SMS Magazine-Winter 2023, Prayer Lessons

GOD

Glory to God in the highest, in the name of our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Sundie Morning Sistas Magazine

Prayer Lessons

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he practice and privilege of praying to our Heavenly Father encompasses all that we are. He has given us prayer as a way of deepening our relationship with Him. It’s amazing to realize that in doing so, He’s given us direct access to come into His presence. We should be extremely thankful for this extraordinary gift every moment of our lives. So often we make prayer about the external, about all the worries of relationships, finances, and other outside matters, but prayer is truly about the interior life of those who love God. It’s about the desire to love Him as Jesus Christ commands in Mark 12:30, which is to love our Heavenly Father with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. Prayer is so much more than asking for God’s provisions, but sometimes we allow this to be our central focus when we come before Him. We forget that He’s already promised to take care of us, and as Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:8, He knows what we need before we even ask. We become accustomed to only praying one way, and some of us have adopted begging our Heavenly Father for blessings, thinking that this moves Him to grace. He tells us in 2Corinthians 12:9 that His grace is sufficient for us because His strength works best in weakness. His grace is His unmerited favor toward His people, and He makes it clear that we don’t have to beg for it. What we DO have to do is learn to go deeper in prayer through gratitude, faith, and humility.

This issue of the Sundie Morning Sistas Magazine is entitled, “Prayer Lessons”. We pray the teachings will increase your knowledge regarding the right attitude of prayer and help you build intimacy in your relationship with Heavenly Father through prayer. “Prayer Lessons” reminds us that we must become little children as we boldly approach God’s throne of grace. We must be humbled by His omnipotence, realizing that He is our Abba Father, and He delights in blessing us.

There isn’t anything our God cannot do, there’s no problem He cannot solve, and all power is in His hands. He’s a generous God, and He wants us to know this. In Philippians 4:19, God promises to supply our every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. This issue reminds you of God’s promise, and that having faith in His provision adds such peace and thankfulness to our prayer lives. We hope “Prayer Lessons” will inspire you to joy and intimacy in your prayer time with the Lord. We believe it will make this essential Christian practice and privilege the most genuine and meaningful one of your life.

Lovingly In Christ,

President and Founder, SMS

PS: Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37(NKJV)

t should never escape the minds and hearts of any believer that prayer to God is meant to be an expression of our total lives in Christ. When we become born-again through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our spiritual journey in him begins. 2Corinthians 5:17(NLT) tells us, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” With this new life, we are told to read and study God’s Word often and to pray as much as our schedules will allow. The reality is that these things do not come as naturally to us as we think. One indication of this is in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6. Jesus Christ had to teach the disciples how to pray effectively, and many of us could use a refresher course as well. We may know how to ask God for what we need, but our prayers to Him should be about so much more.

Know Who You’re Praying to

In Matthew 6:9, Jesus Christ taught us that the very first thing we do when going before God in prayer is communicate our understanding of who God is. In the template that he taught the disciples, prayer begins with “Our Father, whose throne is in heaven, HOLY is Your name!” God is holy! His very name is holy, and there isn’t another attribute in the span of humanity that compares to His supreme holiness. There’s none like Him.

In terms of our limited understanding of God’s fullness, we must know that He’s righteous beyond righteousness, just beyond justice, true beyond truth, powerful beyond power, strong beyond strength, intelligent beyond intelligence, loving beyond love, gracious beyond grace, and merciful beyond mercy. His goodness is so bountiful that it exceeds definition. The depth of His unmatched generosity is inexhaustible. When we come to Him in prayer, our Lord and Master, His beloved Son, has informed us that we must have a heart that at the very least acknowledges the holiness of our Awesome God.

Prayer Is About God’s Will, Not Ours

In his template for a meaningful and appropriate mind -and-heart-set for prayer, Jesus Christ taught the disciples in Matthew 6:10(NLT) to also pray, “May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Our Lord and Master has informed us of God’s priorities and plan for the earth. Our privilege and responsibility is to pray that earth becomes an extension of His Kingdom, and that HIS WILL is done on earth as it is in heaven. Many of us kinda’ breeze right by this one, but it is uber important we hit the pause button and visit a while. So often, we go to God expecting Him to follow through on our agendas, but that’s not how it works. We are here on this earth to carry forth God’s agenda. He’s given us faith and equipped us spiritually to bring into manifestation the things that He has already willed. We keep thinking that we set the wheels in motion, that our wants and needs dictate His moves. Not so. Acts 17:28 tells us it’s in God that we live, move, and have our being. We move according to the plan He put in place before the foundation of the world.

Pray with Purpose

Whether it’s spiritual growth in Christ, better health and finances, marital restoration, or finally meeting the person that is destined to walk with us through life, we all have a desire that is on our hearts. These desires have been the subject of our prayers for quite some time, and we believe they are important to our overall happiness and well-being. The reality that we’ve all probably experienced for ourselves is that some blessings take longer to manifest. This is just the truth, and for many of us it is a bitter pill. But rather than leaning toward the negative, we must flip this to the positive. God is faithful to His promises, and some of those promises have conditions that we must meet. Understanding this truth is very pivotal, because, whether we want to admit it or not, our commitment and willingness to meet the condition is most important to God. We should be praying to meet His conditions for the blessings we seek and praying for this more fervently and enthusiastically than we pray for the desire of our hearts. This is praying with purpose.

