Prayer Summary for Thursday, April 16, 2015

Opening prayer…

Thank You, Father, that we would be even able to be filled and flooded with You, Your very self, experiencing You, Father. Not just knowing about You, but experiencing You all along the way to life eternal with You. Father, you’ve made a provision here in this earth, and we are thankful and grateful for Your manifested presence in our lives. We love You, worship You, and honor You. We thank You that we live now in this day. We thank You, Father, that we get to see and do and to be what never has been. Father, we take it as assurance in our hearts that those that You called even for this day and this hour have whatever it is we need in order to do what You’ve called us to do. We exalt You, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You’re so good.

Erika shared a prophecy from Pastor Lynne…

“I have said you’d be changed in my presence,” saith the Lord. “If you’ve not experienced change in your life, if your old ways are still prevailing, if your old man is still in evidence, you have not spent the time with Me that I desire. It isn’t a matter of self-control or disciplining your flesh with no help from Me,” saith God. “If you’ll spend time in My presence, you will be changed. Your patterns of life will be changed. Your old man will begin to pass away. Your new man will begin to rise in the image of My Son. Your life will begin to bear much fruit. The evidence of your walk with Me will change as a result of spending much time in my presence. If you’re having trouble getting rid of an old habit, if you’re having trouble with your marriage, if your family relationships aren’t changing, you’re not spending the time with Me that would enable that change to come to pass. Your desire and the motivation of your heart to walk uprightly before Me is a product of becoming so close to Me that you do not want to bring hurt to Me. In natural relationships, when you love someone, you want to do the right things for them. You don’t want to hurt them. Well, as you spend time with Me,” saith God, “as you spend time in My presence, we’ll develop a relationship that is closer than any earthly relationship. It will shape the pattern of your living. You’ll want to conform your ways to My Word simply because it’s the desire of your heart. Your life will change but it will be a product of your spending time with Me.” [end of prophecy]

I thought that prophecy described so perfectly what we’re wanting in these last days and where we’re going. A couple days ago in morning prayer, we were praying about the body of Christ. We had some very specific things we were praying. The Lord said to pray about the glorious “transformation” of the Church, the glorious “transition” of the Church, and the glorious “translation” of the Church. So I thought it would be good if we looked up and found out what those words mean.

1. Transformation is “the act or the process of transforming.” And transform is “to change in condition, nature, or character.” How many think the Church needs a change?

2. Transition means “movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, or concept to another.” How many know we need to have a transition here and there along the way?

3. Translation is defined as “change or conversion to another form or appearance.” I like that. I’m just going to read several scriptures about change.

2nd Corinthians 3:17–18 from the Amplified says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). 18 And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.” I remember that song Miss Billye would often sing in her meetings “from glory to glory, He’s changing me.” That would be a good one to sing throughout the day.

Ephesians 4:13 says, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (KJV). That’s where we’re going and where we want to go.

1st Corinthians 15:51, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Amen. We’re going up! But we can’t go up the way we are so there has to be a change. So all of these changes are in our future and it’s what we want, isn’t that right? And we know through our study of the Word that the Word is something that changes us. We’re told, “put off concerning your former conduct, the old man…” We have to do some more of that, don’t we? “…which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” How many know that we need more minds renewed in this earth today? Especially in the Church of the living God where there is a lot of confusion; people are like, “This church over here believes that and this church believes this,” but what does the Word say? Now His Word is supposed to abide in us, isn’t it? He said “Let my word abide in you and you abide in Me.” We’re to abide in Him and the Word is to dwell richly in us. What does that mean? Does that mean we can go on Sunday and hear about four scriptures and that’s good? Let me read what Jesus said about that. In John 5:38–40, Jesus made this complaint against the religious Jews who didn’t understand why God had given them the scriptures in the first place. That’s kind of scary. They’re the ones leading the people. “And you have not His word (His thought) living in your hearts, because you do not believe and adhere to and trust in and rely on Him Whom He has sent. [That is why you do not keep His message living in you, because you do not believe in the Messenger Whom He has sent.]” How many know you can have the Word and not believe in the messenger?

Verse 39 “You search and investigate and pore over the Scriptures diligently, because you suppose and trust that you have eternal life through them. And these [very Scriptures] testify about Me! 40 And still you are not willing [but refuse] to come to Me, so that you might have life.” Jesus was saying to the religious leaders, “You tried to create for yourself an entire world by using My Word but in that manmade world, you make Me and My presence unnecessary.” I don’t want to be that way. He didn’t want us to be that way. Those Jews revered the Scriptures but they made Scriptures an end in themselves. They didn’t allow God’s Word to reveal the One they desperately needed to receive their Savior. In essence, Jesus was telling them, “Not one of you has recognized what God is like. You have always been deaf to His voice and blind to the vision of His glory.” Those Pharisees were what you might call “Word people.” Not according to the spirit of the Word but according to the letter of the law. They could outdo anyone in quoting the Old Testament. They poured over the scriptures continually. They knew all about God but they didn’t know God. That isn’t the way He wants it to be. Some believers don’t realize how vital it is… Remember, we’re praying about transformation, transition, and translation in the body of Christ—for us sitting here today, for those all over the earth. Some believers don’t realize how vital it is for them to experience the presence of God. They say, “I have the written Word and that’s enough for me.” But they’re mistaken. It’s not enough. If you have a job to do, a divine assignment in the kingdom of God (and all of us do) you need both—the truth of God’s Word and the presence of the Spirit to fulfill it.

