LET US PRAY - Divine Institutions & Volitions

Today's lesson was an overview of the Doctrine of Divine Institutions, categories of Volition, and the ways God's will is expressed.

The Divine Institutions (Volition, Marriage, Family, and Nationalism) are the most basic practices that God set up for the human race in order to protect them, preserve them, and allow them to enjoy blessings on earth.

The #1 and most important Divine Institution is Volition (which include human responsibility and accountability). All other institutions are designed to protect Volition. It is crucial that one understands the importance of and the responsibilities and accountability associated with volition. When one demonstrates responsible behavior through the exercise of positive volition, then this strengthens the marriage, strengthens the family, and strengthens human government and the nation. But when an individual fails to understand responsibility and accountability it destroys marriage, destroys family, and ultimately destroys government and the nation. That is why it is crucial for parents to teach the importance of volition/responsibility and to have consistent accountability with their children as they grow up. 

Each of these Divine Institutions is under incredible assault today. There are all kinds of attacks on human responsibility from humanistic psychology and sociology—it’s not my fault, it’s my parents’ fault, society’s fault, the education system’s fault, or somebody mistreated me and it’s their fault. It is never my fault that I make bad decisions; it is somebody else’s fault.

Secular humanists are attempting to redefine the #2 Divine Institution, Marriage, as simply being “a loving relationship between two people”. That is not how the Bible defines marriage. Marriage in the Bible is a relationship between a man and a woman to fulfill certain responsibilities under the authority of God.

Next, we briefly summarized how God’s will is expressed (Directive Will; Geographical Will; Permissive Will; Overruling Will; Revealed Will). To know the will of God, we should immerse ourselves in the written Word of God (His Revealed Will), saturating our minds with it, and praying that the Holy Spirit will transform us through the renewing of our minds, so that the result is what is good, acceptable and perfect—the will of God. (see Romans 12:2)

I believe what makes it most difficult for us to understand God's will is our linear view of time (past, present, future) as compared to God's omniscient view of time (complete view of total knowledge and of all time--beginning to the end--as the present). We only see the present and the past. God sees all of time as thought it were the present with full knowledge of the fullness of eternity. We often question God's will concerning events in the present when we only have a finite view of time that includes the years we have been alive. God told Jeremiah (1:5), "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." In Revelations 22:13 we read, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." In Matthew 10:30 we read, "But even the hairs of your head are all numbered." Every event--good and evil--God allows. There is nothing that happens that is outside of God's sovereign will and perfect plan (Ephesians 1:11). There is nothing that happens that is beyond His control (Job 42:2). We have only to trust Him completely, surrender to Him fully, and love Him wholeheartedly.

In summary, we boiled the lesson down into three main points:

1. God’s ultimate goal is that we love Him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and that everything He wills and permits is to that end.

2. God’s great love for us is the reason He gives us volition (right to make choices). Unless volition is without coercing or force are we free to express genuine love for God.

3. God’s permissive will (allowing us to sin and for evil to exist) is used to refocus us on His perfect will. God will always trump evil and use it to multiply His purposes as He fulfills His perfect will.

Next week we will look at a very important lesson in our study on prayer: “Prayer That Resists Satan”. 

LET US PRAY - Lesson 4: The Principle of Praying Thrice

There are three secrets to prayer:

1. Prayer must be offered with burden.

2. Prayer must be offered THRICE. This “thrice” is not limited to only three times, it may be many times.

3. Prayer must be offered until the burden is lifted.

Two examples that illustrate these secrets of prayer are found with Jesus and Paul:

BURDEN:

1. JESUS: When He came to a place called Gethsemane, “…he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Matthew 26:37, 38)

2. PAUL: When Paul was given a thorn in the flesh to torment him, “…I (Paul) pleaded with the Lord…” 2 Corinthians 12:8

THRICE:

1. JESUS: The Lord Jesus asked His Father three separate times in the garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Matthew 26:39

2. PAUL: Paul was given a thorn in the flesh and he prayed: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” 2 Corinthians 12:8

BURDEN LIFTED:

1. JESUS: After having prayed three times, Jesus was at peace and returned to His sleeping disciples (again) and said, “Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Matthew 26:46

2. PAUL: After the Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul said, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

Jesus and Paul prayed three times. Both began their prayers with great burden, and both departed their time of prayer with what they needed to accept God’s will. Did God answer the prayer of Jesus? No. Did God answer the Prayer of Paul? No. But what God did do was give them both what they needed to accept God’s will.

