PRAYER: The Pathway to the Heart of the Father (6 of 9)

A. We need this work of God constantly in our lives. Jesus said,

"And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;" (Luke 18:1)

It say and He (Jesus) means "always." Just like we have a life of breathing, we must have a life of praying. Do not try to move yourself to the next prayer pattern, it does not work that way. Being faithful in duty prayer and a prayer life, will lead us into the next pattern, a life of prayer. And next, I do not know.

B. Paul tells us to, (a continual direction)

"Pray with our ceasing." (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

God will put things in our heart so we can carry them with us until God gives us the understanding. Carry them until God, what Paul called,

"the pure conscience" (1 Timothy 3:9) of the mystery of Godliness." (1 Timothy 3:16) causes things to happen in our lives and cause things to function that we do not understand.

C. But we do not need to try so hard, just relax, go along for the ride. We do not need to think about thinks so hard. But in "pure conscience" just allow God to do the work, He understands and we do not need to. What we need to do is surrender ourselves to His work and He then can bring it all to pass, not us.

D. Often, most Christians get into trouble trying to bring things to past fro God. We do this in trying to get people saved. God knows the times and seasons, He knows when one is to be saved. We press on for our own time and our own season. We want what we want when we want it. So often, we can not wait for God, He is too slow for us. But God will teach us to wait for Him if we allow Him.

E. Jesus goes into the wilderness to pray. The wilderness is a great place to prayer. It is a great place to develop that communion with God. When it seems you are all alone and no one understands. No one understands what you are doing. And when you tell them they, seem never to have the right answer. They can tell you exactly what is wrong, but they can not touch you.

F. Why? Because God has lured you into the wilderness to get alone with you. God brings us there alone with no answers. Away from the crowds and masses of people. There in the wilderness He can give us the answers.

G. If we have the answers then we do not need to lean on Him.

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? . . . " (Song of Solomon 8:5)

Our direction in prayer will lead us by way of the wilderness to be given answers and learn how to lean on Him.

H. He knows everything. We do not need to know everything, so now we can rest in Him not knowing , but can trust Him and His wisdom for our life. The wilderness is a great place to learn how to have communion with God, to learn how to pray.

I. God will have to keep us into the wilderness for a time, until we get over the complaining, before He can begin to teach us how to trust Him and be quite to know Him, to walk with Him. So He will lead us to the wilderness to teach us in the wilderness to pray right.

J. We do not need blessing we need God. The one we are to be dedicated to. The blessing and such are by-products. And in the learning process in the wilderness He must strip us of things. Because we seem to want what He gives and not Him.

K. We then learn, when we pray and things keep getting worse, we must resign ourselves to the situation by resigning ourselves to trusting God in this situation. No longer do we want to get the monkey off our back. We say okay God, I give your monkey another piggy-back ride around the track.

L. The only way to get to, "my cup runneth over" is by way of the "valley of the shadow of death." We need to be content to trust Him in the valley, in the situation without crying to Him for deliverance from the situation. Until we are at home in the wilderness. Even the valley of the shadow of death is home to us. We then learn who God is. God teaches and trains us who He is by delivering us from difficult situations even when there is no deliverance.