God's Word on That

Tag: spiritual-force

  • Praying Then…

    How do we pray then? And what do we pray for? Just what we need? Just our wants and our desires?

    Fr. Peter John Calmeron, in his book Lord, Teach Us to Pray, calls us “to embrace a fundamental truth about prayer: In prayer, God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response.  As God gradually reveals Himself, and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call.  Our chief responsibility in prayer is to become able and eager to respond to God’s offer of self-giving, image-perfecting love.”

    Prayer then is a pleading of the promises God has placed in His Word for us to use in other people’s behalf. God knows I need to have my needs met. And I can point out to Him a huge credit card debt that is facing me, and I can plead His promise to take care of it and then trust Him for it. But it’s not so I can run up another big debt on a paid off card. If I can use that knowledge of God to help me pray for others, to further His kingdom influence, then I am “seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness”. I have to trust Him that “all things will be added to me” after seeking His blessings.

    Andrew Murray assures us in his book, With Christ in the School of Prayer, that as we get a deeper insight into what prayer really is, this truth that “He knows the things we need before we ask” will help much to strengthen our faith. We do not need to compel an unwilling God to listen to us. When once we have been led by the Spirit to the certainty that our request is indeed something that, according to the Word, we do need for God’s glory, it will give us wonderful confidence to say, “My Father knows I need it and must have it.” And if there be any delay in the answer, it will teach us in quiet perseverance to hold on to that promise.

    Therefore, dwell much in the inner chamber, with the door shut. To be alone in secret with The Father is our highest joy. To be assured that the Father will openly reward the secret prayer is our strength day by day. And to know that the Father knows that we need what we ask; this is our liberty to bring every need in the assurance that our God will supply it according to His riches in Glory in Christ Jesus.

    The way to begin to pray, then, is to turn all these troublesome things right over to God with the humility, dependence and confidence of the tax collector in the temple who prayed “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”  That is the indispensable foundation for all authentic prayer, as the famous Christian of The Way of the Pilgrim discovered.  This nameless 19th century peasant walked across Russia and entered into a state of great holiness simply by reciting the Jesus Prayer: “Lord, Christ Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  In learning to pray, it is crucial for us to follow in his footsteps of humbly giving our heart to God.

    In short, praying is as easy as breathing.  As the peasant of this book reminds us, “to pray means to direct our hearts and minds to constant remembrance of God, to walk in His divine presence, to arouse in oneself the love of God by means of meditation, and to say the Name of Jesus in harmony with one’s breathing and beating of one’s heart.”

    May the Blessed Spirit give each of us grace to think and to say the right thing, and to do what shall be pleasing in the Father’s sight! (Andrew Murray)

  • God’s Creative Force – Part 3

    Your spirit is programmed by words: Faith comes by hearing the Word of God; fear comes by hearing what the enemy says.  No person in his right mind would go around confessing the same thing his enemy says – you have enough sense to know your enemy’s words are designed to work against you.  The devil wants you to create a distorted, unworthy, self-destructive image on the inside of you, with words authored by the enemy of your soul.

    Jesus didn’t say God would bring forth good things.  Man brings forth good things (Matthew 12:35).  Not out of his head or intellect, but out of his heart (Matthew 15:11, 18-19).  The last thing the devil ever wants you to see is the facts of the recreated spirit.  Here are some of those facts:

    1. You were created for GOD; you are His workmanship, not your own. (Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:12)  You have become a son of God so you can be a partaker of His divine nature, very capable of fellowshipping with deity.  Satan can’t do that.  He is a dead spirit, he cannot function in the realm of the God-life as man can.  The reborn human spirit is a higher creation!  Man was created to have fellowship with deity.
    2. You were created by spirit. The spirit of man is not of this world. The creative ability of man comes through his spirit.  When man has God’s Word abundantly abiding in his heart and speaks it forth in faith, he speaks spirit words that work in the world of the spirit.  These spirit words dominate the natural world.
    3. Your spirit can change the world. The words Jesus spoke (John 6:63) were of the Word of God. He released faith through the words He spoke.  His words penetrated the spirits of men.  Their spirits heard Him and they acted from their spirit on His spirit words.  (John 5:8; Mark 3:5; Mark 5:41; Luke 7:14; John 11:43) Spirit words spoken by Jesus ignited the faith that was already residing in these people.  It caused an explosion of God’s ability on their behalf.  It was all set in motion by words spoken in faith.

    Today many are born again and hear the Word, but hearing is not the foundation (Matthew 7:24-27).  Doing the Word is the foundation that made the one man successful in life.  God’s Word is the only true knowledge (Hosea 4:6), and it will make you stable even in the storms of life (Psalm 112:7).  Speaking God’s Word will bring God on the scene (Jeremiah 1:12), for He is watching.  To disagree with the Word opens the door to the devil. 

