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2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 27

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 27

“and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:27

God Searches Our Hearts
God searches our hearts. God does not search our hearts because of His lack of knowledge. His search is for our benefit, not His benefit. Consider the words of David in Psalm 139. He opened Psalm 139 by acknowledging the omniscience and omnipresence of God. “O LORD, You have searched me and known me.” “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.” “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” (Psalm 139:1, 4, 7) This psalm concludes with this request. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way,” Psalm 139:23-24. David asked God to search His heart. However, this request was not because David thought God lacked information. God was fully aware of what lurked within David. He had already acknowledged the omniscience of God throughout this psalm, “Behold, O Lord, You know it all.” Instead, David asked God to search His heart in order for God to reveal to David the condition of David’s own heart. It is as if David prayed, “God, tell me what You already know about me. Tell me what you see in my heart so that I may know what You know of my heart.” David sought purity of heart. He knew that only God had the right assessment of his heart. David sought purity, the removal of sin. When Paul uses the phrase, “He who searches the hearts,” the emphasis seems a little different from that of Psalm 139. In this case, God’s disclosure of our hearts does not refer to sin. Instead, God’s revelation concerns our troubles in this world. The context of the searching of our hearts is the deep, emotional groanings of the Spirit on our behalf. In the Triune relationship, knowledge within the Godhead is absolute and complete. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have complete knowledge of all things past, present and future. Therefore, God does not search our hearts to discern new information. He does not learn the way we learn. He does not discover information discursively (through experience, through indirect gathering of information). He knows absolutely and completely all that can be known. He searches our hearts to reveal to us our needs and to sympathize with our hurts. God knows us completely and the Spirit of God takes us on a tour of our circumstances in order to reveal to us what is true about our relationship with God. He reveals to us what is true about our glorious, eternal life in Christ.

The Prayer of the Spirit and the Will of God
The Spirit never prays for us outside the will of the Father because the Father and the Spirit have perfect knowledge of each other and are perfectly united in their execution of their divine plan. The Spirit takes our feeble prayers and enhances them greatly by giving them divine knowledge. He always prays for us in accord with the will of God. God’s will consists of our adoption, justification, and glorification. This is His plan for us. The Spirit moves within us to direct the focus of our prayers to that ultimate goal while helping us in our daily struggles in this life. The Spirit puts into words the sorrow that we fail to articulate. He is able to express in our prayers what we cannot express.

Prayer Focus
Holy Spirit, I surrender my will for the divine work You are performing within me. Thank You for not leaving me to my own wisdom and strength. Thank You for coming along side me to pray for me and through me. Thank You for taking my prayers and giving them divine utterance. I long for my prayers to be like Your prayers. Align my prayers in accord with Your prayers. Set the priority of my prayer life with the will of God. I need You to help me to pray. God, please forgive me when my prayers focus purely on my selfish desires and not on Your glorious cause.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power
RAPPINGS IN THE DARK
I want to say right here, that I think in this day a great many children of God are turning aside and committing a grievous sin. I don’t know if they think it is a sin, but if we examine the Scriptures, I am sure we will find that it is a great sin. We are told that the Comforter is sent into the world to “guide us into all truth,” and if He is sent for that purpose, do we need any other guide? Need we hide in the darkness, consulting with mediums, who profess to call up the spirits of the dead? Do you know what the Word of God pronounces against that fearful sin? I believe it is one of the greatest sins we have to contend with at the present day. It is dishonoring to the Holy Spirit for me to go and summon up the dead and confer with them, even if it were possible.

I would like you to notice the 10th chapter of 1st Chronicles, the13th & 14th Verses: “So Saul died for his transgression which he had committed against the Lord, even against the Word of the Lord, which he did not keep, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the Lord: therefore He slew him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.”(1Chron 10:13-14 KJV)

God slew him for this very sin. Of the two sins that are brought against Saul here, one is that he would not listen to the Word of God, and the second is that he consulted a familiar spirit. He was snared by this great evil, and sinned against God. Saul fell right here, and there are a great many of God’s professed children today who think there is no harm in consulting a medium who pretends to call up some of the departed to inquire of them. But how dishonoring it is to God, who has sent the Holy Spirit into this world to guide us “into all truth.” There is not a thing that I need to know, there is not a thing that is important for me to know, not a thing that I ought to know but that which the Spirit of God will reveal it to me through the Word of God. If I turn my back upon the Holy Spirit, I am dishonoring the Spirit of God, and I am committing a grievous sin. You know we read in Luke, where that rich man in the other world wanted to have someone sent to his father’s house to warn his five brothers. Christ said they have Moses and the prophets, and if they will not hear them, they will not hear one though he rose from the dead. Moses and the prophets, the part of the Bible then completed, that is enough. But a great many people now want something besides the Word of God, and are turning aside to these false lights.

