Morning Prayer Summary for Friday, April 12, 2019

Dave shared…

I wanted to share a couple things. Yesterday I was talking with somebody and we were discussing faith and God. The question was asked me, “How long does it take to see God manifest Himself? If you were to put a number on it, how many prayers do I need to pray in order for God to respond? It is an hour’s worth of prayer? Is it two hours’ worth of prayer? As long as I can put myself in that place and push until I get to that place where I receive?”

I answered this way. The Lord said, “That’s the wrong question.” The person that asked me the question was asking me for a definitive answer. Is it ten minutes? Is it an hour? Five hours? A day? Five years? Half my life? What is it? How do I get from heaven what I need and how long is it going to take? What’s the recipe?

I understand that question. Because for most people that live in this world, that’s how we think. We think in linear form. We think in terms of if I mow the lawn, it usually takes me an hour. So I have to put that in my schedule and know that I have to have at least an hour of sunlight. The sun sets at 7 so I need to start at 6 to get the job done. That’s how we tend to think. Logically.

But if you think about it from the terms, the answers that I’m going to give you, maybe the question he’s asking is the wrong question. Maybe it isn’t about how much time. I told him that. It’s not how much time. “But if you just give that to me, then I will know.” I know you’ll know. But I can’t give you something that’s not real. So the reply I gave that person… Sometimes in life we ask the wrong questions and therefore we get frustrated because the answer we’re getting is not the one that we’re expecting. Do you understand? If you ask the wrong question and I give you the true answer, you’re going to look at me and say, “Wait a minute. It was a yes or no. You’re telling me all this other stuff. Just give me the yes or no. And then I got it from here.” But it’s not that simple. Because it’s not a yes or no question.

So what I said… and you’ll understand it if you read the Word. God cares about the heart. He doesn’t care about the amount of time. I’ll give you an example of that. The woman with the widow’s mite. Remember she came and gave her mite. What did Jesus say about that? God referenced that giving and He said that was the biggest gift that anybody had given at that moment. But naturally, you would say, “No, it wasn’t. It was only a widow’s mite. A penny.” One would say, “Wait a minute. That guy gave a million and this person gave a penny. That’s more money.” You see the guy with the financial mind is thinking about the value of the money in the current market. Therefore in his perception the true answer is that’s a bigger gift. Do you see that thinking?

We can think that way about God. And God is saying that widow’s mite is more valuable than that gift. So then that throws the financier’s mind out the door. He says, “I don’t get it.” Then Jesus replies, the reason why that’s more valuable is because that came from the heart and that one didn’t.

The reason I’m sharing this has to do with being able to receive an abundance of grace on a regular basis where you actually pray and get your prayers answered, where you actually seek and you find. That God is not somebody or “something” that you could put a five-hour log of time of prayer and then, BING, God appears to you and answers your question. If you think God is that way, you have a long time to pray to get that answer. So maybe you need to be thinking about it is a little different than the way we think about it. The reason we think about it the way we do, is because that’s the way we’re trained to think. In this world we live in, we’re trained to think in our minds that if we work hard, we shall succeed. We think whatever effort we put in is directly proportionate to the success that we receive in that endeavor. Is that not correct how people think in this world? Yes.

But grace is not like that. The Bible says when it concerns grace, he says that no man shall boast… least any man should boast. That your salvation is not credited on what you do to receive salvation, but it’s that God in His love and mercy saw in His heart to forgive you of your sins. Not by what you’re doing but because He loves you and forgives you. That’s a different thinking process. Just as the widow’s mite is a different thinking process.

So those two ideas are God thoughts. That’s the way God thinks about it. So what we need to do is to start thinking the way God thinks in order to get what God has. Understand? And if we learn to adjust the way we approach life and quit asking the wrong question and start asking the right question, then the answers start coming. And grace starts manifesting in your life in a way you’ve not seen before.

I got favor like I never had favor. How is that? What did I do? We automatically want to put it in a box and think, “Okay, what did I do.” Here’s the five steps to the favor of God. Read your Bible every day. Pray every day. Love everybody. Do all these different things that we know are good and are proper as a believer. But those things aren’t the things that cause you to receive from God. That’s what grace is all about. That the reason why we want it the way, we orient ourselves toward God, the reason we do that is because it puts us in control of the outcome. At five hours, BING, the answer comes. So I’ll pray five hours and therefore I have control of what the answer is going to be and when it’s going to come. See?

And the same thing with salvation. If I can do all the right things then I will receive salvation. Then the key is you don’t really have to do anything but just do the right things and then you know automatically you’re going to get salvation. Who is in control? You or God? Our biggest problem in life is not what we do. Our biggest problem is us wanting to be in control. And with God, He doesn’t want you in control. He wants Him in control. And He doesn’t want him in control because he’s sitting up there on His throne and “I know everything, therefore, you follow me.” That’s not God. God is a very humble person. Jesus, you saw the example in scripture. Jesus of this earth said If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. And if you see the humility that Jesus presented when He was here on this planet, that’s a snapshot of the way God is. He has all power, but yet He’s the most humble person. He’ll never, ever overthrow your will. He loves you so much, He’ll let you have whatever you want even if it’s not good for you. If I could say anything about God and the character of God, that would probably be the biggest thing about him is that He loves us too much. That He’s willing to let us have that free will and let us be in control if we want to be in control. And, frankly, most of us who have struggled, some of us would rather say, “Just do whatever you want. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” But the reason God does not take over that way and circumvent your will has to do with the fact that you need to understand that the decisions you make to concede to His will and to submit to Him at all costs is your decision. It’s not His. Otherwise you’re an automaton and a robot. There is no free will. Free will can’t exist without you having the will to choose. And, yet, we choose wrong all the time. We make decisions that cause us to end up hurt.