Prayer is not as much about God checking in with us as it is about us checking in with God. Jesus already assured us in Matthew 6:8 that God knows what we need before we even ask Him. As we grow into spiritual maturity, our focus shouldn’t be so much on God taking care of a need, because He’s already promised to do this. Our focus should be the intimacy of the dialogue we have with Him. Heavenly Father speaks to our minds through our spirits, and there should be an intent on our parts to listen for His directives, because this is what helps us to pray and walk in purpose. Often, we think we’re praying when we’ve actually disconnected from hearing God because our intention to do His Will isn’t where it needs to be. We’re not as determined as we should be to leave our time with God in prayer knowing more about what He requires from us than when we fell on our knees to begin with. We have to change this. James 4:8(NLT) tells us, “Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.” When we listen for the voice of God, in all likelihood, we will not get a burning bush or an angel giving us His messages. God wants intimacy with us. He will impress His desires upon our hearts through our spirits if we pray with the purpose of hearing His Will and heeding it. Prayer should be as easy and natural to us as the air we breathe, but it takes commitment on our parts to get to this place. It is not difficult; it merely takes the persistence and discipline of continual practice. We should desire our whole lives to be one singular unit of prayer, praise, and worship, and we will find that this desire to be a living and holy sacrifice before God will usher us into His presence in a glorious way.

THE CHRIST-LIKE PERSONALITY OF PRAYER

Romans 12:2(NLT)

ersonality plays a very important role in our approach to life, and most importantly, it is very important to our approach towards prayer. Personality is defined as a set of behaviors, emotional patterns, and characteristics that are formed from both biological and environmental factors. These are relatively distinct to each of us, and some believe our personalities are the drivers behind how we think, behave, and feel. Although we’d be hard pressed to find the same definition of personality from anyone, it is very safe to say that personality is the way we define ourselves. It’s what makes us all unique, and as we grow in selfawareness about what makes us unique, we gain an understanding that could open many doors in life.

In our modern world, many in society believe that success, leadership, popularity, and wealth are the way to go, and we think that all these are based on personality types. These are the go-getters in life, and many of us are brought up to believe that we

must transform ourselves into a version of them in order to achieve success. We adapt. We change an aspect of our personality to accomplish what we desire out of life. In terms of our relationship with God and our eternal existence, it is extremely important that we do the same thing in our spiritual lives. God instructs us in Romans 12:2(NLT), “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” This verse confirms that our old way of thinking is incorrect. It confirms that what we think is unique and what the world thinks is unique is completely different from what God says is unique. It is evident in the Word of God that people are programmed to the behaviors and customs of this world, and some of this must be confronted, released, and replaced with the wisdom and knowledge of God’s Word. We have grossly underestimated the degree to which the world’s patterns and customs have infiltrated our hearts and minds. World-

ly programming keeps us from having faith in God, because in many instances, we will believe what the boss, banker, and bureaus tell us more than we believe what God says in His Word. We must get this turned around.

A wonderful change occurs in our lives when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts and begin to live for and live in him. By confessing him as the Lord of our lives and believing that God raised him from the dead, we are saved! Our human spirit is recreated, we become alive to God, and receive His gift of Holy Spirit. This, my friends, is what makes us unique. We are new creations in Christ! We have received God’s holiness through Christ, and we will never be the same again.

“Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”

So, our human spirit is forever changed, but our minds and hearts are not. Knowing this gives more depth to God’s instruction in Romans 12:2. God gives us the distinct privilege and responsibility to change our minds and hearts so that we partner with the Holy Spirit as he works within us.

2Corinthians 5:17(ESV) tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This is referring to our new spiritual reality in Christ. Never in all of time has there been any creatures like us, God’s children. Through Jesus Christ, He’s given us the gift of eternal life. He wants us to live an eternity with Him, and He also wants us to be the brothers and sisters of Christ that He created us to be.

God didn’t create us to be robots. We’re His kids, and because we are His kids, holiness is our defining characteristic. Holiness is a quality like no other, and it contains the attributes and fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23, 25(NLT) tells us, “22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.” This new life we have is a life in the Spirit, whereby we consistently produce his fruit through our everyday actions. God doesn’t force us to do this. It’s a choice. It’s an act of our free-will to align our behaviors, attitudes, and actions to be aligned with God’s Holy Spirit.

We must come to God’s throne with a recognition and gratitude for His transformational power in our lives. When we surrender to Him and remain committed to walk by His Spirit, He changes us through His love. The knowledge of this should change how we pray, and it should fuel our expectations with faith.

When the other characteristics of our personality go against the grain of God’s love, we can and should change them so that we mirror Christ in all that we do. The motivation, willingness, and commitment to represent Christ and to humble ourselves before him is proof that we have the Christ-like personality of prayer that

God requires. Making the changes that align our personality with the unique spiritual personality of Christ will open doors in life. It opens doors to answered prayers, because we are allowing the Lordship of Christ to have dominion over our lives. Although we still have a long way to go, Christ is perfecting us daily, and we must be committed to partner with him through prayer and through the humility required to lay down our wills for the Will of God.

Reverence God

Effective communication is so revered in our society that it is widely considered to be an art form. It’s a skill that is coveted by most because there can be no doubt that it opens doors of opportunities. It allows us to exceed our expectations. Job interviews are mastered, relationships are successful, and advancement is propelled exponentially by effective communication, so it behooves us all to do our best to communicate well. We may not reach the level of comfortably speaking publicly before hundreds of people, but we should at least endeavor to express ourselves in a manner where our best intentions for ourselves and others are clearly understood.

