 The Word of God is Truth and Life! Food For our Souls that sustains us everyday. As it’s freedom, God’s living Word, with its power to transform, penetrates to the depth in our being. Dare we open ourselves to that kind of intimacy? It is a Living Word, a word vibrant with life, a word that carries the power of life, and the power of transformation, a persistent word – a word that is active in us until our very spirit and soul, joints and marrow are divided or parted; that is, until death. Enjoy this short reminder that Gods Word is necessary for us to live: Monthly Manna “Jubilant Prayer Warriors” Prayers and references to prayer appear in sixty-two of the sixty-six books of the Bible, all except the Song of Solomon, Obadiah, Haggai, and 2 John. Several Bible books give considerable attention to prayer: Genesis, Numbers, Judges, Matthew, Luke, Acts, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, James, and 1 Peter. The Book of Psalms stands in a class by itself since it is a book of prayers. The Bible presents God as a person who has communicated with us and who invites us to communicate with Him. Since God is the sovereign Creator and we are finite creatures, we need to know what He has revealed about how we can and should communicate with Him. The Christian's relationship to his or her heavenly Father is by definition the most important one that we enjoy. Therefore, it is essential that we know how to communicate with God acceptably and effectively. Essentially prayer is talking to God. It is expressing our heart, joys, thoughts, desires and feelings to God. It uses it specifically to refer to our words to God. His words to us are something other than prayer: a revelation, an answer, a response, etc. Prayer is our tool kit! It enables us to do work with God. Just as there are many different kinds of tools, so there are many varieties of prayers. Identifying the different spiritual tools that God has given us to work with is essential before we can select the right one and use it to serve a particular function. In the Bible we look into God's toolbox, to observe and examine the various kinds of prayer needed for everyday life. The Holy Spirit enables us to make wise choices when we seek to live in the light of what God has revealed. The Holy Spirit guides disciples of Jesus into the truth by illuminating the truth that God has given us in prayer. Prayers have moved God to act in remarkable ways according to the biblical record. God always knows exactly how we feel about our situation in life because He knows all things and has compassion for every human being. God presents Himself as being open and interested in hearing whatever concerns His children (James 5:13; 1 Pet. 5:7). He wants to hear whatever interests us, even the smallest, most insignificant details of our lives. Consequently, we should feel free to unburden our hearts and tell God anything and everything. He is the friend who sticks closer than a brother. We can converse with Him casually and comfortably as we would with our most intimate acquaintance. Even though God already knows whatever we might tell Him before we tell Him, He still wants us to tell Him. This proves that God really does desire fellowship with us. Fellowship with God is one of the primary purposes of prayer. There is definitely a subjective value to prayer. Verbalizing our thoughts and feelings gives us a sense of relief (Phil. 4:6-7). Christians need to understand prayer not just as a matter of curiosity, as we might admire a stamp collection. We need to be able to distinguish prayer from other religious practices so we can use it properly. In this respect prayers are more like coins full of more value than they are stamps. Our ability to identify what prayer is and what it is not has great practical value. Praying in God's will means praying in harmony with the promises that God has given (Exod. 32:11-14; 2 Kings 19:15-19). When we pray for God to fulfill His promises, we can have confidence that we are praying in God's will and in Jesus' name. The term “JUBILEE” The word “Jubilee” is derived from the Hebrew term yôbÄ“l which means ram”. This is because the “ram’s horn was used for trumpets and the year of jubilee was announced by the blowing of the trumpet” (cf. Josh 6,4-8.13). Isaiah speaks the language of the Jubilee year when he prophesies of the coming prophet who would be filled with the Spirit of Yahweh and who would bring good tidings to the afflicted, bind the broken hearted, comfort mourners and declare liberty to captives. He would proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and God’s year of vengeance (Isa 61,1-3). In the NT, Jesus strongly identified himself with the messianic prophet of Isa. 61,1-3, when he read in the synagogue of Nazareth. This episode (cf. Luke 4,16-30), thus, becomes programmatic for the entire ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke – as He becomes the one through whom God would accomplish all those prophetic details of Isaiah (cf. Luke4,21). Humbly Submitted Minister Nina Amos |
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