Ephesians
singing
and making melody in your heart to the
Lord;”
The Music of “LIFE” Series: May the
Mind of Christ My Savior
I.
May the
mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to
day,
By His
love and pow’r controlling all I do and
say.
II.
May the
Word of God dwell richly in my heart from hour to
hour,
So that
all may see I triumph only thru His pow’r.
III.
May the
peace of God my Father rule my life in
ev’rything
That I may
be calm to comfort sick and sorrowing.
IV.
May the
love of Jesus fill me as the waters fill the
sea;
Him
exalting, self abasing---THIS is victory.
V.
May I run
the race before me, strong and brave to face the
foe,
Looking
only unto Jesus as I onward go.
VI.
May His
beauty rest upon me as I seek the lost to
win,
And may
they forget the channel, seeing ONLY HIM.
Read Scripture: John 14:12-14
Topic: Prayer
Jesus is speaking: “Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do
also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my
Father.
And whatsoever ye shall
ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified
in the Son.
If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I
will do it.
We first must believe in WHO Jesus Christ is: God, the
Savior of the world,
Lord, Almighty, Creator, King
of Kings and Lord of Lords…these are just some of
the things we believe concerning Jesus, before we
can have His Mind, His
Heart, His Perspective, His
Word in us to access the power of His controlling all
we do and say. And John, in verse 12 tells us we will
do “greater works”. What
greater work could we possibly do? Verse 13 tells us to
‘ask’…that is to pray…
and verse 14, Jesus says, He
will do it.
To pray, is but to talk with God; to ask, to petition Him, according to His mind; according to His name. And, all this being true, that is, being on the same page as God and His thinking, His Mind, His Heart and having the same interest that are the Lord’s interest, Jesus says, He “will do it”! But, we must ask!
Oswald Chambers tells us “Prayer doesn’t fit us for the greater works; prayer
is the greater work.” (My Utmost for His Highest, October
17).
Prayer is not a magic formula, nor is it an exercise we do to ‘get’
things WE desire. Prayer is not a
last resort effort, after all of our efforts have failed or been exhausted. Chambers puts it this way, “…prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in
me…” and he goes on to say, that this miracle
produces “the miracle of Redemption in
others…” This is not by any mystical act of our own;
no, but “by the power of God”.
We are God’s man in the gap. Our prayers will be answered if we are
His, Jesus says in verse 14. Being that ‘man in the gap’, we bear an
awesome responsibility to pray and prayer is not going to be easy.
Remembering we cannot be “unborn”, that is, our salvation is sure and
secure, the Enemy’s recourse is to then influence our choices and in particular
to keep us from prayer. We find
ourselves in a battle to pray.
Intellectually and emotionally, we know and want to pray diligently. Our mouths tell others with
well-meaning sincerity, that we will pray for them---but
we forget, or time gets
away from us and self-interest interrupts our “sincere”
intentions and we don’t
pray as we
ought to pray. And then, sometimes,
we miss a great opportunity to pray corporately when we don’t come together with
other believers on Wednesday evening’s Prayer Meeting.
Satan is alive and well, and his powers of influence are certainly strong
in winning the little battles in our lives. His ‘Hsss” whispers in our heart and
mind that our prayer doesn’t matter.
Of course, the Father of Lies, is relentless. If we, the redeemed, do not pray, who
then will pray and be heard of the Father?
Walking intimately and close to the Lord, we will hear Him throughout the
day. And, when we do, our eyes and
discernment will be sensitive and open to His directive: to pray throughout the
day, and offer impromptu prayers at a moment’s notice. He will help us to see prayer needs that
may not necessarily be obvious to the non-listening ear. He will help us to see the heart of a
matter that needs prayer.
In short, we will see and hear from God’s perspective and
not our own. This being the
circumstances of our intimate walk with the Lord, we will pray according to His
will and His interest in others.
Will He not answer, “yes”?
If when we individually pray according to God’s will and He answers,
YES, imagine how God will answer, how He will bless when we are
gathered together to pray corporately.
It is an hour of power!!
What a spiritual revolution, what a revival could take place in the town
of
in our unsaved families and unsaved friends, if we would
obediently come to worship and pray together at the mid-week services. The Holy Spirit, abiding in each one of
us would permeate our place of worship and
prayer!
May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to
day,
By His love and pow’r controlling all I do and
say.
May the Word of God dwell richly in my heart from hour to
hour,
So that all may see I triumph only thru His
pow’r.
I Peter 4:1 tells us to “arm ourselves
with the same mind…”
Ephesians 6:13 says to, “…take unto you the
whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and
having done all, to stand.”
In Oswald Chambers, The Place of Help, page 214, he relates that we
should not rely on anything less than putting on “the whole armour of God”! He says we should clothe ourselves
with a relationship to God and to maintain
it.
He goes on to say:
“If you do not arm yourself with the armour of God, you are open to interferences in your hidden personal life from supernatural powers which you cannot control; but buckle on the armour, bring yourself into real living contact with God, and you are garrisoned not only in the conscious realm but in the depths of your personality beneath the conscious realm. “Praying always,” says Paul. Every time we pray our horizon is altered, our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes but every time, and the amazing thing is that we don’t pray more. Prayer is a complete emancipation, it keeps us on the spiritual plane… a communion is between God and yourself; “Keep that going,” says Peter. “Arm ye yourselves also with the same mind.”
Chambers goes on to give us this
challenge:
“Are you neglecting prayer? No matter what else is neglected, switch back at once, if you don’t you will be a dangerous influence to the people round about you. Watch the snare of self-pity—“Why should I go through this?” Be careful, you are a danger spot. I feel as if Jesus Christ were staggered with surprise at some of us, amazed at the things we say to Him, astonished at our attitude to Him, at the sulks we get into, because we have forgotten to arm ourselves with the same mind.”
May the love of Jesus fill me as the waters fill the
sea;
Him exalting, self abasing---THIS is
victory.
May I run the race before me, strong and brave to face
the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus as I onward
go.
May His beauty rest upon me as I seek the lost to
win,
And may they forget the channel, seeing ONLY
HIM.
Oswald Chambers adds this from the same account of October
17th’s devotional, “it is the laboring saint who makes the conception
of His Master possible. You labor
at prayer and results happen all the time from His
standpoint.”
The challenge is there before us as God’s children…to pray. “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior (our
Savior) be our focus as we labor in prayer for the kingdom’s
sake.
Prepared by Mercedes S.
Whelan
for
February 2,
2008