What was the key to their burdens being lifted? They both surrendered completely to God’s will. On all three occasions, Jesus followed his prayer with, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39

The secret to our prayers is that God’s will becomes our will. That is a most difficult task, yet it is the key to becoming one with our Father. There is often a price we must pay when we surrender our will to God. There will often be a painful sensation as we put to death our fleshly will. But we must remember that the pain that Jesus endured on the cross was eclipsed by the victory He experienced in His Resurrection. We must look past our personal “cross” that awaits us and focus on the “resurrection” that comes as a result of our surrender.

When your prayer is the result of a burden, pray THRICE or until that burden is lifted. But most importantly, regardless of what God might ask you to change or give up in your life, know that His will is always better than anything you can ever dream of for your own life.

Sometimes we are afraid of what God might ask us to do or give up. It might be something that is so precious or special that you imagine it as a type of death. From personal experience, I can say that when you surrender completely to do God’s will, He will change your desires. On the other side of any cross you might be asked to bear is a life of resurrection that is only possible once you reach a point of complete surrender to God’s will.

God will change your desires ONLY after you desire His will more than your own.

Next week: Lesson 5: Prayer That Resists Satan

LET US PRAY - Lesson 3: Prayer and God's Work

When the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

This week two of our families were blessed with new babies. My memory of staring into the faces of those precious children, both less than 2-days old, crystallizes for me what Jesus must have been trying to show His disciples. What does God asked of us? Simply to love Him with total abandon just as a young child loves his/her parents. The younger the child, the more pure the love.  This is how we prepare ourselves to be of use to God in prayer.

Throughout scripture, God shows how He desires man to play a vital link in the fulfillment of His will through prayer. In numerous instances, He as delayed His sovereign will until his children have prayed. Why? Because He wants a relationship with us. God's working has a primal principle behind it, which is, that He wants man to pray, that He desires man to cooperate with Him through prayer. He wants us to love Him more than we love anything else. He wants us to be one with Him when it comes to His will. Jesus confirmed this in Matthew 22:36-38.

When the Lord wishes to do a thing He first puts His own thought in us through the Holy Spirit. Only after we have turned this thought into prayer will He perform it. Such is the procedure of divine working; God will not work out anything in any other way. He needs the cooperation of us men. He needs a will that is one with His will and is sympathetic to Him. If God does everything without involving us men, then there is absolutely no need for us to be here on earth, nor do we need to know what His will is. Yet every will of God must be done by us, since He calls for our will to be one with His own. (Watchman Nee - Let Us Pray)

There is no work more important than prayer. There is not a more powerful weapon against the enemy than prayer. Prayer connects us with God on the deepest level. Prayer units our will with God's will.

When do we pray? Pray when you feel the burden of prayer--this is praying according to God's will. When the Holy Spirit is urging you to pray, you should do so. Each time God puts a prayer thought into us, His Holy Spirit first moves us into having a burden to pray for that particular matter. As soon as we receive such feeling we should immediately give ourselves to prayer. When we are moved by the Holy Spirit our own spirit instantly senses a burden as though something were being laid upon our heart. After we pray it out we feel relieved as though having a heavy stone removed off us. If we don't pray it out we are not in harmony with God's heart--God's will. When we pray as soon as the burden comes upon us, prayer will not become a weight, it will instead be light and pleasant.

What a pity that so many people quench the Holy Spirit when they are burdened to pray. Oh, if ever we fall to such an extent of having no prayer burden, we will have sunk indeed into a most perilous situation, for we have already lost communion with God and He is no more able to use us in His work. For this reason, we must be extra careful in dealing with the feeling which the Holy Spirit gives to us. Whenever there is a prayer burden we should immediately inquire of the Lord, saying, "O God, what do you want me to pray for? What is it which you wish to accomplish that needs me to pray?" And once we pray it out, we will be entrusted by God with the next prayer. However, if our first burden is not yet discharged, we are unable to take up the second.

