Sensitive to the Needs of Others

Isaiah 59:16

He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.

Jesus was sent to earth to be the perfect intercessor for all mankind.  He took the mantle that no one else could take.  The Son of God came as Son of Man to be Our Redeemer.  His Holy Spirit followed Him to be Our Sanctifier and Our Comforter.  He stands forever before the Father in righteousness on behalf of all men.  No human champion could ever meet the perfect intercessory requirements of the Father.

Though there is not one of us good enough to be true intercessors, Almighty God allows us the privilege to stand in intercessory prayer for others.  Our privileges are not earned.  They are granted through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Intercessory prayer is the perfect service for each of us to enter.  We communicate with God on behalf of others.  We go before the Father in worship and solicitation for His divine assistance.  We seek His will for those that we pray for.   Through the process, the needs of many are met and our relationship with the Father grows to be like the relationship that the Father has with The Son.

Let us strive to be sensitive to the needs of the people who surround us. Let us learn to listen to the Holy Spirit who will gently urge us to intercede for others that are placed in our lives.  Let us boldly proclaim our intercessory prayers in the name of Jesus Christ.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided Your Son to stand before Your Throne on our behalf. We pray that You will teach us how to stand before You on the behalf of those that You have placed around us. May You open our eyes and hearts so that we may see their needs and prayerfully respond to them.  May You strengthen us so that we will not falter in our prayer life.  May our relationship with You become like the relationship that You have with Your Son, Jesus.  We ask all of these things in name of the Divine Intercessor, Jesus Christ.

Refugees in the Shadow of Almighty God

Psalm 91:1

He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

In this world, to live in someone's shadow is generally thought to be an undesirable place.  It is regarded as a place where you cannot live up to the standards of the one who preceded you.  In the kingdom of God, quite the opposite is true.  Living in the shadow of Almighty God enables us to be more than we could believe to be possible.

Loving faith in Almighty God on our part will always be met by faithful love, protection and provision on God's part.  His covering of us is much greater than we can imagine.  If we are abiding in Him, there is no limit to His shadow that is over us.  He protects us at all times from natural and supernatural enemies.  He makes our homes secure.  He is our refuge in every storm.  

But it does not stop there for those that seek to live in His shadow.  He invites us to enjoy so much more.  There is a special nuance in this passage that must not be overlooked. The blessings spoken of in today's passage can be greater for those believers who live in ongoing, close fellowship with God.  The delightful fullness of these most high blessings are for those who habitually abide in the shadow of Almighty God. Those who stand in continuous communion with God set themselves up to become possessors of rare and special benefits. 

Let us seek the grace to be constant refugees in the fortress of Almighty God.  Let us enjoy the fullness of His shadow.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for the shadow of protection and provision that You place over us when we surrender our lives to You.  We bless the name of Jesus who has made it possible for us to come to Your mercy seat. We pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will guide us and strengthen us as we seek to abide under Your shadow.  May our hearts be prepared to seek that secret place of constant communion where we can access the fullness of Your most high blessings.  We ask all these things in the name of the One whose mercies never end, Jesus Christ.

Our Extraordinary Endowments

Isaiah 11:2

And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

In this passage, Isaiah was prophesying of the nature of our coming Savior.  The scripture foretold that Jesus would be given extraordinary endowments through the agency of the Holy Spirit.  Because we are indwelled by Jesus Christ when we accept Him as Our Savior, we inherit these same wondrous endowments for ourselves.  The inheritance that we receive is not temporary or occasional.  It is a permanent and enduring influence on our lives.

With our inheritance, we receive three pairs of spiritual endowments to assist us in being holy, pure and wise.  Each pairing is made up of a spiritual gift and the resulting impact of that gift on our lives:

1) We are provided wisdom from which comes the understanding to perceive moral and intellectual truths.

2) We are provided counsel from which comes the might that gives us the direction and the power that we need to carry out the plans that emerge from our spiritual insight.

