January 22, 2007

What Ya Gonna Do?

One of my sisters said, Sis. Angela, I need a breakthrough. To me that means make it personal. Change starts with prayer. Philippians 4:13 says, I can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives me strength, to me that means I can make no lasting change on my own, but prayer changes things and people.

Today I want to encourage you to be obedient to Matthew 6:33 and Seek the Kingdom of God[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Prayer starts with a relationship. Prayer is communication and who can communicate without having some type of relationship.

In 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, the bible says, 13 At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. 14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

How many of you find yourself in a bad situation right now? You cannot see your way out of it and you do not know how you got into it?

2 Chronicles 7:13, leads me to believe that some of the stuff we are going through is because God has allowed it and some of it He sent. I believe His question to us is, what are you going to do?

2 Chronicles 7:14 gives instruction to those of us that are called by His name for getting out of that bad situation. He instructs us to humble ourselves and pray. A proud person cannot really pray. Your pride will get in the way of your bowing before the Lord. Pride will allow you to think you can do it yourself. Pride will not allow anyone else including God to be in control. The bible tells us that our flesh must die daily. Kill your pride.

Run after God. Seek a deeper relationship with Him. He desires the relationship and you. He wants to know that you love Him.

Turn from your wicked ways and do all that you can to live righteously before God. Identify the stuff you struggle with, stop making excuses for it and stop running from it. It is hindering your relationship with God. Give it to Him, He is waiting to take it. He is the only one that is able to carry you through it. If we will do what He has commanded us to do, He has promised that He will hear us, forgive us and restore and heal our land. What does healing look like-a family that looked like it was dead restored, brought back together, a family member off drugs, finances restored, you fill in the blank, because God can do it.

It is past time for praying patty cake prayers. It is time to get real with God. If you are struggling with fornication, say that. If your struggle is with gossip, overeating, or somebody else’s spouse say that. God already knows anyway. You can hide it from me, but God knows and He has promised that if you will do what you are supposed to do, He will heal every hurt place in you. If you will make an effort to do what is right He will meet you.

When your mind tries to tell you that you cannot live righteously, you cannot give up that nasty little sin that is hindering your relationship with God, tell the devil he is a liar. John 10:10, tells us The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. Remember that you are in a warfare and the enemy intends to kill you. How long are you going to keep running, when will you get sick and tired of being sick and tired. Sick and tired of the enemy running rampant in your life, in your family, at your church, in your school or at your job?

As the people of God it is past time for us to stop running and hiding. The bible tells us in Luke 10:19: Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. So why do we keep backing up? Could it be that we are not willing to live the way God intended, are we disconnected from the power?

When we were in school and someone threatened us or attempted to come after us we went and got our friends and tried to start a gang war, so why are we running now? Look around you, this is your new gang. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, the bible says, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The question is still the same, what are you going to do? The fight is very real and while we do not fight like we did in grade school or high school and our weapons are different we still have to fight.

Fight with the weapon of Prayer. You might say Sis. Angela, I can’t pray like you. Your prayers will not sound like mine. We have not been through the same things. Pray the way God gives it to you and I can promise you this, if you come out for practice God will increase you in the area of prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, says, Never stop praying. I want to personally encourage you to PUSH-Pray, Until, Something, Happens. If you have not seen the breakthrough you are looking for keep pushing in prayer. Don’t quit before your breakthrough. Yes, it may get hard. It may look like nothing is happening, but I can assure you that with God something is always happening. He works on the heart of a man and in every situation and we cannot always see that.

Fight with the weapon of Praise. The enemy hates your praise so keep sending it up to God. Psalm 150

Fight with the weapon of The Word of God. Psalm 119:11: I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. The more of it you have in you the more of it you can use to press in when things get difficult. Stand on the Word of God. 2 Timothy 2:15: Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

I don’t know what your plague is. I don’t know what pestilence God has allowed to come your way. I don’t need to know. The only question I have for you is-What is your response to God? When your relationships disappoint you, what is your response? When your Pastor doesn’t see it your way, what is your response? Things on your job are not going the way that you think they should, what is your response? Your finances are all jacked up and your spouse is acting a straight up fool, what is your response? Will you run or fight?

If you want to see a breakthrough in your life, show up for prayer practice and build a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You can’t depend on your momma’s prayers or your grandmomma’s prayers, you must know Him for yourself and live like He is Lord.

  Weekly Scripture

1 Thessalonians 5:17, says, Never stop praying.

For further discussion contact angela@mynewtemple.org or write to us on the message board http://mynewtemple.org/aMessages.html.