PRAYER: The Pathway to the Heart of the Father (2 of 9)

A. Prayer is communion, direct communication with God, anything else is not called prayer in the Bible.

B. Jesus provides many things through His death and resurrection. One thing we provided was a ribbon veil (His flesh) through which we can enter into the heart of God. So Jesus made a way into the heart of God like never made before. Never before was there such a closeness and unity with the Father, Jesus' death made this closeness possible.

C. If there is a breakdown in communication there is loss. The loss happens out from the disconnection. What ever relationship we are involved there must be communication and the more that is hindered the greater the loss.

D. We must be careful not to get involved with or tied to things like family, working, and even work unto the Lord where we project ourselves toward them to such a degree that we are consumed by them taking up our time and effort to where we have no time to communicate with God.

E. When communication between us and God is cut we start to cultivate desires for the thing that has broken off our communication. We ourselves cultivate our own desire for the things of the world. The more we eat of the world the more we develop a liking for them. We cultivate a hunger for the things of world by doing it. And it overcomes us and God's purposes are then lost.

F. The more we get into our mind during the day the more your mind will run on. The less of this life we get in us, the more of God we will have in us. We are filled with either the things of this world or of the things of God. It is our choice.

G. Like worrying and fretting. These are not good for our communication between us and God. God will take care of us.

I. We need to allow the Spirit to communicate Spirit to us. You can not really pray without the Spirit of God in you. Prayer is of the Spirit. Just open your heart to the Spirit and the Spirit will communicate from God to you, through me. But, first you must open your heart to the Spirit what God is saying to you.

J. I know this message will be taught in darkness to some and maybe in five or ten years the Spirit will turn on the light, get to you the understanding. Things are not what we think they are. Prayer is not made by God so we can get something form Him. People like to pray if they think they can get something from God.

K. PURPOSES OF PRAYER: The main purpose of prayer is to know God, His ways, and His works. Now we must always remember we are the ignorant one in prayer. We do not know God does, everything!

L. So we are not communicating anything to God He does not already know. To know His words, not only the words in the Bible, but the words in His heart. To know His whys without asking why. Prayer moves us into knowing His whys without asking.

M. To know His wisdom. As we look at His wisdom on first glance it is foolishness, but to God it is wisdom, but God's ways are wisdom.

But to man they are foolishness,

N. Now when we know His ways and wisdom we will be in trouble from our fellow believers. We are not to be like everybody else, but to move into the heart of God close to Him to know Him. For this to happen we must face trouble (temptation).

O. If we can watch and prayer we will know the way God takes, unlike the disciples who did not know the way God was taking. Do not get yourself in trouble by going the wrong way. How do we stay on track? Watch and pray that we do not go down the wrong track. So communication (praying) puts us into knowing God's ways.

P. Now reading the Bible is good and helps to move us in the right direction, but without knowing God even the Bible will be confusing and meaningless in many places, if we do not knows God's wisdom and ways we will not understand how things fit and misunderstand them.