THE PATHWAY TO THE HEART OF THE FTAHER (2 OF 9)

Continued thoughts on "Prayer" from a teaching of mine. As we saw from teaching 1 of 9, prayer is communion -- direct communication with God anything else is not called prayer in the Bible. Jesus never got the disciples together each morning or at the synagogue and took prayer requests. Lately I have been rethinking what we are doing when we take prayer requests during a service because this was NOT the pattern and custom Jesus used in His life. I think a lot of requesting prayer for people during a service is time filler and tradition. Now if the person is in attendance by all means, let us do what James tells us to do. "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church (assembly or gathering); and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil (or in the Greek "praying in the presences of the LORD") in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." (James 5:13-15) Since prayer must be birthed of the Spirit one thing we are doing now is when the request is mentioned and if the Spirit moves on your heart in some way then that is the one request God wants to spend your time in prayer with the LORD about. Then it can be something spiritual and not a time of shotgun beseeching on behalf of others. Jesus would always get away to pray. For example in Matthew we read, "And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. 23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone." (Matthew 14:22-23) Again real prayer is to get alone with God, to get into our closet (Matthew 6:6) and "shut the door" or close the world out and pray to our Father in secret. Not sure how much secrecy we have if we have a gaggle of friends helping us pray. But through Jesus' death and resurrection He provided many things. One thing He provided was a ribbon veil (His flesh) through which we can enter into the heart of God. So Jesus made a way into the heart of God like never was made before. Never before was there such a closeness and unity with the Father, Jesus' death made this closeness possible. If there is a breakdown in communication there is loss. The loss happens out from the disconnection. What ever relationship we are involved there must be communication and the more that is hindered the greater the loss. We must be careful not to get involved with or tied to things like family, working, and even work unto the LORD where we project ourselves toward them to such a degree that we are consumed by them taking up our time and effort to where we have no time to communicate with God. Knowing God must be the primary focus in our lives not our living. When communication between us and God is cut we start to cultivate desires for the thing that has broken off our communication. We ourselves cultivate our own desire for the things of the world. The more we eat of the world the more we develop a liking for them. We cultivate a hunger for the things of world by doing it. And it overcomes us and God's purposes are then lost. The more we get into our mind during the day the more your mind will run on. The less of this life we get in us, the more of God we will have in us. We are filled with either the things of this world or of the things of God. It is our choice. Paul tells us we are to have the mind of Christ. In Philippians we read, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 5Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" (Philippians 2:4-5) This then will prevent us from things like worrying and fretting. These are not good for our communication between us and God. God will take care of us. You know we really must come to a place in God were we truly believe God will take care of us. Most Christians are hedging their bets; one foot in the world and the other in God playing the odds to see which one is doing better for them at any given time. We then can allow the Spirit to communicate Spirit to us. We cannot really pray without the Spirit of God in us and we will never have the Spirit of God residing in us if the spirits of the world are alive and well in us. Can good and evil come from the same fountain? Prayer is of the Spirit. Just open your heart to the Spirit and the Spirit will communicate from God to you, through me. But, first you must open your heart to the Spirit what God is saying to you. I know this message will be taught in darkness to some and maybe in five or ten years the Spirit will turn on the light to get to you the understanding. Things are not what we think they are. Prayer is not made by God so we can get something from Him. People like to pray if they think they can get something from God. Well if not for getting then why did God invent prayer? Here are some PURPOSES OF PRAYER: 1. The main purpose of prayer is to know God, His ways, and His works. Now we must always remember we are the ignorant one in prayer. We do not know God does, He knows everything! So we are not communicating anything to God He does not already know. To know His words, not only the words in the Bible, but the words in His heart. To know His whys without asking why. Prayer moves us into knowing His whys without asking. 2. To know His wisdom. As we look at His wisdom on first glance it is foolishness, but to God it is wisdom, but God's ways are wisdom. But to man they are foolishness, Now when we know His ways and wisdom we will be in trouble from our fellow believers. Ant time we move in God's wisdom and will for our lives expect troubles from our family and friends, especially our Christian friends and family. Jesus taught us tribulations (or troubles, afflictions) are coming our way (John 16:33). We often think these troubles, afflictions, and persecutions are coming from sinners and heathens, but most of the time they are coming from people we know and love. No one can hurt or discourage you faster than a family member or a brother or sister in the LORD. I am speaking here out of years of experience. Even Peter and Paul sadly knew this truth. Please do not think their relationship was all flowers and puppies, oh no they were constantly at odds over Paul's revelation of grace. when they would get together often they would have strong words for each other. In Galatians we read, "But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed." (Galatians 2:11) In other words Brother Paul got up in Brother Peter's face and dressed him down. I can almost see them (maybe they did) spitting they were so angry with each other, but in the end they decided Peter and the other 11 disciples would go to the Jewish people with a mixture of the law and grace and Paul would go to the Gentiles with the message of grace. This is how Paul could teach, "But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, 11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Timothy 3:10-12) So do we have a desire to "live godly?" If so, like Paul persecution and afflictions (I like Paul do not like it) are coming our way. We are not to be like everybody else, but to move into the heart of God close to Him to know Him. For this to happen we must face troubles, afflictions, persecutions, even temptations. If we can watch and pray we will know the way God takes, unlike the disciples who did not know the way God was taking. Do not get yourself in trouble by going the wrong way. How do we stay on track? Watch and pray that we do not go down the wrong track. So communication puts us into knowing God's ways. Now reading the Bible is good and helps to move us in the right direction, but without knowing God even the Bible will be confusing and meaningless in many places and if we do not know God's wisdom and ways we will not understand how things fit and misunderstand them. So our purpose on earth is to know God and prayer is one of God's main means to know God through. We must be able to allow God to show us the big picture and how and where we fit in, prayer, communication, communion is the way to the heart of the Father.