Most of us, especially in the professional world, hold to society’s benchmarks regarding effective communication. If we desire any level of success in life for ourselves, we do our best to meet societal standards for effectively communicating. For instance, we don’t walk into interviews refusing to answer questions. We do our best to answer them in a way that proves our ability to handle the job. Many single people are seeking to partner with a compatible and Godloving partner, but they wouldn’t entertain a second date if the person had absolutely nothing meaningful to say on the first one. We seldom think about it, but the expectations surrounding effective communication are deeply woven in our psyche. Therefore, it should come to no surprise that we need to learn to effectively communicate with God.

God Is Holy

Our Heavenly Father is holy, holy, holy. There is none like Him, and no one will ever compare. He is everything, the Most High, the Almighty God, yet many of us never consider that our communication to and with Him is the most important of all. When it comes to the interviewer, the potential partner, and those we love most, we endeavor to present our best. It goes without saying that we should never attempt to present God with anything less.

Hebrews 12:28-29(NLT) tells us, “28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.” God is magnificent beyond magnificence, and His Word is wonderful. It behooves us to focus all our attention on Him as we prepare ourselves for prayer and fellowship. Hebrews 12:28-29 makes it clear that we can’t play at worshiping and pleasing God any more than we can play at the reverence He requires for prayer. Our whole hearts must be in it. They must be focused totally on God as we have awe for His deity and sovereignty.

Our Godly awe is a real, loving, admiration and devotion for God through the person of Jesus Christ, and it transforms us. It should transform our prayer lives as well. Reverence for God changes the way we think and act. Hebrews 12:29 tells us He is a devouring—consuming fire, and this is an aspect of God’s nature that should stop us in our tracks. His heart burns for us and His love for us is unquenchable; it’s unconditional and unlimited. Some of us have put on such a pretense in our relationship with God, that we can no longer tell if we’re actually sincere when we approach Him. Our minds are all over the place when it’s time to pray, and we’re challenged when it comes to giving Him the reverence He deserves. Praying to encounter His awesome and amazing presence in truth should be first on our prayer requests.

Prayer is for those who long to connect with God, and He meets us in this place of longing, but make no mistake, God requires that we know who He is. Exodus 3:14 (ESV), tells us, “God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” Jesus Christ tells us in John 4:24(ESV) that, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 3:16 tells us that He loved the world so much that He gave His one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and whoever believes on Christ will not perish but will have the gift of eternal life.

1John 4:16(ESV) says, “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” We can clearly see from His Word that God is too wondrous, too overwhelmingly good, powerful, intelligent, and loving to fit inside our little boxes. He tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9(ESV), “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We cannot fathom the totality of all that God is, but we can and must reverence Him with all that we are, and this is the way we must approach Him in our prayer lives.

Transformed by His love

God will accept us as we are. Jesus Christ invites us in Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT), “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." Most of us are in rough shape when we come to the Father’s throne of grace, but we will not leave His throne in the same shape we were in before we came.

Effective prayer brings us in the presence of God, and His love will transform us. If we have the heart of earnestness that honors Him, our Christ-like personality will increase and so will our reverence and awe of Him. It’s not about being perfect, none of us are, but we must remember that God’s goal is that we grow in Christ increasingly, and we are being perfected in Christ every day. This is the reality of our spiritual identity, and when we come before God, He wants us to know who He is and who we are through Him.

Prayer is given to us by our Heavenly Father to effectively communicate in support of our relationship with Him. Prayer’s effectiveness isn’t based on the clothes we wear or the perfection of our words. It’s based on the heart we have for God, our faith in Him, and the reverence we demonstrate as we come into His presence. We can’t think that prayer is just a way to receive the things we want. God wants relationship with us, and relationship is a two-way street. We must make it our business to understand our awesome and amazing God through His Word, and we must thank Him for this most sacred and holy communication. He has clothed us in Christ with all we need to reverence Him with a continual mood of prayer, and this is a garment we should never take off.

GOD IS WILLING AND ABLE TO BLESS US

here is no doubt that prayer connects us to our all-powerful, allknowing, Almighty God. No matter our sins and past mistakes, and regardless of our conditions, if we place our trust in Him, God is willing to help us through whatever we face in life. No matter how challenging our problems and obstacles are, He alone is able to solve them. He is willing to deliver us to such a degree that we are spiritually stronger, our faith is greater, and our relationship with Him is more intimate than we ever thought it could be. He wants an intimate relationship with every individual, and He wants us to know that He’s always there for us. The problem is that many of us have a difficult time believing this; therefore, we are

not meeting God’s requirement of faith.

Hebrews 11:6(NLT) tells us, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” To please our Heavenly Father, we must have faith in Him, and we must remember all that He has done for us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Having faith in God means believing that He wants the best for us, and that He’s always willing and able to help us live abundantly through Jesus Christ. Having this attitude of faith regarding the provisions and blessings of God pleases Him, and without this attitude, we cannot please Him. Without this faith in Him, we are telling God that we do not believe in who He is, and this is an offense to His throne.

Our Heavenly Father wants us to know that He is a God of love, but He doesn’t punish us for not knowing this. He tells us in Philippians 4:6 (NLT), “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Prayer helps us to grow in Christ. It facilitates our Christ-like personality, and it is the gift that God has given us to know Him better. We should never let anything keep us from praying, but the reality is that many people do.

