Jesus said, "Believe Me: I Am in my Father and My Father is in Me. If you can't believe that because they're simply My words, then believe what you see — these works - these signs - these miracles. The person who trusts Me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on My way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I Am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who He is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do.
This is what I want you to do: Ask the Father for whatever is in keeping with the things I've revealed to you. Ask in My name, according to My will, and He'll most certainly give it to you. Your joy will be a river overflowing its banks!"
John 14: 11-14; 16:23-24
I realised several years ago, that for a long time I’d pray about this or that but not really expect God to do anything. In many cases He didn’t do anything and it was for the reasons that Jesus gives above. Then something changed. I matured in my faith. I grew in my relationship with God. I got in the groove. My will began to mesh with God’s will. I began to love what God loves and hate what God hates and want what God wants for His people and all of a sudden God began to move in people’s lives in the ways that I was asking Him to move. That’s sometimes a terribly scary thing.
The Creator of the universe allows us - no, He invites us - no, more than that, He demands of us that we partner with Him in building His kingdom.
To see that happen in response to prayer is almost overwhelming. The reality of it makes me want to hide my face. God says that He moves in response to our request that others come to know Him, love Him and worship Him. This creates a huge responsibility to care for others, to love others, to want God’s will for others, to not neglect others in our prayers.
At times I find that very intimidating.
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Hi Rod, long time no see,
ReplyDeleteIt's been one month already since I decided to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The starting point was really the audio files you suggested so I decided to come tell you a bit about it. This post is perfect I think; you will see why later, hehe.
The only thing that is important to mention about the suggestions given by the speaker is that believing in Jesus comes first; and then you can face obstacles. If we try to remove the obstacles first it cannot and won't work.
It is then possible to read the Bible with a different approach and learn from it. But without further there is right away another important thing that I wanted to get to, and it's prayer.
Last week-end, I decided to finally try praying to Jesus again with full sincerity and faith. I say again because I had already prayed during that month but on a more... casual way I would say; a bit hard to explain. Anyway, the important is what happened next.
I decided to read out loud a few words I had picked here and there and meant the most in terms of admittance that I was wrong in denying Jesus, that I needed to ask for forgiveness, and that I would let Jesus work through me.
While reading it, my body was feeling a great level of both great comfort and perturbing stress at the same time. There was confusion over so many other things that I had already thought about but in another context. It's as if I was quickly reliving all my life but a different guide next to me.
I understood that I was not alone and it made the prayer both easier and harder to finish. Easier because I felt as if I was protected, alive, and free, but at the same time I did not want to finish the prayer because I was afraid that it meant a lot more than I originally wanted to admit it.
Finally, I had an intense moment where thoughts were flying through my mind at incredible speed. An insane number of questions got answered but more kept coming.
Eventually I got to the end and learned what I needed to do! Thanks, I am now fixed.
Regards,
Hugo
Hi Hugo - we were gone for the weekend so I didn’t have a chance to respond till now.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad to hear that you’re doing well. I’m also glad you were able to get to the point where you understood, “If you seek Me with all your heart I will allow Myself to be found by you.” First comes the seeking. In the “thin places,” like you’ve just described, our mind can barely handle the reality of the supernatural.
You’re in my prayers Hugo.
God bless.
See you there!