mushrooms

PRAYER

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DISCERNMENT

“For everyone whose sole diet is milk, is inexperienced in a message which is righteous in quality…solid food belongs to…mature, to those who on account of long usage have their powers of perception exercised to the point where they are able to discriminate between both that which is good in character and that which is evil” Kenneth S. Wuest (ref#37, p521, [Heb 5:13-14]).

FATHER, Your Son warns me not to judge (Matt 7:1).  But Your SPIRIT will reveal what is wrong in others for the purpose of intercession (ref#118, p77).

I first ask that You, LORD, keep me from thinking rashly of others; I do not want my intention in prayer to be simply passing judgment—to be the product of my own jealously or ill nature (ref#18, [Matt 7:1-6]).

FATHER, in intercession I want to bear up the life of the one I pray for until You, put the person right.  May I so lay hold of You for them that You enable them to turn away from rebellion and come to You (ref#118, p77).

May I “…get to work and pray, and God will get His chance with other lives;…God has based the Christian life on Redemption, and as we pray on this basis God’s honour is at stake to answer prayer” Oswald Chambers (ref#8, Nov 19th).

Even though I cannot know the heart, I can be sensitive to Your SPIRIT.  It is possible for someone to imagine they are Christians when they are not—especially when they decide that being a Christian is desirable.

“Professing the Christian religion is of no avail whatever unless there is something more added to it…it is a change that is known…known by works of holiness” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, March 6th AM).

Give me a spirit of gentleness; give me a spirit of humbleness lest I be tempted in like manner as they (Gal 6:1).  Make me candid and charitable (ref#18, [Matt 7:1-6]).  And also give me discernment and the boldness to admonish them, (1 Thes 5:14) when they have a false notion that they are already Christians.

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MY RESPONSIBILITY AND JOY 

FATHER, You were ready to let Your wrath burn hot and consume the Israelites when they built and worshipped the golden calf (Ex 32:1-14), but because You were pleased with Your mediator, Moses (Ex 32:11-13), You turned from Your burning anger and relented (Ex 32:14).

And, how pleased You are with Your ultimate Mediator, JESUS.  And, because of His obedience now I, LORD, have the ability to be a suitable mediator (Rev 1:6).

I am Your fellow worker, FATHER.  And, the yet-to-be regenerated people around me are Your field (1 Cor 3:9).  Just as You sent Paul to people who had not heard, You sent Apollos to build up Your church—both were Your servants, even though You gave each a different assignment (1 Cor 3:5).  Paul planted, Apollos watered—but both were Your servants (1 Cor 3:6).

FATHER, You and You only have the ability to grow to maturity each plant in Your field (1 Cor 3:6) but You commission me to tend to Your crop (1 Cor 3:8).  You have allowed me to be Your fellow worker (1 Cor 3:9).

You, LORD, surrender Your work into the hands of Your Church; so real is the power You give me, a member of CHRIST’s church, that the number of laborers and the amount of harvest actually depends upon what I do (ref#19, NINTH LESSON).

FATHER, You instruct me to persevere in prayer as You persevere with the Jews who have heard but are presently rejecting yet will someday accept Your CHRIST.

Make it my top priority to sow the Gospel seed, that I may find contentment and joy in watching You gather Your elect.

“The great inspiration in Paul’s life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor.  Do I feel that sense of indebtedness to Christ in regard to every unsaved soul” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, July 15th)?

Help me be full of inventions if I can’t get sinners to CHRIST by ordinary means (ref#34, Sept 7th AM).  When my child is sick I use all my ingenuity to bring him back to health, disregarding the hazards.  I ask for boldness to use extraordinary means to bring the ones I pray for to faith.

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PRAYING FOR CHANGE 

FATHER, praying for change is one area where I have a choice.  I can ask You to change my circumstances or I can ask You to change me.  My natural inclination will always be to ask You to change my circumstances.  But, before I decide how to pray, let me remind myself of how the early Christians handled one situation.

This happened when the Jewish leaders put Peter and John in jail for healing the lame man at the temple gate.  The next day the leaders threatened them, then let them go.  As soon as they were freed they met with other believers and lifted up the following prayer: “…Now, Lord, look to their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word…” (Acts 4:29-30 Phillips).