2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 26

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 26

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;”   Romans 8:26

Groanings too Deep for Words

“In the same way…”  The Spirit groans within us “in the same way” that the creation groans (Romans 8:22) and that we ourselves groan (Romans 8:23).  The Spirit helps our weakness by entering into our struggles and embracing our weaknesses.  We face trials and difficulties in this present age.  As we discussed in the previous verses, our knowledge of our future glory sustains us in the face of such difficulties.  In the same way that the knowledge of our eternal destiny sustains us, so also the Spirit of God sustains us in our weakness.  How severe is our weakness?  Our weakness is so extreme that we often do not even know how to pray.  The trials of this life can be so overwhelming that we struggle to articulate our requests to God.  At times, we are so disappointed by this life that we are unable to give words to our hurts or to pray in accordance with the will of God.  God knows our weaknesses.  He knows our frailty.  The Spirit of God functions in a variety of ways in the life of a believer, but one of the primary functions of the Holy Spirit is to provide comfort and encouragement.  When Jesus described the coming Holy Spirit to His disciples, He told them, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter), that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”  (John 14:16-17)  Christ refers to the Holy Spirit as the “Helper” or “Comforter.” His strength comes alongside our weakness to provide comfort.  In His work as our Comforter, He prays for us.  The Holy Spirit takes our unspoken prayers and gives them words.  He prays with us, for us, and from within us.  He offers profound, emotion-filled prayers that express our deepest concerns to our Father.  The Spirit, with “groanings too deep for words” takes our brokenness and turns it into a divine conversation, a Trinitarian request from God the Holy Spirit to God the Father because of our identity in God the Son.  The Triune conversation is on our behalf.  God is omniscient.  The Spirit’s prayers are not for informational sharing within the Triune Godhead.  God has full knowledge of everything.  Paul’s primary point in all of this seems to be that God is completely aware of our struggles and He enters into our struggles with the emotional embrace as a close friend.  The divine dialogue within the Trinity brings encouragement as God gives expression to our greatest longings and pains.  It also gives us confidence.  For we know that the One who cares enough to cry out within us during our trials will also bring us safely to our eternal destiny.  “When we do not know what to pray for – yes, even when we pray for things that are not best for us-we need not despair, for we can depend on the Spirit’s ministry of perfect intercession on our behalf…our failure to understand God’s purposes and plans does not mean that effective, powerful prayer for our specific needs is absent.”  (Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament.)

Prayer Focus

God, hear my prayer.  Help me!  I need You every hour, my precious Lord.  Thank You for the gift of Your Spirit and for giving divine expression to my weaknesses.  Please help me to serve You even in the face of disappointments and failures.  I trust in You.  Thank you for the hope of everlasting life.  Please use the truth of my relationship with You along with the reality of my eternal destiny to steady my soul in this turbulent world.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

THE SURE GUIDE

Turn to the sixteenth chapter of John, in the thirteenth verse, and read: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13 ESV)

Now there is not a truth that we ought to know but the Spirit of God will guide us into it if we will let Him; if we will yield ourselves up to be directed by the Spirit, and let Him lead us, He will guide us into all truth. It would have saved us from a great many dark hours if we had only been willing to let the Spirit of God be our counselor and guide. Lot never would have gone to Sodom if he had been guided by the Spirit of God. David never would have fallen into sin and had all that trouble with his family if he had been guided by the Spirit of God. There are many Lots and Davids now-a-day. The churches are full of them. Men and women are in total darkness, because they have not been willing to be guided by the Spirit of God. “He shall guide you into all truth. He shall not speak of Himself.” He shall speak of the ascended glorified Christ.

What would be thought of a messenger, entrusted by an absent husband with a message for his wife, on arrival, only talked of himself, and his conceits, and ignored both the husband and the message? You would simply call it outrageous. What then must be the crime of the professed teacher who speaks of himself, or some insipid theory, leaving out Christ and His Gospel? If we witness according to the Spirit, we must witness of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is down here in this dark world to just speak of the Absent One, and He takes the things of Christ and brings them to our mind. He testifies of Christ; He guides us into the truth about Him. 

