PRAY FOR.....DISCERNMENT

7 On that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, “Ask! What shall I give you?” 8 And Solomon said to God: “You have shown great mercy to David my father, and have made me king in his place. 9 Now, O Lord God, let Your promise to David my father be established, for You have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. 10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?” 2 Chronicles 1:7-10

If God were to offer you the opportunity to ask anything of Him and He would grant it, what would your request be?  The Lord Himself offered the same to King Solomon, who the Bible called the “wisest man in the world”. Solomon did something which most human beings would never do, but should. He asked for “BIYN” – the original word for “discernment”.

      When you think of all that people would ask for in today’s world: a million dollars; a new car; a house by the beach etc. etc….to ask for the ability to discern would be the last thing people in the 21^st century would ask for. Yet as we mature as Christians, it is indeed the perfect request. The general dictionary definition of Discernment is basically this: insight based on an acute sense of judgment  and understanding. The Christian definition of discernment is a little more involved. It is the ability to not just THINK biblically, but to understand what the Scriptures are saying and apply it to daily life.

We pray for Wisdom and acquire it from God through His Spirit, Study of His Word and Prayer. The ability to take this wisdom and apply it with a certain degree of effectiveness, is discernment. Godly Discernment can only come from an intentional daily walk and pressing in to the Source of all Goodness, Power and Wisdom – Almighty God! It comes from practicing in our bodies and lives what 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 instructs us to do: “Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil”.

This means:

-           -  Test all things: i.e. using all our God-given wisdom, tested by experience, prayer and the Bible, to discern what is true and what is of God, when faced with a live situation or circumstance.

-           -  Hold fast what is good: i.e. once you and I have discerned the right course after testing all things,  we hold on to it. We camp there. We stay the course in the righteousness of Christ.

-           -  Abstain from every form of evil: i.e. this then becomes easy, because our holding fast to righteousness after solid discernment warns us off evil temptation and tight spots…and thus, all evil.

What an amazing thing God has done for us! He graciously imparts His Wisdom in any size dose as we can handle then as we pray through this wisdom and worship Him and ask, He gives us His “biyn” – discernment to “work out our salvation”, thereby living the wonderful Christian life to maximum effect!

Father,  we thank You are a good, good Father Who gives good things to all who ask with a repentant and clean heart. We know Your Wonderful Eyes travel to and fro across the entire earth in search of those same hearts who are loyal to You.  We pray right now that You search our hearts and cleanse us from all impurity that we may be found worthy to receive Your Holy Wisdom, the Oracles of Heaven which represent such an amazing benefit of belonging to You and the Kingdom of Heaven. Thank You for drawing us even closer that we may come into our own, discerning the times and the trials and tribulations that we may make decisions based on Godly principles, attitudes and applications completely reliant on Your Amazing Attributes, dear Heavenly Father. We are most grateful above all, for the Cross of Christ which has enabled us to be reconciled to You, so that any of this could even happen in the first place! Thank You, oh God, thank You to the highest and most glorious praise, in the Name of the One Who gave it all that we may be free to serve You – the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

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PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES: THE BOOK OF PHILIPPIANS #2

LOVE IN ACTION

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
Oh that we too shall pray like the Apostle does here in verse 9! This is one of the most powerful prayers of the entire Scriptures, neatly hidden in plain sight! Here is what a man of God - Paul - writes from a prison cell: 
- He prays that the Love we should have for our brethren in the Faith grows by leaps and bounds.
- He prays for us, (through the Church at Philippi) may growing in actual doctrine and theological knowledge of the Oracles and Word of God. The word oracles is used in Romans 3:2.
- He prays for us (since ALL Scripture was written THEN for us NOW, for our instruction ) to UNDERSTAND the knowledge we are learning.
- He prays that because of THAT understanding that we remain authentic and with as little sin as possible until Christ calls us home!

Should this prayer not be obvious to us Christians who believe and stand firmly on the Word of God? Yes it should, but is it put into action? In the west, we can hardly get preachers and teachers to remember and pray for our persecuted brethren in the middle east, Asia or elsewhere. Christianity is an "inside-the-four-walls" system in most churches. There may be an acknowledgment of the lost and hurting outside church walls, but little is done to change that downward spiral. But here is a real encouragement to our prayer lives, which can have a positive impact, that leads to proactive solutions.

As simple as this model prayer from Paul is, it behooves us to add its pattern to our prayer lives, in order than we may grow richer in grace and love while blessing others. This is imperative as we see in verse 11. By following the progression of this prayer, as Paul demonstrates in his many flow charts of the attributes we need for spiritual maturity, that we are lifting high the Name of Jesus and the Father.

