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 Sermon > |
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Title |
Fervent Prayer - Prayer Devotee Devotional |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
James 5: 16 |
Date |
2009-05-31 |
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Passage
[James 5: 16]
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the 2009 Prayer Devotees' Devotional service.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has blessed us to have this devotional service. I also give thanks to all the devotees who have prepared for this service with all your hearts, minds, and souls.
Dear devotees, God the Father has given you the message with the title, 'Fervent Prayer'.
Devotees, please repeat after the title loudly, 'Fervent Prayer'.
Do you pray fervently?
You devotees are the prayer devotees who cry out in prayer day and night.
Then, what is the reason why God the Father has given you the message with this title?
It is for you to check once again what kind of aroma of prayer you are offering up to God as prayer devotees.
As prayer devotees, I would like you to check whether you are offering up to God true devotion; whether or not you have a wall of sin between you and God; and how fragrant the aroma of prayer you are offering to God is.
Beginning with this devotional service, I hope you will be prayer devotees with whom God the Father is pleased.
[Main] Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, other church members, now, what is 'fervent prayer'?
It is the prayer offered to God in the fullness and inspiration of the Holy Spirit and offered according to the will of God.
1 Corinthians 2:10 latter part says, "for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God."
Romans 8:27 says, "and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
The Holy Spirit knows best what God the Father really wants in each situation.
He knows best when you ought to pray, what you have to pray for, and how you should pray.
Therefore, you can pray according to the will of God if you receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
God will joyfully accept the prayer that is in accordance with the will of God.
If God is pleased, that joy will be delivered through the Holy Spirit to the heart of the one praying.
Then, the one who is praying will be filled with more of fullness and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The person's heart and body will be set aflame by the Spirit, and they will be filled with happiness and joy.
Such a prayer is 'fervent prayer'.
If you have gone into spirit, you can be filled with the fullness and inspiration of the Holy Spirit just by concentrating on praying for a short while.
Then, you can offer up to God spiritual and fervent prayer that is acceptable to God.
Then, does that mean you cannot offer fervent prayer before you go into spirit?
Of course, you can!
I hope you will keep in mind the following three aspects so that you can offer spiritual, fervent prayers.
First, you should not pray with your own thoughts.
It will be difficult to receive the fullness of the Spirit if you pray with your own thoughts.
Only when you are full of the Holy Spirit, can you offer a prayer in accordance with the will of God by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
But if you pray with your own thoughts, you will be praying what you want to pray.
You will pray according to your own will thinking, "I want God to answer me this way. I hope God will bless me this way."
Suppose you are praying for the financial matters of the church.
Let me compare praying in your own thoughts and praying according to the will of God.
First is the prayer that is prayed with your own thoughts.
Mentally you may plan with your own ideas how the church should receive the financial blessings.
"A certain corporate head has such-and-such disease. If he would just come to the church he could receive healing by prayer. There is another man with authority who has this problem. Let him also come and receive the solution to his problem. This way, the church will have some millions of dollars in offerings."
This kind of prayer is a prayer offered in your own thoughts.
Of course, it is the will of God for the kings of the nations to experience the power of God and willingly help our church.
But you should not decide who should come at which time in a certain way when you pray.
Then, how should you pray?
First, you should remember the word of God the Father about the major flow and financial blessings.
It is right that the kings of the nations will experience the power of God and finally the providence of God will be fulfilled.
But we cannot try deciding, according to our thinking, the point in time when something should happen or how it should happen.
We have to pray that all things will be done when God wants it done and according to His will.
Also, you have to pray that God the Father will guide us to the way He wants by His remembering the shepherd.
You should pray that everything will be done according to the will of the Father for He knows who will come at what point in time.
Also, those who pray in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit will realize the will of God in financial matters.
Namely, they realize what kinds of spiritual blessings God wants to give to us through the process in which we receive financial blessings.
The spiritual principle tells us that just as our soul prospers all things will go well and we will be in good health.
Thus, you should realize that what God the Father really wants is the growth of faith and the holiness of the hearts of our church members, and pray accordingly.
If you pray by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit like above, you can pray according to the will of God for any prayer topic.
But if you pray according to your own ideas, you may pray for something else other than what God wants.
Then, your prayers will not have a pleasing aroma acceptable to God.
It will be difficult for you to receive the fullness of the Spirit.
It will be difficult to offer spiritual and fervent prayer.
Therefore, I hope you will not offer one-sided prayer with your own ideas but you will pray in unison with the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 18:19 says, "Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven."
Here, the 'two of you' refers to the person who is praying and the Holy Spirit in that person.
So, if you pray while united with the Holy Spirit, following His guidance, it means there are 'two of you' praying in agreement.
The power of this 'prayer in agreement' is truly great.
God the Father will fulfill everything that is asked.
I hope not only the prayer devotees, but all the church members will pray in agreement with the Holy Spirit so that you will receive everything you ask for in prayer.
Dear devotees and other church members, in order to pray spiritually and fervently, secondly, you have to cast away evil from your heart.
You heard in every devotional service that you can pray according to the will of God only when you cast off evil from your heart.
Here, the evil in the heart does not refer to some of the evil things remaining in those who are running towards sanctification.
Those who are running towards sanctification can realize and repent of the evil in their hearts.
Even though they are not completely sanctified, they don't have any wall of sin against God.
But, even though their evil is revealed on the outside, there are some who do not even realize it.
For example, they break peace because of their own righteousness.
