Our Prayer Partner: Pastor Rajiv's Mid-Week Message

Today we going to continue our series of messages on prayer based on O.S. Hawkins’ book the prayer code.

How many of you have heard of the term “prayer partnership?”

Prayer partnership is when two people tie up and make a pact to pray together at the same pre-decided time even though they may be located at different places.

Now we may not be practicing prayer partnership in our own lives even though it is a practice that brings considerable blessing but all of us each one of us who are believers in the lord Jesus Christ has a prayer partner.

Surprised? Yes, the holy spirit is our personal prayer partner.

He is with us all the time, he searches our hearts & helps in our weaknesses and, above all intercedes for us according to god’s will.

The Holy Spirit lives in the life of every believer who has called on the name of our lord Jesus Christ.

Hawkins explains that our bodies are the holy spirit’s Holy place and because he is in us, he does on our bodies what our lord Jesus Christ does for us before God the father & makes intercession for us.

The holy spirit is our personal prayer partner.

We can learn more about the holy spirit by asking 4 very pertinent questions.

Firstly a ‘what question’ - what does the holy spirt actually do? " likewise, the spirit also helps in our weaknesses".

The holy spirit helps us to pray. In other words, He lends a hand.

How? By coming alongside, and taking part in our prayers and making our prayers more effective.

Paul reminds us that “for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought”,

Why? Because we are weak, and we do need help especially when it comes to praying. A help which is not available to us through self-help books. It is only available to us from our prayer partner - The Holy spirit.

So that is what the holy spirit does: it helps in our prayer life.

Then we ask a ‘where question’. Where does the holy spirit help us? It helps in our weaknesses.

Hawkins reminds us that many of us are not very healthy when it comes to an effective prayer life.

Jesus saw this in his disciples who could not watch and pray with him for even an hour in the garden of Gethsemane which was the time of his greatest need.

This is why he sent us the holy spirit whom he called the helper so that he could help us where we are weak, and the truth is that we are pretty weak in our prayer life.

Here Hawkins cautions us about the fact that just because we have a helper does not mean that we allow the helper to help us.

There are many who resist the Holy Spirit, some grieve the Holy Spirit and some quench the Holy Spirit.

You may ask How? By never acknowledging the need for his help and continue to live in unconfessed sin.

Why does the holy spirit help us in our weaknesses? “for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought”.

This word ‘ought’ is a very crucial word in the New Testament and appears over one hundred times.

The Greek word that translates to the word ‘ought’ in a majority of these 100 times means ‘must’.

So it is most important that it is not just that we ought to pray but we must pray.

Hawkins explains the reasons why we do not always know how we ought to pray.

He gives the example of Paul praying three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed.

The reason that we do not know how to pray as we should is that we cannot see into the future.

We need help, we are weak, we are always confusing our wants with our needs and we do not know what is best for us.

That is why the holy spirit helps us in our weaknesses because we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

And finally a ‘how question’ - how does the holy spirit helps us pray? “But the spirit himself makes intercession”. He pleads on our behalf before God the father.

Hawkins gives the example of the good Samaritan who came upon a badly wounded man on the road. He got involved and interceded on the man’s behalf, took him to an inn, paid his bill and met his needs.

This is how the Holy Spirit works in our prayer lives. We are weak like the wounded man in the story of the good Samaritan. In our weakness we do not know how to pray or what to pray for, but the holy spirit comes alongside us and pleads on our behalf.

A crucial key to understanding how the Spirit helps us is that he knows the mind of God and always prays according to the will of God.

Romans 8: 27 "now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God".

The spirit leads us to the will of God for our lives.

Yes, we can find God’s will through scripture where we know many things for certain because they are plainly stated in god’s word. But there are matters of which we may not be very certain, so this is where the spirit comes in and helps us because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Hawkins points out one very crucial point: He points out that are many who have god’s word but are unaware of the spirit. Others have the spirit but are without god’s word.

We need the Holy Spirit so that we can find God’s will and we need to yield to the Holy Spirit because he intercedes for us according to the will of God.

So, what is the takeaway from this message today?

We are not alone we have an effective prayer partner in the Holy Spirit who knows god’s will for us and helps us pray in God’s will so that God’s will may be fulfilled in us and for us.

Amen!

Thy Will be Done

 

Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. I am sure we repeat this line daily if not more. We repeat it without meaning though. Honestly, do we really do anything, or even want to do anything, to bring about Gods will on Earth? Or the prayer is just words we have memorized and recite. Do we even know Gods will?

