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I had a serious issue with the Lord. I had the habit to not talk with Him, only rarely and superficially. I was backsliding in my fellowship with Him. Until a sermon of Pastor Jae Joo woke me up. I realized that I was a bad Christian, because if you forget to talk to Him you lose the only source of salt for YOUR life.
I realized that I was mostly acting in a godly way but not so much to please Him, rather, for another obscure reason. To try to be godly, blameless, had a reason I would not admit to myself: to avoid the necessity to come to Him, not for forgiveness, (we have been already forgiven by Him from all our sins at Calvary), but to express to Him my repentance, to tell Him the troubles of my flesh, to tell Him about my confusion and my WEAKNESS.
Pride maybe?
You take your time to do thousands of things in your life, even godly, blameless things. Even soul winning, Bible study, church ministry attendance, whatever you want. BUT, if you forget, or you use all this godly activity in order to lay aside your daily talk with the Lord, you are not OK with Him. Your Christian walk is a fake, a vain deception. So I realized that this was my condition.
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When you seriously pray, it is like you open a channel that goes through the sea of glass of the third heaven. The third heaven is beyond any galaxy. Paul was there and came back (Acts 14:19, 2 Corinthians 12:2-4). To pray is something similar to the rapture.
We tend to pray to our flesh often, instead to turn to God. Unsaved, uncircumcised people make their god out of their flesh. Born again, spiritually circumcised Christians, often slide back in their previous condition, with the difference that they make no more a god out of their flesh like the unsaved, but yet give to it still attention, especially in the moment of weakness and spiritual emptiness.
Understanding and being aware of this weakness, is extremely important for the growth of a new born creature. But no intellectual godly work on the Scripture can grant a serious and lasting success, without true prayer. After I realized how important is the "channeling with God" (forgive me this term, sarcastically taken from the New Age movement :-D ), I didn't suddenly transform myself in a true "prayer warrior", like those famous old style preachers. My flesh, aided by Satan, still fights against my soul in order to distract her from continue prayer. I have to impose the will of the Spirit on my flesh. Even brutally. Even when I feel that my heart is void of any least feeling toward God, I order to my fleshy body to kneel down on the hard ground in a very retired closet. Until the filth of my heart, accumulated after hours of a godless daily life with a lot of sins gulped down like candies, would finally be found and showed to me by a grieved Spirit of God (Eph 4:30).
At this moment your soul start to be free from your sins, and breath the Spirit of Christ which is in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27); you feel the soul like attracted from above meanwhile the filthiness dissolves like thrown in a nuclear furnace!...
We have really a good God!... Why are you wasting time fornicating with your own body? Talk to the Lord, He never sleeps, never puts "OFFLINE" on His Holy counter window. Lost humanity asked help to fallen angels (Babel's Tower) or today build mega-rockets (NASA, SpaceX) to access that counter window. You don't need of this stuff, just go down on your knees and you are there.
2:40, has God given to you time to spend with Him, at least some portion of your day with Him in quiet time? ...You are spending all those times with something else rather than the Lord... and can you imagine anything better than to spend time with the Lord?...
3:40 quiet time is literally the secret ingredient for you to have a great Christian life... if you don't have quiet time you don't have that secret super important ingredient in your life
4:34 as a Christian, if you do not have quiet time every day, it's a daily activity, it's daily time, if you don't do it on a daily basis then it's going to make you become cold
Above video: Do You Have Quiet Time? | Pastor Jae Joo - URL: https://youtu.be/yF6VNe0mHrE
Below, some Bible verses which can help you to focus on the prayer as a daily habit, to consider your daily talk to the Lord as something you will love to do forever.
JESUS
Mark 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
PRAY IN A CLOSET
Matthew 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
PRAY IN THE EARLY MORNING
Genesis 19:27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD:
PRAY IN THE NIGHT BEFORE TO SLEEP
Genesis 26:24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.
A SPECIAL PLACE TO PRAY
Genesis 13:4 Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
PROSTRATE AND, IF YOU CAN, DO IT ON YOUR KNEES
Mark 14:35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
Ephesians 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
AT EVERY MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE
Ezekiel 9:8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
NO PRAYER IS FORGOTTEN BY THE LORD IF IT IS ACCORDING TO HIS WILL
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us
KEEP PRAYING, EVEN WHEN IT SEEMS NO LONGER TO MAKE SENSE
1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT HELPS YOUR PRAYER
Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
DAVID WAS A PRAYER WARRIOR
Psalms 5:3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
Psalms 42:8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
Psalms 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
PRAYER HAS GREAT EFFECTIVENESS
Mark 9:29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
FINALLY
2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Romans 12:12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
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