Prayer Sanctification and Transformation in my life – to OVERCOME through PRAYER
Intro: What is PRAYER?
GOD gave me a vision OF A MOUNTAIN as a symbol of PRAYER
See attached
We start ascending the MOUNTAIN OF PRAYER at the lowest point… at the feet of the mountain; on our knees.
ENTRY POINT
We look for best place to enter into prayer (where to start the ascend into prayer); where we humble ourselves before an almighty God and FATHER and repent for our sinfulness…
Rom 3:23-24
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
YET EMBRACING THE WONDERFUL GIFT OF HIS FORGIVENESS THROUGH THE POWER OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
1ST LANDING
Now we work our way up (our faith-life to go up); around bends & at times by moving a few stones/rocks(sin, idols, self-life, self-centred goals & passions) out of the way.
FINDING A COMFORTABLE FAITH LEDGE
At times we sit on a ledge (we rest, we quiet our soul down) & give the Holy Spirit time to speak, reveal and unveil His heart to me. Here we repent and receive HIS LOVE, forgiveness & we change towards the renewal of our understanding of our GOD.
REACHING PRAYERS SUMMIT IN HIS PRESENCE
On the last section of the mountain, where it is much higher up, there it is sometimes lonely in PRAYER & ice cold because of the ELEVATION. Here we take out our ICE-AXE; to thrust it into the ice face of the mountain. Now is the moment in our faith walk to make sure of our hold; to STAND & to KEEP ON STANDING, in order to be OVERCOMMERS.
The ICE-AXE is our testimony, utterances and words of FAITH. Also where we start to understand what it means in this text(Rev12v11) : ” not loving our life”
ON top of the MOUNTAIN of prayer we are lifted up by the Holy Spirit INTO REVELATION…HERE We CAN SEE VERY FAR…HERE we see, hear, taste, smell & and know(feel) that God is GOOD & very close to us. He is as near as my next breath. He is already in the next moment, hour & season of my life
THE FAMILIAR SPIRIT in PRAYER
We do so often just start to run up the mountain in prayer because we maybe think we know this place, we have been training for so long, we know the way up to the top of the MOUNTAIN of PRAYER; therefore we easily get familiar with the environment here.
We often will even think that we know how to do this… we know our “prayer rhymes” by heart… WE KNOW HOW to pray.
This is dangerous for intimacy, authentic prayer & transparency where His Holy Spirit’s voice must rather lead and show us the way into the FATHER’S PRESENCE!!
The closer I get to the Father, the more I realize how small, sinful & unworthy I am in myself… & the more I realize what Christ did for me on the cross and how much I need Him to lead the way into the FATHER’S HEART
Then the question is rather… what is prayer to us?
Are we here to perform a ritual, to follow a default very good habit, to do our duty… to follow a program… and even to be seen… or to impress God & our fellow man with our ability to pray….???
GOAL: Our sole PURPOSE of THIS PRAYER TIME is to MEET with the Father because of the Son through Holy Spirit
If we do not touch His heart with our prayer… if we have not been in His presence… it can be equated to the 8 woes that Christ announced over the Pharisees & Sadducees… just a lot of impressive words, works & hypocrisy or to do our duty!!!
After we’ve been in His presence we are then infused to go out and to do what God told us to do; to influence & change the lost & broken world & every person we meet, with the Father’s love
1. PREPARE OUR HEARTS
Psa 24:3-5
(3) Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy Place?
(4) He who has clean hands and a pure heart,… (no falsehood allowed)
Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
(5) He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
1.1. EXAMINE OURSELVES
2Co_13:5 Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith are equaled to :
G4102 (truth itself: – assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity(-loyalty, faithfulness, trustworthiness, agreement, conformity, towing the line to Christs truth.)
G3982 (to be content, obey, trust, yield.)
Gal_6:4 But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work.
He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without boastful comparison with his neighbour and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves 1not Christ].