I say these things not to be a bummer. I say these things and it’ll come to bear what I’m trying to communicate. It’s not “Well, how holy do I have to be to see God.” To have a revelation of God in a way that changes my life, to have my road to Damascus experience, to have my revelation where God appears to me and lets me know He is who He is. God is the savior, healer, deliverer. All things that I have need of. How do I come to that point where I emphatically understand that principle? It’s settled once and for all. How can I get to that point?

The Lord showed this to me yesterday. He said to me, “It just has to do, it’s not time. It’s your willingness to submit. Not your will but thine will be done.” It’s your willingness to sit on that cross like Jesus did when He was on the cross. When He was in the garden, He said, “Lord, not my will but thine be done.” He’s saying “Let this cup pass before me, but not my will but your will be done.” He’s saying to the Father, I don’t understand this. I feel the pain. I don’t even want to be crucified. Make no mistake Jesus did not want to die on the cross. If in your mind you thought, oh well, He’s the champion, the guy that wanted to die on the cross. No, that’s not true. Like us, he was a man. And that part of His humanity did not want to suffer the death, especially if the death He was suffering was not guilty of. Isn’t that normal human condition? Yet Jesus said to the Father, it doesn’t matter what I want. It matters what You want. And whatever you want, I’m okay with that. So that’s really what the answer to the question is. Whatever you want, I’m okay with that. Even if I don’t understand what You want. Are you willing to accept that as a reality in your reality? Because as soon as you’re ready to accept that as your reality, BOOM! It’s manifestation time. It’s grace time. Healing time. It’s time to see God.

So what keeps me from getting to the point where I’m at that point. How do I know that? This is how you know. Because one of the things that I’ve learned… I have kids and kids tend to do things they’re not supposed to. They have to be taught not to do them. One of those things is lying. I had a son when he was young for a period of time when he thought it was okay to lie. “Did you hit your sister?” No. She’s crying. So I’m thinking, you’re lying to me. I talk to the sister, “Yes, he hit me.” “How many times have I told you not to hit your sister?” He thought if I lie I’ll not get in trouble. That’s why people lie, so they won’t get in trouble. They won’t have adverse effects to their lives. It’s fear. Preservation. That’s why people lie. I was trying to explain to him this. “Your word and what you say, the truth is so very important in your life and you may not understand it today, but there is coming a day where you’re going to see that what you say and the truth that comes out of your mouth or the lies that come out of your mouth are going to directly affect your life in a positive or negative way.”

The Bible talks about truth. God is the God of truth. Truth. There is no shadow of deceit in Him. Why should there be? He doesn’t have to lie. To whom does He have to take account? No one. He’s it. Who does He have to fear? No one. All there is, is truth in Him. To be honest, the truth for you is “to whom do you have to fear?” Our fears are fears imposed upon ourselves. The fear you have of dying, sickness, financial ruin, and all fears… those are all self-imposed fears. I heard somebody say it this way. Ninety percent of all you fear never happens. Wow. If that is true, what’s our problem? That’s pretty good odds. If you’re a gambling person, you’re in Vegas, how many knows that 90% winning odds is good odds? Push all the money in. That’s what you have to do. You have to push it all in. That’s what we do with God in order to hear from God. We have to push it in. We have to push all our invested interests into Him. Fear, no fear, you push it in and say, “Father, I submit and commit myself to You. Even at my own peril, I’m willing to do that. Whatever you tell me, I will do it.”

Remember what Mary, Jesus’ mother, told the first miracle of water into wine? She said, the key here is just do whatever He says to do. We all know that, right? We know that mentally. But the reason I mention about being truthful, why that’s important is because that’s directly related to your character. Honesty is very important. Especially to yourself. If you have a drinking problem, you need to be honest about that. You know that in AA, the number one thing they tell you is first of all you have to acknowledge you have a problem. Do you know that if you tell yourself, “No, I don’t have a problem.” You’re lying to yourself. That’s what God looks for is the heart. And that heart is what’s going to get you to heaven. That honesty is what’s going to cause that to happen.

If you look at an example of salvation, any time you’ve ever had any significant miracle in your life or salvation, it always has come at the point where you quit. You’re done. “Lord, help me. Whatever you say, I’ll do.” But you know why that manifestation manifests at that time? Because your heart is completely open and pure and you’ve thrown yourself into the hands of God at His mercy. Your heart is the most pure and honest it could be and you’re not lying to yourself. You’re saying, I don’t care what the problem is, I just need You and I need salvation. And help me. That’s the purest heart right there. And that is the key that opens the windows of heaven and causes you to see God in a way you’ve never seen God before. That is the key. So if you want to know the key, that’s it.

So is that relative to how much time you need to spend before God? That could happen in a second. Five seconds. An adjustment of the heart can happen instantaneously. You get down far enough, I guarantee you, you’ll get humble enough, God will show up. I promise you. The question is, are you willing to get there quicker or later? You want to go through the pain before you get the answer? Or you want the answer without the pain. I want the avenue of least resistance. Where I get the miracle where God shows up in love and mercy and comforts and bathes me with His love.

Prayed…

Thank You, Father… When we were in a place we were unable to help ourselves, You died for us… though we don’t deserve that, You freely gave it… we thank You, Jesus, for that… we ask You that You reach on down and … we submit to You and Your will… Thy will be done… where You lead, I will follow… this is my consecration and commitment… I’m done trying to figure it out… I just lift up my hands and look to You and say, “Lord, I’m willing to get in the back seat so You can be in the front seat and drive me wherever I need to go.” I’m confident Your love is so surpassing, anything I could imagine or think that whatever I submit to You, I know it will be good for me in the end. Thank You, Father, for Your goodness and love… if I have to commit myself daily to You, I will do it… my words… my heart … I rejoice in this day because You made it…

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