Daily Fellowship with God

1. The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God.

The Divine life within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent upon Him. As I need every moment afresh the air to breathe, as the sun every moment afresh sends down its light, so it is only in direct living communication with God that my soul can be strong.

The manna of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every day have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting upon God Himself. Begin each day by tarrying before God, and letting Him touch you. Take time to meet God.

2. To this end, let your first act in your devotions be a setting yourself still before God. In prayer, or worship, everything depends upon

faith and adoration, speaking thus within my heart: "God is. God is near. God is love, longing to communicate H imself to me. God the Almighty One, Who worketh all in all, is even now waiting to work in me, and make Himself known." Take time, till you know God is very near.

3. When you have given God His place of honor, glory, and power, take your place of deepest lowliness, and seek to be filled with the Spirit of humility. As a creature it is your blessedness to be nothing, that God may be all in you. As a sinner you are not worthy to look up to God ; bow in selfabasement. As a saint, let God's love overwhelm you, and bow you still lower down. Sink down before Him in humility, meekness, patience, and surrender to His goodness and mercy. He will exalt you. Oh! take time, to get very low before God.

4. Then accept and value your place in Christ Jesus. God delights in nothing but His beloved Son, and can be satisfied with nothing else in those who draw nigh to Him. Enter deep into God's holy presence in the boldness which the blood gives, and in the assurance that in Christ you are most wellpleasing. In Christ you are within the veil. You have access into the very heart and love of the Father. This is the great object of fellowship with God, that I may have more of God in my life, and that God may see Christ formed in me. Be silent before God and let Him bless you.

5. This Christ is a living Person. He loves you with a personal love, and He looks every day for the personal response of your love. Look into His face with trust, till His love really shines into your heart. Make His heart glad by telling Him that you do love Him. He offers Himself to you as a personal Saviour and Keeper from the power of sin. Do not ask, can I be kept from sinning, if I keep close to Him? but ask, can I be kept from sinning, if He always keeps close to me? and you see at once how safe it is to trust Him.

6. We have not only Christ's life in us as a power, and His presence with us as a person, but we have His likeness to be wrought into us. He is to be formed in us, so that His form or figure, His likeness, can be seen in us. Bow before God until you get some sense of the greatness and blessedness of the work to be carried on by God in you this day. Say to God, "Father, here am I for Thee to give as much in me of Christ's likeness as I can receive." And wait to hear Him say, "My child, I give thee as much of Christ as thy heart is open to receive." The God who revealed Jesus in the flesh and perfected Him, will reveal Him in thee and perfect thee in Him. The Father loves the Son, and delights to work out His image and likeness in thee. Count upon it that this blessed work will be done in thee as thou waitest on thy God, and boldest fellowship with Him.

7. The likeness to Christ consists chiefly in two things—the likeness of His death and resurrection, (Rom. 6: 5). The death of Christ was the consummation of His humility and obedience, the entire giving up of His life to God. In Him we are dead to sin. As we sink down in humility and dependence and entire surrender to God, the power of His death works in us, and we are made comformable to His death. And so we know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the victory over sin, and all the joy and power of the risen life. Therefore every morning, "present yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead." He will maintain the life He gave, and bestow the grace to live as risen ones.

8. All this can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in you. Count upon Him to glorify Christ in you. Count upon Christ to increase in you the inflowing of His Spirit. As you wait before God to realize His presence, remember that the Spirit is in you to reveal the things of God. Seek in God's presence to have the anointing of the Spirit of Christ so truly that your whole life may every moment be spiritual.

9. As you meditate on this wondrous salvation and seek full fellowship with the great and holy God, and wait on Him to reveal Christ in you, you will feel how needful the giving up of all is to receive Him. Seek grace to know what it means to live as wholly for God as Christ did. Only the Holy Spirit Himself can teach you what an entire yielding of the whole life to God can mean. Wait on God to shew you in this what you do not know. Let every approach to God, and every request for fellowship with Him be accompanied by a new, very definite, and entire surrender to Him to work in you.

10. "By faith" must here, as through all Scripture, and all the spiritual life, be the keynote. As you tarry before God, let it be in a deep quiet faith in Him, the Invisible One, who is so near, so holy, so mighty, so loving. In a deep, restful faith too, that all the blessings and powers of the heavenly life are around you, and in you. Just yield yourself in the faith of a perfect trust to the Ever Blessed Holy Trinity, to work out all God's purpose in you. Begin each day thus in fellowship with God, and God will be all in all to you.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 21 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College  Day 21 of 21

Father, bless the students in preschools, home schools, private, charter and public schools, as well as colleges and universities with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who You are.

We praise You that You have heard every prayer over these past 21 days as we have cried out to You on behalf of our schools.

Now we ask that You would be glorified, that You would be exalted over our schools and over every power and principality that would seek to influence and infiltrate with the purpose to deceive and destroy the next generation.

We believe it is time for our Christian students and teachers to ARISE AND SHINE as Your glory rises upon them, and we believe that nations will come to the brightness of their rising. (Isa. 60:1,3)

We stand in faith on Your many prophetic promises that Your glory is going to be revealed in the Carolinas in a dramatic and unprecedented way.

Thank you that when You revealed Your glory to Moses, it was Your goodness that passed in front of him! Likewise, we remain confident knowing that we will surely see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (schools) (Ps. 27:13)!

Please reveal Yourself and Your ways in undeniable and sovereign acts. May our schools fulfill their sovereign purpose according to the highest plans of God, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 20 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College  Day 20 of 21

Father, we pray that our colleges and universities, that they would be filled with the tangible presence of God. We pray that each student will have the opportunity to grow and develop spiritually as well as intellectually. 

May the campuses be free from barriers and prejudices against faithbased organizations, and may these organizations thrive, grow, and bring many into a mature understanding of You. 

We thank you for the new freedoms that campus life gives to students, but we also pray for protection from the problems caused by using freedom to develop personal and moral habits that are unhealthy. 

We thank you for those who are courageously living their faith and displaying their faith on campus. Give our Christian students courage to live out their faith in an atmosphere that is often skeptical of faith. 

We pray that many more graduating high school seniors would continue their education in institutions of higher learning. May our colleges and universities produce influential, godly leaders who will bring the Kingdom values of righteousness and justice into every sphere of culture.

 Lord, we lift up the professors, deans, and presidents of our colleges. In addition to wisdom in their area of specialty, give them spiritual wisdom. We pray that the Holy Spirit will use Christian professors and faculty as a mighty force for truth and that a new standard of righteousness would be raised up on our campuses. 

We pray that our colleges and universities might become centers for revival rather than for the tearing down of the faith of our young adults. We ask You to work through Christian groups and churches on campuses to bring thousands of young men and women to faith in Jesus Christ.

We pray that our Christian universities would equip our young people with a biblical worldview, causing them to thrive in their faith through their entire college experience.

May your mighty hand move. Let the Holy Spirit be felt with unmistakable power in a way that changes many lives today as well as many future careers and future marriages tomorrow. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 19 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 19 of 21

Heavenly Father, we pray for abundant funding to be released over our schools and for the prospering of students and teachers. We ask for a new level of generosity and faith as churches step up to provide food, clothing, and supplies for students. Give these churches creative wisdom and strategies as they approach schools and distribute the resources that You’re providing.

