NDP 2021: MAY OUR HEARTS BE ALL FOR JESUS

Most Gracious God in Heaven, at the start of Holy Week, we reflect with great gratitude and sadness at what our rebellion, sin and iniquity led to on that Friday, almost two thousand years ago. On a hill far way, as the old rugged Cross exacted brutality and pain from the Suffering Savior, You brought one Final Atonement for all the sin of all the world, past, present and future.

Lord, Your Great Son, Creator of Heaven and earth, bore our sin and shame and carried our pains. He was afflicted for the terminal illness of the consequences of our sins. He was persecuted, flogged and then pierced through for our rebellion. He was crushed for all our outrageous iniquities. But by His Wounds, we were healed. By His Stripes He brought us the roadmap to redemption. By His Sacrifice, we were exonerated from paying a massive debt, for which we had absolutely no hope of even paying the interest.

Father, as the Lord Jesus set His Mighty Eyes towards Jerusalem and never wavered, may WE never waver from our commitment to serve, honor and obey You, as the Bride of Christ we have been set apart to be.

May we, as joint heirs with Christ in the Eternal Kingdom, resolve to set our hearts in motion to love You with all our mind, body and soul.

May our feet be planted on the solid ground of the Gospel of Jesus and the Word of God, which stands forever in the Heavens.

May our hands reach out and serve the least of these and never grow weary from doing good, from our homes to the hopeless.

May our ears listen to the clarion call from the Word of Truth to be ye Holy, as YOU are Holy, so we will not stray from the narrow paths of righteousness.

May our eyes see You in all creation as we worship You in Spirit and in Truth, as one day, even the rocks will cry out.

May our mouths proclaim the Salvation of the Lord, wherever we see the lost, hurting and those who need a hand up or a hope whispered.

May the Sacrifice, which comes at the end of the week which changed the entire course of human history, not be trivialized but studied to show ourselves approved.

May it be honored so that we do not grieve the Heart of the Lord and the Holy Spirit.

May this same Sacrifice by the Good Shepherd Who rescued His wayward sheep, be passed down not just to generations not yet born, but the living who grew up in homes where the Name of the Lord is not well known or revered.

Father, so, as we remember the Savior's suffering and persecution, may we as Christians, even venture to call our current sufferings - our jewels!

May we regard suffering for Christ a significant honor.

May the griefs we endure be the fuel for a life symbolized by perseverance.

May our sorrows and troubles be seen in light of Who He is and What He did for us, for on that great and glorious Day, when we see Him - face to Face - all things which are now murky as in a mirror, we shall see Him as He is - the King of Heaven and the Lord of all.

For it is in His Mighty, Strong, Delivering, Powerful, Liberating and Excellent Name we pray - Amen and amen.

THE LORD'S PRAYER- THE MODEL EXPLAINED: PART 3

Thy Kingdom Come on Earth as it is in Heaven

If a person is in distress and cries out to God in pain, panic or with persistent problems,  how does this phrase from the Model Prayer fit into the body of our prayer?

This is a great question, because when the Apostle Peter wassinking on the stormy Galilee Sea (after walking on the water for a spell), hedid not have time to go through formal recognition of Abba Father as allpowerful and all Holy. Peter just yelled out “Lord, save me!” and he wasrescued from drowning by Jesus.

What Peter did here, was recognize the Power of Christ Who was walking ON the stormy sea and OVER the high waves towards them (looming larger than life). He had no other choice. The facts were right before His Eyes. He already knew Jesus was sinless and spoke the hallowed and holy Word of the Father. These are a given for the Christian, but to get to this point, we have to have been with Jesus like Peter had. This comes from knowing His Word and following the dictates of the Holy Spirit, if you are really born-again.

The Spirit had revealed to Peter just Who this Man was. His (Jesus’) sovereign rule over the elements was observed before when He calmed the storm, after the disciples woke Him from sleep to rescue them. The Kingdom had come. The Messiah was at hand. The Faith of the  disciples needed working on, but they had seen the miracles of the Loaves and Fishes and knew He was King.

Do we? Do we recognize Him as He is? Do we believe the scriptures where the Apostle John fell at His Feet in Revelation 1 when he (John) saw Jesus as He really is – from eternity past to forever? If we do….and if you’re saved, you have that ability, then we are living right now as Kingdom people.  How is this possible? When you and I were BORN AGAIN, we not only became a NEW Creation in Christ but God imputed and embedded His Holy Spirit in us as a seal of His promise, until the Day of Redemption.

