The Perfecter of Our Prayers

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 soften 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. 

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.

Becoming Rescuers Through Jesus Christ

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."

And 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.

From this passage, we learn that for those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that we become new men and women in Christ just as the sinner and prosecutor of the early church, Saul, became the new man Paul.  The teaching of the Holy Spirit reveals to us the faulty mindset that the world provides, allowing us to escape our ignorance and our pride.  The power of the Holy Spirit within us allows us to become new creatures who proclaim the Good News and serve as conduits of God's love. 

But do not miss the second message of this passage.  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.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the anointing that we receive as disciples of Jesus Christ.  We pray that You will open our eyes to the things of the world that are creating ignorance and pride in our lives so that we may turn away from them.  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.

When the Spirit of the Lord Rests Upon Us

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 influences 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 in 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.

This passage is usually taught as the "7 gifts of the Holy Spirit."  The Holy Spirit resting upon us as we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior is the first and most important of the seven gifts.  It is only through the Holy Spirit that we receive the other six endowments. 

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.

Standing for Others - A Divine Service

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 or met and our relationship with the Father grows to be like the relationship that the Father has with The Son.

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.

United with Him Through His Resurrection

Romans 6:5

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

When Jesus chose to accept the will of His Father, He chose to die on the Cross for the sins of all mankind.  Jesus' death did not come quickly.  It was necessary for Jesus to suffer every scourge mark, to suffer every ounce of pain and to suffer the loss of every drop of blood for His sacrifice for mankind to be made complete.  

When we chose to accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior, we chose to let our old sinful man die.  Just as Jesus' death was not carried out quickly, our old sinful nature will not be completely put to rest in short fashion.  For the old sinful man in us to die completely, we will have to endure trials, tribulations and sufferings of all type that will transform us to be completely in the will of Our Father in heaven.  Just as Jesus' physical death was necessary for Him to complete His sacrificial work and gain the victory over sin for all mankind, so will our physical death be necessary for us to receive our final and complete victory over our old sinful lives.

With the sacrifice of His human body complete, the Holy Spirit resurrected Jesus' spirit from His body to return in His glorified body to the Father.  When we die in Christ, the same power of His resurrection will lift us from our old lives in the flesh and enable us to stand sinless before the Father in our glorified bodies.  It will not be because we became better people.  It will be because we will have become completely new people in Christ.  It will be because we have been united with Him through His resurrection for all eternity.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for raising Your Son to meet You in heaven after His death on the Cross.  Thank You for preparing the way for us to gain our eternal inheritance as Your children through the power of the Resurrection.  Father, release the full power of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can surrender completely to our new lives in Christ, leaving behind forever the old man that torments us daily.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Message of the Crucifixion

Mark 15:33-38

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ... And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

The story at the Cross, as written in this sequence of verses provided by Mark, paints a perfect picture of the salvation message.  The supernatural darkness that came over the entire world in the middle of the day represents our personal sin and the sin that engulfs all of mankind.  

Jesus' crying out to the Father "why have you forsaken me?" was sure confirmation of what had been prophesied in the old testament in Psalm 22.  The combination of these fearful words and the darkness that ensued illustrates Jesus being separated from the Father, who cannot have sin in His presence. Perhaps poetically speaking, the sun withdrew its rays because the Father could not bear to watch what was being done to His Son. 

And then, the tearing away of the veil reveals that the death of Christ opened up heaven to all of us.  The veil of the old covenant had represented the separation of God from the people, except through the intercession of the assigned high priests.  Instantly and gloriously, the new covenant of salvation was opened up to all mankind with Jesus Christ as our perpetual High Priest before the Father.  A heaven that had been closed to all was laid open to all for all eternity.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for establishing the blessed hope and assurance of the new covenant through Your Son, Jesus.  May the eyes of the world be opened to see the way, the truth and the life that is in Your Son.  May the hearts of the world be prepared to receive Your Son as their Savior.  May the hearts of the world be molded so that they may surrender to Your Son as their Lord, Master, and King.  May it all be for Your honor and glory, for the honor and glory of Your Son, Jesus, and for the honor and glory of the Holy Spirit.  Father, we pray that You will allow our lives to be living testimony to this glorious message.  We ask these things in the name of the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus Christ.

Making Ourselves Ready 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.

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 by Our Guiding Light.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who rewards those that seek and serve Him, Jesus Christ.

The Incomparable Love of Jesus Christ

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.

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.

Standing on the Promises During Our Testing

Matthew 26:56

But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophet might be fulfilled.  Then all the disciples left him and fled.

When the time of testing comes in our lives, where will we stand?  Will we stand on the promises of Jesus or will we try to stand on our own strength and capability?  Scripture reveals to us that we will be just like the apostles if we rely on our own strength.

The men who had lived with Jesus for three years, sat under His teaching and witnessed all the signs and wonders of His ministry abandoned Him in His time of trial and their time of testing.  How could this happen?  It is the weakness of the flesh that failed the disciples.  They did not yet have the strength of the Holy Spirit to overcome their weaknesses.  What a dramatic difference the Holy Spirit made in their lives.  After their baptism of the Holy Spirit, all of the apostles boldly proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ.  All but one, John, died as a martyr while sharing the salvation plan.

We can be sure that in the flesh we are no stronger than the apostles.  If we try to live by the flesh without calling on the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us, we will fail in following Our Savior.  Thankfully, God promises us in His Holy Word that He will perfect His strength in our weakness if we abide in Him and He provides His Holy Spirit to stand with us so that we will not fail in the times of our testing.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided Your Wonderful Counselor to be with us, to guide us and to strengthen us in our weaknesses.  We proclaim our weakness before You, Lord.  We ask forgiveness for straying from You.  We boldly claim Your promise to perfect Your strength in our weakness as we surrender to Your reign in our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who gives grace to the humble, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Only the Pure in Heart Can Stand Before Almighty God

Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Let us be certain that none but the pure of heart shall see God.  Let us understand that nothing we can do on our own will satisfy the requirement of pureness of heart when it is time for us to stand before Our Creator.  

