God’s will for our lives:
Pray | Rejoice | Give thanks
Let’s take a look at these passages of scripture:
1 Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice always;
1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing;
1 Thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Create a life of prayer. Have a place where you’re praying daily, more importantly, give prayer a major place in your life. Prayer has the capacity to pull God’s future into Earth’s now.
We’re all headed into the future.
You can either have a hand in shaping your future or you can sit back and just allow it to happen to you. Remember this: the future can happen FOR you or TO you. It’s important to keep in mind that prayer can help you tap into what God is up to.
In Proverbs 19:21, it says: Many are the plans in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the Lord, it will stand.
Ultimately, we have to find our story within His story. We are not the stars of the show… He is and we are just the supporting cast. Keep in mind that this doesn’t reduce your value as a person. This increases your value as a person. You can live a bigger life within His purpose. We are all going to the future. There is no future in your past.
Let’s take a look at these passages of scripture:
Acts 10:1 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort,
Acts 10:2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.
Acts 10:3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!”
Acts 10:4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
Acts 10:5 “Now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;
Acts 10:6 he is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.”
Acts 10:7 When the angel who was speaking to him had left, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were his personal attendants,
Acts 10:8 and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.
Acts 10:9 On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.
Acts 10:10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance
Cornelius & Peter were two praying men that were in their normal cycle of praying without ceasing.
What’s born out of making time for prayer? A vision, a direction, and an intention. A lifestyle of prayer gives way to a Kairos moment in prayer. We’ve talked about the idea of Kairos and Chronos over the past couple of weeks, but just as a recap:
Chronos – every day time
Kairos – an elevated moment
In prayer, a dream is given, a vision, a direction, and an intention is given of a future that does not exist yet. But it’s a future God intends to exist. If God has something on His heart, He will let you in on it. All it takes is setting up that daily habit of praying without ceasing.
I love this quote by Walter Wink:
“Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is, in the name of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present. History belongs to intercessors who believe the future into being. This is not simply a religious statement. It is also true of Communists or capitalists or anarchists. The future belongs to whoever can envision a new and desired impossibility, which faith then fixes upon as inevitable.”
History belongs to the intercessors. The future belongs to the intercessors. God is looking for people who will stand in the gap:
- Between heaven & earth
- Between the now & the future
- Between the will of God and the suffocating will of the enemy
There is an enemy at work in this world, attempting to steal, kill & destroy everyone & everything he can get his hands on.
But there is a God in heaven who is filled with a heart of love to release redemption, healing, blessing, love & grace Into this world.
Until you stand in spiritual defiance of the devil’s plans and strategies, then he has full sway.
We have been entrusted with:
- A vision – from God
- A commission from God
- An assignment from God
It’s His purpose for your life. There is a place God intends for you to stand in the gap, for His will to be done on the earth.
Ezekiel 22:30 “I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.
Prayer is pulling Heaven’s intention into the earth. Prayer is pulling God’s future into Earth’s now. Seek to be someone that pulls God’s future down to earth.
Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the rampart;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,
And how I may reply when I am reproved.
Habakkuk 2:2 Then the LORD answered me and said,
“Record the vision
And inscribe it on tablets,
That the one who reads it may run.
Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.