Asking something from God

When we ask of God to help and assist us, e.g. to receive the blessing of His Holy Spirit, He will do so in due time.  However, He won't do so for worldly things as the wordly things does not belong to His holiness.  We have to be confident that He doesn't lack performing the works of grace.  In addition to this, keep on persisting in your prayers, truely trusting and believing that He will provide what you are asking for. 

There are conditions of assurance to which we have to adhere to before He will do so.  In this weeks publication, I will duscuss only half of them and the balance is to follow next week:

1. Become a subject of God's grace;
2. Be partaker of God's grace;
3. Abound more and more in love;
4. Approve things that are excellent;
5. Be sincere unitl the end;
6. Be without offense till the end;
7. Be filled with fruits of righteousness;
8. Let your manner of life be as becometh the gospel of Christ;
9. Stand fast in one spirit and one mind with others striving together for the gospel;
10. Be not terrified by enemies;
11. Suffer for His sake;
12. Be likeminded with Christ;
13. Have the same love;
14. Be of good accord, of one mind with others;
15. Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory;
16. Esteem others better than yourself;
17. Be interested in others;
18. Let the mind of Christ be in you.

The believer's armor

We are warned by God in His Word to wear  His 6 fold armor:

1. Helmet of salvation:  which is meant to protect the head;
2. Loins girt with truth:  to brace the armor tight against the body and to support other weapons such as the sword;
3. Breastplate of righteousness: in two parts - one to cover the breast and the other to protect the back to protect the vital organs of the body;
4. Brazen boots : to serve as protection and cover of the feet and front of the leg and to acquire strenght of the gospel of peace;
5. Shield of faith: to protect the body  from blows and cuts and in the warfare against evil thoughts, lusts, passions and temptation;
6. Sword of the Spirit:  the Word to destroy the enemy and bring his surrender.  It should be quote in times of temptation which will cut in pieces the snares of evil.

Although praying is not part of the armor it is in addition to the armor and a very important part of fighting against spiritual powers of evil.  Every kind of praying:  public, church, private and family and continued incessant pleadings until the prayer is answered otherwise your prayer and Christian armor will be ineffectual.

God's love

We need to be founded in God's love for it is the soil in which we grow and have to grow and it serves as a foundation to build upon.  His love is boundless, endless, exhaustless and measureless.  It comprehends all that is above, below, past, present and future.  It reaches the infinite divinity and even the depth of sin and infamy and surpasses all knowledge and wisdom. 

His gift, Jesus Christ,  it the measure of His love and even the condescension of the  Holy Spirit to transform men and work in their lives.  Genuine love provides blessings such as:

1. confirmation that we are of the truth;
2. assurance of a clean heart before God;
3. freedom from condemnation;
4. faith and confidence in God;
5. and answers to prayers.

He loves us because He wanted us to live and therefore imparted love to us.  He wanted us to be like Him by giving His Son and His Spirit to teach us about love and to receive Hisn sonship.  Therefore it is our duty to love and we are commanded by God to love.   

Salvation

You are bound to others by God's love.  It is a mutual love and when we really love we won't:

1. violate the moral law;
2. deprive any man of his wife;
3. rob any woman of her virtue;
4. take the life on anyone;
5. hate anyone;
6. take the property of anyone;
7. rob a man of his good name;
8. desire one thing of another;
9. love only yourself;
10. work ill towards anyone.

We have all sinned and are guilty before God.  The law only condemns but God has provided redemption by faith in Jesus Christ.  We are helpless to save ourselves and all boasting is excluded.  It was God's plan to justify men by providing salvation through Jesus Christ.  Salvation means to be saved, helped, delivered or rescued.  But how can I receive salvation from my sin?  By confession your sin to God, you will receive grace through faith.  His Holy Spirit will administer divine grace to you which will sanctify your spirit and you will believe the truth of salvation:  that Jesus Christ has paid the price for your sin by His death.  This will be followed by a Godly sorrow for the sins you have committed.  Through the process of salvation we will have faith in His blood and faith in His name.

