Why Pray The Word?

 See the Prayer and Praying Series)here

Many Christians are familiar with God’s open and quite controversial invitation to ‘Test Me!’ on the topic of tithes. (Malachi 3:8) We may not be as familiar with another rather controversial invitation to ‘Remind Me/Put Me in remembrance…’. (Isaiah 43:26) These invitations are controversial possibly because, as humans, we are inclined to criticize, limit and narrow God’s intentions, character and nature to fit our own miniscule notions, and also because, let’s face it, who are we to test and remind The Almighty?! Since His goodness, love and grace are far beyond my comprehension, I prefer to spend my time trying to deepen and expand my understanding of what my unlimited, quintessentially GOOD God may mean in such clear, direct invitations, both within and well beyond the specific contexts in which they were extended. How about you?

I hope you are indeed ‘testing Him’ in your financial life. Moreover, here’s an excellent way to ‘remind Him’ continually about something that’s very important to Him, namely His Word:

Pray His Word back to Him!

Ok, this may be ‘old hat’ to many of you, but trust me, it’s a message well worth echoing, both in this post and by example, whenever we are presented with an opportunity to engage in group/corporate prayer.

Disagree?

Consider the alternative of

not praying God’s Word back to Him…

Here are my top 10 reasons why you should not debate, but grab God’s invitation and run with it:

1. Study, Know, Associate: Praying The Word prompts you to study to know God more intimately, especially His nature and character, and to associate your needs and desires, and those of others, with what He has said, either directly or indirectly, concerning those types of needs and desires.

2. Hearing Builds Faith: Praying The Word enables you to build faith in His Word and character. How? As you pray The Word, you hear yourself saying it, either audibly or mentally, and faith comes by hearing God's Word. (Romans 10:17)

3. Applied Word >> Productive Prayer: Praying The Word results in more deliberate, more targeted, and a lot more productive prayer because you are praying God's Words, and, in faith, you are applying His Word (like a doctor applies medicine or a skilled worker applies his skills) to present situations. Your prayers will also be less charged with negative emotions and reactionary fear -- less praying the problems that God is already intimately familiar with. Consider just how much of typical prayers (public and private) spend time on the problems rather than what God, Himself says are His solutions to the problems. To some, their retort is, "David prayed his problems!" Ok, have at it.

4. Stay in Gratitude: Praying The Word helps you learn to appreciate His Word, apprehend His Love and Grace, and stay in gratitude because, in faith, you have prayed according to God's will. His Word uncloaks His will. Praying His Word strengthens your ability to apply Mark 11:24. (Study the verb tenses in that verse.)

5. Solution-Focused: Praying The Word actually refocuses your contrary thoughts and words away from the problems, and on what God says are the solutions. His power is in His Word, not in our recital of the problems.

6. Teach Hearers: In group/corporate prayers, praying The Word significantly edifies all hearers. As they hear your confident prayers, they are indirectly taught how to pray more effectively by associating our needs and desires to what God has specifically or generally said concerning His character, nature, and will, and regarding us, our needs, and our desires.

7. Glorify Jesus: Praying The Word actually and directly glorifies Jesus as He sees His followers knowledgeable of His Word, and in faith, returning it to The Father, in His Name. Glorifying Jesus in this manner also triggers our praise to God, and serves legal notice that spiritually evicts demonic powers! (Psalm 8:2) 

8. Peace-Making: Praying The Word enables us confidentially to say, ‘Amen!’, and to accept the outcomes as God’s expressed or permissive will. In this manner, we enter into Kingdom-building, ensuring 'Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done' in this present situation.

9. Obedience: As you pray The Word in faith, you are effectively obeying… ‘Put Me in remembrance/remind Me’, ‘Abide in Me…’, and many other God-promptings. *

10. Dissolve ‘Yeah, buts…’: Praying The Word continually mystically dissolves all of our fearful/doubtful ‘Yeah, buts…’ about what God has said.

 Praying The Word: A ‘Yeah, but…’ repellant!