We can look in the Bible and see the lives of great saints and take, for example, Moses. God gave him a great task and then the Lord instructed him to “depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought from the land of Egypt to the land which I have sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saying to your descendants I will give it to you.” The Lord told Moses that He would send an angel before the Israelites to drive out the inhabitants of the Land. But then He said, “I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way.” So Moses began to entreat the Lord. What do we do about brothers and sisters in the Lord who are on a journey or task and have an assignment from the Lord and they’re going up and maybe in their going up they forgot about God. They got on this path and they had an idea about the plan and they got on it and they keep marching and they forgot about God. What do we do? What did Moses do? Entreated the Lord. See you saying to me, “Bring up this people but you have not let me know who you will send with me. Now therefore, I pray you if I have found favor in your sight, show me now your way that I may know you progressively, become more deeply and intimately acquainted with You, perceiving and recognizing and understanding more strongly and clearly if your presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here. For by what shall it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight, is it not in Your going with us so that we are distinguished. I an Your people from all the other people upon the face of the earth.” Isn’t that what we want and what we’re looking for? Distinguishing marks from along all the people. Transformation. Transition. And the glorious translation. That’s what we want, Father.

I like something the Lord said to Pastor Lynne. “The Lord told me something many years ago that has stood the test of time. He said, ‘I can change anything about you. I can change your mind, I can change your personality, I can change your emotions, I can change your circumstance, I can change the way you feel about certain things, all you have to do is to give Me one thing.’ I got excited when I heard that. I thought surely I can give God one thing, so I asked, ‘What is that one thing, Lord?’ He said, ‘Time in My presence.’ Time is the one thing that none of us seem to have but it is the one thing God requires of us if we are to walk closely to Him. God is reasonable. Whatever He has called you to do, that divine call in itself is God’s pledge to provide everything you need to stand in that place and to meet every single one of your responsibilities. If God requires something of you, just the requirement itself is His assurance that the means will be provided. That’s an absolute guarantee you can base your faith on. However, the foundation of your faith will always be in knowing God. And you will never know Him well unless you spend much time in His presence, allowing Him to transform you to do His will.”

So in praying about the transition, the transformation, and the translation, what do you think we’re going to pray about? We’re going to pray about the body of Christ drawing so near to Him, cultivating such a fellowship and communion with Him, enjoying such an intimate relationship with Him and His manifest presence that we’re changed. That we’re so changed in His presence that family members won’t know us.

Prayed…

That we’re so changed, Father, that our neighbors won’t know us. That we’re so changed, Father, that our business associates won’t even recognize us anymore, that there would be such distinguishing marks upon us, the marks of Your manifested presence so changing us that we’re more and more conformed into Your image and Your likeness. Father, that is our heart’s desire. That’s what You said is to be. That is what we’re to look like. You said that we would go from glory to glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Father, we know we are without ability to bring about that change. But you did give us a way. You are the way. You and You alone are the way for that change which we know must come, the transformation, the renewing, the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man, to be clothed in the clothes that we need in this last day—for the glory of God to be seen and revealed in and through the Church of the living God. Father, we know that there is a process along the way and we yield our hearts and voices to pray about those transitions, transformations, and the translation in these last days. Many particular details, aspects, and facets about this that must line up now. We just lift it before You and yield our tongues to the Holy One.

We ask for assistance by Your Spirit to lead us and guide us
There is a serious situation about the will of the people
You said that You would cause us to will and to do of Your good pleasure
That will to be near and close to you, to want to, to desire to, to hunger for more of Your presence
We must take time with You
We draw nearer to You, in every way with the renewing of our minds, with our eyes to be washed in Your presence
That our hearing would be touched in Your presence
We stir up the hunger but we need help in discerning and making choices along the way
Illuminate that in a clearer way
Greater utterance in the Church of the living God
That brings light, Your Word to illuminate and highlight
You gave gifts unto me for the perfecting of the saints
We’re looking for greater changes there
The five-fold ministry gifts be apprehended to a greater degree by Your Spirit
That they would be secure in Your love and the knowledge of You
Words that piece and penetrate the hearts of the believers
Words that go out into the realm of the spirit
The distinguishing marks that come upon offices of ministry
Operating in a different way, at a greater level and a greater dimension of Your Spirit
The weary, we ask that You strengthen them

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