3) We are provided knowledge from which comes the fear of the Lord which establishes the foundation of our relationship with the one true God, Our Father in heaven.

Let us be mindful of all the gifts that Christ made available for us when He died on the Cross.  Let us seek the fullness of the Spirit of the Lord to overwhelm us each day.  Let us use our gifts to produce great fruit for the Kingdom of Almighty God and bring honor and glory to Our Savior.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the wondrous nature that You have given us in Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We pray that the fullness of the Holy Spirit will rest upon us.  We seek Your wisdom so that we may have understanding in all matters.  We seek your counsel that we may become mighty warriors for Your kingdom.  We ask, Lord, that You inspire us to take the knowledge that we have of You and turn it into a reverent awe that changes how we live every moment of our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who gives power to the faint and might to those without strength, Jesus Christ.

Messengers of Hope for All Men

Acts 9:17

So Ananias departed and entered the house.  And laying hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

In an instant Paul not only received his physical sight, he also received the filling of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, he received wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge of God and a holy reverence for God.  All of these gifts came on him at once. His vision of who He was in Christ, along with all of its associated power, served to allow him to replace the evil man that he had become with the new, righteous man that he was to become.

Just as the sinner and prosecutor of the early church, Saul, became the new man Paul, those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior become new men and women in Christ.  And just like Paul, the power of the Holy Spirit fills us so that we are able to proclaim the Good News and serve as conduits of God's love.

Do not miss the secondary message of this passage.  It is a powerful Word for all of us.  There would have been no conversion for Paul without the obedience of Ananias to got out and deliver the message of God, even though He questioned the righteousness of the one that he was called to minister to.  We must be careful not to withhold the message of hope from anyone because we feel they are not worthy.

Let us make ourselves seekers of the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Let us learn to overcome our natural instinct to shun those we may consider too wicked for salvation.  Let us make ourselves available to be deliverers of the truth to all who God places in our lives.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the anointing that we receive as disciples of Jesus Christ.  We ask that You release the gifts of the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we may see the vision that You have for our lives and be empowered to go out as messengers of hope in the world that surrounds us.  We pray that our hearts are prepared to view every person as worthy to receive the Good News that we possess.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who rescues those whose spirits are crushed, Jesus Christ.

Praying Outside Our Comfort Zone

Romans 8:26

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

While intercessory prayer is very rewarding and plays a powerful role in deepening our relationship with Our Heavenly Father, it can sometimes lead us down paths that are challenging, perhaps even frustrating.  The Holy Spirit has been placed along side of us to insure that we are not deterred by our frustrations.  There are several important areas where the Holy Spirit supports us in our weakness.

First, the Holy Spirit is our perfecter in praying for the true needs of others.  We are generally very comfortable seeking the hand of God for protection and provision for ourselves, our families and those close to us.  It is natural and easy for us to pray for those that we love.  At times, however, we may be at a loss to know what the will of God is in the lives of those that we are praying for.  We can be comforted and confident in knowing that our prayers will be perfected before the Father by the Holy Spirit.

Second, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and softens our hearts toward all mankind.  It is not our nature to pray for those we do not feel close to or perhaps even dislike because of their behavior toward us or others.  In His ministry, Jesus often argued with the apostles because He wanted to be among those in the most need of His redemptive work, not those that were more socially acceptable.  Jesus wants us to intercede for the world around us, whether we feel drawn or repulsed by the ones that we pray for.  As we mature in Christ, the Holy Spirit will help build up our sensitivity to and our desire to pray for the needs of all mankind.

Finally, the Holy Spirit has been sent to strengthen us when we are personally overpowered by the things that the world has brought against us.  When we are so broken that we do not even know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit is beside us to silence our fears and help us through our discouragements.  Most importantly, the Holy Spirit stands with us to make intercession for us before the Father so that the enemy cannot prevail against us.

