#3 Pre-requisites for ANSWERED PRAYER ... TAKING HEED !

2 Peter 1:10

Wherefore the rather, brethren,

give diligence to make 

your calling and election 

sure: 

for if ye do these things, 

ye shall never fall:

Take HEED:  If our calling and election WAS NOT ABLE to be IN JEOPARDY, then the Apostle Peter would not have told us to be diligent about MAKING IT SURE AND CERTAIN, would he ?

Yes, without a doubt, there is a danger to the spiritual sluggard and a serious warning to such a one here in this verse. 

The Disciplined Life of a CHRISTIAN .... is not optional.  Listen to what this well-disciplined ORDER of Christian sisters writes: 

MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

Used with permission from: 

www.canaaninthedesert.com

Author - Basilea Schlink,

Publisher - Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary

 You must be self-controlled and alert, 

to be able to pray.

 1 Peter 4:7 GNB  January 29, 2014

“If you want your prayers to reach the throne of God and be answered, make sure you fulfill the conditions. 

1      Lead a life of self-control. 

2      Be disciplined in your words and actions, in eating, drinking and sleeping, and enjoyment of physical pleasure. 

3      By continually placing every area of your life under the dominion of Jesus Christ, you remove the obstacles to answered prayer and will experience the help and grace of God.”

Used with permission from :

MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

www.canaaninthedesert.com

Author - Basilea Schlink,

Publisher - Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary

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Photo of GARDEN of GESTHEMANE

What constitutes a "discipled" life ?  If our churches do not issue a call to discipleship, then we must establish a Spiritual discipline ourselves.

·      Yes, daily Scripture reading

·      Yes, daily worship... prayer, praise, thanksgiving

·      Yes, a devotional TIME set aside solely for that purpose 

·        Yes, a time for QUIETUDE... sitting still to hear His+ Voice.... spending quality, priority time with JESUS our LORD.

And like it or not, some PRAYERFUL, CHRISTIAN restrictions placed upon our own flesh in the area of

·                    food and drink

·                    dress,

·                    entertainment

·                    music

·                    and in the company we keep.

Why discipline ourselves in these areas ?

[ NO.  Discipleship is NOT "legalism."  JESUS HIMSELF+ told us we MUST be HIS+ disciples.]

The first reason is to control the flesh. 

We must teach it to submit to our New-man following the Will of CHRIST JESUS, not to continue doing the same things our old man, our Adamic Nature, has trained us to do.

[ Most of us have not been blessed with parents who submitted their SELF to The LORD and / or who taught us that we must submit our SELF unto the LORD in order to be well-pleasing unto HIM+.]

Our Flesh is supposed to be dead with CHRIST after Baptism.

Alas, the flesh has a habit of reviving itself time and time again, though. By making ourselves submit in any little way, we will be mortifying the deeds of the flesh... in a little way.

  Being faithful in little will indeed enable us to be faithful in more,  strengthened to mortify the deeds of the flesh ... in the greater battles we have in our own inner man against the Old Man values and habits we have acquired. 

That submission to discipline enables us to fight the GOOD FIGHT of FAITH in the Un-ending Battle Against SELF.

If we want prayers to be answered, then we MUST engage this most-unpopular-of-all fight of faith:  putting SELF to death.

Our LORD JESUS sacrificed His+ Life to empower us to fight our Adamic nature and put SELF to death. 

BUT... it is our battle, our decision.

HE+ will not do it for us. 

Yes indeed, HE+ will help us and has helped us; we CAN win in this battle to die DAILY to our flesh.  HE+ will send His+ Blessed HOLY SPIRIT to help us. 

BUT... HE+ will not do that  part for us which HE+ knows is our own prerogative to do ourselves: that is, turn our will over to HIM+.  

HE+ cannot yield for us.

HE+ cannot MAKE us 

choose TRUTH in the inner man. 

Only we OURSELVES can YIELD over the controls to HIM+. Only we ourselves can choose to follow in the inner man The TRUTH Our LORD shows us. JESUS is The Way, The Truth, and The LIFE. 

Do we want our prayers answered?  

Then we must yield all control over our SELF-WILL unto CHRIST JESUS.  

Then it will come to pass what is written in Psalm 89: 7

 GOD is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about HIM.

Ah LORD GOD!

Behold, THOU has made the Heaven and the earth 

by Thy great power and stretched-out arm 

and there is NOTHING too hard for THEE ! 

Jeremiah 32:17

Pentecost is Coming! A personal Pentecost...

is available for all ...

regardless of what the Church Proper does or does NOT experience.

That is good news for the hungry of heart. 

Verily, verily, I+ say unto you,

unless a grain of wheat

falls into the ground

and dies,

it remains alone:

but if it dies,

it produces much grain.

John 12:24, NKJV

Within these Words of Our LORD JESUS CHRIST lies the secret to Pentecost, that great movement of the HOLY SPIRIT which engulfed the lives of the once fear-filled disciples.
 

HE+ tells us how to escape loneliness. HE+ tells us how to bear much fruit. HE+ tells us that HE+ has set in motion the way for us to experience Pentecost.

HOW do we accomplish this?

First, we set ourselves in the way, the path, HE+ directs. That involves some activity... yes, activity... on our part. We must fall to the ground, step 1. How hard is that ?

Then, we make a choice, step 2. We choose to die to Self. How hard is that ?

VERY HARD !

Indeed, we are willing but the flesh is weak and does not want to die. So... how do we "make" ourselves "die to Self ?"

We call upon The LORD for help. Will HE+ help us die ? YES, most assuredly HE+ will because it is His+ Will for each one of us. [ This is one place that His+ Will is not mysterious nor hidden to us. ]

We are "alone" until we die out to Self. Most of us know that our spouses cannot "fill" us up. Most will come to realize that our children cannot fill us up and will, sooner or later, leave the home nest. Some have even discovered the truth that our jobs, careers, work, education, etc., cannot fill us up. Our identity in these things is vaporous at best.

We sadly discover this when we retire or are forced out of our positions by corporate down-sizing, re-organization, our health, or some other contingency. We discover quickly how important and necessary our skills are to the business, company, agency, organization, hospital, or school: they can survive very well without us.

However, Our LORD JESUS CHRIST never, ever  down-sizes. HE+ does not have a "retirement" package! Even if our health plummets and our circumstances change drastically by events we cannot control, we NEVER lose our importance to our work for the Kingdom of GOD.

Indeed, in many instances of major change, we hunker down even moreso with Our LORD and do the unseen foundational work of prayer and focused, single-minded commitment to Our LORD... so vital for victories in spiritual warfare.

We embrace death to Self. It is the only way given to produce fruit for JESUS our LORD... just like HE+ said.  

+  +  +

In the Name of The FATHER

WHO begot us,

And HIS Only-Begotten SON+

JESUS CHRIST WHO+ saves us,

And the Blessed HOLY SPIRIT

WHO sanctifies us.