NDP 2021 - RUN TO JESUS

Oh Most Gracious and Loving God, on this week where we observe the National Day Of Prayer, we come to You on bended knee, as our Helper in times of Trouble, Trial and Tribulation.

We serve in a land of evil, deception and entitlement, even among those who say they are called by Your Name. But You are a good, good God Who are patient until the end, hoping that all will come to repentance.

Father, though the earth trembles and the mountain topples in the depths of the seas.

Though the wild winds blow and bring destruction and devastation in their wake.

Though diseases rampage millions worldwide because of man’s evil nature and depravity.

From everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

 

You are God Who stands ready to welcome the wounded.

You are God Who stays tuned into the needs of the needy.

You are God Who spared not His Son but loves us sinners.

You are God Who sounds the alarm and warns of the coming wrath.

You are God Who saves, heals and reveals a better way for all who are weary.

 

There is a river whose streams delight the City of God. Even though the heathens rage, and the majority imagine a vain thing, You are with us in times of battle and war. The Lord of Heaven’s armies – King Jesus – remains our stronghold and sounds the Trumpet. He fights for us, daily. He prays for us constantly. He is always there for us, as He says – truthfully.

 

It is to Him, oh most awesome God, we turn – not in our vain, fake righteousness, but in His.

It is to Him we surrender our fears and cares, because He cares for us.

It is to Him we claim the promise of His, to never leave or forsake us – as Your people, as Your Holy Nation, as Your Body of Christ.

 

So Lord, we come to You at this time, and always, to see Your Mighty Works. We come to You in all humility and repent of all our sins that we may be found acceptable in Thy sight.  We come to You, knowing that in our former wretched state, that we still can do nothing on our own and that it is by our lack of proper stewardship, as Your people, that things are the way they are right now.

 

Teach us not just to number our days, but to cherish the privilege to come to You in prayer.

Teach us to cease fighting windmills, and know that You are God.

Teach us to wait upon Jehovah, so our hearts will be fully blessed, finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

 

The same Jesus, Whom walked the earth 2000 years ago, also stood on Mt. Sinai and gave the Law to Moses. It is that same Jesus we trust now with prayer, petitions and supplications for our families, our churches, our communities and nation, in His Holy, Mighty and Precious Name, amen and amen. 

PSALM 103: VERSES 9 AND 10: "THE GOD OF PEACE"

He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:9-10)

Striving has the connotation of contention. Contention is almost like an agitated action – mostly verbal – which brings unpleasantness and lack of positive results to a situation.  So many people try to beat themselves up when the slightest thing goes wrong and then end up blaming God. If things are not immediately self-corrected. This is The opposite of how God operates.

It is actually not surprising that the natural human reaction is antithetical to the magnificent attribute of God, Who is already bent towards love and forgiveness.  We kick and fuss and cuss and even worse -blame God, when God is saying “chill out! I am here, what are you going on about?”.  Psalm 46:10 says “Cease striving and know that I am God”.

The striving God is talking about here is the same as “come on, man, relax. I am God and there is no other”.  There is no better example than the Book of Job chapter 38 through chapter 41. For most of the Book of Job, Job rambled and rambled and said all sorts of incorrect things about God. If there is one big mistake any believer can make is to either appropriate God unto your own natural self-created paradigm and say: “God told me to do this” or to start putting your own words in God’s Mouth. God responded with rapid-fire, almost machine-gun like questioning of Job about his knowledge of the ways of God.

God did not contend with Job. He let Job and his friends go on and on and on for what had to be almost two years, in error, before finally put a stop to it. God did not strive or contend with all this foolishness. If you read the Book of Job from chapters 2 through 37, it would amaze you that God did not put a stop to it. But He did not strive with Job and his friends. The Lord does not strive or contend with us either.

For this we need to be absolutely grateful.  We live in the continuing Age of Grace. This is a preset period of time, maybe 2100 years or so where God has appointed His Son’s sacrifice on the Cross of Himself, as the ONLY way to reconciliation with Him.  We know, from reading all through the bible that He desires none to perish and go to hell. However, most do not take Him up on His free offer of salvation through grace and faith in Christ. This does not deter The Trinity of Heaven. There will not be a Return of Christ until the Gospel is preached to every corner of the earth.

He will not keep His Anger forever and it will be forever gone in the Eternal Kingdom. This is after the 1000 year reign of Christ in Jerusalem and after the final Judgment at the Great White Throne of God. In the meantime, let us keep pointing many to Christ, while there is still time….while we are still in the Age of Grace.  This Age of Grace literally means what we see in Psalm 103:10 - God has not dealt with us according to our sins!