These are very difficult times we’re living in, and many people are feeling lost. They want to go to God but feel they don’t know how to pray, and they are uncertain about talking to Him. They think He isn’t listening or that He will not respond. This is never the case, but many are intimidated by the practice of prayer, and their insecurity about it hinders their faith. Our Heavenly Father doesn’t want this to happen. For individuals that are just starting to know God through the Lord Jesus Christ, God wants them to know that He is incredibly patient, kind, and loving.

No one can be in a relationship if there isn’t another individual on which to target and lavish their love. We hear it all the time, but it is very true; a relationship is a two-way street. It’s a cycle of giving and receiving all that we have to give. We must remind ourselves of these simple truths as we approach God. We are the targets of God’s affection. He created us for relationship, and He desires to

have a relationship with every individual. He knows everything there is to know about us, and He wants us to know about Him as well.

God is holy, and there is no one that compares to His power, love, wisdom, and grace. He has given us prayer to build our relationship with Him. Ephesians 2:10(NLT) tells us, “For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Our Father acknowledges us as His finest work. He has shown His great love by giving us life and the sacrifice of Christ. So, it is only fitting that we acknowledge God for who He is and do so with the greatest reverence of which we’re capable, because this is what He deserves. Even though we may not know much about God or His Word, we must come to Him with a humble heart that recognizes His holiness and power, and we must be open and honest with Him. Again, God knows everything there is to know about us. He knows our greatest strengths and our greatest weaknesses. He is aware of all our sin, yet, He is willing to bless us. Jesus Christ taught us in Matthew 6:8(NLT), “for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” God is not surprised by our dilemmas, and He knew the solutions to them long before they occurred. We must seek Him with all that we are, because this is what He tells us to do.

The earnest reverence of God, being humble, honest, and open; and ending our prayers in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, these will produce an environment of prayer for those new to the faith, and for those of us that have been on this Christian journey a while. As we grow in faith and spiritual maturity, the intimacy we share with Heavenly Father should deepen and so should our prayer lives.

YOUR BODY IS GOD’S TEMPLE

od tells us through the Apostle Paul in 1Timothy 6:12(NLT), “Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.” This is powerful encouragement and instruction. To fight is to contend. It’s to assert effort and energy to overcome. The image of contending is a very good one to describe the battlefield of faith, because during our sojourn on earth, the good fight of faith takes place in our own minds.

One of the most profound pieces of knowledge that God gives us about faith can be found in Romans 10:17(NKJV). It tells us, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Another profound piece of knowledge is God’s definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1(NKJV). This verse states, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” God tells us that faith is a spiritual substance, and this means that faith has matter. It has a tangible presence, and Romans 10:17 states that faith comes wherever the truth is heard and believed. As believers, we should pray that we are doing all that God requires to make sure that

faith comes. We should also remain committed to the mental fight necessary to make sure that faith is too comfortable to ever leave.

In the natural sense, Olympians train to win, and soldiers train to fight. As brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, we must train and learn to fight as well. 1Timothy 4:7 tells us, “Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly.” This is accomplished through our prayers in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. As we mature and grow in Christ, God expects that our prayer lives will become more disciplined and intimate.

He expects that the communication between Him and us will become sharpened as we learn to hear His voice more clearly. We can grow in Christ to such a degree that we are engrossed in dialogue with our Heavenly Father. We speak, He listens. He speaks, we listen. It is extraordinary to be friends with the Father in this way, and effective prayer is extremely helpful to get to this level of intimacy with Him.

Relationship is very important to God, and it is sums up the reason for our existence. Life is given by God to live in relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our trust in Him is the bases on which our relationship is maintained. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we cannot please Him without faith, that we must believe that He exists and that He is a Rewarder to those who love and diligently seek Him. We must wholeheartedly have faith that He loved us so much that He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sins, and He raised His Son from the dead.

Believing in God’s truth, power, and love is accomplished with our hearts and minds, and again, the mind is the battlefield of faith. We are bombarded with distractions and information, and many of us allow these things to take up too much space in our minds. God has given us free-will choice. We choose what we will allow in, and God warns us to be exceedingly careful about this. The body is a vessel that houses our human spirit and soul, but the body itself has no means to believe or think without the facility of the human mind and will. The mind and will are a part of your spirit being, and without them, the brain and heart are just organs. So, we can see why God commands us in Ephesians 4:23(ESV) to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds”, which means to change the way we think so that our thoughts are aligned with the mind of Christ. This is extremely important to building faith.

The intimacy of prayer

Sometimes, we forget that God has given us prayer as an intimate way of communicating with Him. In Philippians 4:6(NLT), He instructs us, “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, made this level of intimate prayer available through the New Covenant we now have with God. The Old Covenant was the Mosaic law. It was the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Exodus 34:29-32(NLT) says, “29 When Moses came down Mount Sinai carrying

the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn’t aware that his face had become radiant because he had spoken to the LORD. 30 So when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses’ face, they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called out to them and asked Aaron and all the leaders of the community to come over, and he talked with them. 32 Then all the people of Israel approached him, and Moses gave them all the instructions the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.”(*see note) God’s law is perfect, and He gave it to His people living during Old Testament times to instruct them and us about His righteousness, but the law’s purpose was not to save them. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was only available after his sacrifice and resurrection.