They could have asked God to make the rulers back down so they could speak freely without fear of being assaulted.  (This would be asking GOD to change circumstances.)  But instead, they prayed for GOD to change them.  The result was answered prayer.  “…they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.  Then they preached the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31 NLT).

In the second book of Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of accepting his weakness:  “…I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10 NLT).

Paul knew his present condition was “all for CHRIST’s good.”  It allowed him to honor CHRIST in all conditions.

“…the word ‘effectual’ as it is found in James 5:16.  According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of the New Testament Words, it means ‘The effect produced in the praying person, bringing him into line with the will of God.’  It is the pray-er who changes, rather than the prayer.  Praying ‘in the will of God’ means, then, being conformed to the will of God as we pray” Evelyn Christenson (ref#305, p54-55).

“…it is the person praying, and not the prayer request, that changes” Evelyn Christenson (ref#305, p54).

FATHER, aid me in prayer to think of creating my requests with an eye to change my disposition about the circumstance that impinges on me.  May I, like the Apostle Paul accept my condition; probably You wouldn’t have put it in my path if You wanted me to avoid it.

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NO PERSONAL AGENDAS

“You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3 ESV).

“…petitions asked in ignorance may be most truly answered when they are not granted” Charles John Ellicott (ref#304).

“They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds…”(Hos 7:14 ESV).  “…when the pressure of sore trial comes upon us, we are concerned only with deliverance from it, and not that God may be glorified or that the trial may be sanctified to our souls.  Left for himself, man asks God for what would be curses rather than blessings, for what would prove to be snares rather than helps to him spiritually” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p146).

“…how often we attempt to make God the Servant of our carnal desires.  Shall we ask our heavenly Father for worldly success!  Shall we come to Him who was born in a stable and ask Him for temporal luxuries or even comforts” A.W. Pink (ref#269, p147)!

“It is quite useless knocking at the door of heaven for earthly comfort; it’s not the sort of comfort they supply there” C.S. Lewis (ref#31, p62).

“The desire that He writes on our hearts will move His heart and bring down a blessing; but the desires of the flesh have no power with Him….The true suppliant gathers force as he proceeds, and grows more fervent when God delays to answer….The longer…the more resolved he is that he will not let…go without receiving the blessing” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Oct 8th PM).

“’Ask’ means beg.  Some people are poor enough to be interested in their poverty, and some of us are like that spiritually.  We will never receive if we ask with an end in view; if we ask, not out of our poverty but out of our lust.  A pauper does not ask from any other reason than the abject panging condition of his poverty, he is not ashamed to beg.— Blessed are the paupers in spirit” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, June 9th).

FATHER, if my prayer requests are within Your will, I’ll have to beg, for I can obtain them no other way but by Your grace.  Everything spiritual comes from You.  And spiritual welfare is Your will and what I want for the people I pray for.

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THE WORK OF PRAYER

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1 ESV).

“Intercession means that I strive earnestly to have my human soul moved by the attitude of my Lord to the particular person I am praying for.  That is where our work lies, and we shirk it by becoming active workers; we do the things that can be tabulated and scheduled, and we won’t do the one thing that has no snares” Oswald Chambers (ref#8, Sept 16th).

“There are certain things we must not pray about—moods, for instance.  Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, May 20th).

“Ask yourself how much time you have taken up asking God that you may not do that thing you do.  He will never answer; you have simply not to do them….We should do well to revise what we pray about.  Some of the things we pray about are as absurd as if we pray, ‘O Lord, take me out of this room,’ and then refuse to go.’” Oswald Chambers

“…pray for the willingness and ability to walk as worthily on the hard paths as…on the easy ones….Nothing confirms God’s transforming work like a believer’s righteous response to hardship” Carol J. Ruvolo (ref#228, p114).

“Prayer for power is the quick and the short way, circumnavigating internal growth.  There is a vast difference between the outward clothing of the Spirit’s power and the inward filling of the Spirit’s life.  In the first, despite the power, the hidden man of the heart may remain unchanged.  In the latter, that monster is dealt with” Gene Edwards (ref#226, p39).

