Revelation 3

So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.

Our corporate scripture for 2018: Keep Focused ; Keep Committed: Keep Going

We have been talking about prayer, understanding it’s purpose and power.

Prayer is the most mysterious and the most misunderstood activity in the church today.

If prayer works then why do people not attend prayer services, why don’t they even pray as much?

Because people haven’t recieved many results or have had issues with prayers being answered.

So in order to understand prayer, we need to understand it’s purpose and plan and reason it was instituted by God.

So let’s review here a little bit to make sure we have a clear or focused view of prayer.

The reason we pray and the reason we need to pray is because of two words, “Let Them”

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Who is them? Humans, what is a human? A spirit in a dirt body

This is who God gave legal authority on earth to govern and have dominion.

God couldn’t intervene on earth to stop the fall of mankind because God made Himself illegal here on earth because He is a Spirit

God gave man dominion, to govern here on earth

So in order for God to intervene or interfere here on earth He needs a man, which is a spirit (male/female) to allow Him to come into earth’s realm and assist.

Everywhere you see God move in the Bible you see Him in cooperation with man, because man has the legal authority to function on earth but God has the power and provision.

When God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He needed Abraham

When He wanted to save all the Jews, He needed Esther

When He wanted to release His people from oppression in Egypt, He used Moses

When He wanted to restore and redeem mankind, He used Jesus who was 100% man and 100% God.

We have explained, that Jesus is the child that Isaiah saw “Unto us a child, Jesus is born by Mary, unto us a son Christ, is given by God

Jesus made Christ legal the fulfilment of : 15

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle,

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this,

You are cursed more than all cattle,

And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

On your belly you shall go,

And you shall eat dust

All the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head,

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her Seed;

He shall bruise your head,

And you shall bruise His heel.”

So let’s look at some principles why we pray...

Prayer is earthly license for heavenly interference

God is as sovereign as His word ( When God speaks it becomes law)

God is limited by His word (God must do what He says)

God will never violate His word (God is faithful to His word even if it means the fall of all of mankind)

So understanding this brings us the next question, How should we pray?

When you don’t understand the purpose of something you will abuse it because you don’t know the original intent.

Before you and I pray we should remember this verse and hold it close to our hearts:

21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart,

Our prayers need to be about God’s business not our own.

but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

I will come back to this at a later time

Let’s go over the laws to understand prayer the developed from “Let Them”

The legal authority to dominate earth was given to mankind only

God did not include Himself in the legal authority structure over the earth

Man became the legal steward of the earth domain.

Man is a spirit with a physical body, therefore only spirits with physical bodies can legally function in the earth realm

Any spirit without a body is illegal here on earth

Any influence or interference from the supernatural realm on earth is only legal through mankind

God himself, made himself subject to this law as well

These laws will NEVER change, so you must change your thinking to understand how to pray effectively

Ok so last weeks we closed with this understanding...

To understand prayer and it’s purpose you MUST understand God’s plan for it, not man’s.

To understand God’s plan you need to understand what was His original intent for man and for earth.

God will never violate His word, God gave man legal authority on earth to dominate it.

Man’s purpose is to move God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, so we will need to understand heavens mandates and principles.

We are ambassadors of Christ, sent from heaven to colonize and represent heaven on earth.

We need to learn the art of prayer, it is a learned activity

Prayer is always always about the will of the Father, if you don’t know it then stop praying...

Prayer is earthly license for heavenly interference.

So let’s move forward to this week

We have learned - The purpose of prayer

Principles of prayer- learn the preparation of prayer- the power of prayer

Of all the things the disciples saw Jesus do, name some ...

They only asked Him to teach them one thing, PRAYER

Luke 11:1

11 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

What did the disciples discover?

It is because they saw Jesus pray more than anything else.

They observed Jesus for 3 1/2 years and they made a decision by seeing His actions.

Based on scripture we can see that Christ prayed for approx 4 to 5 hours every morning, he also prayed at other times

35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed ().

His disciples would see this pattern and at times wonder where Jesus was.

35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed

().

36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”

38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.” ().

The New King James Version. (1982). ().

You will find your God given purpose in prayer because prayer is about God’s will and purpose not yours.

He would spend 5 hours praying with God and head out and deal with issues and do miracles in a matter of minutes

The disciples started to see that Jesus spent hours in prayer and dealt in minutes with man

We have it backwards, we spend a few minutes with God and deal with man all day over issues

Martin Luther the reformist who created a protestant movement said “When I have a lot to do in a day, I spend more time in prayer, because more work is done by prayer than work itself.”

He is right

If you are too busy to pray then you are too busy.

Prayer isn’t time wasted it is time invested.

Results of intimacy with the father:

5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

Christ Heals on the Sabbath

We read here Jesus did a great miracle, He healed a man here with a sickness he had for 38 years

And that day was the Sabbath.

People reacted differently here some were impressed, some wanted answers some were even angry, but Jesus response is something to really grasp.

When I discovered the deep truth Jesus was teaching here, it changed my life forever

16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

Equality with God in Nature

In effect Christ was saying to those who questioned his healing,” I spent time with my Father this morning I already had my whole day worked out for me because I had fellowship with God.”

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

My father has already healed the people I’m touching…

Their healing is the result of knowing what my father is doing… I am just manifesting it!

My father works therefore I work, in essence we should be manifesting what God has already done, you can’t see this without prayer.

So like saying, this morning in prayer I saw this sick man healed by my father so I have come to manifest what God has already done! What a way to live!

Look at the next verse...

18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

Making equal here means intimacy with God, God being His personal intimate source

So then Jesus explains this intimate truth-

19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.

We spend most of the day trying to figure out what God wants to do, and we waste the whole day

Christ example was “I go to the father first!, I see what He has already done, and then I go and do it.”

God wants us to manifest on earth, what has already happened in heaven

Let your kingdom come, let it be done on earth as it is in heaven.

18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So we avoid spending this amount of time with God so he can never reveal to us What He wants done.

Prayer is coming into union with God’s mind.

99% of the time when god speaks He speaks to your spirit because God is a spirit.

In order to experience this we must have communion with the father

What’s communion? common (same) union (heart and mind)

This is only achieved thru intimate communion known as prayer.

21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ().

God desires to have the same relationship with you that he had with his son Jesus

. ().

Close next week we will loom at the pattern of prayer...

Close / Alter Call

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Revelation 3

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