We pray

WePray

As I think about the pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, as awesome as that would have been to be a part of, I have something better – I have the Spirit of God in me.

The Israelites left Sukkoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the desert.During the day the Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and during the night he went in front of them in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel night and day.The pillar of cloud was always in front of the people during the day, and the pillar of fire at night. – Exodus 13:20-22 GNT

I look to God and I pray. God leads on by His Spirit in me and He leads me all day long. I do a breath prayer asking Him to keep me in step with His Spirit, not to wander into temptation or disobedience. I ask for His help to keep me pure and holy and to walk in obedience – to Him, His word, His commands. As I do, I trust that He will lead me, guide me, and direct me just as He did for the Israelites as they crossed the desert.

As I talk about the Spirit of God in me there is something greater here. I am lead and guided by His Spirit in me. So He helps me to pray in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, love in the Spirit, serve in the Spirit, and work in the Spirit. Everything I do will be done in, under, and through the leadership of His Spirit in me. God is my reality – may I know it and realise nothing is natural here. This is supernatural. May I give Him all the glory for His loving guidance and leadership of my life. I look to Him to help me make decisions according to His word and His will. I want to think and desire accordingly. So I pray that I may be directed, lead and guided all day.

Will that not open doors for me to pray for others?  By praying for others I am cooperating, aiding, assisting them, turning trials into occasions where there can be thanksgiving offered to God. Am I not sympathizing  with others with deep humility and tenderness as I come alongside others and aid them in prayer?

From such terrible dangers of death[a] he saved us, and will save us; and we have placed our hope in him that he will save us again,as you help us by means of your prayers for us. So it will be that the many prayers for us will be answered, and God will bless us; and many will raise their voices to him in thanksgiving for us. – 2 Corinthians 1:10-11 GNT

Our hope can come from the favour of God in our lives shown by Him rescuing us from danger. That favour coming directly from the prayers of others on our behalf.

Others who have a deep interest in my welfare directly having assisted me in being rescued from danger and provided relief through their prayers on my behalf.

For that we give thanks to God for our deliverance. We thank those who have prayed us through our trials.

“Mercies that have been obtained by prayer should be acknowledged by praise” – Doddridge

God mercifully interjected into my life in answer to the prayers of others and God cannot be forgotten. If He delivers me, I need to thank Him. If I attain mercies by prayers of others than I return thanks to God for His graciousness and for mercifully stepping into my life.

“Prayer is the way to experience a powerful confidence that God is handling our lives well, that our bad things will turn out for good, our good things cannot be taken from us, and the best things are yet to come.” – Timothy Keller

 

 

 

Protected

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Take a sprig of hyssop, dip it in the bowl containing[a] the animal’s blood, and wipe the blood on the doorposts and the beam above the door of your house. Not one of you is to leave the house until morning.When the Lord goes through Egypt to kill the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the beams and the doorposts and will not let the Angel of Death enter your houses and kill you.You and your children must obey these rules forever.When you enter the land that the Lord has promised to give you, you must perform this ritual.When your children ask you, ‘What does this ritual mean?’you will answer, ‘It is the sacrifice of Passover to honor the Lord, because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians, but spared us.’” – Exodus 12:22-27 GNT

I link my experience and acceptance of the power of the blood of Jesus through my Pentecostal upbringing. This passage was the very first part of the practice of having a covering.

It was important to know that no one was saved by prayer nor saved by fasting. Salvation is only by substitution – trusting Jesus as Saviour because He is the One who died in the place of every person. We are saved not because of any righteousness in ourselves but because we placed our trust in Jesus Christ, who then became our righteousness.

The application of the blood then was not about being spared in Egypt because of praying and fasting or because of their own merits but because they obeyed God and applied the blood to the door frames of their homes as God instructed.

I still find myself going into a new home, buying a new car, going into a hotel room, or sleeping overnight as a guest and taking the time to pray the blood, touching every wall, door and ceiling and giving that room to Jesus. There are great testimonies of those who have used the blood of Jesu to wage serious war against spiritual enemies and God fought for them. I am protected from destruction and from any attacks.

“Now through your mercy implant in our hearts a comforting trust in your fatherly love, and let us experience the sweet and pleasant savor of a childlike certainty that we may joyfully call you Father, knowing and loving you and calling on you in every trouble.” – Luther

 

God the Father

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Paul describe a relationship with God as a Father. Such a close relationship that we actually can call Him Father.

 Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children. – Romans 8:14-16 GNT

This is a really big deal. I think we may have lost how profound this is. We cry out – not a hesitant whisper with uncertainty but with a confidence that comes from our heart and our voice. It is a prayer and a praise. Whether I express it out audibly or just in my thoughts, internalized, I can call Him my Father. The Holy Spirit has been deposited within me as the first part of my inheritance and He moving in me gives me confidence to cry out – my Father.

Prayer is me praying to God the Father through the Son and by the Spirit.

Someone once asked G. Campbell Morgan, after preaching a sermon in London, “Pastor, can I pray for little things, or only big things, when I pray to God?” He said to her, “Ma’am, everything in your life is little compared to God.”

I cry out to my Father for everything because the Holy Spirit has transformed me from a slave to His child. It is the Spirit of God that has created within me an awareness of this sense of intimacy and acceptance with the Father.

The transformation takes place when the Spirit enables me to believe in Christ and to understand my new position as an adopted child of God and all the privileges that now apply to me and result in me being changed. My new relationship means I cry out – my Father – an emotional word used in the prayers uttered in the Psalms 40 times.

