Power Of Prayer

"...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." - James 5:16

I would like to take a little time this week to talk about the most important thing in the life of the Christian, but it is also the most neglected, and that is prayer.  Here is what E.M. Bounds had to say about prayer: "We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. It surmounts or removes all obstacles, overcomes every resisting force and gains its ends in the face of invincible hindrances."

You might be asking yourself right now how I can be so sure that there is power, when those that have been born again, begin to pray.  I know that there is power in prayer because of what our family has experienced over the last several weeks.

Many of you know that our youngest son, Brayden, was hospitalized a couple of weeks ago due to the fact that he had been vomiting for over a week with no end in sight.  I will never forget how I felt on Wednesday July 4, 2012; I literally felt like I was watching my little boy slowly die.  I will also never forget that day for another reason, because that is when God's people began to pray for Brayden.  First, we sent out a message to the prayer chain at our church and asked them to pray for Brayden and for wisdom for the doctors that were treating him .  Then we began to post on Facebook about the situation and asked our brothers and sisters in Christ to please pray for Brayden.  It was so amazing how quickly the Lord began to put things together and answer the many prayers that were being made for Brayden.

The next day, on Thursday July 5, Brayden was transferred to a Roanoke hospital and their pediatric unit.  We could not begin to imagine how tremendously the Lord had blessed us with this move until we talked with one of Brayden's doctors on Saturday.  On Saturday morning as the doctor came by to talk with us the conversation turned to spiritual things.  We found out that this doctor was a Christian as we talked with him, but I must admit that I was not expecting what he said to us.  Once the doctor found out that we were Christians, he asked us to pray for him because his knowledge was limited.  He went on to tell us about how that he would pray over his patients and ask the Lord to show him what to do.  When I heard this, it literally brought tears to my eyes.  God in His sovereignty and divine providence had given us a doctor that was a Christian!

On Sunday July 8 they did a endoscopy and colonoscopy on Brayden so they could see what was going on with him on the inside.  Again, we sent out something on our prayer chain at church and began to ask our pastor friends to have their churches pray too.  We also put out a request for prayer to our brothers and sisters in Christ on Facebook.  We could not begin to imagine how many people were praying for our little boy and how far this prayer request had traveled.  After the procedure we finally had a diagnosis of what was happening and what was causing Brayden to be sick.  It wasn't what we were expecting or even what we wanted to hear, but it definitely wasn't the worst that we could have heard.  Even with hearing this bad news, God wasn't done working in the situation.  The next day as Brayden's doctor came by to talk with us more about the diagnosis, we were totally in awe at what happened next.  As the doctor finished talking with us, he went over and closed the door and had prayer with us all.

Through everything that has happened to Brayden over the last several weeks, the only thing that I can say about it all is that Jesus Christ has been so good to us and that our family stands in awe of our Savior!  My mind cannot even begin to comprehend how good God has been to us through everything.  The Lord has been so gracious and merciful to us through all of this and it has been an amazing blessing how He has shown His sovereignty and divine providence in this situation.  It is our prayer that Jesus Christ has been glorified through all of this and that He will continue to be glorified as our family moves forward.  Words cannot express how much we appreciate all of our brothers and sisters in Christ praying for our little boy.  We stand in awe at how the Body of Christ has responded to us over the past several weeks. It is our prayer that this situation can be used to show our family and friends that are lost without Christ their need for Him before it is eternally too late.  Again, thank you all so much for the prayers, first and foremost, and the cards, visits, calls, and gifts that were sent to Brayden!  We have been humbled by the tremendous show of prayer and support from the Body of Christ!!!

How do I know that there is power in prayer and that prayer really works?  I have experienced firsthand the results when Christ's people get on their knees and intercede to Him for another family in Christ!

My Failure

"All that the church and its members need for the manifestation of the mighty power of God in the world, is the return to our true place, the place that belongs to us, both in creation and redemption - the place of absolute and unceasing dependence on God." - Andrew Murray

I just want to share a quick thought this Sunday before church.  I was reading a passage by Andrew Murray this morning in my devotions and I came across this quote and the Lord just spoke to my heart about it.