If many will rise up to do this work, God will do many things in our individual lives, in our class, in our church, in our city, in our world, because of their prayer.

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chronicles 16:9

Next week we will continue with Lesson 4: The Principle of Praying Thrice.

STRENGTH IN PRAYER - The Joy of the Lord

"May we renew the ardor and fervency of our desires for the Lord and may we be a strong people, and consequently a joyous people in the strength and joy of the Lord." C.H. Spurgeon

"The joy of the Lord is our strength!" (Nehemiah 8:10) Joy is one of the fruit of the Spirit and is the sign and symbol of a strong spiritual life.

"The joy of the Lord,"

...leads to great PRAISE;

...results in great SACRIFICE;

...makes one eager to OBEY;

...fortifies against TEMPTATION;

...brings family HAPPINESS.

It is in prayer that we connect with the true source of our joy and strength!

Blayne Hardy Barfield

BLAYNE HARDY BARFIELD

Blayne Hardy Barfield, a resident of Geneva County, AL, passed away Thursday morning, March 12, 2015.

Visitation will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, March 14, 2015 at Ward Wilson Funeral Home. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, March 15, 2015 at First Baptist Church with Dr. Johnny Fain officiating. Burial will follow in Memory Hill Cemetery with Ward Wilson Funeral Home directing.

Blayne was born June 20, 1984 in Dothan, AL to Donnie and Pam Hardy. She was a 2002 graduate of Northview High School. Blayne graduated from Auburn University in 2005 with a marketing degree and was a member of Kappa Delta Sorority where she made many memories and lifelong friends. She then went on to Troy University Dothan where she earned her master’s degree in education.

As a wife and a mother, Blayne had such joy in her family. She hunted with her husband and painted nails with her daughter. Blayne spent the last five years teaching, loving and molding the lives of middle school children. She taught each day with the intention of impacting the lives of her students. She loved her students and they loved her.

She was an active member of First Baptist Church and the 'You and Me' Sunday School Class, attending and hosting parties. Blayne loved the lake, loved the beach, and loved her book club. Mostly she loved her family and friends fiercely.

Blayne is preceded by her grandfather Ted Bryant; Grandmother Wilma Hardy; uncle Mickey Hardy. Survivors include her husband of 5 years, Justin Barfield and daughter Lilly Barfield of Geneva County; parents Donnie and Pam Hardy of Dothan; brother Bryant Hardy and his wife Paige (nephews Brayden and Braxton) of Dothan; sister Brooke Patton and her husband Tim (nephews Tim and Thomas) of Auburn; grandfather Henry Hardy of Dothan; grandmother Catherine Bryant of Dothan; father and mother-in-law Joel Lamar Barfield and Starla Ready Barfield of Dothan; brother-in-law Jamie Barfield of Dothan; grandmother-in-law Jewell Ready of Dothan; aunts, uncles & cousins. Pall bearers include brother-in-law Jamie Barfield; cousins Joseph Sanders, Ted Bryant, Will Bryant, Brandon Hardy and Brent Hardy.

Honorary Pall bearers include the 'You and Me' Sunday School Class at First Baptist Church Dothan. In addition to flowers, contributions can be made to First Baptist Church Dothan. Ward Wilson Memory Hill Funeral Home, Cemetery & Crematory 334-792-4194, is in charge of arrangements.

We will all miss Blayne, but through the power of God, we must all vow to surrender ourselves daily to the Holy Spirit so that her life is not wasted. That is what she would have wanted.

"Rejoice ALWAYS, pray CONTINUALLY, give thanks in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit."1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

Blayne was a beautiful, caring, giving, loving person who desired to know God and learn His ways. For me personally, her loss is beyond words on multiple levels. However, I believe with all my heart that God WILL be glorified and many, many lives will be saved and changed.

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." Ephesians 6:18

LET US PRAY - Lesson 2: Pray According to God's Will

There is the possibility of having two kinds of prayer. One kind has its source in our own will that is motivated by our need for relief from uncontrollable circumstances, uncooperative people, or unexplainable pain (physical or emotional). Sometimes God will hear and respond to your prayers for the sake of satisfying your own needs, yet His own will is not fulfilled. Such prayer does not have much value.

