I CHOOSE TO BE MIGHTY PT 3

"A crown more beautiful than this is what the King
of Kings shall freely bestow upon us"

 # God is seeking KINGS!

One great part of God’s eternal purpose in creation was to rule His universe by a MAN. “Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak; but one in a certain place testifieth, What is MAN, that Thou art mindful of him, or the SON OF MAN that Thou visitest him?” (Heb. 2:5,6).

To Adam therefore He said, “have dominion,” or “rule.” After the words of blessing, conveying fruitfulness to man, “be fruitful and multiply,” there are three words added, conveying earth over to man as his possession and his kingdom, so that he might exercise authority in it by “divine right.” 1. Replenish or fill. 2. Subdue. 3. Rule.

Adam’s unfaithfulness, by which dominion was forfeited, did not make the great purpose of none effect. That purpose has stood and shall stand for ever. Instead of the first Adam God brings in the “last Adam,” the “second Man,” the Lord from heaven, as His King, and He introduces His offspring as kings under Him, to fill, subdue, and rule the earth.

He has found His King, and has put all things under His feet: placing on His head the many crowns, and setting Him on the throne of universal dominion,—though as yet we see not all things actually put under Him. He says, “Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion”: and He gives Him the heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost ends of the earth for His possession. He is the great Melchizedek,—the priestly King,—into whose hands all things have been put.

But under Him, or associated with Him, are other kings. These are the redeemed from among men,—the chosen according to the good pleasure of His will: by nature, sons of the first Adam, but created anew and made sons of the second.

From the ranks of fallen men God is selecting His kings. He has sent His Son to deliver them from their death and curse. He has sent His Spirit to quicken them and to transform them, not merely into obedient loving subjects, but into kings, heirs of the great throne. “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make PRINCES in all the earth” (Ps. 45:16).

These kings, though by nature mortal men, become heirs of immortality, and at the resurrection of the just, put on all that is to fit them for their everlasting reign. Everything connected with them is of God.

1. God elects them. It is by His will that they are what they are. He finds the race of Adam in the horrible pit, and out of that ruined mass He chooses some,—not only to salvation but to glory and dominion. These kings are the chosen of God.

2. He redeems them. They are found in the low dungeon, captives and prisoners in the hands of the great oppressor. God sends redemption to them,—redemption through Him who takes their captivity upon Him, that they may be set free; who enters their prison-house, and takes their bonds upon Him that they may be unbound. In Him they have redemption through His blood.

3. He consecrates them. Their consecration is by blood. It is the blood of the covenant that sets them apart for their future work and honour. Sprinkled with the precious blood they are “sanctified” for dominion;—for that holy royalty to which they have been chosen.

4. He anoints them. With that same anointing with which Christ was anointed, they are anointed too,—anointed for royal rule,—priestly-royal rule. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in them, as in their Head, coming down on them, as on their Head, fits them for the exercise of dominion. The wisdom needed for government is a holy wisdom, and this holy wisdom they receive by means of the unction from the Holy One.

5. He crowns them. They are, as yet, only kings-elect. Their coronation-day is yet to come. Yet the crown is already theirs by right; and He who chose them to the throne will before long put the crown upon their head.

Not out of the ranks of angels is He seeking kings. This would not suit His purpose, nor magnify the riches of His grace. Fallen man must furnish Him with the rulers of His universe. Human hands must wield the scepter, and human heads must wear the crown.

To this honour He is calling us. He is sending out His ambassadors for this end; and the gospel with which they are entrusted is the glad tidings of a kingdom. And this in a double sense. There is a kingdom into which they are to enter and be partakers of its glory: and yet, in the same kingdom, they are to be God’s anointed kings. It is a kingdom doubly theirs. They not only “see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3); they not only “enter into the kingdom of God”; but they occupy its thrones. “The kingdom, and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, is given to the people of the saints of the Most High, and they possess the kingdom” (Dan. 7:22,27). “1 appoint unto you a kingdom,” says our Lord, “that ye may sit on thrones” (Luke 22:28). “To him that overcometh will I give to sit on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on His throne” (Rev. 3:21). Hence they sing the song, “Thou art worthy, for Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:9). Not to be reigned over, but to reign, is the honour to which they are called. “They shall REIGN forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5).

