Category Archives: How to Pray

We all need help how to connect with God in prayer.

Jesus Prays for Us – Encouragement to Go on with Christ

Encouragement to go on with Jesus – that could also be the title of the book of Hebrews.

Jesus is praying for us to be encouraged to move forward with Him.

The author of Hebrews is trying to get the readers to get moving in a positive direction toward Jesus. The writer of Hebrews did not want the believers to go back, shrink back or accidentally fall back to an older way of tradition and legalism. So this verse mentions that Jesus is praying for us. Jesus is praying for us to be encouraged to move forward with Him.

Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. So have confidence in Jesus’ prayer for us.

In the New Testament,  everything focuses around Jesus. Jesus is the focus and the way to God. There is no other way.

Here is a short devotional video on “Jesus Prays for Us”

The word “uttermost” indicates the salvation Jesus gives us handles everything, so we can have complete confidence He will bring us to full complete maturity,  and not let us slide back to an old dead way such as legalism.

The phrase “He is able also to save” means that Jesus, because He is fully God and fully man, has the ability to save us and free us from sin. Here “save” is not just saving from Hell, but saving us from a sinful life.

The phrase “come unto God by Him” indicates that Jesus is the mediator between us and God. God is Holy and we are sinful. How could we touch or pray to the holy God except by Jesus, who because of His perfect sacrifice, on the cross fully made a way for us to come to God.

The phrase “He ever liveth to make intercession“, means He is constantly praying for us. Don’t worry,  Jesus is praying for us. He knows our every need.

I believe Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, but I could be wrong. Many students of the Bible do not agree that Paul wrote it. Some think Paul wrote it and some do not think he wrote it. To my realization the level of understanding of the place of the Old and New Testament, and the understanding of the unique place Jesus has in God’s overall plan and economy dictates that a very well Bible educated and understanding person wrote this book of Hebrews.

The New Testament represents a transition in what God expects and demands. In the Old Testament it was keeping the law, in the New Testament it is believing on Jesus. So we move from legalism to grace.

It is my theory that the letter of Hebrews would be better received by believers in Paul’s day if it was not perceived to have been written by Paul. This is just my theory.

A great transitional verse is John 1:17 where John says: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So we move from the “law” to “grace”. So which writer/author of the Bible really understood this and could express it as we see in the book of Hebrews. I think only Paul, but I realize there are other considerations.

Paul had the best understanding of the transition to the new and could wade through the Old Testament Jewish ceremonial law (given by Moses) and interpret in in light of what Jesus did on the cross.  Please look at Romans 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.  Again here we see the law is not able to save man, so God sent His son. Trying to keep the law and legalism will not take us on to maturity in our Christian life. Only grace takes us on.

Also Paul said this in Galatians 2:20  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. Paul was so clear the new way is just Jesus. The new way is not a compromise between the old and new,  and not something added to the old. It is just Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life

Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them

This verse in Hebrews indicates that Jesus is praying for us to go on with Jesus and not go back or compromise to an older way such as the law or legalism.

Jesus Prays for Us – Encouragement to Go on with Christ

Jesus Prays for Us – Encouragement to Go on with Christ

Be Encouraged.

Worship God in Spirit

Out of everything in the whole universe, our human spirit is the most important because it allow us to worship God who is Spirit.

God wants worship, the best (and only) way is to worship God is with our spirit, because God is Spirit. See John 4:24 where Jesus says “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”.  Notice where there is a capital Spirit referring to God, and a lower case spirit related to our human spirit.

So watch this short devotional video on “Worship God in Spirit”

Then in the book of Zechariah, the writer in 12:1 talks about the heavens, the earth and the spirit of man.  Zechariah 12:1  “The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth,
and formeth the spirit of man within him”.

In the whole universe, our human spirit is the most important because it allow us to worship God who is Spirit.  Having a human spirit is like having a radio receiver tuned to the right frequency to connect with and listen to God who on the “Spirit” wavelength.

