MESSAGE: THE DIRECTION OF PRAYER (5 of 9)

TEXT: "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matthew 21:22)

A. Our direction in prayer is toward God, believing (faith) God will give it to us, according to His will, because of our relationship with Him, not our prayers. Remember, prayer is communion with God. An intimate communion that helps us along His way as we return to His heart where we came from.

B. God wants to bring us into a relationship with Him, where there will be a reality of communication, a real union, a real communion with the Father. This was Jesus' desire and burden for us;

"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:" (John 17:2)

Prayer is the pathway back to God's heart to unite with Him.

C. When we begin as a little one we stumble, flounder, and blunder along, but God ultimately (if we allow Him to) will brings us more and more in line with what He wants. At first as children it is what we want, then hopefully God can cure us of the gimes and give us a heart of dedication and sacrifice that all we want to do is give, rather then to receive. If God can not develop this kind of heart in you He can not use you. Jesus said, (Acts 20:35) "It is more blessed to give then receive."

D. We can do this because God has taken upon Himself the responsibility of everyone of us to care, to give us what we need so we can be liberated from our selves and move in God. becoming what He wants you to become. Uniting in character and intention, and move in Him in a real partnership that really works. And, not projecting to God and others from our self current desires to have our own way to get what we want, when and how we want it. This is a pityful way for a Christian to live. (babes)

E. So, God will bring us into Himself and there will be a response, a reaction from ourselves to God in a way God desires, because of the accomplished work that He has done in our lives, so that we become, what God wants and then can give Him what He wants.

F. We do not give Him what He wants then become what He wants us to become. We become and give what we are, what we have. All of our testimonies and all we do in God comes out from what we are, not what we are not or even what we desire to be. I can listen to someone prayer or hear a testimony and hear where they are or are not in God. In giving, the same principle holds fast.

G. Our direction is prayer is to build us into a house of prayer. Jesus said, "in my father's house are many mansions." (Acts 14:2) Maybe we are the many mansions Jesus is talking about? In Matthew, Jesus said,

"And said unto them, It is written, My house (not church) shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." (Matthew 21:13)

H. Each one of us are to become an expression of God. At every place and at ALL times we are to be an expression of God, not in word. John tells us,

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:18)

We do not really know what love means any more. The word love has been so distorted.

I. The word "love" appears in the Bible 270 times and is translated in a few ways in the scriptures. It is translated "agape" (brotherly love, good will) which comes "phileo" (to approve of or to like). But agape has nothing to do with our emotions, so when we talk about this warm and fuzzy type of love we not talking about what the Bible is talking about.

J. The Bible is talking about something far far beyond that. If we are

are to translate the word "love" to use one word, it would be "dedicated."

God has called us to dedicate ourselves one to another. Just as He has dedicated Himself to us.

K. His dedication to the world was so great He gave His only begotten Son. God desires to brings His life into us so that we would become so dedicated. Our prayer is to be directed to God so that we too can become dedicated and give.

L. You know it is so easy to drift from one church to another church, or be into religious TV, with no responsibility, just hanging around, no dedication to anything, except your self. Even the Pharisees had agape.

They were dedicated (loved) the praises of men, they dedicated (loved) the upper seats. They were dedicated (loved) to them all their whole lives.

M. But we are to come in line with God so our character can be corrected, transformed, matched-up, realigned with the character of God like He intended in the beginning when He made man in His own image after His likeness (Christ-likeness). This is nothing new, this is still God intention and God is still working on it.

N. Our direction of prayer will take on different forms at different times. There is no formula or form that indicates if it is prayer. If it is not communion with God, then it is not prayer. Jesus' life was a life of prayer.

O. We start as a new child of God with duty prayer time, which leads us into a prayer life, but the goal of our direction in prayer is for God to be able to lead us into a life of prayer. Our life becomes a prayer, an expression of God. Communion with God at anytime at any place, under any situation.

P. We will never ever realize the fulfillment of God's desires through us unless we decide to move with Him in communion apart from what we want. To move into His heart to find out what He wants, His intentions with a purpose in our heart to die to self and unite with God.