My Father was the address Jesus used as He prayed in the Garden just prior to His arrest and He taught us how to pray starting with this expression. It means that I can draw near to God in my distress and my time of need with the same sense of intimacy and assurance of being heard that Jesus had.

“In the Aramaic of Jesus’ time abba, in origin
an exclamation of small children, had replaced
in ordinary use abi (‘my father’), both vocative
and non-vocative, and also the emphatic state
aba. It was not, however, used as a form of
address to God (its homely origin no doubt
made it seem unsuitable). So its use by Jesus is
highly significant… It is significant that Jesus
calls God ‘Father’ at this moment – as he sees
the cup held out to him. He knows God as
Father even in Gethsemane: to have failed to
do so would have been to lose the battle.”
Cranfield

 

 

Arouse the conscience

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The Passover is a powerful experience for the people of Israel and they have a story to share with generations of families and the work of the blood continues to this day. It is a powerful connection to my story on how necessary it is to tell everyone of their need for a Saviour.

 Moses called for all the leaders of Israel and said to them, “Each of you is to choose a lamb or a young goat and kill it, so that your families can celebrate Passover. – Exodus 12:21 GNT

I knew a family that refused to talk to their children about their need for Jesus for they felt they were not aware of the fact they even had sin. I believe they flattered themselves that they had good natures and they still needed to develop a sense of wrongdoing. If we bolster our thoughts of innocence and not recognize sin we have lost the opportunity of introducing Jesus.

When sin happens in my life I need it pointed out sometimes. I pray that the Holy Spirit will work conviction in my heart and conscience. I pray that He will do the same for my grand children and the same for our neighbours.

I am pretty sure that flimsy Christianity is not good for anyone. We all need to be pardoned through the precious blood of Jesus. If I hesitate to even suggest that I am not in a place where I need a Saviour, I am pretty sure I will not desire a remedy. I rarely talk to others about the demise of sin but I know it is something that motivates me to restore my relationship, through repentance, every single day. My task is to be tender and yet true. There is a day coming where an account will have to be given and I pray that the Holy Spirit will work in my heart until it becomes tender and that my mind can see my need for salvation and for those in my circle of relationships.

Prayer is only the voice of faith to God through Christ – Jonathan Edwards

 

Other-oriented

dead tree

Pharaoh just loves to think about giving conditions to God in regards to letting the people of Israel go and then not letting them go.

Then the king hurriedly called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.Now forgive my sin this one time and pray to the Lord your God to take away this fatal punishment from me.”Moses left the king and prayed to the Lord.And the Lord changed the east wind into a very strong west wind, which picked up the locusts and blew them into the Gulf of Suez.[a] Not one locust was left in all of Egypt.But the Lordmade the king stubborn, and he did not let the Israelites go. – Exodus 10:16-20 GNT

He acted not only as if he was ruler over everything, but he thought he was over God too. I see myself not being very different. I notice when I really do not want to surrender fully or obey fully. I hear myself bargaining or giving my terms and conditions to God. I also hear my prayers asking God to answer them and meet all my needs. Sounds like what Pharaoh has been doing.

The story Jesus gave about fig tree illustrates the idea of what Moses did for Pharaoh.
Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a man who had a fig tree growing in his vineyard. He went looking for figs on it but found none. So he said to his gardener, ‘Look, for three years I have been coming here looking for figs on this fig tree, and I haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it go on using up the soil?’ But the gardener answered, ‘Leave it alone, sir, just one more year; I will dig around it and put in some fertilizer. Then if the tree bears figs next year, so much the better; if not, then you can have it cut down.’” – Luke 13:6-9 GNT
Is the gardner’s example of intercession for the tree not a great example of when it is the right time to intercede for others? Should I pray for those I preach to? I like the attitude and approach the gardner makes. Notice that he does not pray, “never cut it down” but rather “leave it alone for this year.” As another side note, notice that there is grace given by the gardner to a tree that did not necessarily deserve grace. This tree was condemned to die and the gardner stepped in and said wait, he offered grace – love that. I think there are a lot of fig trees out there that have not produced fruit and I believe God would have us pray for mercy. Then I must stand in the gap, to add some fertilizer. I know it is not to be forever, just a period of time, sufficient time. While it is great to be praying for someone and for others to be praying for me, they are just that – offers of grace, but not repentance. That has to come from my own faith and prayers. I love that someone will walk with me and another will allow me to walk with them but at the end of the day the one who is receiving the prayer of grace has to humble themselves and begin to walk with God too. I am not too sure what it will take for unfruitful followers of Christ to be awakened. For me, the Holy Spirit uses testimonies. They have a large impact on me. For others I know it is remembering the promises of the gospel. These are things that are warming and fattening as manure to a tree. 
“The triune God existed without the universe and without any need for it. Father, Son and Spirit – the divine Family – have existed from eternity in their free, mutual self-giving and self-receiving love. Relationship or communion is intrinsic to this “household” (or economy) of divine persons who, though distinct from on another, are inseparably united in other-oriented love. This divine inter – (and inner – ) connection of mutuality, openness, and reciprocity has no individualistic competition among the family members, but only joy, self-giving love and transparency. Rather than being some isolated self or solitary ego, God is supremely relational in his sef-giving, other-oriented nature. Within God is intimate union as well as distinction – an unbreakable communion of person. The persons of the Godhead can be distinguished, but not separated. God is both community and unity. – Paul Copan