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INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD

“The wonder is not that God hears prayer, but that He is our Father” Samuel Chadwick (ref#4, p63).

“Though we have God’s promises in the Bible and full liberty to take them, the spiritual power is lacking unless God himself speaks them to us” Andrew Murray (ref#11, p72).

“Prayer that comes as holy fire from God, and that rises as holy incense to God; prayer that takes me, with every want and infirmity, with every sin and sorrow, to the arms of the Father through the smitten hands of the Son; prayer that sweetens my solitude, calms my agitated spirit, weakens the power of sin, nourishes the desire for holiness, and transports the soul through anticipation beyond the region of winds and storms and tempests into the presence of God, where all is sunshine and peace—oh, what a wondrous privilege is this” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, June 3rd)!

“…when we are in His immediate presence and behold Him in all the glory of His throne of grace.  There, surely is the place for the child to trust its Father…” Charles Spurgeon (ref#212, p32).

“There is nothing secret about communion with God.  If we live a holy life before God, broken of our pride and self-will, crying out for grace, then we will be in communion with God.  It is really that simple” Paul E. Miller (ref#62, p247).

FATHER, I think of being in communion with You only when I pray.  But, of course we are together every moment that I am working out my salvation by making the effort to allow You to work Yourself into my actions which takes broken pride, self-will and crying out for grace.  Thank You for initiating constant communion.

“Hearts must be pure and hands clean that dare shut the door and be alone with God” Samuel Chadwick (ref#4, p29).

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ABIDING IN CHRIST  II

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7 ESV).

“Christ teaches us to pray not only by example, by instruction, by command, by promises, but by showing us HIMSELF, the ever-living Intercessor, as our Life” Andrew Murray (ref#19, FIRST LESSON).

“Abiding in Christ, the soul learns not only to desire, but spiritually to discern what will be for God’s glory…” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p138).

FATHER, written in Scripture is CHRIST’s death on the cross.  I have heard it also all my life.  To me it is a fact.  It stands in my head like all facts—there for me to use it for my benefit.  But when I consider CHRIST as my “mediator on the throne,” CHRIST no longer is just a fact, but a living Person who interacts with me.  CHRIST in heaven is “now”—Someone living presently with me.  I love CHRIST for His death on the cross, but I love Him more as mediation for me with You; He has become personal to me!

“The whole of salvation is Christ Himself: He has given HIMSELF to us; His mediation on the throne is as real and indispensable as on the cross.  Nothing takes place without His intercession:  it engages all His time and powers, is His unceasing occupation at the right hand of the Father.  And we participate not only in the benefits of this His work, but in the work itself.  This because we are His body” Andrew Murray (ref#19, TWEHTY-SIXTH LESSON).

“The pattern is gaze at Him and glance at our legitimate life needs, our problems, heart desires, difficulties, and impossibilities, and then bring them to His throne and leave them there, gazing steadfast at Him” Sylvia Gunter (ref#57, p190-191).

“Believer, abide in Christ, for there is the school of prayer—mighty, effectual, answer-bringing prayer.  Abide in Him, and you shall learn what to so many is a mystery: That the secret of the prayer of faith is the life of faith—the life that abides in Christ alone” Andrew Murray (ref#266, p140).

“It is in the personal presence of the Saviour, in intercourse with Him, that faith rises to grasp what at first appeared too high” (ref#19).

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THE PERFECT TEACHER

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt 7:7 ESV).

“You have to wrestle against the things that prevent you from getting to God, and you wrestle in prayer for others souls; but never say that you wrestle with God in prayer” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, Dec 16th).

“Let…all our prayer be the teachableness that comes from a sense of ignorance, and from faith in Him as a perfect teacher…” Andrew Murray (ref#19, FIRST LESSON).

“Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray…” Oswald Chambers (ref#7, March 30th).

“O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my will, so that Thou mayest do my will as if it were Thy will”  St. Augustine (ref#54, p126).

FATHER, my prayer work is to become happy in Your decisions.