We would not be able to stand ANYWHERE, far less stand before God, if we were judged daily for not just our sins but some really bad stuff Christians do!  We violate God’s law almost all the time. We do not do so daily, but far too regularly and if God were to give us what we deserved for the lust of the eyes, ears, flesh or for disobedience. We would be done for on this earth. But He loves us so much and knows our weaknesses, yet all He requires is we study His Word, become cleansed by it and therefore, become more like His Son, Jesus. These sins we commit, whether it is momentary lust of the senses to full-blown sin before God like extra-marital affairs or cheating on taxes (iniquities – the worse kinds of sins); are forgiven and wiped away if there is true genuine Repentance and an end to the flouting of God’s laws and precepts.

The key is staying and walking close to the Lord; living a repentant lifestyle and not allowing ourselves to be drawn away from Him by the tempting shiny objects and people of this world. He is the God of Peace - Shalom. This Peace is more than an assurance of our Salvation. It is the absence of conflict with our Creator as He makes us more Christ-like, if we are willing.

PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES: THE BOOK OF NUMBERS #1

LET THE LORD DEFEAT YOUR GIANTS

35 Whenever the ark set out, Moses said, Rise up, Lord; let Your enemies be scattered; and let those who hate You flee before You.  And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands in Israel. (Numbers 10:35-36)
This great prayer of the Warrior Moses could be one used by God's generals today - those who are in spiritual battle on all fronts, all across the world. Three things are happening which we need to take a note of, since it has relevance to us, in these last days.

In the first place, we see the Ark of the Covenant, signifying the Presence of Holy God and its foremost place leading the people of God. Secondly, we see this same Ark, coming to a resting place - a stop - showing the people of God where they should make their stand and stand their ground.

Third, Moses is praying for the following: that the Lord takes on all who hate His Words, Commands and ordinances and worship pagan gods and for their complete annihilation and dispersion in the atmosphere.  Then he wants the Lord to again favor His wayward people.

There are parallels here to 2 Chronicles 7:14 (if My people who are called by My Name...").  In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God is laying down the conditions for Him to heal, bless and favor. These conditions have a foundation of true repentance BEFORE God will do what He says He would do. In this prayer of Moses from Numbers 10:35-36 we see the symbols of the actual Presence of God right before millions of people's  eyes  creating the environment for Moses to go boldly before the Throne of Grace and make His request.

For us, the lessons are for the defeat of the giants and enemies in our lives - whether they be circumstances like depression, hopelessness or doubt....or worse - is to KNOW that GOD is with us. We, who are Christians, already have the same Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead. He - the Holy Spirit - is the symbolic Ark of the Covenant. The Presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian is proof that God is with us, even unto the ends of the earth, meaning until we go to be with Him.

The second lesson is this - God, in the form of the Spirit, has gone before us and fought our battles if we have turned from our wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14) and surrendered all our evil circumstances and giants to Him. We must commit our ways unto the Lord for Him to handle. By doing this, the "return of the Lord" which Moses prayed for in verse 36 will be realized by the ocean of peace we experience because He has caused all His (thus our) enemies to scatter.  This peace from the Lord dealing with these giants who persecute us, can only come about if we do what Psalm 46:10 says "cease striving (be still) and know that I AM GOD"! 

THINK ON THESE THINGS - MONDAY

CP, TM AND OM 

NOTE: (CP, TM and OM are not an Acrostic of a Law Firm or the initials of the Three Stooges.....read on......)!!!


In troubled times, people seek comfort in many ways. 

Some look deep inside themselves for the answers.  In fact, many of the great self-help gurus of the past few decades became multi-millionaires selling just that concept. From the loud navel-gazing of Tony Robbins to the teachings of eastern mysticism, all have a form of godliness...but it is the god of this world.

Some look to the sky, without knowing how to ask. In a country where almost 91% of adults have NO Biblical worldview, this is easy to grasp.

Now comes a new thing...actually a New Age thing, which more and more people inside the christian church are getting caught up in. It is the wrong kind of meditation and something called Contemplative Prayer (CP). In some circles, it is called Centering Prayer.

But is it Biblical Prayer? Is it what Jesus called for when He said "...when you pray.." three times in a row in Matthew 6:6? The conclusion is - no way!

But what are the differences? Here are some of my thoughts in brief, as I attempt to get us to think about the simplicity and clarity of True Christian prayer.