O sons of men! This is the honour to which God is calling you. It is for the end of making you His kings that He is seeking you. To deliver you from wrath is the beginning of His purpose concerning you; to set you on His throne is the end. Nothing short of this. Think what the riches of His grace must be, and His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus our Lord! Where sin has abounded grace has abounded more. Herein is love! Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should not only be called sons but kings; that we should not only be lifted to a place in His family, but to a seat upon His throne! To make us in any way or in any sense partakers of His glory and sharers in His dominion is much but to make us “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ,” is unspeakably more. A throne such as man can give and take away seems to many a worthy object of ambition; how much more the kingdom which God gives, the kingdom which cannot be moved.

And if anyone asks, how may I share this royalty and win this crown? we answer in the well-known words, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power (right) to become the sons of God”; for what is true of the sonship is true of the kingship too. We obtain it by receiving the Son of God. He that takes Christ receives a kingdom, and becomes a king. His connection with the King of kings is His security for a throne.

Thus very simply and beautifully does Bunyan put the manner of our obtaining the glory. Some would call this too free. Some would say, here is the way made far too easy, without any preparatory alarms and repentance. But there stands John Bunyan’s idea of the way of a sinner’s entrance into the kingdom; and let him who can improve or correct it do so. “The Lord, the Governor of the country, hath recorded that in this book; the substance of which is, if we be truly willing to have it, He will bestow it upon us freely.”

I CHOOSE TO BE MIGHTY PT 2

# Awaken The Mighty Men

To begin this chapter, read Joel 3:9 - 11 and 

2^ND Samuel 22: 51

To be a king, you must be a mighty warrior as well as a great leader. Check history and you will see that every great king was first a great warrior. And so it is in God’s kingdom. Because we have such an adversary in the devil, who will not just stand by and watch us take our place in the kingdom, we have to fight our way to our success as businessmen, fathers, husbands and spiritual leaders in the home. Because ultimately, this is what it’s all about. Success should be measured all round in our lives and not just in one area. That is how God intended it. You must understand that in order to achieve this, our faith in Christ must be unshakeable. We can only achieve success in every area of our lives by pleasing the King of kings and you’ll agree with me that it is not by any other means but by faith. (See Hebrews 11:6). And please also understand this, the devil is NOT after your money or your marriage or your business...don’t get me wrong, he wants nothing more than to see you suffer. But take all these things from a man who still has his faith in Christ solidly and you’ve achieved nothing! So why then does he use those things to attack us, you may ask? Because he has realized that we are too moved by those things. We have our eyes and hearts so set on those things that we pay more attention to them than we ought to. We look at things too much from the physical eye than the spiritual eye. We have become FARMERS!                

But in Joel 3:9, God is calling us to stop farming and Go to WAR!!! Quit farming and start fighting for what is rightfully ours. Well, you might say why should I have to fight for something that is already mine? That seems unfair. But that’s the beauty of this Christian faith of ours. It is that we know the outcome of this war because it has already been won by Christ on Calvary’s cross. Tell me, wouldn’t you bet on a football match if you knew the real results? Wouldn’t you step into the ring with an enemy who appears to be 10 times your size if you already knew the      outcome of the fight? The devil knows he has lost; he’s just going down kicking and screaming. But he’s going down to hell nonetheless. Now you tell me who has the unfair advantage?

This is a call to go to war and not just standing alone but side by side with other faith filled Christian men. The Lion of Judah is roaring and calling to men like you and I. Men with issues, men with struggles, imperfect men, frustrated men, men in debt, men who are tired of being the tail and never the head as Christ made us to be. 

                                                                                     This is a war cry!! 

Are you ready to take back yours? If not, then you might as well get off this bus right here. I don't know about you but I will NO LONGER be a push over. I will have him know, that if he dares take me on, he’s fighting a losing battle because greater is He that lives in me than he who wishes he was living in me. Amen!?

Imagine this: if men in Christ, stood firm in the spirit, side by side with arms locked, praying for and with each other, teaching each other, committed to each others’ success in all areas of life....what devil could push this army over?  Read 2^ND Samuel 22:13 - 17.