He is saying in this prayer that Prayer, rich in love, growing into knowledge and understanding will certify us as authentic and whole, until we are home with Christ. Therefore a life, which reflects such a solid lifestyle, visible to all around us (fruits of righteousness) will lead many to see the Power of God visible in you, and all of us, who glorify Him by our actions and obvious Christian character!

This is transformation aglow! Oh, that we may be so worthy! May such active and repeatable prayer lead to many seek the peace, power and loving arms of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES: THE BOOK OF JOB, Prayer #5 - GOD RESPONDS...UNEXPECTEDLY!

As we observe the personal, emotional and physical angst of a man in spiritual agony – Job – it is becoming obvious that the lessons of his life are meant for all mankind, for all time.  Everything Job has experienced said, prayed or complained about, has been done by just about everybody alive now or forever! As we move on towards the end of the prayers of this amazing chronologically first book of the Bible,  Chapter 30 of Job and verses 20-23 shows us a very desperate man who is about near the end of his “rope”.

I chose this passage in the New Living Translation which accurately translates it directly into understandable modern language:
“I cry out to you, O God, but You don’t answer. I stand before You, but You don’t even look. You have become cruel to me. You use Your Power to persecute me. You throw me to the whirlwind and destroy me in the storm and I know You are sending me to my death – the destination of all who live.” (Job 30:20-23).

This is one bold prayer! Not just that, but it is almost a blasphemous accusation against God! Job says “I have been going in and on, crying out in pain and suffering for so long, but You (God) will not even pay attention to me….Here I am God…it’s me…You are not even trying to look at me and it is almost as if You don’t care about me or my troubles….deep, deep troubles and loss. In fact God, I think You’re trying to destroy me and send me to the grave!”

Have you ever prayed something like that? Let us hope not and may it never be! Just eight chapters later, when God has had enough of this and finally responds to Job with the most intelligent flurry of facts on His side, the Almighty Himself uses Job’s own words to challenge his incorrect doctrines, rants and ramblings! Here is the LORD Himself as He throws the full force of His Wisdom, His Whereabouts at His Creation of the World and His Withering verbal discipline of Job at this great hero of the Bible. By the way, before we think that Job deserves and we don’t – think again!

What is absolutely incredible about God’s response to Job in Chapters 38-41 is in His Own  Mighty Way, HIS Creation Account! The Holy Spirit of God Who had Moses wrote down the Genesis account of the DAYS of Creation some 500-700 years after Job, had Genesis written that way for a reason- so as to get directly to the Fall of Mankind (Sin in the Garden), so that the Redemption plan of God, through Christ could have been immediately presented to the world in Genesis 3:15.

The filling out of the Creation story in full scientific details – from the galaxy systems to details on animals and physics of the earth’s axis – is an amazing thing to behold, in the readings of Chapters 38-41. What God the Almighty did there, in His own way, set Job’s obviously horrid problems, in perspective. The God, the Creator, Who can set all of this in motion, is powerfully demonstrating this modus operandi about how He answers prayer.

We examined this particular Book of the Bible and its prayers for a reason - they are difficult prayers and full of human contradictions in such a way, which is both hard and easy to comprehend. In a sense, the prayers of Job are "everyman's" prayer and "only one man's" prayer.Both would be correct but there are applications for us who are looking at this ancient text, over 4000 years after it was written for our edification in Truth. As we will see in the Final Prayer of Job (upcoming from Chapter 42), all error and blasphemy should point us urgently towards repentance!

God answered Job's ramblings, aka prayers, not in the way Job expected or we would expect, but in the grandest way possible.  God answered Job as God would - by talking about God; re: His Power, His Purpose, His Perspective and His Presence.
--- HIS POWER: There is no denying His omnipotence after reading His almost angry response "where were you when I....and where were you when I....etc". He is the Most Powerful Being in the Universe, EVER!
---HIS PURPOSE: By answering insolent questions with unanswerable questions Himself, God shows His plans for EVERYTHING He created, from the hail for battle and the behemoth (dinosaur) or Leviathan, the great fish of the sea.
---HIS PERSPECTIVE: God actually gives us a glimpse of how He thinks and actually created every living thing...and actually embedding in them personalities and even quirks (see the Ostrich)!  Those chapters of Job (from 38 to 41), literally gives us planet earth from God's point of view and we are seeing, observing and in wondrous amazement at just HOW He viewed the landscape before He created in detail. This belies HUGE the falsehood of random explosions and all the big bang fiction!
---HIS PRESENCE: There was no doubting God's Presence as He showed up suddenly and with awesome and fearsome in a mighty whirlwind and out of the storm. This is a picture of us at times, when we are in the depths of despair, trial or tribulation, God is in the storm with us. He will never leave us or forsake us and He is ever present, as Job discovered.

