- There are several synonyms for prayer, such as to entreat, to appeal, to petition, to intercede. There are prayers of devotion, supplication, invocation, worship, and many others. The definition of prayer I like most is “Crying out unto the Lord!”
- Psalm 34:15, David said, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.”
- Psalm 18:6, “In my distress I called upon the Lord, to my God I cried for help. From His temple, he heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears.”
- Psalm 69:3, “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.”
- Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to me, and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things you have not known.”
- Prayer is asking God to intercede on our behalf, to do for us, what we cannot do for ourselves, much less, for others.
- If we are to have power with men, we must first have power with God, and the power of God is released within us according to the measure of our faith.
- Therefore, if our faith is to be perfected, if our spiritual life is to be deepened, if our ministry is to be made more fruitful:
- We must do what we can do, which is to pray.
- We must ask God to do that which only He can do.
- As John Wesley said, “God does nothing except in answer to believing prayers.” To have such a prayer life, we must know how to pray in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the Source of every facet of our Spiritual life.
- It was by the Holy Spirit that we were “quickened” when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, regenerated and born again, and enabled to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
- It is by the Holy Spirit that we have been sanctified for the Master’s use, that we are being sanctified, and that we will be sanctified on the day we stand before the Lord.
- It is by the Holy Spirit that we are empowered and enabled to do anything of spiritual significance in the world.
- It is by the Holy Spirit that we are being kept until the day of the rapture when our salvation will be complete.
If the Holy Spirit is that significant to our walk with the Lord, should we dare to pray without His promptings or His power?
- But if we are truly born again, we already have His help, for even the very desire and motivation to pray comes from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
- In Philippians 2:13, Paul assured his converts, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure,” and Paul is referring to God the Holy Spirit, whose assignment is to take these earthen vessels and make them fit for the master’s use.
- In some cases, all He has to do is to convict us of our sins and then lead us to confess those sins, repent of them, including restitution and reconciliation where needed.
- In other cases, the Holy Spirit may have to break our vessel in some way, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, or physically, and then put us back on the potter’s wheel to be fashioned into a new vessel of purity, honor, and righteousness.
- When King David sinned, He repented, and God restored Him; however, when King Saul sinned, he did not repent, and God destroyed him.
Even though the crucifixion of Jesus was ordained of God, the people of Israel were not without guilt, and in the 2nd chapter of Acts, Peter called for the people to repent of their unbelief, and millions of Jews received Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
- According to His sovereign plan, God turned away from the Jews and began to focus on the Gentiles. However, there is coming a day when God’s discipline of His people will come to an end, and because of His mercy and His grace, He will restore His relationship with His people.
- Romans 9:25 – “That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy.”
- Hosea 2:23 – “I will call them My people, who were not My people.”
- Zechariah 12:10 – “I will pour on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”
- In the midst of a worldwide war, God will stir the hearts of His chosen people and bring them to repentance. They will turn to the One whose head was pierced with thorns, whose hands and feet were pierced with spikes, and whose side was pierced with a spear, and they will mourn for Jesus as if they were weeping over the death of their only son.
- This will fulfill the amazing promise of Romans 11:26 that “All Israel will be saved,” and while that does not include all Jews of national Israel, it does include those of Abraham’s seed.
- The whole context of Zechariah 12 describes the radical conversion of that remnant of Jews who will be saved from destruction, preserved for several months in the mountains of Petra, visited by the resurrected Lord Jesus, and who will cry out unto Him for their eternal salvation – They will look.… they will mourn, and here we see the pattern we must follow if we want to come to Jesus in true repentance.
- First, we look to Jesus and mournfully repent of our daily sins of commission and omission.
- However, true prayer is allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to probe beneath the surface issues of our lives.
- Then we look to Jesus and we weep and mourn for the suffering He endured for those particular sins.
- Spurgeon said, “The eye which looks to the pierced One is the eye which weeps for Him.”
- Notice the oneness of the Triune Godhead, “The Father sends the Spirit so that we will look upon the Son!”
- The Spirit of Grace – God sends His Spirit to His people as a token of His love- a down payment on what is yet to come. The Spirit is the One who sheds God’s love abroad in our hearts and fills our lives with His grace, His mercy and His truth.
- The Spirit of Supplication —The Holy Spirit is not given to us just to pray for us, for that is the priestly work of Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man. The Spirit of Supplication makes our prayers acceptable before the throne of God and then effective upon the hearts of men. The Holy Spirit fills us with the desire to pray – He fills us with the longing to talk to God the Father.
- The Spirit of Power – The Bible uses several phrases to indicate God’s manner of giving us His Spirit.
- In Luke 11:13, Jesus said God the Father would “give” the Holy Spirit to those who ask of Him.
- In John 14:26, Jesus said God would “send” the Holy Spirit to comfort His disciples after He left them and to bring into their remembrance all the things He had taught them.
- In Galatians 3:5, Paul said the Holy Spirit “ministers” to us, working miracles in and through us that we cannot understand or comprehend.
- But in the prophecy before us, the Bible says God will “pour out” His Spirit upon us, and wherever that term is used, it is always speaking of God’s power!
- Titus 3:4-7 says, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
- Whenever the Holy Spirit is “poured out” upon God’s people, you can rest assured that there is some work that needs to be done which is going to require God’s power, and it is interesting to me to discover that the most powerful thing we can do is to pray.
Psalm 145
Learning to Praise God
Learning from David’s example of a heart fully given to praise – Psalm 145:1-3
- To extol is to praise, to lift high, to exalt. David honored and promoted the name of God in the most personal of ways:
- He did it with a direct address (You).
- He did it with a personal reference (my God).
- He did it with a surrendered heart (O King).
- He did it unendingly (forever and ever…every day).
- David piled praise upon praise, declaring God’s greatness and worthiness to be praised.
Learning to pass the praise of God from one generation to another – Psalm 145:4-7
- David looked for God’s people to encourage each other in praise.
- An older generation might inspire a younger generation to praise by remembering God’s mighty acts in the past.
- A younger generation might stir praise in an older generation by declaring the fresh and new things God was doing.
Learning to declare and to praise the greatness of God – Psalm 145: 8-9
- David related the very words God spoke to Moses in Exodus 34:6 – “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.”
- David saw how God cared for creation as an illustration of His greatness and His goodness.
Learning to recognize how all creation declares God’s glory – Psalm 145:10-13
- If creation praises God continuously, why should not those whom God has created, and especially those He has saved.
Learning to recognize the kindness of God to those in need – Psalm 145:14-16
- The Lord upholds those who fall and raises up those who are bowed down.
- God’s compassion is especially toward those who fall or fail.
Learning to honor the love and righteousness of God – Psalm 145:17-21
- David has spoken much about praising God for who He is and what He has done. David said we should never forget the incomparable combination of God’s righteousness and graciousness.
- The last verse of Psalm 145 is David’s last word in the Bible. David praises God and invites others to praise God also.
