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Effective and Fervent Prayer

29 September 2007

' The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much' Jas 5:16b

This is a promise from God that if we live righteously and pray fervently, our prayers will be effective and produce significant results. Some of us may ask ' I pray but nothing happens' Our problem is that we do not hold ourselves accountable to the scriptures. God's word says that our prayer ought to accomplish much. If our prayer life is not accomplishing much, we should examine our lives. if the prayer life of the church is not accomplishing much, the church should ask what should we do? Is His promise untrue?

James says that fervent prayer avails much. Fervent prayer means we do not quit easily. Fervent prayer means we PURPOSEFULLY spend sufficient time in intercession. Fervent prayer means we cry out to the Father, sometimes in tears, with our heart and soul. Fervent prayer comes as the Holy Spirit assists us in praying with groanings too deep for words. (Rom 8:26)

According to James, our righteousness will ensure effective prayer. God's standard of righteousness is different from ours, for he looks beyond our actions, beyond our thoughts and directly to our hearts. Ask God to search our hearts and ask for His forgiveness and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness in us.

If we adhere to what God requires from us, He will lead us to pray for things that allign with His purposes, and God will answer our prayer in a mighty way.

Amen

Lord, Not Just a Visit but Your Habitation

28 September 2007

' I beseech Thee, show me thy Glory,' Exo 33:18

Many of us will be satisfied if God can visit us on Sunday worship celebrations or our prayer meetings. At certain times, we are satisfied with ourselves, going through life without His visitation.
The people of Israel during the days of Moses were not different from us today. They cried to God to deliver them from the Egyptian masters. They were always busy compiling ' want lists' and 'complaints' to God. When they crossed the Red Sea, they have forgotten what God has done for them.
Moses wanted more than what he has experienced with God. Moses had heard God's voice and witnessed His delivering power. Moses had experienced miracles. Moses had experienced the manifest presence of God. However, he was not just satisfied with a visitation, his soul longed for His habitation. He wanted more than seeing God's finger or hearing God's voice from a cloud or a burning bush. God's abiding presence became his consuming desire and he begged God so that he could see His Glory.
God told Moses ' that canst not see My face: for there shall no man see Me and live' Exo 33:20. Many of us would just resigned from this and it would be a close case. But Moses knew ' there was a way'
The Lord told Moses ' Look, you can't see My face, but there is a place by Me where you can see Me as I disappear off in the distance' Exo 33:21-23
The Lord told Moses to 'present himself' to Him on top of the mountain the next morning, and He would hide him in the cleft of the rock while His Glory passed by.
' Now before I ever get there, I am going to reach forward in time to cover you with my Hand while I pass by you. After I pass by, I am going to pull My hand away so you can stick your head out and look in the direction I've gone. Then you will see just a little bit of My 'back parts' as I disappear into the distance' Exo 33:22-23
Moses did exactly what God told him to do and this made a lasting impact in His life.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Let us guard our hearts and His dwelling place. Let us pray that whenever we meet as people of God, we do not just invite Him to be a visitor but God who dwells among His people.

Amen

He is at Your Right Hand

27 September 2007

' I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved' Ps 16:8

What does it mean to set the Lord always before me? It means that you choose to relate everything you encounter to your trust in God. What you choose to focus on becomes the dominant influence in your life. If you choose to focus on your problems, your problems will set the direction of your life. If you focus on people, then people will determine what you think and do.

In biblical times, the right hand is the most distinquished position, reserved for the one's chief adviser and supporter. When you choose to focus on Christ, you invite Him to take the most important position in your life as He is your Counselor and Defender. When people insult you or hurt you or mistreat you, you should seek direction from Your Counselor on how to respond. When you are facing a crisis or an important decision in your life, you have the Counselor and Guide at your right hand. When you face a fearful situation, turn to Him who is just beside you and take courage from the Advocate at your right hand.

How awesome to know about the magnitude of God's grace, even Christ should stand beside you to guide you and counsel you and defend you! How could you ever become dismayed over your situation with Christ at your right hand? What confidence this should give you!