Inspire pastors and leaders to build relationships with the schools in their areas, stepping in with finances and volunteers from their church! Bless the many churches that are taking initiative in their community through Adopt-ASchool programs.

Thank you for the positive responses from schools that are already being blessed by the work of Your Church. We ask for boldness and love as churches reach out to principals and faculty. Open the door for schools to receive the help of these churches!

 Lord, impart vision to the business community and to the elected representatives of the community as they partner with their districts. We pray that local businesses would be moved to donate and support long-term programs in struggling schools.

May You release godly volunteers, mentors, tutors, and coaches to come alongside students, teachers, and their families. We pray that more churches would be led to partner with schools, becoming a financial support and a spiritual covering over the teachers and students.

Raise Your Church to partner with local schools in caring for the needs of every student and their families. May Your Church shine brightly and glorify God in our schools through unprecedented acts of love, service, and kindness, in Jesus’ name. Amen

NOTE: On April 21, 2018, there was a shooting at Forest High School here in Ocala, Fl. 1 student was injured. Students didn't want to go into the room where the shooting occurred. The room's use was changed to one of helping students. Now students need help can receive food, clothing, school supplies and counseling provided by Christian volunteers. The room is called "the Rock". There are now 8 "Rocks" in the high schools and middle schools of Marion County Schools. All of this was possible through the cooperation of school administrators, Christian businesses and the local churches. PTL!

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 18 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 18 of 21

Father, we pray for those in authority over our schools. As taxpayers, voters, and parents we bring before You our city and state educational system. We pray for the State Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and our City and County Education Agencies and ask that You would bless all who work there.

May Your wisdom direct them and may a fresh wind of Your Spirit blow into our state educational system at the highest levels! Where there is turmoil, we pray for peacemakers who can bring a fair and righteous outcome in a spirit of humility.
We pray for the State Superintendent of Schools. We ask for the wisdom that is from above to be given to them: favor, strategy and the ability to bring about consensus, cooperation, and reconciliation at the highest levels in our state.

We pray for district superintendents and school principals. Help them in their day-to-day responsibilities. Let them function in a spirit of peace and bring peace and order into situations. Expand their leadership and executive abilities we pray and help them to implement innovative solutions to bring unity and productivity to their schools.

We pray for positive and happy work environments and for healthy professional regard and respect among all faculty, administration, and staff.

We stand in faith, and we boldly pray that all of our schools will embrace biblical values and operate on the principles of our constitution and protect the rights of the weak and the “least of these.” We pray that our rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion will be upheld and protected in our classrooms this year.
We pray that school staff and faculty members will not be antagonistic toward Christian students or teachers and their values. Let our Christian students will be respectful of non-Christian teachers. Change the hearts and minds of those who are offended by the gospel and transform hostility into sincere inquiry and dialog.

May the hearts of all in leadership always put the good of our students first. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 17 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 17 of 21

Father, we are grateful for every improvement in the well-being of our children over the past five years, and we thank you for what You are doing in the families of our city and state.

We bring before You every family struggling and in pain, whether from divorce, poverty, unemployment, drug or alcohol abuse, or domestic violence. Please bring healing, comfort, and provision for these broken homes. We also pray for a dramatic transformation of the economy in our state and in our cities, especially neighborhoods with upward mobility challenges.

We lift to You students who are homeless in our schools and are staying at shelters, on the street, or living in cars. Your Father’s heart is for the destitute and vulnerable, and we ask that You would help these students and their families in powerful ways only You can.

According to Your Word in Malachi 4:6 we cry out for the hearts of the fathers to be turned to their children and the hearts of the children to be turned to their fathers! We pray for those parents who simply lack the motivation, sense of responsibility, or parenting skills to raise their children well. Break off apathy and helplessness and show them where they can find help. Please bring good parenting role models into the lives of young parents or teen moms who may not have had them while growing up.

Raise effective spiritual fathers and mothers, we pray! Please turn the tide of young people leaving the Church, as six out of ten who grew up as Christians walk away from their faith in their twenties. Bring another Great Awakening to the youth and families. We pray, in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 16 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 16 of 21

Lord, we are deeply grateful for the school teachers of our city and state! Thank you for their willingness to serve the next generation and for the personal sacrifice so many make as they go above and beyond the call of duty on behalf of their students.

We bless our teachers in the name of the Lord and ask for divine health and Your abundant blessing on their families and finances. We pray they would know and serve You!

Holy Spirit, You are the ultimate Teacher, and we invite You into our classrooms to lead students and teachers alike “into all truth.” Father, we pray for every teacher with a true calling from You to be an educator. We cry out for a fresh anointing for our teachers – that they would be supernaturally empowered to achieve results far beyond their natural skills!

Father, we pray over the most important factor in our students’ success; the quality and effectiveness of our teachers.

We ask for teachers who are extraordinarily gifted and effective and have a passion for teaching in our school system. And for those teachers who are not bearing fruit and would be better suited to other careers, move them on to those.
We pray for any teacher who is exhausted from the day-to-day job stress and has lost vision and enthusiasm. Would You “fully satisfy the needs of those who are weary and fully refresh the souls of those who are faint” (Jer. 31:25). We ask that You would refresh and encourage those teachers who may be so discouraged that they are on the verge of leaving.

Please streamline the workload of our teachers and remove bureaucratic, time-wasting activities that take them away from teaching. Increase the productivity and effectiveness of every teacher we pray! Father, we ask for the teaching materials that our teachers need and for the financial provision for every need to be met this school year, in Jesus’ name!

May those who oversee the education of our children do so in the fear of the Lord!

Remind them daily of how serious it is to cause a child who believes in Christ to stumble (Matthew 18:8) and that those who teach are judged more strictly (James 3:1).

We call upon You to instill a spirit of peace, cooperation, and mutual respect among students, teachers, and administration. May brotherly kindness be the hallmark of every school, and let teaching be a source of joy and fulfillment for our precious teachers! Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 15 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 15 of 21

Father we thank You for every governing board member willing to serve our schools and communities! We ask that You would give them stamina, courage, and the wisdom from above to overcome challenges in their districts.

We ask that Your plans and purposes for each school would be reflected in their long- term strategic planning, and we invite Your Spirit to be present in every school board meeting across our state!

Lord, we pray for Your answers to the obstacles that often confront our school boards the lack of unified vision, little urgency to implement needed reforms, resistance to change, frequent member turnover making it difficult to follow through on long-term strategies, financial shortfalls, community apathy, disunity, and lack of stable leadership.

We pray that You would bring order, peace, and clarity in these situations and that You would raise those gifted leaders who would champion the education of the next generation.

We fervently cry out to You to ACTIVATE Your Church to be involved in the governance of our schools by voting, attending board meetings, and serving as board members!

Help us be salt and light in our local communities and not neglect our schools, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 14 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 14 of 21

Lord, shine your light upon our schools and drive out all darkness, spiritual blindness, perversion of truth, and hostility toward You and Your truth, we pray.

