Why do we pray?

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus... (Heb 3:1a)

Why do we pray?  The answer is in this scripture which says we are partakers of the Heavenly Calling.  The bible says that God has called us into this calling as priests unto our God.  (1 Pet 2:9) What was the calling of the priests in the Old Testament?  They were to present offerings to God, worship and to atone for their, and the nation’s, sins as well as pronounce blessings. They were to present the needs of the people to God.

We see this example of this as Hannah was crying out to God for Him to grant her a son and Eli initially thought she was drunk until she explained her brokenness of soul.  Eli made this proclamation, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.” (1 Sam 1:17). What did Eli do?  He stood with her in faith proclaiming God would answer her petition.  And we know from this story that God did give her a son, Samuel.

Jesus, sitting at the right hand of the throne of His Father, is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Notice it says our confession and this is what Jesus is listening too.  The bible tells us our High Priest “who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Roms 8:34b) Jesus intercedes for us with the confession we make.  

“Consider our Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus”! And what is our confession? Jesus Christ is.  Everything He taught and proclaimed as well as the redemptive 

power of His cross as our High Priest who laid down His life as the perfect sacrifice. Jesus also gave us an answer to this as He taught on prayer to pray “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done” ( Matthew 6:10.)

Whatever our need, if it lines up with the will of God and His Kingdom, we can make it our confession when we pray.  This is the most powerful way of praying by declaring and praying God’s word back to Him.  Need healing!  Pray and claim, “Heavenly Father it is your will for me to be healed for Jesus bared His back for my healing at the whipping post.  He paid for my healing with His blood and I declare that by His stripes I am HEALED.  Thank you Father for manifesting this healing in my body now.” (Is 53:3, 1 Pet 2:24)

Jesus can intercede for us with this confession.  I can hear Him saying, “Father, this son/daughter has declared the truth and is declaring my blood, release angels and the healing now.”

Sinner or Saint?

For the “law” of the Spirit of life flowing through the anointing of Jesus has liberated us from the “law” of sin and death. Rom 8:2

I have often heard people of God saying, “I am a sinner saved by grace”, which sounds really humbling, but I really want to challenge this thought as I feel it is unscriptural.

To me it’s all about our identity and living out of that identity. After all, the bible teaches us that what we believe in our hearts about ourselves is what we are. (Prov 23:7)

When we were saved, we became new creatures in Christ, the old passed away and the new came (2 Cor 5:17). By the Holy Spirit, we now walk in the newness of life, with new God given desires, His law written on our hearts and a new spirit within us. (Eze 11:19)

To keep confessing that we are sinners focuses us on the law of sin and death and our failures which brings condemnation.  It is a bit like AA where participants introduce themselves by saying, “Hi, my name is....and I am an alcoholic.”  They never lose their identity as an alcoholic, or indeed in some cases, their struggle against it. Not only this, but when we identify as being a sinner, we are more easily able to condone our sin, because after all, that is who we are. We allow ourselves to let some sins pass by unchecked such as “gossip” in the disguise as need for prayer. Grace does not give us the liberty to sin.  Grace empowers us NOT to sin. Our sins should grieve us, especially as we know the absolute horror of sin and that the only way out of sin was the equally horrific death the sinless One, Jesus Christ had to suffer.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

(For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) Rom 6: 5-7

There is a big difference between a sinner striving not to sin and a saint striving for holiness. A sinner can strive in the flesh not to sin, which is totally hopeless and will hence focus on their failings which brings condemnation and death.

You will find that the common identity tag given for believers in the New Testament is saint, not sinner.  When we focus on having been crucified with Christ and living out of the newness of life having been raised with Him, we can live our life by faith in Christ, walking in holiness.

Through our union with Him, we have experienced circumcision of heart.  All the guilt and power of sin has been cut away and is now extinct because of what Christ, the Anointed One, accomplished for us. (Col 2:11)

We no longer wilfully want to sin. We have a circumcised heart with new desires to please our Father and the power of sin has been given a death blow. So why would we want to confess that we are still sinners?

We have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, so there is an aspect of us having to do something, but that something is, being dependent upon the empowering grace of the Holy Spirit and having faith in the finished work of the cross.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you too, consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness.

For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace. (Rom 6: 6-14)

This scriptures I’ve used do not sound like we are still sinners saved by grace but in fact are telling us that we are no longer enslaved by sin and that sin no longer has dominion over us.  Our focus should be the life we now share with Christ, fully alive to Him and His desires, dead to sin and it’s trappings. Our new identity is that of saints who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and by God’s Grace, walk in holiness being directed, taught and sanctified by the Comforter, God’s Spirit of Grace who indwells us.