I have never seen such a level of commitment like these guys had to David. This same commitment led them to desire to achieve such a thing as they did. To go to such lengths just to bring David water to drink. And note that David didn't command them to, he merely made a statement and that was enough for them. Imagine having a band of men of faith on whom you can call on anytime of day or night.

·         Men who would stand by you when you stand; and also help you to your feet when you fall.

·         Men who know your weaknesses but never judge you based on that.

·         Men who trust each other and depend on each other not for selfish reasons but for Christ to be glorified.

One may ask, what made these men achieve such great exploits?  Were they specially blessed? Were they better men than we men in Christ today? I don't think they had any unique capabilities or strengths. Read back from verse 8 of that chapter and you’ll notice that each time these men set out to do something mighty, it ended with ...”and the Lord brought about a great victory.”  Victory always comes from the Lord. But the thing here is that these guys didn't just sit and watch to see what the Lord would do. They pick up those weapons of warfare and gave their enemies one hell of a fight. These were men with issues just like we are. One thing is for sure, I may have some issues and things I need to deal with in my marriage, my finances, my job, myself...but  what if I had a bunch of faith filled praying warrior kings as brothers...who would not give up on me until they see a change in my life. And what if I was equally committed to them? What a blessing that would be and a difference that would most certainly make. I know there are other areas that a lot of men need support...but I’m laying emphasis on prayer here because no one knows better than I do that prayer turns things around no matter how bad they may look. And the secret here is that I have more warriors fighting my battles with me each time so things get resolved quicker. It’s that simple. See Proverbs 27:17

We need to stay sharp all the time. For the sake of Christ, our ministries, our dreams, our families, ourselves and all those whose blessings we are carrying. Don’t let the devil deceive you to thinking that being a part of a ministry like this would make people take advantage of you. It is far from that. God has    deposited some serious gifts in you, which others must benefit from before your time is up here on earth. You cannot live and die without imparting some other man’s life. You must not. Young men need to know and share in your rich experience and wisdom. You have more sons than the ones that came through your loins. Let me reveal a secret to you that will just make the devil mad. But will make you know one more trick he has been playing.

One of the biggest lies young Christian men have been gullible enough to believe is that the older generation have nothing good to offer. IT IS A BIG LIE!!! A lie that we have surprisingly come to believe. Even in the church. But we need to have that father and son relationship in the body of Christ more than anywhere. There are men who still cannot find their bearings in life simply because once they left their father’s house; that is it. How many of us actually have had our fathers lay hands physically on us to pronounce blessings on our lives? This is very important. How many of us lay hands on our children and pray for them. How many of us speak blessings in their lives in order to reverse all those destructive things we said to them when they were younger? The time for healing is now! The time for revival is now!

Another one of the devil’s lies is the type of men he has led the world to believe are “real men”. He has made the true Christian man look like a fool and a weakling. Today, so much is demanded of men that even spending real quality time with God looks like a total waste of time. So much to do, so little time. We can barely give God Sundays let alone week days after such an exhausting day at work. Why do we chase after things which will not last through eternity?

Lastly, the enemy is using petty sins and mistakes which we make due to our lack of knowledge of who we really are in Christ to discredit us completely. In our families, our homes, and even in our churches. But as kings, we must not allow ourselves to be entangled by those things which so easily bring us down.

I do not say these things to make you feel condemned. You cannot be condemned because you are in Christ. But I say them so I might insight in you the desperation and desire to choose from this day to be the mighty man that God called you to be in Christ. It all began with dealing with the things we were holding on to. We talked about the “little foxes” that needed to be dealt with. If we sat in a group and felt free enough to discuss the things we were dealing with as men, you’d be shocked to find out just how much we have in common and how some have already walked that road and how much they have to say about how they arrived at a solution.

Beloved in Christ, you must know by now that we as men are called to so much more than we are actually experiencing and enjoying. I entreat you to take this step in the right direction to becoming a mighty man as well as a part of something eternal that God is doing in these last days. I have come to realize that when it comes to the things of God, there’s very little time to be sceptical, critical and choosy. Simply because we have run out of time and we still need to be all that we ought to be in Christ.

