Haven't seen or spoken to my angel yet, but he knows I'm onto him.
Luke 1:30 And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God.
I just know he's about to tell me something. Something very important.
11/21/07
WHAT'S UP WITH PRAYER ANYWAY
I can remember when the thought of prayer never entered my mind, and if it did in an odd sort of way I paid it no mind. Now I know different...
The whole range of God's dealing with man is affected by prayer. And the more I study prayer, the more I pray, and the more I pray, the deeper more personal my relationship has become with God. Who knew ? However when I stopped playing around with God and got serious about getting to know Him and really gave it a go, things really did begin to happen. It's awesome! Faith has become my most powerful tool in life.
Prayer is asking God for something, and for something which He has promised. Prayer is using the divinely appointed means for obtaining what we need and for accomplishing what God proposes to do on earth. I am convinced it's all about the love God has for us.
Prayer can do all things. Prayer must do all things.
And prayer brings to us blessings which we need, and which only God can give, and which prayer can alone convey to us. Prayer is going to God for something needed and desired. Prayer is simply asking God to do for us what He has promised us He will do if we ask Him. Asking is our part. Giving is God's part. The praying belongs to us. The answer belongs to God.
God is more ready, more willing and more anxious to give the answer than man is to give the asking. The possibilities of prayer lie in the ability of man to ask large things and in the ability of God to give large things.
Prayer is a tremendous force in the world.
Looking ahead, God declares in His Word that the wonder of wonders will be so great in the last days that everything animate and inanimate will be excited by His power:
"And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." It has ever been so. God's marvellous, miracle-working times have been times of marvellous, miracle-working praying. The greatest thing in God's worship by His own estimate is praying. Its chief service and its distinguishing feature is prayer:
The course of nature, the movements of the planets, and the clouds, have yielded to the influence of prayer, and God has changed and checked the order of the sun and the seasons under the mighty energies of prayer. It is only necessary to note the remarkable incident when Joshua, through this divine means of prayer, caused the sun and the moon to stand still in order that a more complete victory could be given to the armies of Israel in the contest with the armies of the Amorites.
Take this picture of prayer and its wonderful possibilities. God's cause is quiet and motionless on the earth. An angel, strong and impatient to be of service, waits round about the throne of God in heaven, and in order to move things on earth and give impetus to the movements of God's cause in this world, he gathers all the prayers of all God's saints in all ages, and puts them before God just like Aaron used to cloud, flavour and sweeten himself with the delicious incense when he entered the holy sanctuary, made awful by the immediate presence of God. The angel impregnates all the air with that holy offering of prayers, and then takes its fiery body and casts it on the earth.
Check out the remarkable result. "There were voices and thundering and lightnings and an earthquake." What tremendous force is it that has convulsed the earth? The answer is that it is the "prayers of the saints," turned loose by the angel round about the throne, who has charge of those prayers. This mighty force is prayer, like the power of earth's mightiest dynamite. Our prayers have so much power! If only we would pray! Pray and believe that God is on our side. Believe as if we have already received!
Take another fact showing the wonders of prayer wrought by Almighty God in answer to the praying of His true prophet. The nation of God's people was fearfully apostate in head and heart and life. A man of God went to the apostate king with the fearful message which meant so much to the land, "There shall not be rain nor dew these years but according to my word." Whence this mighty force which can stay the clouds, seal up the rain, and hold back the dew? Who is this who speaks with such authority? Is there any force which can do this on earth? Only one, and that force is prayer, wielded in the hands of a praying prophet of God. It is he who has influence with God and over God in prayer, who thus dares to assume such authority over the forces of nature. This man Elijah is skilled in the use of that tremendous force. "And Elijah prayed earnestly, and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months."
But this is not all the story. He who could by prayer lock up the clouds and seal up the rain, could also unlock. the clouds and unseal the rain by the same mighty power of prayer. "And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth gave forth her fruit."
Mighty is the power of prayer. Wonderful are its fruits. Remarkable things are brought to pass by men of prayer. Many are the wonders of prayer wrought by an Almighty hand. The evidences of prayer's accomplishments almost stagger us. They challenge our faith. They encourage our expectations when we pray.
If we believe God's word, we are bound to believe that prayer affects God, and affects Him mightily; that prayer avails, and that prayer avails mightily.
Prayer has no talismanic influence. It is no mere fetish.It has no so-called powers of magic.
It is simply making known our requests to God for things agreeable to His will in the name of Christ. It is just yielding our requests to a Father, who knows all things, who has control of all things, and who is able to do all things. Prayer is infinite ignorance trusting to the wisdom of God. Prayer is the voice of need crying out to Him who is inexhaustible in resources. Prayer is helplessness reposing with childlike confidence on the word of its Father in heaven. Prayer is but the verbal expression of the heart of perfect confidence in the infinite wisdom, the power and the riches of Almighty God, who has placed at our command in prayer everything we need.
I have lot's more I want to share with you about the movement and dynamics of prayer. And developing a powerful and loving relationship with our Father in Heaven. I hope you will link to this blog or come back from time to time like an old friend and leave me your comments.
I love you, and of course I will be praying for all of you.
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