PATHWAY TO THE HEART OF THE FATHER (5 OF 9)

A continuation of my teaching on prayer. Our direction in prayer is toward God, believing (in faith) God will give it to us according to His will because of our relationship with Him, not our prayers. Remember, prayer is communion with God. An intimate communion that helps us along His way as we return to His heart where we came from. If our relationship is not intimate then we are not praying. God wants to bring us into a relationship with Him, where there will be a reality of communication, a real union, a real communion with the Father. This was Jesus' desire and burden for us, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:" (John 17:2) Prayer is the pathway back to God's heart to unite with Him. Now the "they" are us. God wants us to be in unity with the Father not just unity as the world knows unity, but a imitate unity as He (Jesus) was in unity with the Father. WOW a deep and heartfelt unity that supersedes all relationships and friendships. When we begin as a little one we stumble, flounder, and blunder along, but God ultimately (if we allow Him to) will brings us more and more in line with what He wants. At first as children it is what we want, then hopefully God can cure us of the gimmes and give us a heart of dedication and sacrifice that all we want to do is give, rather than to receive. If God can not develop this kind of heart in you He cannot use you. Jesus said, (Acts 20:35) "It is more blessed to give then receive." You know if God cannot get us over the gimmes then He cannot use us we will disqualify ourselves for service. One of the greatest signs of spiritual growth and development is really believing this verse. Giving so that others may receive. Not wanting to be blessed, but rather wanting to see others be blessed. We can do this because God has taken upon Himself the responsibility of everyone of us to care, to give us what we need so we can be liberated from ourselves and move in God. Where we become (a process) what He wants us to become. Uniting in character and intention and move in Him in a real partnership that really works. And not projecting to God and others from our self current desires to have our own way to get what we want, when, and how we want it. Remember the word "blessed" comes from the word "happy" or "happen stance" where our happiness is based not on God and the spiritual realm, but on natural (often carnal) earthly situations and circumstances where our happiness is situational dependant. This is a pitiful way for a Christian to live. (babes) Remember "real (taken from the natural realm and projected into the spiritual) "joy" is found in the acronym JOY. Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last. Now that is the right order in God. If we get this right then we can cast our care on the LORD. Peter tells us, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7) There is the order "Humble yourselves" then we can "cast our care upon him;" Now it says not cares, but care. Cares are things like I need a new car, house, job, more money, etc., but "care" is an attitude of caring for things. We are to cast our attitude for caring for things upon the LORD, "for he (that would be God) careth for you." We then can come boldly to the throne of grace FOR OTHERS first then ourselves second. So God will bring us into Himself and there will be a response, a reaction from ourselves to God in a way God desires, because of the accomplished work that He has done in our lives, so that we become, what God wants and then can give Him what He wants. Now this is a deep thought, God is looking for a correct response from us based on not what we do, but what He has done. We do not give Him what He wants then become what He wants us to become. We become and give what we are, what we have. All of our testimonies and all we do in God comes out from what we are, not what we are not or even what we desire to be. I can listen to someone pray or hear a testimony and hear where they are or are not in God. In giving the same principle holds fast. Our direction in prayer is to build us into a house of prayer. Jesus said, "in my father's house are many mansions." (John 14:2) Maybe we are the many mansions Jesus is talking about? In Matthew, Jesus said, "And said unto them, It is written, My house (not church) shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." (Matthew 21:13) We are the church! Jesus is building us not a building or a denomination. We are His bride and God is conforming us into the nature and character of the Bridegroom, so we will be compatible. When we pray for ourselves more than others (for our wants) we become thieves, robbers, and steal from God. Each one of us are to become an expression of God. At every place and at ALL times we are to be an expression of God, not in word. John tells us, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:18) We do not really know what love means any more. Here John is saying not to only say we love someone, but show them in "in deed" or action. But John takes is much further than the spoken word and actions, but "in truth." How can we love someone in truth? By telling them the truth. It is easy to tell someone you love them and for some it is easier to do things for people to show them (without word) how much they love them, but Paul teaches "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:" (Ephesians 4:15) It takes great love on our part when we dare to speak the truth in love to someone we love and maybe have to endure ridicule, anger, manipulation, separation (I know for a fact on this one) etc. for them to be able to hear your love. This is what John and Paul was saying. You know the word love has been so distorted. We love cars, houses, jobs, you name it. The word "love" appears in the Bible 280 times and is translated in a few ways in the scriptures. The Greek have 12 forms of the one word we call "love." In the scriptures "love" is translated "agapao" (brotherly love, good will) which comes out of "phileo" (to approve of or to like). But agape has nothing to do with our emotions, so when we talk about this warm and fuzzy type of love we not talking about what the Bible is talking about. Knowing that giving is at the heart of the Gospel, "for God so loved (agape or dedicated) the world He gave . . . ." The Bible is talking about something far far beyond that. If we are to translate the word "love" to use one word, it would be "dedicated." God has called us to dedicate ourselves one to another. Just as He has dedicated Himself to us. We cannot agape (dedicate) unless we give of our self to a great degree. We first must dedicate ourselves to God if not then we CANNOT never no ever dedicate ourselves to our spouses, our friends, and others. His dedication to the world was so great He gave His only begotten Son. God desires to brings His life into us so that we would become so dedicated. Our prayer is to be directed to God so that we too can become dedicated and give. You know it is so easy to drift from one church to another church, or be into religious TV, with no responsibility, just hanging around, no dedication to anything, except yourself. Even the Pharisees had agape. They were dedicated (loved) the praises of men, they dedicated (loved) the upper seats. They were dedicated (loved) to them all their whole lives, but we are to come in line with God so our character can be corrected, transformed, matched-up, realigned with the character of God like He intended in the beginning when He made man in His own image after His likeness (Christ-likeness). This is nothing new, this is still God intention and God is still working on it. In Genesis God said, "Let us make man in our image, . . . . ." (Genesis 1:26) And God has not changed His mind He is still making man into His image. Our direction of prayer will take on different forms at different times. There is no formula or form that indicates if it is prayer. If it is not communion with God, then it is not prayer. Jesus' life was a life of prayer and so too God expects our life to be a life of prayer. We will never ever realize the fulfillment of God's desires through us unless we decide to move with Him in communion apart from what we want. To move into His heart to find out what He wants, His intentions with a purpose in our heart to die to self and unite with God. Unless we die to our self man we will never no ever unite with God. Our death to our self life and love for the world is the price we must willfully pay for communion with God and being that expression God is looking for as we make our way along the pathways back to the heart of the Father.  Written by David Stahl