Praying Through.

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We used to speak about "praying through." I haven't heard that expression in a long time. Have you? Maybe the emphasis on "name it and claim it," the idea that we can "speak the word of faith" has done away with the need to pray until we strike fire. Or the reason may be that the old Pentecostal custom of "tarrying for the Holy Spirit" no longer is practiced in many Pentecostal churches. Whatever the reason, the idea of praying until we know God has heard us doesn't appear to have many proponents in these days. What we have in place of praying through is plans, plans, and more plans. I think we are chopping with a dull axe!

(12/31/2006) Well, this is the last time I will preach this year. The Lord gave me two burdens for our assembly this morning. Both are found in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Romans. One is the idea that we are not to be conformed to the present world. We are to present our body a living sacrifice.

The second burden is that each one of us is to have a gift or gifts by which we can minister to the needs of the members of the Body of Christ.

In order for us to experience both of these biblical exhortations we are going to have to pray more. And we aren't going to do enough praying until we learn how to pray long enough to strike fire. By this I mean, we pray until we know the Lord has heard us. When we break through, we cannot pray anymore. We know our answer is in the bank of Heaven.

If you never have had the joy of praying through, you don't know what you are missing. Once you really break through with the Lord, you will get hooked on prayer. Your daily prayer time will be the highlight of your day.

I said Sunday morning, and I will repeat it, that if we are not praying and grazing in God's Word for at least an hour each day, we are not going to survive spiritually in 2007. We are going to be deceived in one manner or another, perhaps into becoming angry with people in the church. Or, it may be in the area of sexual lust, or stealing, or whatever.

You and I are not going to make it if we don't set aside time each day to pray until we hear from the Lord.

I know we are too busy. Then we have to pray that God will arrange our schedule until we have time to talk to Him and listen to Him. If we don't do this, we simply are not going to survive spiritually in 2007. How do we present our body a living sacrifice? We do it by making our lazy, cowardly, lustful body stop what it is doing and wait while we seek the Lord. Our body is our enemy. Our natural mind is our enemy. They will fight us all the time so we won't spend time dealing with the invisible God. By the way, when we spend enough time in prayer we will find He is not as invisible as we may have imagined.

God wants us to walk with Jesus all the time. Practice righteousness, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. All of our religious practices are second in importance to walking with Jesus in a personal way.

Also, we need to be careful of how much we partake of the American destructive culture. We are in the world but we are not supposed to be of it. The endless flow of information, music, and entertainment is calculated to keep us in Satan's image. We need to spend more time in the Scriptures. Otherwise we are going to be conformed to the world. I think most American "Christians" already are conformed to the world and don't realize it. They never have denied themselves, taken up their cross, and set out to follow the Master as all times.

I believe also that most American believers have no idea what their spiritual gifts are. They suppose they are to work hard, make a living, and help support a pastor who lives a spiritual life on their behalf. Such have no understanding of the Body of Christ.

How are we going to find out what our gifts are? By praying until we hear from God!

I think many believers would like to have a gift of miracles, or healing, or discernment. I know I would, and am praying to that end. Also I have encouraged two other men in the church who are beginning to get serious about waiting on the Lord.

Do you remember the parable about the person who was so persistent in prayer that God finally "got out of bed" and gave him what he needed for his hungry friend? This is how we are to pray for the Holy Spirit, and for gifts of the Spirit. We are to keep it up until God answers in some manner. We need to reject the spirit of inevitability that says God will not give us a gift of healing. Jesus said we can ask what we will and it shall be done. But we talk ourselves out of it, believing that God already has exhausted the heavenly treasures. And anyway, we don't count!

People with needs come to us, don't they? Do we have enough of the Holy Spirit to meet their needs? Let's pray throughout 2007 until God hears us and supplies all the needs that come to us.

I know our church needs more of the Holy Spirit. We need the gifts of power operating among us. I for one believe God wants to bless us with every spiritual gift we want or need.

If He says no, it is because He has something even more wonderful in mind for us. But we won't find out about it until we pray through./

Our American culture is failing fast. As a boy I can remember a hit song: "Lookie, lookie, lookie, here comes Cookie, walking down the street." What is it today? Some kind of aberration called "Gangsta Rap." We Americans have been burned badly and we do not realize it. Whatever good there is in Hollywood, the fact remains it is producing Satan's standards for us to live by. There is no use fretting about Hollywood if we can't do anything about it. But we can make sure this massive sewer pipe is not emptying its dung and garbage into our front room.

The Lord told me one time the darkness in America is greater than I know. So it must be awful!

Most believers seem to be drifting along with the currents from the media, not realizing they are heading toward spiritual destruction.

We either are a disciple of Jesus or we are not. From what I see, it appears most church attenders do not know what a disciple is and do not intend to find out.

Well, all I can say is, if we don't get serious with God, pray through each day until we are hearing from Jesus, fill our minds with God Word instead of the abominable late-night television programs, we and our loved ones are going to be harmed spiritually, and perhaps physically, in the near future. We have no guarantee that God will protect us (even though we name the name of Christ) unless we are living under the shadow of the Almighty, that is, living in the Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at all times and doing His will faithfully.

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