Truth That Transforms
#4 The True Prayer
No book exists that can truly teach you how to pray, prayer must be an inward birth, that arises from the desires of your own heart. When anyone, feeling his or her own corruption and the power of sin in their soul, looks up to God with true earnestness of faith and desires to be delivered from it, whether they pray aloud or pray with their mind, no prayer is better than this, because the Spirit Himself will intercede for them. The soul that truly takes each and every occasion of life regardless of whether it is something that appears to be good or something that seems to be bad, if they will allow themselves to simply fall down into the hands of God, and exercise faith, trust, and resignation to Him, they will always be safe in each and every state, regardless. God always accepts a broken, and contrite heart, God will answer this prayer.
Here lies something that is hidden from most souls; sometimes we may feel like we are on the mountain with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, this is a wonderful experience, but, it won't do our souls as much good as when tribulation and distress attack us. Because this always gives us the means and power of exercising a higher faith, a purer love, and a more perfect resignation to God, which is always the best state of the soul. Therefore the soul that sees only God, the soul that intends to be nothing but His alone, will have nothing to stop its progress; light and darkness equally assist him; in the light he looks up to God; in the darkness he lays hold on God; and so they both do him the same good. Here is the true darkness reappearing in the soul, to have an expectation of something coming from
ourselves, which we should expect only from God. When we look for our own virtue, our own piety, our own goodness, we will live on in our own poverty and weakness; one day pleased and comforted with the seeming strength and firmness of our own pious state of mind, and fancying ourselves as being very Spiritual; but then, tomorrow, fallen into our own mire, we are dejected, but not humbled; we grieve, but it is only the grief of pride, because we see that we are not as Spiritual, as we had vainly imagined.
The only way we can go safely through all the difficulties, trials, temptations, dryness, and opposition, of our own evil moods, is to expect nothing from ourselves, and to trust nothing in ourselves, but in everything expect, and depend upon God for relief. Hold fast to this, and then regardless of what happens, whether it is darkness, temptation, or the rebellion of nature, you will be led through it all, and united with God. Do not think of looking for any other power to cause you to become a new creature in Christ, anymore than you would think of looking for another power to resurrect your body on the last day. Now perhaps you can see that all of the trials of life, in each and every circumstance, are really our greatest blessings; they do for us the very things that we need to have done, they force us to know our own nothingness, and the "All of God." They bring the reality of Romans 8:28 to life in our hearts, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
People, who have long dwelt in the joy of devotion, in the center of Divine love, practicing every virtue with a kind of greediness, become frightened when coldness seizes them, when their hymns do not seem to lift them to Heaven and their hearts, instead of enjoying the love of every virtue, seem ready to be overcome by every vice.
But here, hold fast to that which has been said and all will turn out for good. For this coldness is the Divine offspring, and genuine birth of the former fervor; and comes from it as a good fruit, and it will bring the soul nearer to God than the fervor did.
Consider yourself as wrong, as having gone astray, and having lost your right path, when any delight, desire, or trouble, is allowed to live in you, that you do not make a part of the prayer of your heart to God. For nothing so wonderfully shows us the true state of our heart, as that which gives us either delight or trouble; for as our delight and trouble is, so is the state of our heart: If you are carried away with any trouble or delight that does not have an immediate relation to your progress in the Divine life, you may be assured your heart is not in its right state of prayer to God, your heart is in the world.
A Test
If it is the earnest desire and longing of your heart, to be merciful as He is merciful; to be full of His unwearied patience, to dwell in His unalterable meekness; if you long to be like Him in impartial love; if you desire to communicate every good, to each and every creature that you are able; if you love and practice everything that is good, righteous, and lovely, for its own sake, because it is good, righteous, and lovely; and never resist evil, except with goodness; then you know with the utmost certainty, that the Spirit of God lives, dwells, and governs you.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself.” On these two,” said the Lord, “hangs all the law and the prophets.” And without these two commandments being true in our lives, no good
light will ever arise, or enter our souls. What a great truth we have here! Seek to understand this, with all of your heart.
Do you know what it is to love God with all your heart and soul? You need to only look back, to that which has been said of the nature and Spirit of God. For when with all your heart and soul, you love and long to have His nature and Spirit, and to be wholly united to God, and also to be governed by Him; then you truly love God with all your heart and soul. Always live your life no matter where you are, in your home, at work, anywhere and everywhere with God's Divine Heavenly love always leading and ruling. The ways of love are so gentle and heavenly; you will not learn them all at once.
Place yourself at Christ’s disposal for service to your fellow Christians. Count yourself their servant. Study their interest. Set yourself actively to promote the welfare of the Christians and people around you. Only selfishness can make you hesitate, and sloth and ease may raise difficulties.
