Monday, October 15, 2012
A New Heart
Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NAS) Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
This new heart that the Lord has given us is precious and tender towards the things of God. He has removed the hardness of our hearts. Therefore it is to be valued and it is to be guarded. Proverbs 4:23 (NAS) Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.
Philippians 4:8 are the things we are to place in this precious heart that God has so graciously given us. This verse tells us to think on whatever is true,honorable, right, pure, of good repute, any thing of excellence or worthy of praise. As we think on these things they will become a part of our heart. As they become a part of our heart then we will become these things.
Help me, Father, to value this precious, tender heart that You have given me. Help me to watch over it and to not allow it to harden or to be filled with bitterness or anguish. I pray my heart, that You have given me, will be filled with the virtues of Philippians 4:8 and that the Holy Spirit will shed abroad in my heart the love of God.
Please keep my heart,Father,keep it tender and pure for the coming day of Your Beloved Son.
Help me to keep my field plowed, help me to keep planting new seed. Keep me from deception and from a spirit of religion of ever touching this precious heart that You have given me. Please give me discernment so that I might guard Your heart within me.
Psalm 5:3
Psalm 5:3 (NAS) In the morning, O Lord, Thou wilt hear my voice,
In the morning, I will order my prayer to Thee and eagerly watch.
We always want a word from the Lord. It blesses us, it warms our heart.
The Lord wants a word from us. It blesses Him and warms His heart. He delights to hear our voice in the morning when we awake. He enjoys a word from us. Our thoughts,our words should be first towards Him when we awake.
Psalm 6:9
Psalm 6:9 (NAS) The Lord has heard my supplication,
The Lord receives my prayer.
He hears! He hears the yearning of our hearts. He hears the sighs, the groans, and the longings. He hears the flutter of our heart when it is stirred by the mere mention of His name or the memory of Him.
He hears us and He receives us. He does not turn us away. He is not angered that we have come before Him. He hears the longings of our heart even when we don't speak a word.
O, Lord Jesus, come for Your Bride,
Come quickly, come soon.
We long for Your return.
We want to be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean.
A Fire Inside of Me
There is a song we sing in worship that says, "come be a fire inside of me."
As I sang that song in church one Sunday morning,I felt the Lord nudging me to think more closely about what I was asking. What fires dwell inside of us? What fires do we stoke and add fuel to and what fires are burning within us that we need to extinguish?
God should be the main fire in us. He should be the biggest blaze and we should continue to kindle that fire. But that may mean that we must also put out some other fires within us in order to have more time to tend to His fire.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Prayer must change the prayee
Prayer is not just to change situations or circumstances. Prayer is not just to receive the desired request. Rather prayer is to change us. The praying person is to be changed through prayer.
The more we petition God for souls,revival,and an awakening,the more something begins to form inside of us. Instead of just asking for souls because it is the right thing to do and because we know people need to be saved, something starts to change within us. It starts to become a "must have" and then it becomes an "urgent matter" and then it becomes a "burden" that cannot be denied. Then it becomes a driving force; it becomes our daily food; it becomes a necessity of existence to pray for revival.
The prayer for revival must change us until we become the prayer;until it is the air we breathe and the food we eat. It must become a part of us.
We must be a people desperate for God otherwise how can we expect the world to be desperate for God?
The more we petition God for souls,revival,and an awakening,the more something begins to form inside of us. Instead of just asking for souls because it is the right thing to do and because we know people need to be saved, something starts to change within us. It starts to become a "must have" and then it becomes an "urgent matter" and then it becomes a "burden" that cannot be denied. Then it becomes a driving force; it becomes our daily food; it becomes a necessity of existence to pray for revival.
The prayer for revival must change us until we become the prayer;until it is the air we breathe and the food we eat. It must become a part of us.
We must be a people desperate for God otherwise how can we expect the world to be desperate for God?
Are We Ready For Revival?
I think many believers see prevailing prayer as having to beg God to answer. Or that we must put in so many hours of gut wrenching prayer before He answers or that prayer is a method of twisting God's arm to receive what we ask for.
Not the case at all - we are engaged in a warfare and we must break through the demonic wall and wrestle the strongholds of wickedness. We are not wrestling God for souls. God desires for all men to come to the true knowledge of Christ. God desires to send revival, but He also knows the precise, proper time to send it. When the hearts of man are so plowed up to receive the precious seed.
Are we ready for revival? If it came tomorrow are we ready? Are the churches ready? Are the pastors ready? Are the people in the pews ready? Will people accept revival or reject it, because it will change their ritualistic church services! Will they reject it because man will no longer be in control? Will they be willing to be brought to their knees;will they be humble or stiffnecked;will they recognize the Spirit of God or will they reject Him?
Most likely a fair amount of our praying for revival involves prayer for the church to be prepared. This is why we desperately need an awakening in the pulpit.
If preachers are sleeping in the pulpits; if they are delivering finely tuned and well oiled speeches and not messages of fresh manna from heaven, will they welcome revival in their church? Do they truly know of the One of whom they speak of on Sunday mornings?
