RHAPSODY OF REALITIES
THE FELLOWSHIP OF PRAYER!
Monday, August 4th.
PASTOR ANITA
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14)
Anyone who wants to have a good standard for praying ought to emulate Jesus. Studying His prayer life, I observed what He did that the religious people of his day didn't do, for which reason He had such outstanding results in prayer: He separated the labour of prayer from the fellowship of prayer. There’s such a thing as “prayer labour” or “prayer work”; you can literally count the number of times Jesus prayed this way. However, His prayer fellowship is what we really need to emulate; that’s what was different about His prayer life.
His prayer labour wasn’t different from that of the great prophets who came before Him. Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, David, etc., all prayed, and their prayers are chronicled for us in Scripture. But there was something that they didn’t have, which the Lord Jesus brought in: living in the Father’s presence in continual fellowship. This was different; this was new. Jesus lived in the Father’s presence, in continual fellowship.
The early prophets didn’t have this, because they couldn’t. If they could, they would have, because they loved God. Nevertheless, the reason they couldn’t was that they didn’t have the enablement of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did. No one can walk in such extraordinary fellowship with the Father except by the Holy Spirit. It’s His ministry and delight to bring us into that place of constant and continual fellowship with the Father.
That’s why the Apostle Paul, by the Spirit, prayed thus in our opening verse. That wasn’t given to us just to recite as closing benediction during our church services and meetings. It was a revelation. The Father is in heaven, the Lord Jesus is in heaven, but the Holy Spirit is here with us on earth. He’s in us and with us. In Him, we have the presence of Jesus and the Father. He doesn’t come and go; we have become His dwelling place. He lives in us and has become part of our day-to-day existence. He talks to us all the time. As we listen to Him, we're guided,instructed, led in the path of excellence, glory, dominion, and power.
PRAYER
Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for the great honour and wonderful privilege of fellowshipping with you in prayer. My times of personal relationship with you are heartfelt and productive. Through the Holy Spirit, I'm guided to know your perfect will, and I’m led in the way that I should go, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Further Study:
1 Corinthians 1:9
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 John 1:3
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Daily Scripture Reading
1 Year Bible Study Plan:
Romans 8:1-17, Psalms 68-69
2 Year Bible Study Plan:
Ephesians 5:25-33, Isaiah 55.
God bless you.
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