Romans 8:3(NLT) tells us, “The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.” Through our precious Lord and Savior, God took care of the sin issue forever. He sent Jesus Christ to the earth on a mission, and he completed it perfectly, without flaw. Because of this, we can have the relationship—the friendship and fellowship that our Heavenly Father always wanted. Ephesians 2:19 declares that we are no longer strangers and foreigners to God. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, we are citizens of God’s Kingdom and God’s holy people. We are members of God’s family and share an inheritance with His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:20-21(NLT) states, “20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.” Because of our union with Christ, God lives in us through His precious Holy Spirit. This is the closeness and intimacy He desires. He is never far from us, but so close that our prayers are heard before our mouths utter them. He tells us in 1Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing. This gives us confidence that He wants to hear our prayers, and He’s willing and able to bless us as we continue to draw close to God in prayer with gratitude and faith. (Next Session on page 24)

*Exodus 34:29-32 is referencing the second set of tablets on which God wrote the Ten Commandments. After receiving the first set from God and coming off the mountain to witness the sin of the Israelites, Moses destroyed the first set.

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Thank you for helping us strive for excellence for the Kingdom of God.

By Kim Times

hen couples who are dating begin to examine their relationships more closely, especially after they’ve been dating a while, sometimes one person has a different realization than the other. This is the partner in the relationship who recognizes that while there are many things they admire about the other person; they can no longer see a future with them. It’s at this juncture that they might think it’s better to breakup. So, this person takes the steps to get

it over and done with. The intention to abruptly end things may be a good one. The partner initiating the breakup doesn’t want to continue wasting each other’s time and resources and doesn’t want to deepen an emotional attachment that will only hurt more if things continue. However well-intentioned, the sting of an abrupt breakup can be devastating. There’s no question that in situations like these, one person is likely to be much more hurt than the other.

Life has a way of throwing curve balls at us when we least expect it. A woman who’s on the receiving end of a breakup like this might begin to internalize the hurt. She may become a wounded woman that is fearful of loving again, and this, more than anything else, is what we want to avoid. 1John 4:18(NLT) tells us, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” Many people think of fear only in the context of a response to eminent danger. In terms of our innate reactions of preserving our safety, fear can be viewed as an appropriate response mechanism, but this isn’t the fear that 1John 4:18 is pointing to. This verse is teaching us about the kind of fear that is the exact opposite of faith. Fear in the spiritual sense is rooted in the practice of doubting God’s Word, power, promises, and love. It is impossible to heal when you’re bitter or cynical about how you’ve been treated or rejected. Like me, I’m sure you’ve seen women that have become angry and want revenge. Anger, bitterness, vengeance, jealousy, slander and spitefulness are all responses of fear; the kind of fear that makes us choose to see our pain as being bigger than our all-powerful God. It gums up the flow of our blessings and will lead us in the opposite direction of God’s love. There’s no one or nothing in the entire universe that compares to our Heavenly Father. 3John 1:11(ESV) tells us, “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”

Fear does not come from God, and it is not a response of God’s love. It will not elevate and cannot help us to move to a higher place, in fact, just the opposite is true. Negative conversations, words, attitudes and behaviors pull us down to a level that is beneath our privilege, and this will only hurt us even more. It’s not what our Heavenly Father wants. He always wants us to go higher in every positive aspect of life, and He is willing and able to help us.

1John 4:8(NLT) teaches us, “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Love is not only who God is, love is what He does. He is our Creator, and through Him and the example of Jesus Christ, we learn to love in

the way that our Lord and Savior does. A person will never, ever be at a disadvantage from demonstrating God’s love. When we’ve been rejected by someone that we thought was going to reciprocate our love and support, we must turn to God’s love, not to satan’s hate and darkness. We must love God and love ourselves enough to trust that God will never leave or forsake us. Deuteronomy 7:9 (NLT) declares, “Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.”

Our wounds do not define us, and we should not behave as though they do. We should never let the voice of a man’s rejection be the loudest in our lives. No one can take away the wonderful blessings that God has clothed us with through Jesus Christ. He’s given us power through His Holy Spirit, and he is our Teacher, Friend, Comforter, and Guide. We must lean on the Spirit’s strength because he is sure to give it, and we should also expect God’s healing comfort to blanket our hearts. It’s true that men will sometimes break a woman’s heart, and a woman will sometimes break a man’s heart, but we can’t sit in that month after month. We are empowered by God to overcome any adversity. We can shake it off, and keep our eyes looking up for what Heavenly Father has in store for us.

Love is a commitment, and when we get knocked down, we must be committed to hold tightly to God’s love. We must also see the person’s rejection of us as a call-to-action to rise up to a greater level of God’s love. The Lord Jesus Christ is perfecting you, polishing you like gold for God’s divine purpose. Why be angry, dejected, and sad because someone didn’t have an awareness of your destiny? This person isn’t for you. Bless them in the name of Jesus Christ, wipe the dust off your shoulders, and let them be on their way. Don’t be the woman with the wounded heart. Be the woman that is healed and better than ever! Trust God for treasures with your name on them, and pray that in this season, He teaches you to love through His strength and wisdom so that you are prepared for the blessing that is sure to come.

t was God's plan all along to save us through the Lord Jesus Christ. His redemption plan was to redeem and restore us to the place of holiness that Adam once knew in the Garden of Eden. It was to give us access to His matchless and powerful Kingdom, and to accomplish this and more through the sacrifice and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Our blessed Redeemer made it possible for us to receive the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and now we can live through his power!

