Prayer and Faith

God has such a sense of humor! Really!

Since I arrived in Japan at the beginning of January, God has been teaching me about:

1. God has a plan.
2. God prepares the people to accomplish His plan.
3. God does not talk to me about the people He is preparing for the other end of His plan.
a. He expects me to listen
b. He expects me to follow and obey
c. He expects me to do those things in Faith
4. He will follow through with the plan He has.
5. He will be glorified.

God is so incredible! Wow! So after using Peter and Cornelius in Acts to teach me this, God takes me to Ezra for Quiet Time and shows me this process again! The king, the people that will stay in the king's land and then the people that will go to rebuild the temple! God prepared each person for the job that God wanted finished.

Then we go through the journey of questions:
Are we going to obey God even though these people are discouraging us?
Or are we going to trust that God brought us here and is with us and is stronger than our enemies?
Are we going to allow impuritites to come into our worship to the ONLY God?
Are we going to get discouraged in our work for the LORD to the point that we lay aside our relationship with Him?
Are we going to mourn in the past or rejoice in what we have with God NOW?

Then God took me to 1 Samuel 1: Hannah has a hurting heart and brings her tears and brokenness before the LORD.

He hears her and answers her prayer, and in response to His answering, she delighted to give Samuel (the answer to her prayer) back to the LORD. Actually, God answered her prayer because He knew her motive for asking. God tells us in James 4:3 that if our motive for asking for something is not right, He will not answer.

Hannah went to the LORD, for Him to be honored and glorified. In response the LORD answered and Hannah delighted to give Samuel back to the LORD.

What is my motive for asking things from God? Is my motive one that GOD be honored, OR one that I be made happy or comfortable?

After taking this uncomfortably exposing, yet desperately needed lesson, He moved on to teaching me about Fact (truth) over Feelings.

What am I living my life guided by?
Am I living by the truth of the Word of God, or by my feelings/experiences/emotions?

Once we had that established, He moved on to teaching me about Faith. That's where we are now.

Faith: Walking in the direction God has shown, even when you can't see.

I guess it started with the faith that Peter, Cornelius, Paul, Ezra, and Hannah showed when they interacted with God through prayer, and interacted with others through their actions.

This morning, I read about Elijah in 1 Kings 18. Elijah had deep faith in God. His prayer life showed that so beautifully. He prays for the drought and then on the mountain with the priests of Baal, he drenches the altar before the LORD. His prayer is not only for fire from heaven for the sacrifice but also for a fire to be lit in the hearts of the people, that they may repent.

Listen to this! God heard and answered Elijah's prayer request! Elijah prayed with the right motive! Elijah prayed in faith. The next thing to happen was the coming of the rain, but just before the rain came, Elijah prostrated himself before the LORD and prayed for the rain, knowing it would come. He sent his servant 8 times to see if the rain was coming. Each time the servant comes back with a negative answer and still Elijah is praying in faith knowing that God will answer his prayer request. Finally, the rain comes and Ahab (who acts by sight and not by faith) leaves the mountain in his chariot. Elijah, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, RUNS down the mountain and beats Ahab to bottom. Whoa!

How incredible! The connection between obedience, faith, prayer and God causing revival! WoW!

This is what God has been teaching me the past month - there have been other things but this has been the main idea...

I don't know where God is leading me next but I do know that He knows best, is preparing me and the other end of the situation and He wants me to obey because I see Him as He is and people/sin/me as He sees them. He also wants me to have faith in Him that shows itself through my actions, and prayer life.

YEAH God! You're Awesome! :)

The Beginning?

OK, so this is my first blog but that's OK... I think it's a great idea to write about what God is teaching me and I want to do it in a way that others can easily read. Not for my benefit but for God to get the glory of working in someones life. Anyway....

Right now I'm in Japan working as a short-term missionary teaching English and the Bible to interested college age students. This is an incredible opportunity and I LOVE that fact that God can use me. I love being here! There are many reasons and one of those reasons is that in studying to teach I have to study to learn for myself! God has taught me SO much through my teaching preparations!

More later!