Let our hearts be softened so that we may extend our intercessory prayers beyond our comfort zone.  Let us rely on the Holy Spirit to direct us, strengthen us and support us in our prayers.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided Your Holy Spirit to help us pray in accordance with Your will for our lives and the lives of others.  We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit will perfect our prayers before You.  We pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will prepare our hearts to be intercessors for all of mankind.  Be they far or near, be they friend or foe, Father, teach us how to pray for their needs. When we are too weak to pray properly, or even pray at all, may Your Holy Spirit strengthen us and intercede for us.  We pray all these things in the name of the mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ.

Preparing for the King's Arrival

Luke 12:40

You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

God's Holy Word inspires us to turn our thoughts toward the day that Jesus will return to the earth.  This will be a great and magnificent day for which all of us need to make ourselves ready.  On His arrival day, the Lord will separate those who knew Him and served Him from those who did not.  We certainly want to be in the group that He separates for life in His Kingdom.

Our preparation for an uncertain time and date can be complicated.  Our human nature makes it difficult for us to prepare for a time in the future that we cannot clearly mark on our calendars.  We may even be uncertain about how we should prepare for the arrival of the King of Kings.  To further complicate our preparation, we can get lost in all the demanding needs of this world and lose sight of the right way to prepare for our coming King.  It is important for us to understand that we can simplify the process of making ourselves ready for Our Coming King.  All we need to do is examine whether we are pursuing this world or the kingdom of God.  Then we must be aware of and committed to the precept that we are not only waiting servants, but that we are also working servants as we wait.

The Lord in His mercy, by His Word, directly instructed us in the following simple ways to prepare for His coming.  He taught us that those who feed Him when He is hungry, give Him drink when He is thirsty, clothe Him when He is in need and visit Him when He is sick or in prison will be the ones that inherit His Kingdom.  He added that even though we may not see Him in these conditions that when we serve those who are in these conditions, we are serving Him.  

Let us go out and be working servants as we wait on the arrival of Our King, Jesus.  Let us find His presence and serve Him in the faces of the world that surrounds us.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Holy Word prepares us to receive Our King, Jesus Christ.  Open our eyes, Lord, so that we may see the opportunities to serve Our King every day.  Prepare our hearts, Lord, to freely give of ourselves to others just as we would if we were serving Jesus Himself.  May the presence of the Holy Spirit within us be Our Guiding Light.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who rewards those that seek and serve Him, Jesus Christ.

Experiencing His Perfect Love and Forgiveness

Ephesians 3:19

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Jesus loves each one of us unconditionally.  He loves us so much that He gave up His position as Son of God to become Son of Man.  He endured the pain and shame of the Cross so that He could become the sacrificial lamb that was necessary to provide the blood to wash away our sins, to make us acceptable to the Father.

He extended His unconditional love by sending the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins, so that we would understand His offer of salvation and accept it.  He continues to extend His unconditional love by dwelling within each of us that have accepted Him as Our Savior, so that we may have the strength and the power to overcome the sinful nature that still tries to rule in our lives.

He continuously pours out His perfect love and forgiveness to each of us.  He places no limit on the love that He pours into us because He wants it to overflow our cups.  He wants us to become living vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness so that the world will know Him and know the fullness of His love.

Let us lift the name of Jesus above all other names.  Let us rejoice in His incomparable love.  Let us claim the fullness of life and power that comes from a relationship with the Son of God.  May our changed lives proclaim His immeasurable love, so that others may be drawn to Him. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the perfect love and forgiveness that You have poured out into our lives.  We exalt the name of Jesus who became the Son of Man in order to fulfill our need for a perfect sacrificial lamb.  We thank You, Father, for the blood of Your Son that washes away our sin and makes it possible for us to receive and share Your perfect love.  We ask that we may become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness for the world around us.  We pray that we will live in the fullness of the life and power that is offered by You through Your Son.  We ask all these things in the incomparable name of the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.