Hanging out with JESUS through Prayer!

Today I was writing a lesson on Prayer for JC Rock (the intermediates, or inter-midgets as Peter calls them) for Sunday.
I thought it would be cool to chuck up on here as it is something I am learning about personally at the moment too. Last year at FITE Camp the guest speaker prophecied over me that I am a intercessor. Pretty much an intercessor is someone who prays from the depths of there heart, that feels the prayers they are praying and prays and hears from God for people.
I have always felt like I feel emotion quite deeply so when I found this out it made sence. I just have to steer the emotion into the right place and into prayer/interceding.

Prayer...

Prayer is simply talking with God, we get to know people through talking with them and just like God we get to know him through talking to him, God is very interested in our lives, he is our perfect Father and wants to hear all about our day, the down parts, the high parts, our achievements and everything else! He loves us and has a Father heart towards us!

God doesn’t want us to just come to him when we have problems but when we have good things happen to us too.

Just like any relationship if you don’t communicate you aren't really going to have a relationship and if you are always complaining about bad stuff it isn’t going to be a positive relationship (as much as he cares). So to have a healthy prayer life with God we must share good and bad things with Him.

  

He wants us to come boldly to His throne, it says in Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in a time of need”.

God wants us to boldly approach his throne of grace with confidence of the things we are asking him for.

A couple of things from this, it says “when you pray” not “if you pray”, also it says to go away and pray to the Father and close the door. This does not mean to say that praying with others or in front of others is a bad thing but it is to say that our main praying should be one on one to the Father. It should be intimate between us and him.

Jesus also teaches not to babble on like pagans, what he is saying here is that we are not to “show off our spirituality” through praying babbling prayers.

In Mark 1:35 it says “ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed”.  Jesus would get up early in the morning to spend time with his Father, this verse always challenges me. If Jesus had to get up early to spend time with God and draw strength from him for the day then how much more do we need to follow his example.

In Matthew 7: 7-8 it says “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”

Jesus wants us to be like an annoying child who bangs on the door knocking for his parent. He wants us to be persistent in prayer.     

In Mark 11:24 it says “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”.

Ultimately when we pray we must believe we have received it. Remember that Christ did not die on the cross in vain, he died to so that we may receive.

New day, new life.

There is beauty in going to sleep and waking up the next morning. It makes all things new, each day is a new start. Today I am CHOOSING PEACE and JOY!

And if today I don't experience all the peace and joy I want to, it is ok. There is tomorrow, and the day after and the day after and I will journey forward and forward til I experience it.

Take each day as a chance at new-ness. Choose GOD more everyday, each day want him more, desire him more.

In the Desert... There is Silver and Gold!

Second blog of the day!

Did you know that God is good in every circumstance?! Yup, right now in the midst of craziness, GOD is GOOD.
"My God is the God who provides"
I know God is a provider of life, of freedom and of healing. He is my Dad who gives me good presents. He loves me and wants to provide for me, so he will provide me with healing.

"So refine me Lord throgh the flame"
I was "google-ing" what it meant to be "refinded through the flame" and came across the process of how silver is refined, have a read of this! It is fasinating!
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.” She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment.
Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy—when I see my image in it.”

This is where the Lord is when we are going through the fires. This is what He is doing. He is there right beside us and refining us until He sees His image!
http://earnestlycontending.com/maranatha/?p=5080

Right now, in my life I feel like God is refining me through the flame. The craziness and the pain/anxiety I am feeling is like the flame, but God has his eyes on me the whole time and he won't leave me in the flames a moment too long cause he doesn't want me destroyed but he wants all the bad stuff burnt away. He wants the the stress burnt away from me.
And until I reflect God's image of peace and joy then I will know that the work is complete :)
Malachi 3:3 "He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord"

"I will bring praise"
Today I decided I need to make a better effort to praise God everyday, to focus on him, what he has done, is doing and not on my feelings. Cause in being negative I am giving the devil praise... and he doesn't deserve it the nasty piece of ****!


"The seed I've recieved I will sow"
Once through this I will be able to help others in the same place :)

Stress + Anxiety was my label. Peace and Joy is mine now.

These past while I feel like I have lost the plot. I have always struggled with getting stressed easily but over the past while I seem to have become very anxious. Anxiety is "distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune:" (taken from dictionary.com). Last night I had to decide to say "ok, this is how I feel and it is alright to feel like this, God doesn't want his child to be a stress head anymore, he wants his child to be living in freedom and to have peace and joy". This is the hope that I am clinging onto when this anxiety comes. That God is taking me through this and out of anxiety and stress and into freedom and peace.

To anyone reading this that is struggling over any problems in the mind, cling onto God and his truth. Read the word, speak out the word. Know his truth and remove satan's lies.

God says in Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will gaurd your heart and minds in Christ Jesus"

He also says in Galatians 5:1 "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery".
I am preaching to myself here, and half of writing this is to help me to understand this idea of living in freedom. It is hard to remember that Christ has set us free and to not submit to the lies of the devil that inslaves us  because in the moment satan's lies feel so real, but we must chose God, we must chose his word, his truth and remove all lies from the devil, we must cling onto verses like Philippians 4:7 and speak it to ourselves when we are feeling anxious.
We must remember Christ has set us free and stand firm in the fact that Christ died so that we would not have to live in stress and anxiety but in peace and joy.