Are the people in the pews ready for revival? Are their hearts stirred when they listen to the sermon, do they know of the One who dwells within their hearts? Would they receive a revival that turns their neat little Sunday programs upside down?
No wonder we need an awakening in the pulpits, otherwise the revival may be rejected by the very men of God who are to carry it to the world. Joel 1&2 called for both the priests and the people to cry out to God for the harvest that was being destroyed. Is our harvest of souls being destroyed and is revival delayed because we are not awake and weeping before God?
Not the case at all - we are engaged in a warfare and we must break through the demonic wall and wrestle the strongholds of wickedness. We are not wrestling God for souls. God desires for all men to come to the true knowledge of Christ. God desires to send revival, but He also knows the precise, proper time to send it. When the hearts of man are so plowed up to receive the precious seed.
Are we ready for revival? If it came tomorrow are we ready? Are the churches ready? Are the pastors ready? Are the people in the pews ready? Will people accept revival or reject it, because it will change their ritualistic church services! Will they reject it because man will no longer be in control? Will they be willing to be brought to their knees;will they be humble or stiffnecked;will they recognize the Spirit of God or will they reject Him?
Most likely a fair amount of our praying for revival involves prayer for the church to be prepared. This is why we desperately need an awakening in the pulpit.
If preachers are sleeping in the pulpits; if they are delivering finely tuned and well oiled speeches and not messages of fresh manna from heaven, will they welcome revival in their church? Do they truly know of the One of whom they speak of on Sunday mornings?
Are the people in the pews ready for revival? Are their hearts stirred when they listen to the sermon, do they know of the One who dwells within their hearts? Would they receive a revival that turns their neat little Sunday programs upside down?
No wonder we need an awakening in the pulpits, otherwise the revival may be rejected by the very men of God who are to carry it to the world. Joel 1&2 called for both the priests and the people to cry out to God for the harvest that was being destroyed. Is our harvest of souls being destroyed and is revival delayed because we are not awake and weeping before God?
Wail, O vinedressers, the harvest is destroyed
Joel 1:11 "wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field is destroyed." (NAS)
In the book of Joel they were under siege by a plague of locusts who were destroying the crops. Joel was speaking of a literal destruction of a harvest but with a divine interpretation. Joel called for wailing and howling because the harvest was being destroyed. How much more should we be wailing and howling in prayer for a spiritual harvest of souls being destroyed by the devil. Is not the enemy already destroying our youth and young adults with addictions to drugs,alcohol,porn,immorality and violent video games? Is a harvest of souls being destroyed because we are not weeping and wailing for them. Does the Church even see the "locust" destroying the souls of people and carrying them off to eternal death?
In Joel 1: 13 & 14 we see Joel telling us that both the priests and the people are to cry out to God. This is also repeated Joel 2:12-17. He calls for the priests and the people to return to God and to weep and wail. An awakening for souls must start in the pulpits across this nation. When the pastors begin to hunger for more of God and His Presence and begin to weep for souls and call for revival then the people in the pews will awaken and hunger for these same things. Then they will take revival to the streets of America and Living Waters will flow down the streets of our cities.
Joel 2:1 calls for the blowing of the trumpet and the sounding of the alarm. This is for one purpose: to awaken the people, arouse them,and call them to duty.It is time to wake up and cry to God for revival. Not a revival that stays within the four walls of the church but a revival that pours out into our cities,businesses,market place, schools,and government.
Jeremiah 23:29 "Is not My word like fire? declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters rock?" (NAS)
We need the Word of God to set our hearts on fire and allow His Word to shatter the rock hardness of our hearts. Weep and wail for the harvest of souls!
In the book of Joel they were under siege by a plague of locusts who were destroying the crops. Joel was speaking of a literal destruction of a harvest but with a divine interpretation. Joel called for wailing and howling because the harvest was being destroyed. How much more should we be wailing and howling in prayer for a spiritual harvest of souls being destroyed by the devil. Is not the enemy already destroying our youth and young adults with addictions to drugs,alcohol,porn,immorality and violent video games? Is a harvest of souls being destroyed because we are not weeping and wailing for them. Does the Church even see the "locust" destroying the souls of people and carrying them off to eternal death?
In Joel 1: 13 & 14 we see Joel telling us that both the priests and the people are to cry out to God. This is also repeated Joel 2:12-17. He calls for the priests and the people to return to God and to weep and wail. An awakening for souls must start in the pulpits across this nation. When the pastors begin to hunger for more of God and His Presence and begin to weep for souls and call for revival then the people in the pews will awaken and hunger for these same things. Then they will take revival to the streets of America and Living Waters will flow down the streets of our cities.
Joel 2:1 calls for the blowing of the trumpet and the sounding of the alarm. This is for one purpose: to awaken the people, arouse them,and call them to duty.It is time to wake up and cry to God for revival. Not a revival that stays within the four walls of the church but a revival that pours out into our cities,businesses,market place, schools,and government.
Jeremiah 23:29 "Is not My word like fire? declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters rock?" (NAS)
We need the Word of God to set our hearts on fire and allow His Word to shatter the rock hardness of our hearts. Weep and wail for the harvest of souls!
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