PRAYER FOR 2018 “A Love that will Grow”
Phillipians 1:3-6, 9-11
“Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
So this is my prayer; that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
James Wells, WROTE A SONG IN 1918 called, “Living by Faith”
I care not today what the morrow may bring,
If shadow or sunshine or rain,
The Lord I know ruleth o’er everything,
And all of my worries are vain.
Living by faith in Jesus above,
Trusting, confiding in His great love;
From all harm safe in His sheltering arm,
I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:6-7 “So then, being always filled with good courage and confident hope, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in a manner consistent with our confident belief in God’s promises].”
Paul says to us, “We have not made it home yet. We are not in the presence of the Lord yet. We have not got our glorified bodies yet. In the meantime while we are here in this world we continue to walk by faith not by sight.
Walking by faith and not by sight requires us to go to unfamiliar places at times. As we go God is faithful to reveal to us what is needed to continue as we walk in obedience to his word.
By Kenneth & Gloria Copeland
Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6
Can you really have a merry Christmas even when you have a thousand and one pressures bearing down on you? Yes, you can—and you don’t have to leave the country to do it. No matter how intense or how trivial the problems are that you’re facing right now, you can have the most wonderful, most carefree Christmas season you’ve ever had in your life; and you can start having it today.
As a believer, you’re probably familiar with that scripture that says to be anxious for nothing. But, have you ever taken it seriously enough to put it into action? There’s a good chance you haven’t because you haven’t understood just how dangerous those anxieties are. You probably haven’t realized that they’re a deadly part of the devil’s strategy against you.
That’s right. Worry is one of the chief weapons of his warfare. If he can get you to worry about them, he can use the financial pressures and family pressures and scheduling problems that are just a “normal” part of everyday life to weigh you down and drag you into more trouble than you think possible.
Medical science tells us that a high percentage of the people hospitalized in the U.S.A. are there with ailments caused by worry and tension. Yet, a great many believers worry without even thinking about it. They’ll worry about being too short or too skinny. They’ll stew over this and that and not even realize they’ve been sinning. “Sinning, Brother Copeland?” Yes! For the born-again, Spirit-filled believer who owns a Bible—worrying is a sin. So, even if the Christmas cards are late and 45 people are coming to your house for Christmas dinner, don’t worry. Instead, do what the Bible says to do. Pray, making your request known to God…and praise Him for the answer. Then you’ll have peace. Now, go ahead and have a truly merry Christmas, you carefree thing you!
Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:24-34
Matthew 1:21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.
On the day of the birth of Jesus earth may have not know what was happening but Heaven did. All of Heaven’s angel’s were waiting in eager anticipation, waiting to break forth in praise to the birth of a newborn child, a child that meant that God had sent forth His salvation to earth.
Hebrew 2:14-15 tells us why Jesus came. “Therefore, since [these His] children share in flesh and blood [the physical nature of mankind], He Himself in a similar manner also shared in the same [physical nature, but without sin], so that through [experiencing] death He might make powerless (ineffective, impotent) him who had the power of death—that is, the devil—and [that He] might free all those who through [the haunting] fear of death were held in slavery throughout their lives.” The reason he became man was to die. So he had to be born a man in order to live and to experience death.
John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Message Bible says it this way-”The Word became flesh and blood and move into the neighborhood.” Jesus left the glories of heaven to move into our neighborhood. Jesus chose to live among us so he would know what life was all about.
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” In this verse Jesus is announcing his mission-to seek and to save those that are lost.
Jesus birth was the beginning journey that was to end thirty three years later on a cross, and then through a resurrection to be glorified and exalted and restored back into Heaven to the glory that He knew before he came.
Jesus truly is the reason for the season. That is why we celebrate this glorious time of the year by showing the love of our Savior.
NOW THAT’S POWER By Gloria Copeland
Joy and praise together release strength on the inside of you and power on the outside. Psalm 22:3 says God inhabits our praises. When God’s presence begins to come into our midst, our enemies fall back. They can’t stand the presence of God.
Psalm 68:1-3 says, “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered; let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.”