Do you desire to see the power of God manifested in your church?  What about you personally, do you desire to see God's power manifested in you and through you?  I would hope that we all would answer yes to both of those questions.  

I can honestly say that I truly long to see God's power manifested in our church and in my life personally, but I can't honestly say that I have really seen it.  When I don't see it in our church or in my life, I get very down and very discouraged.  Why don't I see it?  It is a very simple question that has a very obvious answer.  I don't see the mighty power of God manifested in our church and in my life personally because the church is not in the right place, and neither am I.  That is a pretty tough pill to swallow, but it is the truth.  When I do not see the power of God manifested in my life, it is because I am not in the right place, the place that belongs to me and the church both - the place of absolute and unceasing dependence on Christ.

What about you?  Are you in the place of absolute and unceasing dependence on Christ?

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, forgive me for not being in the right place, a place of absolute and unceasing dependence on You.  Help me to be in that place of absolute and unceasing dependence on You so that Your mighty power would be manifested in and through my life.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Stop Praying

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? - Psalm 8:3-4


 

I want to say first of all, please don't let the title of my post today scare you away, bear with me for a little bit.  The other day, I started reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and he made a statement that just grabbed me. He said, "What if I told you to stop talking to God for a while, but instead, take a long, hard look at Him before you speak another word?"  He went on to say, "The wise man comes to God without saying a word and stands in awe of Him."

I want you to check out the video below before you continue reading.


After he first saw the video, Francis Chan said, "When I first saw those images, I had to worship.  I didn't want to speak to or share it with anyone.  I just wanted to sit quietly and admire the Creator."  In Psalm 8, David pondered the same things about God.  When David thought of the heavens, the moon, and the stars that God had created, it was hard for him to comprehend that God would even be interested in man.  David was truly in awe of the majesty and glory of the Lord!

I'm afraid that when we pray, we approach the Lord too casually, and do not approach Him in awe of His majesty and glory.  Before you pray the next time, stop and just stand in awe of Jesus Christ and all that He has done.  May you and I be gripped by the reality of our smallness and by the reality of the bigness of our God!

"Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God." - R.C. Sproul

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, I stand in awe of Your majesty, glory, and power!  In light of that, I see how small, weak, and insignificant I am compared to You.  Help me, because of my smallness, to be gripped by the reality of Your greatness.  May I proclaim to all, How Great Is Our God!  In Jesus name, Amen!

Feeling Inadequate

"Have no I commanded thee?  Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." - Joshua 1:9

Do ever feel inadequate to do what God has called you to do?  If we are honest, all of us at one time or another have felt this way when it comes to serving the Lord.  It even seems that Joshua felt this way as well.  In Deuteronomy chapter 31 Moses encourages Joshua to be strong and of a good courage.  Then four times in chapter 1 Joshua is encouraged to be strong and of a good courage; one time by the people and three times by the Lord.

I want to encourage you today, that if you feel inadequate to do what God has called you to do, it is a good thing.  You are probably thinking that this sounds strange and doesn't make any sense.  It is good for us to feel inadequate because then we are forced to desperately, completely, and absolutely rely on the Lord and His power to get the job done.  The Lord is attracted to weakness.  It is through our weakness that His power is manifested and His strength is shown.  When you and I get to the place where we acknowledge our weakness and total helplessness before God, it is then that He is able to work in our lives in a mighty and powerful way!

I want to challenge you to passionately and desperately to seek after the Lord and His strength and power today.  Do not lean to your own understanding and your ability!  This is why we see such a lack of the God's moving in our lives because we adequate for the task.  When we get to the place that we realize how inadequate we really are, then we are in the place where Christ can begin to do something in our lives.

Today, humble yourself before the Lord by desperately and passionately calling out to Him to manifest His power in your life.  Seek and cry out to the Lord with your whole heart that He would equip you for His service.  Just remember, if you feel inadequate to serve Christ, that is a good thing!

