Spirit Led Living

James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you Now that we have taken a look at the elements of prayer we can take a look at the one thing that makes it a source of daily nourishment and hope. Growing up in the Holiness Movement in the ‘60s and ‘70s, prayer was taught as a discipline. It was the obligation of every person that pursued holiness to get up at 5am and pray. We also had to go to Prayer Meetings and spend an hour with the 4-5 other brave souls who endured those times. By the time I was in college, prayer was a task to be endured. I knew that I had to do it, but I never got anything out of it. In truth, I didn’t understand prayer at all. My mother was a praying woman and I had seen my share of miracles as a result of prayer. The confusing part was that I had seen my father get up every morning before the crack of dawn to kneel in our living room in prayer. Everyone else saw him as this church planter, this evangelist and this spiritual giant but, I saw him as someone...

1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him. Prayer is the expression of man's dependence upon God for all things. Therefore we come as supplicants asking God to act on our behalf. The supplicant’s prayer then is a request to a personal Lord who answers according to His good will and pleasure. Remembering that we live in the here and the not yet of the Kingdom of God there are several factors that influence how prayers are heard. Several hindrances to answered prayer are mentioned in the Bible: iniquity in the heart (Ps 66:18), refusal to hear God's law (Prov 28:9), an estranged heart (Isa 29:13), sinful separation from God (Isa 59:2), waywardness (Jer 14:10-12), praying to be seen of men (Matt 6:5-6), pride in fasting and tithing (Luke 18:11-14), lack of faith (Heb 11:6), and doubting or double-minded...

Phil 4:6-7   Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,   present your requests to God. When your sins have been forgiven and your sentence commuted you have much to be thankful for. That, of course, is just the beginning for the redeemed. Every breath we take should be a matter of thanksgiving for nothing is guaranteed to us, everything is a gift. As a child I was taught to always say thank you when you got a gift. I was taught that when someone does something nice for you that not only should you say thank you, you should right them a little note of appreciation. Think of the last time you got a thank you note from someone and how that made you feel. How much more likely are you to do something for that person than you are for someone whom you routinely do nice things for and they never acknowledge it? Working for Metropolitan Ministries for all of these years has made me appreciative of people who have an attitude of g...

1 John 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. The next step in our prayer life that serves to put things in perspective is confession. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). While we are no longer slaves to sin and we strive toward the goal of perfection, the truth is that as long as we wear this suit of skin we will always fall short in some way or another. God knows this and has provided the way for those sins to be atoned for through the sacrifice of His Son. That forgiveness, though, needs to be accessed and applied. The process starts with our admission of sin. This not only overcomes denial, it keeps us humble and dependent on him. We deserve nothing. In fact, we deserve death. When we confess our sins it sets in motion a series of events that serve to wipe the slate...

If we continue in the model of the Disciple’s Prayer we can use the acronym of ACTS to guide our prayer: A – Adoration C - Confession T – Thanksgiving S – Supplication We exalt and praise Him for who He is. Ps 147:1 Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! Heb 13:15-16 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess his name. He is worthy of our praise. When we praise Him we take our focus off of our belly button and we put it squarely on Him. It goes hand in hand with knowing Him whom we pray to. If we truly know who it is we are praying to, then by virtue of being God, He deserves our praise. Giving voice to that praise puts our relationship in the proper perspective. He is God and we are His creation. While He calls us sons and daughters, there can be no reaching for His level. The creation is always inferior and subservient to the Creator. Not only do we prais...

Prayer is one of those disciplines that we realize needs to be a part of our walk by but many of us find it difficult to do on a regular basis. Over my next few blogs I hope to take a look at prayer and explore our journey in prayer and hopefully have it make sense in a practical way. For me it all starts with the Disciples’ Prayer. I know, most of you know it as the Lord’s Prayer but in reality it was how He chose to teach His disciples how to pray. Matt 6:9-13 "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” It all starts with knowing whom we are praying to. We pray to God the Father. The Bible tell us to pray in the Spirit (Eph 6:18; Jude 20) and it tells us to pray in Jesus name (John ...

Phil 4:6-7   Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Recently at work I got to go through the Dale Carnegie Leadership Academy. One of the principles to avoid worry is to “live in day tight compartments”. Like most leadership principles found here and in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People they are all based on Biblical principles. Dale Carnegie says that a lot of physical problems stem not from “what you eat, but what is eating you”. Eccl 2:22-23 What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?   All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. I recently had one of these sleepless nights. I just couldn’t turn my mind off. I had let a couple of interruptions and delays ruin my only night off this week. ...