This does not mean that we will no longer sin.  We will. But we no longer want to sin and our hearts will be very responsive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit when we do transgress God’s Law and grieve the Holy Spirit.

In these instances, we need to be quick to repent.  Sin should grieve us. This should be the new attitude we have toward it as we seek to walk in holiness.

Maybe the saying should be changed to, “I was a sinner BUT I have been saved by grace and I am now a saint led by grace”.  It may not sound as humbling but I think it is closer to truth and focuses us on the new identity we have where we can live from a heavenly perspective as children of the Most High and Holy God. 

A Divine Love

God has a vision. He has always had it, right from eternity.  Everything He has ever done and is still doing is for the cause of that vision. He sent Jesus, His only Son, as a fulfilment of the vision He has always held in His heart.

God’s vision is, and always has been, children made after the image of His Son.

Those foreknown of God, “He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Rom 8:29)

I guess to say God has a vision may not be entirely biblical as He sees the end from the beginning and everything in between.  But to say God had a plan doesn’t seem to encapsulate the amazing and outstanding, blow your mind away effect for me.  The fact that God saw me and you even before we came into being and knew us intimately is beyond my understanding. Yet He did and still does and is present in our past, present and future altogether.  To know that God held us in His heart and mind even before the world was created is such a intimate, altogether mind boggling understanding.

God, the Creator of the universe and beyond, pursued us even when we didn’t want pursuing and in the fulfilment of His time revealed Jesus to our weary hearts. He truly is the Father of Love! And what incredible love, that He gave up His most loved Son for you and me.

Right from the beginning of our time, God’s intention and purpose for humankind was expressed in these unforgettable words:-

“Let Us make man in our image” (Gen 1:26)

Us!  The whole Godhead was in perfect unity about what they were to do in spite of knowing the ramifications of the rebellious choice mankind would choose.  And how far from that image did we wander as we got ensconced in a world of rebellion and sin against the Godhead. We got lost in the trappings of Tinsel Town and the pursuit of riches and success, and in doing so, lost the Father, ourselves and our families.  We strive for fulfilment and acceptance yet never realised that these needs can only be met through the unconditional love of a Heavenly Father who gave so much for us.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God laments that the children He chose did not recognise His care for them, so far they travelled the road of forgetting their identity and purpose and tried to find fulfilment in false gods. Although this scripture speaks of the Israelites, His chosen people, it still holds merit for all humanity today through the cross of Jesus Christ. God gives a picture of the state of those who give no credence to an Almighty God who created them. This still rings so true today, in a society who is doing its best to remove God from the picture in order to choose their own path and “truth”, modern idols of man’s pride.

Why do you insist on being battered? 

Why do you continue to rebel? 

Your head has a massive wound, 

your whole body is weak.

From the soles of your feet to your head, 

there is no spot that is unharmed. 

There are only bruises, cuts, 

and open wounds. 

They have not been cleansed or bandaged, 

nor have they been treated with olive oil. (Isa 1:5-6)

You can heard the cry of God’s heart pleading for us to come back to Him and be healed.  Knowing this in advance, one could almost wonder why God would create a people who would reject Him and His Christ. The simple answer is that love needs expression and God wanted a family to set His affection on and who would willingly respond from their hearts.

When we have children of our own, we too have dreams for their future, and do everything in our power to lead them and hope that they would be happy and successful as their life unfurls before us.  Parents are heartbroken when they see their progeny destroy their future through wrong choices. How much more our Heavenly Father who even desires things over and beyond even the things we long for but can’t express.

The gospel message is all about a divine romance.  God created us so He could lavish His love upon us. He want to give us dignity and purpose as He gave us dominion over the earth, to bring His Heavenly Kingdom on to this earth realm. God showed how much He wanted this relationship with us by walking with Adam and Eve everyday in the garden. Unfortunately, the relationship was destroyed when Adam and Eve disobeyed, and sin and death entered, and this has been humankind’s problem ever since. And with our sins against God and each other, we are wracked with guilt and pain.

The divine romance kicked in, and as agreed, Jesus came. He showed us love and obedience as He walked this earth, putting right all things for those He touched. That love led Him to the cross and, in His death and resurrection, He open the way back to Father. Through the cross alone, and the blood Jesus shed, we are forgiven every time we repent.

“The plan was that He would give himself as an offering for sin so that He would see life come from it - life, life and more life. And God’s plan would deeply prosper through Him.  Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad He did it.  Through what He experienced, my Righteous One, my Servant, will make many “righteous ones” as He Himself carries all their sins.” (Is 53:11 MSG)

Accepting Christ and what He did for us on the cross and allowing Him to live His Life through us truly makes us children of God birthed in the growing image of the One our allegiance leads us to worship and obey.