From our universities to our preschools, we pray for excellent curricula and programs that would make our students competitive in their career field and prepare them for life. We pray the truth would be the foundation of what is taught in every subject.

We pray that all attempts to use curricula in our schools as a way to disciple our young people in humanism and other godless ideologies would be stopped.

Please would You raise godly men and women to be on textbook selection committees for every school district.

We ask for teachers and school boards to select curriculum that preserves our godly heritage as a nation. We pray for the selection of textbooks that present biblically-based values that will help guide students down a path that leads to blessings.

Father, we ask that You lead and guide those in positions of decision-making in our schools to set fair policies that protect the rights of our teachers and students to openly present their biblical points of view in an fair and non-threatening manner.

Lord Jesus, when teachers and students are confronted with subject matter that goes against their biblical worldview, we call upon You to give them the right words to speak with wisdom, strength and gentleness of heart.

Please root out anti-American bias and historical revisionism that has crept into so many classrooms and replace it with good citizenship and Judeo-Christian values. Raise watchmen and gatekeepers for truth and excellence in our schools who would guard over what is taught to our young people! Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 13 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 13 of 21

Heavenly Father, we invite You to every classroom and ask for a spirit of peace, respect, and excellence to prevail in both students and teachers. We pray that students will have the desire and discipline to learn, and we ask for an environment that is conducive to learning, creativity, inquiry, and critical thinking.

We pray for the effect and impact of these powerful scriptures over our schools and ask for You to shift the atmosphere to one that reflects Your Kingdom – with righteousness, peace and joy!
We cry out to You, Lord, to guard our students from any harm: physical, mental, or spiritual.

We speak boldly against thoughts, plans, and intents to harm our children on our campuses. Protect them as they travel to and from school and during all of their classroom and extracurricular activities.

Father, we pray for our police and school security to be specially anointed to guard our schools. Give them eyes to see anything that is wrong and warn them of any plan of the enemy.

We pray for peace – by inviting the prince of peace and by making peace with the God of peace – so that there will be no shootings, no bombings, and no harassing threats against our students and our schools throughout this school year!

We pray against bullying in all forms, declaring this domineering, vindictive, mocking, and accusing evil practice and the spirit behind it be banished from our schools, in Jesus’ name!

We pray that there would be a change in the culture that feeds this maliciousness. As part of that culture change, we ask that You would make Your people shine! Let Christians be known as courageous student champions who defend victims and bring healing and peace into a situation.

We also pray that You would defend Christian students and teachers from those who would seek to bully, intimidate or silence them. We ask that You would raise many who are not ashamed of the gospel and who will exercise their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion with boldness and graciousness.

Raise strong and godly leadership among Christian groups and campus clubs and help them minister effectively to those around them. We pray that as the gospel advances on campuses, culture would shift to one of love, respect, joy and peace, we pray. Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 12 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 12 of 21

Father, we pray for the physical health, well-being, and safety of our kids! Most of these problems have a moral and spiritual root cause. Raise those who can effectively disciple our youth in godly lifestyles and practical wisdom. Parents are the front line of defense, and we ask that You would touch our families. Transform the health of entire households, starting with the parents and filtering down to the students!

Please inspire a real change in eating and exercise habits. Give wisdom to those who run school meal programs and help our students be nourished with wholesome food, we pray.

We pray for an end to the pervasive drug culture in our schools. Please protect our children and young people from getting involved in gangs, drugs, sex, and other destructive activities. We ask that You would reveal the dealers and dry up supply. We pray for Your deliverance for those students struggling with depression, alcohol, drugs, and pornography.

We pray that, by the power of Jesus Christ and our invitation for him to walk our campuses, students would experience life and that our schools would become suicide, drug, and promiscuity free zones! Spirits of death, depression, oppression, and hopelessness have no place on this campus, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A.W. TOZER on TRUE PROPHETS

A.W. TOZER on TRUE PROPHETS

Great industrial concerns have in their employ men who are needed only
when there is a breakdown somewhere. When something goes wrong with
the machinery, these men spring into action to locate and remove the
trouble and get the machinery rolling again.

For these men a smoothly operating system has no interest. They
are specialists concerned with trouble and how to find and correct it.

In the kingdom of God things are not too different. God has always had
His specialists whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown,
the decline in the spiritual health of the nation or the church. Such
men were Elijah, Jeremiah, Malachi and others of their kind who
appeared at critical moments in history to reprove,  rebuke and exhort
in the name of God and righteousness.

A thousand or ten thousand ordinary priests or pastors or teachers
could labor quietly on almost unnoticed while the spiritual life of
Israel or the church was normal. But let the people of God go astray
from the paths of truth and immediately the specialist appeared almost
out of nowhere. His instinct for trouble brought him to the help of
the Lord and of Israel.

Such a man was likely to be drastic, radical, possibly at times
violent, and the curious crowd that gathered to watch him work
soon branded him as extreme, fanatical, negative. And in a sense they
were right. He was single-minded, severe, fearless, and these were the
qualities the circumstances demanded. He shocked some, frightened
others and alienated not a few, but he knew who had called him and
what he was sent to do. His ministry was geared to the emergency, and
that fact marked him out as different, a man apart.

To such men as this the church owes a debt too heavy to pay. The
curious thing is that she seldom tries to pay him while he lives, but
the next generation builds his sepulcher and writes his biography, as
if instinctively and awkwardly to discharge an obligation the previous
generation to a large extent ignored...

[-From the Foreword to Leonard Ravenhill's "Why Revival Tarries". A
brilliant book!]

The historian D'Aubigne writes: "A great work of God is never 
accomplished by the natural strength of man. It is from the dry
bones, the darkness and the dust of death, that God is pleased to
select the  instruments by means of which He designs to scatter over
the earth His light, regeneration and life." [- D'Aubigne's "History of
the Reformation"].

Another writer has observed: "In the various crises that have
occurred in the history of the church, men have come to the front who
have manifested a holy recklessness that astonished their fellows.
When Luther nailed his theses to the door of the cathe- dral at
Wittemburg, cautious men were astonished at his audacity. When John
Wesley ignored all church restrictions and religious propriety and
preached in the fields and by-ways, men declared his reputation was
ruined. So it has been in all ages. When the religious condition of
the times called for men who were willing to sacrifice all for Christ,
the demand created the supply, and there have always been found a few
who have been willing to be regarded reckless for the Lord. An utter
recklessness concerning men's opinions and other consequences is the
only attitude that  can meet the exigencies of the present times."
[Quoted by Frank Bartleman in "Azusa Street", pg 46. (Also published
as "Another Wave Rolls in"). - Another brilliant book!]

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 11 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 11 of 21

Lord, we thank You for every private Christian school, college, preschool, and godly homeschool.. Thank You for the parents, teachers, and families who are hard at work educating the next generation in excellence and with a biblical worldview.

As You did for Solomon or for Daniel, give our Christian students maturity beyond their years and a supernatural ability to learn and to excel academically, above and beyond the norm.

