Is your relationship right with the Father?

 We come to the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ. His relationship with the Father is always right and by being born again we entered into a relationship with Jesus. We became one with Him, not our own. When we act independently we break that relationship because we are not believing who He is and what He has done for us, the relationship needs to be restored by confession and repentance of sin.

To have the righteousness of God there has to be a cleansing by blood. Jesus Christ shed His blood to cleanse us but we still have to walk in a righteous relationship with Him.

Some people say that because we live in the age of grace sin and trespass is not a problem, but grace is only there to keep us alive until we come to a place of repentance.

We should be living by the faith of the Son of God.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

• I am crucified with Christ:
• nevertheless I live;
• yet not I,
• but Christ liveth in me:
• and the life which I now live in the flesh
• I live by the faith of the Son of God,
• who loved me, and
• gave himself for me.

Faith must always be based on fact and not on assumption.

• The bible is the word of God.
• The bible is truth.
• The bible is life.

To gain that life we have to take the words of truth and make them real to ourselves.

The bible does not save, but the word of God leads to salvation when we apply it to our lives.

We apply it by believing it and trusting it and trusting and believing God.

The words in the bible show us the potential but it is as we apply it, that it becomes the experiential.

Faith is believing.

The works of faith are acting on those beliefs and living according to those beliefs.

If you live by the faith of the Son of God, your life should be showing the Son of God.

If you are crucified with Christ, you no longer exist, but you are alive because you have Christ within you. Therefore you should only be showing the life of Christ, a life of righteousness, peace and joy, holy and acceptable to the Father.

What is the motivation of your prayer?

 Is your prayer motivated by the righteousness of the Father or by self-righteousness?

We died to self when we became alive to God and one with Jesus, if we are praying prayers of self-righteousness we are going against what we have become and God cannot answer them.

Jas_4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Is your prayer heavenly or worldly?

1Jn_2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

When we pray for things that we lust after, the things of the world, how can we expect God to fulfil our prayer. Jesus told us not to worry about these things but rather seek the Kingdom of God and then these things will be added to us.

Are we praying for the right things?

When we pray with regards to a problem are we praying for the cause or for the effect?

If we pray for the effect God cannot answer us, we need to pray for the cause.

When we pray for the sick there are three possible causes so we need to pray for the right one.

We see that Jesus prayed against sickness differently for each cause.

• Sin causes stress – stress causes sickness. Jesus forgave the sin, the stress went and the sickness with it.
• Problems with creation. Jesus rubbed mud in the eyes of the blind man, we are made from dust and water and this was an act of recreation.
• Sickness from an outside source, accidents, contagious diseases etc. Jesus prayed for them and then sent them to the priests to be made right before God.

When we pray for others they must believe or we are praying to no avail. There believe should be shown in their thoughts, words and deeds.

It’s no good to pray for someone to be healed of lung cancer if they refuse to stop smoking, the thing that caused it in the first place.

Are we praying with the will of God?

First we need to know what the will of God is.

• It is God’s will that all men should be saved.
• It is God’s will that all men should be righteous.
• It is God’s will that all men should be sanctified.
• It is God’s will that all men should be Holy.
• It is God’s will that all men should be perfect.

We need to judge everything in our life by these parameters. God is not as concerned with what we do in life but as how we do it.

Do we believe what we pray for?

If we do not believe or have doubts in what we pray for how can God give us the right answer.

Mat_21:22  And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

God does not only hear the words of our mouth but also sees the meditation of our heart.

Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Do we take responsibility for the need of prayer?

We are the cause of all the problems in our lives.

For every cause there is an effect.

Science tells us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The reason that we are in the position that we are in is because of choices, decisions and actions that we have taken in our lives. It maybe because we knew no better; but we are still responsible for how and where we are.

It is only when we take ownership of our problems that God can help us to come through them.

 Do we tell God how to answer our prayer?

We often try to tell God what to do. We tell Him how we want our prayers to be answered. We forget that God’s ways are not our ways and the way that we want our prayers to be answered can often be harmful to us, spiritually, mentally and physically.

When we want an answer to prayer we must let God do it in His own way in His own time. We must stand back and wait. When we interfere we can do more harm than good.

While we are waiting for the answer we just need to thank Him for hearing our prayer and for bringing us the answer.

We can also ask Him if there is anything that we need to do (such as Repent) so that He can answer our prayer.

Are We Being Double Minded?

Jas 1:8  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

What is double minded?

Double minded is when we say one thing but do another.

We have the age old expression of parents to their offspring, “do as I say not as I do”.

Often we know what is right but we deliberately do what is wrong for our own benefit.

When two ways are offered we take the easier one rather than the one we know to be right.

We have often heard the expression about somebody “Holy in church on Sunday and a Holy terror the rest of the week.”

Double minded does not just mean extremes; most times it is more subtle such as when we tell a person something good to their face and then gossip about them behind their back.