Prayer Works Morning Devotion: January 24, 2024

Theme:

Becoming Complete Christians

Focus Scripture(s):

Luke 6:40 (NKJV)

“A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher."

John 14:12 (NKJV)

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father."

2 Timothy 2:21 (NKJV)

"Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work."

2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NKJV)

"14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Overview:

As Christians, we have to be conformed to the standard of Christ. We should measure our lives based on Jesus Christ’s life. The reason we become saved is not so that we get to heaven. It’s so that we can become vessels that God uses for His divine purpose. We have to be complete for God’s service. Let’s understand what it takes to become a complete Christian.

Good morning, everybody, good morning, everybody. Sorry for being tidied and I’m trying to wake up for these kids to go to school there, still sleeping.

Anyway, today I'm going to give you a few little points. Then we can pray and what I want you to do when we start praying is I hope you did your homework and your have your five things with you.  

Or you can just think about those  and then we're going to pray over them, we’re gonna pray for them. Or I give you a few things how to help us to become complete Christians.

The first one is we have to be conformed to the standard of Christ. Christ is our standard. Luke 6:40, Christ is our standard we should measure our life.  

Based on Jesus Christ's life that's the measurement. That's why he could say to us greater works will you do, than I did. 

Number 2, we have to be consecrated for usage. In other words, the reason we become safe is not so that we get to heaven. The reason we get saved is so that we can be the vessels that God uses.  

In other words, who we are as human beings will be totally devoted to God using us, so that means serving your children, serving your husband, serving your church, serving your family, all of that.

Once your life becomes concentrated you are now just for usage for God's divine purpose. That's number two and the description for that is 2 Timothy 2:21.  

Number 3, We have to be complete for God's service, 2Timothy 3:14-17. The way we do that is to be totally and completely soaked in scriptures. God wants to continuously give us instructions at every juncture. This is why he says I will never leave nor forsake you, but I will be a counsel.  

In other words, not sometimes. He wants to be right there with you every single step. The leader of the Holy Spirit is not just when we need to make big decisions. The leading of the Holy Spirit literally is for our everyday usage and in everything that we do, everything that we do.  

For example, this time I'm out there playing tennis or basketball with friends. And if you are astute enough during even a sporting activity, you can hear the holy spirit say now go cross coach. Go this way and I'm sure all of us you have heard him even in some of the most simplest tasks.  

Right, So When we become so attuned to him for even the simplest things we become God, it becomes easy for God to use us for his service.

Number four, We have to cultivate good habits 1Timothy 4:18. When we are in secular world, if you need to pass your exam what do you do you, you concentrate right.  

We have songwriters and singers on this call. If you are in a recording right, you have to concentrate. And I gotta go to bed early, I gotta wake up early, why because tomorrow I have to concentrate because I am doing something that I cannot make mistakes in.  

And we also on the other hand, we have to concentrate, we have to concentrate when it comes to spiritual things.  

That when we decide to read our scriptures towards your got to pray, you got to bring all your faculties, all your faculties.

To whatever it is that you are doing this is why sometimes church is boring because you have people who are no longer concentrating on the spirit, it's more like a duty now, serving God and doing his work should never be a duty. 

It's a lifestyle, this is how we live, this is just how we live. Like I always tell my kids we are a ministry family, you should know it, this is how we do it and this is the way it is. You're always going to be a ministry family. To a church and it's church and everything that we do, ministry.  

So don't even ever think of the idea that one day I'll just get out of this. No, you cannot. This is what it is. So we have to cultivate good mental habits as it pertains to the word of God, so some of the things. 

So what we are doing getting up in the morning and being diligent and in thinking about this, we are actually developing incredible mental habits and that will help us towards being complete Christians. 

Number 5 right, number 5. Constantly aim at the highest. The scripture says take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine 1 Timothy 4:16. Preaching right is God's method for saving the world.

Preaching is God's method for saving the world not God's method to give us riches. It says how can they be saved unless somebody preaches. 

So preaching is God's way of saving the world. Which means for all of us, at some point when we do ministry work we have to remember when we stand in front of people at any given moment, whether be it in song.

Whether be it in worship, whether be it in preaching, whether be it in praying. The ultimate purpose for us to stand before people is to get them saved.  

