GOING DEEPER WITH GOD

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER

The past three weeks we have focused on spending time in our prayer closet, that place of intimacy with our Father. These times are most needed, yet they are not the only time we pray. Often we get a call, a text or see on Social Media a friend or a friend's friend or family member who needs a right now prayer. Least I forget I normally stop and pray right then. There are many times I have called out Jesus help me, even in the smallest of things, Jesus is always there willing to help. We all have those prayer lists of the sick, the lost, the wayward sons and daughters, our needs that we lift up to our Father in prayer. Many of these we take into our prayer closet, yet many are prayed in the car, over the phone, through a text, just stopping in the middle of the day and awake in the middle of the night because the Holy Spirit placed someone on our heart. And there are many times that I come before God saying "examine my heart, show me sin I have hidden away", or "Lord guide my direction", or "forgive me Lord, for I have sinned against You"! And much more, these times are important and precious. To know we have a Father God so ready to hear our prayers and to answer us and comfort us, and to bring us a conviction that will bring us to repentance.

We are to never be a people who are prayerless, even the unbelievers pray to the god they worship, should we the child of God not be more faithful in our prayers than those who worship a false deity! Lets look at a view scriptures that remind us to PRAY!

Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers

1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.

1Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing.

Oh I could go on and on with scripture, but I will let each of you search more out. Prayer is one the essentials of the early church, yet in 2020 prayer in some churches seems to not be so popular, remembering that one of the lowest attended church meetings is a night of prayer. There are times at my church that the pastors will be lead just to pray, and those can be some of the most blessed and rewarding moments for most of us; yet, some would become uncomfortable in their church by service not going the way they think it should. But here is the truth, Jesus said "My house is to be a house of prayer". Then why isn't it?

In a culture where we have the means to make most things happen, prayer is saved for only the big things. Yet our heavenly Father is interested in every tiny aspect of our lives; whether it is finding a parking place, healing a headache, looking for that important something we put in a safe place but can't remember where it is, or healing from a life threatening disease, or financial provision. So many times I have prayed "Jesus you know where I have placed this, help my mind to remember and my eyes to see", and yes He helps me every time, why because we have a relationship not a religion and He is involved with every part of my life, not just the big stuff but ALL of me.

My good friend will say "if you don't believe God will heal a headache then how can you believe He will heal cancer?" And let me add this "if we can't believe God will guide us to find that item we misplaced how can we believe He will guide through tomorrow when we don't know what tomorrow holds?"

So many scriptures reiterate this thought "watch and pray".

Why is it important for the bride of Christ to watch & pray? It is so important that Jesus repeated this twice in a row Matthew 24:42 and again in Matthew 25:13

 "Watch therefore, for you neither know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

In the first reference Jesus is responding to "as in the days of Noah, mankind was just living life and suddenly the rain came," the second was concerning the 10 virgins five had oil in their lamps and were ready to meet their Bridegroom and five were foolish and had no oil and were not ready.

(I have heard multiple teachings on the 10 Virgins and I understood, but the other Sunday my pastor stood in front and pointed as if to divide the congregation in half and said "Half were not ready". The truth is many who go to God's house and say they are Christians, are not! They believe He is, because they were raised to believe, yet they only know OF HIM. To know Him is to have a heart relationship with Him, and many have only a head knowledge of Him.)

Here is who we are watching for, the return of our Savior to catch away His bride. We should be watching the prophetic signs being fulfilled around us, they say He is coming, be ready for that moment when we hear the trumpet sound. Yet, many have fallen asleep and then temptation came, that the world has echoed into their ears, the Master has delayed, enjoy the moments of this day. The result is the bride falls asleep, and prayer becomes less important, reading the word becomes not as necessary and the words "I'm too tired on Sunday to go to church," becomes a habit of one's life

 We must stay alert, watchful, praying, seeking, trusting, obeying. God never told us to sit and soak, He told us to be ambassadors, to go and tell, to make disciples, to pray, to fight the good fight.......Each born again believer has been gifted to fulfill their kingdom assignment, not to be about our Father's business is to be disobedient.

So we watch and we pray and we obey. Jesus said in Luke "Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth when He returns?" Will He find His bride faithful or out chasing the gods of this world, which are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

Are there prayers that God our Father will not hear? And what hinders our prayers?

