(Senior Elder at Father's Heart Ministries and function as
an Apostle and Prophet to the Body of Christ globally)
“Listen”
means to hear; to give undivided attention; to examine the merits of a case to render a just decision.It essentially denotes perceiving a message or sensing a sound!
Our interaction with God should be in the right spirit and attitude of heart and mind. This will guarantee that we will detect the frequency of God’s heart and decode the sounds He transmits in answer to our prayers!
“My sheep listen to my voice…”
Jn.10:27Listening is connected with detecting the voice of Jesus.
“Listen”:
in this verse means
“to hear with attention”, “be attentive”, ”to understand”
“My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words.”
Prov.4:20 The voice is the conveyer of words.
Listening to the voice of Jesus then is to give heed to His words.
You cannot listen effectively to Jesus if you are not positioned within His immediate presence!
Listening to the “voice of words” suggest intimacy with the one who speaks!
True prayer is birthed out of a deep, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ!
“She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.”
Mary was positioned correctly!
Martha was in the presence of Jesus, but was distracted! She had a wandering mind!
Mary “sat” at the Lord’s feet!
This suggests a posture of deep rest and tranquillity!
Proper prayer demands then that you establish your heart in a position of rest in the presence of King Jesus.
Mary “listened to what Jesus said”
“Said"
is the Greek word Logos which denotes the hidden intelligence behind the words of Jesus.
The hidden intelligence behind the words of Jesus is the Father!
When you listen to what Jesus says, you then get connected to the mind of the Father!
When Jesus speaks, He releases the words of the Father to you!
The Hebrew Perspective on Prayer
1. Come in Reverence
"Isaiah saw the Lord “high and exalted on a throne"
Isa.6:1-8This brought a proper perspective to him about the utter holiness of God.
- He had an upward vision This vision challenged his earthly, carnal condition and position.
The word“ruined” depicts great grief and sorrow because of the great gulf between a holy God and a fallen creature.
- He had an inward vision.This vision terrified Isaiah and made him feel totally inadequate and unclean.
- Your perspective of God determines your response to Him. The closer your proximity to God, the greater His holiness, His sovereignty over you becomes!
- “Seeing"God is essential to honouring Him!
- “to understand intellectually”, “to examine, or investigate”,“to experience and discover”
send?! And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
- He had an outward vision. His ministry outward to the people was connected to him seeing the Lord and discovering the need for inward cleansing.
- Upward sight + inward change = hearing the voice
A Jew did not pray unless his heart was really right with God. They did not go to Godin some ritualistic form or some superficial, shallow approach where they really were not committed to respond to communication in true obedience. There were no pre-set conditions in the heart of a true Jew. They would respond in true obedience, desiring to please God.
3. Come with the sin-issue already settled
There was also dealing with sin and repentance before entering into prayer.
“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer”
Ps.66:18Jews believed that you could literally turn wrath into mercy with a pure heart.
4. Come unselfishly
Theybelieved that prayer was to be unselfish. They had a sense of community that we do not understand. They had a sense of the national, they were a theocracy ruled by God and the nation was essential ruled by God and the nation was essential.
Theirs were prayers that encompassed the whole and not isolated unto the individual.
Most of us come to God with a whole lot of personal pronouns: “I”, “me”, and we pray these isolated prayers: “Lord do this for ME…”
We must sometimes sacrifice what might in our own mind seem best for us because God has a greater plan for the whole!
A Jew would pray:
“Lord does what advances your cause among your people, not what I want personally"
That is why you do not find ANY personal pronouns in the “Lord’s Prayer” – Matt.6:9-13.
In this prayer it always says:
“Our Father”,“Our daily bread”
Why?
Because true prayer always encompasses the community of faith. It never isolates one individual and to have their needs met.
5. The Jew also believed that prayer includes different elements
Their prayer include:
- Love and praise
- Gratitude and thanksgiving
- Recognition of God’s holiness
- A desire to please and obey God
- Confession of sin
- A pure heart before God
- Unselfishness and perseverance
6. Come in humility
Another element of their prayer was humility. A true Jew was coming into prayer to submit himself to God.
An illustration of this:
The prayer of Jesus in the garden when He set aside His own will, when He said: “Not My will be done but thy will be done” That is the heart of the truest prayer.
Prayer then is not asking God to do my will; it is bringing you into conformity to His will.
Thank you for visiting my Blog, please be on the look out for Kingdom Prayer - Part 3 click here for Part 1
Mark KhanLife Coach / Inter-Networker
Position Yourself To Max Life
Father's Heart Ministries mission can be summarized as follows:
Equalizing the Church, Advancing the Kingdom, impacting the Nations.
Shaun Blignaut
is Senior Elder and function as an Apostle and Prophet to the Body of Christ.
Father's Heart Ministries
is an Apostolic Reforming Congregation, based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
"Our desire is to teach, train, challenge, warn and activate the Church to reconnect the Centrality of Christ and His Kingdom."
is Senior Elder and function as an Apostle and Prophet to the Body of Christ.
Father's Heart Ministries
is an Apostolic Reforming Congregation, based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
"Our desire is to teach, train, challenge, warn and activate the Church to reconnect the Centrality of Christ and His Kingdom."
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