POWER IN PRAYER
For if our heart condemn us, God is
greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us
not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him,
because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
1 John 3:20-23
THOSE THAT GOD WILL ANSWER
When you force yourself to pray in the flesh, you will be on your own. The flesh
provideth nothing. Prayer is not something out of your mind, it is out of your heart.
In order for us to pray effectively we must be touch by the Holy Spirit. The reason
I use the term Holy Spirit is because, before Jesus ascended unto heaven, He said
I will send you a comforter. He was talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is the One who comes into your life when you accept Jesus as your Savior. If we are
born again in Christ we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. That is what we are
convicted of when we hunger for Gods Word, when we know we sin and feel guilty, and
when we need to pray.
When you pray make sure you're in the right place where God is. Mat 6:6 When you
pray go into your prayer closet. And the Father who's sees in secret will reward
you openly. What is a prayer closet? You can say it's the place where you hide things.
A place that you don't want others to see. If you are hiding sin, you must confess
it.
Prayer is unto God. Do not pray just to pray. You pray to fellowship with the Lord.
Do not take prayer for granted. It's our only open communication to God. And God
touches that person that prays to Him, prayer is unto God, as you pray God touches
you. As you walk out, that touch remains on you and He is rewarding you openly by
allowing His touch in you to be felt.
When you force yourself to pray nothing is accomplished but defeat. You must wait
until the Lord has touched your heart. How does God touch your heart? By getting
into His Word and studying it. I didn't say read it,
I said STUDY IT! You
can read anything and not get anything out of it. That is why so many people have
quit reading their Bible. They don't know how to read it. When you buy something
at the store that requires assembly, it comes with instructions how to put it together.
You bring it home and read the instructions so you will know how to put it together
right. That's why God gave us the Bible, so we might know how to put our lives together
and live as we ought.
The problem is, that some of us have time for everything else but not God. He will
never meet you if you rush in and rush out. You can't say to God I have 15 minutes
now, I have to go to work, I have to eat breakfast, I have to play with my children.
The Lord said; THOU SHAL NOT HAVE ANY OTHER GODS
BEFORE ME. When you put something before God
in your life, that is idolartry. If you want Gods presence; cancel everything.
In Psalms 119:25 David is saying; My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me
according to thy word. What does quicken mean? It means to; make you alive, it's
to keep you from going down into the dust.( humility, also a figure of death). Psalms
119: Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
David was dependent on God not independent. That is the only way for victory in God,
depending on God will bring you victory and peace. Turn my eyes away from beholding
vanity and quicken me thou in thy way. Psalms 119:37. He is saying take my eyes of
the filth off the world. Keep my eyes on you Lord.
Some of you want to live the Christian lives, but you can't If God quickens you,
you will. So quit praying with your own strength, quit following with your own strength,
quit doing anything with your own strength, because you will fail. It takes some
Christians a life time to learn that lesson.
David said every time my foot slipped, Lord you helped me up. In Psalms 62:1 My soul
truly waits on the Lord. It means to be still, be quiet. Song of Sol 1:4 draw me
and I'll run after you. When the Lord touches your heart you will run to Him.
We cannot just be hearers of the Word. We have to be doers of the Word. James 1:22.
If you are hanging around with people of the world that are not saved and are offended
by the Word, Jesus said to leave them alone. They are blind. If you hang around with
them, you will become blind too and you both will fall into the ditch. Mat. 15:14.
In 2 Cor. 6:14 Says; be not unequally yoked together with nonbeivers............
Luke 18:9 tells us who God will answer. When the two went up to the temple to pray.
You must humble yourselves when you come to God in prayer. God hears the humble.
Not the proud.
The second group that God will hear Pls. 34:15,17 The rightesous. If we are walking
in God's Word we are rightesous.
The third group that God hears, Psalms 145:18,19, He will hear those that call upon
Him in truth and fear Him. He will fulfill the desires of those that hear Him and
obey Him.
If you fear God, He will hide nothing from you. Fearing God is not something mentally
produced, it is produced by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit of wisdom, the spirit
of grace and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall rest on them. Isa. 11:2.
The fourth group are those that keep His commandments and please Him.1 John 3:22.
If we do the things that please Him, He will hear you.
Who does God hear? 1. The humble. 2. The rightesous. 3. Those who fear God, 4. Those
that please Him by keeping His commandments. By abiding by these four rules you will
always touch heaven.
Secrets prevailing in prayer. John 15:7. If you abide in Me and my Word abide in
you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. What does it mean
to abide in Him? As a branch cannot live independent of the vine neither can you
live independent of Him. The branch receives life from the vine. And everything on
the that branch is the expression of the vine, all it produces is the outcome of
the vine. So everything that you do everyday and say must be the results of the vine
that are attached to Christ himself. He is the vine and we are the branches. Even
our prayer life is born out of the vine. Our prayers become the outcome of Christ
in that vine. Christ is the Spirit of prayer. When you abide in Him , He will quicken
you to pray.
When we come to the Lord in prayer we should not come with our tail between our legs
like a whipped puppy. We should come to Him in boldness. Eph. 3:12 In whom we have
boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to
help in time of need.
Do not pray selfishly. James 4:3 Ye ask and ye receive not, because ye ask amiss,
that you may consume it upon your lusts. He will hear, but he won't answer. Selfish
prayers are for you only. Yes we need to pray for ourselves, and we need to pray
for others. If you have any unconfessed sin, get rid of it, bring it out to the Lord.
When we sin and recognize it as sin we should confess and ask forgiveness right away.
Don't wait until the next time you pray. By then you may forget about it or you might
think it's in the past and not important.
Ask the Lord to reveal unconfessed sin. If you commit them one by one you should
confess them one by one. Then you will feel the peace, the refreshing there. Without
confession there won't be any answer. Turn to Psalms 1:1-3 and read that. That is
a good verse to memorize and keep in your heart.
When you don't confess your sin, it will dry you up spiritually and it will affect
you physically. David said; when I didn't confess my sins, my bones waxed old. Some
people are sick because they haven't confessed their sins. Confess your faults one
to another that you may be healed.
Remember when God comes last He won't answer you.
Part three coming next week. Seven steps to answered prayer.
Due to the lack of interest of the Bible quiz, it will no longer be part of the newsletter.
I will find something to replace it, that may benefit you more.
2nd notice As of the 1st of November if you have not sent your request in to remain
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Until later, God bless you and we thank those that have wrote us and said thanks
for sending the letters. Give God the glory and please keep us in your prayers.