    The thief comes to steal (John 10:10).  Jesus came to undo the work of the devil (1 John 3:8).  Jesus purchased our freedom from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13-14).  We find in DEUT 28-30 the curse of the law. The Word says you are free.  Be smart enough to agree with God! 

    Now whether I ever get it or not, that’s up to God.  As long as I say what He said and do what He said to do, I am doing my part, and you can rest assured God will do His part.

    Learn to put the Word of God into confession form.  Then agree with the Word.  Look at Proverbs 14:3.  It tells us that the lips of the wise WILL preserve him.  They WILL preserve him through financial crisis.  They WILL preserve him when other’s say there is a recession or a depression.  His lips WILL preserve him if he confesses what the Word says, if he acts on the Word.  The knowledge we have, we are to use aright. 

    If you don’t act on God’s Word, you won’t be experiencing God’s best (James 1:22-25).  You have to speak the words to change the world around you.  Don’t be just listeners, but doers and so get the blessings of God.  Note also: A lot of folks seem religious, but the Word said if he doesn’t control his tongue, it will destroy all that he said he believed (James 1:26).  You need to KNOW what the Word of God says about you.  Determine now to know what the New Covenant (contract) says about you.

  • God’s Creative Force

    Lately, during this Lenten season, I have prayed for God’s guidance on what to include in this blog, what He wants His children to read. And I keep coming back to the sermon on “The Tongue – A Creative Force” by Charles Capps. I started this blog because of the idea Jesus put in my mind that His children need to see God’s Word in practice; to learn how to plead the promises of God using the Word of God to booster their faith. Charles Capps was the pioneer of such things as these, and said them very succinctly. So I will present his thoughts in hopes that this blog will accomplish what Jesus and I had set out to do.

    Andrew Hemstrought Ministries https://www.mhgs.org/Text/Charles_Capps/The-Tongue-A_Creative_Force-Capps.pdf

    Where do the good things in life come from?  Jesus said they come out of your heart (Matthew 12:35).  He didn’t say they came from staying up late hours and working your fingers to the bone.  He said the good things of life come out of your heart, whatever you store there, the information you program your spirit with will produce for you.  It always produces after its kind.  Faith produces faith.  Fearful words produce fear.  The way you program your spirit with the Word of God is by saying the things God said about you in His Word.  Imitate God! 

    Truth is the stabilizing force of life.  Jesus spoke God’s Word continually.  He was established in His Father’s Word.  He overcame the world, the flesh, and the devil by the spoken Word. The only thing Jesus used against the devil was the spoken Word of God.  Jesus spoke God’s written Word.  “It is written…”  Oh, Thank God, it is still written today!  However, in book form, the Word of God has no power until it is read or spoken by someone of faith.

    God’s Word, which is conceived in your heart, then formed by the tongue and spoken out of your mouth, becomes a spiritual force releasing the ability of God within you. 

    In August 1973, the Word of the Lord came to me saying, “If men would believe Me, long prayers are not necessary.  Just speaking the Word will bring what you desire.  My creative power is given to man in word form.  I have ceased for a time from My work, and have given man the balk of My creative power.  That power is still in My Word.  Yet for it to be effective, man must speak it in faith.  Jesus spoke it when He was on earth and as it worked then so shall it work now.  But it must be spoken aloud.  Man must rise up and have dominion over the power of evil by My Words.  It is My greatest desire that My people create a better life by the spoken Word.  For My Word has not lost its power just because it has been spoken once.  It is still equally as powerful today as when I said ‘Let there be light.’  But for My Word to be effective, man must speak it, and creative power will come forth performing that which is spoken in faith.“

    Spiritual Law is for your good.  It is to produce the things you need and desire.  Words are therefore very important.  Begin now to become Word Conscious.  Words are little seeds that produce after their kind. 

    Prayer is your legal right, it is your vehicle for you to use faith filled words to bring God on the scene on your behalf, that your joy may be full (John 16:23-24) (John 15:11). It is the Word abiding in you that causes faith to be present in your words when you pray (John 15:7-8). Notice it glorifies the Father when you get your prayers answered and your needs met.  Your joy can be full if God’s Word abides in you. (Matthew 21:21-22) (Mark 11:23-24)

    Faith will make prayer work.  Prayer won’t work without faith, even though faith will work without prayer.  Prayer is one of the means of releasing faith, so if we line ourselves up with God’s Word and release our faith when we pray, we will see the power of God come alive in our lives. 

    Three things you must remember.

    • The spirit world is controlled by the Word of God.
    • The natural world is to be controlled by man speaking the words of God.
    • The spoken Word of God is a creative power.