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W.O.W. Lifestyle (Women Of the WORD)
by Carmen Schroeder
Revolutionary Thought: With both the Messiah and His Spirit pleading on our behalf in accordance with God's will, then God's children need not struggle as they do with the idea of prayer....except to beat our bodies into the discipline of making our praises and requests known continually.
Romans 8:26-27,34 (CJB)
26 Similarly, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we don't know how to pray the way we should. But the Spirit himself pleads on our behalf with groanings too deep for words; 27 and the one who searches hearts knows exactly what the Spirit is thinking, because his pleadings for God's people accord with God's will.
34 Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah Yeshua, who died and - more than that - has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf!
While Jesus Christ walked the soil of this earth, He taught His disciples to pray 'Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done...'. He Himself stated that He had come to 'fulfill the Will of the Father' & prayed 'Father, yet not My will, but YOURS be done'.
He taught the disciples to pray as such because He knew that one day soon, He Himself would ascend into Heaven and at that, He would send the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) to fill His talmidim (disciples). Our LORD was preparing them for LIVING IN KINGDOM POWER.
He knew that at the Father's right hand, He would plead on their (& our) behalves. He knew that the Spirit within His talmidim would plead just the same. And since 'the One Who searches hearts knows exactly what The Spirit is thinking', both the Messiah (at HIS right hand) and the Spirit (indwelling the disciple) pray ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WILL OF GOD FOR GOD's PEOPLE (Romans 8:27).
Now, since the Messiah knew all these things - things unknown to us - He taught His disciples to pray the Father's WILL and come into agreement with THEM - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - praying THE SAME AS THEY ARE! These THREE in ONE know all things...we only know partially (1 Corinthians 13:12). This is why James admonishes us with: 'The reason you don't have is that you don't pray (ask God)! (4:2)
Or you pray and don't receive, because you pray with the wrong motive, that of wanting to indulge your own desires. We OFTEN pray 'carnally' because we trust our partial knowing above HIS Omniscience. I struggle with this.
Notice that THE TWO do not pray a disciples' earthly minded desires (a person's own will - which begs the question 'why do we?') - even though They know them. They only pray THE WILL OF THE FATHER...they plead for you and for me - God's children - in ACCORDANCE with the Father's perfect Will. Should not I pray the same as The TWO? In fact, HE instructed His disciples (which we are as well) to do just that.
1 John 5:14 says 'This is the confidence we have IN HIS PRESENCE: if we ask ANYTHING THAT ACCORDS WITH HIS WILL, He hears us...and we have what we have asked from Him.' This verse is fascinating in that IT records for us essentially that 'when we ask according to HIS will, He hears and we HAVE' (present tense) - implying we presently HAVE what is written in Heaven. However, we wait for its fulfillment here on earth. HE already sees it as BEING SO! 'THY will be done on earth as IT IS in Heaven!'
Now, as I was following Him thru the Scriptures, I asked, "LORD, why then did you give Hezekiah his request for a longer life - an extra 15 years - and thus allow the impending drama of his son Manasseh? I mean, was that Your will?”
I pondered and tried to wade through my own thoughts and clearer than the screen in front of you...HE calmed my spirit with this: 'Sometimes, at My own choosing, I will grant your own petitions, your own desires (will) simply that I may reveal to you that My WILL is always superior to your own...and I AM TRUSTWORTHY'.
He tells us to 'make our requests known to Him' and that 'He already knows what we will ask'. HE simply wants us to trust HIM, laying our requests at His feet and concluding with the very words of Jesus ‘Yet not My will, but Thine own will be done’ (Luke 22:42). We have this confidence that HE works ALL things according to the counsel of HIS Will (Ephesians 1:11).
Indeed, we His children, are only Superconquerors AS we pray the same as our Redeemer and Comforter are praying - the perfect WILL of the All-Knowing Great I AM, Abba-YHWH Who has written it already in Heaven! Prayer, the Completion of the Seven-fold Weaponry of God's Armor (Ephesians 6:10-18), is the key to standing on Solid Ground.
I praise our Heavenly Father that HE loves us beyond our comprehension...and oh, what patience HE possesses.
Wise Words: The kind of prayer that gets to Heaven is the kind that starts in Heaven. - Adrian Rogers
When I work, I work...when I pray, God WORKS!!
Carmen enjoys encouraging other women with the life-changing Word of God through teaching, mentoring and song in conferences and workshops.
Carmen's testimony is one of victory as 1 John 5:4,5 (AMP) says: 'For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith. Who is it that is victorious over the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on that fact]?
Her message is that this Christ is the One Who generously gives heavenly wisdom for victorious living.
Email Carmen directly to discuss an article OR stop by and visit her new Women of the Word blog here!
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