LIVING BY FAITH IN GOD

LIVING BY FAITH IN GOD



                Father, we come to You this morning hungry to know You more… longing to seek your face and to know Your ways. In a world that seems eager to remake you into its own image, we want to know the real You. We want to know Your thoughts and your plans. We long to be fully on Your schedule… doing Your will and loving You for who You really are.



                We want to know Your Word, not merely as a reference book of facts, but as a love letter… a letter that contains everything we need to become Your sons and daughters… to walk in Your kingdom… to overcome by Your blood and to live by Your Spirit.



                Today we want to cut through false religion… to bypass the false prophets and those who cry “Peace” when we are at war… who have removed You as High Priest and Coming King… who claim that we are okay even as we fall away from the faith of our fathers.



                Father, we have come to press into You today. We long to be Your sons and daughters… your overcomers… the ones for whom all of creation waits with eager anticipation. We are not looking for shortcuts, excuses or loopholes. We want to become the real thing. We want to be Your dedicated and consecrated children. We long to have the love that you seek for in us… the kind of love that You have shown to us.



                We are not satisfied with human mediators that claim to tell us what You have to say. We want to hear You for ourselves and to be transformed by the sound of Your voice. Set us in the cleft of the rock and show us Your glory. Teach us Your ways… not just on paper, but on our hearts so that we rejoice in your plans and purposes… so that we walk in agreement with Your kingdom principles… so that we truly trust You with our lives.







                You have given us a covenant signed in Your own blood…sealed by Your Holy Spirit…bound to Your promises… complete with everything we need to know Your calling and the power to live in it. Forgive us for we have never really explored the depths of what You have offered us, or what You expect from us in this salvation agreement. We took a little bit and ran with it. Now we need to re-study it and re-commit to it in full. It offers Your 100% for our 100%. How did we miss that?



                In a world that wants everything to be fun and easy and entertaining… we have come to have the veil removed and to see You as You are… as You want us to see You. Many are coming in Your name and claiming that You are the Christ and yet they deceive many because they are describing You… attempting to re-define You to fit the desires of unregenerate hearts… a God who no longer judges in righteousness.



                How do we get to where You want us to be? How do we become the vessels that You long to mold into Your image? Surely You are the Potter and we are the clay, but we don’t always act like the clay. We shape ourselves. We conform ourselves to patterns that are not of Your Word…  We stray from the blueprints to build castles of sand… unworthy to stand in the storms of life… castles that fall in the shaking and wash away in the flood.



                The longer we live the more we know with ever greater certainty that we can’t do any of this alone. Our only hope is in being Your dwelling place… in learning to hear Your voice and to live by every Word… to escape the limitations of the flesh… to draw upon the power and love and might of Your Spirit.



                We have become a people that hear You selectively. We search even Your Word for only those things that please our senses… agree with our plans… leave us as casual followers. We try to avoid the Holy Spirit and fire… the heat of refining… the discipline with which you discipline Your sons and daughters. We have made You into a sugar daddy, not realizing that our security and safety are in Your judgments. We have become as spoiled who want only candy and then complain when we are sick and weak.



                We have had enough of this boredom and complacency. We have grown tired of half measures. We have become sick of entertainment and smoke and mirrors and hyperbole. We want to vomit at the sight of worldly prosperity. We need for our souls to prosper, by becoming one with You… not formulas… not even in tithing… but in giving You everything… our hearts… our lives… our belongings… all upon the altar… withholding nothing.



                Oh my Lord, my God… forgive us for the idols of our hearts… everything that we have chosen over You… every priority in which You are not the center. We need to say with Paul: “For Me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Our value systems have become skewed Lord and only You can help us. We are



just as guilty of idolatry as was Israel of old, for we have placed nearly everything in our lives ahead of You. Please forgive us Lord. Have mercy on our souls. Restore to us the joy of Your salvation and uphold us with Your right hand.



                In a world that is falling away, call us to be Your sons and daughters. Call us to faithfulness and obedience. Call us to separateness and authenticity. Don’t allow us to be second hand Christians any longer… who wait for the words of men and organizations, but have no vital connection with You. Forgive us Lord for we have allowed many things to stand between us and You.



                Having tried everything else, we now lay our lives upon the altar. We are crying out for Your life or no life at all. We submit to You until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.



                In the mighty name of Jesus, who alone can make all of these things possible.  Amen