After reading and studying about the wonderful name of Jesus I cannot keep myself from sharing a few truths with you that has changed my perspective and my prayerlife. There are very few books on “the name of Jesus” in our world-wide Christian library, but one of them which I really enjoy reading is Kenneth Hagin’s “The name of Jesus”. In this book brother Hagin underlines two powerful truths about the use of the name of Jesus in our daily lives. I would like to share these with you, simply because they have drastically changed the way I think about prayer. I hope and I pray that it will inspire you also!

Asking in the Name

One thing which most of us are very familiar with is asking in the name of Jesus. I can remember praying in the name of Jesus ever since I was three or four years old. Praying without concluding it with “In Jesus’ name, Amen” was unthinkable for me. Asking in Jesus’ name is an opportunity that has been open to us since the work of Jesus on the cross. Jesus told his disciples “till today you have not asked anything in my name”. The disciples never asked the Father in Jesus’ name, they walked together with Jesus. Only after the resurrection when Jesus had triumphed over powers and principalities, His Name was given to us and now, we can boldly pray in that name, knowing the power behind it, and knowing that we have whatever we ask for.

John 16:23-24
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. “

He wants us to be joyful, full of joy, and therefore he has given us the right to ask anything in the name of Jesus, and the Father will receive the request just as if it was Jesus Himself who asked. As long as we have faith in that name, we will have our prayers answered. We can repeat the name of Jesus hundreds of times, but if there is no faith and confidence in what the bible says about that name, it will not work. We have to have the true value of the name supernaturally revealed to us, and believe in it. Then we can confidently ask God anything in that name, according to His will.

Demanding in the Name

This is something which took me years to understand.

John 14:13-14
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Jesus is not talking about prayer here. The greek literally says “Whatever you demand, claim as your right in my name, I (Jesus) will do it”. The name of Jesus has been given to us, and we have the right to demand our rights in that name. Peter and John never asked God to heal the lame man at the gate beautiful, they demanded it and said “In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up an walk”. When we speak out words, in faith, Jesus Himself will work on our behalf. It will be done. So that the Father may be glorified. It’s about knowing our rights and asking, demanding them. But that requires that we know them. If we knew all the rights that has been given to us in that name, we would not live defeated lives anymore. We would not be under satan’s preassure anymore. We have a wonderful opportunity to make use of, and it is free of cost.

Peter knew his rights in Acts 9:34 when he boldly told a paralyzed man, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed”. The man got instantly healed, not because Peter had any special power or gift, he just had the Name!

You and I also have that name, let’s value it and know what treasures and privileges we have in that wonderful name of Jesus!

Are you willing to sacrifice your own comfort in order to obey God? We are very quick to answer yes on this question, but when it comes to the point where we have to choose between our own comfort and the call of God many people fail.

Mary was not such a person. Her calling was a high calling, she had found much grace and favour with God (Luke 1:28, 30), and many would probably wish to be in her shoes. But it’s rather rarely we think about the actual circumstances Mary faced. It is easy for us to think that anyone would have responded as she did if we were asked to give birth to, and bring up the son of God. But it was not that easy for Mary. She would go through a difficult test and a lot of hardships.

If we look at the society in those times, we can see that the punishment for being found with a child before marriage was nothing other than death. If Mary would get a complaint, she would have been stoned, just as the woman in John 8. Another punishment was to strip her of all her clothes and publicly humiliate her so that every young woman in the city would see it and know the seriousness of breaking the holy law.
Mary was just about to be categorized among those kind of women, even though she had done nothing wrong. But the amazing and astonishing thing about Mary in this story was her inner strength and love for God. She didn’t care about her reputation. We are so careful about our reputation many times. Way too careful!

There was another law that said that Joseph had full right to divorce her, and if we read Matthew’s gospel we can see that he was going to, until an angel showed up and told him not to! An unmarried woman at that time would not have much of a future, her future would mainly consist of begging on the streets.

How could she explain what was growing in her stomach, and how it came there? “It’s just Gods son, the salvation of the world…. an angel told me”.. “God told me”.. ?

But even though the circumstances looked as they did, Mary chose to obey the Lord “I am the Lords maidservant” (v. 38). She responded not by hiding away and weeping, but with a worship song to The Lord! Her words: “My soul magnifies the Lord”, (46) and “from today onwards all generations will call me blessed” (48) still carries the amazing faith of this woman of God.

