The Father

Do you know so very often what we forget the very most about God?

He wants us there with Him for He is our Father!!

He longs for us, He is preparing a place for us, He is giving us so very much time that we might all - ALL- Come to repentance.

He is not some strict schoolteacher standing there with a ruler to smack your hand if you misbehave.

He is not the prison warden. He is not the gate keeper.

HE is our Father!

Do you have kids? When they come to visit what are you doing? Telling them to take their time no hurry as long as you see them someday eventually? Or are you preparing for their visit, setting a time and an agenda?

Do you prepare their beds, food for them, save money to take them out and spend time with them? Buy the very best and their favorite foods?

God is doing that very thing for us right now.

He is pacing the hall until we get there, He longs for us, wants to see us, wants to spend time and hear our stories. Do you ever think of this and how the Great and loving God of the Universe wants to fellowship with you?

He is our Father, The Father and He is laying down rules and standards for your hurt, He is doing that so that you might have a better life, a fuller life just as you do for your kids.

Joh 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

Joh 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 A Good and loving God is preparing for you to come and see Him, He is waiting anxiously for us, He wants to talk to you, He wants to see you, He wants a relationship with you just as you do with your kids, with your parents.

Why do we always paint Him as some stodgy old rule keeper?

He is the ultimate parent.

This Hope

As a Christian in this day and age we often forget that we have hope.

Not just hope but this hope, this promise.

1Th 4:13  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The last verse says to comfort one another with these words. This again is something we use at certain occasions just as Psalm 23 is used only at certain times.

Yet this should be our rallying cry Daily leaning on it, We have hope daily, weekly, yearly, minute by minute, hour by hour. We have this hope when things are good, and when things are bad.

We have this hope, but even hope doesn't quite express it as a full complete thought.

We have this promise.

Prayer - your Breaker Box

Do you know what an electric panel does?

You call the electric company and they make electric power available to your home.

Now you have all that power available, what do you do with it? Do you run a single wire to each item in your house from the power line? Powering one item at a time?

No.

You run power to a box and then tap into those lines from the box.  Then you flip a switch and you have lights, hot water, tv, computer etc....

Isn't prayer the same thing?

It opens you up to the power of God!

We have our life, and we want the power of God to fill us not just one area but all areas. Prayer is our conduit for tapping into that power,

We can then apply that power to:

Finance

Relationships

Wisdom

Guidance

and more

Individually each one important, but filled with the Spirit through prayer, powers all areas and channels of our life at once.

There are many types of prayer. Praise prayer, the model prayer, contrition prayers.

We do not need to worry about prayer categories, formulas, chants, or anything that is rote.

What we need to worry about is our heart and the desires of it when we pray.

(Jas 4:1)  From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

(Jas 4:2)  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

(Jas 4:3)  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

This is perhaps the greatest problem with our prayer. We throw up a 3 second prayer to God asking for money, help solving a problem. The switch never gets turned on. We have not tapped into our power source because we "pray" in the flesh out of our own viewpoint.

1Th 5:16  Rejoice evermore.

1Th 5:17  Pray without ceasing.

1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.

1Th 5:20  Despise not prophesyings.

1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

1Th 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil.

1Th 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is how we tap into our power source. This is the way to live a spirit filled life. Rejoice, praise, prayer, study and a good testimony.

Always in a spirit of prayer, communion with God. Once we know His Will and His Word we can pray in His Will.

Once we are attuned to His Will and we channel our prayers through His Word and His Will Then we have fully tapped into the source of power. We will have reached full capacity.