Devotional for God’s Family – 1

Matthew 6:7–13 (ESV): And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

  “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.“

In our growth as Christians, we hopefully get to a place where our sight is brought up beyond our own feet.

I remember my very first trip to California. I was in the Air Force and I was sent to a base in California for training. I was really excited because having grown up in Florida, I was interested in seeing really big waves and also seeing cliffs and rocks at the beach. We don’t have much of that in the sunshine state.

I remember at the end of one of the days of training my traveling friends and I took off to the water. Typical in Florida, you leave your shoes in the car and head for the water, unless it is a super hot day and then you wear your flip-flops to get across the parking lot so your feet don’t burn on the pavement.

So, we decided to go to the back of the base to the cliffs. A place that the locals told us to go to. This place was not traveled to by many. We were super excited because none of us had ever been there before.

I thought that Cali would be the same as Florida, but in this particular place it was very different. There were no parking lots where we went, so I left my shoes in the car. As I got out of the car, I could hear the massive waves crashing against the rocks and cliffs. I was so excited to get to the cliff tops. We had what seemed to be a 600 feet walk to the rocky crags overlooking the surf. In this particular spot it was rocky all the way the cliffs. It didn’t bother my feet much the first 100 feet or so. But then…

After about 100 yards (300 feet, half way), my feet were really hurting. Still, I was excited to see something new.

After another 100 feet, I stopped. I wanted to go back to the car to get my shoes. But I know it was a very long walk back. I knew that the waves were going to be great, but really the only thing I was focusing on was my feet. A little further…

Arms raised, as if this helped the situation, I slowed to a crawl. And I would have crawled if that would have helped. I felt like my feet were bleeding, but was unwilling to lift one and look because all my weight would have been on the other.

After a short time, I could have cared less about the waves and rocks. My feet got my full attention. I was looking for the safest path and least painful path from where I was to where I was trying to get to. Unfortunately, there was no painless path. I had to go back the way that I came. All 300-400 feet of it. A football field’s length of agony.

It took a long time, I did go back put my shoes on and with ease I went right across the tops of the rocks to the cliffs and waves. The waves were everything I thought they would be.

I want you to notice verse number 11 of our text today, do you see it there? (You may need to go back to the top.) Do you see where it is? It is tucked in the middle of the prayer.

The positioning of this part of the verse is strategic. It comes after the declaration made by Jesus regarding what the main thing is and always will be. I think that often we miss that. Like me scooting across the top of the rocks looking to satisfy my interest in the waves and cliffs. I didn’t even think about the rocks under my feet.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. And then…give us today our daily bread. I know for a fact that there are times when I pray, “Hey God, I need bread…like right now!” And I pray this without any thought beyond bread in my mouth.

Break through prayer understands kingdom advancing strategy. And everything in life, and I mean everything is connected to that.

When Jesus says, “Ask anything in my name and I will do it…” What do you think He means? Saying the name “Jesus” at the end of the prayer? Or, when we pray in the name of Jesus are we praying in the will and direction that Jesus is going? Which has with it yes and no, because we are discerning the will of God as we go.

Our prayers are directional. They are following the kingdom advancing movement of the Holy Spirit: globally, regionally, family and personally. I believe I will find myself in painful and unprepared places if I run off into life without the boots of preparation found in the gospel of peace, as Paul calls it in Ephesians 6.

The Gospel is the will of God, prayed first by Jesus in Matthew 6. He is teaching us to think kingdom first. 

Just a few sentences after this example given to us on how to pray Jesus says…

Matthew 6:33 (ESV): But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Seek the kingdom first. Don’t lose sight of the kingdom. Keep the kingdom on the forefront of your mind, especially as you pray. To lose sight of the kingdom is to lose mobility spiritually.