If we look at her life from that day onwards, we can see a young girl who remained steadfast to the Lord even to the cross. Mary was one of two people who stood under the cross till the very last breath of Jesus. During her whole life she kept her commitment to God, and she was with Jesus to the end.

In John 2:5 we read the words of Mary to the disciples of Jesus: “Whatever he says to you, do it”.. That is literally what Mary herself lived out. Whatever God told her, even if it costed her life, she would do it, and she is telling you the same thing today: “Whatever he says to you, do it“. Will you do it wholeheartedly?

This is a guest post by Tiny Mathew from Bangalore, India. She is a precious sister in Christ whom I really have noticed a good heart in. She is travelling together with her husband Shyju for the expansion of the kingdom of God.

I have asked her to give a message of encouragement for young girls who are currently seeking and thinking about their lives and future. This is what she says:

1.Never pursue a man, but pursue God:

I am sure that you have come across people who keeps changing relationships like how they change their clothes daily. Their insecurities makes them pursue relationship, depend on someone to feel loved. But when we pursue God, we find our identity in Him.

What we pursue is what we worship. I pray that you worship God alone. Be dependent on God alone. Deuteronomy 6:5 “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

2. Let go off your past & go:

In today’s culture there is another group of women who find it hard to trust or love anybody mostly because of past hurts & in turn become closed to themselves, have an ‘I don’t care’ attitude & end up being very bitter & cold. Consequently they are more unstable in relationships & they end up being unhappy in their marriage.

You need to allow the Lord to heal your heart of any past wounds. Fellowship with others who are strong in the Lord & not isolate themselves as the Bible says, Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment in Proverbs 18:1

3. Trust God in everything:

God has already destined a person for you. You need the completely trust the Lord to bring him to you at His time, rather than rushing into anything that comes your way. Don’t let the above points be a hindrance to your marriage. I hate to say this but, it is true that so true that some women can be too selfish to share their life with another man. The topic of submission will be an aversion to them.

You need to believe that whom you are married is the perfect person for your life & the Lord is able to any necessary changes if required as long as you trust God.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

4. Be content in God:

The Bible says, in Jeremiah 17:5, “This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.”” This verse reminds us that all flesh will fail. It is only expectation that can cause disappointment leading to discontent.

It is not wrong to trust a person, but also remember that they are just like you & me – humans that can err. Therefore we should find our joy in the Lord & giving thanks, be content no matter what the situation be.

5. Develop your intimacy with the HS:

“Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.””(John 14:23 ESV) When we give our time and efforts to be at His presence the Lord will reveal Himself to us in a deeper way.

Having an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit is the best thing that we can have in our lives. The very reason why you & me were created- to have a constant fellowship with our Master, the lover of our soul. Live a life of prayer & be rooted & grounded in His word. Give it all to Jesus.

God bless you all,
Tiny
www.tiny.shyjumathew.com

In the Old Testament God gave Moses certain laws about purification of the people of Israel, which were supposed to be strictly followed. The consequences of breaking the law were also strict. If you broke the law you could in the worst scenario become a head shorter. But when Jesus entered the scene He literally broke almost all of these rules and regulations; He ate with sinners and gentiles, He and His disciples didn’t wash their hands before eating, He worked on the Sabbath, and many other things. Yet He says in Matt 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” While people thought Jesus was continuously transgressing the law, He was in fact the very fulfillment of it. The Old testament law was a model and a symbolic ritual which were to be followed until the prophetical fulfillment of the same, which was Jesus Christ. Jesus is the reality, the genuine model and forerunner of all believers.

Now my point is not to continue into a bible study here, I want to come to a point which I feel is a very current, deep problem rooted in many of us. It’s all about the way we look upon each other. The children of Israel were supposed to be pure, holy and set apart for God, and they were not allowed to have anything to do with the gentiles. Anything that came from gentile ground was dirty. You were not even supposed to speak with a gentile. But once again Jesus broke all this, when He boldly ate with sinners, prostitutes, homeless, poor, you name it. Jesus was and is the ultimate example of how we should live, and what God intended from the beginning.

¹ My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. ² For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, ³ and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” ⁴ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
⁵ Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
⁸ If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^[a] you do well; ⁹ but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. (James 2:1-9)

Human worth

We can’t make any excuses when we read this verse. Showing partiality is sin. Why is it sin? Well, if we don’t understand that question we need to go back to the basics of “human worth”. Who are we? Once again I would try to avoid a deep bible study here on my blog. What I actually want to come across is certain thoughts which has been in my heart for some time.

