Mark 11:22-24 22 And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God. 23 "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24 "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.
If there is one scripture that has been diluted of it’s potency and misused to promote heresy, this is it. Once we truly grasp what Jesus is saying here, it will not surprise us that Satan has gone to such links to hide the meaning of this scripture from our eyes.
There are two errors when it comes to interpreting this portion of scripture: 1. Most evangelicals strip it of its power and simplicity by saying, “Well, we can’t take that literally. We have to just pray, and submit to whatever God’s will is.” They talk as if we can have no understanding of what the will of God is. 2. Many Word of Faith teachers have made this a blank check statement. They say, “All you have to do is believe what you speak, and you can have what you say! Do you need healing? Speak it! A new house? Confess that you have it! A new car? Claim it! A wife? Talk as if you got her now! All you have to do is learn how to control this force of faith, and God has to do whatever you say!” This is so humanistic and self centered, that I do not even believe that you can be a Christian and continue to believe such heresy.
Now, instead of us Christians trying to search through the muck and grime to find the pearls of truth in these scriptures, we have cast them aside. And my how we have paid the price! Satan knows that if he can keep us from a pure understanding of these verses, our lives and our churches will remain impotent of the power of God. He has done well.
To understand these scriptures, we must first consider the context. Jesus previously cursed a fig tree, brought judgment upon the temple through His cleansing it, pronounced that it should be a house of prayer, and then gave a discourse on what true prayer really is. In essence, Jesus is saying that through His coming, the Old System is now obsolete, and that answered prayer does not depend upon prayer offered as a ritual in a certain place, but upon an understanding of God.
Jesus makes the simple statement, “Have faith in God.” This means so much more than just believing that God exist. The reason so many people can never pray in faith and assurance is because they do not know God. Faith in God is only given by God as we come to know God. In essence, you cannot pray in faith if you do not know the will of God. Yet I assure you, that we can know the will of God as revealed in the scripture! Romans 12:1-2 says, “ Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Knowing the will of God comes with a cost– the giving up of your life and separation from the world. A life consecrated to God will be one that is constantly coming into a deeper understanding of the will of God. The renewing of the mind will never happen until one separates themselves from every selfish desire, every worldly ambition, and every sensual lust, and gives extreme focus on obeying what is revealed in God’s holy word. Until a person does this, they will never know the will of God or be able to pray with boldness.
Once we know the will of God, it is easy to pray in faith. 1 John 5:14-15 says, “14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” The problem is with us. We are so out of tune with God, that the simplicity of such promises cause us to be skeptical. We entertain the voice of Satan, “Did God really say…”, and thus remain spiritual weaklings.
The only way we can grasp the will of God and the faith to believe in the simplicity of such promises is by abiding in Christ. If we are losing the focus of ourselves, and getting caught up in the realm of existence of Jesus; if we are letting His word abide in us and dominate every part of our lives, we will live out John 15:7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
Here it is plain and simple. As we abide in Christ, He lives the totality of His life through us. This includes His prayer life. The reason we experience so little power in prayer is that we are still in the way, praying our own will and asking God to do things along our line of thinking. However, when we get out of the way and abide in Christ, and let Jesus Himself live through us, we will both know the will of God and pray the will of God.
The only one who ever believed the promises of God fully was Jesus. Therefore, we must get out of the way and let the life of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, rise up within us and take hold of these great and precious promises. We must pray in the Spirit, which is nothing more than letting Jesus Himself express His prayer life through us. Jesus himself said that the Holy Spirit will take what is His and declare it to us. This statement reaches its zenith in application to prayer. The Spirit of God takes the prayer life of Jesus, reveals it to us, and then gives us the grace to get in line with it. This is vital, because Jesus was the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased, and it is Jesus who always is heard by the Father because of His righteousness (Matt. 3:17; John 11:42; Heb.5:7).
Therefore, as we abide in Christ, we will know the will of God and thus be able to have faith in God. We will be able to pray with power and authority, because it will be Christ praying through us, and all things prayed will be for the glory and fame of God! So, the scripture under discussion is a simple promise with profound results. Have faith in God, and nothing will be impossible.