Or, they complain about the church or their leaders or they hold grudges in their minds.
If anyone whom they consider less than themselves receives commendation, they become discouraged and they complain about it.
They even criticize those who are commended. They even pass judgment on them.
Or, even though they don't speak those things, they become discouraged and lose their energy.
All these thoughts in the mind, words on the lips, and acts of behavior are caused by evil.
Even though they have such evil things, they don't even realize it. When they pray with such evil in the heart, that prayer cannot be accepted by God.
There shouldn't be any of the prayer devotees who fall into this category.
But the problem is that while still having such evils in them, they think they already ridded themselves of evil.
Also, because they are still praying hard in a physical sense, they think they are confident before God.
But if you are breaking peace any time by insisting on your own righteousness, then, you should realize it is such a great evil.
If you just pray in your own frameworks while not realizing your evilness, that prayer is not acceptable to God.
Proverbs 15:29 says, "The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous."
Proverbs 15:8 also says, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight."
Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the LORD will not hear;"
Thus, you prayer devotees have to try harder to pull out the evil in the heart more than ordinary members.
If you pray having evil in your heart, it is useless no matter how long you pray.
The role of prayer devotees in our church is very important.
Your prayer that is crying out day and night has been great strength since the beginning of this church until we had this much growth.
But there are more important things remaining ahead of us.
In order to fulfill the providence towards the end time, you have to offer such a blameless aroma of prayer.
That is why God the Father Himself selected some of you so that they can pray more specially.
Also, He gave you freedom to go another way than the prayer devotee, if you felt you were not qualified enough.
Now that about a year and a half has passed, how much have you longed for sanctification and pulled the evil out of your hearts?
You should not have envy, jealousy, or passing of judgment with evil any more in you.
You should not insist on your own righteousness, causing hard times for others, and breaking the peace.
You are prayer devotees, and you have to offer the aroma of prayer like one.
If you pray like a new-believer does, it is something embarrassing before God.
If you without hesitation speak pessimistic words and words of untruth like those who don't have faith, it is a great wall of sin.
Therefore, I urge you to diligently circumcise your heart and rid yourselves of all forms of evil.
I hope all your faithfulness in praying day and night will be offered to God as a perfect aroma.
Dear devotees, last and third, to pray fervently, you have to pray with whole-hearted love for the church, the shepherd, and the souls.
You always pray for the church, your shepherd, and souls as prayer devotees.
But is there anyone among you who prays with a sense of duty?
Is there anyone who just prays as usual only because it's your duty?
For example, when you are praying for your shepherd, you have to pray with love for him and earnest desire that he will fulfill all God's providence in the end times.
But while you are praying for your shepherd, please see whether your mind was someplace else and your lips were praying the same prayer.
What if you don't have any love or earnest heart contained in your prayer for your shepherd?
Or, are you praying for something completely different when you are supposed to be praying for your shepherd?
You should believe from heart that the providence of God for the shepherd will be fulfilled and earnestly pray for it.
But if you pray without such faith, then such prayers have no aroma going up to God.
It's the same with the prayers for the church and the souls.
You shouldn't just pray just as you pray routinely. You have to pray for the church and the souls with increased faith of your heart and love for the souls.
Your duty as prayer devotees is to fill up the amount of prayer of the shepherd on his behalf.
So, whatever you pray, you have to pray with the heart of the shepherd.
For example, when you pray for the souls, you should have the heart of the shepherd who wants to lead just one more soul to salvation.
You should have the heart of the shepherd who doesn't want his flock to be tempted or to commit sins again in this world full of sins.
I would like you to pray with the heart of the shepherd who is clinging to God so desperately just to save one more soul, even if he is supposed to fall into death.
It's the same with all the works of the church.
I hope you can have the desire like the shepherd who only wants to give glory to God in all things.
If anything that disgraces God happens, even a very little thing, I urge you to pray with such great embarrassment before God.
It's the same with the construction of the sanctuary.
How perfect a faith do you pray with?
Do you pray just wishing that it will work out well?
I hope you will believe that the Father has already accomplished it, and what we hope in faith will be revealed in reality.
If you love the Father, you will consider church construction like building your own house and pray with so much love and effort.
When you pray with all your heart this way, all the prayers will become perfect aroma and go up to Father God, no matter what you pray for.
You will receive the rewards proportional to the amount of aroma offered.
For you are praying for the same time as prayer devotees, you definitely want to offer a 100% perfect aroma to God.
It all depends on you.
It depends on how much faith and love you have in your deep heart when you pray.
I pray in the name of the Lord that all you prayer devotees will pray for the church, the shepherd, and the souls with more perfect faith and deeper love.
Let me conclude the message. Dear devotees and other church members, in this sermon, I talked to you about the three ways to pray fervently in spirit.
First, you should not pray with your own thoughts.
Second, you have to cast off evil from your heart.
Third, you have to pray with whole-hearted love for the church, the shepherd, and the souls.
If you just keep these three things in mind and practice them, you can pray in the grace of the Father God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
You will be able to offer up to God perfect aroma of prayer that Father God can accept joyfully.
Your dedication in crying out in prayer day and night will be stored with heavenly rewards.
You know very well that prayer devotees have to concentrate on prayer.
Now, just please check whether your mind is wandering somewhere else or you are thinking about something else other than prayer.
I hope you prayer devotees will always offer up to God fervent and spiritual prayers that God wants.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will receive many rewards and commendations from God the Father.
(Amen) |
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