The bible says that we are created in the image of God. He is the creator, the king of kings, and we are made in His image: as kings! We are created to rule over the creation in authority, as kings and priests, but God is our Master. Anyone that understands who God really is would also know and understand what type of respect He deserves. But you also need to know who you are, and who that beggar on the street is.

If you take the president as an example. The president is being shown so much of respect in the society. You can’t just treat him as you like, as if he was just like anyone else. It’s very clearly understood. But let me tell you my friend, that the same respect is also automatically shown to all his family members! If the president’s son would go into a grocery store to buy a pack of yoghurt I am quite sure that he would completely change the whole atmosphere in that store. He wouldn’t leave anybody unaware of his presence. People would be treating him with respect, they would step aside in the queue, give him preference, they would speak to him respectfully. All this respect just because of? His father.

Now it is the same way with you and I. Our identity is in our heavenly Father and in who He is. When we consider that He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, creator of heaven and earth, completely holy and pure, mighty and great, when we consider His position of greatness we get a small taste of our own worth and position as His children created in His image. To be created in His image is the absolute greatest thing you can be as a human. Think about it: First comes God, then you! Isn’t that a mind-blowing awesome thought? But that applies to all people. Not only the well-educated, good-looking, charismatic, well dressed, worship-singing believers. It concerns all people. If you are a person this is for you as well!

God looks upon every human as a high-class being

But now I want to come to my real question. Let me put it straight: How can we look at suffering people on the street, and not be touched in our hearts with sorrow over their condition? How can we choose our friends based upon their status? How can we judge other people’s choice of clothes, choice of life partners, choice of occupation, choice of studies, choice of music, choice of friends and think low in our hearts about them? If they are the image of God they deserve the respect based upon that, not based upon their accomplishments or even their moral purity. We are not to judge or to show partiality between men. How come we show so much of respect to the pastor, or the chief minister, or the king, and then when we meet that “Annoying Andrew” who stinks sweat and uses the same shirt every day, we try to escape and we don’t want to talk or to even be associated with him?

I tell you that in God’s eyes there is no such thing as a “low-class” person. He sees every single human being as His high-class children, no matter what the society says.

I’m not saying its wrong to show respect to people in high positions, we have to do that of course. But know that the highest position a person can have is in Christ Jesus. That’s what we really should admire. We should never downgrade or judge the one whom God loves. Why are some people so afraid to make friends with people from “a lower class”, and they purposely forget those who really need friends. I tell you that in God’s eyes there is no such thing as a “low-class” person. He sees every single human being as His high-class children, no matter what the society says. Why are we so mindful about our reputation and so careful not to be associated with the “wrong kind of people”? Who are we to put labels on people and downgrade them or treat them as if we are better than them?

You might say: “But, if I should follow that, people will lose their respect for me, they will start to gossip about me”….

My friend, there are no such excuses. People also spoke bad about Jesus when He ate with sinners and prostitutes. If not you, who will be God’s channel of love for these people? Jesus’ principle was “it is not those who are well that are in need of a physician, but those who are sick. I haven’t come to call the righteous, but sinners”.

Not calling any man unclean

Peter said in Acts 10:28 “But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean“. It’s easy when we see how certain people dress or behave, to despise them in our hearts and see them as less clean than us, especially people like “Dr. Drunkard” and those guys, but that is totally wrong. We will have to answer before God one day how we have treated our fellow brothers and sisters. We have to look upon people with love in our hearts, knowing that God also loves them and He has created them with a wonderful purpose in mind, because they are His children, created in His image. We have to change our hearts.

Jesus never embraced sin, but He embraced people. He spoke with Samaritan women. He ate with liers, thief’s, prostitutes and pharisees. He showed us what real love is. You don’t have to “walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful” (Ps 1:1) which means you don’t have to commit the same sin, but Jesus clearly showed us that the highest form of love is when we can embrace people without embracing sin. He knew their potential, He knew what they were created to be, He knew how much God loved them, and He showed them the respect they deserved as children of God.

You don’t have to have the right contacts or expensive nice cars to do something for God. Mother Teresa didn’t have it, and still people listened to her and she made an impact. She gained so much of respect so that she was even considered to be a saint. Because of her earthly status? No, because she chose to see people with Gods eyes, and to do what Jesus would have done. You don’t need those earthly material things even if the society (or even other servants of God) says so, you just need the love of God. With the love of God you can move mountains.