Whether a truly regenerated and reborn Christian believes this or not, it is so. We are thus indwelled by the same Spirit of God Who self-existed from Eternity Past. He is the same Holy Spirit Who hovered over the Waters in Genesis 1 and executed the plan of the Creator Yahweh (Jesus). He is the same Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead on Resurrection (or Easter) Sunday morning, on the Third Day. He – Holy Spirit= is the Guarantee of our inheritance as Kingdom people.

So when Jesus includes this phrase in His model prayer, He is telling us that we have the permission and power and authority, as declared to us from John 1:12. Given our current Kingdom status, we can there therefore pray in confidence…..just like Peter did in John “Lord, save me!” When you pray that, He automatically tune in and waits.

Father in the Strong, Holy and Mighty Name of Jesus,  King of the Universe and Ruler of all things, thank You, thank You, Lord! We are so grateful beyond words, that You win all Your power, majesty and wisdom would choose us to be Your Kingdom children! This is beyond belief and beyond comprehension, Lord! Lord as we pray to make it through each day, in these evil last days, we also anticipate the Return of the Lord Jesus , to rule the earth and make all things right. We look and long for that incredible Day of the Lord, will all will be revealed and we say “COME, LORD JESUS! Establish Thy Kingdom, in Your Name we pray. Amen

PART TWO: THE LORD'S PRAYER & ITS JEWISH PARENT~~~

REMEMBER ....AND WAIT

In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for You; Your Name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.....Isaiah 26:8 (ESV)

Most people not only have short memories but their concept of history begins and ends with their terms of reference. The majority alive today are unaware of the impact of past events in history and how their very existence is framed by it.

The wise remember, research and revisit the lessons of chronological events in order to learn from the unique circumstances of things which have altered the course of history. We are who we are, and where we are because of past decisions. It is said that whose who ignore the lessons of history, are doomed to repeat them. Those who manipulate the clueless at times, to go along with any philosophy - from cult to communism - know their audience...and the lack of historical perspective.

This is not so, for the authentic man or woman of God, who has been called, cleansed and classified as a Child of the Living Christ. The paths of the true believer should be different from the regular citizen because the Christian also possesses a future confirmed reservation in an Eternal Kingdom. Due to this very fact, the Ruler of this Eternal Kingdom expects certain things from every resident of this place called Heaven....and He gave those instructions almost 3500 years ago, when He gave the written record to Moses. He then had forty authors, over the next 1500 years, write inspired Scripture in their own style....with the same continuous message - #JesusIsLord!

The first thing we citizens of the Heavenly Realm need to do, according to His Word and His Holy Spirit abiding in us, is to Remember. Unfortunately, the corrupt culture of "self and selfie" has ingrained itself in the Body of Christ and we hear the chant universally almost, of "what have you done for me lately"?! It is not supposed to be like this for the Christian. WE, ABOVE ALL ELSE, ARE THE ONES WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE FOR US, PERIOD.

We are supposed to be steeped in the Knowledge of the Holy Who is Good, Gracious, Forgiving, Compassionate, Loving, Full of Mercy, Miracles and Matchless Wonder! If we are not even aware of one third of any of this, we need to go back to the drawing board of the altar, fall on our faces, beg forgiveness and start all over again. Time and time again, the Lord exhorts us to remember Him, not just in the time of our youth but throughout our lives when we have both great success and failure. We need to remember Him, in ALL His attributes throughout our lifetime, in good times and bad. It is not wise the trivialize the absolute significance of Remembering DAILY just WHO God really is.

Which brings us to the second point - "wait". The "paths of Your Judgments" in terms of the Lord, is focal point of our spiritual growth and maturity. Maturing in the Ways and Wonders of God takes patience. Sanctification is the crockpot of true Wisdom and Grace and we have no choice but to wait, hold on and persevere through those times of trials, afflictions, even times of chastisement and Godly discipline because these are the paths God has chosen to keep us on the straight and narrow highway back to our heavenly abode. These times of patient endurance mold us into the type of solid believer, which God recommends anyone associated with Him become....for our own sakes!

This is the two legs of the one who loves, adores and pursues a closer walk with the Lord. This twofold daily exercise will not only reveal the work we still have to do, in order to attain to God's standards, but these simple straightforward steps are there for both the young and old in the Faith to grab on to and run with. Jesus has equipped us with His Spirit, the same Spirit Who raised Him on Resurrection Sunday, to enable us to accomplish this amazing task. The only thing holding anyone back, from grasping this baton with both hands and running with intention, is desire to proceed. May our desire be for the Great God of Heaven, and to be called a man or woman after His own Heart, in Jesus' Name, amen.

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