142. PRAYER CHANGES EVERYTHING .Exodus 32:13.

If you are not sure prayer can change the situation you are in right now, Read the story of Moses interceding with God not to destroy the Israelites because of their idolatry and the golden calf; Moses tried to get God to change His mind… saying in (Exodus 32:11,13-14 “Remember the solemn promise You made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You promised that someday they would have as many descendents as there are stars in the sky and that You would give them land.” So, even though The Lord had threatened to destroy the people, He changed His mind and let them live. Moses was on his face before god one minute and in God’s face the next, For the lives of his people, he was on his knees, pointing his finger, raising his hands, crying tears, tearing his cloak and wrestling like Jacob at the brook. Notice how Moses prayed. First, he reminded God of His covenant promises. He stood on THE WORD.! If there is one thing that will get God’s attention and cause Him to respond to your needs, it’s standing on HIS WORD. God’s Word in the situation is always God’s Will on any matter. (1John 5:14-15) tells us “ We are confident He hears us whenever we ask Him for anything that pleases Him. And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know He will give us what we ask for.” You and I are similar to electric wire through which God’s power and presence can flow into any situation, and by praying we are turning on the switch. So instead of complaining about the mess we find ourself in, we need to start praying about it. Look up the relevant Scriptures and hold them up to God in prayer. The Bible says in (Hebrews11:6) “Without Faith it is impossible to please God.” God’s greatest desire is to be believed. You and I can pray regularly and ritually and even feel closer to God as a result, yet not truly expecting Him to answer our prayer, or for the circumstances to change. I will give an example here: (Hypothetical) We’ll say I have a daughter who is living a life of prostitution, She is doing very well with high level, influential clients, has a beautiful home, car and wardrobe. She Is well paid, and gets taken out to all the finest Restaurants shows etc. Yes, she’s doing very well for herself and can see no reason why she should change her life. Now, what does a parent do? Yes, get down on your knees, beg and plead for your child, and remind God of His promises, acknowledge Him as the only solution to this predicament But, when a house is on fire, there’s no point in just praying that God will put it out, No! YOU have to ring the Fire Brigade and get them there. You and I have to DO something and sometimes that something means sacrificing your own relationship with that child (That’s what Moses was asked to do) to get them back to God. And that’s a very hard thing to do. But, rather than do that, many parents will turn a blind eye to their children’s elicit relationships without confronting the situation with God’s Word; Thinking they will loose their child if they challenge him/her. How much faith did Moses have? How much faith do we really have? That, is measured by how much we trust God?..We read, ”Without Faith it is impossible to please God.” and James tells us “Faith without works is dead” So, Is your faith Dead 0r Alive? To keep anything alive and growing, (from relationships, plants tools etc) we have to maintain, feed and use them regularly, the spiritual world is no different, ‘if you don’t use it you loose it.’ I have discovered the more one uses God’s gifts the more He enhances them. I’m not bragging, but take a look at some of my earlier writings, and compare them with these later ones, I believed God and trusted Him that He could use someone who was then 87 years of age and almost blind to write these teachings, use a computer, get them on a blog and send them round the world. No, that hasn’t been my doing, but, that’s what God can do with the little measure of faith I’ve been given, so what can He do with you younger ones who are fully sighted and much better equipped than I. Pray for Faith. “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” show me how to trust you more, show me how to put you first in ALL things even with my family. Remember this: We cannot receive God’s best until we are willing to give Him our most valued. Yes, it’s hard, very hard, but God is never outdone with His generosity, love and peace. So to experience God’s best, trust Him with your best. Peter had been put in prison and sentenced to death, and his execution was scheduled for the next day. So the church prayed all night for his release. And miraculously it happened. God put the guards to sleep, opened the cell doors and prison gates and sent an angel to guide him out of the prison. He set Peter free. He answered the prayer of the church. Yet when he (Peter) appeared on the doorstep of the believers house where they were praying, they couldn’t believe it; A servant girl told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”They told her she was out of her mind, but when she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel” Even the early disciples struggled to believe that God would hear their prayers. Yes, even when the answer to their request was knocking on their door, they still hesitated and we do that too. We all struggle with prayer. We forget to pray, and when we do remember, we rush through prayer with quick, insincere words and our thoughts disperse like a flock of birds, are you wondering why this happen?, Well, you can pray and connect with God anywhere at any time using your own words, and God has promised to answer you, so what is the problem? I believe, we often take God for granted, or treat Him as an automatic switchboard, press button 1.for urgent, press 2 For express delivery, press 3 for your preferred colour etc!! we wouldn’t admit it, but that’s what many of us do, and then wonder why our prayers are not answered. We need to realise the incredible power and potential of the seriously praying believer, (2 Corinthians 10:4 tells us) “our weapons have power from God that can destroy the enemy’s strong places.” Do you believe that? do you realise and understand that when your prayer truly touches God’s Heart, You are a Satan evicting “Atom Bomb”? and things happen!. God puts up His “hands off” sign and that’s when Satan has to leave the area of your prayer. So don’t just pray, believe God for the answer then talk and act like you believe Him!! by doing what needs to be done. If we believe God is worthy and anxious to answer our prayer, then surely we should be prepared to give Him the time, perseverance and uninterrupted concentration of our sincere prayers, When Jesus said “Go to your room and shut the Door” , this is exactly what He was talking about. Practise being alone with God, take nothing but your Bible, God will often speak through Biblical stories, parables, Scriptural events, visions or even words in your head. If you only have 10 minutes or 30 tell Him so, but sit there and ask Him to speak to you. The mere fact that you are prepared to spend time with Him alone will speak volumes to God. Don’t worry if nothing happens the first few times you try this, keep doing it once a day or once a week, God may be testing your faith, and sometimes, God waits before He answers you because He is working on both ends of the line. At the same time; He is working on the thing you prayed about, and He is also working on getting you ready for it. And often the second thing takes longer than the first. As the old Hymn says”Oh what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” So don’t get down hearted, one day you will hear God’s voice I promise you. Just take the time effort and the measure of faith you have been given and offer them to God and see what He does with it.! Remember these 2 things, 1. Practise makes perfect, 2. Satan will try to stop you from spending time alone with God. Don’t let him do that. Thank you for reading my thoughts on how “Prayer Changes Everything” It really does! But only if we are prepared to do our part. May God Bless His praying people. Phaline -----------------------