In Jesus name. Amen

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 10 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 10 of 21

Thank You that all true creativity comes from You and that the first mention of being “filled with the Spirit” in the Bible is for the purpose of a supernatural gifting in the arts!

May a new spirit of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship come upon the young people of Charlotte, Metrolina and beyond. We pray for our young artists, dancers, musicians, actors, graphic designers, filmmakers, and writers. We bless their creativity in Jesus’ name, and we ask that You would cause these gifts to flourish during this crucial time in their lives.

Father, we are praying that You would do something extraordinary among our young artists and performers! We believe that in this coming year, we will hear about our students winning national and international awards and competitions; they will be given a place on the world’s stage through their films, books, performances, and art!

May new sources of funding for the arts in our schools and universities be released this year. Raise Christians who love the arts and who will invest in the next generation with their finances and with their time – as coaches, professors, and teachers.

We fervently pray over the performing and visual art departments in our schools and universities. For those that may have become magnets for darkness by celebrating and exploring the worst parts of culture and the human psyche, we ask that You would cleanse and restore our art departments to be centers of life, creativity, healing and beauty.

We pray for our young engineers and those with a passion for technology. We claim and agree with Your prophetic promise that Charlotte and the Carolinas are going to be blessed with intellectual property and that this will be a gateway to prosperity!

We lift those who are involved in pioneering research in our universities. Give them cutting edge breakthroughs in their work, we pray. Let Charlotte and the Carolinas become known as new hubs of innovation excellence with a deep pool of scientific and technical talent that attracts hightech companies with high paying jobs to our state.

We pray for more Christian students with a vision to glorify You in the arts, technology, and research. We pray that You would give them dreams and visions with creative ideas and breakthrough solution. May Your favor cause them to be promoted to places of influence within their spheres! Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 9 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 9 of 21

Your Word tells us that without a vision, people perish (Prov 29:18). Lord, we pray for VISION for administrators, principals, teachers, parents, and students! Give them Your vision of what their schools can become and stir their faith and hope to action. Let them see that NOTHING is impossible with God, no matter how bad the situation!

Father of Light, we ask You to plant a vision within our students to see academic success as a real possibility in their lives. Give them the vision to overcome the challenges they live with.

We pray for mentors and tutors to come alongside each one who is struggling and give them the educational support and vital encouragement needed to finish their schooling.

Please open the windows of heaven over our struggling schools for finances and competent staff. Let our schools receive a blessing they can’t contain! Lord, we ask that You would be glorified when their needs are supernaturally met.

Help our students who are struggling – whether with learning disabilities or with troubled families or anything else that would hinder them. We pray that You would restore their confidence and motivation. Protect them from discouragement as result of failures and setbacks. And, we ask that You would release the specialized teachers these students need.

Encourage all who feel like giving up to press through to victory, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 8 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 8 of 21

Father, thank You for every step of progress in our schools and for those who work tirelessly towards improving them. We pray Proverbs 8:1-21 over our students.

We pray for every student in every public, private and home school. We pray for “Every student, every day – for a better tomorrow.” We ask that You would pour out a love for learning and a hunger for knowledge and that you would ignite their drive for academic success. Give them a deep desire to seek godly wisdom and its blessings.

 We ask that our students would treasure learning above silver or gold, as Your Word says. Let them value their education and be so motivated that they would let nothing stand in their way of graduating! May they be lifelong learners who excel in their respective fields.

We pray our classrooms would come alive with an excitement for learning, and that apathy, disinterest, discouragement, and all disruptions be removed, in Jesus’ name.

 Proverbs 8:18 says that with wisdom comes “riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity,” and we know the economic growth of our city and state is directly tied to a well-educated workforce.

We ask for fresh, innovative solutions from heaven at both the state and local level in how to raise our graduation rates! Please do an undeniable miracle: turn a school ranked near the bottom into one that leads the way for the nation. In Jesus’ name! Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 7 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 7 of 21

Heavenly Father and Creator of all life, You have dreamed a unique dream for every student. Therefore, we cry out to You that the destinies of our children and young people will be preserved!

We pray for our future leaders. Raise young people with godly purpose and destiny to contend for the future of our nation! May many great young leaders, like Moses, Joseph, Joshua, Daniel, Ruth, and Esther, arise from our schools to bring justice and truth to every sector of society.

Raise those who will lead the way for righteousness in every mountain of influence – in government, in education, in media, in entertainment and the arts, in business and finance, in families and in the church.

May they, like David, fulfill the purpose of God in their generation. Like David, may they know their calling from a young age, so that no amount of family negativity or setbacks would discourage them from pursuing this.

Instill hope in these young people that You have a plan for them leading to life and fullness of joy, regardless of their past. Give this emerging generation a strong vision for the future and implant in their hearts an understanding of Your will for their lives.

Thank you that Your gifts and your callings are irrevocable. We ask You to resurrect dreams of those who have given up on their God-given dreams and breathe new life into their calling in You.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 6 of 21

Praying For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 6 of 21

Father God, Creator of all life, we come to You asking that You would pour out Your life-giving Spirit upon our schools. We take authority over the spirits of discouragement, defeat, death, and suicide. We declare, by faith, in Jesus’ name, that they have no place in the lives of our students. In Jesus’ name, Father God, break the power of this self-inflicted curse over those who fully expect to die at an early age! We ask that You would counter this lie with the TRUTH about the abundant life You offer us and that every student would find eternal life this year.

Help teachers to encourage their students and to be watchful of those who may be struggling academically or emotionally. May students and teachers in our schools experience the life of God, through the Holy Spirit and the Bible, in whole new ways that would transform them! Thank You that You are removing any veil over their minds and hearts that prevent them from seeing and receiving You and Your Truth.

We pray for healing for those grieving the loss of a loved one or traumatized by family conflict, exposure to media violence, bullying, gang activity, or the suicide of someone they know.

We pray for girls who have had an abortion and ask that You would be close to them. Please deliver them from the grip of the spirit of death and send someone who can minister to them.

We believe for a massive shift in the spiritual atmosphere over schools and our students’ homes. Wherever the thief has killed, stolen or destroyed, we ask that You would restore peace, joy and life.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prayer For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 5 of 21

Prayer For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 5 of 21

Jesus, You are the Way, the Truth and the Life, offering us eternal LIFE far better than we ever dreamed! You are the Light of the world – and even in the deepest darkness, “the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

We come into agreement with your Word that You are removing the veil of death and deception – a death shroud covering the minds of so many young people – and that the power of this death obsession is broken, according to Isaiah 25:7!

We make this faith declaration: delusion, rebellion and the strong anti-Christian mindset associated with this culture of death is removed from the youth. Untangle the web of confusion, manipulation, and deception we ask, and replace it with the clear truth of the gospel.

For those who are oppressed by the spirit of death and ensnared in the occult or witchcraft, we speak FREEDOM, DELIVERANCE AND LIFE. In the name of Jesus. Amen

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER By Andrew Murray Part 5 – Absolute Surrender - God Maintains Your Surrender

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER
By Andrew Murray

Part 5 – Absolute Surrender

God not only claims it, and works it, and accepts it when I bring it,
but God maintains it.

