Finding Time For God

by Olga Hermans

 

Unfruitful quiet times are a sign of immaturity. Wow…that is quite a statement isn’t it? It’s what a minister said once; let’s have a look at it, ok? Does that make feel uncomfortable and immature when you struggle with your own time of devotion, your own time to be with God. People start reading their Bibles and praying because they know it is the right thing to do or they heard that other people do it, but soon they find themselves just going through the motions.

They read their Bible, shut it, and forget what they read. Or they pray about a couple things that are important to them. Then they go on with the rest of their day. They think they’re doing everything they’re supposed to do to be a mature Christian, yet they don’t understand why they feel so weak.

So, we can ask ourselves who has time for a devotional prayer life when there is such need for supplication and intercession. Let me tell you; we all do.

Why? Because it’s the richness and depth of our own devotional time with God that determines how much of the heart of God we have. It’s our daily, personal intimacy with Him that determines how well we live.

Only One Thing
If you remember, Martha complained to Jesus that her sister Mary wasn’t helping her serve. But Jesus told Martha that her sister chose the better thing which was to sit at the Master’s feet and fellowship with Him.

That is a great story! It reminds me that life in God is wonderfully simple. Only one thing is absolutely necessary and that’s fellowshipping with the Master. Everything else we need to do will come from that time with Him.

When you begin to let that truth slip away from you, prayer can become very complicated and burdensome. People get disillusioned because they feel like they have done everything to get strong, but are still not strong. Why keep having quiet times? It doesn’t do any good to have devotional time if you’re not really connecting with God.

It’s time for serious Christians to stand up and say, “You know what? I’m tired of going through the motions and pretending I’m mature just because I’m doing this act. I’m only mature if I take what I read and apply it to my life and begin to do it.”
Let me ask you something. Do you want the strength to keep praying in faith for seemingly impossible situations day after day? Do you want the spiritual energy to keep praying in faith for your family or your nation or your lost neighbor even when all natural hope is gone? Of course, you do.

Making that choice might be hard, but the reward is so great! Making the choice to NOT make time for God might be easy, but the reward is struggle and doubt and condemnation and guilt and all that.

Well, faith works by love. So the more you fall in love with Jesus, the stronger your faith and your prayers will be.

That’s the truth! When you choose to make time and spend time just worshipping Him and surrendering yourself to Him, when in times of devotional prayer you begin to see Him and experience His love, your soul will absolutely burn to do something for Him.

You’ll be on fire with the power and desire to pray out His plan. You’ll pray for your family, for nations, for souls, and for the Church with greater effectiveness than ever before.

Your Love for Jesus Will Keep You on Track; do you believe that? It really does.
There is just something about spending time loving and worshipping God that will keep you on track.
No wonder Jesus, when He was asked what the most important commandment was, answered this way. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37).

Jesus rebuked the church at Ephesus in the second chapter of Revelation. Despite their hard work and the fact that they held fast to sound doctrine, He said:
I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love]. Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent (change the inner man to meet God’s will) and do the works you did previously [when first you knew the Lord], or else I will visit you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you change your mind and repent. Rev. 2:4-5 Ampl.

Did you also read what He said there about them falling from the heights? If you want to go to high places in the spirit, if you want to pray from that high place where you are seated with Jesus in the heavenlies, here’s how to do it:

Choose to spend time cultivating your love for Jesus. Spend time worshipping and ministering to Him. Spend time just getting to know Him through prayer and the Word. I’m telling you, the more you do that, the more you will fall in love with Him and the more you fall in love with Him the better you will pray.

Do you have an advise to the readers? What is your idea or suggestion?

Our Answer to The Call

by Olga Hermans

 

There are things in times past that are not that satisfying to us any more. God is giving people a deeper hunger for a greater relationship with Him. He is igniting in us a fire to seek Him and to be intimate with Him and to really know Him more and more.

The end is coming soon and there is much work to be done, we need to choose to come closer to God which means to a higher place in God. Everybody has a calling to fulfill in this earth. There is a spiritual supply on the inside of us that the Body Christ needs. There are prayers to pray and places to fill.