Proverbs 15:29 The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.

 (In other words, the only prayer from the unbeliever that our Lord hears, is the one surrendering to His call in faith and repentance)

Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

1Peter 3:7 Husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

Marriage is a relationship, much like Jesus Christ and His church. God desires that husband and wife have a mutual love and respect for one another. Now Peter addresses husbands in this verse, most likely women were treated more like property than a helpmate, because of the culture of their time. But I also am sure that if our husband's prayers can be hindered by how he does not honor his wife, the same holds true for the wife who is unsubmissive, which shows no respect for his position in the home.

FOOTNOTE: WIVES ARE NEVER TO BE TREATED LIKE A DOORMAT, TO BE TRAMPLED ON AND ABUSED BOTH PHYSICALLY AND VERBALLY!

1John 5:14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Let that soak in, everything we pray perhaps is not His will for us.

And we have scriptures of promises that God hears our prayers

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Revelation 5:8 Now when He (Jesus) had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, the golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Every blood bought born again Christian is a saint, not just special people, but we are saints. Our prayers whenever we pray with the right heart motive comes before the Throne Room of God as a sweet smelling aroma.

Exodus 30:34 And the LORD said to Moses "Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each..."

These were the ingredients that the perfumer would make as incense to be burnt before the Testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where God said He would meet with the priests. 

This incense represented our prayers, our prayers of praise, our prayers of thanksgiving, our prayers of repentance, prayers of petitions and more as the smoke of the aroma rises it becomes a sweet smelling fragrance before God's throne.

In closing this session, I ask "How important is praying to you?"

Next week we will look at the ingredients of our prayers and what does Intercessors and prayer warriors mean? Do you have a prayer partner to support you and you support them in your prayers?

 

GOING DEEPER WITH GOD

THE SECRET PLACE

"PREPARE YOUR HEART"! I touched on this last week, removing distractions to completely focus on Jesus. But tonight January 9, 2020, God just released to me a revelation to take this a little deeper.

It was 6:30 and I had made a commitment to pray together with friends at 7:00. I was watching an action/adventure movie that would go off by 7:00, suddenly I knew I had to pause it, go in the other room, because to enter into this type of prayer, I had to prepare my heart to be in complete quietness before I began to pray and asking the Holy Spirit to help. Watching the excitement in this movie, inwardly I would be stirred up when I needed to be calm, still and pray fervently. So I had to write it down to share in this 3rd study time.

The bible speaks about "the secret place", this word secret place in the Hebrew means to hide or be concealed:

Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

What does it mean to dwell in the secret place? 

When we are seeking God out of our love for Him, when we put time with Him a priority of our life, it is here in this moment that God Himself draws us into His secret place, His place of safety, protection, of blessings, out of His great love for us this is His response to our love for Him, ( God desires for us to love Him, as it is written "Thou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength".) To dwell in His secret place means we go there daily perhaps often in a day. You cannot dwell in the secret place by only showing up once a week or once a month. It is our lifestyle of seeking, spending time with and entering into His secret place, where we begin to understand the power of prayer.

Psalm 27:5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

Our commitment to loving God, to spending time with Him, changes us, we begin to see through His perspective, we hear and know His voice, we begin to understand more, we see how He hides us and protects us, we can only grow in spiritual maturity by daily spending alone time with God. Does this mean we never experience hard times, that things around us never come against us, absolutely NOT. We continue to have storms, valleys, dark tunnels, but we have grown in our faith to know Jesus is with us, He is fighting for us, we will make it to the other side and we will come out stronger for it. Coming out of our Prayer Room, we are anointed for our assignment, we carry the fire of God, which is His presence, everywhere we go, the atmosphere of rooms are changed when we walk in, everything we put our hands to leaves an imprint of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The fire in us has been stoked and no man can quench this fire.

Make a decision, no matter what spend alone time with our God! No matter how you adjust your schedule the most important priority in your life, is not your family, not your job, not your housework, not your pleasures, not Facebook, not Instagram, not television.

Matthew 10:37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Our time spent with Him is our top priority above everything and everyone. The last 3 sessions have been primarily about seeking God's face, going into our prayer closet often just to spent time with our Abba,Father, that is what the secret place is all about to spend intimacy with our Father. But these are not the only times we pray, we pray as we see a need, we pray in our pain, we pray when we are burdened.