God Maintains Your Surrender

That is the great difficulty with many. People say: "I have often been
stirred at a meeting, or at a convention, and I have consecrated myself
to God, but it has passed away. I know it may last for a week or for a
month, but away it fades, and after a time it is all gone."

But listen! It is because you do not believe what I am now going to
tell you and remind you of. When God has begun the work of absolute
surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God
holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that?

In this matter of surrender there are two: God and I--I a worm, God the
everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust
yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do you not believe
that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment?

Moment by moment I'm kept in His love;
Moment by moment I've life from above.

If God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment, without
intermission, will not God let His life shine upon you every moment?
And why have you not experienced it? Because you have not trusted God
for it, and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to God in that
trust.

A life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. I do not deny that.
Yes, it has something far more than difficulties: it is a life that
with men is absolutely impossible. But by the grace of God, by the
power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a
life to which we are destined, and a life that is possible for us,
praise God! Let us believe that God will maintain it.

Some of you have read the words of that aged saint who, on his
ninetieth birthday, told of all God's goodness to him--I mean George
Muller. What did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness,
and of all the blessing which God had given him? He said he believed
there were two reasons. The one was that he had been enabled by grace
to maintain a good conscience before God day by day; the other was,
that he was a lover of God's Word. Ah, yes, a good conscience is
complete obedience to God day by day, and fellowship with God every day
in His Word, and prayer--that is a life of absolute surrender.

Such a life has two sides--on the one side, absolute surrender to work
what God wants you to do; on the other side, to let God work what He
wants to do.

First, to do what God wants you to do.

Give up yourselves absolutely to the will of God. You know something of
that will; not enough, far from all. But say absolutely to the Lord
God: "By Thy grace I desire to do Thy will in everything, every moment
of every day." Say: "Lord God, not a word upon my tongue but for Thy
glory, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory, not an affection
of love or hate in my heart but for Thy glory, and according to Thy
blessed will."

Someone says: "Do you think that possible?"

I ask, What has God promised you, and what can God do to fill a vessel
absolutely surrendered to Him? Oh, God wants to bless you in a way
beyond what you expect. From the beginning, ear hath not heard, neither
hath the eye seen, what God hath prepared for them that wait for Him (1
Cor. 2:9). God has prepared unheard-of things, blessings much more
wonderful than you can imagine, more mighty than you can conceive. They
are divine blessings. Oh, say now:

"I give myself absolutely to God, to His will, to do only what God
wants."

It is God who will enable you to carry out the surrender.

And, on the other side, come and say: "I give myself absolutely to God,
to let Him work in me to will and to do of His good pleasure, as He has
promised to do."

Yes, the living God wants to work in His children in a way that we
cannot understand, but that God's Word has revealed, and He wants to
work in us every moment of the day. God is willing to maintain our
life. Only let our absolute surrender be one of simple, childlike, and
unbounded trust.

Prayer For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 4 of 21

Prayer For Our Students Kindergarten Through College

Day 4 of 21

Thank you, Lord, for your prophetic promise that we are on the verge of the greatest revival ever.  Our nation will see the glory of God and another Great Awakening! 

As we stand in faith before You for these promises, we obey Your command to pray fervently that You send workers into our schools and universities where the harvest is indeed plentiful! 

Thank You for every Christian student and teacher You have placed in our schools. We pray that You would stir them up and help them resolve that in the coming school year they will get to know You more deeply, walk more closely with You, and be examples of character and righteousness showing love and compassion to those around them.

 We fervently pray that You would awaken the “sleeping giant” of Your Church to become actively engaged in their local schools and our education system. Help us see this harvest field in our backyards and find meaningful ways to serve and reach our schools. 

We pray for young student evangelists on campus. We ask for you to remove the fear of their peers, compromise, and all intimidation from them. We pray that they would walk in an anointing to preach the Gospel with power, and we pray that they would see a flood of undeniable healings and miracles on campuses when they pray for others.

 Thank you for the Christian students who will step into leadership roles. We bless them and ask for a deep spiritual maturity, unshakeable courage, and the zeal of the Lord. Let them not be distracted from their high calling in You.

Please give the students a great hunger for Your Word! May thousands of Bible studies spring up on campuses across our nation, led by students who are wise beyond their years, faithful to the truth, and effective apologists for the gospel. Release the fivefold ministry (Eph. 4:11) in our schools, we pray. Amen.

Prayer For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 3 of 21

Prayer For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 3 of 21

Father, we come to You on behalf of the broken-hearted, those young people and children who have been rejected, neglected, emotionally wounded, or physically or sexually abused.

So many young people in our schools are crushed by depression, tormented by suicidal thoughts, and facing poverty and broken homes. We bring all these before You knowing that You are close to them in a special way and that Your Father’s heart grieves for them.

We pray in particular for those who feel like outcasts – those who have been rejected by their family or friends, and those who are mocked or bullied at school.

Thank you that You will never leave them or forsake them. We ask that the comfort of the Holy Spirit would be so real to them and that You would break through the dark clouds and dispel the demonic powers that oppress them!

We pray for the thousands of teens and children suffering extreme mental anguish that drives them to intentionally harm themselves by cutting with blades, swallowing harmful substances or even burning themselves. Lord, we cry out to You for deliverance and deep healing for them.

We resist the spiritual root of rejection and self-hatred and the demonic lie that makes young people believe God is angry with them and has rejected them.

Let the orphan mentality and the belief that they are abandoned and alone in this world be dramatically changed by an encounter with someone who will love them unconditionally.

We declare this truth over them: that Your love is everlasting and that they are accepted in the Beloved. May they experience this reality and may the hearts of an entire young generation be healed as they discover You as their Father, welcoming the prodigal!

Please raise spiritual mothers and fathers who will love them, minister to them, disciple them, and help bring healing to them. In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Prayer For Our Students Kindergarten Through College Day 2 of 21

Prayer For Our Students Kindergarten Through College
Day 2 of 21

 Heavenly Father, we pray for every student who feels hopeless, even suicidal. May the spirit of heaviness that weighs them down be dispelled now!

In Jesus’ name, we pray for students struggling with thoughts of suicide, depression, hopelessness and despair. Father, replace such ideas with convictions of love and care in the lives of our students. Lord, please break the power of the spirit of death and suicide and bring Life to them.

Lord, send someone to encourage them today and let them know how much You love them. Show Yourself as the God of HOPE. May each student overflow with hope by the Holy Spirit, according to the authority of Your Word.

We even ask that You would send heavenly angels to the desperate and
the hopeless to comfort them and bring them Your answers, even as You
did for Hagar, Elijah, and Gideon in their time of crises. Man’s solutions are
not enough. Help our students put their trust in You.

We thank you in advance for miraculous and measurable answers to our
prayers. Thank you for financial breakthroughs, for radical changes in
test scores in struggling schools that suddenly (and perhaps mysteriously)
improve, and for a reduction in suicides and drug use. Thank You for responding to the prayers and the cry of Your people.

In this season, please once again do undeniable miracles and restore life,
giving hope to staff, students, and families – especially those in desperate
circumstances.