I know that there is so little teaching on this today, that such an explanation may be hard to grasp at first. However, get alone with God and His word. Confess and forsake your sin. Open to John 15 and study it, read it, and absorb it. The only way to learn how to pray and abide in Christ is to take time and do it. If you want to see transformation in your prayer life, that is the only way. Let Jesus teach you how to get out of the way and He will come and manifest His prayer life through you. And my, how sweet it is!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Is Anyone Listening
Acts 2:40-47 And with many other words he (Peter) solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. ….. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Do we not yet realize how precious a true expression of the church is to our Lord? We have become so conditioned to the “modern” expression of Christianity, that we have forgotten what it is supposed to look like. Where is our sense of “awe” and fear of the Lord? Do we truly devote ourselves to the teaching of the word or are we just showing up to church? Also, where are the conversions? Where are the signs and wonders? Where is the hand of God? You may be thinking, “This is not for us today.” or “You are just too idealistic; come down from the clouds and back into reality. We have more sophisticated ways of reaching people now. We are really pulling down strongholds...God is working, the church as a whole in America is advancing….We have many brilliant programs and so many cutting edge conferences today….We are making progress.” My reply to you is “No we’re not. We are building bigger buildings and creating more places for people to sit around. We are crammed with countless church activities while the real work of the church, that of evangelism, goes entirely neglected. We may be becoming more elegant and sophisticated here in America, but it is simply a cover up for the decay of the Spirit’s power in our midst.”
You see, spiritual goals can only be accomplished by spiritual people who use spiritual methods. If we want to see God move and experience His presence and power in our churches today, we need to do one thing– repent! Repent of the sin stained hands that we lift in hypocrisy when we worship. Repent of our lack of the fear of the Lord. Repent of our lack of compassion for the lost and neglect of evangelism. Repent of trying to use the Holy Spirit to provide more power for our programs. No, I am not saying that programs are bad. However, when they are used to replace prayer and fasting; when we spend more time trying to be cutting edge than in prayer, that is when we have missed it. My point is that man made efforts will never accomplish God sized results. I submit to you that if we want to see awakening in this city and in this country it will not come through organizing a new program, it will not come through building more buildings; it will not come through trying to become more cutting edge. It will come through repentance and a return to the Lord. It will come when we realize how far away from God we have gotten; how mediocre and lukewarm we have become, and out of disgust over our present condition and a desire to see God glorified, we weep and lament and mourn and cry out to God to be zealous for His name and restore His glory again among His people.
Is anyone listening? Does anyone hear the voice of the Lord crying for His church to return to Him. Forsake your wicked deeds! Plow up the fallow ground! When will you come to your senses and stop sinning? Take your Christianity personally and return to the Lord. Humble your self before God in prayer and say, “God, I know I have prostituted myself to other things! But I lay here before you with nothing to offer you but my utter rebellion against you. Have mercy on me for your names sake! Here is my life, get all the glory you can out of this sinner saved by grace!”
Bro. Jared
Do we not yet realize how precious a true expression of the church is to our Lord? We have become so conditioned to the “modern” expression of Christianity, that we have forgotten what it is supposed to look like. Where is our sense of “awe” and fear of the Lord? Do we truly devote ourselves to the teaching of the word or are we just showing up to church? Also, where are the conversions? Where are the signs and wonders? Where is the hand of God? You may be thinking, “This is not for us today.” or “You are just too idealistic; come down from the clouds and back into reality. We have more sophisticated ways of reaching people now. We are really pulling down strongholds...God is working, the church as a whole in America is advancing….We have many brilliant programs and so many cutting edge conferences today….We are making progress.” My reply to you is “No we’re not. We are building bigger buildings and creating more places for people to sit around. We are crammed with countless church activities while the real work of the church, that of evangelism, goes entirely neglected. We may be becoming more elegant and sophisticated here in America, but it is simply a cover up for the decay of the Spirit’s power in our midst.”
You see, spiritual goals can only be accomplished by spiritual people who use spiritual methods. If we want to see God move and experience His presence and power in our churches today, we need to do one thing– repent! Repent of the sin stained hands that we lift in hypocrisy when we worship. Repent of our lack of the fear of the Lord. Repent of our lack of compassion for the lost and neglect of evangelism. Repent of trying to use the Holy Spirit to provide more power for our programs. No, I am not saying that programs are bad. However, when they are used to replace prayer and fasting; when we spend more time trying to be cutting edge than in prayer, that is when we have missed it. My point is that man made efforts will never accomplish God sized results. I submit to you that if we want to see awakening in this city and in this country it will not come through organizing a new program, it will not come through building more buildings; it will not come through trying to become more cutting edge. It will come through repentance and a return to the Lord. It will come when we realize how far away from God we have gotten; how mediocre and lukewarm we have become, and out of disgust over our present condition and a desire to see God glorified, we weep and lament and mourn and cry out to God to be zealous for His name and restore His glory again among His people.
Is anyone listening? Does anyone hear the voice of the Lord crying for His church to return to Him. Forsake your wicked deeds! Plow up the fallow ground! When will you come to your senses and stop sinning? Take your Christianity personally and return to the Lord. Humble your self before God in prayer and say, “God, I know I have prostituted myself to other things! But I lay here before you with nothing to offer you but my utter rebellion against you. Have mercy on me for your names sake! Here is my life, get all the glory you can out of this sinner saved by grace!”
Bro. Jared
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