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| Thank You God for everything |
Time with Jesus - 15 July 2013
Hi
all,
1986
was one of the toughest years of my life. I was in a wonderful job and thoroughly
enjoyed every moment of it. What I didn’t realise was the stress associated
with what I was doing. In the end I had a nervous breakdown and ended up in hospital.
You
would think that a close walk with God would reduce stress and make it easier
to work and worship. It should do, but seldom does.
The problem is we try and
live two separate lives. We think there is a secular life and a spiritual one and
never the twain shall meet. But that is simply not true. We cannot partition
life into separate compartments. Both should be completely together in harmony. 
Part of this stems from our “Greek” way of thinking. It begins in school where
we have school hours and private life hours. It doesn’t work that way. We need
to change to “Hebrew” thinking, where there is no difference between spiritual
and secular. As Christians, that’s not how we are designed to function. If we
don’t function the way God has made us, the outcome could be a nervous breakdown.
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| Greek/Hebrew Thinking |
A
factor which exacerbates this is our prayer habits. Most of us see prayer as a
one way exercise. First we go into spiritual mode – whatever that is. Then we
begin to pray. We’ve got to go through a “shopping list” item by item. When we’re
finished, we say Amen! Then we stand up and get on with the secular part of
life.
The
big problem with this style of prayer is God doesn’t get a chance to answer. Whether
He wants to or not is immaterial. The prayer routine is over and we’ve got to
get on with living. If we had anything other than cotton wool between our ears,
we would pause long enough to listen to what He wants to say to us. After all,
prayer is meant to be two way; a conversation with God in which He does most of
the talking and we do most of the listening.
But that’s not what we do. We do
most of the talking and shut out anything He wants to say to us. Those of us
who have been blessed with the ability to speak and pray in tongues, seem to
make the same mistake. We do all the “speaking” and God gets pushed to one
side.
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| Jesus' Model Prayer |
A
quick look at Jesus’ teaching on prayer shows us, among other things, one vital
lesson. Prayer should comprise praise and worship as well as requests for our
own needs. In Matthew 6, Jesus is recorded as teaching them: 9 Pray
like this: Our Father in heaven, may Your name be
kept holy. 10 May Your Kingdom
come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11
Give us today the food we need, 12
and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13
And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us
from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Mat
6:9-13 NLT. In English there is a total of 75 words in this prayer. 49 are praising and worshiping God. i.e. ±65% praise and worship and 26 words ±35% requests
to God.
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| Focus on Praise and Worship |
Today, ours tends to be 100% requests to God. Obviously, something is
seriously wrong! If we focus more on Him, we are likely to hear from Him.
In
1986, I began to understand that in prayer, we should focus on Him and listen
for His answers.
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| God Wants to Answer You |
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| The Serenity Prayer |
Shalom,
Jim & Phyllida Strickland
Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
Time with Jesus – 15 July 2013 |
Matt 10:8
Freely you received, Freely give |
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©
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These devotionals are the intellectual property of
Jim Strickland and copyright protected. You are welcome to copy and distribute
them to anyone provided it is for non-commercial Christian purposes
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©
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INTRODUCTION
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DAILY
LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES
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A CONVERSATION WITH THE LORD
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“Did you hear what I said?” I suppose most of us
have heard this from our parents at one time or another. “Don’t you
understand English?” was another comment, particularly from my father. “Do
you think I’m talking to myself?” Strangely enough, this is what my Mother
said to me on many occasions. Talking about this with friends, I quickly
learned that this was normal behaviour by parents to their children.
Furthermore, I used the same expressions with my own children as they were
growing up. As a grandfather it is not surprising to hear my children using
the same words or their modern equivalent to their children.
On reflection it seems we all have a tendency to be
selective listeners. As children, when things are to our advantage we listen
and react immediately. If Mom or Dad said something like, “anyone for
‘seconds’”, it was understood immediately. There was no problem with
statements like, “Its pocket money time” or, “Who wants to go to the bioscope
tonight”? Then there was no problem with my understanding. To be honest I
suspect that if my parents had said the same words in Mandarin, Inuit or
Hindi, they would have been instantly understood. But if the words, “It’s
your turn to wash the supper dishes tonight” were spoken, my hearing problem
was as acute as it was instantaneous. Children have an almost supernatural
ability to understand what is being said. But, only “favourably inclined”
words are registered.
It seems that God has much the same problem with His
children. We seem to have this extraordinary ability to receive blessings
gracefully and instantaneously. But when it comes to a rebuke for something we
have done wrong, we immediately blame the devil. Some years ago there was a
comedian who said, “the devil made me do it” every time he did something
questionable!