When we are in possession of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit we will receive 3 great blessings:  become a servant of God, is acceptable with God, and is approved of men.  His love puts us in the perfect position to love Him, ourselves and others. 

Choices regarding our body, soul and mind

Through God's tender compassion for you, He has presented you with a holy tabernacle.  We have to look after this holy tabernacle of His that temporarily dwells the earth.  This holy tabernacle is a living sacrifice which has to be holy and acceptable to Him.  Worship is performed in the totality of our being - the body, soul and mind - to bring honour to Him.  Therefore, we need to look well after and care for our body, soul (spirit) and mind (thoughts and emotions).  Sometimes we are drowned by our hectic lifestyles, neglecting to look after these or we might even think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, professing ourselves to be wise.  By doing this, we became fools and changed the image that God intended.

We need to be glued to the good and beware of the thinks that causes harm to the body, soul and mind.  The choice not to do so will lead to dishonouring of the body (homosexuality, sexual perversion, cause illness), will cause vile affections in the soul (unrighteousness, unlawful sex, wicked acting of the evil nature, intense lust for gain, vicious disposition and desires, suffer in pain, murder, to cause strife and discord, lying or falsity, ascribing to the best deeds the worst motives, gossiping, evil speakers, atheists, being hateful, arrogance, improvising wickedness, rebellion,  stubbornness, not dependable, filled with desire for unnatural affections towards others, without libation, unforgiving) and will lead to a reprobate mind (rejection of God, others or oneself).  God provided us with:

1. choices:  to choose to do right or wrong (and to life with the consequences of not doing right); and
2. armed us with the ability to be able to make a choice.

Does your choice now include that which is good to the body, soul and mind?

The wall

As a follow up on how to pray in the previous discussion, I want to tell you that God the Father and the Son has already showered us with His grace and peace.  We need to take ownership of this grace and peace, making it ours everyday of our lives.  Be thankful to Him everyday of your life for showering you with His gift.  We don't have a narrow place for His affection but our own bowel (inward part) is restricted by ourselves for not owning His love and grace.  We need to request the Holy Spirit to open our "seat of affection" (bowel) to enable us to live life in abundance as was His intend. 

When we pray for something to happen in our life, we need to make that request with joy in our heart - even if it's something that isn't nice to you, e.g. forgiveness.  Although praying is not classed as part of the armour, it's an additional and important part that needs to be done on a continual basis with incessant pleadings until your prayer is answered.  Together with the supplication in the Spirit, prayer and the Christian armour our requests will be fruitful.  Always intent upon your object in prayer.  Without these three, your request will be ineffectual.

Summary of Scripture:
Pilippians 1:4, 2 Epesians 6:18, 2 Corinthians 6:12

How do I need to pray to get answers?

Sometimes it feels like we "hit the wall" and can't seem to communicate with God.  It feels like we don't know what and how to pray for, desperately wanting and longing for communication with Him.  This is as a result of us lack of being conscious of our needs.  When we pray, we must pray in faith and not with wavering.  James 1:5 tells us that when we lack wisdom, we must ask God that giveth to all mens liberally and He will give it to you without reproach for doing so.  Men have been rebuked for unbelief, but never for having faith.  When you hit the wall, you can use the 7 fold way to prat to get answers:

1. Pray to your Abba Father, He is the one that made you and knows your hearts struggles;
2. Pray in the name of Jesus as He is our saviour and He will plea with God;
3. Pray by the Holy Spirit, since He is our Comforter and route to Jesus;
4. Pray in full understanding of rights and privileges as servant of God;
5. Pray in harmony with the Word;
6. Pray in absolute faith without doubting;
7. And lastly with praise for God for the fact that He will provide an answer to you. 

Can you see that He has given it all to us?  We just need to become aware of our needs and we need to ask it in faith in a way which exalts God.