“POWER OF PRAYER”

And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish.
After the dark period described in the Old Testament book of Judges, Israel’s desperate situation began to turn around with the prayer of a woman named Hannah. “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly” She didn’t recite mental prayers as we often do; her heart went out to the Lord. Amid the backslidden and even corrupt religious establishment of that day, we see a desperate, simple woman stirred to pray a prayer that will usher in a new day in Israel’s history. In her prayer she promised God that if he gave her a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord for as long as he lived. When she finished praying, she got something to eat, and her face was no longer downcast. It was as if she knew something was about to change. Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son.
Now, what was it that stirred Hannah to pray a prayer that changed the future of Israel?  Hannah chose not to live in denial. When  mocked, she could have said, “Who cares? I’m not into kids. It is the will of God kind of!” But she didn’t. She faced the truth (as painful as it was), saying, “I want a baby, I want a son, I want to be fruitful.”

Hannah did not only refused to deny her situation, neither did she accept it as ‘fait accompli’  she turned to God and her unique prayer became the channel that provoked God to turn the tide in Israel and bring much-needed blessing upon them.
The lesson is clear for us today. We must not silently accept our lack of fruitfulness and somehow justify it as God’s will for us. Let us honestly face our circumstances and then desperately prayed for God to change them.
What was in her prayer that God could not ignore?

No doubt Hannah’s prayer was powerful and effective, the kind James describes in his epistle (James 5:16), but I would say hers was both the heightened element of desperation coupled with deep faith in God. Hannah had no other place to turn. It was as if, in her great anguish and grief, she cried, “Make me fruitful, or I don’t want to go on.” She was at her end. “Give me a child or I will die!” God heard Hannah’s prayer, and her prayer became the pathway to divine intervention.Furthermore, God wanted her story told in detail in the Bible, so future generations would recognize that Israel’s turnaround started with a lonely, heartbroken woman who just wanted to bear fruit.
Desperate and soul-stirring prayers like hers result in answers. When God is sought in desperation, he responds. Even in hopeless situations. Just like Hannah, we have areas in our life where we desperately need to experience a breakthrough. Do you believe prayer can change your situation? What are you desperately seeking God for in your life?

“DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?”

Jesus said to her “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”  (John 11:25-26)

 

Questions of faith are answered in times of uncertainty, when there is confusion all around one. “Do you believe this?” It’s a question Jesus asked Martha which demanded an answer. It’s a question we can fairly assume God asks all of us. Do we believe?  All of eternity changes by the answer you give to this question. To refuse belief is to cast our lot with ourselves. It’s to commit our eternal destiny to chance or to our own ability to earn whatever we desire. It’s to go our own way believing we know better than Jesus and His teachings.

 

To believe, is to admit we are not in control except Jesus. It’s to confess a need for God’s forgiveness and admit our limitations to handle life on our own. It’s more than just accepting the facts about Jesus but a life-altering change of attitudes and actions attempting to respond to the way which Jesus calls. Every person answers the question, “Do you believe this?”

 

The timing of Jesus’ asking Martha the question is fascinating. It was asked on one of her darkest days. Her brother, Lazarus

had died despite her efforts to save him. Martha had sent word to Jesus hoping that Jesus would be able to do something before it was too late. Jesus was slower than Martha had hoped and didn’t arrive until Lazarus had already been buried for four days. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” Martha told him. They are words of tremendous faith but equally that of bitterness. She knew Jesus held a power no one else had. Had Jesus been earlier in coming, she believed that He could have changed the outcome for Lazarus. Her statement was one of sorrow over timing, not anger over inability.

 

In the midst of her pain, Jesus reveals himself as being even more powerful than Martha realized. The finality of death didn’t apply to Jesus. When He is around, time never runs out. Jesus explained to Martha what He could do. Yet before he did anything, he questioned Martha’s faith. He didn’t ask the question after he raised Lazarus from the dead. He didn’t wait until the story was complete. Right in the middle of the situation when the outcome looked the most bleak was Jesus’ timing to ask the question.

 

It was true for Martha and, so often, it’s true for us. Questions of faith are most often asked and answered in times of doubt.

We always want more information. We would like to delay until we have a greater understanding. We want to know the rest of the story. But before the outcome is revealed, before the details fully unfold, we are asked to declare where we stand! Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?

Thirsting and Hungering for God’s Presence.