Hopefully one session but most likely two we will cover: 1. What hinders our prayers? 2. What is an intercessor? 3. What is a prayer warrior? 4. Why have a prayer partner? And wherever else God may lead.

Be blessed.

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

GOD IS SO GOOD TO ME!

I'm interrupting our study sessions, to share my testimony of my Father's faithfulness and goodness to me.

In 2013 something was seen in my lower right lung, with many CT scans and several PET scans, my shortness of breath and swelling in my lower legs. That by 2015 they confirmed the report, I had IPF, called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, non curable lung disease with life expectancy of 2 to 3 years no more than 5 years. Myself and my church family prayed and believed God would heal me. During this early time God gave me a word "you will not have a premature death"! And I have held onto this word, no matter the report all was okay.

Let me back up a moment, when I was 50 years old, I was saved but spend years chasing the world and not God. When I came to my senses and ran back to God, I prayed: "Let my life be a testimony to Your goodness"! Now I truly had no clue to what I was saying, because without going through diversity of trials, we will fail to understand the faithfulness and goodness of God.

In 2018 my new pulmonary doctor said you have to quit cleaning homes, you breathing in chemicals will kill you. So in December 2018 I obeyed and stopped working, continuing to trust God with my health and my income. But even then I began to doubt, and cry "God what is my purpose". Because of the doctor's report there were times I listened to the enemy and would wonder and pray will I see another Christmas? God in His goodness would only say "Linda just keep on living"! Eventually I just started to get up each day and just kept living, kept believing, kept praying for complete healing. In 2019 my doctor could not understand, why my CT scans said my lungs were stable, no honeycombing, yet my breathing seemed worse, he put me on an experimental drug to help and oxygen as needed. So in December, as he was ready to retire, he took my case to a board of doctors made up of pulmonary and cardiology specialists, to discuss Linda's case 😁.

January 14, 2020 I went to new pulmonary doctor, he read the report these doctors gave: stop new medicine would cause me more harm than good, need lung biopsy yet all agreed too dangerous with my lung capacity, they could not understand why it looked like IPF yet did not act like it. Now here is conversation of the report.

Me: So you are saying because I am not DEAD they are doubting their diagnosis?

Doctor: You are exactly right, to our knowledge no one has ever lived this long with IPF, and now to show no honeycombing and to be stable is very unusual.

Me: Did you ever stop and think my God has sustained me and it is not time for me to die. (Silence)

Doctor: How are you when you get sick?

Me: I don't get sick, I was told "you can't get sick" and I haven't even had a cold in 6 years, because my God has made sure I don't get sick.

Doctor: Well you look pretty good for someone who's dying. 

Me: Why I am short of breath?

Doctor: It's your lungs!

So let's get this straight, because I am not DEAD as they expected me to be they are going to throw out all the PET scans, CT scans, breathing tests, and symptoms they based their diagnosis on, and now start to do tests to rule out other possibilities. Because they could not accept God has kept me and cut off the source that was coming against me.

Another playback, a couple of years ago (I even wrote about it on Facebook) I had been praying for great faith! Lets just say I didn't know what I was asking for. Because you have to go through great stuff to have your faith to grow.

Some of my friends have said "don't say you still have this that's not faith", and "They would not accept anything but complete healing"!

They have missed the report!!

The report is "I AM ALIVE AND NOT DEAD BECAUSE MY GOD IS FAITHFUL, HE HAS NOT LET ME GO, DOCTORS SAID "YOU SHOULD BE DEAD, YET I AM ALIVE"! I will take that report anytime. Scarring, shortness of breath and a wobble when I walk, doesn't mean a thing when Jesus Christ is with you!

The day after I went to the doctor in my time of prayer is heard God speak "it takes more faith to live with a disease that to be instantly healed". You know why it takes more faith? Because you get up each day inspite of the report, and you believe and trust you are going to live today and tomorrow and each day you do the same thing.

Praising God! Seeing Him in my journey speaks volumes and I hope my story will encourage each who reads this.

