Intimacy with Our Heavenly Father!
One of the most amazing gifts that a true, born again Christian has is prayer! Prayer is the lifeblood of the Christian life! Prayer is the air that we breathe to sustain and grow our Christian walk. Without prayer, without developing our relationship with our Heavenly Father (or rather, God developing us) through prayer we literally ‘die‘, we literally ‘crash and burn‘.
Now why did I call it a gift? It is a gift from God because He desires it. He initiated it, He instigated it, He designed it for His intimacy with us and for His purposes and plans for His Kingdom through us. And in our arrogance we believe we are initiating things, that we are reaching out to Him, that we are finding God (such is the proud way that we think!). No, God first reaches out to us! God has His ear pressed so hard against the Heavenlies waiting for you and me to pray to Him! He even tells us what to pray, by His Spirit. Have you thought about that? Even prayer is all about Him! He transforms our lives and our hearts so that we are praying ‘God prayers‘.
Adam and Eve and the Fall of man(and woman) – this is important
Read Genesis 2:16 to the end of chapter 3. Basically, sin(disobedience to God) enters the world through Adam and Eve. In summary, they ‘bought’ a lie that God was ‘holding out’ on them. That He didn’t have their best interests in mind. Satan slandered God’s character and they believed it! (By the way, this is the same lie and deception that Satan tries to feed us today) Anyways, sin enters the world and we inherit ‘this sinful nature’ from Adam and there is a barrier of sin between us and God for true relationship with Him.
Romans 5:12-19 says:
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man , and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man , how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man , Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man , death reigned through that one man , how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man , Jesus Christ. 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. NIV
OK, that was a little meaty and there was a bit of religious jargon but the truth of these verses needs to be understood. Sin came through one man – Adam. Salvation came through one man – Jesus Christ. Therefore through Jesus Christ we are righteous again before God. In other words, God restores our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and our relationship is just like Adam and Eves before the fall! There is no longer any barrier between us and God! If you are not a Christian and you are reading this, do you realise what you are missing out on?
Anyways, why I brought this up, is for all of us to see, that relationship and communication through prayer has been restored through Jesus and we can have true intimacy with Him through prayer.
Jesus prayed for us…
John 17:3
3 Now this is eternal life : that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. NIV
Know Jesus today! Invite Him into your heart! Know the Father through the Son revealed by the Holy Spirit.
Blessings
Steve
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