Following is the next installment in Nita's teaching, Pray to the
Father. I pray it will encourage you in your walk and development in the
Lord!
Blessings in Him,
Ricci
Pray to the Father
Part B
By
Nita Johnson
New Orleans Services
Now, if you ask Him for bread will He give you a stone? He is our
Father, which meant to them that what the Lord had, they could have
also, and the same way the Lord knew Him they could know Him too.
Because He did not say, "Pray, therefore, to My Father," that same
relationship was available to the disciples. He said "Pray, Our Father."
In other words what you are desiring can be yours. They could learn to
know Him and to experience Him in the same way that Jesus had because He
is their Father, our Father. What He gave to Jesus, He will give to
you.
“Our Father, Who art in heaven…,”—Now, He is above all that would
hinder the cry of the heart. We are reminded that He rules and reigns in
the heavenlies. Whatever He needs to do He can do because He is above
it all. He is not of the earth, remember? Isn't that what He told
Nicodemus? Therefore, He is different. He sees things differently and
feels things differently than we who are from the earth. He is not of
the earth, He is from the heavens, which is so important to remember
when you pray. The One you're connecting with in prayer is not going to
answer you from down here, but from above, according to His perspective,
where He rules and reigns over everything pertaining to you, and in
this case, over everything pertaining to Israel.
His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts but He
is Father and you are son, He is Father you are daughter. Your prayer
will lead you to understand Him as He is. To come to understand His
thoughts and will as they are is truly the richest treasure on earth.
This is not about Him getting to know and understand us, which
happens to be what a lot of praying demands these days, but it is about
getting know, understand and relate to Him. Jesus said, “Our Father which is in heaven….”
Now of course, if we carry these words to their ultimate conclusion,
when we pray and focus on the fact that He is the Father above, then by
implication we too understand that we are called to ascend and be one
with Him.
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Our prayers
are sanctified by God’s holy Name. When at first we learn prayer, our
prayers start out very soulish before they mature. If you want to be a
little child in God forever you can continue praying from out of your
soul. However, if you desire to become a mature son or daughter in God,
then you must learn how to pray out of your spirit, from the life and
understanding of your spirit.
When we pray from the understanding of our soul, our prayers are very
shallow and carry with them only so much weight. Most carry very little
weight at all. Since the prayer originates in the depth of the soul,
it does not even come close to reaching God's will. Our goal must be to
align ourselves with His will, so that every prayer we pray will be
answered. The key is to get into agreement with God, which begins to
happen as we realign our thoughts to match His. In this harmonious
alignment between His will and our prayers, the true beauty of mature
prayer becomes evident. Over time, as we become more familiar with His
thoughts we begin to realize our soulish prayers are of no value. He
knows that to answer those prayers would not be in the best interest
of the situation. Moreover it is by His Spirit working with our spirit
that we become transformed into His image. This is the call.
We start by saying, "Our Father Who art in heaven," and we finish by
fulfilling the call. The call is to become one with the Father. It's
almost sneaky isn't it, like a holy sneakiness? He pulls us to Him
through our needs, then reveals Himself to us. In that revelation, we
find His way is so much more powerful and wonderful than the direction
we were headed in praying our soulish prayers, that we prefer and
choose His way.. He is wise!
Every time we make is a true connection a tiny change in us results
in a greater enablement to be like Him. Every time there is a true
connection something changes in us and in the world because we prayed.
As long as we keep pulling God down here in our minds we will never make
the kind of connection we need to make. It's okay, leave Him in heaven,
but aspire to know the Father who is in heaven. We ascend! If
our life of prayer is spent trying to help Him understand us and talking
to Him like He has no more power than our brother or siste, the whole
purpose of prayer is thwarted. Can't you feel it in your soul? We are
called to move away from the status quo. Can't you feel the Spirit of
God stirring hope, faith and desire within you? Is the Holy Spirit
calling you trying to understand that this is for you? He really is
calling you to have what you can have in Him. Doesn't it hurt
to think about staying stagnant? Doesn’t it cause just a little pain to
think about not growing in Him? You must learn how to pray by the spirit
and not by your soul. If our Father is on earth we talk to him soul to
soul, heart to heart, right? If our Father is in heaven He is looking
for those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. He wants to lift us,
build us, strengthen us, edify us and lift up our spirits so that we
can relate with Him spirit to spirit. He wants to lift us up so that we
can comprehend the incomprehensible, learn to walk with the Sovereign
and come out from the world’s deception to walk in truth.
He wants to help us identify what is ignoble, what is noble, and to
discern the difference. He wants to help us discern what it true and
what isn't. He wants to help us by strengthening our spirit man until it
dominates our soul and we begin to hate the thoughts of the soul and
love the thoughts of the spirit where truth can live. He wants to help
us become the mighty spiritual being we were created to be who walk in
heavenly places while here on this earth. He wants to help us learn how
to move mountains simply because we believe. He wants to help us quit
looking at life through the eyes of the sin nature that veils the beauty
of God. He wants to help us see life through the beauty of truth in
faith. When we learn to see things the way God does we lose the
critical, skeptical spirit, as it just melts away because love has
overtaken it.
To be continued next week
In Him,
Nita Johnson