GOING DEEPER WITH GOD

THE PURPOSE 

& PLACE OF PRAYER

Our purpose for prayer is not just about presenting our petitions, say a thank you, cry, pray for the sick. Yes we do all of that and more, but the purpose for prayer goes much deeper than that.

When God created Adam and Eve, He desired to have both fellowship and a relationship with mankind. Then very quickly sin entered in and God's fellowship and relationship with mankind was broken (Genesis chapter 2 & 3). Then in the fullness of time God sent His Son born of a woman, born under the law. Immanuel came which means "God with us". With the coming of Christ and His taking our place on the cross that lost relationship and fellowship was now restored to those who receive His gift of salvation.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him

 Then Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to indwell us, in these verses we will see why we count on His Holy Spirit to guide us in our prayers:

1 Corinthians 2:10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

1 Corinthians 2:11 For what knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him (this is our spirit)? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.

Romans 8:27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints (you & me) according to the will of God.

God sent His Son, Jesus sent His Holy Spirit that we might have intimacy with God the Father. Jesus Himself said "He is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him"! The purpose of prayer is to spend time with God, sit at our Savior's feet like Mary did. Yet, have we become a prayerless people, who throw out a rescue me prayer when in trouble, but can only pray on the run. Both corporate and individual prayer is essential in our lives. I recently read this from Leonard Ravenhill: "No man/woman is greater than his prayer life."

God has reached out to us through His Son, He has given us all we need to have more than a powerful prayer life, but to be able to sit in His presence and hear His voice.

Let me add something right here praying a quick prayer, praying for someone who has a need even right that moment, is exactly what we are called to do. Yet, we also have a responsibility to meet daily with our Father and this is where this lesson is going. We will get to the other in another lesson.

What does it mean "to seek God", for me it is to run after God with all we are. Not to seek something from Him, but to run to Him out of our love and adoration. Let's look at 3 scriptures:

Psalm 27:8 When You said, "Seek My face". My heart said to You, "Your face LORD, I will seek."

God didn't just say that to David, He said it to each one of His children. This is God drawing is near to Him. Calling us to come close to Him.

Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.

Read that again, what does it say to you? To me it says "Don't put off until tomorrow before we seek God, tomorrow may be too late and He may not answer".

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him 

Wait a minute read that last part, who is He a rewarder to? "Those who diligently seek Him".

Our time of prayer is a commitment, not out of duty, but out of love, a willingness to set aside time to spend with God, with Jesus because we love Him and enjoy His presence. We can not have a powerful prayer life when we neglect our fellowship with God. 

In the New Testament it is recorded over and over again that Jesus went up to the mountain, just by Himself to spend time with the Father. I remember that in John 5:19 Jesus said He didn't do anything unless God showed Him. It is this time spend alone with the Father that He will speak a rhema word to us, that will give us direction. You mean God will speak to us today? Of course He will, we just have to listen for His voice. Remember His words will always line up with His Word. So to recognize His voice we must spend time in His Word, on this journey we will talk and study the importance of being in the Word.

John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, you shall go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to Your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.

We are living in a microwave society, everyone just hustling through life, work, kids, housework, kid's activities, finding time for spouse, finding time for self. Just busy little beavers who can't seem to find time for more than a five minute prayer. And you know what there are many times I don't spend the time with God as I should, not because I'm busy, but my mind just wanders around with thoughts that don't mean a thing, and I hadn't even started to pray. Please tell me I'm not alone! But we will never have a powerful prayer life until we stop just trying to fit God into our schedule.

Most have heard and spoken of the prayer closet, but do we really understand what this means? Some create a room just for prayer, others sit in a particular chair, making a set time to meet with God. People who work or stay home moms with young children normally get up early. When I was first saved I would announce "I'm going to my room to spend my time in prayer and the word", would shut the door and pray "Lord keep them quiet"! But now it's just me and my cat, I have all the time to spend with God, and I confess I waste a lot of my time. But for each of us seasons in our lives change and even so we must not neglect our time alone with our Abba, Father.

These times we should hunger for, to sit and talk to our Father, stop and listen to Him. We must turn off every distraction, any disturbance that may take our focus off of Jesus. Turn off the television, turn your ringer off your phone, put away anything that might catch your attention. Remember last week Jehu told king Jehoshaphat that he had prepared his heart, this is how we do that, we make it a commitment to seek God, in our time of intimacy, we have removed every distraction, except His word. We are excited to spend this time with Him.