THIRTY ONE DAYS OF PRAYER AND THE WORD:JANUARY 1-31, 2015 THEME: "ABIDE"

DAY SIX:
VERSE:

But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.  He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked....(1 John 2:5-6)
PRAYER:
Oh Most Holy and Heavenly Father, I think You that Your Word, Oh God, is written in the Heavens. I thank You that Your Word is Truth. I thank You that Your Words will never fade or pass away and therefore, because You keep Your Word, I pledge to do my part and keep Your Word hidden in my heart and shown through my actions and deeds, that Christ lives within me. 

Lord, may Your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of all Truth, Wisdom and Understand Who keeps me permanently connected to the Eternal, fortify my will to keep Your Word of Truth firmly embedded, to keep it from shame and slander, to keep it from dishonor and degradation and to keep and guard it as jealously as You guard Your Holy Name. Your Love commands, compels and gives me confidence in Your Word to remain faithful to it, to obey it and dwell on it as our Savior did. Your Word says in Hebrews 5:7 that our Savior's prayers, cries and petitions were heard because of His piety, obedience and submission to Your Will and Yours alone.

Let us now walk in that Truth, in the Path of Persistent Obedience where He, the Lord Jesus, walked that we may too be found in Him, to the praise and glory of His Name. By this Truth we know we are His, in Him, in His Will and walking in His Ways. Lord we long to be like Jesus, and to live, walk, talk and rest in You as He did and may ALL our worship be Yours and His, throughout our lives, in the Strong and Mighty Name of King Jesus I pray, amen.

A LIFE WELL LIVED, Part 3 - UNDERSTANDING, DISCERNMENT

Wisdom is the best friend you will ever have in this life- Godly wisdom, that is.  Every decision, choice and more, comes out of process where at least some measure of wisdom has been applied to the decision. It all goes back to your Perception (as we saw in Part 2). Your perception is your worldview, and hopefully - for your own sake - it is a Biblical worldview. Now Wisdom is the outflow of that worldview. Therefore, again - for your own sake - it is preferably the Wisdom that comes from God!

A perfect example is a man who just became the head of a favored organization and was set to undertake one of the most amazing projects in History. All he had to do was follow his beloved late father's plans and execute. Being a very young man (he called himself a child), he needed guidance and in 1 Kings 3:5, God Himself appeared to Solomon in a vision and offered to give him ANYTHING he asked for! Here is the rest of how that conversation with God went: "7 Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. 9 Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” (1 Kings 3:7-9).

Two things from this prayer of Solomon, who is now the head of millions of God's people in Israel will guide us to a place where we ourselves can have the very SAME mind of Wisdom God gave to him. We would be wise to follow this same prescription for attaining true wisdom, the kind which made Solomon the wisest man in the world for a time. We condemn his lifestyle after he fell prey to sexual immorality and idolatry, but this is because of his own human foolishness. He did the same thing Adam did - walk away from the Wisdom of God and let his passivity take him down.

Verse 9 of 1 Kings here, has two very important criteria  (in bold red) for the kind of wisdom we need for the "Good Life":

1. An Understanding Heart -the words God uses in the Scriptures here for  is "Shama and Leb" They go together in this Hebraic context because the "Leb" or the "Heart" is the conscience, the inspiration. the imagination, the skill, the intelligence, the mind, the spirit and heart you need to do anything! 

The accompanying adjective - "Shama" - tells you how to use the heart effectively. God said in this word, pregnant with meaning, we are to have understanding in the sense of obedient, listening, truly listening, hearing, truly hearing, really obeying, witnessing, taking heed, processing, taking really good notes, comprehending and more!!

It is obvious here that, in our lives, we would be a lot smarter and function with clarity and power, if we listen more than we speak! A truly wise man is an understanding man whose conscience and spirit are focused on comprehending a situation before acting on it

2.Discern - the king wanted an "understanding heart" that he might be able to "DISCERN" and thus, make the right decision. We are to seek the same. The word God uses here in Hebrew is "BIN" -(pronounced 'bean'). This word, like EVERY word God uses, is FULL of all kinds of meaning from acting with care and caution to learning the full scope of a situation. Then you interpret the evidence correctly because you have an understanding heart full of "Bin", so you can observe, ponder, explain (to someone else if you have to), be prudent, clever and more to be just the smartest person in the room!