The purpose of ministry is to highlight sin that is in our lives to expose the devil where he is hiding in our lives and this pertains to also us sitting in church, hearing a word. 

When somebody preaches to you, if you want to be a complete Christian when somebody preaches to you make sure you focus on the things that highlight sin into your life. 

That highlights where sin is hidden in your life, not the things that makes us happy and the things that makes us jump or the things that makes us excited.  

I'm not saying all those things are not necessary, but I'm saying that according to scripture, preaching is supposed to highlight the scene that's hidden in our lives.

In other words, preaching should expose you to the cross. You should take your life and mirror it next to Jesus that's what preaching should do, good preaching should do.  

Even in things that you want to be excited about it's almost kind of like you're taking your life and examining it next to Jesus, and then you're making decisions on all I need to deal with that.  

And when we do that what we automatically do now is we are focusing and we were constantly aiming for the highest, the highest in Christ, right, if you're aiming for the highest. 

 You're not aiming to be the best, no what you're really actually aiming to is holiness. Because if Jesus is the standard, right, Jesus is the standard. Jesus was not filthy rich, but Jesus was totally holy.  

That's what made Him, Him. And His Holiness allowed him to do things that even some of the richest folks could not do.

So when you think about Jesus richness, it was not in things, it was in holiness, purity and that is what made him just decide you know what give me that bread and give me that fish and let's feed all this 5000 people.  

Because he was constantly aiming for the highest. So that's why we want to be constantly aiming for the highest. Number six, right, 123456, Yeah, constrain yourself to be spiritually minded.

1 Timothy 6:11, Follow after righteousness it's possible to be saved and they have a state in mind. Where you can look at your life and you know you are saved. 

That when you look at the last five years you can see spiritual or track spiritual growth. And one of the reason why we can become stagnant, especially spiritually is because we stop becoming spiritually minded.  

The greatest compliment you can ever get from somebody is if anybody ever says to you you're too spiritual for me.

You should go and throw yourself a party because that's the highest compliment you can get for anybody because it tells us and it tells you that now you are thinking spiritually.  

Remember what we said yesterday, we are, we are greater spiritual beings than we are physical.

So the idea behind this point is that we are constantly or the longer we live, the greater our level of spirituality should become as our flesh decreases. Then commune with God continuously, commune with God continuously.  

That's why people say, pray without ceasing. In other words, there should never be a time were we have idle time.

And my kids sometimes they come and say, especially last week when they didn't go to school and it was cold and freezing. They’ll come and say hey, Dad, I'm bored I'm like, go pray.  

There should never, there should never be anything in our life that says I'm killing time. If you are killing time that's suicidal. If you have an hour to spare and you're waiting for a meeting connect with God commune, yes.  

You know what communion is, communion is made out of two words, common unions. In other words, have this spirit to commune with God. In traffic you feel irritated in traffic commute talk to God. Waiting for someone to show up commune. 

 When we can develop these habits, the greater our spiritual life should be. The greater the level of hearing from God will be. Your senses becomes heightened like really heightened. Where you start seeing things that not everybody sees. So this is how we can continuously walk towards to become complete Christians.  

Complete, stronger, greater, powerful. A powerful Christian life cannot exist outside of prayer and reading scriptures. I'm not saying God can't use you, you will be used. But powerfully, prayer and continuously communion with God that increases your power and authority.  

I know a lot of us on this call right now, we are doing work out there in the communities, feeding the sick, going and talking to people. And encouraging others teaching on Facebook all these things that we are doing. If we want to be powerfully used commune with God. 

Now let's take our list 5 things I hope we all did our homework and let us let us go to God in prayer. Let us go to God in prayer and table this request before Him because we want our faith and our spiritual life to intersect, to come together so that we can agree in faith and with faith.  

So let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you. We are grateful for who you are in our lives. Thank you, Lord, for all that you have done and what you're still going to do. We thank you, Lord we are on this journey where you are teaching us and showing us all the necessary structures that we need to abide by.  

So that our lives can be complete and we can be totally used by you. Oh, heavenly Father, we know You’re here us when we pray. In your word you said that You give us spiritual ear to hear this, tell us exactly what we need to pray for.  

