Fasting and Prayer 101: 1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV) , “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” The most important fact is that we are praying according to God’s will. If you pray and ask, God will reveal His will to us. We must clear out the noise in our life so that we can hear God plainly and not confuse His voice with a counterfeit. And then once you know, begin to pray His will. No second guessing. Satan steals our miracles by bringing doubt. He plants the thought “what if that wasn’t God?” When you spend time with God you know his voice. You can be as sure of His voice as you are your Earthly father. Once you hear, stand on it. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14 (NKJV), ““But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him. 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which mans wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. This scripture says God has prepared promises, miracles, answers to prayer, our life, our path etc. Has prepared. How can we know what God has prepared for us? How can we know His perfect will? Verse 10 says through Holy Spirit. The Spirit searches the deep things of God. If we have received the Spirit we can know the things that has been freely given to us by God. Our natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit but our spirit man can! Holy Spirit lives within us and is a go-between between God and us. Holy Spirit seeks out God’s will and then reveals it to us. Through Holy Spirit we can know the will of God thus we can pray the will of God. If we pray the will of God we can be confident in our prayers and the fact that they will be answered. The preparation is done, our answer is waiting, all we must do is come boldly to the throne of Grace and ask. James 4:2 says “You have not because you ask not.” Mark 11:22-24 (NKJV), ” So Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” James 1:6-8 (NKJV), “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. “ The #1 requirement is faith - You must BELIEVE! Mark 11:22 says “Have faith in God.” Period! You notice the vastness of the invitation - If you have faith in God - Whatever you ask when you pray, believe and you will receive them. The one who answers is ready, He has prepared! Have faith in God, ask according to His will and you will have whatever you ask. There are many who can testify to the fact that God answers prayer. But do you believe God will answer your prayer? Why would He answer someone else’s prayer but not yours? If you are praying in His will, If you believe, if you do not doubt and you ask! Why wouldn’t He? We must have the audacity to ask the impossible. Psalm 34:4 (NLT), “I prayed to the LORD, and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears.” Prayer is our survival mechanism, much like breathing for the natural body. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. We certainly cant live without breathing. Prayer is an essential mechanism of the Christian that allows us to live. To live in Christ is to live in the miraculous. To be so in tune with God that we know His will, pray His will, and do His will. We are the arms and legs of almighty God. We instinctively know and move. That is what it is like to be the body of Christ. He is the head, as He thinks, we do. The impulses come from the head to the body. No audible commands are needed. Our spirits commune with Him and directs our every movement. Prayer is communion with God. Prayer is the avenue to fellowship. Not only must we pray big but we must pray hard. Praying hard means working hard. There comes a time, after you have prayed hard that you’ve got to take a step of faith. The first step is always the hardest. We like to see the whole path, but God shows us one step. He wants us to trust Him, every step of the way. Not just trust that He will get us started, but trust that He will help us finish. We must pray like it all depends on Him but work like it all depends on us. We can’t pray for something then sit back and wait on it to happen. We must move, in step with God. As we pray, we look for the answer. As we pray, we prepare for the miracle. As we pray, we act as if it has already happened. Pray, watch, and act. Nothing is too big for God and nothing is too small for God. God cares about the small things also. He doesn’t wait for the grand entrance. He enters into our lives in the smallest of ways. He tells us where our baby’s blanket is. He reveals where our lost keys are. He leads us to send a card at the right time. He wants to move in the small things too. The talking part of prayer comes easily for us. We want to do all the talking and God do all the listening. Sure that is part of praying but listening is also part of praying: hearing the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. It’s even harder actively looking for answers before we receive them. But part of prayer is listening and looking. After we’ve asked, God wants us to listen for direction and then to look for the answer. Prayer is an active, ongoing process. That is why we are to pray without ceasing. Prayer is more than the asking! It is listening, looking, and acting. Remember, to Elijah, God revealed His will. Elijah asked, then actively looked. When he saw the smallest evidence of answered prayer, he gave instructions for preparation. He didn’t wait until the outpouring to act on it. He ran ahead of the miracle. The knowing in your spirit empowers you to move ahead as if it has already occurred. Praying earnestly means acting on your prayers because you expect an answer. Joshua 3:8-17 (NLT), “Give this command to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: ‘When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there.’” 9 So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come and listen to what the LORD your God says. 10 Today you will know that the living God is among you. He will surely drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites ahead of you. 11 Look, the Ark of the Covenant, which belongs to the Lord of the whole earth, will lead you across the Jordan River! 12 Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 The priests will carry the Ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.” 14 So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), 16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.” If you want God to move, sometimes you have to move. The priests were required to get their feet wet. They were required to make the first move, then God acted. He was looking for obedience and faith. If they were obedient to do what God told them too, even though it doesn’t make sense then God would show up and do the impossible. Sometimes God asks us to make the first move, to take the first step - our obedience and our faith will then cause God to act on our behalf and to do the impossible. He honors our obedience and He takes pleasure in our faith. Most, normally want God to go first. We spend our whole life standing on the bank of the Jordan waiting on God to part the river while God is waiting on us to get our feet wet. Stepping out in faith is how you circle the miracle. You simply move “as if”. A quote from “The Circle Maker” that I love is “The key to getting out of the boat is hearing the voice of God. If you’re going to get out of the boat in the middle of a lake in the middle of the night, you better make sure that Jesus said “Come”. But if Jesus said “Come” you better not stay in the boat.” Obedience breeds the miraculous. Prayer is so much more than a one-sided to do list. Prayer is communion with God, where you have a two-way conversation. You talk, then God talks. You listen and God listens. Then you must act on the instructions you received. It doesnt matter if it make sense to your earthly mind. All that matters is God said. You step into the river before it is parted. You must be willing to get your feet wet in order to act in faith. Faith says “my feet may get wet but my God will part the water.” If God said it, I believe it and that settles it. Dare to get your feet wet this week and see what God will do. Take the first step. Step out in faith and move towards your miracle. Don’t let doubt steal your answer.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 03:32:09 +0000