Please help add to this list.  Thanks~

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^* If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7, KJV)

I Won the Lotto (Poem)

What would you do if I said, ‘I’ve won the lottery!!’ ? *

Would you just send me congratulations, heartily?

Would our relationship remain just as now,

Or would you think, ‘Gotta get closer, but how?!’

Would your opinion of me shift significantly,

And I then become your best friend, quintessentially?

Would you then start calling me on my phone,

Then suggest visiting me at my home?

Could ‘money significant’ change not only my life,

But also suddenly end all loneliness and strife?

Seriously, I ask, ‘What would be the impact

Of money putting my life on a brand new track?!’

You might think, ‘Hmmm, now he can really LIVE,

And have some left over to me to give!

With that much money, there’d be no budget to nurse!’

Friend, what do you get when you spell ‘LIVE’ in reverse?

Look! The ‘Y’ in MONEY points both downward and up;

Down to a trap, up to a god as in worship.

The god’s name is YENOM, and his trap is all EVOL,**

As the LOVE of MONEY is the root of all EVIL.

Money lovers, of money you’ll never have enough.

Luxury lovers, you’ll never be satisfied with stuff.

When good things increase, their consumers suddenly arise!

It is as if your money suddenly sprouts wings...and flies! ***

Of this conundrum, God has forewarned us,

Never in money should we put our trust!

But we plod along, acting like He is the one unwise!

Thus, money continues to deceive all our hearts and eyes.

This is one deception that never needs to be.

Money’s just an illusion on which we all agree.

Yes, it can do some good in your life and society,

But only with God in your heart, and whom you love is He.

Beware of god Yenom, he’s always on the prowl,

Seeking someone to deceive, someone’s life to foul.

Make all your money honor Jesus,

...no matter how much comes your way.

Make it bow ‘its knee’ to Him,

...so for deception you won’t have to pay!

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*   Title only~

**  Get it??  ;o)

*** Ecclesiastes 5:10-11

Our World, Un-Moneyed (Poem)

Our money game is like a house of cards, a game of shadows,

Designed to motivate work-for-debt every one of us owes.

Thanks to Scottish economist, banker, and gambler, John Law,

We have our Fractional Reserve System, with some built-in flaws!

Yeah, it triggered funding of industrial revolutions,

But to these built-in flaws, we’ve never found a good solution.

One flaw is the need to earn interest that feeds

An endless spiral of growth and debt that bleeds.

This ‘interest-growth-debt’ cycle, tricks us to focus

On all the wrong things about which God has warned us;

Things like envy, selfishness, and covetousness,

And other such things that made our world such a mess.

Spirits that continually motivate such things as these

Are the same to whom Adam mortgaged Earth in a long-term lease.

They have blinded our eyes, stolen our peace and stopped up our ears

To the wise knowledge God gave mankind at the start of ‘our years’.

He calls the moneyed systems of our world, our life, ‘Babylon’ --

Man’s attempts to meet our needs, while giving Him a great big

>>YAWN<<.

Reading about things ‘Babylonian’ reveals what He thinks,

And how ardently in His nose anything ‘Babylon’ stinks! ¹

Revelation uncloaks how roots of these systems are deployed,

And shows how the core spirit of ‘Babylon’ will be destroyed.

Ponder, as you negotiate our moneyed systems so bane,

What system might Jesus employ in His millennial reign??

We are so steeped in our broken, ‘beggar-thy-neighbor’ approach,

That other ways we can’t even imagine, nor will we broach.

But another way, yes, His way, definitely shall there be!

So come along for a moment, and imagine it with me.

That The Bible has clues of His system, of this I’m convinced,

In stories of the lives in which His supply was evidenced.

Our moneyed systems of life will become so irrelevant,

When replaced with God’s ‘need-meeting system’ so benevolent.

Some worry about new currencies, like Bit Coin.

His system, God even now, invites us to join,

Leaving our merciless systems to which we are all slaves,

For The Word of His Grace, bestowed, by The God of ALL Grace.