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, I confess my total inadequacy to serve You and to do what You have called me to do.  I desperately need Your strength and Your power in my life!  Help me not to lean to my own understanding or ability, but help me to absolutely and completely rely on You!  In Jesus name, Amen!

Being Crucified With Christ

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20


I know that this is a verse that many of us have memorized, but how many of us have really considered the implications of this verse?  For me personally, I can honestly say that I had not really grasped the reality of this verse and what it means concerning my walk with Christ.

First, Paul says that he is crucified with Christ.  How many of us can truly say the same thing?  Have you crucified your flesh today?  Every day you and I must crucify our flesh, our desires, and our lusts.  Then Paul says that the life he now lives is not his, but it is Christ living in him.  Once you trust Christ as your Savior and Lord, your life no longer belongs to you.  Now your life belongs to Christ and you are to allow Christ to live through your life.

Do you have victory in your life over sin, your flesh, your desires, and your lusts?  If you are losing the battle, it is because you are not crucifying yourself with Christ.  Today, ask the Lord to empty you of self, to empty you of your worldly lusts and desires.  Then ask the Lord to fill you with His Spirit and His power.  If you and I are going to live a victorious life, we must crucify our lives everyday with Christ.

Are you crucified with Christ?  The life you now live, is Christ living in you?

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, help me to crucify my life, my sin, my desires, and my lusts each day.  Empty me of self and fill me with Your Spirit and Your power.  May Christ live in and through my life as I crucify self each day.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Inadequate

"But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed.  Salvation is of the LORD." - Jonah 2:9


I just had quick thought that I wanted to share before church this morning.  Have you really tried to grasp the reality of the statement "Salvation is of the Lord."  Prior to our salvation, it is God through the Holy Spirit, that convicts our hearts of our sin and need for Christ.  Then after salvation, it is the power of God that keeps us saved.  Any goodness that we have in us today is because of Jesus Christ and not because of anything in ourselves!  You and I cannot be the least bit spiritual except by the power of Christ.

Notice some things that Charles Spurgeon said concerning the extent of our inadequacies:

"If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because he upholds me with his hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God himself first does in me."

"Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely."

"As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in him."

"What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: Salvation is of the Lord.”

During this past week, the Lord has been showing me how inadequate I am in my own power to do anything.  I must completely and utterly rely and depend on Christ for EVERYTHING!  Today, I want to challenge you to realize how inadequate you are to do anything for Christ on your own, and then completely and utterly depend on Him for EVERYTHING!


Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, please reveal to me how inadequate I am to serve and live for You in my own power.  Help me to completely and utterly depend on Christ for EVERYTHING in my life and service to You.  As You reveal my weakness, may I draw on the strength that is in Jesus Christ.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Power In Prayer

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." - James 5:16


Have you ever heard the phrase "the power of prayer?"  Have you ever stopped and thought about the reality of that phrase?  If we are not careful it is so easy for us to take those words for granted.  Prayer is our conduit to access the power of our Heavenly Father that is available to us through Jesus Christ.  Prayer is not something that we are to take lightly or that we are to just do occasionally.  However, I am afraid that we ALL are guilty of both taking it lightly and just doing it occasionally.

Prayer changes things and it changes us!  I know that is a very simple statement, but it is so true.  As you and I begin to pray and pour our hearts out before our Heavenly Father, our hearts begin to change as we commune with Him.  Even if our circumstances never change, our hearts have been changed, and that will change how we view our circumstances or how we handle our circumstances.  The quality of your spiritual life will be in direct proportion to the quality of your prayer life.  This is why we have so many people in our churches that are struggling spiritually, because the quality of their prayer life is low or non-existent.

Instead of turning things over in our minds, we must learn to turn them over to the Lord in prayer.  You and I have the tendency to try and figure things out in our heads, constantly going over it again and again trying to figure out what to do.  What we need to do is to quit worrying about our next decision, quit replaying events over again in our minds, and give it to the Lord and ask Him to lead the way for us.  We must learn to constantly and consistently pray about all things, great and small.