Rev Francis Taylor has this to say -

"When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In the Psalm 40:6-9, we pray that we delight to do God's will. I wonder if we really mean what we pray, or if we just say the words. First, we need to think about what God's will really is. When we read the Scriptures we see certain themes – justice, peace, and especially, love. These themes run through the Old Testament as well as the New. We are told to take care of the poor, the most vulnerable in our society. We are asked to remember that we were once strangers in the lands we now occupy. We are told to treat others the way we want to be treated, to forgive. These are not easy tasks and sometimes we do not "delight" in doing them. We want justice but not if it interferes with our comfort. We want peace, but our speech is often loaded with violence. We say we want to be forgiven but find it hard to forgive. We don't always welcome the stranger, and we sometimes suspect the poor of being responsible for their situation. When we continue to read this psalm, we read a confession of sorts admitting that we often fail in doing the will of God. We also hear the author asking for God's mercy and faithfulness. We need to look at ourselves with honesty and see how we can work better to bring about God's will on earth as it is in heaven."

Pastor Rajiv's New Year Message

 

Delimiting God

Is it possible for mere, fragile, and mortal men to limit the Almighty, Omnipotent, and Supreme God of the universe? Sounds like a foolish question, but the answer is YES! 

We limit God by our lack of faith, disbelief, and by trying to confine his power and abilities to our own understanding and experiences, essentially putting boundaries on a limitless being: this can manifest through fear, pride, self-reliance, and not fully trusting in his promises or guidance.

When we doubt God's ability to act or fulfill his promises, we effectively limit his power in our lives. This doubt may not be explicit, maybe unstated, but there all the same. 

Let us Consider Psalm 78: 

17 BUT THEY SINNED EVEN MORE AGAINST HIM

By rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.

18 And they tested God in their heart

By asking for the food of their fancy....

This is especially tragic if you read it after you read verses 12 to 16!

Why is there doubt & unbelief? Firstly, because in our small minds, we compare Him to Humans, unconsciously.

Trying to understand God's actions through our own limited perspective can lead to restricting his capabilities.

Second, fear takes control of our minds and hearts when we are in extreme situations. Letting fear control our thoughts and actions can prevent us from fully trusting in God's plan.

Pride and self-reliance is another cause. Believing we can handle situations without God's intervention limits our reliance on his power.

Why does all this happen? Simply because of the Ignorance of scripture and our own inexperience of God in our life because we never recognize His hand and His work in our own life nor know about His work in the lives of all the Biblical characters.

Not studying the Bible and understanding God's true nature can lead to misconceptions about his power and character.

Without recognition of God and His ways and what He wants from us, we start prioritizing worldly pursuits over God's will which can restrict our access to his blessings.

The disconnect with God and His word, causes a difference of views as well. We expect Him to fulfil our needs, yet we do not realize that His understanding and knowledge of our needs is very different to ours: we tend to blur the line between our needs, wants and desires. Our unfulfilled desires add fuel to the fire.

Finally, our own nature and mental makeup of testing everything, leads us to test God as well. Throughout the Bible we see that the Israelites testing God. They want to see if God will truly fulfill His promises. They asked for food and God indeed gave them food. They asked for water and God indeed gave them water. In spite of all these, the Israelites were ingrates. It seemed that nothing could convince them of God’s power, faithfulness, and love. Just like us.

Moving on in the Psalm-

40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness,

And grieved Him in the desert!

41 Yes, again and again they tempted God,

And limited the Holy One of Israel.

In Verse 42 the Psalm tells us, “They remembered NOT His hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.”

There, you see? Whenever we forget about God’s might and powerful ability to help us in our troubles, we limit Him. When we doubt God’s love and mercy toward us, we limit Him. Instead of believing that He can provide all our needs, we tend to solve our problems by our own effort. We forget about the many miracles in the past that God had already done for us, because we do not recognize them.

AND THAT IS THE KEY! 

The day we start recognizing God's hand in our life we will start believing and unlimiting Him in our lives. And to do that we need to know Him (through His word) talk about Him, read about experiences others have had of Him and talk and walk with Him. So today, let us review our whole life till date - whether of 20 years or of 80 years or 100 years. Review each momentous occasion, good or bad, and Gods hand at work each time. 

The Year that Was....

Did you ever feel that 2024 slipped away from you? Like you lost precious time to struggles, disappointments and mistakes? It can be disheartening to look back and see the time which has seemingly been wasted. But take heart for our God is a restorer of time.

One of the most poignant examples of restoration is found in the book of Joel, where God promises to restore the years that the locusts have eaten: "I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you" (Joel 2:25). This promise of restoration is not merely material but also spiritual, as God calls His people to repentance and renewal. The locusts symbolize the trials and challenges that have plagued our lives devouring our joy, peace and blessings. But God in His infinite mercy declares that He will make up for the lost time.

Throughout Scripture, God is consistently revealed as the Restorer of the Broken, offering hope and healing to a world marred by sin and suffering. His restorative work is a testament to His love and faithfulness, inviting all to experience the wholeness found in Him.

In contrast, how much time do we do we spend on things that truly matter? Stress, anxieties, anger, sadness... Is this how God intended us to wisely spend our time. 