See, it’s not about demand and supply, as we might suppose,

Nor about the management of scarcity, as economic fear grows.

It is about management, of UN-limited resources,

And learning about God, our source, from Whom every blessing flows.

He said He’d meet our needs, and desires of our heart,

From His riches in Glory, if only we’d do our part.

In His reign, His riches will come from Glory, to be here on Earth,

Wiping out all notions of scarcity, revealing His true worth!

Here, He will establish His Son’s holy, worldwide monarchy,

Not some puny attempt at pluralistic democracy!

Then full knowledge of Him and all His ways will fill this planet,

And wisdom from that knowledge will meet all needs -- by His Spirit.

But wait just a minute! It would be quite a blooper,

If you think my rhyme only relates to the future!

Meeting all needs, He indeed will do. I’ve told you how.

If He can do it then, He will do it…even NOW!

He asks only for hearts that are willing,

Which with His Word daily we are filling;

Lives that before Him bow in submission,

That He anoints to fulfill His mission.

Money becomes less and less relevant,

In anointed lives that aren’t arrogant.

We become less ‘I’, more ‘others’ focused,

And help them choose HIM as their life’s locus.

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1 Spiritual ‘Babylon’, referring to all the ungodly systems of our world.

2 See: Philippians 4:19

What’s Holy Got to Do With It? (Poem)

Please…

Don’t think I think I’m ‘holier than thou’,

No, my Friend, just that I’m 'holier now',

(…It’s apparent!)

Than I was quite some time ago.

Just wanted to share, so you’d know.

Don’t think ‘holy’ means something sanctimonious,

Or has anything to do, with self-righteousness.

(…It doesn’t!)

Holy just simply means to be separated,

As in set-aside for use that’s dedicated.

It is just as important this to understand--

Both ‘from what’ and ‘to what’ holiness demands.

(…There’re two sides!)

Otherwise you might stumble in your impression,

Thinking holy may mean from you, a regression.

Sin separates us from God’s awesome power,

Great benefits on us He loves to shower.

(…Thus Christ died!)

Separated, we become totally useless,

First to Him, and in life, sinfully aimless.

Holiness rejoins us to Him in perfect union,

Allowing Him our heart, mind, and life to refashion,

(…No longer dead!)

So we can learn to obey His ‘sin injunction’,

Then help lead you to your own ‘decision junction’.

Friend, we can’t be holy in our own, prideful power.

We can simply yield to these faith-filled words and prosper.

(…The Lord said~)

“Be holy, as I AM holy”, and in saying this, ¹

He empowered us His ‘holy target’...not to miss.

Preaching ‘Love’s just a second hand emotion’,

Is just a really un-holy illusion,

(…Tina was deluded!)

Love is God, Himself, and holy is His nature.

So if you’re His ‘son’, live like He is your Father. ²

The ‘happy holidays’ season has come and gone.

All the gifts are unwrapped, and a New Year has dawned.

(…'satan clause' is eschewed!)

In answer to the title question raised,

‘Tis now time to ‘live happy holy days’.

There're many reasons why a holy life we should live.

Consider the rank of gifts God promises to give,

(…to us deeded!)

Unlimited gifts now and in the bye-‘n-bye.

So allow His Sprit your life ...to fructify.

See, it’s only by His Spirit and GRACE power,

Before His ‘holy’ command we will not cower,

(…as defeated!)

So ‘what’s holiness got to do with it??’ You should know. ³

We walk in holiness simply because...He said so!

Practicing holiness ‘works out of us’

That which God has, by Grace, ‘worked into us’.

(…as in kneaded!)

Refusing to learn to walk in His holiness

Means you’ll never experience…His ‘coziness’.

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¹ Leviticus 11:44-45, 20:26; 1 Peter 1:16 (4 times!)

² Romans 8:14. In calling all born again believers, ‘sons’, God elevates women and girls to a higher status than they had in earlier societies.