God bless you and do let us hear from you soon.               

Remember to Choose to be MIGHTY!!

I CHOOSE TO BE MIGHTY PT 1

# May I Speak To The King

Do you know that you are a king in Christ? If you do not know this yet let me show you that you are.

Genesis 1: 27 & 28 (NIV)

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and         female He created them.”

“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. RULE over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

One of the straightest definitions of the word ‘RULE’ is to govern...and as far as this earth is concerned and our little education that we have, we know that it is kings who govern or rule. And God did not even create us to govern any geographical area; He made us to be kings over all the earth.

And so I call heaven as my witness and the bible as my testimony and I put it to you who do not know this day that YOU ARE A KING IN CHRIST! If you agree and understand say AMEN!

Then, with your permission, I would very much like to speak to the king in you. If you are a king, then let me ask you this;

1. Where is your kingdom?

2. Do you walk, talk, act and live like a king?

3. What do you have to show in your life that fits the portion of kings that you just admitted that you are?

We all know for a fact;

· Kings have kingdoms

· Kings do mighty exploits and achieve great things

· Kings win wars and battles which enable them to expand their territories or kingdoms

Do you have any evidence to back the facts mentioned above? If there is still a king in you...then please read on.

·         When a king sins (2 Samuel 12: 13 – 15) (NIV)

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. ¹⁴But because of doing this, you have made the enemies of the lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”

^{15 “}After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.”

Understand this; David was no ordinary king...he was elected, trained, anointed, loved, blessed and preserved by none other than God Himself. Sounds a lot like the life to which we are called to in Christ doesn’t it? So David’s sin had painful effect on God (read verse 14) which He would not take lightly. It gave God’s enemies the opportunity to speak to God with “utter contempt”. Can you imagine if your son or daughter goes and acts like a fool somewhere and this gives your enemies the chance they’ve been dying to get...after you have spoken so highly about this child...How foolish would you look in front of everybody?

You need to understand right now that as forgiving and loving as God is, there comes a time when your sin just makes Him look like a fool in the eyes of His enemies and no father will allow his son to get away without any consequences. And so David’s sin brought the death of the child from that illicit affair, and no amount of intercessory prayer could turn things around. The child simply had to DIE!

·         Deadly Foxes (Song of Songs 2:15) (NIV)

¹⁵ “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.”

Do you know how many times our sins (little foxes) have ruined our blooming vineyards? The vineyards in this scripture stands for our dreams, plans in Christ, aspirations, projects and literally everything that we put our hearts, minds and hands to. The sin we have such a difficult time getting rid of is what is puling us 2 steps back each time we take 1 step forward. As men, we struggle with so many things which bring down our life’s work for some and for others prevent us from achieving any work at all whether in our ministry, business, job, home or family. And thus we are kings who either do not know we have a kingdom, or just can’t seem to get to that point where we live and thrive in it.

(Am I speaking to the King yet?)

It is one thing for the devil to fight us with God on our side. But when God decides to teach us a lesson by standing aside and allowing us to be sifted like wheat simply because we choose to hold on to petty sinful pleasures which will only keep us from being all that God wants us to be...that’s just plain sad. We can be so much more than sad if we decide to take a stand NOW and make the choice to BE MIGHTY!!     It begins here, right now...with a simple honest prayer. Do it now...please...pray now to your father in heaven.

Let us pray....

Father in heaven, we confess that we are struggling with sin and we lay down all the sin (s) (mention them by name) we struggle with on the altar. We give them up to you. Forgive us, wash us in your blood, and cleanse us and give us the strength to choose you every day of our lives. We renounce these sins and all their implications and consequences. We are sorry that our holding on to them has caused you pain. Forgive us. We promise from this moment, never to permit anything in our lives to bring disgrace to you. Please give us the grace to see this promise through. Thank you for answered prayer. Amen!

Beloved, this bold step will surely yield rewards soon. There is Hope yet for us all for in Christ, we are forgiven.   Read Matthew 26:41.                          

AMEN!!  AMEN!!  AMEN!!!

Coming soon...!!!