Worship God in Spirit

Worship God in Spirit

Intimacy Between God and Man

God loves us. God is love. It is hard to find a religion where God loves man.
God wants an intimate loving relationship between God and man. When man sins, God loves to restore us. He does not give up on us. The Bible is about God and man.

We as sinful man need a mediator between us and a holy sinless God, and that mediator is Jesus Christ.

Please watch this short video on “Intimacy Between God and Man”

John 14:21
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Dead Sea, Israel

Dead Sea, Israel

Listen To Jesus

It’s so easy to get distracted with good religious things and miss Jesus. Jesus is the focus of the New Testament. Jesus is the main subject. Even the good disciples like Peter could get distracted with doing something “great” for God and miss the Son of God, Jesus, who was standing right there.

So watch this short video on “Listen to Jesus”

In Matthew 17,  Jesus takes His top three disciples up to a mountain, and there Jesus was transfigured or glorified. He probably looked like He might appear in heaven. His top three disciples were Peter, James and John. Peter had a great idea, but God did not agree with the idea and so God spoke from the heavens. God said “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him“. Too many times we have a “great idea” for God. But many times God does not agree and may speak to us and tell us to just “Listen to Jesus”. So how do we “listen to Jesus”, the easiest and best way is to just read the Bible.

God Helps Us Pray

God Helps Us Pray

Here are three key verses in the Bible showing us how God helps us pray.  Even Elijah the great prophet in the Old Testament was weak like us, and many times had trouble knowing how to pray. In James 5, James describes Elijah as a man with “like passions” which means he has feelings and weaknesses like us. So don’t feel bad when you or I feel like we don’t know how to pray, or even don’t want to pray. Elijah had very similar feelings.

In this video I present three key verses in the Bible indicating how God helps us pray.

John 15:7
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Romans 8:26
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Hebrews 7:25
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Prayer is Simple

Prayer is Simple

We hate to admit it, but we are pretty good at taking simple things and making them hard. The same is true when it comes to prayer. Our prayers don’t need to be eloquent or profound, nor do they have to be long and drawn out, or filled with emotion.

Deer in the trees

Deer in the trees

Prayer is really nothing more than a conversation between the believer and his God. When we come to the Father in prayer, we should come with a heartfelt attitude of humility and complete dependence upon Him. We should acknowledge that He is the Shepherd, and we are the sheep.

In this video I present three key verses in the Bible indicating how God helps us pray.

We often know what we want when we approach God in prayer, but surprisingly often we don’t know what we need. We can always trust God, and be confident that He knows exactly what we need, and what is best for us in every circumstance of life. This is true whether we are experiencing a mountaintop of joy, or the depths of darkness and despair. He seeks His glory and desires to make us more like Jesus. What more should we desire?

Mount Hood, Oregon from 30,000 feet

Mount Hood, Oregon from 30,000 feet

Admittedly there are times we come to God overwhelmed with anxiety, and full of confusion—so much so, that we don’t even know how to pray. At those moments, Romans 8:26 teaches us that God’s Spirit intercedes and prays for us in perfect conformity with the Father’s will.

Jesus Prayed

Jesus Prayed

California Beach

California Beach

It’s so simple. Let God pray through you just like Elijah allowed God to pray through him. When we do this, you could say we are actually praying the Lord’s prayer—not the familiar prayer in Matthew 6 we have come to know as the Lord’s Prayer, but we are simply praying what God wants us to pray.

California Beach

California Beach

Anger Kills Us – Jonah

Jonah’s anger is killing him. He’s a miserable man because he’s not free—he’s still a slave to his own bitterness, limitations, and weaknesses. Some of us are miserable for the same reasons. God is working on us, teaching us to trust Him (that is trust God) specifically in those areas where it’s so very, very hard to discern what He’s doing and why.

California Beach

California Beach

Friends with God

John 15:13-15

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

California Beach

California Beach