Month: March 2013

Jesus Christ is our intercessor before God.  His Spirit in us leads us to be intercessors for others.  

To be effective as intercessors, we must go to Jesus to find His concern for those that we pray for.  When we get in line with the cares and concerns of Jesus, our intercessory prayer efforts will most certainly be in accordance with the will of the Father.  When our prayers are in accordance with the will  of the Father, they most certainly will be answered.  

And through this process, our discernment concerning other souls will grow and mature in Christ Jesus.  We will move away from a spirit of criticism to a spirit of intercession for those that the Lord has put into our lives.

He is risen indeed!!  Happy Easter

Intercessory prayer is the perfect service to enter for Our Heavenly Father.  It is in itself an act of communicating with Him and an act of representing another before Him.  If we can separate ourselves from the results of our prayers (it is His power not our actions that produce good results), there are no pitfalls.

In a simple act of love, we go before the Father seeking His divine assistance for another.  Through the process, we are worshiping Him just by acknowledging our belief in His power.  As a result of the intercessory process, our relationship with God matures and grows.

As Christians, Jesus Christ dwells within us.  He is the new man that dwells within our spirit.  His greatest desire is to serve the Father in all ways.  We must learn to be attentive to every opportunity in our lives where we can serve the Father.  

Our Heavenly Father may never call us to do some highly visible task, at least as the world views it.  He may only call us to serve Him through small acts of love which are significant to Him.  If we prove ourselves worthy in the joyful completion of the small acts of love, we will be worthy and we will be ready for anything the Lord asks us to do – no matter how big or how small.

When God calls us to obey Him, He is giving us the opportunity for spiritual growth.  He is opening the door for us to receive His power into our lives.  When we choose to “wait to understand” before we obey, we may miss the opportunity to serve God in a fashion that would fulfill God’s plan and purpose for our lives.  We may send ourselves into a period of personal struggle instead of abiding in abundant personal joy.  

Obey God through a living relationship with His Son and not through your own understanding of the world.   He is the truth, the way and the life.  Obey Him with reckless joy.

When we are teaching small children how to behave, we impress upon them good vs. bad in terms that are understandable to them.  When the children comprehend good behavior at the basic level, we move them up to higher levels of responsibility where they begin to make their own decisions.

We follow this process because at some point we know that the children will be making their own independent decisions.  They will have to be able to separate good from evil on their own.

God builds us up the same way.  As we are obedient in small things, He gives us larger responsibilities.  But one big difference in God’s parenting vs. our own is that God never leaves us alone in our decisions.  We always have the Holy Spirit with us to guide us.

There has only been One Man who lived his entire life without sin.  Living without the stain of sin is unattainable for the rest of us.  We are not and cannot be 100% pure.

We can, however, turn our minds toward the one who is 100% pure and submit totally to His reign over our lives.  We can seek the armor of God to gird us against the impurities that the world has to offer.  We can seek purity as our desired nature.  “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

Why is it that we think it is our job to save those that we know and love?  It is not our job at all.  The job of salvation belongs solely to Jesus.

Our job is to introduce our family, friends and social connections to the One who saved us.  The introduction is best made through our living testimony.  Our lifestyle, which is a reflection of our relationship with Him, speaks much louder than our words.  Once others have a chance to see what Jesus is doing in our lives, it is much easier for us to tell them what the love of Jesus means to us and how they could experience His love in their lives.

Our natural tendency when we see a person in trouble is to try to rescue them.  If what we are rescuing them from is themselves, we are doing them a great disservice if we become their rescuer.  We must let Jesus rescue them.  He must be their Savior, not us.  

The troubled soul needs to find his/her comfort in the only place that will truly heal them.  Our job is to simply show them Jesus’ power in our lives, so that they can reach out to Him on their own.

The Spirit of God within us is a gift that cannot be turned away.  Once in us, the Spirit is our new life.  Our old life in the flesh is dead.  The flesh may try to rule once again, but it’s power is very short lived.  The Holy Spirit within us simply will not allow the flesh to rule.  

If we try to lean toward a life in the flesh, the Holy Spirit will overwhelm us with a sense of guilt and failure until we die unto ourselves.  We see the evidence of giving up our carnal lives when we immediately confess our sins and stand bared before Jesus, knowing that He will wash us clean with His Blood.

It is highly unlikely that any of us will have a “burning bush” experience like Moses.  For most of us, it is just as unlikely that we will be prompted by something as dramatic as God’s audible voice.  In all likelihood, when we are called by God, we will only experience a gentle urging in our hearts.

It is our responsibility to learn to recognize and be moved by the gentle urgings that God places on our hearts.  God can work great wonders through our obedience to the simplest suggestions of His Spirit within us.