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Tossed with tempest, and seemingly not comforted, could have been your story, these past couple of years, but even in challenging times, You have a compassionate God, whose grace never departs, and whose covenant of peace always prevails in your life, as He hears and answers your prayer [Isaiah 54:10]. You are never abandoned or forsaken. And His promise to you is that He will build you up, as a demonstration of His glorious power and His character, displaying in His Person, the Fatherhood of God. Indeed, as it is written, The Lord has built up Zion; He has appeared in His glory [Psalm 102:16].
And, as the life of the patriarch, Abraham’s has testified, to be true even in your life and mine, as descendants of Abraham by faith, God is its Architect and Builder [Hebrews 11:10]. He has a purpose for your life, a divine pattern, or design, regarding which He gives you understanding. The Lord made me understand is how the psalmist, King David expressed it, even as he entrusted into the hand of his son Solomon, the plan and intricate details, for constructing the temple of God in Jerusalem [1 Chronicles 28:19]. It was specific and unique, for it was a copy of the heavenly things, a shadow of the reality of heaven.
Confidence – for HE has spoken:
For, it is when your life is designed according to His specifications, His good and perfect will for your life, that the goodness of heaven can be your portion, your foretaste, even as you live here on earth. And it requires a godly understanding to flow within you, that you may appropriate it in your life, as a very present reality. And continuing to study the prayer of David will lead you forward in the path to it, enabling you to see how it can come to pass in your life even today, for the word of God remains timeless and true, For You, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed this to Your servant, saying, I will build you a house. Therefore Your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to You [2 Samuel 7:27].
The principle to be gleaned from it is that when God has revealed His will and purpose to you, it gives you clarity, and therefore confidence and courage to venture forth, even in such a time as this when observing covid appropriate behavior, with all its implications is still quite necessary. And the opposite is very true too; for not hearing from God can lead only to confusion, worry, and anxiety concerning taking your next step forward. It drives home the importance of king David’s words of acknowledgment and thankfulness in saying, Lord, you made me understand.
For, God’s will is God’s word. And your faith is activated, when you hear from God, to know the will of God, and receive it rightly, to confess it with your mouth, to then align your conduct to be in line with it. And the Lord being the Author and Finisher of your faith will bring what He has begun in you to a flourishing finish that sees you accomplishing the will of God for your life that He may be glorified, and you may be fulfilled. Today, it is by the written word of God, that you are called to study and meditate upon day and night, that God reveals His will for you.
Faith – with a doubt!
There need not be in you the doubt that plagued the leper, even as he came to the Lord for healing And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him saying, ‘Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean’ [Matthew 8:2]. Being afflicted with a disease that carried with it a social stigma, he was in a sense-making himself vulnerable in succumbing to his doubt in asking the question. For if the Lord’s reply had not been positive, the disappointment would have emotionally crushed him. But the Lord in His compassion reached out His hand to touch him saying, I am willing; be cleansed. Immediately his leprosy was cleansed [vs 3].
The above miracle vividly portrays the powerful role that knowing the will of God plays in praying and submitting your requests confidently unto Him. And it is the unchanging truth that God’s will is always to heal you and make you well, whatever may be the sickness that you happen to encounter in your life’s journey. He desires to bless and heal you. He is willing. And it is the level at which you are able to receive and understand the truth of it that determines His willingness.
Faith – with absolute confidence:
For just a little later, a centurion came to the Lord, for the healing of his servant. And his approach of faith was radically different, one that the Lord Himself commanded, as He granted his request. It was just His word that the centurion asked for in faith. And there was a background to it. For, being a person of authority, he knew that his spoken word was sufficient to command obedience in the soldiers under him.
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed’ [Matthew 8:8]. There was no question at all in his mind about the will of God concerning the healing of his servant. And he knew that a word from God was all that was needed for the sickness to depart. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, is what is written in the scriptures. And it was the truth that was revealed in the words of the centurion, and also needs to become what is established in your heart and mine, and every child of God, big or small.
It does not happen overnight though, and you may start in the words of the leper, regarding God’s will about your health and healing. But faith is invariably a journey, in which you need to grow, to reach the place of the centurion, of trusting in the power and sufficiency of the word of God that comes to you to address your situation.
And the wondrous fact is that He speaks to you today, through what He has already spoken. He has plans, a design and a pattern, to prosper you, to give you a future and a hope [Jeremiah 29:11]. It is written concerning you in the scriptures [Psalm 40:7,8]. He has called you by name, saying He has redeemed you, and you are His. It has already been written. And it is not by reading by rote, but in a relationship with the Heavenly Father meditating upon the word of God that you receive God’s beautiful picture for your life as a divine revelation in your spirit. When you begin to learn more and more of Him as His disciple, it is then that His promise of you always being the head and not the tail comes to pass, for it is the head which makes the decisions, and thus is the leader, while the tail simply follows.
