PRAYER: WHAT CAN THE RIGHTEOUS DO?

In Your Word, oh Holy One of Israel, we are called to the truth that "if the Foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3). However, You have told us, oh Mighty Father, that "the effective and fervent prayer of a righteous man, availeth much" (James 5:16).

So Lord, in these dark days, You have called Your people, we, Your elect, to righteousness and prayer. Therefore, help us oh God, to begin anything - a new day, a new week, a new month, a new plan, a new project, with reverence, review and an introspective look at our former Adamic nature, to ensure certain aspects of it, are not attempting to sully the washed-in-the-Blood saints You have called us to be.

As we begin all these things first of all with complete Gratitude for who we are and for Whose we are.  We did not save ourselves, and no one can. But You did. You rescued us from the pit, the furnace, the deep, the dungeon and the grips of the evil one, when we could do nothing for ourselves. For that we are eternally grateful.

You provide the roof over our heads, our food, our clothing, our health care, our modes of transport....in fact EVERYTHING which is just too numerous to mention. All are constantly provided by Your Mighty, Generous and Magnificent Hand!

There is nothing in this world, which we have or participate in, which did not come from You. We of all people are duty-bound to acknowledge this truth.

So Lord, teach us more of Your Ways that we may grow in the righteousness which You demand of those Who walk as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Search our hearts oh God, and see if there is any wicked way in us, and remove it ...root it out...reject it and release us from the stronghold and grip, that anything has over Your end time saints.

Scorch us with Your Refining Fire, until every tiny portion of dross is removed completely from us, floats to the top and is removed by the cleansing scoop from the Master's Hand.

Saturate our minds, via the Power of the Holy Spirit, that the more we learn about You in this lifetime, even if it is 5% of Who You are, the more we will wish to marinate and soak in the Presence and Knowledge of the Holy.

Sing a new song over us, as we break free from the chains that held us back from living Free and Holy, as You wish ALL Your children to live, so that as we see the day getting more evil by the hour, we can be steadfast in faith, abounding in Grace and overflowing with love, power and a sound mind.

Great Father in Heaven, the Foundations are being destroyed. The spirit of antiChrist is evident not just in communist China, the Middle East, Europe and the Far East, but in this country and throughout the West. But Lord,while sinful men and women have brought unthinkable disasters and evil into everything from family life and church, to schools and businesses at every level of society, You did not and will not give up Your plan, Your purpose and Your protection, until the job is done.

While the Foundations of Family, Faith and Fellowship have been systematically dismantled, today we join with other brothers and sisters in Christ who by our lifestyles, seek after the righteousness and uplifting moral guidance daily, which comes from Christ and His Holy Spirit Who lives in us. Lord hear our prayer. Seal Your Powerful Word in us! Hallelujah.

May we, by our actions, fueled accurately by the Spirit and the Leading of the Lord, grounded in truth and walking right before You, become that effective man, that effective woman of God, of whom it can be said, He has been with Jesus (or she has been with Jesus). Lord, today, right now, we ask and come to You with this powerful pleading and petition, in the Mighty and strong Name of Jesus. Amen.

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER MAY 7, 2020

THY WILL BE DONE.....PRAYER - THE PLAN

Continuing on in the area of the Methodology of Prayer and God’s response, let us first recognize what an incredible privilege this is! In the west, we take Christianity and the God of the Bible so casually (which we all do) that we fail to full comprehend just Who we are talking about!  For goodness sake, He is the God of the Universe. He is the Ancient of Days.  He is the Sustainer of Life, the One Who holds every single breath in His Hands. He is the Creator and thus the Judge of all things and all peoples, the One Who holds our eternity in His Hands.

In His Hands,  reside the keys to this wonderful mystery called Prayer.  This is very important to note because this Almighty Supreme Being of the Universe, Who always existed owes us sinful humans nothing but the back of His Powerful Hand. We deserve nothing more than rebuke from He Whose Voice sounds like Niagara Falls (the Book of the Revelation calls His voice “the sound of many waters”). So understanding this truth is primary to grasping absolute fact which is thus – God owes us nothing. Conversely, we owe Him everything. We owe Him Respect; Obedience; Worship and Praise.

Therefore the Methodology of the Effective Prayer life begins with the full comprehension of just to Whom we are praying.  Secondly, we simply do not know how to pray! The average Christian may pray once a week in church or in an emergency health or traumatic situation, cry out for help. Statistics show the average American pastor only prays 10 minutes per week! When we do pray, we stumble around unless we have been prayer warriors for a while. The bible says the following from Romans 8:26-27 “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God".

So given all of this, are we losing courage in our prayer lives when God does not immediately, five minutes after we pray, tell us His Will for our lives? Do you get disheartened when we pray for the healing or health of a loved one and either nothing happens or the loved one’s health declines? Do we give up when we pray about say, moving to a state with more career opportunity when others are telling us to stay put? How does Sally if she should marry Jim, or Junior should marry Jill? Decisions decisions decisions.....How do we pray for an and expect an answer to these life-changing events we all must make, at one time or another?

God knows our weakness. The awesome thing about being born-again is that the same Spirit Who raised Christ from the dead lives inside of us to execute what God has revealed in the two verses above from Romans 8:27-28. The thing is we literally cannot do this on our own. Christians are supposed to function in such a way as to allow the Spirit access to our lives and decisions so He can interpret the needs and wishes of our hearts. This way, He can fulfill what this scripture says, in order to transmit our petitions and prayers directly to the Father in Heaven. Think of it this way. Think of the Holy Spirit as the Divine Filter of Heaven, Who takes our jumbled up words and weird wants, cleans them up and presents them the way God will accept before the Throne. This is the only way for the saint by calling to have our prayers heard by God. There is no going through a third party like a priest or pastor, or lighting a candle or whatever material thing mankind thinks must occur.  There is only the Holy Spirit and what He does, as just described here.

Subsequently, this also confirms a significant truth from the Bible that God ONLY hears the prayer of a righteous man! Who is a righteous man since we are still sinners from time to time? A righteous man is one who has repented, believed the Gospel, cried out to the Lord for the forgiveness of sins and accepted Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior. Anything else is easy believism modern western cotton candy Christianity. THIS is the only first step to following the Plan for Prayer, as God has ordained. This first step is Salvation. 

NEXT: EFFECTIVE PERSISTENT WARRIOR

DAY 12- CAN PRAYER SAVE AMERICA?

Yesterday we noted what praying fully engaged with The Lord- Body, mind and soul, is basically! Oswald Chambers said "spiritual relationship is not a step by step process...you're either in or you're out!"

That's very well said because we know that God does not hear the prayer of an unrighteous person, unless he/she is crying out for forgiveness. So the prayer that qualifies is from one who is in- or born again, period.

This may explain why most people in our churches, including pastors, only give lip service to prayer. This is why we have had several dedicated days and weeks or prayer in the past few months - most people calling themselves Christians in church are not in real "spiritual relationship"!

So, Heavenly Father, I pray that each and everyone of us will know that we know that our position in you is secure and that before we come to the sunset of our lives, that we fully comprehend the reality and meaning of our salvation, before we can even begin to praise and pray to You, for the deliverance of our people, from the bondage of sin and despair, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, Amen.