The purest of notions have no eternal value if the heart of the man is impure.  The most impressive outward actions are meaningless if the heart of the man is impure.  The Pharisees are outstanding examples of these statements.  The Pharisees were outwardly righteous, but inwardly they were full of impurity in their hearts.

Let us not forget that without Christ we are no better off than the Pharisees.  Our hearts are naturally unclean and we have no power to make them pure.  The only way that we can be pure in heart is to have the blood of Jesus cleanse us from our sins.

By the grace of God, we can submit our lives to the One that was 100% pure. We can make the desire of our hearts to be pure through Him.  We can have hearts that are as pure as Christ, the angels in heaven and the glorified saints.  Even though we may fail from time to time, we can turn our minds over to Him to be constantly renewed.  Yet imperfect, we can have hearts that are entirely pure through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  And thus, we can be sure with full faith and confidence that we will see God at the time that He has set aside for us to stand before Him because our hearts will be pure.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Jesus to this earth as our model of purity.  We ask that You mold our hearts so that we may submit to Your Son to rule and reign in our lives.  May the power of the Holy Spirit constantly renew our minds.   May You provide the armor of protection that we need to shield us from the impurities that the world so freely throws at us.  May the world around us be drawn to Your Son, Jesus, because of the purity that they see in us.  We ask these things in the name of the One who is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, Jesus Christ. 

Standing with the Bridegroom

John 3:29

It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success.

John the Baptist was joyful and absolutely secure in his role as the best man to introduce the Bridegroom.  He was quick to let everyone know that it was the Bridegroom that was worthy of all the praise, honor and glory.

The promises/vows of Jesus Christ are the foundation upon which we stand as Christians.  Our responsibility is to go forth and share His vows with the world.  We are not to take one iota away from His message in order to make ourselves the center of attention or perhaps to shape the message in a way that is more appealing to hardened hearts.  We are simply to allow the joy that we have received as a result of His vows to be poured out from us on to the world around us.

As it was for John, we should find great pleasure in being ministers of the Gospel.  To be able to carry the message of salvation within us and allow it to flow out to the world around us should be the perfection of our joy.  It should be the greatest desire of our hearts just as it was for John.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have provided the Bridegroom to come to get us to be His bride at the wedding feast of the Lamb.  We rejoice in knowing that we have the privilege of extending invitations to the greatest of all marriage ceremonies.  Prepare us, O Lord, to humbly extend Jesus Christ's invitations to those around us.  We pray, Father, that none shall reject the sweetest of all invitations.  May all praise, honor and glory go to Our Savior.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Coming Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. 

Coming Into Harmony with the Saving Work of Jesus Christ

John 3:30

He must increase, but I must decrease.

John the Baptist had the perfect understanding of His relationship with Jesus Christ.  He knew that he was a sinful man who was created, prepared and sent to show the way for the One from Above who was coming to save the world.  He understood that he had no power and that all the power belonged to Jesus.  Most importantly, John was completely satisfied with his place and the work assigned to him.

From the life of John the Baptist we get a great model for bringing others to salvation.  It is our job to bring others to Christ.  It is not our job to save them.  The saving work of the Cross will be done by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We also learn from the words of John the Baptist the model for our spiritual maturation.  We must increase our life in Christ as we allow our life in the flesh to decrease.  We must allow our new man to rise and our old man to die.  We do not lay down what we are called to do in the flesh, but instead come in complete harmony with the work of the beloved One who dwells within us.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Holy Word which lays out the models for our lives through the lives of Your servants.  Help us, Lord, to understand the depth of the teachings that come from each of Your precious servants.  Open our eyes, Lord, so that we may surrender our lives completely to Your Son, Jesus.  Help us, Lord, to live our lives in such a way that others are drawn to Your Son.  As we give up our lives in the flesh for our lives in Christ, may our living testimonies affect the world.  We pray that we see many around us surrender their lives to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.  We ask all of these things in the name of Our Divine Deliver, Jesus Christ.

The Privilege and the Promise of Exalting the Name of Almighty God

Psalm 34:3

Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!

Throughout the Psalms, we read David's prayers of praise.  He praised God to help overcome his fears and to call on his all-sufficient Lord.  David recognized God's faithfulness in meeting his needs and he also recognized that God was bigger than any problem or fear that he had.

We will spend all eternity praising Our Heavenly Father.  Why not practice our imperfect praise here on earth in preparation for the unspeakable joy we will receive from our perfect praise forever?

It is time for us to magnify God in our lives.  He is much bigger than we allow Him to be.  We need to downsize our problems, upsize our view of who God is and rightsize our relationship with Him.  We can gain much by joining Paul in exalting the name of Our Lord.  Let us proclaim the glorious perfection of Our Father in heaven.  May we all join together in bringing glory to the Most High God.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the privilege of exalting Your name here on earth and in heaven for all eternity.  We lift You up above all others.  There is not a single name that approaches the majesty and power of who You are.  Teach us, Lord, to have the faith of the Virgin Mary who said, "My soul magnifies the Lord," as she prepared to receive something that she did not believe to be possible.  May Your grace cover us, Lord, so that we may live in reverent awe of who You are.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us and inspire us to pour out praise to You each day.  We ask all these things in the name of the One worthy of all praise, Jesus Christ.