First of All Pray

Tag: prayer

  • Attitudes that accompany revival

    My friend stopped by for a chat last night. We were talking about what’s going on in current events and the huge need in our nation for massive revival.

    She then whipped out a section of Scripture (James 3:13-16) from the Message Bible that blew me away. We had been discussing the fact that prayer alone won’t bring an awakening, but that it must be accompanied by humbling ourselves and true repentance. What she shared was an illustration of how that might look. Here are the verses—buckle your seatbelts!

    “Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.”

    Verses 17-18 go on to say, “Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results ONLY IF YOU DO THE HARD WORK OF GETTING ALONG WITH EACH OTHER, TREATING EACH OTHER WITH DIGNITY AND HONOR.”

    Mercy, humility, integrity, and compassion must be built into our lifestyle and accompany our praying and bold stance in the Word in this strange age. As we relinquish arrogant pride and the need to be the smartest, the wisest, or the most important, God can back our words, our prayers, and our lives, flooding the earth with what may be the last great outpouring from Heaven.

    Dorothy

  • Pressing on to know the Lord

    So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth. Hosea 6:3

    People all over the church world are taking time now at the beginning of the year to seek God for direction and wisdom, correction and clearer vision for their lives.

    We are called to spend time with the Lord on a daily basis, but there are also seasons in which God draws His children into a more targeted, prolonged, and concentrated time of pressing in know Him on a deeper level.

    When you press on something, you are focusing your energy, attention, and strength on that particular object. When you press on to know the Lord, you are focusing your energy, attention, and strength on Him and what He has said in His Word.

    The fact that God will go forth is established. First, He will go forth in drawing near to you as you draw near to Him (see James 4:8). And then, He will watch over His Word as you place yourself in agreement with it to perform it (see Jeremiah 1:12). But in all of it, your primary focus as you press in is to know Him and to cooperate with His will in your life. The blessings and the promises that result from your concentrated time of seeking Him are gravy—good and glorious stuff, but the best part of pressing in is getting to know Him better.

    In the dead of winter, what better endeavor can you pursue than to press in to know your God more intimately? Winter, as long as it seems to be, will be over soon enough. The ground will start teeming with life and the days will grow longer as the chill starts to fade away. And the rains will start falling—the warm spring rains which saturate the thirsty earth and pour out promise of new life, blessings, and more active days. As you press on to know the Lord now, in a concentrated way, He promises to send the rain in due season to your life—the rain of promise, blessing, and renewal. So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD.

    I will be spending the next few weeks in a more focused way with the Lord, so I have decided to suspend my First of All Pray blog for this time period. As it stands now, I will return to the blog on Monday, January 26, 2015.

    Be blessed, and take some time in your schedule to press on to know the Lord.

    Dorothy