Part 2. “...WAKE UP THE MIGHTY MEN...”                                                                                  JOEL3:9        Imagine what it would be like in the spirit and the level of impact we (Christian men) would make if we locked arms in commitment to the Lord Jesus and to each other....like David’s Mighty Men.

Watch out for the next episode as we take a closer look at David’s Mighty Men.                                                        

God looks at you not as you are but as you should be. And in God’s eyes you should be a King on this earth.

God does NOT have the sentence “its too late” in His dictionary because with Him All things are possible.

PRAYER SECRETS PT 2

# THE WILL OF GOD

Prayer Secret #2 is the next step when approaching God with a specific prayer request. This one seems to be so easy to grasp, but many Christians keep violating this basic common sense principle. Prayer Secret #2 is making sure that your prayer request always lines up with the will of God for your life.

I have a pet saying when it comes to this principle. The saying is, “Father always knows best.“ God always knows what is best for you in all situations – you do not! God’s knowledge and wisdom is always perfect – yours is not! God knows what all of your future will hold for you – you do not! Too many Christians are constantly asking God for things that He does not really want them to have.

Here is the main Scripture verse where this basic principle is being clearly stated for all of us:

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, 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 the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14)

Interpretation – God hears your prayer only if the prayer request is in His perfect will for you and your life. If it is not, then the above verse is implying that He will not hear your prayer, and thus will not grant the prayer request.

This is where each Christian has to really get a grip on any specific prayer requests they are presenting to God. If God comes back letting you know that what you are asking for is not in His perfect will for you and your life, then you have to let it go, trust that God knows best and move on.

When you approach God the Father with a specific prayer request – this is very serious business. You are asking God to bring something to you that normally would not be coming your way. You are asking God to supernaturally bring or allow this request to come your way through Him.

So the first thing you have to do before approaching God with your specific prayer request is to make sure that your prayer request is in His perfect will for you and your life. There are several ways you can do this.

1. Analyze Your Prayer Request

Sometimes it is quite obvious that the request is needed and in His perfect will for you and your life. You do not even need to pray about whether or not it is in His will for you and your life. The answer is already obvious and you can go ahead and shoot your prayer through.

A good example would be is that maybe you have just lost your job. You will now have to go to God and ask Him to lead you to the next new job He will want you to have.

 You already know this request is in His will for your life because you now need a new job to survive and put food on the table. This is quite obvious, and you can now go ahead and start pressing in and praying to God that He lead you to the next new job that He will want you to have.

Sometimes the request is not so obvious as to whether or not it is God’s will for you. Maybe you are dating someone and you would really like to marry this person. However, God has not voiced His opinion on the issue yet.

The way to properly handle this is to go to God and ask for His perfect will on the situation – whether or not you should marry this person. If you really love this person and really want to marry them, the best way to word your prayer is to tell God you would really like to marry this person, but only if it be in His perfect will for you to do so.

This way you are on safe ground with God in the way that you have worded the request. You have voiced your opinion on the matter, but you have also let Him know that He knows better than you do as to who you should be marrying in this life, and that you will not marry this person unless it is in His perfect will for you to do so.

2. The Holy Spirit

The other way to approach this is to simply ask the Holy Spirit if you should be approaching God the Father with the prayer request. I believe that the Holy Spirit knows most, if not all of the time, whether or not God will answer your specific prayer request. You can save yourself a lot of travailing and praying by getting the Holy Spirit’s answer before you waste your time and God’s time by praying on a certain issue.

For those of you who have established a good, inside connection with the Holy Spirit, the above is rather easy to do. You simply tap into Him, ask His opinion, and most of the time you will pick it up with an “inner knowing” from Him as to whether or not you should proceed any further in approaching God with the specific prayer request.

For those of you who have not yet established this kind of inner connection with the Holy Spirit, you can still go ahead and ask Him, and He will somehow get through to you as to whether or not you should be praying to God on a particular issue.

Now here are 3 short powerful stories that will really illustrate the importance of making sure that all of your prayer requests always line up with the perfect will of God for your life.

TRUE Stories

1. STORY #1 – About 10 years ago, a friend of mine told me this story and I will never forget it. One of her girlfriends had been dating a man for about two years. Everything was going great. She got to the point that she was now wanting to marry the man. She went before God and started praying, asking God if she should marry him. God came back with a one-line answer and the answer was, “He is sufficient for now.”