Remember, it is always the lack of true sainthood and true holiness that causes such a deficiency and feebleness of our Christian service. Faith in Christ, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, always gives us the power for all that God calls on us to do. Be certain that you understand this, it is because self, which expresses itself by self will, occupies our heart, this is why it is so easy, natural, and pleasing for us to care for ourselves. When Jesus Christ truly lives in us, it will then be just as easy, natural, and
pleasing to live wholly for the body of Christ, and the people of this world who need God's salvation through Jesus Christ. “Let us cleanse ourselves from all
defilement of flesh and spirit” Remember, the Word of God is a seed, a fire, a hammer, a sword; it is bread, and light, it is many things. Always allow it to do its work in your life. The man of God who allows God’s Word to do its work of reproving, correcting, and instructing in his life, will be complete, and entirely furnished for every good work.
A Word About God's Love
Many people do not even start to understand what God's love is, and what it can actually do. To start with let's look at a few Scriptures that will explain quickly the difference between what unregenerate people call love, and what God means when He says to love one another. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
1. Love is patient - This is the first attribute about love that God gives us, whenever we are not patient with our spouse, children or anyone; we are then and there not in the process of loving them. We might say many times that we love them, but understand that at that moment of time we are NOT loving them. Love is a verb, it is an action, we are loving people, or we are not loving people, and this goes on all day long.
2 Love is kind - Does this really need to be said, unfortunately, today it must. Often-times, especially with married people, they are not kind to one another, when this is happening; they are not in the process of loving each other. Make certain that at all
times and places you are loving (kind) to everyone you are around.
3. Does not seek its own - Love is NEVER selfish, but our conditional human kind of love is often selfish, and we don't even realize it. Again when this is happening, we are not operating in love! Love, as God has demonstrated to us, in the giving of Himself and His Son, is NEVER selfish!
4. Does not take into account a wrong suffered – When someone does something wrong, how many times do you bring it up and hold it over them? Do you keep bringing it up, especially when you are angry? This again is human conditional love; it is really not love at all, but a cheap substitute for God's love.
5. Bears all things, believes all things, endures all things, Love never fails
God has said, love bears all things, endures all things, love never fails, God's love is always this way, it never fails. This is the difference between God's love and unregenerate, human, conditional love, which really is not love at all! Do you bear all that your spouse, or others do, all of the time? When you fail at this, all that has really happened is that you are not truly loving that person.
Can you see the real essence of love; does it seem to you that you could not consistently live this way, always bearing all things, always enduring all things, always loving like God loves? When you understand what love is, you will realize what God meant when He said, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” You will also have a better understanding of what He was saying in Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.”
We must be one of those “Who does the will of Our Father who is in heaven.”
About now, you might be thinking, this looks impossible, your Bible will tell you that nothing is impossible with God! This impossible looking thing is the very situation that brings us to see our need to pray, in order to receive help from above, Divine help. We cannot live the Christian life without Christ, this is why Jesus said, “You must be born again,” until we experience the new birth of Christ in our souls, we truly cannot do anything that requires righteousness; we must abide in the Spirit of God.
Jesus told us a Divine truth in John 15:5 when he said . . . “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” And don't let any Devil tell you that you can't obey God, because you can, with God's help. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” And also Jesus said. . "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Now, if Jesus could do nothing without the Father, how much more do we need to depend on Him. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him."
I Don't Think That God Is Hearing My Prayers!
Have you ever wondered if God was really going to answer your prayer, or perhaps at times as you were praying you were thinking that your prayer was not getting any higher than the ceiling of the room that you were in! Many people have felt this way, and the reason why is simply this, you were in the process of telling God what you knew He wanted to hear, for instance, Lord I love you, Lord I love your Word, Lord I want to be fruitful, etc. etc.
Now all that many people do is lie to God, yes, this is what you are doing whenever you are praying and asking for something that is not really in your heart! Many people tell God that they love His Word when they rarely ever read it, except in church when their Pastor tells them to turn to a certain passage. You might be surprised just how many professing Christians there are that have never read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation even once! God does not answer prayers that are in reality only lies. Many people spend years doing this and have never had even one prayer truly answered!
This is the results of such prayers, nothing ever happens, we become discouraged, and the cycle continues, we pray with less heart, and nothing ever happens as a result of our prayers!
To reverse all of this is a simple thing to do. Start by telling God the truth; if you do not have an interest in reading the Bible tell God that, and He will then go about changing that issue in your life. If you are not living for Him, as you should, ask your Savior to change that, He can, and He Will!
What ever the true state of your heart, tell it to the one who can change it. Remember, when you pray, speak only truth to God, and your prayer life will change overnight.