Rejection vs the Love of God

But I want you to I understand Christ is the source of every human alive. 1 Cor 11:3a

Life can make us so needy.  Rejection can make us search our life long for acceptance and love, and, outside of Christ, many look to others to fulfil this God given desire.  Regretfully, it seems to become a downward spiral of continuous searching as we discover that the temporary satisfaction we may receive wears off quickly and we begin to play the blame game. “He/she just didn’t make me happy”, we protest.

The pressure we put upon one another to fulfil what only Christ can, can be enormous, and no one can carry the burden of being someone’s source of all happiness, fulfilment and love.  Often couples who have felt the sting of rejection can fall into this trap of co-dependency for each other and find it impossible to support each other’s full emotional needs. And indeed, no human can. This is because we cannot give away what we don’t have.  The kind of unconditional, selfless love and full acceptance the human heart needs can only come from God our Creator, who is Love, and who is the Source of that love.

‘We love because he first loved us’ (1 John 4:19). 

There is an answer for our love starved hearts; yet many will seek all other avenues first to find the secret of belonging and acceptance only to still have that deep down nagging ache of being empty. The answer, simply, is God our Father through Jesus Christ the Son.  As one of the Hillsong song’s go:-

Christ my all in all

The joy of my salvation 

And this hope will never fail

Heaven is my home

This doesn’t mean, of course, that we don’t need any human on earth.  In fact, God commands that we love Him and others, but if we are looking to have our emotional and spiritual needs met through people, we will be disappointed.  When we live co-dependant on others, we give them place that God should occupy and thereby move into idolatry.

Christ is our source of everything, and the Cross becomes our salvation fulfilling all that our human hearts need.  God said, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you, I have called you by name”. (Is 43:1)  God also promised that no matter what life throws at us, He will be with us through it all.  Our sins and hurts drove us from God our Heavenly Father, yet in His great love for us, He purchased us with the precious blood of His Son.  This is because He wanted to love us, adopt us into His family (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and have us enjoy eternity with Him.

The Cross of Christ is our place of exchange. Our sins are forgiven and His Righteousness given to us as a gift.  To know we can be forgiven of all sin and have all guilt removed will bring a lightness to our weary souls. To know that we now have full and open access to His throne of grace where we find His full acceptance and adoption as His child will bring joy and peace.  He truly is the Source of our full satisfaction.

Rejection cannot hold us bound when we truly have the revelation that we are unconditionally loved by the Creator.  We know from scripture that God knew us before the foundation of the world, where His Lamb was already slain for us. We proceeded from His heart and our times are in His hands. He carefully planned a blueprint for our lives, and a calling and then uniquely gave us the looks, personality and giftings to suit that calling. He placed us in “such a time as this” to effectively bring His Kingdom to earth as we are led by His Spirit. He delighted in the day He brought us forth from the womb and He delights in every aspect of our growth and healing.  He particular loves it when we gain the victory over the damage in our souls that our own rebellion or the sins of others that have been perpetuated against us in this fallen world.  With this victory, that we gain through His grace and mercy, we become His warriors to lead others into victory.  This happens when we come to Him for healing and allow His processing of our hurts to come to light and deal with them.  Often it requires us to forgive ourselves and others.  And so the enemy of our soul is dealt a death blow.

If rejection plagues you, meditate on God’s love for you.  Be defined by what His truth says and not by the negative things that have been said or the circumstances in your life. Find His acceptance and love and allow it to absorb your very being.  Think about this; a Heavenly Father who would sacrifice His Son to bring you into a relationship with Him.  Think about how Jesus willingly laid down His life so that you could find abundant life in Him.  This is true love as Jesus Himself testified,

“Greater Love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (Jn 15:13)

The small multiplied

When evening arrived, his disciples came to him saying, “This is an isolated place and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

16 But he replied, “They don’t need to go. You give them something to eat.”

17 They said to him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.”

18 “Bring them here to me,” he replied.

19 Then he instructed the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven he gave thanks and broke the loaves. He gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.

20 They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the broken pieces left over, twelve baskets full.

21 Not counting women and children, there were about five thousand men who ate. Matt 14:15-21

This is a very familiar scene for us with the 5000 listening to the words of Jesus in an isolated place. They are camped around God in a sense and don’t realise that they are going to be invaded by a Kingdom reality of provision because of a gift of a small meal.