This type of an answer obviously was not good enough for her, so she kept pressing God for an answer as to whether or not she should marry this man. God came back with no further answers every time she asked. After about 6 months of continuing to ask God for His opinion on this matter and not getting any additional answers, she decided to make her own decision and marry the man without waiting for God’s confirmation or approval.

Six months into the marriage relationship, this man’s dark side all of a sudden started to emerge. He started to physically abuse her. The beatings got so bad that she had no other alternative but to divorce the man for fear he was going to end up killing her.

I have found from personal experience that whenever God is silent on a specific prayer request, this means to hold your position and do nothing until you receive further word from Him as to whether or not you should move in the direction that you are looking to move into.

Conclusion

1.  As you can see from the above three stories, you can save yourself a lot of blood, sweat and tears when praying to God if you can pick it up ahead of time whether or not your specific prayer requests should be brought before Him for His consideration. This is the beauty of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. One of His jobs is to help us in our prayer life with God the Father.

The Holy Spirit will always know whether or not God will want to answer your specific prayer request. By connecting up with the Holy Spirit on a specific prayer request, you will go a long way in being able to decide when to approach God in prayer and when not to.

For those of you who have not got this far in your own personal relationship with the Holy Spirit in order to be able to pick Him up and read His movements, you can still approach both Him and God the Father before you attempt to pray and just simply ask God if it is His perfect will that a specific prayer request be put before Him.

I have found that God will always come through loud and clear on this issue. Remember, God wants to establish a loving, personal relationship with you – and in this personal relationship will be the benefit of being able to approach Him with your specific prayer requests.

2.  God really wants to show you how to play the prayer game with Him. It is prayer that will pull down major miracles from God. You just have to learn what the ground rules are and how to play the game with Him. The Bible lays down all the ground rules that you will need to know in order to become a very effective and powerful prayer warrior.

For whatever reason, God has this thing set up in that He will not move many of the times on a certain situation unless we first go into serious prayer with Him. The art of prayer is a powerful tool in the hands of a Spirit-filled believer. God can be moved to answer prayer no matter how dire the circumstances. You just need the knowledge on how to properly approach Him in order to get Him to move on certain situations.

I think you will find the remaining prayer secrets very interesting, as they will all give you several different options and strategies in which to approach God with on your specific prayer requests. I believe with knowledge comes power. With knowledge will come the ability to know how to properly play the prayer game with the Lord.

I will leave you with one last thought. One of the benefits of having established a true, personal relationship with God the Father is the ability to be able to approach Him with your specific prayer requests. Think of the consequences and the possibilities of this privilege that we now have with God the Father.

God the Father has the full supernatural power to do or accomplish whatever He should so desire. The Bible says that “With God NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.”

PRAYER SECRETS PT 1

# YOUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

This, in my opinion, is the #1 secret for being able to get more of your personal prayers answered by God the Father. This particular secret is the first step you will need to take before you can expect to have any kind of major success in your prayer life with God the Father.

Here is the Scripture verse that will give us this first major prayer secret:

“IF YOU ABIDE IN ME, AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” (John 15:7)

Look very, very carefully at this verse to see exactly what Jesus is trying to tell you. He is giving you two powerful pieces of revelation in which to grasp if you want to be able to get God the Father to answer more of your specific prayers. Here are the two main pieces of revelation.

1. Establish a Personal Relationship With God

The first part of the first sentence – “If you abide in Me” - is telling you that the very first thing that God is wanting from you in order to be able to properly approach Him for prayer is for you to establish a very strong personal relationship with Him!

Jesus is using the word “abide.” The word abide means to “continue in a state or place, to endure.” What Jesus wants from us is that we be willing to abide in Him, that we be willing to live in Him. Being willing to abide in Jesus means that we have established a very good, intimate, personal relationship with Him.

The #1 reason God created the human race was for intimate fellowship. God has this incredible love for the human race, and He wants more than anything else that we approach Him and enter into this one-on-one, intimate, personal relationship with Him.