In the face of troubling trends in our schools, we boldly declare, by faith,
that there is hope in a faithful God Who does above what we can ask or
think!

We affirm Your Word and agree with thousands of others praying today
that You have a future, a hope, and a plan to prosper every student in our schools and our city!

We know that there is a very real and invisible enemy of all our souls, but
especially targeted is the next generation. We pray that God would override his efforts and invite every student to know His love. Let the plans and
purposes of God be established in their lives, and let God’s reign, His
Kingdom, come to our students, in Jesus’ name.

Prayer For Our Schools Kindergarten Through College Day 1 of 20

Prayer For Our Schools Kindergarten Through College

Day 1 of 20

Father, we thank you for this incredible promise that You will bring refreshing to the driest places! Where it has been spiritually dry, we ask for streams of the Holy Spirit – the Water of Life – to now pour through our schools to cause our children to thrive and flourish like poplar trees by the riverside.

We ask for an unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our schools and that You would flood the atmosphere of the classrooms with Your Holy presence!

In Jesus Name, Amen

Like Christ by Andrew Murray Lesson 6

Like Christ
by Andrew Murray

Lesson 6. Like Christ: Crucified With Him.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."—Gal. 2:20; 6:14.

Taking up the cross was always spoken of by Christ as the test of discipleship. On three different occasions (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Luke 14:27) we find the words repeated, "If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me." While the Lord was still on His way to the cross, this expression—taking up the cross, was the most appropriate to indicate that conformity to Him to which the disciple is called.

See note.

Christians entirely miss the point of the Lord’s command when they refer the taking up of the cross only to the crosses or trials of life. It means much more. The cross means death. Taking up the cross means going out to die. It is just in the time of prosperity that we most need to bear the cross. Taking up the cross and following Him is nothing less than living every day with our own life and will given up to death.

But now that He has been crucified, the Holy Spirit gives another expression, in which our entire conformity to Christ is still more powerfully set forth,—the believing disciple is himself crucified with Christ. The cross is the chief mark of the Christian as of Christ: the crucified Christ and the crucified Christian belong to each other. One of the chief elements of likeness to Christ consists in being crucified with Him. Whoever wishes to be like Him must seek to understand the secret of fellowship with His cross.

At first sight the Christian who seeks conformity to Jesus is afraid of this truth: he shrinks from the painful suffering and death with which the thought of the cross is connected. As His spiritual discernment becomes clearer, however, this word becomes all his hope and joy, and he glories in the cross, because it makes him a partner in a death and victory that has already been
accomplished, and in which the deliverance from the powers of the flesh and of the world has been secured to him. To understand this we must notice carefully the language of Scripture.

"I am crucified with Christ," Paul says; "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"! Through faith in Christ we become partakers of Christ’s life. That life is a life that has passed through the death of the cross, and in which the power of that death is always working. When I receive that life, I receive at the same time the full power of the death on the cross working in me
in its never-ceasing energy. "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me"; the life I now live is not my own life, but the life of the Crucified One, is the life of the cross. The being crucified is a thing past and done: "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him;" "They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh;" "I glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world had been crucified unto me, and I unto the world." These texts all speak of something that has been done in Christ, and into which I am admitted by faith.

It is of great consequence to understand this, and to give bold utterance to the truth: I have been crucified with Christ; I have crucified the flesh. I thus learn how perfectly I share in the finished work of Christ. If I am crucified and dead with Him, then I am a partner in His life and victory. I learn to understand the position I must take to allow the power of that cross and that death to
manifest itself in mortifying or making dead the old man and the flesh, in destroying the body of sin (Rom. 6:6).

For there is still a great work for me to do. But that work is not to crucify myself: I have been crucified; the old man was crucified, so the Scripture speaks. But what I have to do is always to the regard and treat it as crucified, and not to suffer it to come down from the cross. I must maintain my crucifixion position; I must keep the flesh in the place of crucifixion. To realize the force of this I must notice an important distinction. I have been crucified and am dead: the old Adam was crucified, but is not yet dead. When I gave myself to my crucified Savior, sin and flesh and all, He took me wholly; I with my evil nature was taken up with Him in His crucifixion. But here a separation took place. In fellowship with Him I was freed from the life of the flesh; I myself died with Him; in the inmost center of my being I received new life: Christ lives in me. But the flesh, in
which I yet am, the old man that was crucified with Him, remained condemned to an accursed death, but is not yet dead. And now it is my calling, in fellowship with and in the strength of my Lord, to see that the old nature be kept nailed to the cross, until the time comes that it is entirely destroyed. All its desires and affections cry out, "Come down from the cross, save yourself and us." It is my duty to glory in the cross, and with my whole heart to maintain the dominion of the cross, and to set my seal to the sentence that has been pronounced, to make dead every uprising of sin, as already crucified, and so not to suffer it to have dominion. This is what Scripture means when it says, "If you through the spirit make to the deeds of the body die, you shall live" (Rom.8:13). "Make dead therefore your members which are upon the earth." Thus I continually and voluntarily acknowledge that in my flesh dwells no good thing; that my Lord is Christ the Crucified One; that I have been crucified and am dead in Him; that the flesh has been crucified and, though not yet dead, has been forever given over to the death of the cross. And so I live like Christ, in very deed crucified with Him.

In order to enter fully into the meaning and the power of this fellowship of the crucifixion of our Lord, two things are especially necessary to those who are Christ’s followers. The first is the clear consciousness of this their fellowship with the Crucified One through faith. At conversion they became partakers of it without fully understanding it. Many remain in ignorance all their life long through want of spiritual knowledge. Brother, pray that the Holy Spirit may reveal to you your union to the Crucified One. "I have been crucified with Christ;" "I glory in the cross of Christ, through which I have been crucified to the world." Take such words of Holy Scripture, and by prayer and meditation make them your own, with a heart that expects and asks the Holy Spirit to make them living and effectual within you. Look upon yourself in the light of God as what you really are, "crucified with Christ." Then you will find the grace for the second thing you need to enable you to live as a crucified one, in whom Christ lives. You will be able always to look upon and to treat the flesh and the world as nailed to the cross. The old nature seeks continually to assert itself, and to make you feel as if it is expecting too much that you should always live this
crucifixion life. Your only safety is in fellowship with Christ. "Through Him and His cross," says Paul, "I have been crucified to the world." In Him the crucifixion is an accomplished reality; in Him you have died, but also have been made alive: Christ lives in you. With this fellowship of His cross let it be with you, the deeper the better: it brings you into deeper communion with His life
and His love. To be crucified with Christ means freed from the power of sin: a redeemed one, a conqueror. Remember that the Holy Spirit has been specially provided to glorify Christ in you, to reveal within you, and make your very own all that is in Christ for you. Do not be satisfied, with so many others, only to know the cross in its power to atone: the glory of the cross is, that it was not only to Jesus, but is to us too, the path to life, but that each moment it can become to us the power that destroys sin and death, and keeps us in the power of the eternal life. Learn from your Savior the holy art of using it for this. Faith in the power of the cross and its victory will day by day make dead the deeds of the body, the lusts of the flesh. This faith will teach you to count the cross, with its continual death to self. all your glory. Because you regard the cross, not as one who
is still on the way to crucifixion, with the prospect of a painful death, but as one to whom the crucifixion is past, who already lives in Christ, and now only bears the cross as the blessed instrument through which the body of sin is done away (Rom. 6:6). The banner under which complete victory over sin and the world is to be won is the cross.

