The prophet Daniel, who's story is found in the Old Testament of the Bible, prayed and kept praying for 21 days. After 21 days an Angel showed up and explained that an evil spirit had delayed him coming. What if Daniel had STOPPED praying after the first day? Would the Angel still have showed up?
Daniel 10: 12-13 Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
Is the Lord moving on our circumstances dependent on our praying about them? Where then is Faith? How do faith and action work together?
James 2: 14 - 26 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
If we stop praying, will God STOP working in our lives?
Job 42:10 AFTER Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored....
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednago had FAITH that God would save them. What if they had obeyed in refusing to worship the Kings false idols but their FAITH had wavered? What if just ONE of them had doubted? Would they still have been saved from the fiery furnace?
When David faced Goliath, suppose the first rock hadn't felled the giant? Would David have had the gumption to throw a second one? He had, after all, picked up 5, not just one.
Is prayer about getting God to move on our behalf? Or is prayer about getting US aligned with Gods truth?
Mark 9:24 "immediately the father of the child cried out and said "I believe, Help my unbelief!"
We know that the words we speak are powerful weapons.
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue...
How powerful are the thoughts we think? What about the feelings we experience? Does how we feel also impact our world?
Luke 6:45
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
WHAT MOVES THE HEART OF GOD?
I know from the story of Hezekiah in the Old Testament that our powerfully emotional pleas reach Gods ears and DO MOVE His heart on our behalf.
Consider the story found in Isaiah 38: 1-5:
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.
Right about now is where most people would expect I will reveal my "5 steps to putting faith into action" or "3 Ways to pray for the greatest answers".
Faith is about the heart before God, and each of us is individual in our hearts. As long as the basic elements of truth as laid out by Jesus are in evidence, see Matthew 6: 9- 13, it is certain from the examples in the Bible and in the lives of many millions of Gods children over the years of history that indeed, PRAYER operated in FAITH by a heart humbled before the Lord, works miracles.
Some receive answers quickly. For others it takes times. Some get the exact answer they want, others get the answer that is better for their circumstances than they were aware of. But all who call upon the name of the Lord and pray get answers. And isn't that the actual point in the first place? To know we are not alone, we are not forsaken, we are not without hope.
Fruitful - productive, alive, nourishing
Action - exerting energy in specific ways
In
Trusting - relying upon, being dependent on
Him - God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
combined with prayer is one of the most powerful sources in all the Universe that God created.
FATHER, I pray right now that these words of encouragement will lift and strengthen and empower the hearts and minds and lives of those reading them to reach out to YOU in whatever way they can or will or have learned, and because of that reaching out, they will receive knowledge of THE TRUTH and their eyes will be ENLIGHTENED and they will KNOW YOU and the power of the RESURRECTED CHRIST, YOUR SON JESUS, and it will set them FREE and deliver them into ETERNAL LIFE and glorify YOUR NAME, in JESUS name I ask, AMEN
Right about now is where most people would expect I will reveal my "5 steps to putting faith into action" or "3 Ways to pray for the greatest answers".
Faith is about the heart before God, and each of us is individual in our hearts. As long as the basic elements of truth as laid out by Jesus are in evidence, see Matthew 6: 9- 13, it is certain from the examples in the Bible and in the lives of many millions of Gods children over the years of history that indeed, PRAYER operated in FAITH by a heart humbled before the Lord, works miracles.
Some receive answers quickly. For others it takes times. Some get the exact answer they want, others get the answer that is better for their circumstances than they were aware of. But all who call upon the name of the Lord and pray get answers. And isn't that the actual point in the first place? To know we are not alone, we are not forsaken, we are not without hope.
Fruitful - productive, alive, nourishing
Action - exerting energy in specific ways
In
Trusting - relying upon, being dependent on
Him - God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
combined with prayer is one of the most powerful sources in all the Universe that God created.
FATHER, I pray right now that these words of encouragement will lift and strengthen and empower the hearts and minds and lives of those reading them to reach out to YOU in whatever way they can or will or have learned, and because of that reaching out, they will receive knowledge of THE TRUTH and their eyes will be ENLIGHTENED and they will KNOW YOU and the power of the RESURRECTED CHRIST, YOUR SON JESUS, and it will set them FREE and deliver them into ETERNAL LIFE and glorify YOUR NAME, in JESUS name I ask, AMEN
1 comment:
The further I dig into Gods word the deeper realization I come to that it is only we, in our incessant need to bring things down to our level of understanding, who put labels on ourselves, make "lists" of the only right way to do things or declare limits to Gods infinite creativity! We look for "how it was done in the past" and instead of seeing it as a wonderful example, as Apostle Paul pointed out in Romans 15:4, while acknowledging that God can do whatever He wants any way He chooses, we stamp a "it must ALWAYS be done this way ONLY" label and discourage any who do differently than WE have determined is "right". If truly the Son of God has set us FREE, why do we insist on continually enslaving ourselves? ALL who call upon the name of Jesus shall be saved - and are ALL members of the ONE Body of Christ. May we seek out our agreement and overcome our differences in order to LOVE, that the world will know that we belong to Christ Jesus the Lord!
Post a Comment