The scene takes me back to the children of Israel in the wilderness, also camped around God with a real physical and also a spiritual need.  They complain to Moses that he had brought then out to a forsaken place where they had nothing to eat.  God sends them manna from heaven to feed their physical need, yet His heart, yearned for them to worship Him and Him alone, listen, trust and obey Him.

Here thousands of years later, the people are still hungry and Jesus, the Bread of Heaven, the Creator of all things, is standing before them teaching.  His compassion rises with the grumbling stomachs of men, women and children. He asks His disciples to feed them and throws them into a bit of a panic.  They look around and find a boy willing to give up His small meal, and with doubt in their hearts the bring this offering to Jesus. Jesus thanks our Father for it, begins to break it and pass it to His disciples to hand out to the crowd, and the multiplied bread and fish satisfy everyone with the leftovers of 12 baskets. Significant I think, as it should have reminded them of the 12 tribes of Israel and how God is their Provider.

Jesus could have fed the crowd by creating manna from heaven just like He did in the Old Testament scene. He is Sovereign - yet He doesn’t. 

I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father. Jn 14:12

I realised afresh that Jesus invites us, His own, to be a Kingdom solution to an earthly need.  He calls us to be co-workers with Him in building and establishing His Kingdom to come on earth. When we give, whether of time or finances, we will see His Kingdom expand on earth and His goodness released.  It has to start with our willingness, even as this amazing miracle had to start with a young boy offering his small meal to Jesus.  What we give to God, with purity of heart and correct motives, to see Him glorified and His Kingdom come and to meet the need He puts in front of us, we become that Kingdom solution.

I believe that the command to tithe and bring offerings sets our hearts on an eternal Kingdom and eternal souls but also breaks off of us the attachments of the temporal realm, especially finances.

Whatever God asks us to give for His purpose on earth will ultimately bring blessing to those we are ministering to, and glory and overflowing thanksgiving to Him. God is never into our loss but always our gain.  This is because “of the increase of His government there shall be no end”. God is into multiplication not subtraction.  And every time we obey, His Kingdom increases in our hearts and we are less and less likely to listen to the voices of fear and lack.

God’s Kingdom vision for His church is that, in our generosity, we have wider and wider influence into our community to meet real needs and touch hearts with our obedience, and our giving supports that vision as his co-workers.  It also helps us to become more like Jesus who came to serve and not be served.  It builds our trust in Him when we see that He still meets our needs and will also bring the increase in our harvest.

Trust in His perfect love

God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them. By living in God, love has been brought to full expression in us so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgement, because all that Jesus now is, so are we in the world. Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives out the fear of punishment far from our hearts. 1 Jn 4 16-18 (Passion)

Love casts out fear, so if we fear, we could say that we  haven’t fully experienced His love for us in the particular area of fear.  If God asks us to give something and we are fearful of lack in our lives, we will experience fear and will argue with ourselves and God about what He has asked of us.  Sometimes trembling in fear, we do obey and give, but not without an internal argument and other times, we may find we reason ourselves out of giving, or give less than what God has asked.  This clearly shows that we don’t trust in our Father’s love, or nature.  Time and time again God has promised to bless those who give.  He has also promised that there is no lack for those who belong to the Shepherd.  He has proclaimed that He will supply all our needs and everyone of these promises He will deliver on as He cannot lie.

Fear has it’s own torment or punishment such as worry, anxiety, unrest or even sleepless nights.  This is why we really need to know and experience God’s love. We need to know, really know in our hearts that God loves us each personally and, as a Father, desires the best for our lives.

When questioned about bad behaviour, children will often lie or blame, for fear of punishment, particularly if they are being questioned by someone they don’t know too well. They may not lie when questioned by their parents because of their relationship and understanding of how much they are loved.  We also need to have this deep relationship and understanding of how much our Heavenly Father loves us.

We need never to fear lack.  God’s Kingdom is one of increase and His blessings always brings the multiplication.

God bless them and said, “Be fruitful and increase..” Gen 1:28

When we focus on loss, which was exactly what Eve did in the garden, fear can bring an atmosphere that prevents us from seeing clearly and we can be prone to lies.  Eve didn’t see all that God gave her but focused on the one tree she couldn’t touch.  She was deceived into believing God was withholding from her.  She doubted His Love.  God had given her good reason not to partake of the tree, for her and Adam’s rebellion would bring death, but she doubted His love, wisdom in His instruction and disobeyed.

We need to believe that our Heavenly Father always know best for us and that He is never into our loss but always into our gain. 

For I command you today, love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and law, then you will live and increase.. Deut 30:16

Obedience will always attract the blessings of God.