Concerning CP and Christ-based Praying:

One is based on eastern mysticism, the other, not. One is based on self-realization through looking inside yourself, the other is not. One is based on emptying your mind and letting in universal "truths" in, the other is not....and on and on. One is even promoted by certain christian 'teachers' and speakers like Beth Moore, the other is not.

If you are ever invited to meditate with someone or are tempted to look into it, be very wary and extremely careful how you react. To follow this philosophy will put you in real and immediate spiritual danger!

But you ask "It sounds sooooo good! What could be wrong with meditation?"

Nothing! Psalm 1:1-2 leads us into an exhortation to meditate on the Lord "day and night". But if you look at the true meaning of the word "meditate", it means to 'speak, utter, proclaim, study and ponder' the Word of God! This is the LITERAL meaning. The reason we are supposed to do this to get the know the WORD better, which John 1:1 and 1 John 1:1 tells us - is Christ!

Joshua 1 says in verse 8 "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success".

This means we are to speak the Word of God! This includes prayer where we read the Word of God back to Him in praise and worship! 


This also means we are to actively walk the talk by walking out the elements of the Faith of Christ minute by minute for the rest of our lives!

This does not mean sitting down in some weird lotus position and starting to breathe deeply before you proceed to "empty your mind".

This does not mean you then "center" yourself by focusing on some one word of passage from your favorite mystic writer or even the Bible and then go beyond the Thoughts of God.

This does not mean now, with an empty mind, opening up your spirit to what you perceive to be 'closeness with God'!!!!

This does mean you are on a path you may never recover from, because of it is Self-realization you want, God will give it to you...and I guarantee you won't like it!

Psalm 46:10

Many proponents of CP quote Psalm 46:10 as their biblical basis. In fact, there are so many websites promoting "Christian Meditation" that it is so easy for seekers to be led astray! Almost ALL of them - to a man - quote Psalm 46:10 which most translations say definitively to "Be still and know that I am God".


The ACTUAL literal translation of Psalm 46:10 is from the New American Standard Bible: " Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." 


This means just that - quit trying to do things your way. Quit trying to be like those who built the Tower of Babel to show themselves just as wise as God. Quit trying to do reach God using man's ways rather than God's....literally God means "quit striving or 'raphah' (Hebrew) leave it alone to ME - GOD. I am all about Praise, Glory and Worship"!!!!


Does this sound like eastern mystic centering prayer to you??!! This is why knowing the True meaning of the Word is so important and why listening to men turn it into allegory is so dangerous!

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION & OM


What the gurus of CP are really practicing is just an anglicized or westernized version of the hindu-based Transcendental Meditation (TM)! This is the same cult to which the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and others (like the Beatles) from the 1960's drug culture belonged!


The TM official website themselves describe TM as a "technique is based on the ancient Vedic tradition of enlightenment in India. This knowledge has been handed down by Vedic masters from generation to generation for thousands of years. About 50 years ago, Maharishi — the representative in our age of the Vedic tradition — introduced Transcendental Meditation to the world, restoring the knowledge and experience of higher states of consciousness at this critical time for humanity. When we teach the Transcendental Meditation technique today, we maintain the same procedures used by teachers thousands of years ago for maximum effectiveness".


TM uses a sanskrit symbol for OM- ॐ  as its chief mantra chant. I am not even going to explain what this means. It will make no sense to try and describe what all the "vibes" they get from chanting this thing. What Biblical Christians should understand before they even contemplate being a part of this heresy are the Word of Jesus about all this chanting and Centering Prayer and such here from Matthew 6:7 " "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words." 


In other words, the Creator of the Universe has just smacked down those who practice this gibberish, which worshiping their animal gods like cows and dogs, by saying "their prayers will never be heard"! Jesus was referring to the Egyptians, Moabites and other religions around Jerusalem...but today, it can refer to just about anything, worldwide, which practices the same!


Is this what people what? Their "prayers" and meditation reach only as high as the ceiling....because I guarantee you, this is where all that stuff will get them!


HOW TO PRAY THE JESUS WAY:


Over the "no-matter-how-long-it-takes" time, I will dissect phrase by phrase, the LORD'S PRAYER.  Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer not to chant, but as the Guidebook to KNOW how to pray to the Father. 


As a Prayer Warrior and leader in the Prayer Movement, I can testify to the Power of such an exercise and how it can really improve you Christian prayer life. If this exercise is done by a soul, which  has been regenerated by Holy Spirit and is tuned into the Pure and Holy Heart of God, it will lead to what Psalm 1:1-2 is encouraging - meditating on the Word, day and night!

Amen!

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)

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