When you pray, are you deliberately considering the One who is listening?

    Over the years, I have been privileged to pray with some tremendous saints.  The older ones kneel and I have been greatly humbled in hearing these prayers.  I have knelt with God's servants in the dirt, on cobblestones, on carpet, in mud,  in the sand and surrounded by thousands of camels,  in danger and in safety.

     One thing is sure - He hears.  He is the ultimate Listener, and it seems to me that Christians often forget that the One who holds the stars in place is listening intently.

    So often we pray as though He has to be convinced.  Yes, I often quote His own words to Him in prayer, but I have taken Him at His  Word, and so must you.

     He who is The Word is listening to your words.  Hallelujah that we have the Indwelling Holy Spirit to aid us in our prayer life.

     Soldier of The Cross, like all else, prayer is a frontier.  No one else has your relationship with the Lord - it is unique between the two of you.   And, there is no limit.

     Learn to stand or sit or kneel, and pray.  Aloud.  Learn to see Him as holding the scepter and listening.  Loving.  Understanding.  Wanting the best for you.  The God of all Power.

     Declare it all to Him.  Even your need to know He is listening. 

     Aloud.
     Today

     Why is it so painful?

     What does His Word say?  We have no right to know why.

     Soldier of The Cross, the issue is His Will.  His Plan. His Life.  His Kingdom. His Body. His Love.

     Is it up to Him, or not?
     Has He affirmed His attentions or not?
     Does He love you or not?
     Is He sovereign or not?

    There is absolutely no one else who will answer you.

     What makes a believer secure?

     Learning to live by faith.

     Living by the hand of God is the only way to taste His Provision.   I believe God's people should be industrious and should love to work.  But there is a danger in thinking we are providing for ourselves.  The Soldier of The Cross must learn to pray "Give us this day our daily bread. . ."

     If we have much, it is not more of blessing than if we have little. The blessing is in the will of God.  The issue is living by prayer and not by independence.  The same principle applies to relationships, the spending of time, reputation, family and health.

     Have you told Him He can do anything with your life?  If so, He will begin to reveal to you the "hidden things."  They are revealed through prayer and when there is an exercising of the faith muscle.

     There is no anxiety greater than self-sufficiency.
     There is no peace deeper than resting in Him and trusting that He will provide or show the way.

     You are the object of intense divine attention.

     The One who holds the stars in place by His Mighty Word of Power has made it possible for you to know Him intimately.  Not only that, but He longs for your attention and wooed you to get you this far.

     It is easy to loose sight of the fact that you are so loved. 

     Taking hold of this fact by faith and talking to the Lord about it in prayer brings about a tenderness of heart that is not available any other way.

     Talk to the Lord about his Love for you.
     Aloud. 

     Soldier of The Cross, He is a healer.

     He has not promised us that He would heal all physical illness.  He has promised that we could find refuge, live a life without a damaged personality and minister His own Life.  He has told us we can know peace and be content.

     The soul is the place where decisions are made.  The spirit comes alive when inhabited by the spirit of God, but the soul will either reflect Him, or in the alternative, it will reflect the consequences of decisions that do not line up with His mind.

     Those who are determined to take up The Cross and follow Him have a certain family resemblance.  They are calm.  They do not return unkindness when it is hurled at them.  They are far more interested in eternal matters than the temporal, and they always, always consider the other person before themselves. 

     They are interested in living by faith and they have decided to stand on God's Word.

     These decisions create room for the Holy Spirit to fill.  To move.  To counsel.  To heal, and to reveal Jesus.

     The Soldier of The Cross is not a neurotic wreck.  His eyes are on the Lord and he is moving.

     Soldier, remember:  you are keenly and deeply loved by the One who called you to Himself.  The well-adjusted Christian is the one who has told the Lord that He can do absolutely anything with his life.    He is willing to tackle the impossible and he refuses to take only safe posts.

     Underneath are the Everlasting Arms.       

      When asked if you are willing to lean on the Lord completely, will you give a ready answer?

      When I am examining a witness in court, it is often difficult to get a direct answer.   If I ask him where he was at a particular time, he is likely to start by telling me what he was thinking about doing, what the circumstances were that compelled a decision, or where he was not.  Rarely does the question get answered head on.

     I have found it to be the same among believers.  If I am speaking to a group and pose the question as to whether or not the Lord has been told He can do absolutely anything, there is always gathering of complainants afterward.   It is a collection of people who want to explain their circumstances, and justify getting by without fully committing to the Lord.