Responding to Change

Well, it's that time of the year when we all decide to bring in some change in our lives, even though that resolution may fade in a week or two.
So, we thought we should delve into the biblical perspective of change and how to respond to or react to it.
To start with, let's understand change.
Change is a transformation. Change can be internal or external. It can be good or bad. Our reaction to it can be acceptance, rejection, or (as it happens most of the time) silent condonation of it.
How does the bible view change? The Bible is very clear we need internal change. That is because God and His principles never change (even though His methods may). If we need to be more like Him, we need to change. Our old self has to die and be replaced by our new self. This new self then needs to shine so that people around us see the Goodness of our God, encouraging external change in the environment. The Bible gives enough guidelines of what is to change in ourselves and how, before we can hope to see change in our environments.
Mahatma Gandhi also said - Be the change you want to see.
The other change is external change. We know that growth requires change. Many people believe we should also change our morals, ethics, and beliefs to accommodate changes in profession, culture and lifestyles. But sometimes changes in our environment are detrimental to the Christian life, and our relationship with God - aka sin.
Sin brings about a negative change that altered not only Adam and Eve’s behavior and thinking but also their very nature. As a result, their environment changed, along with all of human history. In our sin, we lost our perfect environment and were left to wrest survival from an unforgiving planet (Genesis 3:17–19). Change had come, and it was not a good change.
As Christians our response to change, good or bad, really depends on our desire for changing ourselves, as well as our willingness. At the pool of Bethesda, Jesus found an infirm man who had suffered his condition for a long time. Interestingly, Jesus asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). A strange question with a logical purpose. Before the Lord introduced the man to lifelong change, He wanted to know: do you really want this, or are you more comfortable with your life of begging and living off the charity of others? Are you ready to change?
So how do we respond to external change?
A. What we tend to do is Rationalize or Bend Gods word to make any change suitable to ourselves. This is not a good idea.
Changeable humans do not have the power or authority to change God’s Word, and only the foolish will try. Being judgmental is a small example.
B. In continuation, we should be rejecting certain changes instead of adapting ourselves to those changes. With Gods help, and the guidance of His word, we can select what we accept, reject or condone. We should embrace change, no matter how hard it is, when it comes from God, and similarly reject it, no matter how hard it is, no matter what sacrifice we may be needed, if it is not. If we resolve not to accept or accept, the Holy Spirit will guide us through and provide the strength and protection we need to see it through. (Philippians 4:6-7)
C. All change starts in the mind. Therefore, our mind needs to know what to measure that change against. For that we need to read and internalize Gods word. Internalizing does not mean memorizing, but understanding the different aspects of the subject and its application. That scale will determine what we value enough to adopt.
D. Respond to Jesus. He was sent to change us, to lead us into a relationship with God as was originally planned. However, if we do not respond to His leading that change will never happen.
In summary, our response to change is a 4-step process:
First we must identify whether that change is in line with Gods principles.
Secondly, we must desire to accept or reject that change, want it and determine to make it.
Thirdly, realize we are not infallible. We need Gods help to cross that chasm.
Lastly be willing to be led. Trust in Him and depend on him.

A New Year Resolution

Our choices decide our relationship with God. Whether we take Him seriously or not. How involved He is in our life and how much we depend on Him.

David Bowman has this to say -

Every day, we have the choice, every moment in fact, to decide who gets to decide—us or God. This should not be a hard choice. The conclusion should be apparent. Yet somehow, I have rationalized exceptions to the rule, alternate outcomes, even truly fantastical courses of action. The one thing all of my better ideas have in common is that none of them were better ideas. (David Bowman)

As we start the new year, think about how we make choices: our choice or Gods choice. In truth, while sometimes we do decide to follow Gods will, most times it is our own human nature who gets to decid3. But, we can discipline our hearts and minds to desire to be in line with Gods choice. While it is extremely difficult, it will be worthwhile to align this year and the rest of the years we have, to God's will and His decisions.

Unseen Blessings: Thank You Lord

"One day, a very rich father took his son on a trip to the country to show him what it was like to be poor. They stayed for a few days and nights on a farm where a very poor family lived.

After they returned home, the father asked his son how he liked the trip. “It was great, Dad,” the son replied. “Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked. “Oh yeah,” the son answered.

“So what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father. The son thought for a moment and said, “I saw that we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that goes halfway across our garden, and they have a creek that never ends. We have fancy lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio is big and reaches the front yard, but they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land, but they have fields that go as far as you can see. We have servants who work for us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow their own. We have walls around our property to keep us safe, but they have friends to protect them.” The father was silent, then the son added, “It showed me just how poor we really are.”

This story makes you think: We often forget how much we have and focus on what we don’t have. What one person thinks is worthless, another person might treasure. It all depends on how you see things."

Sometimes, it takes the perspective of a child to remind us of what really matters.

That perspective was brought to us on the 25th of this month. As we close 2024 tonight, let us review our lives in the past year (s), from the perspective of the Child Jesus.

Story Source: Good Thinking