I have mentioned several times "Powerful Prayer Life", you see it is here that He draws us into His secret place that both changes us, anionts us, and empowers us.

Next week it is on: "His Presence In The Secret Place". Hope you join me.

GOING DEEPER WITH GOD

THE HEART OF PRAYER

This study will challenge each of us, to ask ourselves are we wholly following Jesus and if not what is keeping us from this. This study begins with taking a look at our prayer life. Do our prayers please God or could we be so focused on our wants we have neglected to truly seek God's desire. We will deal with many subjects along the way that may be hindering our walk with Jesus and keeping us from receiving all that God has for us.

Today, it is about our prayer life. In the Old Testament God separated His people into two groups, those who sought after Him and those who did not seek after Him. To begin let's turn to Isaiah 65. I ask that you turn and read this chapter. 

In the beginning of Isaiah 65, God says, I was sought by those who did not ask for Him. He was found by those who did not seek Him. And He called out to a nation who was not called by His name. (This is the gentile nation that came to Him, through the cross of Christ Jesus).

Then God begins to address His people who did not seek after Him. He calls them a rebellious people, who are up to no good, seeking their own ways, a people who provoke Him to anger because they had made for themselves high places to worship and sacrifice to false gods, gods of the pagan nations around them. Today we would say, some have left the One True Living God to worship false religions who worship false gods, some have turned to worship a god of their own imagination (to worship a god they know of but have no personal relationship with Jesus the Son of God) and many have chosen to worship the god of this world and still more have given themselves over to the worship of satan. Look at Isaiah 65:13-14 a promise to His servants who seek after Him and listens for His voice, to hear and obey:

Isaiah 65:13-14 Therefore thus says the LORD GOD: Behold, My servants shall eat, But you shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, But you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, And wail for grief of spirit,

Once more God addresses His rebellious people, He begins to speak through His prophet coming judgment, then this verse speaks of those who judgment is coming:

Zephaniah 1:6 Those who have turned back from following the LORD, And have not sought the LORD, nor inquired of Him.

In 2 Chronicles 19:3 God is addressing King Jehoshaphat, through His prophet Jehu. In verse 3 he begins to speak the good things God had seen in Jehoshaphat then he speaks these words of what he had done: "and have prepared your heart to seek God". See those words "prepared your heart", these words will be looked at again as the study continues so that we may learn how do we prepare our heart.

But today we all must examine our own hearts, and ask ourselves "Do I truly seek You my Lord, or do I just give You lip service? Have I given You all of me, my life, my time, wholly following You with a surrendered heart?"

In the next few weeks, I hope we can answer these questions each of us individually plus more. I am beginning with "A Heart Of Prayer", or you might call it "PURITY OF PRAYER". Because prayer is essential to every Christian, our prayer life grows as we grow in Christ. But let us always remember God is not looking for elegant prayers but simple prayers that come from the heart flood His throne room. I was reminded of what my pastor once said, "say what the Holy Spirit leads then hush, be silent, even it is one sentence." I believe that there are times when Christians have this thought that the more words and ground they can cover will bring them closer to God's heart. Yet, the prayer of the humble needs only to call out His name, "Help me Lord your servant!" And He is there. 

Remember Jesus' parable about the Pharisee and Tax Collector? Turn to Luke 18:9-14 read how Jesus speaks of how the self-righteous Pharisee bragged on his good deeds and then look at verses:

13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner".

14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.........

God desires to see a humble heart  verses a lengthy tongue. Now I am not saying our lengthy prayers are self-righteous, I have prayed long, short and in between. I am encouraging us that it isn't the length of our prayers that God looks at but the heart in our prayers. Are our prayers coming from a pure heart with the right motives!

For yourselves read the scriptures above in your word, let God speak to you in your quiet time. Do a word search of the word "seek" and see where the Holy Spirit leads you.

As I am studying this along with you and gaining new insight, for my own prayer life, I am looking forward to how God will lead us. In the times we are living in, it vital that we seek God more, that our faith become stronger, and that we fearlessly jump in to go deeper with God. Next week we will look at "THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER".

Have blessed week.