The Obstacles

Abraham faced a monumental obstacle to his faith, the gift of an heir, from a barren wife. God gave him a math lesson, before He provided a miracle.

Believing prayer becomes answered prayer by adding God into The Equation. God’s Presence is always greater than the sum of the parts.

When Abraham added up the obstacles, he was intimidated and did what he could do to solve the problem. The world is still living with his man made solution. When Abraham prayed, he learned what God can do to overcome intimidating obstacles. He turns intimidation into inspiration.

NOTE TO SELF: When the crises of life pile up obstacles to your faith, real and imagined, pray and you will begin to see God's hands at work. When life doesn't add up, don't forget to do the math. Add God into the equation. He is more than equal to the task.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Love

Celebrate February as a month of "First Love Awakening."

NOTE TO SELF: Remember your salvation was purchased on a cross, not in a manger. Jesus commanded you to celebrate His death, burial & resurrection, not His birth.

"Do this in remembrance of me."
Jesus

Pray for God's Spirit to renew in you what God knows you need most, a first love relationship with Jesus. Daily pray, "Thank you Jesus for dying for me on the cross, for filling me with your Spirit and for interceding for me at the right hand of the Father."

The Intiator

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.’ Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me…”
Genesis 15:1-2

The initiation of prayer is the greatest misconception about prayer. As the highest form of communication, prayer is initiated by God, not by man. Prayer is not just a good idea. It is God's idea. When the idea of prayer comes to your mind, it is evidence that you are on God's mind.

When the proverbial light bulb goes off in your brain, it is a call to pray.

When you pray, your are responding to the call of God. He turned on the light in your mind, because He was weary of watching you sit in the dark.

When you pray, you are not giving God information. He already knows what is on your mind. He wants you to place what is on your mind into His hands. When you draw near to God in prayer, you will discover He has been calling to you much longer than you have been listening to Him.

This passage reveals God as The Initiator. He came to Abram in a vision to calm his anxious thoughts. Abram had been worrying about the promise of God. Obsessed with the promise, Abram had missed The Presence.

God had promised to make a great nation through Abram, but without an heir to succeed him, there wasn’t much power in the promise. Abram began to do the math in his head. No matter how he figured it, the numbers just didn’t add up. One is still the loneliest number when God is left out of the equation.

The Patriarch would not be the last man to confuse God’s delay with God’s denial. Faith’s greatest battleground is the waiting room. Fear arises in the strongest of hearts when the delivery of a promise of God is delayed.

Fear screams for you to take matters into your own hands, and to fight for the survival of a promise of God. All the screaming and scheming in the world will not breathe life into a promise. Only God can do that. Man-made creations postpone the promise of God. They are like counterfeit currency of the real thing. They lead to spiritual bankruptcy, and have long-lasting consequences.

In Luke 24, The Risen Christ interrupted a conversation between two disciples. They were totally overwhelmed by the events surrounding the crucifixion. Jesus took the initiative to engage them in conversation. These discouraged disciples even resented it when He did. They had not been praying to God, after the crisis. They had been talking to one another about the crisis. The more they talked about it the greater their crisis became. Jesus stepped in to heal their hearts with His Presence. He made sense out of it once they placed it in His hands. He still does.

“While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them…And He said to them, ‘What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?’ “
Luke 24:17

God promised Abram that He would be a shield to him, and that his reward would be great. Rather than stand confidently behind the shield of faith in God, Abram began to race ahead of God. As his mind raced to figure out how God was going to fulfill the promise, God stepped in to turn Abram’s eyes of faith back to Him.

NOTE TO SELF: Stop trying to help God out of a jam. Every time you try to help God out, you place more faith in yourself than you do in God. Prayer gives the Holy Spirit the elbowroom He needs to prepare you to receive the promise of God. Stop rushing the process. Embrace it.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Resistance

Paul chose not to cultivate a spirit of resentment. He was intimately familiar with the pain of friendly fire. There were people posing as his friends and preachers of the Gospel who wished him ill.

"Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife...out of selfish ambition rather from pure motives..."
Philippians 1:15-17a

Some of Paul's rivals took special pleasure in adding more weight to his chains. He exposed their motives as, "...thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment." (Philippians 1:17b). Paul's heart was not running wild with prison paranoia. The manure spread upon his reputation by his peers was real.

Paul resisted using it as fertilizer on a spirit of resentment in his life. He chose to inspect, rather than resent the fruit of these disgraceful preachers. He waited on God to reveal the genuine from the artificial. In time these posers were discovered to be fruit flies posing as fruit bearers.
Today, men name their sons after Paul, and they swat at fruit flies.

NOTE TO SELF: Where ever there is light, there will be bugs. Preach the light of The Gospel. There will be flies. Bear fruit anyway.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Power

"And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, 'Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.' So He went in to stay with them."
Luke 24: 29

The Risen Christ approached two downhearted and discouraged disciples, as the sun set on the first evening of Resurrection Day. They had heard the reports that Jesus had risen from the grave, but they had not seen Him.