Some of us made the choice to draw back from the call of God on our lives. Last Sunday our pastor preached on the wells in our lives that have dried up and we need to dig them up again and let the living water flow out of them again. Some of those wells are waiting for us to be digged up again. Let’s make a quality choice right now to dig up those wells again on the inside of us that we need to give to the Body of Christ.

Some believers chose to draw back because at some time in their life, they responded to it and things didn’t work out as they hoped. They jumped out to do what they thought the Lord was drawing them to do and they ran straight into a wall.

Let me tell you this; don’t worry about it. Let’s look at the life Moses; we all know that he was called as a prophet and as a deliverer for Israel. He sensed that that call within his heart. But, what did he do? He murdered an Egyptian and though that was the way to do it. But that was not what God had in mind, was it? So, Moses went to the backside of the desert to get things straightened out. God helped him though and in the end , Moses fulfilled his role in the plan of God.

Then there is Samuel; he had trouble at first understanding how to respond to the voice of God. The first times he heard the Lord speak, Samuel thought he heard the voice of somebody that he trusted, Eli. So, instead of responding to God, he went to Eli.

But God didn’t give up on him. He just kept calling until Samuel got it right. That is very encouraging isn’t it? It is wonderful that how many mistakes we make, if we keep responding to God’s call the best we know how, He’ll keep working with us.

Just like He did with Moses and Samuel, He will stick with us until we get it right. We can learn something very important from men like Moses and Samuel abut responding to the call of the Lord:

When you sense the Spirit’s call, go to God first and find out exactly what He wants you to do and find out exactly what he wants you to do.
1. Don’t just jump out and come up with something on your own (like Moses did).
2. Don’t just go talk to a friend about it (like Samuel did.

Or listen to another message or read another book on the subject. Draw near to God. get His wisdom by fellowshipping with Him. That’s what God does. When He is ready to promote us to walk in higher places of power and authority, the first thing He does is call us to Himself.

The following excerpt is written by Sidlow Baxter:

The Kind Of Praying That Sets The Wheels Of Revival In Motion

We need a revival of intercessory prayer among God’s own people. We do not pray enough. Besides intensifying their private prayer life, Christians should band themselves together to lay hold upon God for revival in our own land and in every land.

Our most pressing need at this moment is to ask God to give more mighty prayer to all who can have at heart the speedy evangelization of every unreached soul – prayer that is strong, prevailing, believing, God-moving, devil-routing, sinner-saving, believer-sanctifying, Christ-exalting, worker-producing and money -finding!

We need prayer that takes all we are and have, to offer it to God, as it took all that Jesus had, on Calvary, to give us the right to pray!

But where in all the world are we going to get prayer that will do that? – the kind that Daniel offered, which shook the Babylonian Empire from end to end, bringing Almighty God into His rightful pre-eminence!

Where are we to get the kind of prayer that Nehemiah offered, which set rulers running after him with men, money, and materials, to help rebuild the walls of ruined Jerusalem?

It was God Himself Who inspired the prayer of Nehemiah, the prayer that made Jerusalem a new city. He drove His servant to his knees by the burden of a great concern for ruined Jerusalem. This seems to be the way God works.

And will God give this kind of prayer today? Yes, through the Holy Spirit, God can give us the hurricane kind of prayers that make things move – when nothing else can make them move!

He only begins to feel alarm when a soul begins to offer before God the prayer that is Spirit-inspired, and which was born in the very heart of God Himself.

It is prayer shot through with the very blood and passion of the Son of God, filled with the power and persistence of the Holy Ghost, loaded with a burdening sense of the church’s plight, and the world’s appalling need – that sets the wheels of revival in motion!

God save us from trying to turn these wheels by our own efforts! It cannot be done. Let us beg God now for this kind of praying – prayer straight from God, to straighten out every tangle and to meet every need!

When we offer HIS prayer, as put into our spirits by the Holy Spirit, there will be no such thing as unanswered prayer. Every prayer will be as almighty as God, because His nature will be in them.

The difficulties we face at the present time will vanish, and we shall not speak as if God were bankrupt!

God will then be seen in our lives. His power will flow through us in flood tides of blessings to others. Miracles will happen in every sphere that we touch. Every need will be met; and the devil will be defeated.

May this heaven-born flame be lighted afresh in the hearts of the regenerated throughout the world.

Amen!