Lord, we confess today that it is easy for us to forget that we are part of your strategic plan to destroy the work of the devil. He has a strategy too. I pray that his strategy will be exposed in all of us so that we can fully grasp Your strategy and see his scheming come to an end in us. Lord, we rejoice in Jesus. You have won through Him. We have the victory and we declare the praises of Jesus right now. We declare that everywhere we go and everything that we do, it is for Your glory, for Your kingdom and it is all accomplished through Your power. Thank You Jesus for making all of this possible through Your blood.

Devotional for God’s Family – 2

Galatians 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

In our recent discussions we have come to the conclusion that break through prayer may have volume and intensity, but that is not what makes prayer, break through prayer.

Really, all forms of prayer are break through prayer, by God’s design. However, there is a form of prayer that is very powerful as it is pointed in the right direction.

If we can change the direction of our praying from ourselves to others, I believe that we are better positioned to see break through.

As I have said, there are times when praying for our self is the right thing to do. Sometimes that is all we can bring ourselves to do because of the weight that we feel. These should be seasons and not the norm. transforming prayer for our life is so necessary; but asking God to give this and that isn’t necessarily productive.

Let the majority of your prayer be pointed out to the working of God in the building of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Consider four areas of directional prayer. There is the world at large, the region where you live, your family (physical and spiritual), and yourself.

Believe that your prayer has weight to it. Because God says that it does. Allow me to show you what I mean.

James 5:16 “…the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

The Holy Spirit is saying that there is great power in your prayers. Ninety-nine percent of people interpret this verse to say – when you are as perfect as Jesus, then your prayers will be answered.

Don’t believe this for a moment! This is a lie from the devil.

The devil is an accuser and he loves to remind you that you are not perfect. We believe his lie and barely pray kingdom advancing prayer because we feel guilty before we even start. Man, do we need to repent of this and push on into our calling toward kingdom advancement!

That’s like a man who is invited to the world’s greatest brunch/buffet and when the spread is before him, he walks away from the table because he feels guilty that he ate fast food the day before. Eat friend!

The righteousness in the James 5:16 verse has nothing to do with condition, it has to do with position. Please understand this and you will have doors of kingdom advancing prayer open right before your eyes because that is the power that God has put in your prayers.

How do I know? Because the topic in the prior sentence of James 5:16 makes the very important and valid assumption that the person whose prayer is powerful, is the one who just finished confessing their sin…can you see it? Powerful Kingdom advancing break through prayer is all about the position you have in Jesus.

Let your condition come from your position, don’t buy into the lie that your position is based on your condition. You will jump head-first into the shallow end of the legalism pool if you are not careful.  

What’s the difference you ask? If I believe that my condition is what makes my prayers powerful, what conclusions do I come to about my condition? What swirls in the mix is my imperfections and shortcomings and the enemy waits with eager anticipation for you to be open to his input on that matter.

If, on the other hand, I have a position in Christ, established by His work, and I have a clear conscious because I am continually washed in His blood; I can ask anything in His name and know that He will do it. Righteousness has more to do with what Jesus does, not what I do.

The closest I will ever get to perfection is doing the right things about the wrong things I do.

Therefore, active confession and pursuing of God is what God is looking for, not perfection.  

Clearly, if I abuse grace and have an unrepentant stubborn heart, I won’t be praying anyway. I am speaking about those who want to see powerful break through prayer as a part of their life. Those who want to have a global, region and local world view that focuses on Jesus. And those who want to see Jesus win more than themselves.

Powerful directional, kingdom advancing, break through prayer is based on a position given to me when I became a follower of Jesus. The authority I carry isn’t because I do it right, it’s because of the One who calls me right.

The working of His righteousness on me that lives in me (the Holy Spirit), transforms me into a person that flows much better in holiness and power.

Jesus, thank You for Your power. Today, even at this moment, available to every single person who follows You is the power that raised You from the dead. Lord, please help us see past what holds us back from break through prayer. Help us see through to where You are changing the world. Expose the devil and his schemes so that we can be directional and powerful in our praying.

