This is the Will of God
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:3Devotional Series: God's Strength
Teaching: God's Strength pt. 1 (SUN_AM 2021-10-31) by Pastor Star R Scott
God has taken the simple as it pertains to this world and confounded them in their own wisdom. And we’ve been called as a people now, set apart to bring this gospel in this last day to a lost and dying generation. Put on the whole armor of God, take up the Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit and pray. Amen?
If we’re going to finish this race, we’re going to finish it on our knees. We’re going to finish it on our faces. We’re going to finish it in a simplistic trust in God to meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory. He will hide us in the secret place. This is the secret place, praise God! Prayer, the presence of God, abiding in Him is that great secret place of God. We run into that high tower of the truth of God’s Word. We run in boldly because of the blood of Jesus and access—Hebrews says—the very throne of Almighty God and pray. That’s why I wanted us to look here and start off in John 15… and pray!
Way back in the creation, in the times of Enos, it says, “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). You know, coming from the garden, Adam and Eve having walked in the presence of God, the effect which that had, even in their dispersion from God’s presence from the garden, that intimate—listen—that intimate glance, that just looking upon Him—even when spiritual death came, carried about for 900 years a strong body, a keen mind, a revelation of what they had, and what they had lost—but they had a knowledge of God!
Now, a few years as we see this thing going on, God no longer sought man; they now had to call on God. You see, everything was initiated by God.
We’re going to get into the truths. We’re going to get into the truths of the intercession of Jesus for us today. Aren’t you glad that He ever lives to make intercession for us? But I’m here to tell you this morning, it’s not enough that He alone pray; we need to pray.
And the Scripture’s very clear on what we should be praying. And my first question to us, generally: Are we even praying what grips our hearts, the burden of our hearts, the burning of our hearts, even the simplistic truths that Jesus set forth when His disciples said, “Teach us to pray”? And He said, “When you pray, pray after this manner, Our Father...” (Matthew 6:9). Amen?
Our Father cares. He is a loving, heavenly Father. He’s a father in every way that you are but perfection. He’s the perfect Father. Amen? Our God is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. It is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Can you say, “Praise God”? God’s not holding out on you. Prayer is not going and begging God, who is not going to withhold anything that’s good for you. But if we’re going to pray, we must pray, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven”; amen? My encouragement to you, if you want a successful prayer life, is [to] find the will of God and pray that.
You want to know what the will of God is, just off the cuff right now? “This is the will of God, even your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). We shouldn’t be crying out for more vacation, we should be crying out for sanctification. Not a bigger mansion, but “let not our hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you” (John 14:1-2), praise God! “There is waiting for you and me that which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, has not entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for us” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Let’s get our minds into the heavenlies. Let’s begin to look at the eternal. It’s knocking on our doors at this very moment. Jesus could come at any moment, and we’re being weighed down by sins and cares of this world that are absolute vanity! What has our hearts and minds? Because what’s there is what you’ll pray.
If we’re going to finish this race, we’re going to finish it on our knees. We’re going to finish it on our faces. We’re going to finish it in a simplistic trust in God to meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory. He will hide us in the secret place. This is the secret place, praise God! Prayer, the presence of God, abiding in Him is that great secret place of God. We run into that high tower of the truth of God’s Word. We run in boldly because of the blood of Jesus and access—Hebrews says—the very throne of Almighty God and pray. That’s why I wanted us to look here and start off in John 15… and pray!
Way back in the creation, in the times of Enos, it says, “then began men to call upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). You know, coming from the garden, Adam and Eve having walked in the presence of God, the effect which that had, even in their dispersion from God’s presence from the garden, that intimate—listen—that intimate glance, that just looking upon Him—even when spiritual death came, carried about for 900 years a strong body, a keen mind, a revelation of what they had, and what they had lost—but they had a knowledge of God!
Now, a few years as we see this thing going on, God no longer sought man; they now had to call on God. You see, everything was initiated by God.
We’re going to get into the truths. We’re going to get into the truths of the intercession of Jesus for us today. Aren’t you glad that He ever lives to make intercession for us? But I’m here to tell you this morning, it’s not enough that He alone pray; we need to pray.
And the Scripture’s very clear on what we should be praying. And my first question to us, generally: Are we even praying what grips our hearts, the burden of our hearts, the burning of our hearts, even the simplistic truths that Jesus set forth when His disciples said, “Teach us to pray”? And He said, “When you pray, pray after this manner, Our Father...” (Matthew 6:9). Amen?
Our Father cares. He is a loving, heavenly Father. He’s a father in every way that you are but perfection. He’s the perfect Father. Amen? Our God is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. It is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Can you say, “Praise God”? God’s not holding out on you. Prayer is not going and begging God, who is not going to withhold anything that’s good for you. But if we’re going to pray, we must pray, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven”; amen? My encouragement to you, if you want a successful prayer life, is [to] find the will of God and pray that.
You want to know what the will of God is, just off the cuff right now? “This is the will of God, even your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). We shouldn’t be crying out for more vacation, we should be crying out for sanctification. Not a bigger mansion, but “let not our hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you” (John 14:1-2), praise God! “There is waiting for you and me that which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, has not entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for us” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Let’s get our minds into the heavenlies. Let’s begin to look at the eternal. It’s knocking on our doors at this very moment. Jesus could come at any moment, and we’re being weighed down by sins and cares of this world that are absolute vanity! What has our hearts and minds? Because what’s there is what you’ll pray.