³ See: What does the Bible say about holiness?

Happy New Ears - Take 2

What does the above picture initially look like to you? Does it resemble a piece of jewelry, or maybe a free hand drawing of some exotic design?
Here’s another question:  What is the ‘heart of hearts’? You’ve no doubt heard this expression, e.g., being not sure of something in your ‘heart of hearts.’ It typically refers to the seat of a person’s feelings’ or depths of conscience or emotions’.
Ok, enough questions. Please share your view. Here’s my take:

The HEART of HEART is … your EAR.

Here’s why. First, the English word, ear, is in the middle of the English word heart. Simple, right? ;o)

The second reason is more profound, interesting, and Biblically-based. God is profoundly concerned with our hearing – our spiritual hearing or hearing within our heart. By my count, there are no less than 23 Scripture verses that reference some version of the expression, ‘ears to hear or do not/cannot hear’. A similar, oft used expression is, ‘eyes to see or do not/cannot see’. So it is clear we have at least two sets of ‘spiritual organs’ – eyes and ears of our heart.

Knowing how profoundly He is concerned with our spiritual hearing, and knowing we humans would adopt the shape of a heart to indicate/refer to our spirit, in His wisdom, God gave us a pair of ears that curiously, when viewed side-by-side, resemble the shape of a heart! Imagine that. Moreover, with a bit of imagination, you might even perceive the rough outline of a face in the above picture.

My earlier New Year’s greeting to you was “Happy New ears”. (Not a typo, as it may seem.)  Happy New ears! As I pondered this concept during the year, it became clearer why such an emphasis is placed on our spiritual ears. This is, by far, the primary faculty by which Jesus communicates with His born again believers, and He expects us to develop a keen ability to ‘hear’ His voice at this level. Of course, He uses a variety of ‘means’ to communicate, namely His Word (The Bible), exposition, teachings, visions, etc., but all of His communication ‘means’ must boil down to, and depend upon what/how we ‘hear’ spiritually.

Moreover, He backs-up His expectation by applying the principles of faith to our ability to hear. For example, check out in John 10 the number of times Jesus released faith-filled words that express His inner vision for all future born again believers: “My sheep know, hear and follow My voice.” He knew our ability to obey is inextricably connected to our ability, first, to hear; hence the iterated focus across the pages of The Bible on spiritual hearing. Father God, by faith, I agree with My High Priest, Jesus Christ, in saying, I know, I hear and, by Your merciful Grace, I follow/obey Your voice.

Consider this: The psalmists expressed an inordinate concern about their voices (prayers, cries, distress calls, etc.) being heard on High. Check out the number of times they referred to various versions of ‘my voice’. Jesus seems to turn the tables on such a focus, rather accentuating, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me” (John 11:41), and, “My sheep know, hear and follow My voice.” (John 10:2, 4, 14, 16, 27; and 18:37) wOw, what a change in perspective!

Hopefully, you joined me previously in asking for new ears, as encouraged in the above post. Now, my prayer and wish for you is to grow and proactively develop your spiritual ears. Let’s start by AGREEING and ALIGNING our faith with His faith-filled words in John 10. After all, as disciples, His Word is to be the final authority in our lives, irrespective of our circumstances or emotions/feelings, right?! Otherwise we are not His disciples.

Prayer:
Father God, by faith, I agree with My High Priest, Jesus Christ, in saying, I know, I hear and, by Your merciful Grace, I follow/obey Your voice.

Reiterate this prayer or a similar confession, out loud as often as necessary, until, in your ‘heart of hearts’, you know-that-you-know-that-you-know... Why out loud? It’s simple: A spoken word trumps a thought -- any day of the week! Developing and activating your faith in this manner will revitalize your relationship with Christ, and revolutionize your life!

NB: Hebrews 3 and 4 thrice iterate the strong, direct connection between our spiritual ears and the condition of our heart, saying, “Today, if you will (wish to) hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…”

~Rich Blessings for a Great New Year~