#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

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

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

Sunday's Oklahoma City's black mass

Can a man take fire in his  bosom, 

and his clothes not be burned?

Proverbs 6:27

Courtesy of AustrianTribune.com

Year of Our LORD

9.10.2014

A tornado of gas and fire, swirling 3,280ft  into the air
above Iceland's  Bardarbunga volcano,
which has been rumbling with seismic activities
and eruptions since last month. 

The satan-followers are at it again.  

This coming Sunday evening, Year of Our LORD+, 9.21.2014,  the enemies of Our LORD and SAVIOR+ , JESUS CHRIST, will try to hold a satanic ritual where they stomp and spit upon a substitute Roman Catholic "host" .... that is, the wafer that --- to the devout Christians in the Roman Catholic camp --- represents the BREAD+, the BODY of Our LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

Because the Constitution of this nation upholds their right to do so, the city officials in Oklahoma City seem powerless to stop this group's blasphemy, token or not.

There is ONE+,  however, Who+ hears and answers prayers.  

There is ONE+, however, Who+ recognizes that there are MANY who have not bent the knee to baal. 

There is ONE+, however, Who+ heard the cry of Elijah at the appointed show-down, and not only sent fire from Heaven to burn up Elijah's sacrifice on the altar, but burnt up the altar stones and the water in the large trench round about the altar as well !   

HE+ has not gone anywhere... and HE+ has not lost any of His+ power.  

     2 Corinthians 10: 3-6

 For though we walk in the flesh, 

we do not war after the flesh: 

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through GOD 

to the pulling down of strong holds;) 

Casting down imaginations, 

and every high thing 

that exalteth itself 

against the knowledge of GOD,

and bringing into captivity 

every thought 

to the obedience of CHRIST;

And having in a readiness 

to revenge all disobedience,

when your obedience is fulfilled.  

Dear Brethren, 

Here is the crux of the matter.  When our obedience is fulfilled, Psalm 89:7 will occur: 

" 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+." 

If we see no fear of GOD occurring where we live, then is our obedience fulfilled ,  in the eyes of GOD ?  

Is our obedience exactly where it should be, in the eyes of GOD? 

Is our obedience such that GOD is SO PLEASED WITH IT that HE+ sends forth so strong an out-pouring of conviction that both saints and sinners are in fear and awe about what HE+ might do ? 

Do we who claim to follow Our LORD JESUS CHRIST with all that is within us, actually take every thought captive unto obedience unto CHRIST... or do our ungodly , temporal, worldly thoughts take US captive instead ?  

How, exactly, do we expend our "thought-time?"  

To the glory of GOD... or to the expression of Self ?

No-one will EVER know, except JESUS HIMSELF+.  Will we grieve the HOLY SPIRIT or  be filled with HIS abundant joy?

Yes, let us stand united with these courageous Roman Catholics who are crying out to The LORD JESUS CHRIST to thwart this blasphemy occurring in the area where they live. 

But if we wish The LORD to hear our cry on this issue --- or on any other issue --- then let us seek to have our OWN lives IN ALL AREAS OF OUR LIFE AND CALLING filled with obedience .... the kind that HE+ finds well-pleasing in His+ sight. 

So... after soul-searching, searingly-honest repentance, with clean hands and clean consciences before GOD, we can pray. 

     Praying now, according to the Will of GOD, according to all the authority given to us by the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and by all the authority through The BLOOD+ of The LAMB+, we pray in accord:

That The LORD bind the power of the strongman called spirit of anti-CHRIST, and we agree with HIM+ and bind you, strongman, in The Name of JESUS CHRIST+ our LORD, along with all of your works, roots, fruits, tentacles, links, spirits, lies, deceptions, and torments, along with those spirits of 

• deniers of the Deity of CHRIST
• deniers of the Atoning BLOOD+ of JESUS
• enemies of CHRIST and His+ Word

We, with all the authority that CHRIST JESUS grants to us through HIS+ BLOOD, we bind you and loose you to go wherever The LORD JESUS CHRIST+ sends you. 

Furthermore, In the NAME of The LORD JESUS CHRIST, we command you to loose those you have taken captive in their ignorance or through their wounds or mis-guided teaching.  We command those hindering spirits to let them go towards The LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

We ask this in the Life-Giving Name of the ONLY NAME+ given under Heaven among men, whereby we must be saved, the LORD JESUS CHRIST. 

In the Name of The FATHER,

WHO created us;

His Holy SON+ JESUS CHRIST,

Who+ saves us; 

And the blessed HOLY SPIRIT,

WHO+ sanctifies us. 

Amen.