Prayer, Character and Conduct

The following are excerps from E.M. Bounds classic collection on Prayer:

Prayer governs our conduct, and conduct makes our character. Conduct is what we DO, character is what we ARE. Conduct is our outward life, whereas character is the unseen life that is hidden within, yet shown by what is seen.

Christ insists on not just works of charity and deeds of mercy, but inward spiritual character. In all of Paul's epistles, the leading theme is the insistence of holiness of heart and righteousness of life. It is the condition of the human heart and the blamelessness of the personal life that form the burden of his writings.

The church's mission is to change human nature. It does so by changing character, influencing behavior, and revolutionizing conduct. The church should be engaged in turning people to righteousness.

PRAYER produces cleanliness of heart and purity of life. It can produce nothing else. Unrighteous conduct is born of prayerlessness. Prayer and sinning cannot keep company with each other. Get people to pray, and they will quit sinning. Prayer creates a distaste for sinning, and works on our heart until doing evil becomes repulsive.

Bad living means bad praying, and in the end, no praying at all. The weakness of living grows out of the shallowness and shoddiness of character.

Righteous character and Christlike conduct give us a peculiar and preferential standing in prayer before God.

Praying that does not result in right thinking and right living, is a farce. We have missed the whole concern of prayer if it fails to purge character and correct conduct. Our prayer advances in power only so far as it corrects the life. As the life is, so the praying will be.

It is always the "prayer of the righteous man which availeth much." To have an eye for God's Glory, to be possessed by an earnest desire to please Him in all our ways, to possess hands that are busy in His service, and have feet swift to run in the way of His commandments, these give weight, influence, and power to prayer and secure an audience with God!

So church, let us pray unceasingly, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests, and keep on praying for all the saints. Pray with your mind, and pray in the Spirit, pray earnestly, thankfully, and pray joyfully. Pray and do not give up . . .

. . . for Prayer is the essence of our relationship with God and the very thing that promotes uprightness of heart and life.

LET US PRAY!

All We Have, and All We Need

Sometimes we need to get to the place where Jesus Christ is all we have before we realize that Jesus Christ is all we need!

Given to me by Gale at Resurrection Life. Thank you, Gale!

Holy Desperation

If we want to see revival in our church, or in our personal lives, or in America, we must come to the same place that Jacob did when he was wrestling with God, "We will not let you go until you bless us" - a place of Holy Desperation.

We cannot manufacture revival. There is no automatic way to make it happen. GOD sends revival from heaven in response to our desperate cries for Him.

The problem is we like to be in control of our lives. We don't like to be in a state of dependence on God. But, my friends, that is a good place to be! Completely and utterly relying on God and depending on Him for everything. Self-reliance is a terrible sin that separates us from God and must be crucified.

The only hope for us is a divine answer, a divine visitation, a place where we are on our face, a place where we run out of human solutions.

We don't have revival because we are willing to live without it! We are not desperate. We have become numb to the sin and evil around us. We are used to it, and we have been willing to live with it.

God has called us to live a sanctified life, set apart from the world, a Holy life. He says to be Holy, because He is Holy, and we are called to be like Him. We are to be the light in the darkness, a City set on a hill, a beacon of light pointing to Christ, the salt that seasons and preserves.

Sometimes the desperate circumstances we're in were allowed by God so that we would cry out to Him, to cause us to press in to God - to rid us of a complacent and luke warm spirit.

We must come to a place where we refuse to let go of God until He comes and blesses us with His presence, and changes us by His Holiness. We cannot accept things the way they are. We must press in to God, and lay hold of Him. He has given us everything we need to live a Holy and Godly life - His precious promises and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that empowers us to live such a life (2 Pet. 1:3). Only the Holy Spirit can empower us to live a life set apart for God. We must realize that our flesh will profit us nothing and stay completely dependent on the Lord. Live daily in His presence and He will grant us the desires of our heart.

May our hearts cry be to lay hold of God like never before, partnering with Him to change the world around us.

"Come, Lord Jesus, however You want to come, no matter what that looks like, just come! We need You and are despereate for you. We will not go on without You!"

True Worship

"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God.

It is the quickening of conscience by His Holiness;

the nourishment of mind with His Truth;

the purifying of imagination by His Beauty;

the opening of the heart to His Love;

the surrender of will to His Purpose -

all of this, gathered up in Adoration,

the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable."


from William Temple's (1881-1944) Readings in St. John's Gospel. Thanks, Pastor Mike, for sharing this with me!!!

Hastening the Lord's Return

Jer. 29: 12-14 says, "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from captivity." What a promise from the Lord.

The Lord wants us to DESIRE Him, to SEEK after Him with all our heart. In the story of the prodigal son, the Father did not go seeking after the son in a foreign land. He waited until the son DESIRED to come home and be in the Father's presence.

After Jesus had died and risen again, he appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples didn't recognize him, and they were sad and discouraged because of the Lord's death. Jesus expounded the scriptures to them (after rebuking them for their slowness to believe), and their hearts burned within them as He spoke. The interesting thing is, when they got to the village they were heading to, Jesus acted like He was going to keep on going, but the disciples urged him to stay. Jesus wanted them to desire Him and His presence. (Luke 24:13)

2 Tim. 4:8 says, "And now the prize awaits me--the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his glorious return." And 2 Pet. 3:11 says we "ought to live Holy and Godly lives, as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." Other versions say, those who"look forward to that day and hurry it along" or "waiting for and hastening to the coming of the Lord". Again, the Lord is waiting on His Bride to cry out to Him, "Come Lord Jesus!" He wants us to want Him, to Seek Him, to Watch Daily at the Gate, looking for His return. Are we waiting on the Lord to return, or is HE waiting on US?! We must be found in faith, our lamps full of oil, pure and Holy, and longing to be with Him.

Our hearts need to burn for God. They burn for everything else - for money, music, success, recognition - just hang around someone long enough, and you will discover what their hearts burn for.

God is waiting for His church to bring back the King!

Lord, fill us with a desire for Your presence, a desire to be with You. May we seek Your face with all our heart, and watch daily at your doors, longing for your return!



These thoughts were taken from various excerpts from Pastor Mike Steven's sermons. Thanks for the inspiration, Pastor Mike!

Nourishment for the Soul

"It is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts." A. W. Tozer

May our lives be marked by a growing hunger after God Himself!

Salvation

So difficult is our salvation, that ONLY GOD can make it possible!

Quoted from Leonard Ravenhill

What it Means to Be a Christian

To accept Christ is to accept Him with a revolutionary acceptance. It's to accept Him completely, all of Him to all of me. To accept Him exclusively and not any other hope but Him. He alone is my hope. It is to accept his friends as my friends, His enemies as my enemies, His ways as my ways, His rejection as my rejection, the cross as my cross, His life as my life, and His glorious future as my glorious future!

THAT is what it means to be a Christian!

Quoted from A. W. Tozer