1.2. REPENTANCE
2Co_7:10 For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret;
2Co_3:16 But whenever a person turns [in repentance] to the Lord, the veil is stripped off and taken away.
2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18 And all of us, as with unveiled face, continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.
Act_3:19 So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
1.3 HUMBLE OURSELVES IN REVERENTIAL FEAR & AWE
Mat 3:11a
(11) I indeed baptize you in (with) water because of repentance [that is, because of your changing your minds for the better, heartily amending your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins].
Mat 3:11b – 12
But He Who is coming after me is mightier than I, Whose sandals I am not worthy or fit to take off or carry;
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (7 fold Holy Spirit of God – Is11v2)
and with fire.(Sanctification OF a refining fire)
So does the Spirit make the soul holy like itself, and its tendency is heaven-ward. Christ says: I am come to send fire, Luk_12:49.
(12) His winnowing fan (shovel, fork) is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out and clean His threshing floor ( THE visible CHURCH) and gather and store His wheat in His barn, but the chaff He will burn up with fire that cannot be put out.
Heb_12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
1.4 SO WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US?
Rom_5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2. POSITION OURSELVES IN HIS LOVE
We can do this by praying out loud THREE BEAUTIFUL INTIMATE WORDS:
“ GOOD MORNING FATHER “
Eph 2:4 But God–so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,
Eph 2:6-7
(6) And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us N1joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
(7) He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.
Prayer: for each person to be open to receive this PURSUING love of the Father
” THANK YOU JESUS “
Vision of Christ on the Cross : I am thirsty
His thirst became a symbol of the everlasting living-water supply of His love. He thirsted IN ORDER TO BECOME THE RIVER OF LIFE UNTO US…
Joh 7:38 He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.
” HOLY SPIRIT HELP ME “ – To complete this race; to overcome
Rev_2:7
To him who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant to eat [of the fruit] of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Rev_2:17
To him who overcomes (conquers), I will give to eat of the manna that is hidden, and I will give him a white stone with a new name engraved on the stone, which no one knows or understands except he who receives it.
Rev_2:26
And he who overcomes (is victorious) and who obeys My commands to the [very] end [doing the works that please Me], I will give him authority and power over the nations;
Rev_3:12 He who overcomes (is victorious),
I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God; he shall never be put out of it or go out of it, and I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which descends from My God out of heaven, and My own new name.
Rev_3:21 He who overcomes I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame and sat down beside My Father on His throne.
3. HOW will we overcome?
3.1 BY CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS
Jas_3:18 And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God’s will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace [in themselves and in others, that peace which means concord, agreement, and harmony between individuals, with undisturbedness, in a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts].
3.2 BY FLEEING FROM BABYLON
Rev 18:4 I then heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out from her, my people, so that you may not share in her sins, neither participate in her plagues. [Isa_48:20; Jer_50:8]
Jer 50:8 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans; and be as the he-goats [who serve as examples and as leaders in the flight] before the flocks
3.3 BY THE BLOOD & OUR TESTIMONY & selfless lives
Rev 12:11 And they have overcome him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life
even when faced with death [holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing].
3.4 BY CALLING UPON HOLY SPIRIT TO BREATHE ON US
Eze 37:9-10
(9) Then said He to me, Prophesy to the breath and spirit, son of man, and say to the breath and spirit, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath and spirit, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.
(10) So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath and spirit came into [the bones], and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great host. [Rev_11:11]
PRAYER POINTS:
- Ask & receive forgiveness & extend this grace to others
- Examine our own selves – if we are still in the faith (truth, trusting, trustworthy, loyal, towing the line In Christ)
- Humble ourselves – in the understanding Who we are dealing with
- Position ourselves IN HIS LOVE :
FATHER : Good morning Father
SON : Thank you, Jesus – Arise to HIS righteousness
HOLY SPIRIT : Abiding in to Overcome
- In His righteousness
- By fleeing from Babylon
- By the Blood & the Word of our testimony
- By the power of the Holy Spirit : Breathe on us, Oh Holy Breath of God