Prayer, the Power to Possess What You Already Own Lesson One
“The Evidence of Relationship” Define WISDOM:
Define ASK:
Define POSSESS:
Scriptures for Daily Journals Day One
1 Kings 3:5-14, James 1:2-17
Day Two
Matthew 6:31-34
Day Three
Ezekiel 36:37
Day Four
Mark 11:22-26
Day Five
John 14:12-15
Day Six
John 15:7-8
Day Seven
Matthew 7
15
END OF WEEK SUMMARY
The proof of my relationship to God is found in:
This week I have learned that faith is:
Notes
16
For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
Jeremiah 29:11,12
Looking into our study... To have a relationship with God is to know that He loves you. Not to know by mere mental assent but to understand. You need to grasp hold of the fact that God loves you in order to have the grace to pray. If you know that God loves you, you can pray.
Why Don’t People Pray? Often Christians try to pray because they feel guilty if they don’t. Saying mindless prayers, they think about something else while they speak words. Other people only pray in a crisis when they feel helpless, but otherwise they don’t trust that prayer is the best they can do. In a crisis they say, “Oh well, all we can do now is pray.” Feeling they haven’t yet put forth their best effort to change the situation, they think their action to change things counts more than their prayers. To others, prayer is thought to be for those who have time...those who have nothing else to do. “It’s Grandmas and sick people who have time to pray.” Condemnation is another reason people fail to pray. People feel guilty before God due to a lack of abiding in meaningful relationship with Him.
I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me (cut off from vital union with Me) you can do nothing.
John 15:5 AMP
17
Not one of us is able to pray effectively apart from a responding relationship to God. When we abide in this relationship we are able to live free from condemnation and that freedom enables us to pray well.
Therefore (there is) now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live (and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.
Romans 8:1 AMP
Prayer Means To “Ask” There isn’t a day yet to come that you and I will ever do anything greater than pray. To pray is to invite the One who loves us to come to the very center of the thing. Faithful asking actually brings God into our history. Asking and inviting God is what brings into the seen realm, that which never would have been seen if we had not asked. There will not be new circumstances on earth tomorrow unless we ask for them today. To pray is to understand how things work. Gravity works and on earth it is a fact that what goes up must come down. God works through humans, that is equally a fact, for God is sovereign and He sovereignly chose to do nothing on this planet unless He does it through a person. Man was created for this end - to bring God to the earth. This is accomplished through prayer. It is through our intimacy with God that we learn what to ask for. When our eyes are on Him our hearts fill with the hope that comes from knowing God. Hope knows what to ask for because it’s full of God’s word. Hope is not carnal, wishful thinking but is the hope of God Himself and is in us in Christ. In prayerful relationship with God, man learns to manage the universe with God in the power of God. God moves through man putting the responsibility for change upon him. This is scary. Many people conclude that God has predestined the outcome of everything, that there’s nothing man can do about it, so let’s just 18
accept what is...ca-sera-sera. This feels safe but is deceptive philosophy, for in it man thinks he can escape responsibility. If man is to be responsible, then every choice counts and nothing is inevitable. We can’t blame God for the condition of this earth today. God has sovereignly given to man free choice and He will not violate it. Man is responsible for the state of the world today. He has been in a pact with the devil since the fall, for Adam gave his own title “prince” over to the devil and now on earth, the devil is the prince of the power of the air. Jesus Christ’s coming is all about returning authority on earth to man and overcoming Satan’s rule.
God Came As A Man God came to earth as a Man because He will not do anything on earth but through a man. Jesus as the Son of Man, came to start a new race. A new race who is born of God, on earth to take responsibility and bring God’s kingdom to the earth through prayer. Prayer draws Christ out from within us, for God wants to bring us to the fullest potential of who we are in Him. The idea in prayer is that God asks the first question;
“Prayer draws Christ out from within us...”
“What do you want?” This question is eternally posed to this new species. All men exist at the point of their will. For better or worse, men are what they are today because of what they “want” to be. Some live in great disappointment contesting, “I have no willpower to stop living like this.” The truth of the matter is that willpower in every person is very strong. God’s question to each one is, “What is the focus of your will?” Through prayer we choose to redirect that focus to the will of God where His will causes us to come to the highest and best potential possible. You and I are constantly challenged with a sense of purpose. What are we on earth to do? We have no strength and no power apart from God. If only God 19
can do the things that must be done, how does He accomplish them? He acts through men who humble themselves and pray. Man is upon the earth as a new race, for the primary purpose of prayer. Everything else is secondary. Prayer turns out to be relationship. Man is on the earth to reign as a king, to rule as a prince. If man asks God to intervene here, His kingdom will keep growing, but if he doesn’t ask, it won’t be realized. There will be things on earth tomorrow that otherwise would never be because there are people praying right now. Prayer is the greatest business on earth.