In 1 Samuel 8, Israel asked for a King. They said to Samuel, "Give us a king to lead us." Samuel prayed to the Lord telling Him what the elders wanted. The Lord said, "...they have rejected me as their king... warn them solemnly..." Samuel did as the Lord instructed but soon returned to the Lord and told Him the people were still demanding that they have a king. The Lord answered, "Listen to them and give them a king."

Again, even after having seen the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, the Israelites soon forgot what the Lord had done and they gave into their cravings in the desert. "He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul." Psalm 106:15. Those that will not wait for God's counsel, shall justly be given up to their own hearts' lusts, to walk in their own counsels.

The other kind of prayer is prayed as the will of God which has been reproduced in us through our surrender to the Holy Spirit. Although we are immature and weak, we may nevertheless approach God and let His Spirit bring our will into God's will and our thought into God's thought. Gradually, the will and thought of God which we have known and entered into becomes in us our prayer. Such prayer is of great value.

Which one of the two types of prayer do you think Satan is most concerned? Did he unleash his demons to stop the elder's demand for a human king to replace the Lord? Not hardly. Did he send his most powerful, dark angels to quiet the cravings of the rebellious Israelites? Why should he? When Jesus prayed to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." do you think Satan was concerned? I think so! What Jesus was about to do on the Cross was going to change everything. Satan did not want this to happen. This must have been why Jesus had to struggle in prayer that night. He returned three times to the Father asking Him the same thing.

When we pray the will of God, our prayer will shake up hell and affect Satan. For this reason, Satan will rise up to hinder such prayer, as such prayers which come from God touch the powers of darkness. Spiritual warfare results. The enemy attacks in order that our prayer might be discontinued, delayed, or thwarted all together. We MUST surrender our will so that we might learn to pray as Jesus taught us: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Next week: "Prayer and God's Work"

LET US PRAY - Lesson 1: What is Prayer?

What is Prayer?

"Prayer is the most wonderful act in the spiritual realm as well as a most mysterious affair." 

"Prayer is the union of the believer's thought with the will of God." Watchman Nee

Prayer is one of the most valuable assets we have as Christians. God allows us to partner with Him to fulfill His purposes on Earth.

Concerning any given matter, there is the possibility of having two different kinds of prayer.

1. The prayer that has it's source in our own will. It is based on our own thinking and our own expectations. The Lord may hear and answer our prayer, but such prayer has a very low value attached to it.

2. The prayer that results after our will has merged into God's will and our thought into God's thought. At this point, the question is then no longer whether our need is met but whether God's will is done. Prayer for personal need should be touched indirectly by first asking the Lord's will to be done. This is the secret of prayer and the key to victory in prayer.

When Jesus taught us how to pray in Matthew 6, at the top of the list He taught us to pray: "Thy will be done." When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed three times to the Father. In all three instances He prayed: "Yet not as I will, but as You will." "...Your will be done." God wants us to learn in Him what His will is regarding all things so that we can then pray according to His will, in Jesus' name.

Where do we learn what His will is? We learn it in His Word. We learn it from the Holy Spirit that resides within every believer.

We can only know His will that is found in His Word if we follow David's advice in Psalms: "I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You." Psalm 119:11. "...meditates on His law day and night." Psalm 1:2. We must read the Word, listen to the Word being read, meditate on it, study it, and talk about it. We need to consume it as a starving man might consume a bucket of chicken from KFC. Why? Because within the Word exist God's will. When you put God's Word in your heart, the Holy Spirit can then use it to teach you and show you God's will.

You are led by the Holy Spirit when you seek to have a pure heart, forgiven of all sins (Galatians 5:22). You must then ask the Holy Spirit to rule over your soul (mind, will, emotions). This is called surrendering your will to God's will. This is the oneness you must seek with God that allows you to know His will and pray "Thy will be done." When you know His will, you can see why you only need the faith of a mustered seed to see great things happen. If it is "In Jesus' name" it is a done deal.

1. God conceives a thought, which is His will.
2. God reveals His will to his children through His Word and the Holy Spirit.
3. God's children return His will by praying to Him. Prayer is responding to God's will from a heart that is wholly one with His heart.
4. God will accomplish His will.

Next week: "Pray According to God's Will"