God is so faithful

 

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

- Isaiah 41:10

 

This is a great scripture to use when things become too hard to handle in your everyday life, and fear and anxiety grip your heart.  If you quote scriptures like this every day, it will give you what the Bible talks about, the renewing of the mind.

The Prayer of Agreement

The Holy Spirit has brought some scriptures to my mind, and has given me a message. The Bible says that a three-fold cord is not easily broken.

I heard a story about a man with a stick. He could break the stick easy when there was one of them. Then he got another one. It was harder to break the sticks. With each stick that he added, it became more difficult to break them. It is the same way with the prayer of agreement. The Bible says that one can put a thousand to flight, and two can put 10,000 to flight. The prayer of agreement is the key.

Several months ago, I had a cousin who was in bad shape at the hospital. The whole family was praying for her, and she went home to be with the Lord anyway. I asked several family members how they prayed for her. Several of them told the Lord, "If it be your will, then let her come out of this." I was believing for her complete recovery. The point is, we weren't all praying the same way. The lord even told me that she was going home, about a week before she passed away. At the time I thought he meant her earthly home.

I told of this experience to make the point that it is the prayer of agreement that gets God's attention. He can only act on His Word, and on our Faith. Where does the faith come from? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Faith comes from the heart, and is given three ways.

1. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit. See Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. ...
2. Faith is a Gift of the Holy Spirit, see 1 Corinthians 12:8–10 :8. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
3. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God."--Rom. 10:17.

On the day of Pentecost, the Bible says they were all in one mind and accord when the Holy Spirit came like a rushing mighty wind. When you agree with someone in prayer, you need to be in complete agreement with the other person. The Bible says: "I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven." Matthew 18:19 NKJV

Persistance Brings The Answer

Have you ever been praying about something and can't seem to get an answer?
You have to be persistant in your prayer life. In God's time your answer will come.

Text:Luke 11:5-10 LB

Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this illustration: "Suppose you went to a friend's house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You would shout up at him, 'A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit and I've nothing to give him to eat.' He would call down from his bedroom, 'Please don't ask me to get up. The door is locked for the night and we are all in bed. I just can't help you this time.' "But I'll tell you this-though he won't do it as a friend, if you keep knocking long enough he will get up and give you everything you want-just because of your persistance. And so it is with prayer-keep on asking and you will keep on getting; keep on looking and you will keep on finding; knock and the door will be opened. Everyone who asks, recieves; all who seek, find; and the door is opened to everyone who knocks."

 Persistance and the refusal to give up brings the answer. You just have to have faith. Faith can move mountains in your life. Sometimes you have to do something in order to release your faith for your miracle that you need from God. Sometimes it takes a "prove-me offering", or fasting and prayer.

Two frogs fell into a bucket of cream. One frog decided to except his fate, so he gave up, and drowned. The other frog kept on kicking until he made butter out of the cream and he was able to jump out.

Which frog are you? Are you the one who keeps on kicking? Or are you still in the bucket? The bucket can be your circumstances. In the natural world you have no way out of your situation. The only place that you can go is up, to get out of the top of the bucket. When you look up, God is there. The Bible says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us out of them all."

Here is another example found in Luke 18:1-8 LB:

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must keep praying until the answer comes. "There was a city judge," he said, "a very godless man who had great contempt for everyone. A widow of that city came to him frequently to appeal for justice against a man who had harmed her. The judge ignored her for a while, but eventually she got on his nerves. "'I fear neither God nor man,' he said to himself, 'but this woman bothers me. I'm going to see that she gets justice, for she is wearing me out with her constant coming!'" Then the Lord said, "If even an evil judge can be worn down like that, don't you think that God will surely give justice to his people who plead with him day and night? Yes! He will answer them quickly! But the question is: When I the Messiah, return, how many will I find who have faith [and are praying]?"

Prayer Request From Jesus

Prayer Request from Jesus, for the church.

I was reading the Bible the other day, and these scriptures jumped out at me.

Text: Matt. 9:36-38

Matt. 9:36 KJV

36. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

First of all, you have to have compassion for people. Jesus had compassion, and he took the role of leadership over the people.

It takes the love of God to win souls for His kingdom. You have to have a heartbeat for souls. If you don't have the desire, pray for it. Ask God for His Heartbeat for souls.

Verse 37-38

37. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous; but the labourers are few;

38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that we will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Our prayers must be for a harvest of souls, as well as labourers to reap the harvest. We have plenty of opportunities to pray for people to be saved. There isn't any shortage there!

We all have unsaved loved ones. Sometimes you have to pray for someone to come into their lives to lead them to the Lord. There are people who can have more effect on someone, because sometimes we are too close to the situation.

When we pray this prayer, we have to have the willingness to be part of the answer. It involves our willingness to respond to the call of the Lord on our lives.

Not long after Jesus made this prayer request, he commisioned his disciples and sent them as labourers. (Matt. 10:1) The very ones who Jesus commisioned to pray became spirtual harvesters themselves.

Praying this prayer can have a tremendous effect on your life. It is a submission to Him to do His will. When you are walking hand in hand with Him, then that is when you have His peace and Victory in your life. You are most miserable when you aren't in His perfect will.

I challenge you to pray for Jesus' prayer request, and see what He does for you in your life. You have to get on His team. Look at the word, TEAM. There is no I in it.

I feel led to pray for the people who are reading this.
Father, I ask you to move on the people to pray about your prayer request for your church. I ask you to give them a spirit of prayer, and the willingness to be a labourer in your harvest, even if it means they are just a prayer warrior for your kingdom. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

The Joy of Sharing Jesus: You Have a Story to Tell (The Joy of Knowing God, Book 10)