It's Time to Pray.....    “Pray without ceasing”

  October 2008    Word of Life Ministries Newsletter 

If you have your ears turned toward God these days, you probably have heard Him say something to you about prayer.  He’s been calling you to spend more time in prayer, and to make it a higher priority in your life. I believe He wants from us an earnest desire to seek Him, a desire so strong that we will not permit or allow anything to hinder us or distract us from getting to God.

                                                                                                                                                      The Bible says when we pray, we are to get alone with God.  To go into our private room and shut the door behind us, and pray to our Heavenly Father in secret, to share with Him our hearts innermost hidden secrets, and desires.  He wants us to spend time with Him, talking to Him, meditating upon His Word.

I believe we are living in the last days, and God is ready to move through us in mighty and supernatural ways.  But He can’t work through us if we are so busy with the affairs of our own life, that we can’t even hear His voice. He needs people who will pray-----not just when the need arises, but every day.  He needs people who will build their whole life around prayer and make it their number one priority. God’s people should always be praying people.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to “pray without ceasing.”  Ephesians 6:18 tells us to pray “with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”  All through the New Testament we are told to pray!  And that’s what God is wanting from us. 

Our natural reaction says there are not enough hours in the day to do everything that I have to do.  I can’t afford to spend any more time in prayer!  But the truth is we can’t afford not to.  How many times have we allowed the smallest things in life to hinder us from praying?  We get so busy tied up in the affairs of our own life, that we’ve become spiritually and physically bankrupt.  Many have fallen prey to the devils temptations, because they have forgotten Jesus’ words to “watch and pray”.

Others have left their first love, to follow after the things of the world.  Their lamps have gone out, their garments are stained, and they’ve become lukewarm in their relationship with Christ. The Book of Revelations says, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

Where is the joy in Gods people today?  We should be the most joyful people upon the planet.  We should have Gods Word hid in our heart, a song upon our lips, and a spring in our steps.  We are the redeemed of the Lord.  We’ve been washed in the Blood, our names are written down in the lamb’s book of Life, and we’re on our way to Heavens land. And one day soon the trumpets gonna sound so loud that it'll  wake the dead all over the world.  And the dead in Christ are gonna rise, and we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.

The Joy of the Lord is our strength today.  And they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.  We cannot afford to forsake our prayer time.  The secret to living a Victorious life is our private prayer time with God.

Shut in with God, in a secret place, there in the Spirit, beholding His face, gaining new power to run in life’s race, I long to be shut in with God.

It’s when we begin to make prayer our priority---to lay aside the natural things and take up the things of God, and begin to walk in the power of His Spirit---that’s when the glory of God will be reflected in us. 

And if we want to have the power of God in our lives, we have to spend more time with God in prayer.  We need to quit spending all our time thinking about our surroundings, our life, our jobs, and what we’re doing day to day.  We have to start giving ourselves to things that will make an eternal difference.  We have to start giving ourselves to prayer.

God placed us here in the earth to do His works just as His Son, Jesus did.  And Jesus said we would do even greater works than He did (John 14:12). But we’re not going to be empowered to do those things by sitting around gossiping on the phone, complaining to our neighbors, or watching television for hours on end.  We’re going to be empowered to do the works of Christ, when we start making Jesus’ priorities, our priorities.  When we start wanting what He wants more than anything else.

We need revival today.  Our church’s need revival, our community’s needs revival, but it’s going to come when we begin to earnestly seek a closer walk with God, when we begin to put God first in our lives. We need to return to those days of praying around the alters, of waiting upon God, and seeking His face.

I believe God has glorious plans for us.  But if we don’t spend time with Him in prayer, and listening to God, we’re not going to get in on those plans. 

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 29:11-13 for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.  They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and hope.  In those days when you pray, I will listen.  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:  For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

More than anything else, what we desperately need today is the power of God in our prayers.  We need the power of God released in ways to bring salvation, deliverance, healing, and restoration not only in our lives, and our families, but into the entire world.  If there ever was a time we needed to pray, it is now.  Satan is killing people with diseases, drugs, depression, suicide and any other weapon he can get in his hands.

Our “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep” prayers aren’t going to make it.  He is listening to those prayers that are prayed in earnest, those prayers that are sincere and heart felt, those fervent cries of the heart.

The Bible tells of two men who went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.  The Pharisee stood and prayed, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.  I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess.  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.  God resists those kinds of proud prayers, but it’s the humble prayers that God hears.

2^nd Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;  then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.

For the effectual and fervent prayer of a righteous man will avail much.

Remember the story of Hannah in the Bible.  More than anything else she wanted to have a baby.  Year after year she tried but she was barren and couldn’t conceive.  The Bible says she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. 

Listen to Hannah’s prayer recorded in the 1^st book of Samuel. O Lord of host, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life.

Her deepest desire was to have a baby, but not just any kind of baby.  She distinctly asked the Lord for a son.  The Bible says, “And it came to pass after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel.”

When we pray we don’t just say a prayer and quit when we don’t quickly see results.  We keep on praying, and praying, and praying, we keep on believing, and believing, and believing until the answer comes.  For Hannah it took years of seeking God over this matter, but what a joyful day it was when Samuel was born, and her prayers were answered!  When we pray, we must learn to ask God for specific things, instead of so many general things.  Like Hannah who specifically asked God for a son.

God wants our prayers to be effective, and the key to seeing the kind of results God wants us to have through our prayers comes when we pray according to the will of God.

1 John 5:14-15 “This is the confidence that we have in him that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:  And if we know that he hears whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer! That calls me from a world of care, and bids me at my Father's throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempter's snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

God is looking for a people who are sold out to Him.  Those who will give Him first place in all their life, those who love Him with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their might, and those who will put Him first above all others and above all other things in this world.

1 John 2:15 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him

Only Jesus can satisfy that longing in our soul.  There’s nothing in this world that could take the place of Gods Love.  We need more of God in our life, and less of the world.  That should be the cry of our heart, “More of You”

Psalms 42 says, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.  My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:   What has been the desire of our hearts lately?  Do we thirst for Him?  Do we seek after Him?  Do we long for more of Him in our life?

Rev. James & Jody Lewis          Word of Life Ministry           Hand in Hand Publications

    Hand in Hand Publications October 2008

I am very pleased to welcome back this month to Hand in Hand Publications, our dear friend and Minister Dr. Trudy Veerman, from Canada.

Sister Trudy is a Licensed Clinical Christian Therapist, a Certified Christian Counselor, an ordained Minister and a published Author. She is serving the Lord with dedication and determination, for the past 46 years. Her life and her ministry is a sure proof of God's unfailing power. 

This month Sister Trudy shares with us an inspiring message entitled, "Faith to move Mountains".  She reveals in her messages how important Faith is in our life.  Without faith, we cannot please God, nor can we accomplish the works of Christ in our life today.  Faith has to become part of us after we learn to trust in God.

Sister Trudy gives a wonderful life lesson of a father and his son, and relates it so beautifully to our Heavenly Father and us His children.  This is a must read!  I know you will be blessed.  Please take a moment and visit Sister Trudy's website.  I know she will be pleased to know you have stopped by for a visit, so take a moment and let her know.  Click on this link below.....