2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 25

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 25

“But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”  Romans 8:25

We Wait Eagerly

Creation longs for freedom from futility.  For now, the creation perseveres in this period of waiting.  We also experience the frustration of this life.  However, given our relationship to God through Christ, how much more should we persevere than the creation?  We have been given much more than the creation.  We have received all of the blessings of adoption into God’s family.  These blessings should help to quiet our restless hearts.  Through the Holy Spirit, we received the first taste of our eternal reality.  If eternity consists of an unending experience of the glory of God, then we who experience the Spirit of God’s work have already tasted of this future reality.  Our hope must be so firm and God’s presence must be so precious to us that we cannot give up.  A taste of our everlasting glory comes through the indwelling Holy Spirit.  This taste leaves us longing for the fullness of glory.  Our eager anticipation cannot wane just because we still do not see it yet.  We must persevere by having our hope fixed upon our destiny in Christ.  We must persevere in our eagerness.  Our eagerness to experience God in all His fullness will sustain us through the greatest trials.   

Prayer Focus

God, sustain within me a desire to see You face to face.  I long to experience the power of Your Holy Spirit right now.  I long to experience the fullness of my salvation when I come into Your presence forever.  I know that Your Spirit is working in my life to produce fruit.  Lord, please bring forth a great harvest of righteousness and good works in my life so that You will be glorified.  As I submit my life to the leading of Your Spirit, increase my hope and eagerness for heaven.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

GREATER WORK

The witness of the Spirit is the witness of power. Jesus said, “The works that I do, you shall do also, and greater works than these you shall do because I go to the Father.” I used to stumble over that. I didn’t understand it. I thought, what greater work could any man do than Christ had done? How could anyone raise a dead man who had been laid away in the sepulcher for days, and who had already begun to turn back to dust; how with a word could he call him forth? But the longer I live the more I am convinced it is a greater thing to influence a man’s will; a man whose will is set against God; to have that will broken and brought into subjection to God’s will - or, in other words, it is a greater thing to have power over a living, sinning, God hating man, than to quicken the dead. He who could create a world could speak a dead soul into life; but I think the greatest miracle this world has ever seen was the miracle at Pentecost. Here were men who surrounded the Apostles, full of prejudice, full of malice, full of bitterness, their hands, as it were, dripping with the blood of the Son of God; and yet an uneducated man, a man whom they detested, a man whom they hated, stands up there and preaches the Gospel; and three thousand of them are immediately convicted and converted, and become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, and are willing to lay down their lives for the Son of God. It may have been on that occasion that Stephen was converted, the first martyr, and some of the men who soon after gave up their lives for Christ. This seems to me the greatest miracle this world has ever seen. However, Peter did not labor alone; the Spirit of God was with him; thus the marvelous results. The Jewish law required that there should be two witnesses, and so we find that when Peter preached there was a second witness. Peter testified of Christ, and Christ says when the Holy Spirit comes He will testify of Me. And they both bore witness to the truth of our Lord’s incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection, and the result was that a multitude turned as with one heart to the Lord. Our failure now is, that preachers ignore the Cross, and veil Christ with sapless sermons and superfine language. They don’t just present Him to the people plainly, and that is why, I believe, that the Spirit of God does not work with power in our churches. What we need is to preach Christ and present Him to a perishing world. The world can get on very well without you and me, but the world cannot get on without Christ.  Therefore we must testify of Him, and the world, I believe, today is just hungering and thirsting for this divine, satisfying portion. Thousands and thousands are sitting in darkness, not knowing of this great Light, but when we begin to share Christ honestly, faithfully, sincerely and truthfully; holding Him up, not ourselves; exalting Christ and not our theories; presenting Christ and not our opinions; advocating Christ and not some false doctrine; then the Holy Spirit will come and bear witness. He will testify that what we say is true. When He comes, He will confirm the Word with signs. This is one of the strongest proofs that our Gospel is Divine; that it is of Divine origin; that not only did Christ teach these things, but when leaving the World He said, “He will glorify Me,” and “He will testify about Me.” If you will just look at the second chapter of Acts - to that wonderful sermon that Peter preached - the thirty-sixth verse, you read these words: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” And when Peter said this the Holy Spirit descended upon the people and testified of Christ - bore witness in signal demonstration that all this was true. And again, in the fortieth verse, “And with many other words He testified and exhorted, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’” With many other words He testified, not only these words that have been recorded, but many other words.