Above all, remember what still remains the chief thing, It is Jesus, the living loving Savior, who Himself enables you to be like Him in all things. His sweet fellowship, His tender love, His heavenly power, make it a blessedness and joy to be like Him, the Crucified One, make the
crucifixion life a life of resurrection—joy and power. In Him the two are inseparably connected. In Him you have the strength to be always singing the triumphant song: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Precious Savior, I humbly ask You to show me the hidden glory of the fellowship of Your cross. The cross was my place, the place of death and curse. You became like us, and has been crucified with us. And now the cross is Your place, the place of blessing and life. And You call me to become like You, and as one who is crucified with You, to experience how entirely the cross has made me free from sin.

Lord, give me to know its full power. It is long time since I knew the power of the cross to redeem from the curse. But how long I struggled in vain as a redeemed one to overcome the power of sin, and to obey the Father as You have done! I could not break the power of sin. But now I see, this comes only when Your disciple yields himself entirely to be led by Your Holy Spirit into the fellowship of Your cross. There You give him to see how the cross has broken for ever the power of sin, and has made him free. There You, the Crucified One, live in him and impart to him Your own Spirit of whole-hearted self-sacrifice, in casting out and conquering sin. Oh. my Lord, teach me to understand this better. In this faith I say, "I have been crucified with Christ." Oh, You who loves, me to the death, not Your cross, but You the Crucified One, You are Him whom I seek, and in whom I hope. Take me, You Crucified One, and hold me fast, and teach me from moment to moment to look upon all that is of self as condemned, and only worthy to be crucified. Take me, and hold me, and teach me, from moment to moment, that in You I have all I need for a life of holiness and blessing. Amen.

Note.

"Jesus hath now many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His cross. He hath many who desire His consolation, few His tribulation; many who are willing to share His table, few His fasting. All are willing to rejoice with Him, few will endure anything for Him. Many follow Jesus into the breaking of bread, but few to drink of the cup whereof He drank. Many glory in His miracles, few in the shame of His cross." - From Thomas à Kernpis, Of the Imitation of Christ, 2. 11. That the lovers of the Cross of Jesus are few.
To many it seems a hard speech, "Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow Jesus." But it will be much harder to bear that other word, "Depart from me, ye cursed;" for only they who now hear and follow the word of the cross shall then have no fear of the word of condemnation. For the sign of the cross will be seen in the heaven when the Lord cometh to judgment, and all the servants of the cross, who in their lifetime have been conformed to Christ crucified, will then draw near to Christ their judge with great confidence. Why, then, dost thou fear to take up the cross which fitteth thee for the kingdom? In the cross is life, in the cross is salvation: the cross defends against all enemies: in the cross there is the infusion of all heavenly sweetness; in the cross is strength of mind, joy of spirit; the cross is the height of virtue and the perfection of sanctity. There is no happiness for the soul but in the cross. Take up, therefore, thy cross and follow Jesus, and thou shalt live forever.

"If thou bear the cross cheerfully, it will bear thee. If thou bear it unwillingly, thou makest for thyself a burden which still thou hast to bear. What saint was there ever who did not bear the cross? Even Christ must needs suffer. How then dost thou seek any other way than this, which is the royal way, the way of the sacred cross?

"He that willingly submits to the cross, to him its whole burden is changed into a sweet assurance of divine comfort. And the more the flesh is broken down by the cross, the more the spirit is strengthened by inward grace. It is not in man by nature, to bear the cross, to love the cross, to deny self, to bring the body into subjection, and willingly to endure suffering. If thou look to thyself, thou canst accomplish nothing of all this. But if thou trust in the Lord, strength shall be given thee from heaven, and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to thy rule. Set thyself, therefore, to bear manfully the cross of thy Lord, who out of love was crucified for thee.

"Know for certain thou oughtest to lead a dying life, for the more any man dieth unto himself, the more he liveth unto God. Surely, if there had been any better thing, and more profitable to man’s salvation, than bearing the cross, Christ would have showed it us by word and example. But now He calleth all who would follow Him plainly to do this one thing, daily to bear the cross." - From Thomas à Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ, 2, 12. Of the Royal Way of the Sacred Cross.

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER By Andrew Murray Part 6– Absolute Surrender - God Blesses When You Surrender

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER
By Andrew Murray


Part 6– Absolute Surrender - God Blesses When You Surrender

God Blesses When You Surrender
This absolute surrender to God will wonderfully bless.

What Ahab said to his enemy, King Ben-hadad--"My lord, O king,
according to thy word I am yours, and all that I have"--shall we not say to our God and loving Father? If we do say it, God's blessing will come upon us. God wants us to be separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates God. Come out for God, and say: "Lord, anything for You." If you say that with prayer, and speak that into God's ear, He will accept it, and He will teach you what it means.

I say again, God will bless you. You have been praying for blessing.
But do remember, there must be absolute surrender. At every tea-table
you see it. Why is tea poured into that cup? Because it is empty, and
given up for the tea. But put ink, or vinegar, or wine into it, and will they pour the tea into the vessel? And can God fill you, can God bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He cannot. Let us believe God has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for God, and say, be it with a trembling will, yet with a believing heart:

"O God, I accept Thy demands. I am your and all that I have. Absolute
surrender is what my soul yields to You by divine grace."

You may not have such strong and clear feelings of deliverance as you
would desire to have, but humble yourselves in His sight, and acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort. Bow humbly before him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's teaching that in your flesh "there dwells no good thing" (Rom. 7:18), and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. You must deny self once for all. Denying self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you.
When was Peter delivered? When was the change accomplished? The change began with Peter weeping, and the Holy Spirit came down and filled his heart.

God the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit. We have the
Spirit of God dwelling within us. We come to God confessing that, and
praising God for it, and yet confessing how we have grieved the Spirit.
And then we bow our knees to the Father to ask that He would strengthen
us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man, and that He would fill us with His mighty power. And as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever, and the self-life is cast out.

Let us bow before God in humility, and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole Church. No words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes feel about it. Just think of the Christians around you. I do not speak of nominal Christians, or of professing Christians, but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. So little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered to God's will! Oh, we want to confess the sins of God's people around us, and to humble ourselves. We are members of that sickly body, and the sickliness of the body will hinder us, and break us down, unless we come to God, and in confession separate ourselves from partnership with worldliness, with coldness toward each other, unless we give up ourselves to be entirely and wholly for God.

How much Christian work is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self! How much work, day by day, in which human energy--our will and our thoughts about the work--is continually manifested, and in which there is but little of waiting upon God, and upon the power of the Holy Spirit! Let us make confession. But as we confess the state of the Church and the feebleness and sinfulness of work for God among us, let us come back to ourselves. Who is there who truly longs to be delivered from the power of the self-life, who truly acknowledges that it is the power of self and the flesh, and who is willing to cast all at the feet of Christ? There is deliverance.