Devotional for God’s Family – 3

Mark 11:23-24 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

What did that mountain do to deserve being uprooted? Why that mountain? Maybe that mountain stands in the way of something. Maybe that mountain is blocking something. There is another passage in the Bible that speaks to the idea of a mountain being moved. Take note of this…

Isaiah 41:15-16 Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff; you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

In one instance, all at once the mountain is uprooted and cast into the sea; and the other instance the mountain is chewed on bit by bit and thereby, removed. In both cases the mountain doesn’t stand a chance.

In both cases, the mountain has to go. Whether piece by piece or all at once, there is intentionality, or sight beyond the mountian. Who just walks along and says, I say that mountain should disappear?  The mountain has to be seen as something that isn’t supposed to be there, it is blocking progression. 

If you can see the mountain and you know that it isn’t supposed to be there, then the process through which the mountain is removed is up to God. There are amazing and miraculous moments of ministry where Jesus heals, delivers or imparts instantaneous power and you are forever changed in a moment.

And other times, He wants you to grow through the biting and chewing of the mountain. In either case, you have to see past the mountain to what could be, to know the mountain has to be gone.

Don’t put too much emphasis on the how the mountain is going away, just know it is going away, leave the rest to God and work whatever program He places in front of you. Your break-through prayer is just that.

See through the mountain. Envision this mountain gone and celebrate the freedom of movement and ministry with it gone. Pray that right into existence.

That is directional prayer.   

Sometimes seeing past the mountain is difficult…why? Because mountains taste like dirt. What did you expect it would taste like? If it tastes good everybody would be eating mountain for lunch. Its big and it tastes horrible. And it is rocky, that’s why God says He would give you new teeth, because you are probably gonna crack a few along the way.

Here in lies the reason many can’t see past the tip of their nose, let alone through their mountain. You will have to love what you don’t see more than what you do. Most would say that it isn’t worth it to take bites out of mountains. They turn away and live with what God doesn’t want in their life, family, region and world.

You have to want what’s past the mountain more than the cost of going through the mountain.

The mountain that Jesus faced was the cross. Can you see that? He didn’t flinch, everyday biting and chewing toward the cross. Did it taste good to him? Some days did, some days didn’t. But He loved what was beyond the cross more than the power of the cross could hurt him.

He prayed break-through prayer. His break-through prayer was based on what He saw further down the road. True directional prayer. His prayers were a way of life.

Hebrews 12:2 “…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Let me ask you a question, what was Jesus looking at? He was certainly looking beyond the cross to the place He longed to be, sitting with His Dad.

Break through prayer requires you to see something that draws you even through mountains. I am not asking you what mountain you see, I don’t care about the mountain… I deeply care for your ability to see past the mountain. I am asking you, what do you see beyond the mountain?      

I double dog dare you to go through the gospels and look how many times Jesus spoke about His personal difficulty with the cross. Every time except for one (garden prayer) when the cross is mentioned it is tied to a vision of what the cross leads to.

Break through prayer takes you beyond the mountain. Break through prayer takes whatever you point your prayer toward beyond their mountain too, family, region and world.

Just in case you have concluded that Jesus was able to pray break-through prayer and move mountains because He was special. Listen to what James has to say on the matter.

James 5:17-18 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

Elijah was not feeling crotchety one day and decide to perform a miracle to ruin 3 years of everyone’s life. He saw past the mountain of rebellion in the life of God’s people. He followed the leading of the Lord and prayed break-through prayer.

James is saying that Elijah is just like us and we are just like him. Your break-through prayer really can change the world, God has made prayer that powerful.

Father, we are sitting on a powder keg. Most don’t even know it. My heart is sad for the needless brokenness and sorrow of so many who have break-through power on their lips and they feel defeated and powerless. Lord, raise our awareness of who You have put inside of us. Holy Spirit, we honor You today, we believe in You and ask that You would work through us to accomplish mountain crushing kingdom advancing initiatives that are for our day and that come directly from the Father’s heart. For that is where we are going. That is our resting place. That is why we are here. Lead on Lord! 

Blessings

Pastor D