Will you continue to ignore the power that is available to you through prayer?

"When prayer has become secondary, or incidental, it has lost its power. Those who are conspicuously men of prayer are those who use prayer as they use food, or air, or light, or money." M.E. Andross

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, help me to bring everything to You in prayer; my hopes, my dreams, my doubts, my fears, and my burdens. Lord, may others see my utter dependence on You for everything in my life. It is my desire to devote my life to a life of prayer. Father, may I bring all things to You and may I trust Your will to be accomplished in areas of my life. In Jesus name, Amen!

Our Relationship With God's Word

"But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." - Matthew 4:4


Have you established a passionate relationship with God's Word?  I want to share a quick thought today about our relationship with God's Word.

Have you ever thought about what it would be like if you were to go several days without eating any food or drinking any water?  It would only take a few days before you start to manifest physical signs in your body of the lack of food.  The longer you go without food and water, the weaker you will continue to become, until you finally die.  Do you realize the same is true when it comes to our spiritual lives?  The same is true, it will only take a few days before you start to manifest the spiritual signs in your life of the lack of food.  You will continue to become spiritually weaker and weaker until your flesh totally consumes you.

As believers, we must read God's Word everyday and meditate upon it.  Otherwise, we deprive ourselves, not only of a priceless gift from God, but also from the spiritual food that is necessary for us to live.  Here is what Martin Luther said about the Bible: "The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.  The Bible is not antique or modern.  It is eternal."  The Word of God is truly an eternal and transforming treasure that the Lord has given you and me.

A passing acquaintance with God's Word is not sufficient for the child of God.  If you and I seek to obey God's Word and understand His will, we must immerse ourselves in His Word.

Are you spiritually hungry?  Are you starving spiritually?  Have you ever wondered why your spiritual life seems so weak?  It is because you have not formed a passionate relationship with God's Word and made it part of your life.  How is your relationship to God's Word?  Do you feast from it everyday or just sample from it when the urge hits you?

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me Your Word.  Help me to cherish it, treasure it, learn it, and live it in my life.  I pray that You would speak to my heart every day as I read and meditate upon Your precious Word.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Starving Our View Of God

"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." - Isaish 40:26


As you read through the book of Isaiah you will find that the people in that day had totally starved their view of God because of their idols.  I'm afraid that we have done the very same thing today.  We have failed to behold the One who has created all things and instead of cast our eyes upon idols.

Have you ever stopped and thought about the greatness of God that is revealed in nature?  Every time that the wind blows, every time you see a streak of lightning, every time a flower blooms, we see the might and greatness of God revealed to us.  However, many of us have so starved our view of God, because of our idols, that we fail to see and realize how awesome these things are and how awesome the Lord is.  I would encourage you sometime to spend some time surrounded by God's creation and just have a time of meditation, fellowship, and worship.  Allow the Lord to speak to your heart and truly see how great, marvelous, mighty, wonderful, amazing, awesome, holy, high and lifted up, that the Lord is.

The idols that we have allowed in our lives have lowered our view of God and elevated our view of ourselves.  Is it any wonder that we are hindered in our prayer life or in our worship of Christ?  When we are facing difficulties, discouragements, and disappointments, is it any wonder why we have no power?

I want to share with you a quote by Oswald Chambers:

"One of the reasons of stultification in prayer is that there is no imagination, no power of putting ourselves deliberately before God. We have to learn how to be broken bread and poured-out wine on the line of intercession more than on the line of personal contact. Imagination is the power God gives a saint to posit himself out of himself into relationships he never was in."

Do you lift up your eyes upon high and behold the One who created the universe?  Do you behold the greatness of His might and power?  Have you lowered your view of God and elevated your view of yourself?  Have you starved your view of God?

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, Your name is above all other names.  You are high, holy, and lifted up.  Help me today to see Your power, might, and glory in Your creation all around me.  In Jesus name, Amen!