Knowing – the will of God:
As the Lord Himself has spoken, ‘If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you’ [John 15:7]. As the word ‘abiding’ implies, it is by living. It is you living in Him, and His word living in you. And the outcome of it is being comforted as a child is, the moment it is in its mother’s arms. Words often become superfluous, for the heart of a mother has been designed to effortlessly figure out why her child is crying. And in a similar manner, when gathered together in a church setting, you can experience the loving embrace of the Father, even without a word being spoken. And sometimes it can be just one word from Him, even as the centurion asked in the faith of the Lord, that can soothe and heal you to bring clarity to pray, not tentatively, but with courage and confidence.
Needless to say is the fact, that He can speak to you, much more through His promises in the scriptures, that are all ‘yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Christ Jesus. Doubts may arise, as the devil tries to bring division in your thoughts to make you unstable, and hence become unable to receive anything from the Lord in prayer. It is then that you need to go back to the word of God, for the devil’s policy is to divide and rule, while the Lord brings people together and blesses them.
Living Word – living in Him; His word living in you:
He is the Living Word. His word is more than black letters on white paper. For in the beginning was the word; the word was with God, and the Word was God. The very same word lives in you to hear you, and speak to you giving you clarity in knowing and understanding what God has made available for you that you may approach Him with confidence, that even as it is written, you can ask, and you shall receive.
Knowing – what to ask of God:
It is seen in the life of King Solomon, that he knew as a very young man, to ask of God, that which matters the most in life. And in the early chapters of the book of proverbs, he has written about the valuable things that his father and mother had taught him. And in all probability, as an offshoot of it, when God bid him in his dream, to ask of Him anything that he desired, his very apt and right request was, Therefore, give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge these great people of Yours?” [1 king 3:9].
It pleased the heart of God to such an extent that He went on to promise Solomon even the things that he had not asked for, both riches and honor, so that there would not be any other king like him all his days [1 king 3:13]. But when money and wealth is not allotted the place that it needs to occupy, the lure of money can be a person’s downfall, as the more money you have, the more you will want to have of it. For the eye is never satisfied with seeing, and, as in the case of lust, it would only be like feeding the fire. The importance of wisdom and understanding therefore is set forth with crystal clear clarity, by Solomon, in the book of proverbs , to declare ‘Wisdom is the principal thing’. Therefore, get wisdom, and in all your getting, get understanding [Proverbs 4:7].
It is when the word lives in you, that you will know what is the will of God, to ask of Him what you desire, and also proceed to receive it from Him. For, godly discernment is what paves the way to choose between what is good and what is the best that God has for you, in order to pray confidently that it may be yours. It was the wisdom and understanding that was in Solomon, young and inexperienced as he then was , when God Himself gave him the option of asking Him for whatever he wanted. On the other hand, like a gold ring on a swine’s nose, is a beautiful woman who lacks understanding or discretion. And it is the wise woman who builds up her home. They are all written in the scriptures that you and I may pay heed to what is needed in order to be able to pray with confidence and courage to receive a favorable answer from the Lord.
When you pray for your children you need to have the understanding, the perception that they are your inheritance from God, entrusted in your hand for a specific purpose. Moreover, as it has been said, God has only children and not grandchildren, you yourself are a child of God, and His precious inheritance. You therefore have a Father who knows your every need, even before you voice it, or even become aware of it. Your responsibility lies in knowing and understanding Him more and more by deepening your relationship with Him, as you focus on the word of God. For, turning away from it can end up making your prayer repulsive or in other words fruitless, without power and a wonderful result, One who turns away from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination [Proverbs 28:9].
Prayer can become an empty ritual when you do not want to listen to what God has to say to you, but want Him to listen to you in order to perform your dictates! It needs to be a divine dialogue, a conversation with Him, as you hear from Him through His word, even as you pour out your heart to Him, and you can only say, ‘Be it unto me, O Lord, according to Your word’, as your lingering doubts are blown away.
The word – living in you richly:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom [Colossians 3:16]. Paul’s words to the church at Colosse, is a journey that begins with a single step, as you reach out to hear and meditate upon the word of God; and as it is written, it is how you receive clarity and confidence to approach and receive from the Lord in prayer, as you continually abide in Him. Even as a child begins to learn to read and write with letters, and then progresses to words and sentences, it is with learning verses of scripture, that it all begins in the spiritual realm in your communication with God. And it will then see you progress to receiving the teaching of scriptures with understanding that gives you confidence in your prayer regarding any issue.
And though you may begin with needing a thousand words from God before you understand His message, grace will ultimately take you to the place where just one word from Him, will give the understanding of a thousand words in your heart, leading you then to say concerning it, ‘Lord, let Your Kingdom come, and let Your will be done’. It is the indescribable power of the word of God, dwelling in you richly. It is also what will bring clarity even in the midst of confusion and chaos, as your understanding of the word of God is deepened, to give you the courage to move forward even in these challenging times to do what is needed for His glory, that you may accomplish His purpose for your life.
The Lord was crucified, laid behind a stone, But He took the fall, and thought of you, above all. And as you partake of the Lord’s Table in Holy Communion, it is with the deepened understanding of what He has already accomplished for you, on the Cross of Calvary, that it can be appropriated by you, to become your life’s experience, in His time. Even now as you give thanks unto the Father, may the deepened understanding of His word, become your blessed portion in life, for His glory. In the Name of Christ Jesus Amen.