God, in His Magnificent Grace and Love, has given us the three simplest forms or elements we need to walk as the wise in this evil world - if only we would pay attention to Him! We do not need the systems devised by the corrupt minds of men and women, who are flooding the airwaves, bookstores and culture with their ungodly imaginations to follow and still think we will have a fully engaged life. Following those people will lead to despair, depression, confusion and one day - destruction.

Following the beautifully simple recipes of the Lord will lead to peace, love, joy, contentment and eventually eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

DAY 15 - CAN PRAYER SAVE AMERICA?

"Clear thinking, an enlightened understanding and safe reasoning powers come from praying....Divine guidance means that God moves and impresses the mind in order for us to make wise decisions" (EM BOUNDS). These sound exactly what they are - fruits of wisdom. Yesterday we launched from a standpoint of praying and seeking Wisdom at the same time, to be not just a better intercessor but a follower of Jesus Christ. What Bounds is saying here, to paraphrase, is that there is a certain ease and peaceful flow when the process is allowed to "fully download and install" (speaking in modern computer tech-language).

The process is thus:
- We know we are not able to do it on our own
- We cry out to God for Biyn (Wisdom and Discernment)
- We are scanned by the Master of all Anti-virus Cleansers (The Lord) and our hearts are searched to see if we are right with Him
- He then listens to our petitions for discernment and wisdom and guidance.
- He downloads Mental Clarity, the lights go on and we can reason about asking about this, not praying against that and then what we are supposed to do is installed.
- We reboot, recalibrate and then see it through His Empowering Eyes,
- Our prayers now have power

Father, in Jesus' Holy Name, we thank You that You are not only the Giver of ALL Wisdom, Hope and Understanding, but that You are a God of Order, Reason and Clarity. You never let things happen without a purpose and You plans are never thwarted. You use all things according to those who love God. Thank You, Lord, that mere ignorant mortals like us, can come on bended knee and broken hearts to You, and You in Your Infinite Mercy and Grace, give us the ability to see things through Your Wonderful Eyes so that we may pray, intercede and love like You love! Father, this is too much for the pea-brained mortal mind to wrap our arms around! This is more than we deserve! Thank You, Praise You, Hallelujah to the One Who saves and thank You today for this Truth! May we meditate on what this means so the foundation of our prayer will be solid and might, in the Name of He Who sits in the Heavens to rule forever - Jesus the King - Amen! Yes and Amen!

(image by google)

DAY 14 - CAN PRAYER SAVE AMERICA?

                                      בִּין 
Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles (Proverbs 1:5-6)

James, the great half-brother of the Lord Jesus said in his epistle (James 1:5) that "if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives generously, without reproach!" This is the God of Relationship, to and with Whom (via the Holy Spirit) we pray! He is a generous, loving and merciful God!

Then Proverbs 2:6 says "For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding." Friends, we can't go wrong!  Our covenant relationship enables us to pray with the proper wisdom and complete knowledge of from whom, whence, and to where our prayer focus is going to be! The Lord has given us, His chosen ones, the means to approach His Throne, boldly - yet humbly...and wise, yet submissive.

So Father, in the Name of Jesus, I choose to use the spiritual wisdom and discernment to surrender all of me to all of You, at this time. I surrender all, all to Thee my Precious Savior, I surrender all. I am nothing without You, You Who hath given me of life, eternal life, courage and the Knowledge of the Holy. I chose to use that Knowledge and discernment to plow deeply into Your Holy Scriptures and to study Your ways, as to HOW I should pray. Father, we as Your people in the Family of God, are seeking Your guidance on What we should ask in these perilous times for not just this country and not just for our families, but for the entire body of Christ, which is now under heavy persecution worldwide. Yet, even in the face of all of this, because we are Yours and Your Spirit abides in us, we have the true joy that shines through no matter how dark and grim the circumstances are. So now, today, I pray, on behalf of all who press in today in humility, that You give generously, the words and prayers of the heart, which we should walk in to bless You and others, for the Grace and Glory of Your Name, through Christ our Lord, amen.

Ps...if you are wondering what the Hebrew word is at the start of this article post, it is the word BIYN. This is the same word which Solomon asked for from the Lord, rather than riches or gold. BIYN means the following (according to the Blue Letter Bible). It is used 170 times in the Bible in 162 verses:

1) to discern, understand, consider

a) (Qal)

1) to perceive, discern

2) to understand, know (with the mind)

3) to observe, mark, give heed to, distinguish, consider

4) to have discernment, insight, understanding

b) (Niphal) to be discerning, intelligent, discreet, have understanding

c) (Hiphil)

1) to understand

2) to cause to understand, give understanding, teach

d) (Hithpolel) to show oneself discerning or attentive, consider diligently

e) (Polel) to teach, instruct

2) (TWOT) prudent, regard

(image by google)