Dear Friends,
Thank you for your faithfulness to pray with, and for, World for Jesus Ministries. It means so much to us that you join us as we seek the Lord on behalf of this Nation. Just a quick reminder that our Corporate Intercession resumed this week with an excellent attendance on Sunday.
The Lord told Nita that these last stages will be birthed through weeping and intense intercessions. Nita writes about this type of intercession in her book "Overcoming Life Through Prayer". If you do not have a copy, you can order it from the Catalog page of our website.
Please remember to keep our finances lifted up before the Lord. The enemy is fighting hard to keep us from completing the two issues near and dear to the Lord's heart - caring for those in need and raising up intercessors to pray for the nations. This is His commission on our ministry and we will continue to press on and fulfill that commission.
Blessings in Him,
Pray to the Father
By
Nita Johnson
New Orleans Services
We've been trying to work our way through Matthew 6 However as you well know it has taken us many weeks. It seems the Lord has so much to say about prayer. So let’s continue to enjoy our journey. Moving from His strong warnings of how not to pray, we then engage how to pray beginning in verse 9. Sometimes this is referred to as the Lord's Prayer. I think it is better called the model prayer. The first greatest invitation Jesus makes is to come and the second is to pray.
I can remember once my daughter was going through a very difficult time and it happened to be during our third gathering. She was standing up by the book table talking to the wife of one of our worship leaders when Jesus appeared to her, extended His arms to her and said, "Ricci, come!" It is so simple yet we make it so complicated don't we? How can you resist Him? Well she couldn’t!
Matthew 6; 9 - 13
Pray, therefore, like this: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed (kept holy) be Your name. 10) Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11) Give us this day our daily bread. 12) And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have [given up resentment against) our debtors. 13) And lead (bring) us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
I can just imagine Him praying that prayer. He's been walking on the streets of Israel, seeing how tortured life is for many yet also seeing how their limited faith has prevented them from experiencing any real relationship with the God that they obviously knew. Although they were His people, still they knew so little of God. I can picture Him on the crowded streets, flanked on every side and jostled by so many people that He hardly knows which way to turn. His love for the Father always set and focused His heart on one consuming passion, to obey His Father and reach that generation in His name. That is a love that calls you to a depth of obedience to which others will never go. He bears a love that draws one from the world’s comforts others will never leave. It is amazing to experience the love of the Father in which Jesus lived. I know, I have experienced it many times. It rivets you into a whole new focus.
The Father’ love is a much different love than humans are generally accustomed to. It is a love you will never want to lose. It is not just a love of dedication or familiarity but of friendship. It is a love that causes you to lose sight of yourself, that carries you to the depths of self-sacrifice, compelling you to go there for His sake. You may grow weary and not want to go on, but you will press on despite your fatigue. Why do you go on? You go on because love calls. Love demands you give what you must and yield what you must, to know the One who calls. His is a pure, sweet and tender love, a love so filled with care, desire, passion, goodness and purity. He truly cared not for Himself nor did He resent that abandonment to the Father’s will. Jesus didn't resent the personal cost demanded because He lived to please the One who sent Him and to bring His Father joy. Jesus daily sought intimacy with His Father, desiring to know that when He lay His head down each night He had done everything in His power to please the One who sent Him. This is the life of prayer and from this life we learn the true meaning of verse nine.
The burning fiery force of this greater love is what held Him, albeit it was what compelled Him. It was a love so filled with tenderness laid gently upon His heart; a love He nurtured every moment. It was warm, strong, captivating and compelling love that flowed through Him like a gentle river in whose constant flow He was caught. The river poured through Him and out from Him to the people.
The disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray because they had heard Him pray. They had also seen Him pray. But even more importantly they saw too how He lived a life so different from that of other spiritual leaders in the nations. He spoke of God not as One who had studied the writings of another but as the Son would speak of His Father, as One who intimately knew Him. They saw how He lived, selflessly pouring Himself out to God’s people. Many ministers poured out to Gods people but when they looked into His eyes they saw a love they had never seen in anyone before. It is one thing to be a minister because you are called to it. it is quite another thing to be a minister of God because you are passionate about Him and love His people with that same passion.
They saw such uniqueness, such mercy and passion. His understanding of the law and the Torah was so different from anything they had ever heard. He seemed to be able to dissect it and pull it apart to reveal the heart of it, and what He understood, He lived. They witnessed all of this and they saw Him pray. They had heard the Pharisees and the Sadducees pray, as well as the High Priest, but not one prayed like this man. When He prayed it seemed as though the heavens opened, the glory descended and the Father drew near.
How many times had they seen Him go off alone and then watched the cloud of glory descend upon Him? The relationship He had with God was different from anything they had ever known, so they asked Him, "Teach us how to pray like you pray." What they were asking was so much more than that. They were really asking Him, "Teach us how to know Him the way you know Him.” It must be in prayer that this knowing takes place, so teach us how to get there." Jesus answered, "Pray, therefore, like this: Our Father…" Not HaShem, or Elohim? "Our Father," not only His Father? Our Father! When you pray, remember who He is. He is our Father, who is Love and He loves you tenderly like a Father. He is not an ideal, or something that happens once a year behind the veil. He is our Father and as a father calls his little child to his knee, so the Father calls you.
To be continued next week
In Him,
Nita Johnson
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Check our "Schedule of Events" page for a PDF of our:
Share WFJM with your friends:
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Corporate Intercession:
Intercessory Prayer
via FCC & Skype!
Call in number for all Corporate Intercession times:
Wednesday Morning: June 25 2014
10:20-12pm PST
11:20-1pm MST
12:20-2pm CST
1:20-3pm EST
Thursday & Friday Evening: June 26 & 27th, 2014
5:50-7:30pm PST
6:50-8:30pm MST
7:50-9:30pm CST
8:50-10:30pm EST
Sunday Evening: June 29th, 2014 5:50PM EST & PST
Please join us as we intercede for the Nation!
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CedarWood Food Bank
Our CW Pantry is open every Monday!
We are in need of Volunteers to help in the following areas:
The CedarWood Pantry:
-We
need help with set up and tear down. Perhaps you have 1 or 2 Mondays
available per month that you can participate in this blessing. If so,
this would allow our volunteers to alternate.
-Volunteers are needed to collect food from the various sources in the Seattle area during the week.
Coats & Clothes Closet:
-Open Mondays and by appointment. We need volunteers to help organize and prepare clothing for visitors
BackPack Kids:
-We need volunteers for the assembly of kits for distribution to our schools.
The need is great and our numbers are increasing every week. Please pray that our volunteer base will increase as well!
We extend a special thanks to our CW Team and volunteers for their faithfulness every week.
Our CW Pantry will be open
Monday
June 30th
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Joel's Army brings together intercessors to intercede for their nations. If you are interested in learning more:
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