In God’s kingdom all people are high-class people, no matter what education, job or family they have. All are welcome into His arms and let us welcome them into ours.

If you are not at all religious and you are reading my blog, you might wonder “how on earth can she believe so strongly in a God she hasn’t seen? Aren’t we living in 2011?”

But to give an answer to the question “How can you believe in God?” I have to start to tell you that believing is not something based upon a research or proof. If you can prove it, you don’t need faith because you already have the evidence. Belief, or faith, is a supernatural experience and a miracle that takes place in your heart after coming in contact with God Himself. It’s also a choice that we need to make even though we don’t have all evidences. I can never prove that God is real, I have experienced talking to Him and I have had answers to my prayers, but how can I tell someone else to believe just based on that? It’s impossible.

I have spent hours and hours reading the bible, which is Gods Word, and I believe the Word has a supernatural ability to convince us in our spirit that God is real. But once again, that’s something which is real for me and I can never prove it to you. Science can also not prove God’s existence, because God is Spirit and science deal only with the physical things. You can believe in science and you can still believe in God, but if you believe that science is the only true authority, then you cannot believe in God, because science can never prove the spiritual realm.

In India for example, where I live, almost everyone believes in something greater than what they see. Either you are a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or something else. Everyone accepts that there is a supernatural world, except maybe a few atheists. I know many other countries like that where the spiritual world is totally accepted in the society, but not in many western countries. In Sweden where I am born and raised, they teach atheism in schools, and they have completely removed all prayer, biblereading and Christianity from a country which is projected as a Christian country. If you live in Sweden and believe in God, you are considered as either naive or as someone who had a rough childhood and has a need of comfort in religion. Believing in God is almost as naive as believing in Santa Claus.

But I want to tell you that I have read science, I have had a good childhood, I have not taken my decision based on my parents belief, I grew up in an atheist “science-believing” society, I have both religious and non religious friends, I am not mentally retarded, but I still believe in God. Why?

Why I believe

It’s basically like this; Yes I grew up in a Christian family, but that didn’t make me a Christian, just as you can’t become a car by just sitting in the garage. It was not until I chose to give Him a chance, to step out of my mentally “thinking-right” boundaries, that everything changed. When I gave Him a chance He came to me. He became real to me and I cannot explain how. I have never seen Him physically, but i have experienced His reality.

Sometimes when I have had a question to God I use to ask it, and in a short period of time I got the answer somehow, through something I read, through someone who spoke to me, or just a thought that came up within me or something that came up on TV. The answer was just sent by God. When I used to pray I could feel His presence coming into the room, and He would sit there and listen to my prayers. Once again, that is nothing I can prove to you, I just know it very strongly. Sometimes I have prayed and asked for things, at certain times very difficult things, and God has somehow made sure I got it. I cannot doubt it was from Him. Other times I have been in danger and experienced His protection. One day I was in a very tough situation and my mother (who lived in another city) woke up in the middle of the night and felt a strong need and an urge to pray for my protection, without knowing anything about the situation. No one can come and tell me that wasn’t God. I have also seen people in wheelchairs stand up and walk after a prayer in Jesus’ name, I have seen deaf people starting to hear after prayer, my mom had a leg that grew out 10 cm after prayer when she was a young teenager, people who have prayed for me have received exact visions and specific words from God which fits into me and my family’s situation, and they don’t even know me or my family.

Well I can tell of endless experiences which makes me even more sure of Gods existence, but even then I must say that it wasn’t these kind of things that made me believe in God. I believed long before I experienced these things. Even if I would never had experienced anything supernatural during my lifetime I would still believe, because faith is a choice, and religion is a relationship. It’s a relationship with God Himself that we must entertain on a regular basis, just like any relationship. If someone would ask me, I would say “Of course God exist, I just spoke to Him today“. My love/faith to God is not based upon supernatural experiences, it’s based in just that; love, and fellowship with Him. To be able to believe in what you cannot see is a great miracle. It’s a conviction that takes place in my heart. I just know that I know that I know that God is real.

But it’s also a personal choice. You can never become a believer just because someone says that you are in the need of a savior to wash away your sins, even though it’s true, we are all sinners, and we can’t have a relationship with God unless our sins are being washed away. But it doesn’t start with someone else telling you. It starts within your own heart. The bible says that no one can come to the Father unless the Spirit of God draws Him near, close to Himself. God always makes the first initiative. But just the fact that you have read this article is a sign that He has already taken that initiative towards you. The response is left to your side.