“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalms 42:1-2 NKJV)
Moses knew the importance of God’s presence. He felt they would live a life of defeat if they walked without God’s presence. Hence he told God that they would only wish to leave the place they were in if God’s presence would be with them (Exodus 33:15). Jesus said it is in the presence of God that we could only bear fruit if we abide in Him (John 15:4). David longed and thirsted for God’s presence (Ps 42:1-2). If there is one place that Isaiah got transformed completely and set him on the sincere path of serving God, then it was when he came into God’s presence. His sins were exposed, he felt so dirty and cried out for God’s mercy to change him. God touched him with a live coal and he was able to change (Isaiah 6).
Every believer is called into an intimate relationship and this can only be attained by thirsting and hungering for His presence like the patriarchs of old did. When we get physically hungry, many of us begin to look for something to appease the hunger. Hunger prompts us to seek something to fill us up, even if it is something that is not really good for us. Same with God presence, hunger for God is the longing to encounter Him, to be with Him, and to be filled with His Spirit. When we are hungry for God and His Presence, we will do whatever it takes to get close to Him.
The place of intimacy is where we will catch, not only the revelation He wants to give us, but we will also catch His heart. When we hunger and thirst for God, we will seek Him, and when we seek Him, we will be filled and empowered. As we behold the fiery eyes of Jesus in his presence, the Holy Spirit transforms us from one glory to another. In God’s presence we receive mercy, healing, revelation of our sins, purging of our sins, joy, favour, honour, glory, protection from the wicked and evil tongues, rest among many others. Let us arise and become the Davids in our generation who will not seek the hand of God all the time but will seek God for who He is. We need people who will go after God. God is looking for people who will know that the reason they are created in this earth is to praise God.

“GOD’S WORK IN DISABILITY”

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:1-3)
We are generally prone into believing that sin and pain, injury and handicap are linked together, that human pain is the result of human sin. While Jesus did not deny the fact that there is such a link, sometimes it is, but He makes clear that suffering is not always directly traceable to personal sin. Jesus declares, that the disability of the man is not a function of the man’s sin nor is it the parent’s sin. Why, then, was he born blind? That the works of God might be made manifest in him, is Jesus’ response. That gives a positive reason for this kind of affliction. It is an opportunity-not a disaster, but an opportunity-for certain things to be manifested in such a person’s life, and in the lives of people who come in contact with that person, things that would otherwise never be brought out.
Fanny Crosby (1820-1915), a blind American lyricist, poet, mission worker and composer, was one of the most hymnists in history, writing more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs with more than 100 million copies printed. Her best-known songs include “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour”, Blessed Assurance”, “Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home”, “Praise Him, Praise Him”, “Rescue the Perishing”, and “To God Be the Glory”.She was not born blind, she was made blind by a careless doctor who scarred her eyes with hot mustard plasters, blinding her at the age of six weeks.
On her blindness, she said “It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.” (Wikipedia).
The Scriptures declare that we are living in a broken world, a fragmented world, a world which is not what it once was and is not what it shall be. For the present, we are afflicted with pains, hurts, injuries, difficulties and hardships. We may not be physically disabled but we all as a matter of fact have disabilities. What do you see and say concerning your own ‘disability’?  Fanny Crosby set a remarkable and encouraging example of how to see and face our unpleasant circumstance with joy and determination. Learn not to live in pity and guilt but rather to develop inner qualities of peace and joy regardless of the enormity of our situation and show a tremendous strength of spirit that is able to take on challenges and endure difficulties that the intended glory of God may be seen in our lives. Remember, that He came into the world to give light in our darkness, lead through bewildering paths, and bring us to the place of cleansing and of opened eyes.

While Waiting

“WHILE WAITING”
“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”  Habakkuk 2:1 
How do we react to delayed or unanswered prayers? When you face a problem where you do not understand what God is doing, what do you do? Do you throw down your hand in resignation and say, “Oh, I’ve tried faith, and it doesn’t work,” or “I’ve tried God but that doesn’t work,” or, “I’ve tried prayer and it doesn’t work.” When you go via this route, all you are saying is that God is a liar, unreliable, a fraud and the Word of God has no basis. 
Habakkuk in this passage, shows what we ought to do – get out on the watchtower (prayer), pour out our complaints and requests before Him, and wait to see what God is going to say. In other words, having made our ‘points’ before God, we must wait to observe the answers God gives by His word, His Spirit and providences.  Habakkuk says he is going to wait and be expectant because he knows that God speaks and that He is never too busy to answer. God has never and will not disappoint the believing expectations of those who wait to hear what he will say unto them.
While waiting, I want to suggest what we can do using the acronym of ‘wait’:
W – Worship God for who He is, His faithfulness, past deeds in your lives. David said of God’s credibility, “The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37).
A – Acknowledge God as the Lord of your life, trusting in Him with all our hearts, believing he is able and wise to do what is best (Proverbs 3:6)
I – Keep inquiring from Him as to what to do. Don’t think your way through the situation, He is the answer to it (1 Chronicles 14:10 &14).
T – Be thankful even in the very situation you have found yourself. “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
Are we responding as Habakkuk did, waiting expectantly for more complete understanding? While waiting, are we content to trust God, realizing he has the complete picture while ours is limited? Remember, Jesus lives and because He does, you can face your tomorrow with certainty. 

“WHILE WAITING”
Do you have questions regarding this week’s issue of “In His Presence” ? Please Contact me via the email address below.
pastor@rccggoldenarena.org
David said of God’s credibility, “The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37).
Ranti Orioke