THE RESURRECTED LIFE: PART 1: RESTORATION, RELATIONSHIP

 TEXT:  HEBREWS 13:20-21

THE GOD WHO INVITES, PART 1 - COME, LISTEN, LIVE

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Listen, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you; the sure mercies of David". (Isaiah 55:1-3)

All through the Word of God - the Bible - our Heavenly Father beckons, calls, beseeches, begs, asks, summons and always directs us to come. He is the God Who invites us to sit at His table. This table is prepared for His Children because He loves us more than the world will ever acknowledge.

How much does God love us? Ask Jesus - He came off the eternal throne of Heaven, was born as a man in a cold stable on an early Fall night and lived to show us HOW we should live. God loved His wayward children so much, He even allowed His one of a kind (only begotten son), Jesus, to literally die on a cross as payment for all our sin, for all time, before rising to Glory to confirm the defeat of Death, and the hope of mankind.

God not only invites us to Heaven, and one day soon - the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, but while we are alive on this earth, and have troubles, trials and pain, He does summon us to not just reason and test Him, but to find comfort, peace and tranquility in Him. You will not find it in any man-made system or in emptying your mind and brain and soul as the eastern mystic religions do. You will not find it in crystals and new-age ungodly mantras and meditation. You can only find it in the pure, unfiltered Word and Mind of Yahweh, the Great God of heaven.

So here, in point form, is an amazing invitation from our loving, merciful, compassion and relationship-building God, our Father Who is in Heaven. The text is from Isaiah 55:1-3 (seen above). As we read these specific, true and guaranteed invitation, let us apply it to our lives and do as He says. It will transform our lives:
-   Come to the Waters (Verse 1a - for those who are thirsty for a drink of life that satisfies).
-   Come, buy and eat....without money (Verse 1b) - the Grace of God is free. Not for sale.
-   Listen carefully to me (Verse 2a) - when God speaks, pay attention, for our own good.
-   Let your soul delight (Verse 2b) - come, listen and just sit and rest in the love and grace and goodness of our Father,
-   Incline your ear (Verse 3a) - not just listen, but make the extra effort to move your head closer, so your spiritual ear and heart, can hear better from God. Why? Because He says "come closer".
-   Listen and your soul shall live (Verse 3b) - Twice He says "listen" in the last two verses. Hearing the Voice of God calling us to forgiveness, repentance and Faith is the only way to gain eternal life with God in Heaven.

There is no better invitation anywhere in this universe. 

NEW SERIES: "PRAY FOR....RIGHT ALIGNMENT WITH GOD"

A NEW SHORT SERIES ON PRAYER

"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-- unless indeed you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5)
The most important relationship any human will ever have in this life is the one with God. I am not talking about the gods of your choosing, but the One True God of Heaven - Yahweh. Our heavenly Father has made this journey with Him even simpler and more intense, when He - Abba Father (Daddy) - sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth some 2000 years ago. 

This same Jesus, in the most important discourse in History on the Christian Life - the Sermon on the Mount said the following (Matthew 6:33) "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble". To get the full context of this verse, click here for the entire chapter of Matthew 6.

What the Lord is teaching us is this - our Faith is an intentional daily walk with Him which has to be recharged daily. We know from experience that several things occur during one 24 hour period which can alter the course of a life, change circumstances and even affect our worldview.  In life, we have more valley experiences than mountain top ones. Bad things are more apt to happen to a person, and especially a Christian, than good ones. Sometimes a good day is when things are status quo.

So God is calling for us to wake up each day with a certain mindset of overcoming those not so good days, when our vehicle of life is out of alignment. At those times we must fall back into zone coverage. That is, our relationship with God through Christ and its strength must be such that it can withstand incoming. This is the testing called for and it comes from recharging with Spiritual Food - a Holy Breakfast, if you will, when we wake up recharged physically.

But more than this, God is calling here in 2 Corinthians 13:5 for a testing the tensile strength of our relationship. This is why the Lord does not mind you and I asking Him questions, even in doubt. Because then, we can say to Him "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief". If more and more and us, search our hearts as Psalm 139:23-24 says "23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting"...and call for God to cleanse us and purify us and that the precious Supernatural Blood of Christ can make us clean as the wind-driven snow, we will pass this daily test with flying colors, and the rest of the day's events will pale, as we sail!

The steps here are really simple to a spiritual daily diagnosis - praising God for a new day and then checking to see if our heart, mind, body and soul are all pointed north to Him, by praying for the same, as indicated above. This gives us such comfort and rest in the promise, that we cannot help but say like Jeremiah shouted out in praise in Lamentations 3:22-25, the immortal words which became the great hymn of the Faith (Great is Thy Faithfulness): "22 Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!" 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him."

PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES - THE BOOK OF JAMES, #11

                      METHODOLOGY CONCERNING: INTERCESSION

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16a).

There is no greater gift you can give a friend than to pray for them, after you have told them about Jesus and what He has done for you. This makes you and each Christian who follows the teaching of the Scriptures (through James here) - an intercessor.

An intercessor is one who stands in the gap for someone else in prayer and supplication to the Father in Heaven. 
An intercessor is one who has such an intimate relationship with God that when this Christian man or woman approaches the Throne Room of heaven - day or night - our Heavenly Father listens. 
An intercessor is one who is prayed up, stayed up and weighed up in the Scales of Heaven and found wanted by the LORD as one of His dearest saints.
An intercessor is a prayer warrior who lays a hold of the need of another or many others and does not let go, even after the result has been achieved because that desired result only leads to more and more praise to the Most High God.

Many of us have prayed for the closest of our loved ones to the most distant of emailed prayer requests and do so willingly, because a willing heart is near and dear to God. So is a repentant heart and one that is willing to forgive someone else, even if we are the party who has been wronged.

So, we know what the attributes of someone who "stands in the gap" for another - an intercessor looks like. But how does that look in practice? First things first, unless it is absolutely impossible to do so immediately, we never tell someone in dire straights "you are in my thoughts and prayers"! That is an easy way out to do nothing but sounds like the rest of the world.

Secondly, even if it is very quietly off to the side of a room or the street, on a sidewalk, ask permission to pray for the person right there and there.

Third, pray to the point, in brief, with power and immediately transport yourself into His Presence, in the Power of the Holy Ghost like this - "Father, in the Mighty Strong and Powerful Name that is above every name, the Name of Jesus, the Great and Mighty Physician Who heals our diseases and rescues us from the domain of darkness, I come to You right now on behalf of my friend........(fill in the name of the person being prayed over) and humbly as Thee for Thy tender mercies, grace and compassion for her healing (or his restoration) to full and complete health. Lord, we know that You are more than able and capable of reaching down from heaven and ask that You intervene with the Healing Touch of Your Powerful and Awesome Hand into this situation and restore from this (virus, tumor, ....fill in the blank) right now, right now and heal every fiber of his/her being....that You remove every affliction....that You restore life into that which was formerly non-functional and that You bring hope, joy, peace, contentment and gratitude at this miracle, which we are asking for, believing in and trusting in right now, right now Father, from the top of her/his head to the soles of her/his feet and believe, receive and thank You right now for intervening, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, Amen and amen and amen.

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