     It seems to me that the thing that is the only guarantee of eternal success should be easy.  Of course, that is not the case.  The flesh kicks and screams at the thought of agreeing with God.

     The list is endless:
       Are you in a difficult marriage?
       Is your job unpleasant? 
       Are you being falsely accused? Rejected?
       Tough financial times?
       A problem child?
       Sick?   Lonely? 

     The bottom line is always the same.    Will you agree with Him?  Is His Word true?

       For years, I tried to live according to the letter of His Word, having never met Him.  When He came to live in my heart, I found the Indwelling Holy Spirit was always instant in giving the power to choose God's way. (Not to imply that it was never a struggle.)

     So, the answer has to be, yes, I will lean.   He is the Potter and I am the Clay.  I will tell Him so.
     I must make sure I am not trying to live as though it were the other way around.

     There is simply nothing else.

     There is something penetratingly satisfying about fellowship with those who have walked with the Lord for many years.

     One of my favorite memories is my first SIM conference in Ethiopia.  It was almost twenty years ago, and it was during a period when a number of retired  missionaries were returning to Ethiopia to begin new works, or to support ongoing work.  Some were in their late seventies.    One couple was even older.  They were going to a location where they had spent a lifetime in translation and teaching, and all of the materials were destroyed and burned in war.  They were more or less starting over.

     I heard testimonies of God's faithfulness.  Over and over.  I heard simple declarations of priority.  The trivial was not given weight.

      For three days they sang and sang and and prayed and prayed.  There were testimony meetings that were hours long, but seemed like only minutes. They had a time of confession that was healthy and sweet and edifying.  My bed was crawling with bugs and  there was not enough food.  I didn't care.  I wanted it to last forever.

     Time teaches the faithful to bend to the important, rather than the urgent.

   ¹²The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful]; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible].

    ¹³Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God.

    ¹⁴[Growing in grace] they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap [of spiritual vitality] and [rich in the] verdure [of trust, love, and contentment].

    ¹⁵[They are living memorials] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

                     Psalm 92 (Amplified Bible)      

     How much of God do you want?

     When I first came to the Lord, a wise Christian told me that the farther you go with the Lord, the fewer you find on the path, but the more glorious the fellowship. That same Christian told me that If I were to serve the Lord, I should assume I would be hurt by other Christians and that I should predetermine to let it go upon recognition.

     The two bits of advice seem to go hand in hand.  Because there is room for the Holy Spirit to work, those who have decided to take up The Cross and follow Him no matter what, are also those who sidestep the quicksand of distraction.

     Thank the Lord that "He remembereth that we are dust."

     It seems to me that one of the rarest things in all the world is that Believer who, in the midst of personal anguish, will tell the Lord that he wants to be a living sacrifice and will submit to any design of his sovereign God.

     We so easily yield to feeling.   Yet, we want to be like the One who ". . .for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. . .
                 Hebrews 12:2  (Amplified Bible)

     Yes, we are sojourners, but it is a supernatural passage. 

     Soldier of The Cross, determine to be a minister of Life and then tell Him so. 
     No matter what or who or why.
     Tell Him aloud.

     Sometimes it takes one to know one:

     It takes a Soldier of The Cross to recognize another Soldier of The Cross.
     It takes one who prays to recognize one who prays.
     It takes one who has moved under the anointing to recognize another who is in the flow.

     It takes one who is filled with the Holy Spirit to recognize another who is genuinely filled.

     Humility recognizes humility.

         Lord, please take me and do absolutely anything that is needed in me to bring about your likeness.  If there are things in the deepest recesses of my heart that must go, I want to bring them forth and lay them at your feet.  Only you know what is needed.
         I want more of you Lord.  I want to be available to love with Calvary Love.

         So, I submit to the surgical knife of the Lover of My Soul.    

     Soldier of The Cross, you must be relentless in your pursuit of Him.

     There must be an affirmative determination to know Him.  To recognize Him.  To be filled with Him.  To reflect Him.

     Those who think about Him during the day have predetermined to do so.  Like Paul, they have decided that it is their "determined purpose."

     Investigate Him.   

     Have you ever asked Him to answer you according to Jeremiah 33:3? 
     Have you asked Him to reveal Himself to you?  Lately?
     Are you memorizing The Word?

     Feeling unworthy?  He who persecuted the Church was the one who said:

                 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection ^]which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death. . .
                                               Philippians 3:10   (Amplified Bible)