It’s this easy; either you give Him a chance, or you skip the idea. There is no one to force you and there is no one to hinder you, the choice is yours and you do whatever you like. But if you want to give it a try I just want to tell you that God is the most wonderful person I know, and that no one has ever lost anything trying to know Him. The only thing you have to do is ask Jesus to forgive your sins, because He has the ability of washing it all away, as if it have never happened. And secondly you have to welcome Him into your life as the highest authority; that’s means, whatever He says in His Word (the bible) is the best for you and me, because it is written out of love. And prayer is not a formal thing, simply talk and express yourself as you are talking to a person. Why all this change of voice and special “prayer positions” and all those things? Be relaxed when you pray, be yourself and know there is a wonderful loving father listening to your prayer, and there are millions of angels in heaven dancing and rejoicing over a person who prays for the first time.

God bless you!

Love

“Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” (John 21:18)

Many people don’t like to read this verse, or at least not to read it as if it is “speaking personally to me in my situation“, because Jesus actually spoke to Peter about his death. That’s understandable, but actually this is how life with God is many times. God sometimes takes us where we do not like to go. Not that God purposely want to make us do things we don’t like all the time. God is not an uncle with a white beard who sits on a cloud in heaven with a whip in His hand to make us do things we don’t like. God works in our will (Phil 2:13), so most of the times he has already put on our hearts to do certain things that we later find out was not our own, but His purpose. Our dreams and passions comes from Him. He want us to enjoy what we are doing, He is not making us slaves in the sense that He puts heavy burdens upon our shoulders. He is more like a father who knows best what His child needs. A child doesn’t always like to obey its parents, but in the end it is the parents who knows what is best for the child, and they are doing it out of love.

Testimony:

Recently I had to travel quickly to one city by different reasons, and I had to do it by myself. No, it is not that I purposely chose not to be careful. Usually I don’t go by myself anywhere in India, but this matter was really important and there was no other way. I had planned to fly there, finish the matter and immediately fly back the next day, but in the middle of everything I came up with the idea of shopping. Not very smart you might say, but this was 16.00 in the afternoon, so it’s usually quite safe to be outside at that time, I thought, but this time I was wrong.

My uncle-friend gave me a lift half the way since he was passing by that place. I walked the rest of the way, stopped by a coffee shop, took a juice, and continued. On the way I made sure to take some snaps with my iPhone so that I would remember the way back. Suddenly a man (who must have seen me taking photos) came to me and asked if I needed some help, I said “no” and continued. He started to ask from where I came and what I was doing in India, and so forth, and he asked what I was looking for. According to Him I was shopping in a very expensive area and he knew a much better place that he could show me, but I said “Thank you for the advice, I will check it out later“, and I went.

I continued to walk as the sky got darker, and then a young guy came to me and started to talk. “What do you think about India?” and “Can I get you a coffee?” and so on. I got rid of him too, but then another, and another one showed up. These guys really disturbed me, but somehow I got rid of them all. Then I went into one store and planned to quickly buy the stuff and go, but once I finished over there it was already dark outside and I feared that I would meet the same guys again. Unfortunately I did. They had been waiting for me. One by one they showed up and mocked me saying “Didn’t you find what you were looking for? Can I help you to find the way home?”. I tried to get rid of them, but I had to walk under a tunnel to come to the other side of the road, and that was top-ten scary! Just before coming out on the other side a guy came forward and started to speak. He said “I am a student, I’m not trying to make business here as other people, there are bad people here but I am a nice person“. Then I got some kind of a clue about what was going on. Somehow these people were making money out of this, but I didn’t fully get it. He spoke so rapidly so I couldn’t focus on where I was going. I had to stop to find out the way, but this guy kept disturbing me so that I couldn’t think.

THEN just in the right time, when I felt the most helpless, uncle called and asked if I needed help. I said “Yeah, if it is not too much for you, I would be very thankful if you could pick me“, and we decided to meet close-by to a coffee shop. But I got so excited so I forgot to ask where that coffee shop was. I asked one lady close-by, but she didn’t know. Don’t you think that the same guy turned up again and wanted to help me? Oh yes, of course! But this time, since I knew uncle was waiting there with the car, I asked for the way to the coffee shop (where he probably planned to wait for me), and ran in to my friend’s car and explained everything that had happened to him! What he then said to me amazed me and reminded me that I hadn’t been walking alone:

“The Holy Spirit spoke strongly to me and told me to call you because you needed help”.