Of the increase of His Government and peace there will be no end. Is 9:7

The more we submit our fears to the Lord, repent and be healed, the more our hearts will be able to receive the increase of His Kingdom come and its subsequent peace.  Our King, Jesus dwells in us, and His reign needs to be more and more evident in our character and walk with Him.  His voice needs to speak louder than the fear in our soul.

The highest honour we can give God is our total trust in Him. When we trust in His Love, His nature and goodness, it allows us to be fully obedient, without having to battle fear, which brings its own torment.

When we haven’t experienced the fullness of God’s love, we won’t be able to approach Him freely without the fear of not being accepted into His presence.  Or, if we sin, we will hide from Him for fear of punishment instead of running to Him to ask for forgiveness and help.

We need to know, experience and trust in His perfect love for us. Mediate on His love.  That the Father of Heaven, would give His one and only precious Son for us is astounding.

So we have His word to rely on as our truth but we really need to have an ongoing, vibrant relationship with the Father, growing in His love and grace.  After all, if He has freely given up Jesus for us, how will He not, as He has promised, give us all good things.

Of Infinite Value

What is the value of your soul to God? Could your worth be defined by an amount of money? God doesn’t abandon or forget even the small sparrow He has made.  How then could He forget or abandon you? What about the seemingly minor issues of your life?  Do they matter to God?  Of course they do? So you never need to worry for you are more valuable to God then anything else in this world.  Luke 12:6-7 (Passion)

Oh how we need to mediate on the truths of God’s word and gain a true and right perspective of the infinite worth of our soul in God’s eyes.  So many I know, are trapped in the vicious cycle of rejection from past situations and can’t seem to move beyond the rejection of man to the glorious truth of our value to a wonderful, loving Heavenly Father.

What is the value of your soul to God? (pause - think about it deeply). Ask the question of yourself?  How you truthfully answer this from the bottom of your heart will show you how deep rejection issues are in your life.  If you cannot truthfully say that you are the most important person to God, I would implore you to mediate on the scripture for this blog.  When we grasp our infinite value to God, we can be healed of past rejection, and the understanding can set you free to have a deeply, intimate love for Father who will never reject His own.

Could your worth be defined by an amount of money?  I sincerely hope that your answer to this is a very definitive NO.  Let’s look at what it cost God to redeem (purchase you) to open up the way to a deep relationship with Him.

For you know that your lives were ransomed once and for all from the empty and futile way of life handed down from generation to generation. It was not a ransom payment of silver and gold, which eventually perishes, but by the precious blood of Christ - who like a spotless, unblemished lamb was sacrificed for us.  1 Peter 18-19 (Passion)

There was nothing in this world, even through created by God and owned by Him, that could purchase the salvation of your soul.  Everything we so highly prize on earth was insufficient in God’s eyes and God had to bankrupt heaven to give His one and only Son, so whoever believes on Him shall be saved.  Heaven’s treasure, the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only truly precious “possession” was chosen and predestined before the foundation of the earth, to come in the fullness of God’s timing to die for you and me.

How amazing, the King of the universe would give up His life because of His love for us.  When we have revelation about how precious we are, how can we not worship and praise the One who saved us through the shedding of His blood?  And when we understand how extremely priceless, Jesus is to the Father, how can we not be truly humbled by such a sacrificial love? And another incredible truth from the Word of God, is found written by Peter, “As believers you know His great worth - indeed, His preciousness is imparted to you.” 1 Peter 2:7 (Passion)

WOW! As equally as God deemed His Son as the most precious One in His life, so those of us who believe have that preciousness imparted to us. This is how our Heavenly Father sees us as precious in His sight. Yet we rather consider and think on how we see ourselves or how others may have seen us.

Lay a hold of these truths and let these minister to the wounds and hurts you maybe carrying from your past.  You have been chosen and called.  Your life was paid for by the blood of Christ and everything He did on that cross was for your benefit.  Walk in the freedom of this truth and rest and trust in His love.

What about the seemingly minor issues of your life? Do they matter to God? Of course they do?

For God has proved His love by giving us His greatest treasure, the gift of His Son. And since God freely offered Him up as the sacrifice for us all, He certainly won’t withhold from us anything else He has to give. Romans 1: 32 (Passion)

Could God have done more? NO!  He gave all for us and He is aware of your every need and every healing you need.  And He is willing to still give, touch, love, bless, reassure and heal His children today.

We can trust our Heavenly Father who never leaves us or abandons us. He gave His all, so important were our very souls to Him.  Don’t let the pass hold you back from walking in the love, peace and rest of how precious you are to God.