If you really stop and think about this, what is one of the greatest joys that a person can have this side of heaven? What is the one thing that most people long for? What is the one thing that will make you cry when you see this portrayed at the movie theaters? It is the longing for a personal, intimate, love relationship with a person of the opposite sex, the longing for a true soul mate. Why? Because that one person, more than any other person, is the one person who can really get to know you. It is the one person who can become your best friend. It is the one person who you can tell anything and everything to.

It is the most unique of all human relationships. Some have found this one true love in this life and others have not.

 Those of you who have found this one true love know exactly what I am talking about. Those of you who have not found this one true love at this time know the longing that you have to find this one special person.

This same longing that we have to meet this one true soul mate is the same longing that God has for all us. Except with God, this longing for us is much more intense. The fact that God would send down His one and only Son to our earth in the flesh to physically die on a cross in order to bring us back to Himself shows us more than anything else how much He really does love all of us.

The best analogy that I can give you on this is the “best friend analogy.” God wants to become your best friend, over your soul mate and over any other best friends you may have in this life. He wants to be #1 in your life and He will not settle for anything less. The Bible says that God the Father is a jealous God, a consuming fire.

Some Christians believe that if they go to church once a week, sing a few songs in church, and pay their tithe, that they are “in relationship” with God. However, God wants more than this. He wants you 7 days of the week, not just one time a week in a church service.

He wants to be able to freely communicate with you 24/7. He wants you to talk with Him just like you would talk to your best friend. He wants dynamic, free flowing conversation with you on anything you want to personally discuss with Him, no matter how small or trivial it may seem to you. And He then wants you to be open to listening to anything that He may have to say to you.

What happens to some Christians is that they have not established this kind of personal relationship with God, and then when a crisis or emergency presents itself, it is already too late to try to get God to answer their prayer.

Notice that Jesus starts the first sentence out with the word “IF.” IF you have established a personal relationship with God, THEN you can approach Him with your prayer requests, and THEN He will answer them.

Too many Christians attempt to use God. The only time they ever approach God is when they need something from Him. God thus has no natural desire to answer any prayer request they may have because they have never established any kind of true, personal relationship with Him.

One of the things I felt like the Holy Spirit has conveyed to me is that if you really want to be able to get God to answer more of your prayers, you have to create a desire in God to want to answer more of your prayers. And the #1 way that you create a desire in God to get Him to want to answer more of your prayer requests is by establishing a good, intimate, personal relationship with Him.

The Parent-Child Analogy

The analogy the Holy Spirit gave me to understand all of this was the “Parent-Child Analogy.” Imagine you are the parent and you have two small children. The one boy really loves you. He has established a true, loving, personal relationship with you. He wants to hang out with you. He comes home from school and tells you everything that happened to him that day. He tells you all the little things that may have gone right or wrong during the day. He values your opinion.

When he gets older and more mature, all of sudden he wants to hear more about you, your life and your problems. He wants to know more about you, your past, why you do what you do and why you think the way that you do. This child is truly abiding in you, truly living in you. You feel like you and him are “one in spirit.” As you grow older, your personal relationship deepens and keeps getting better and better.

Then you have the other child. He could care less about you and your personality. The only time he will ever approach you is when he needs something specific from you. He will even go as far as to act like he cares about you, but once he gets what he wants from you, he is back to ignoring you until the next time he needs something from you. As he grows older, you grow farther and farther apart. When he is finally able to leave home on his own, you never hear from him unless he once again needs something specific from you. He hardly ever calls or comes over

Bottom Line

To summarize the revelation in the above Scripture verse in one bottom line statement:

God is looking to establish a close, intimate, personal relationship with each one of us. This is done in two ways:

1. By establishing a direct, free-flowing and spontaneous best friend relationship with God where you commune and talk with Him on a regular and frequent basis in the exact same way you would with a best friend.  

2. And by seeking after the knowledge of God – trying to get to know all you can about Him by studying and meditating on what is written in the Holy Bible.

I guarantee you that if you are willing to enter into both of these realms with the Lord, your life will never be the same again. This close, intimate, personal relationship that you can enter into with the Lord will be the door opener that will change the course of your entire life forever. The journey is there for all who are willing to step into it!

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