All praise to God for the loving and caring Father He is! He knows exactly what we need. Praise God there are also people who are sensitive to what the Spirit says and know how to respond in the exact right time. Who knows what would have happened if he didn’t call? I don’t know what I would have been without God and my friends. I am still amazed and thankful.

Be careful!

Even though God is our protector and our shield we need to be wise and careful and not purposely enter in to the devils territory. There are so many things which can happen if we are not careful. Later on we came to know about the reality that was going on in that area.
What I heard was that these guys don’t just simply want to make friends. They don’t look very dangerous on the outside, most of them are young and look very innocent, but the one who has hired them is of another kind. Recently we heard of one Japanese girl who started to talk to these guys in the same area. They were simply talking with her, but once they got to the roadside where not many people were, they pushed her into a car, raped her and cut her into pieces.

What people say is that these boys are “fishermen” who has been paid to lead the girls to the car, and once the girls have been taken care of they will either be sold as prostitutes, raped or used in other ways to generate money. If you have seen the movie “slumdog millionaire” you have probably seen a bit of it which is not at all any exaggeration.

But God is our daddy who knows everything about us and sends us the right help in the time of need. When you are in need, don’t forget to call upon the Name above every other name, because He has promised to take good care of you. Finally I want to share some comforting words with you, that God gave me this day from Psalms 91:

Psalms 91

Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God

¹ He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”

³ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler^[a]
And from the perilous pestilence.
⁴ He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
⁵ You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
⁸ Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.

⁹ Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
¹⁰ No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
¹¹ For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
¹² In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
¹³ You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

¹⁴ “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
¹⁵ He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”

Love

Some people need structure to cope, and others can go on anyway. There is no set formula, or nothing which is biblically right or wrong. The bible speaks both about spontaneous, and structured prayer. But there are some important ingredients that has to be included when we communicate with God, and what I am going to share with you is a common model of prayer which many people use to structure up their prayers in order to make it easier to focus. It has been known as the “A.C.T.S prayer”. It is basically a free and spontaneous prayer, but consisting of four steps: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Let this structure lead you into a more focused and powerful prayer life:

A.C.T.S

1. Adoration

When we approach God in prayer we must first and foremost acknowledge who He is. We need to proclaim Him as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and our dear loving Father. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray He first started His prayer with “Our Father”. And then “hallowed be thy name” (Mt 6:9). Begin by praising God for who He is. Declare His character and His power. When our eyes are focused on who He is, the whole rest of our prayer becomes so much easier. We stay more “Jesus centered” throughout our prayer, and our own problems become small in the presence of His glory and majesty when we start with Him. Never start your prayer by focusing on your needs, then you are starting in the wrong end, and your prayer becomes “problem focused”. Life is all about God, so begin by acknowledging who God is.

2. Confession

Some people prefer to pray the CATS prayer, and begin their prayer with confession in order to clear the way for an intimate fellowship with the Lord, but most of the times I choose to give God the respect by starting with Him and not myself when I pray. Life isn’t about me, it’s about God. So not until I have approached Him in the right manner can I ask Him to forgive me and remove my sins. Righteousness is a precious gift not to be taken for granted, so even though I know it belongs to me by the blood of Jesus, I am deeply thankful for it and I value it with respect. Therefore I first adore Him, and then confess my sins.

When you come before the Lord, know and confess that you are a sinner and you are in need of His forgiveness in order to become righteous. Be specific and confess each sin as you remember them. Ask for His forgiveness and His precious blood to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Acknowledge your need and dependence on him and make a decision to repent and turn away from your sin, with His help and by His grace. Sometimes God may also want you to go to a specific person and ask for forgiveness. This will be more difficult for you because it hurts in the flesh, but when you feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit to do so, there is nothing else to do than to yield to it, even if it hurts. Because after that, you will have a clear conscience. When you confess sins it is very important that you are also willing to leave those sins and change your lifestyle. Don’t ask for forgiveness with the attitude that you are planning to continue with those sins, and another important thing to remember; don’t hold on to the shame that follows a sin. Once you are forgiven, it is gone forever. Jesus took your sin and your shame.