SCRIPTURES:

1John 4:13(NLT): And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.

The Holy Spirit is not an ‘it’ or an abstract essence. The Holy Spirit is more of a person than we could ever hope to be, and he lives inside every born-again believer. We desperately need his strength and power, and we can lean on him through our faith, because He cannot fail.

John 16:13-14(NLT): 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.

The Holy Spirit is our best friend. He’s our Teacher, Leader, Guide, Helper, and Comforter. He delights in helping us, and because of him, we can live a successful Christian life.

Ephesians 4:30(NLT): And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.”

God has identified us as His own by giving us His precious Holy Spirit. This means we should be committed to live according to the example of Christ. We grieve the Holy Spirit when our thoughts and behaviors go against the grain of God’s love. He doesn’t ever want us to head down a path that will harm us in some way. He wants us to remain in continual fellowship with God by living according to God’s Word. He will help us to do this so that we can please God, live abundantly, and grow stronger in the power and authority of Jesus Christ.

od told His people in Isaiah 45:3(NLT), “And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness- secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.” As believers, we should never underestimate or overlook the reality that God tied treasures and riches to His identity. This is astoundingly good news, especially for those of us that are seeking Him to cross paths with our marital partners.

For single believers that have been praying for marriage a while now, we have an acute awareness of ‘treasures hidden in the

darkness and secret riches’, because ‘hidden and secret’ is exactly how finding the right person feels to us. We know that marriage is God’s institution, and that it is ordained and blessed by Him. He has given this institution to us as a way of blessing us and our family units. He desires that Godly parents will raise Godly children, and He has commanded parents to take care of their kids and bring them up in Godliness. So, marriage is a really big deal in the Will and Plan of God. It is to be honored as such, and this is one of the reasons why most of us view a Godly compatible, loving, and compassionate partner to be such a treasure.

In this verse in Isaiah 45:3, when God refers to treasures that are hidden in the dark and secret riches, He is instructing us about treasures and riches that are hidden from our physical eyes. Our Heavenly Father is not withholding these goodies from us, and they are not treasures that belong to the realm of darkness, but somehow satan has managed to hide them from our physical eyes. The reason for this is because we do not yet have the spiritual vision to see beyond satan’s tricks and plots.

1Corinthians 2:14(NLT) tells us, “But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.” Every person that is born-again through the Lord Jesus Christ has received God’s Spirit, but every person that is born-again is not walking in God’s Spirit to the extent that they can and should.

Just as we have five senses in the physical world, we have senses in the Spirit as well. It would benefit us greatly to strengthen them. In the physical realm for instance, newborns have five senses, but as infants that are not adept at using them. They can see no further than eight or twelve inches away, and anything further is blurry to their little eyes. Most often, if a child continues to grow and flourish, their vision, hearing, and other senses will sharpen and increase. Likewise, in the spiritual, God expects that we will spiritually grow in Christ. He expects that as we increase our faith through the knowledge of His Word, our spiritual vision will not be foggy or blurry. Instead, we will mature from spiritual infants to spiritual maturity in Christ.

In 2Peter 3:15-17, God warns us not to misuse the truth of His Word by twisting it to mean something other than what He has spoken. He warns us not to be tricked by wicked people who use clever words to distort the truth. We will slip away from the faith if we do this. If we fail to seek the truth by walking in the Spirit, we might become full of ourselves and think we can bend God’s truth

to fit our selfish desires. This is not good. It will work against us. God warns that it will bring destruction to our lives.

We can’t navigate being single without God’s guidance and leadership. Many single people don’t believe this, and they are committed to doing what they’ve always done. They think their way will lead to success, but Proverbs 19:21(NLT) tells us, “You can make many plans, but the LORD's purpose will prevail.” When we ask for God’s help in our quests for marriage, He’s going to examine if we are spiritually mature enough to steward or manage His Godly treasure. Are we still spiritual infants, not yet pursuing God’s Word the way He expects? If we are, God doesn’t tell us “no”, He waits for our spiritual maturity to increase and equal the blessing we seek. Physical maturity occurs as we age, but unlike the physical, God has given us the responsibility for the acceleration of our spiritual maturity, so we should never blame Him for not blessing us. Instead we should pray and increase our commitment to grow in Christ.

The blessing is ours, but we can’t do things our own way and neglect to meet God’s requirement. We must humble ourselves before Him. We must attend to our relationship with God and be committed to go and grow higher in Christ. God commands us in 2Peter 3:18(NLT), “Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Spiritual maturity is obtained by reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word. Our level of commitment to this will increase our spiritual vision and strength. Then, the Godly treasures we seek will no longer be hidden, they will be in plain sight, clothed in all their glory, and perfectly suited to fit our lives. ■

Kim Times, Minister, Writer, and Editor

s believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and children of the Most High, we all know that God can do anything and everything. There is nothing that He cannot do, but when we study His Word, we learn that there are some things that God will not do. Hebrews 6:18(NLT) states, “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.” It is impossible for God to lie. This is something He simply will never do. It’s a staggeringly magnificent piece of knowledge to have in our arsenals. As God’s people, He wants us to have full confidence that His Word is true, and that we can count on what

He says with all that we are. God wants us to be anchored in His Word, and He confirms His Word to us as we build it in our hearts and minds. This means that as we study and live it, over and over again, we will witness that God blesses His Word and rewards us for standing upon its truth. His Will is for His Word to be the foundation of our lives. For this to happen, we need to study the scriptures continually, so we can know them. There’s a well-known saying that tells us whatever we focus on, we become. There’s some Biblical precedent for this. God instructs us in Ephesians 4:22-24(NLT) to “22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature,

By Jerome Mack

created to be like God--truly righteous and holy.” Our new nature the moment we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and believed in that God resurrected Jesus from the dead. Our human-spirit was recreated, and we received a new nature, the same nature as Jesus Christ.

