Good morning all, in a few hours I will be getting in a van with 11 others to head to Haiti for a 12 day mission trip. We will be going to work with Pastor Seige at Calvary Chapel Port-au-prince, Haiti. We will be involved with a young adult retreat, village churches, the local church, a few orphanages, and many "Spiritually Spontaneous" things. I email this to ask for your prayers. Our team has already (and is still going through) gone through spiritual attack upon spiritual attack and we need and covet your prayers. God has really grown a bond that I know Satan despises. Here is our prayer request:
- Please pray for: unity, open hearts, safety, joy, filling of the Holy Spirit, health, spiritual protection, effectiveness, wisdom and God's favor
Bondye benye ou
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
In the name of....
John 14:14 (New King James Version)
14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
So many times we read this verse for what we want to see in it instead of what's actually in it. I don't want to talk about the context in detail. Just one note about it, this verse was explicitly spoken to a special group of men (the disciples) and a disciple is to have their life totally sold out to Christ. Hence, the reason why this verse was applicable to them. Ok, now onto the portion I wanted to discuss. This is Jesus talking to His disciples. If I ask anything He will do it. Oh wait, no...it says, if I ask anything IN HIS NAME, He will do it. So what, I end my prayer with "in Jesus name, AMEN" I am good right? Was the prayer answered? "No, not really, but that's normal, I just kinda pray because I feel better and I know I am supposed to" I struggle with this mentality myself. I pray out of duty and not out of a desire to talk with God or to genuinely place a need before Him. So when I pray I struggle with expecting it to be ignored or go unanswered. Totally my fault, I will admit that, but what am I doing wrong? Well, the beauty of God's word is that it always has an answer, we need only look. In the same chapter, a few verses previous, Jesus gave us the explanation of "asking in His name: John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" Ok, so we know that only by Jesus can we approach the father. We also know that the father is who we are praying to when Jesus taught us how to pray by what we call "The LORD's Prayer" He starts it out with "Our Father, who art in heaven" I think I have the overall concept down in my mind, practicing it in spirit is another thing entirely. So, here goes:
I heard a great analogy in a book titled "The power of prayer and the prayer of power" he went about it like this: To come to the Father we must come in Jesus' name. Because by our own name we were rejected, and will always be. If you wanted to talk to a very high up official in a corporation or in government, how do you get in to see them? The easiest name is to name-drop. "Hi, I want to talk to the president, I know so-and-so" Knowing this high-up official has now enabled you to come in their name. The same is true for our relationship with the Father. We come to Him, not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of what Jesus has done and who Jesus is. My attitude must be one of total humility in Jesus and what He has done for me. This attitude must carry on in prayer. When I approach my holy God, I come to Him THROUGH Jesus, not through myself.
Let me close with this:
- God wants to answer our prayers
- God can answer our prayers
- God will answer our prayers
- God the Father is who I am praying to
- God the Son is who I am praying through
- God the Spirit is who prompts and ministers to me in prayer
- To get to the Father (in prayer) I must go through Jesus (name drop my Savior)
14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
So many times we read this verse for what we want to see in it instead of what's actually in it. I don't want to talk about the context in detail. Just one note about it, this verse was explicitly spoken to a special group of men (the disciples) and a disciple is to have their life totally sold out to Christ. Hence, the reason why this verse was applicable to them. Ok, now onto the portion I wanted to discuss. This is Jesus talking to His disciples. If I ask anything He will do it. Oh wait, no...it says, if I ask anything IN HIS NAME, He will do it. So what, I end my prayer with "in Jesus name, AMEN" I am good right? Was the prayer answered? "No, not really, but that's normal, I just kinda pray because I feel better and I know I am supposed to" I struggle with this mentality myself. I pray out of duty and not out of a desire to talk with God or to genuinely place a need before Him. So when I pray I struggle with expecting it to be ignored or go unanswered. Totally my fault, I will admit that, but what am I doing wrong? Well, the beauty of God's word is that it always has an answer, we need only look. In the same chapter, a few verses previous, Jesus gave us the explanation of "asking in His name: John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" Ok, so we know that only by Jesus can we approach the father. We also know that the father is who we are praying to when Jesus taught us how to pray by what we call "The LORD's Prayer" He starts it out with "Our Father, who art in heaven" I think I have the overall concept down in my mind, practicing it in spirit is another thing entirely. So, here goes:
I heard a great analogy in a book titled "The power of prayer and the prayer of power" he went about it like this: To come to the Father we must come in Jesus' name. Because by our own name we were rejected, and will always be. If you wanted to talk to a very high up official in a corporation or in government, how do you get in to see them? The easiest name is to name-drop. "Hi, I want to talk to the president, I know so-and-so" Knowing this high-up official has now enabled you to come in their name. The same is true for our relationship with the Father. We come to Him, not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of what Jesus has done and who Jesus is. My attitude must be one of total humility in Jesus and what He has done for me. This attitude must carry on in prayer. When I approach my holy God, I come to Him THROUGH Jesus, not through myself.
Let me close with this:
- God wants to answer our prayers
- God can answer our prayers
- God will answer our prayers
- God the Father is who I am praying to
- God the Son is who I am praying through
- God the Spirit is who prompts and ministers to me in prayer
- To get to the Father (in prayer) I must go through Jesus (name drop my Savior)
Friday, September 5, 2008
Prayer methods....
Many of us have heard of the "prayer method" of "A.C.T.S." (you start with Adoration, then Confession, then Thanksgiving, then Supplication) But in my prayer time this morning I started out praying with C first. Not sure why, my heart was heavy and I wanted to give it all up to Jesus. I guess you could call it the C.A.T.S. method. It made sense actually, so many times I can't really get my heart right to adore God in prayer until later. As soon as my heart opened up confessing sins to Him, I really desired to adore Him. I then thought of:
Isaiah 59:1-2
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.
And this method became much more clear to me, maybe we should try the C.A.T.S. method, obviously this isn't the only way to pray, but it's a great way to guide you sometimes.
Isaiah 59:1-2
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.
And this method became much more clear to me, maybe we should try the C.A.T.S. method, obviously this isn't the only way to pray, but it's a great way to guide you sometimes.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
THY will be done?
On my ride home from work today I was thinking about how I pray. Something struck me as odd when I was praying about the hurricanes in reference to God's will. We all pray "but Lord, Your will be done" what are we praying there? In most cases, when we pray that phrase we aren't referring to God's permissive will, we are referring to His divine, unquestionable, "gonna be done" will. So what should we really be praying then? Has that phrase become cliche with us now? I think a better statement that we can truly benefit from is "Lord, help me to submit to Your will and trust Your will in this matter" I think that gets the heart of the matter across more clear and honest than to use the phrase "Your will be done" I think that is to be our attitude in our heart, but that attitude can't happen if we don't first trust it and submit to it....
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