I heard of one who had been an earnest Christian, and who spoke about
the "cruel" thought of separation and death. But you do not think that, do you? What are we to think of separation and death? This: death was the path to glory for Christ. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross. The cross was the birthplace of His everlasting glory. Do you love Christ? Do you long to be in Christ, and not like Him? Let death be to you the most desirable thing on earth--death to self, and fellowship with Christ. Separation--do you think it a hard thing to be called to be entirely free from the world, and by that separation to be united to God and His love, by separation to become prepared for living and walking with God every day? Surely one ought to say:

"Anything to bring me to separation, to death, for a life of full fellowship with God and Christ."

Come and cast this self-life and flesh-life at the feet of Jesus. Then trust Him. Do not worry yourselves with trying to understand all about it, but come in the living faith that Christ will come into you with the power of His death and the power of His life; and then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ--Christ crucified and risen and living in glory--into your heart.

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER By Andrew Murray Part 4 – Absolute Surrender - God Accepts It

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER
By Andrew Murray


Part 4 – Absolute Surrender

God not only claims it and works it, but God accepts it when we bring it to Him.

God Accepts Your Surrender

God works it in the secret of our heart, God urges us by the hidden power of His Holy Spirit to come and speak it out, and we have to bring and to yield to Him that absolute surrender. But remember, when you come and bring God that absolute surrender, it may, as far as your feelings or your consciousness go, be a thing of great imperfection, and you may doubt and hesitate and say:

"Is it absolute?"

But, oh, remember there was once a man to whom Christ had said:

"If you canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23).

And his heart was afraid, and he cried out: "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24).

That was a faith that triumphed over the Devil, and the evil spirit was cast out. And if you come and say: "Lord, I yield myself in absolute surrender to my God," even though it be with a trembling heart and with the consciousness: "I do not feel the power, I do not feel the determination, I do not feel the assurance," it will succeed. Be not afraid, but come just as you are, and even in the midst of your trembling the power of the Holy Spirit will work.

Have you never yet learned the lesson that the Holy Spirit works with mighty power, while on the human side everything appears feeble? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. We read that He, "through the eternal Spirit" (Heb. 9:14), offered Himself a sacrifice unto God. The Almighty Spirit of God was enabling Him to do it. And yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came over Him, and how He prayed! Externally, you can see no sign of the mighty power of the Spirit, but the Spirit of God was there. And even so, while you are feeble and fighting and trembling, in faith in the hidden work of God's Spirit do not fear, but yield yourself.

 And when you do yield yourself in absolute surrender, let it be in the faith that God does now accept of it. That is the great point, and that is what we so often miss--that believers should be thus occupied with God in this matter of surrender. I pray you, be occupied with God. We want to get help, every one of us, so that in our daily life God shall be clearer to us, God shall have the right place, and be "all in all." And if we are to have that through life, let us begin now and look away from ourselves, and look up to God. Let each believe--while I, a poor
worm on earth and a trembling child of God, full of failure and sin and fear, bow here, and no one knows what passes through my heart, and while I in simplicity say, O God, I accept Thy terms; I have pleaded for blessing on myself and others, I have accepted Thy terms of absolute surrender--while your heart says that in deep silence, remember there is a God present that takes note of it, and writes it down in His book, and there is a God present who at that very moment takes possession of you. You may not feel it, you may not realize it, but God takes possession if you will trust Him.

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER By Andrew Murray Part 3 – Absolute Surrender - God Accomplishes Your Surrender

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER
By Andrew Murray

Part 3 – Absolute Surrender

God not only claims it, but God will work it Himself.

God Accomplishes Your Surrender

I am sure there is many a heart that says: "Ah, but that absolute surrender implies so much!" Someone says: "Oh, I have passed through so much trial and suffering, and there is so much of the self-life still remaining, and I dare not face the entire giving of it up, because I know it will cause so much trouble and agony."

Alas! alas! that God's children have such thoughts of Him, such cruel thoughts. Oh, I come to you with a message, fearful and anxious one. God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you. Do we not read: "It is God that works in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13)? And that is what we should seek for--to go on our faces before God, until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong, to conquer what is evil, and to work what is well-pleasing in His blessed sight. God Himself will work it in you.

Look at the men in the Old Testament, like Abraham. Do you think it was by accident that God found that man, the father of the faithful and the Friend of God, and that it was Abraham himself, apart from God, who had such faith and such obedience and such devotion? You know it is not so. God raised him up and prepared him as an instrument for His glory.

Did not God say to Pharaoh: "For this cause have I raised you up, for to show in you my power" (Ex. 9:16)?

And if God said that of him, will not God say it far more of every child of His?

Oh, I want to encourage you, and I want you to cast away every fear. Come with that feeble desire; and if there is the fear which says: "Oh, my desire is not strong enough, I am not willing for everything that may come, I do not feel bold enough to say I can conquer everything"--I
pray you, learn to know and trust your God now. Say: "My God, I am willing that You should make me willing." If there is anything holding you back, or any sacrifice you are afraid of making, come to God now, and prove how gracious your God is, and be not afraid that He will command from you what He will not bestow.

God comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in you. All these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in your heart, I tell you they are the drawings of the divine magnet, Christ Jesus. He lived a life of absolute surrender, He has possession of you; He is living in your heart by His Holy Spirit. You have hindered and hindered Him terribly, but He desires to help you to get hold of Him entirely. And He comes and draws you now by His message and words. Will you not come and trust God to work in you that absolute surrender to Himself? Yes, blessed be God, He can do it, and He will do it.

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER By Andrew Murray Part 2 – Absolute Surrender - God Expects Your Surrender

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER
By Andrew Murray

Part 2 – Absolute Surrender

God Expects Your Surrender -

Yes, it has its foundation in the very nature of God. God cannot do
otherwise. Who is God? He is the Fountain of life, the only Source of
existence and power and goodness, and throughout the universe there is
nothing good but what God works. God has created the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the flowers, and the trees, and the grass; and are
they not all absolutely surrendered to God? Do they not allow God to
work in them just what He pleases? When God clothes the lily with its
beauty, is it not yielded up, surrendered, given over to God as He
works in its beauty? And God's redeemed children, oh, can you think
that God can work His work if there is only half or a part of them
surrendered? God cannot do it. God is life, and love, and blessing, and
power, and infinite beauty, and God delights to communicate Himself to
every child who is prepared to receive Him; but ah! this one lack of
absolute surrender is just the thing that hinders God. And now He
comes, and as God, He claims it.

You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that
everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and
service. I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely
surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely
surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another
holds it partly, I cannot write properly. This coat is absolutely given
up to me to cover my body. This building is entirely given up to
religious services. And now, do you expect that in your immortal being,
in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration, God can
work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given
up to Him? God cannot. The Temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him. And every one of us is a temple of God, in which God will dwell and work mightily on one condition- -absolute surrender to Him. God claims it, God is worthy of it, and without it God cannot work His blessed work in us.