Shortly after committing my life to Jesus Christ, my
selective hearing of His voice began to manifest in ways not thought possible
earlier. I learned early on in my Christian walk that prayer was meant to be
a dialog with God. It was not a monolog to the Almighty, to which He probably
didn’t listen anyway. This view was exacerbated by the fact that I didn’t
really expect Him to answer me. It was a number of years before it dawned that
If I asked the Lord a question, He would answer. Incidentally, there is a
huge difference between questioning God and asking God questions. To question
God implies that you are challenging Him. We stumble into this very often. We
say something like, “Why are there so many sick people in hospital? If I was
God, I would walk into the hospitals and heal everybody.” The implication is
that you can do a better job running the universe than He does. Never do
that. It’s challenging God and could lead you into a lot of trouble. But you
can and may ask Him questions and it’s likely that He will answer.
Today’s poem was written in that style in 1986.
There is one difference here. Not only have I recorded my prayer to Him, I’ve
written down what I believe His answer was. Was I on the right track? Well,
my questions didn’t challenge God. They were merely statements of how I was
and what was bothering me. The “answer” is what I believed God was saying to
me at that time. I have found this method very fruitful. Have a look at the
poem and see what you think.
Jim &
Phyllida
Strickland
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3 Job said, 'The ear tests
the words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.'
Job 34:3
NLT
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My Prayer:-
Father
God, please listen as I come to You and pray.
Lord, I
long to really mean each syllable I say.
Grant
me understanding, to follow after You,
And always
be obedient, Your sovereign will to do.
Father
it's appalling ........ my insincerity:
In truth,
I long to do the things which You require of me,
But
laziness and slackness and other forms of ease,
Seem to
overwhelm me and keep me from my knees.
Father,
I implore You. Hear my contrite prayer.
Please Lord,
come and guide me. Direct me anywhere,
That
You, Lord, in Your wisdom, desire me to go.
But Lord,
my supplication, is more of You to know.
Jesus,
be my Master. I long to crown You King;
To worship
and adore You and all my praises bring.
I
long to serve and bless You with all my earthly frame;
To bow
down low before You and magnify Your name.
Jesus,
You are precious; more valuable than gold;
More
beautiful than diamonds; Your worth cannot be told.
For,
if the entire universe were placed upon a scale,
The value
of what You are worth would make it all look pale.
The Lord's reply:-
"My
son, don't be ambitious and chase after those things,
That, only
by My Spirit, a real achievement brings.
No!
Just relax and concentrate on doing what I say;
Settle
down to listening and wanting to obey.
My
child, please always realise that those things which I plan,
Can only
be accomplished by a simple, honest man.
So,
if it's complicated and bound up very tight,
It's
probable I haven’t been your partner in the fight!
Often
I would intervene and tell My people, 'Pause'.
Don't
gallop into battle, unless it's for My cause;
Don't
be so determined, that what you think is true;
That
everything that I have said, does not apply to you!
It's
only the dogmatic who cannot ever change;
Who stand
like a fanatic and other men estrange,
From
wanting to be truthful and following My way,
Living out
a Christian life on each and every day.
So
exercise intelligence in all the things you do;
By using
as your standard, The Word I've given You.
It's
very, very simple no adult nor a child,
Ever need
to 'miss it' and by Satan, be beguiled.
So,
never act in ignorance and never act in haste,
Or all the
consequences by you must then be faced.
Concentrate
on listening and with My Spirit, flow,
And you
will never 'miss' My way, no matter where You go."
Jim Strickland
Written - 1986
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1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit.
Put the spirits to the test to see if they belong to God. Many false prophets
have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1 NIrV
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24 Don't be nit-pickers; use
your head--and heart!--to discern what is right, to test what is authentically
right.
John 7:24
MSG
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15 You are reasonable people.
Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true.
1
Corinthians 10:15 NLT
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16 Let Christ's word live in
you like a rich treasure. Teach and correct each other wisely. Sing
psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing with thanks in your hearts to God.
Colossians
3:16 NIrV
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29 Let the person who has ears
listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation
2:29 GW
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15 Spiritual people evaluate
everything but are subject to no one's evaluation.
1
Corinthians 2:15 GW
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24 "Consider carefully
what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it
will be measured to you--and even more.
Mark 4:24
TNIV
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2 "I see what you've
done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can't stomach
evil; that you weed out apostolic pretenders.
Revelation
2:2 MSG
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21 Test everything. Hold on to
the good.
1
Thessalonians 5:21 NIV
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3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the
sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by
name and leads them out. 4 When he
has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5
But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they
will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."
John
10:3-5 TNIV
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