This new nature doesn’t come natural to us, because we were born in a sinful world with sin in our bodies. The psalmist, King David, wrote in Psalm 51:5 (ESV), “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This is true of all of us. Romans 3:23 (NLT) tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When we were lost in sin, God rescued us. We didn’t earn His salvation. God, through His amazing grace, has given it to us through Jesus Christ. Now we have a new way of life.

In our old life, from very early on we were trained by others, and we also trained ourselves, to think, speak, and behave a certain way. Many aspects of this certain way go in the opposite direction of God’s love. Since we have been made brand new in Christ, God commands us to throw away our old sinful nature, because it is not useful to our journey in Christ. This means we must strip off our old way of thinking, speaking, and behaving and put on the mind of Christ. God tells us in to be like our Lord and Savior in every way because he is the Living Word of God. John 1:14(ESV) tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. As we shift our focus off of self and focus on Christ, we will become like him. This

is what God wants for every person.

Many of us are struggling these days. Instead of being razor-sharp focused on Christ and living out of our new nature, we’ve allowed our minds to be captivated by what is happening in the world, and this causes us to lose focus on the Lord. We’re not able to draw as near to God as we

should because there’s too much of the world’s chatter going on inside our heads and hearts. We’re sinking rather than building our faith in God, and we need to turn this around. We must begin to make choices that keep us strengthened, empowered, and growing in Christ.

Romans 8:28-29(NLT) tells us, “28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” We need to get it anchored in us that God causes everything to work together for our good. This is possible! It can be a reality in our lives because God says it can. No matter what our circumstances and situations look like, no matter what anyone says, God will do what He said He will do. We can take this to the bank.

God is the One who tells us what is possible and what isn’t possible. He sets this standard according to the brilliance of His Word. He can do anything and everything, but God limits Himself to the boundaries of His love. You and I should be walking in that love increasingly day by day. We must increase our faith in God’s empowerment. Ephesians 1:3(NLT) tells us, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” God says that He has given us every single spiritual blessing in His heavenly realm because we are united with Christ through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. There’s not one spiritual blessing that isn’t included in our lives because of Christ. We can journey through life with total faith and confidence in God and manifest all that He has made available. God saved us! It’s possible to be spirit-filled, full of God’s grace and oozing over with His love because this is what He’s made available to us through Christ.

Continued on page 27

DEEPER IN PRAYER

he intimacy that God desires with His children can’t be emphasized enough. He wants us close to Him, and He’s proven this by giving us the gift of eternal life. This means that He wants us around a really, really long time. Not only is it important that we comprehend the depth of God’s desire for relationship with us, but we must guard against the world’s attempt to devalue our love, worship, and praise of our Heavenly Father. Social media has shown just about every facet of worship and praise in Christendom. For some, a more subdued posture is preferred. For others, an intense joy and gratitude through dance and praise is expressed. Our jubilance and adoration to the Lord has many dimensions, but wherever we are, God has given every believer the privilege and responsibility to swell to new levels of spiritual richness. We can witness increasing demonstrations of God’s love and power and fresh anointings. This is all spearheaded and achieved as we increase focus, faith, and the amount of time dedicated to the Father in prayer.

“As we grow in Christ and increase in spiritual maturity, everything about our relationship with God gets richer and deeper.”

Romans 1:17(NKJV) tells us, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”” This verse perfectly describes what God intends the journey in Christ to be. As we grow in Christ and increase in spiritual maturity, everything about our relationship with God gets richer and deeper. The power of God’s Gospel continually expands us as we learn more, but it is the revealed knowledge of the righteousness of God that transports us to the stratosphere of His unyielding glory in our prayer lives. We must trust in the righteousness of God with our whole hearts, and to understand it with greater clarity, we must examine God’s relationship with the descendants of Abraham in the Old Testament. Although we often refer to them as the children of Israel, God did not consider them His children, but His servants. He said in Leviticus 25:55(NLT), “For the people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” At first glance, we might look at this and think they were slighted in some way. This was definitely not the case. The distinction of a servant is not of lower rank. One of the greatest gifts that God has given humanity is the wonderful honor and privilege of serving one another.

The law was a curse to God’s people living in Old Testament times not because the Ten Commandments were imperfect. The Ten Commandments paint a beautiful portrait of God’s righteousness. It is a wonderful lesson about His nature, but it was a curse to the children of Israel because they continued to sin and reap the consequences of that sin. They continued to reject the laws of God and abandon His righteousness. Going against the grain of God’s love was how they chose to demonstrate their free-will choice. Delving a bit more under the hood, we can see the uncompromising righteous quality of truth and justice that God holds Himself to. Our God could

not forgive our sins unrightfully. That would not be justice. Justice demands that there is a righteous basis for the forgiveness of sin.

