as we grow in faith it will most likely be subtle... yet the blessing we gain from this realization, and changing how we behave to be in obedience to Christ in it, is just as strong as when we first believed. The sin of disobedience just as abhorrent.