3. Thanksgiving

There are many things to be thankful for in life. If you don’t have much to be thankful for you have a problem. Then you need to spend more time here and really come down on your knees. Make a list of all things and begin to praise God for it. When you do that you will discover how much He has actually been involved in your life without your knowledge. Thank Him that you are alive, that you are saved, have a house, family, friends. Just the fact that you know the Lord shows that He has been active in your life, because no one comes to the Lord without the Father drawing Him towards Himself. So don’t ever think that God has done nothing for you. You dont deserve anything from Him, yet still He has been faithful in every chapter of your life. There is always a reason to be thankful to Him.

4. Supplication

Many people spend far too much time here. It is like their whole prayer life is a constant begging for their needs to be met. Don’t rush through the other steps just in order to come here, and don’t let this step be the focus of your prayer. Your needs are valuable and precious to the Lord, and He wants us to make our requests known unto Him. But relax and enjoy your fellowship with Him more than worrying about your needs. God will take care of you.

Finally:

When you have gone through all these steps it is not yet time to say Amen.
There is a reason why God gave us two ears but only one mouth! He has something to speak to you personally, every day. Take some time before you finish to listen to God, because surely He has something to tell you. Prayer is not a monologue, it’s a dialogue. You speak to God and God speaks to you. This is the time when you will get really intimate with God. Many people forget this part, and that’s the reason why they feel that they have such a poor and empty prayer life. The world is pushing and stressing us so that we barely get time to slow down and listen to God. Your prayer becomes rich only when God is in it. We need to give Him space to act, and time to speak.

These are the steps which have helped me when I have felt as if there was nothing to pray, and of course: Don’t forget to pray in tongues. In whichever step you are praying, include the heavenly language also, because there are things you need to pray out which you yourself don’t even know about. When you don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit will help you, and pray through you. So take these advises and begin to enjoy a free and focused prayer life.

Love

I have been tested by God many times in my life. I believe all of us have, and we are continually tested by God in different situations. The tests that I face mainly challenges my character. The times when I have been most challenged and most tested are the times when i feel i have been treated unfair, especially by those whom I have some kind of a relationship with. At those times the test is almost unbearable, because the more you know a person, the more it hurts when they treat you bad. Especially in situations like that we find so many reasons why we don’t deserve it and how bad the other person is. The temptation I face most of the time in those situations, is to respond by the same selfish, unfair and greedy attitude, and repay evil with evil. Sometimes i also find excuses, and I think I will teach the other person something by responding the same way. But God wants us to respond differently.

How do you respond?

A test can make you or break you. It can mold you into the image God created you to, or it can bring destruction and darkness into your life and harm your character development if you give in to the temptation and respond selfishly.

James 1 says “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials” Why? How can we rejoice when people treat us bad, when others get promoted at our cost, when people lie, backbite, gossip and make use of us for their own benefit? Because, as James continues: “the testing of your faith produces patience”.

My friend, the test you are going through is not the end of you. It’s an opportunity for you to grow, an opportunity to train up your love and patience for greater things to come. You are no alone, all of us go through the testing of our faith. But it is when we respond to in in the right spirit and attitude that we can boldly look upon it with joy, knowing that we are being molded and formed to be more like Christ, who is love.

James also teaches in verse 12: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him“

There is a reward and a blessing in endurance. We might think, if we look with our natural eyes, that we lose something by being subject to a godly character during these circumstances. If we bless those who curse us, won’t they take advantage of us? Yes, probably they will, but then we need to understand that they first took advantage of Jesus. He never deserved such a bad treatment from anyone, but in the middle of it He said “No one takes my life, but I give it freely” (John 10:18).

Are you a person who can freely give of what is yours, even when you feel you don’t have to, when there is no reason for it, when people don’t deserve it, even when you feel it is the other person who should give? God loves a cheerful giver, and a generous heart.

It is not as we think, that it is you and I who lose when we choose to bless someone else, not even while they are taking advantage of us. It is always the selfish ones who loose in the end, those who are unwilling to have a generous attitude. God rewards us according to the character development and the endurance we show through tests and trials. He who is truly Jesus-minded and eternity-minded will think about these things, and pursue a godly character through it all. Let us surrender into to the loving arms of Jesus, and let Him mold us into His image in all things.

Love

It’s mine, I won’t let go!

Have you ever heard your conscience telling you that God is not pleased with something in your life? Have you felt the tangible presence of God moving away from you, because you are holding on to something which is not good for you? Well, then you are not alone. We all experience this feeling at times, but we need to understand that what we are hearing at those times is nothing else than the tender, loving (not the condemning) voice of the Holy Spirit, telling us to get rid of, throw away, and repent from our sins.