Now that’s power! When God’s people rise up in praise and worship and celebrate the victories of God. His enemies are scattered.
No wonder Satan has tried so hard to get God’s people to sit still. No wonder he has bound us up with traditions that taught us to sit back in ‘dignified’ silence. For most of us, our traditions have taught us not to do the very things the Bibles says we are to do when we worship and praise.
Zechariah 10:7 “And they…shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine…” You know what happens when people drink wine–they lose their inhibitions! That’s what happened to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost. The had been hiding out only a few days before, but when the Holy Ghost came upon them, suddenly they were on the streets acting so wild, everyone thought they had been drinking.
God wants you free. He doesn’t want you bound up with traditions or fear of what other people might think. He wants you to be free to laugh. He wants you to be free to leap and praise and sing. He want you to be free to rejoice. He want you so free that other people won’t understand it–they’ll just want it!
“I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.” Ps. 9:1-3
Now these things happened to them as an example and warning [to us]; they were written for our instruction [to admonish and equip us], upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:11
God’s Word is full of life experiences of men and women good or bad that have been placed there as examples for you and me. In the book of Genesis we have the story of Joseph which takes up 13 chapters of this book. When the Bible gives you so much information about one person I believe there is a lot we can learn from that person’s life experiences.
One such person is Joseph. When we think of Joseph our minds may immediately go to the coat of many colors his father made for him. But it is not about the coat. It is about the dream God gave Joseph. (Genesis 37:5-10) I don’t think he shared the dreams in spite or pride to his brothers. I believe Joseph was excited and he believed the dreams were from God about the purpose and plans for his life.
The enemy is after your dream. He does not want you to dream for there is power in a dreamer when it comes from the spirit of man.
When God puts a dream inside of you not everybody is going to celebrate with you. As it did for Joseph some of your strongest opposition may come from those that are the closest to you.
Joseph went from sharing the dream God had given him, to his coat begin stirpped from him, to the pit, to the palace. You never know where your dream will take you. Continue to trust God. After all He was the one who gave you the dream. If you remain faithful to Him you will see the fulfillment.
GO TO WAR WITH PRAISE by Kenneth Copeland
Thanksgiving and praise are integral parts of prayer. When you believe you receive, then you begin to praise God for the answer. You thank God that it is done for you. Thanksgiving and praise involve more than just speaking lovely words to God. There is power in the praise of God. Praise was ordained by God for a definite reason.
Psalm 8:1-2 “O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”
Praise stops Satan in his tracks. It is a weapon we are to use in calling a halt to Satan’s maneuvers.
Psalm 9:1-4 “I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.”
When your enemies are turned back–not if! Whatever adversity is challenging you today, begin to praise God. Exercise this vital weapon in your warfare against Satan and his forces. Your enemies will have to turn back. They will fall and perish at your presence. And the peace and victory that Jesus brought for you will be yours.
We have what we call emergency preparedness plans. At my place of employment we go through these plans once a year. Should there be a real life emergency we would know what to do. If there is such an occurrence of an emergency we would know in advance what to do. We should not have to run to find the emergency manual to find out because there may not be time.
In life we have circumstances come along and as sons and daughters of God we should be prepared to know what to do. That is why we stay in the Word, stay in fellowship with like believers, be connected strongly to a local church for a covering, fellowship with God through on going prayer (prayer is just talking to God) and be open to leading of Holy Spirit.
The Bible tells us about a man who encountered a situation. He heard of a great multitude of his enemy coming to battle against him and his people. This is a story of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20) and at the time he heard this news the enemy was only about 15 miles away. No time to run and find a manual on what he should do in this situation. The first thing Jehoshaphat did was to pray (he talk to God about the news he just heard.) Then he began to remember who God was and what he had done in the past. 2 Chronicles 20:15 we read, “Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” You shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. Fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.
Whatever situation you may be facing do not fear or be dismayed. The battle is not yours but God’s. Fear is unbelief in disguise. Dismayed is loss of courage. Lean into God and rest in Him in time of trouble.
Isaiah 41:10 Do not fear [anything], for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you;I will certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand [a hand of justice, of power, of victory, of salvation].
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