In general, a law-abiding judge within our justice system does not dismiss charges against a guilty person. If judges behaved that way, and let criminals get away with crimes, most of us would say that the justice system is broken. It is common knowledge that there is a price to be paid for a crime committed. Why is this? It is because the righteousness of law demands a charge against unrighteousness; a penalty must be imposed. This is fundamentally justice.

Our Heavenly Father is supremely just and righteous, and He tells us in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin, the cost that must be paid for sin, is death. By God’s law, our disobedience to His Word and Will should cost us our lives. We should have been crucified for our sins, but because of God’s mercy and grace, Jesus Christ became our substitute. He took our place. Because of Christ, the road we travel is not death to death, fear to fear, disappointment to disappointment. It’s faith to faith as the glory of God is etched more deeply in our hearts and minds. God has always wanted to be close to us and to show us more sides of His unconditional and unlimited love. At the appointed time, when we were mentally and emotionally able to digest the fullness of the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ and appreciate it at the deepest level, God sent Christ to fulfill the mission of our redemption. Understanding and appreciating this awesome revelation allows us to do as Hebrews 4:16 admonishes, which is to approach God’s throne of grace with boldness and confidence in our prayers, so that we can find grace in our time of need. ■

ebrews 11:1(NLT) teaches us that “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” Another helpful way of looking at it is to see faith as the title deed to the thing we are believing to receive. Within the laws of this country, a deed is a document that serves as evidence of a person’s legal ownership of a property or thing, and it is recognized by all authorities as proof of ownership. In a spiritual sense, our faith is the legal evidence of our belief in God’s willingness and ability to bless us. God has decreed that it is unquestionably accepted by everything in heaven and beneath it. Our faith is the proof that we have legal ownership of the blessing we’ve prayed for even before it actually arrives on the scene. Faith is right believing, and Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. This tells us that faith involves our minds and hearts, because faith demands that we be-

lieve in something we cannot see. In our everyday circumstances, most of us don’t have a problem believing God for small things, but some of us struggle to believe Him for really big things. Whether it’s minor or major, our minds must be focused on the goodness of God and His willingness and ability to bless us continually. Faith demands that we guard our hearts, and not allow thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors to move us off it’s path. This requires us to continually renew our minds to God’s promises so that our minds and hearts equal the goodness and bounty of the blessing we are praying to receive. This can be challenging for us, because we’re hooked into the way we have always thought, spoken, and behaved in our every day lives. We’re so connected to our cell phones that they’re almost an extension of our bodies. We’re constantly distracted by many things that are going on in the world, and this is exactly what the devil wants. Interrupting our mental discipline so that we will not believe and trust God as we

should is the devil’s main objective.

The mind is the battleground of faith, and to remain spiritually strong, we must confess God’s promises and be anchored in His Word. Hebrews 11:6 (NLT) tells us, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” When God tells us that something is an impossibility, we had better believe that it is. We cannot please God without faith, because faith is the foundation of our relationship with Him. None of us have ever seen God. We weren’t physically there when Jesus Christ died on the cross and gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins. Neither were we physically there when God resurrected Christ from the dead. We didn’t physically witness what God accomplished in Christ for our salvation. We didn’t see it, but faith demands that we believe it.

Continued on page 27

“Unwavering Faith” Conclusion

Keeping our faith in God strong is the number one thing that believers wrestle with. It can be mentally and emotionally intense because the enemy tries to vehemently come against our believing, messing with our minds with all kinds of defeating thoughts. 1Timothy 6:12 tells us to fight the good fight of faith, because we have already won through Jesus Christ; we just need to stay the course and remain faithful and obedient to God. Our faith in Him brings us in direct proximity to His Will. We cannot be defeated when our faith is unwavering in this way, and the devil knows this.

Romans 8:37(NKVJ) affirms, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Unwavering faith is believing God even when the devil tries to make our situations look impossible to conquer. God is the Lifter of our heads. He has made us more than conquerors in Christ. Because of the strength and spiritual weapons that we have received from Him, we are empowered through the Holy Spirit to stand firm against all the tricks, plots, and devices of the enemy. The blessing of having unwavering faith in our Heavenly Father is something that can’t be compared to anything else. We are on this earth to grow in our faith in God, because this is what deepens our relationship with Him. God will never leave or forsake us and trusting this means that our faith is unwavering. Not trusting it means that our minds are not made up and we are undecided. This will not do. James 1:6(NLT) tells us, “But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.” As children of God, our faith must be solidly planted on the truth of who our God is. We are empowered by Him to strive for this level of believing every day, and if we do, our lives will flourish and our faith in God will not waver.■

Conclusion: What God Says Is Possible IS Possible

It’s ours for the taking. So many of us are asking for material and financial blessings, but we’ve yet to believe in faith to walk in the spiritual strength, love, and power that was downloaded into us with the new birth. We should be walking in the zeal and heft of our purpose in a greater way, but some of us aren’t because the reality that what ‘God says is possible IS possible’ hasn’t flooded our believing. We must change this.

We need to live with expectancy of all that God has said is possible for our lives. Jesus Christ said in John 6:63(NLT), “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Jesus Christ was not exempt from studying God’s Word. He did so continually. He shared and ministered the Word of God because he understood the power the Word contains. Whenever and wherever God issues His Word, however our ears are blessed to hear it, our response is to believe it. Believe God’s Word with your whole heart so you will be grounded in it, then when you need what others say is impossible, you can draw it down from heaven through your faith.■

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