God asks us to utterly get rid of certain things

Unwillingness to repent, or blaming of others grieves the Holy Spirit, and quenches His presence. In 1 Sam 15:1-30 we read about Saul and the Amalekites. The Amalekites were Israels biggest threat. They lived by plundering other nations, and they were the first ones to attack Israel when they had reached the promised land. On top of that they also threatened Israel’s intimate relationship with God because of their Idol-worship. So God was literally fed up with the way they constantly caused harm for the children of Israel, so He couldn’t let them live and continue like that anymore. The next thing God does it that He gives Saul a command to utterly destroy all that belongs to the Amalekites. It was a very specific command which could by no means be misunderstood. God gave clear details to destroy both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. But still, Saul thought he could edit Gods command and change it to be something that was comfortable for him, and continue to have Gods blessing on it!

Many times we are like that. God asks you and I to utterly destroy or get rid of certain things in our lives: Attitudes, wrong priorities, wrong friends, sins or other things which are causing us or other children of God harm. But we usually don’t want to let go of it. Saul didn’t want obey the commandment, only a part of it. He threw away those things which were of no use, but spared the good out of everything, “so that I can sacrifice it to the Lord” he said. Pretty good excuse, but we know that partial obedience is disobedience, and moreover I don’t think he wanted to sacrifice it to the Lord. I think he wanted to use it for his own personal gain. The word says that he spared what was good. He saw some value in it, that could profit him if he laid his hands upon it.

The difficulty of letting go of our sins

I know out of personal experience that it is very difficult to have to let go of something you are used to do, and something you like. We always have a tendency to want to hold on to the things which are wrong, and the reason is that we think we are gaining something out of it. It feels good to sin, for a moment. We find ourselves comfortable with our sin, but the consequences in the long run are devastating. How come we are so blinded to believe that we gain anything out of disobeying God? Are we smarter than God? Can we choose which commandments to obey and skip the rest which doesn’t fit into our lives and our situations?

Just because there is grace and forgiveness in the new covenant, it doesn’t mean that we have a license to sin. There are always consequences, sooner or later, because God is a righteous god. I may not see the consequences in my life now, I may think like Eve: “Nothing happened when I ate the fruit, so lets continue because it is so good“, but if I continue to ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, His presence will slowly move away, and there will be horrendous consequences in the future.

Sometimes we have all kinds of religious excuses for holding on to our sins, and we think that we are an exception of Gods wrath if we have a reason good enough for it! But there are no exceptions in Gods kingdom. God is a just judge, no respecter of persons and one day we will all stand before a big white throne and be held accountable for every single small thing we have done. Then no excuses will help you, no blaming others will help you. There it’s just you, and God.

True repentance and obedience maintains Gods presence

We all fail, but there is forgiveness and restoration in the blood of Jesus. I have decided to be even more sensitive to the Spirit, and careful about what I say and do. The last thing I want to do is to grieve the Holy Spirit. We need to truly repent and change our lifestyle like David did, not like Saul did. Even while “repenting”  Saul kept on blaming others. He said “it was the people, I only listened to the people’s voice”, while he was actually appointed as a responsible leader for the people. When I see Saul’s reply I can clearly hear the same tone as of Adam when he told God; “it was the women who gave me the fruit, and I ate“. Saul kept on making excuses and craved for position. He never repented out of a sincere heart and love for God. Therefore God finally told him that he was not useful anymore, and rejected him as king.

God can only use people who truly repent and take responsibility for their sins without blaming others. God is also looking for people who repent not because they need position or recognition, but because they love God, and don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit. I have the privilege of learning from someone who is such an example in this, and that is my own husband. He is a man who really loves God, and when I see the fear of God in his life I really get challenged to drastically change my lifestyle. He is a person who sometimes asks God and people for forgiveness for things so minute that it would never even cross my mind to ask for forgiveness for such a small thing. While I think he has done nothing wrong he still loves God so much that he refuses to grieve the Holy Spirit even with the smallest little thing. When such people repent from their sins, no matter what they have done, the presence of God will be over them in a strong way

If you feel led by God to make a personal commitment to enter into a deeper lever of obedience and love for God, then please take some time personally before His throne and ask Him to reveal things in your life that He want you to get rid of, and be willing to get on your knees to repent from things He reveals to you. Then you will also experience a deeper lever of His presence in your daily life.

Blessings and love.