Faith Knows It’s Already Yours One day in a journal the Holy Spirit asked, “Jaque, do you know why the rich get richer?” I answered, “Father, it’s because a rich man knows himself as a rich man. To become wealthy you first have to realize you already are!” A rich man knows himself as a rich man even though he may not have a stitch of clothing on his back or a dime in his pocket. He is rich because of who he knows himself to be, not because of what he has. To “be” or not to “be,” that is the question. When you and I know ourselves to be loved of God, we know we can ask whatever we will and it will be ours...we know we will see it because we already have it. We know ourselves as rich in the kingdom of God. A Christian in responsive relationship to God knows God as the sum of his treasure, he knows he is rich because of “Who” he possesses. “Thou art my God! You are my very own possession.” God sent Himself to earth through the Man Christ Jesus, giving Himself away to whosoever will receive Him. If you have God, you have everything already.
20
Give Us Our “Daily” Bread In relationship a fellowship is required to keep communion fresh. For this reason prayer is a daily practice. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness they received enough manna for one day at a time, there was no storing up for tomorrow except for one Sabbath day each week. In a praying relationship with God we can’t go to Him one day and get the answers for the week for relationship wouldn’t be relationship if we could “store up” answers. God supplies us with all the questions we need so that He can meet the need with answers. All man’s problems are the result of unknown questions but God’s provision brings a daily salvation. We don’t need to know what’s coming tomorrow in order to experience peace, we need only know His questions and answers for today. If you don’t know the question, ask God. He will give you the question or the need...then you will pray and when the answer comes, you’ll recognize it because you understood what the question was.
Need Versus Supply When God tells His children to ask, He is appealing to our sense of want. He wants us to want Him, to ask Him, to receive Him in the form of our needs met and so He says, “Ask Me.” Picture with me the idea that need is female and supply is male. Now imagine that God Who is Spirit, the Male, sends the supply to the soul, the female, the one who needs salvation. Need is what makes the female the weaker vessel and causes her sense of helplessness. Anyone who isn’t in touch with their helplessness won’t ask. Christ teaches His bride the Church that she is helpless, for apart from Him she can do nothing. She is the negative that calls for the positive. Without her, the positive Male has no open vessel in whom to reveal the supply. She is a container for Supply, the expression of Provision. In a journal the Spirit of the Lord said, “If you don’t ask Me, we have no intercourse - no consummation of marriage, 21
no oneness. The greatest need in you My bride, is that you know I love you, and if you know I love you, you will ask Me. If you don’t ask Me you can’t know Me, for to know Supply you must present a need. I am asking you therefore to define your need in prayer. Your need is treasure, for without it you can never know the Supply. Supply is the mate to need, so put forth your need to Me . . . ask of me and I will do what I have already said. In the Supply that comes, the whole earth shall know that there is a God in heaven Who reveals Himself on earth through His bride.”
22
Lesson One END OF WEEK RESPONSE QUESTIONS Please answer questions on separate 8 ½ x 11 paper. Double space all lines and leave wide margins on both sides. Be sure to put your name, date and lesson number on the top left corner of the first page and staple your pages together.
1. Share your understanding of the statement that prayer is “the greatest business on earth.” 2. Why does God’s word tell us over and over not to fret or be anxious? 3. In John 15:7 there is a condition put upon our asking. What is it? 4. Please share your journalizing experience this week with regard to heart and frequency. Please attach a copy of one of this week’s journals.
23
Notes
24
“Relationship Is Prayer” Lesson One - Day One 1 Kings 3:5-14, James 1:2-17 “In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said: Ask what I shall give thee...” 1 Kings 3:5 Today’s Date:
25
26
“Relationship Is Prayer” Lesson One - Day Two Matthew 6:31-34 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33 Today’s Date:
27
28
“Relationship Is Prayer” Lesson One - Day Three Ezekiel 36:37 “Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them, I will increase them like a flock.” Ezekiel 36:37 Today’s Date:
29
30
“Relationship Is Prayer” Lesson One - Day Four Mark 11:22-26 “And Jesus replying said to them, Have faith in God (constantly)” Mark 11:22 Today’s Date:
31
32
“Relationship Is Prayer” Lesson One - Day Five John 14:12-15 “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if any one steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father.” John 14:12 Today’s Date:
33
34
“Relationship Is Prayer” Lesson One - Day Six John 15:7-8 “If you live in Me - abide vitally united to Me - and My words remain in you and continue in your hearts, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7 Today’s Date:
35
36
“Relationship Is Prayer” Lesson One - Day Seven Matthew 7 “Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves.” Matthew 7:1 Today’s Date:
37
38