At the end of their rope, and drained of hope, the disciples left the city and headed for home, to pick up the pieces of their lives.

"It is amazing what God can do with a broken heart, if you give Him all the pieces." Samuel Chadwick

While they were walking and talking, Jesus approached and interrupted their conversation. For seven miles He shed the light of the Scriptures into the darkness of their lives. The result? He ignited a fire in their hearts with the Word of God, and with the offer of His companionship.

At the end of the day, with burning hearts they yearned for more of His Presence. They urged Him, "Stay with us." Jesus honored their desire to spend more time with Him. He always does.

Recently an election was held in our nation. Millions of people prayed for God to hear their cries and to give them their hearts' desire.

Some rejoiced at the outcome of the election, while others wept at the result. Those who rejoiced were quick to acknowledge the answer to their prayers. Many gave God the glory. Others rushed in to claim credit for it.

Time will tell if praying power results in staying power. Falling in love with answered prayer, and taking credit for it is a short cut to a dead end street, not the next Great Awakening.

Pastor Jonathan Edwards is recognized as one of the key leaders of the First Great Awakening in America. His prophetic words still provide insight to the gift of answered prayer.

"The business of prayer is not to direct God, who is infinitely wise and needs not any of our direction, who knows what is best for us ten thousand times better that we, and knows what time and what way are best. It is fit that he should answer prayer, and as an infinitely wise God in the exercise of his own wisdom, and not ours. God will deal as a father with us, in answering our requests."
Jonathan Edwards
(Sermon Title: "A Prayer Hearing God"
Text: "O thou that hearest prayer." Psalms 65:2
Date: January, 1735-6 (and 1752). Preached on a fast appointed on the account of an epidemic east of Boston.)

NOTE TO SELF: When it comes to answered prayer, don't settle for anything less than Jesus. He responds to the cry of your yearning and burning heart. His Spirit fuels the fire of your heart, and guides your life from the light of God's word.

Praying power is sustained by His staying power. He longs to spend time with you, more than you desire to spend time with Him. You don't need more of Him. He needs more of you. Feel the burn! Settle for nothing less.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Leaders

Apparently, some things never change. The following words are a blast from the past, but they are as accurate and as profound as they were when they were spoken or written by this great man of God of a precious generation.

“National leaders, particularly in these critical days, need to be upheld by our prayers."
Dr. Herbert Lockyer, 1886-1984

NOTE TO SELF: Pray for your local and national leaders during these critical days. Critical days bring out the critics. Don't be one of them. Before you say it, pray it.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Childlike

Jesus placed a high priority on a childlike faith as the standard for becoming a citizen in the Kingdom. Are you childish or childlike?

Childish people tend to panic when their expectations are not met. It is not that far a trip from the child throwing a tantrum in the aisle of the grocery store to the childish adult rioting in the streets. The only difference is in their age, but they share the spirit of rebellion.

Prayer is not only the breath of life for every believer, it is the climate in which God works in this world through His church. His prayerless children often become breathless with panic. Don't be one of them.

NOTE TO SELF: If you become breathless with prayer, you will never lose your child-like wonder over the grace of God, in the face of adversity. Remember you have an adversary, and an Advocate. Run from the former and race to the latter.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Miracles

The recent election has introduced the use of the word miracle into the current political narrative. The media is not embracing it as a miracle of God. Neither are some evangelicals.

Those who lack sound judgment breathe their own ether. Drunk with the toxic cocktail of their personal desires and perceived destiny, they perfect the dubious art of giving God the glory, while taking credit for what He alone can do.

NOTE TO SELF: Don't rush in to take credit for answered prayer. Break this down.
Q: You prayed and God answered. Who did the heavy lifting?
A: God.

Never forget you are a joint heir of the promises of God, but you are not an equal partner in what He does. Show some humility.

Racing right past God to put your name on a movement of God devalues His movement until it becomes a man-made monument.

Praising God sustains a movement of God. Taking credit for it invites God to take His hand off of it. This only happens…every time.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Neighbor

"The righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray."
Proverbs 12:26

The word for neighbor literally means "near one." The most authentic ministry begins in the lives of those closest to you. The old hymn says it all, "Let Others See Jesus in You."

NOTE TO SELF: Your children and your next door neighbors are seldom inspired to follow you closer to Jesus when you expend all your Christianity at the Church house, but then come home and live like hell in your house.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Nation

Congratulations to PE Donald Trump, and those who voted for him. Christians hold dual citizenship, and millions exercised both in this election, by praying towards Heaven and voting on earth. If you believe God answered your prayers, keep praying. The spiritual battle continues.

NOTE TO SELF: Looking for a spiritual transformation for your nation, while relying on a political solution, generates false hope. God is the stronghold of this nation, not the GOP. Trust in G-O-D, not the G-O-P.

The hope of this nation is not found in the White House. God's voice must be heard in the Church House, and His Son, Jesus Christ must be welcomed home to your house.

Pray to The Father in the name of Jesus, to release His Spirit to usher in the next Great Awakening. Make America Pray Again. It begins with you.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!