Amen

If you want career success - Stop Running from your purpose

The main principle to career success is one that many of us will have to learn the hard way. In fact, initially upon reading the title you may have wondered why you would want to run from your purpose. That is a good question. The truth is that we all have dreams and goals. I like to think that God places dreams in our hearts as a path to serve Him and others. However, some of us will never realize those dreams until we realize a very important truth: God’s ways of fulfilling those dreams may be very different from how we would fulfill our dreams if everything were left solely up to us.
Many times, as our dreams grow dimmer over the years, we, too, may begin to wonder how our current circumstances - our present job, our current boss, our career, our employer - are remotely connected with what we might have thought we were supposed to be doing in life. We look around us and say, “This can’t be right, my purpose isn’t this, I’m supposed to be doing ________.”
However we may fill in the blank, the result is the same. We come to a crossroad that is a test of faith when the dream we believe God placed in our hearts doesn’t line up with our current situation. For many of us, that is when we begin to run from our purpose and sabotage our career success.
The subtle truth is that we are often unaware that we are actually running from our purpose. We may even talk ourselves into believing that we are actually running toward it. This is how it works: We have an idea of what our dream job or dream career is supposed to be, and we then proceed to do everything that is humanly possible to achieve it. Of course, some glitch always gets in the way, and we work hard to either remove the glitch or to get around it.
But then, some other barrier pops up, and we do our best to beat it down or push it aside, all the while using up years of energy, emotion, knowledge and power to get this dream to work out our way. But when it doesn’t, we become frustrated, and we wonder what else we need to do to move our career along. We toil and toil and may have a few successes, but even those aren’t what we thought they would be. How does this fit in with career success? When we begin to see our present circumstances as divinely planned by God, we approach those circumstances differently.
You may be in a position today that isn’t the exact job that you want to spend your life doing. That’s OK. However, don¹t make everyone around you suffer by being bitter or having a negative attitude simply because you believe that you are supposed to be doing something else. Instead, accept the fact that there are aspects to your job that may prove in the years ahead to have been very valuable to you. Are you learning to be more detailed? Is it a chance to become better at building relationships? Or maybe you have a need to learn patience to wait on God¹s timing. No matter what the situation may be, it’s all for your good. Stop running from what can be used by God to prepare you for His purpose for your life.
Jesus did not enter into full-time ministry until He was 30 years old. However, from the very beginning, He knew what God’s purpose was for His life. While on a trip with his parents when He was only 12 years old, He was unknowingly left behind because he had been busy teaching and discussing deep spiritual matters with the leaders of His time. I’m sure that part of Him was anxious to get started with the purpose for His life. However, when His mother questioned Him about why He had remained behind to talk when it was time to return home, He dutifully returned with His family and began learning the skills of a carpenter. It would have been easy for Him to ask, “What on earth am I going to need to know how to do this for?” But instead, He became an expert carpenter and worked diligently serving His customers until it was time for His ministry to begin.
What about you? Are you viewing your current position as a part of God¹s plan for your life at this time? Or are you still debating whether it could possibly be something that escaped God’s attention? One of the best truths every written is found in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
This tells us that when we are in a relationship with God, He calls us to something specific that is meeting a specific purpose. It also tells us that everything will work together for good. This doesn’t mean that each single event will look good to us. Each job that we have may not in and of itself seem good to us. But what we are assured of is the fact that at the end of the day, when it¹s all said and done, everything will work out for good. Not only will it work out for our good but also for the good of anyone else whom God chooses to involve who are also called according to His purpose.
What this also points out is that it’s not all about us. Instead, it’s all about God. How He wants to use our lives and our jobs or careers will be a blessing to us, but it will also be a blessing to others, as well. Think as if you were viewing a really great classic film and in the middle of it the main character began to go through some difficulties; you wouldn’t jump up, leave the movie, and say, “I have seen enough, this movie isn’t going the way I think it should.” No, it’s more likely that you would stay glued to your seat, wondering how on earth the character was going to get through that plot twist, and remain until you saw how it all worked out.
Well the truth of the matter is that we don’t have a choice when it comes to the purpose God has planned for us. We may try to run from it, and we may think we have even succeeded for a while, but all we will have really done is taken the scenic route to the place God wants us to be. And it will be the place we will want to be once we get a grip and realize that it’s all good

Realising Your Dreams

No matter where you are in your life... The life of a dream is no different than the life of a Christian. A dream is born, it grows, it matures, but ultimately it must die, be buried, and return to its creator before it can truly realize its full glory and potential. There is always a time in my life when my dream was in the stages of death, burial, and submission to God. I took great comfort in knowing that when I submit my dream to God, when I truly let it go and return it to my creator, it will bloom forth like a flower in the desert. If you have a dream, but it seems that your dream cannot be fully realized -- if you are frustrated or discouraged and feel that your dream is withering -- You will discover what Jesus said, “unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone -- but if it dies and is buried, it will bring forth much fruit.” Give your dream to God. Return your dream to its source. Let it die and be buried in the rich soil of God's fertile field. You will find that by giving your dream to God, it will exceed your wildest dreams. Whatever preconceptions you have about your dream, give them to God. Whatever hopes and ambitions you have for your dream, give them to God. Whatever selfish attachments and aspirations you have for your dream, give them to God. You will discover that your dream cannot flourish by your will or by your efforts. But in the hands of Almighty God, your dream will grow into a mighty and powerful force, greater than you could have ever thought or imagined.

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