Category Archives: Encouragement

Encouragement

Prayer – By My Spirit

Zechariah 4:6 So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,‘ Says the LORD of hosts.

Prayer is not what we can do, but what God by His Spirit can do.  It is hard sometime to just trust God to work on something by His Spirit without our might and ability.  All we have to do is get in touch with Him and keep in communion with Him, then just let Him do the work by His Spirit.   He is full of energy and ability and power and might.  Its not by our power and ability, its just all Him that answers prayer in His time and by His Spirit.

Stand Still, and See

In Exodus 14:13 it says:  And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. There is something about just standing with God, sometime doing nothing but just believing God in the midst of a rough situation.  Just a quiet prayer to have faith in God and in what He will eventually do.

Kingdom Prayer – Part 2

Consider these Kingdom prayer verses in Matthew.    Matthew 12:25-29   But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.   26 “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?   27 “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast [them] out? Therefore they shall be your judges.   28″But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.   29 “Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.   30 “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

So in this passage in Matthew, Jesus, the Son of God, the redeemer, the savior, that is, King Lord Jesus encountered a little opposition.   To the Lord, it was just a little struggle between the powers of light and darkness.  He was not worried,  Jesus knew the final end of the Devil, He knew the final end of the earth was to be under God’s full control. Just look at Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

The Kingdom and Prayer

The gospel of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament presents Jesus as the King.  Because of the Kingdom,  there is much struggle between the Lord Jesus Christ as the King, and the king (lower case ‘k’) of this world (Satan and his little defeated angels).  When one considers prayer in this book, it is Kingdom prayer to bring in God’s Kingdom.  After all,  God created the earth and also owns it.  See Psalms 2:1 Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing?   2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, [saying,]   3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.”   4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision. He (God) Laughs!  Well, how can a created being (kings of the earth) stand again the creator, eventually the creator will win.  Look at the end of the Bible, where Satan, the anti-Christ and the false prophet all find their place in the lake of fire, and not in heaven.  p.s. don’t follow the devil to that place.

So when we pray against evil,  like it says at the end of the Lord’s prayer “deliver us from evil” expect a little opposition, but eventually God, the creator and owner of the universe will win.  Just stay on His side.

Delight Thyself in the Lord

Try this prayer verse:  Psalm 37:4  Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give three the desires of your heart. The verse talks about prayer, but does not use the word or phrase “prayer”.   This gets to what is essential with prayer – delighting ourselves with the Lord.  This means the Lord’s will, the Lord’s desires, the Lord’s intentions, and of course the Lord’s Word.

Consider this verse in Isaiah  58:13,14  13 ” If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, [From] doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy [day] of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking [your own] words,   14 Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”  That’s a big verse that defines making ourselves happy in the Lord.

Elisha Prayed – Open His Eyes

2 Kings 6:15  And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who [are] with us [are] more than those who [are] with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain [was] full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

The key words here is “Elisha Prayed”  (note:  this is different from “Elijah Prayed”).     Elijah and Elisha are two different men of God, both who know the power and ability of prayer.

Notice here in 2 Kings 2:9 And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

So Elisha prayed “Open his eyes”.   Notice he did not pray for power but just to see what God had already done and what God was about to do.  The Lord God had angels taking care of the seemingly impossible situation.