Father, there are things that we are believing by faith. With contracts we're believing by faith. With buildings we are believing by faith. We have vision that we are believing by faith. With correction and order for our children, we are believing by faith.  

So, father as we have written this visions down it's by faith. That we are looking with anticipation for what you are going to do. The scripture tells us that if we are abide in you and if your words abide in us that you will, we can ask whatsoever we desire, and it shall be done for us in Christ Jesus.  

So I'm praying, Lord that may you give us strength where our courage ends. May You give us courage where we lack determination. I'm praying, Lord, that this year we want to increase in faith. We want to see your hand, we want to feel you, we want to touch you, we want to experience you.  

We want to know that surely you are walking with us. Our desire is to be one with you. To be one with one another. For, we want to present You to the world. Grow us, grow us, grow us, grow us, grow us in Word, grow us in prayer, grow us in communion, grow us in fellowship, grow as mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically grow us Lord. 

Open our eyes let what you have in store for us enter our hearts so we can develop the proper faith for it. I know not the things that seems to be outside the realm of our imagination but God, we know by faith that you are more than able and capable. Lord, we want to believe in things that will shock us.  

We want to see your Kingdom come. So, Lord, I pray for every person on this call. And I pray for everything they have listed. As a vision to accomplish and to do in this year some are short term long term. 

But God we want to believe that you have given us this desires and we are going to look ahead in anticipation because your words says once it is given, it cannot go back and retain void.  

But Lord above all these things the greater cause for our lives is to be spiritually astute. One with you, hear you more to be conformed to your standard. To be consecrated, to be constantly aiming for the highest, to cultivate incredible mental habits, to be consecrated for ministry, to be constrained, to constrain ourselves, to be spiritually minded to commune with you daily.  

Every hour, every minute in traffic, during lunch hour, in the bathrooms. Lord we want our lives to be a living vessel. Help us to dig wells in us that are so deep that all of us will flow, rivers, not streams, rivers of living water. That many and plenty of people will come and drink from us.  

We want to be reservoirs of sweet water and sweet spirit. Heavenly Father, Oh grant us favour with the heavens. Send angels on assignments to aid us in things that we are always coming short. We know the devil desires to infiltrate our lives, to discredit the God in us like God.  

We stand today Knowing that we are yours and you are ours. There is no doubting that God we want to live sanctified lives where the words that comes out of our mouths are wholly acceptable unto you.  

Death and life is in the power of the tongue, so God lets our tongues be it the foundation of life. The words that we speak let them be full of inspiration and encouragement. The things that we share let it edify and elevate others. The things that we dream of there are our tongues.  

As the authority to prophecy yesterday we read the script that says I would rather you prophecy, that's what we want to do to prophecy and Father renew our minds constantly. Renew us constantly, give us strength, give us strength to face our circumstances and daily issues And also know the strength to become ruler of coldest to become.  

We want one day to get to heaven spent. Poured out poured out for your Kingdom. Every inch of us poured out. Lord, I believe that you are starting something remarkable in us and God, we are looking at anticipation.  

We are looking in anticipation for what you are going to do in our lives. I know you're transforming us. I know you're growing us. I know all this has a purpose and plan that is greater than what we could even imagine.  

But God as we lay this foundation down as we lay these tracks down. We know at some point there is a railway line that's running across through here and there's trails that are coming through here with goods and people. 

That would drink from the wells of our hearts and from the wells of our bellies, help us dig wells, help us to dig wells, help us to dig wells that are deep in the name of Jesus. Praying for every plan, every family represented here. That God the greatest legacy we can live in us is the love of Christ in our families and in our children.  

So help us to grow the love that we have for you so that it can be seen. We want to be like Peter. Where he was so deeply ingrained in you that his shadow became a healing force where conversation was not needed anymore. Because his shadow could heal people. 

Lord I pray for every word that will come out of our mouths this year. We want to be diligent in speaking truth so help us now Lord. We take the areas of our lives that are here, where sin is hiding. I pray Lord you help us to expose things and mirror them next to Christ so that we can be clean vessels, clean hands, clean minds, clean eyes, clean ears.  

Help us, Lord, to discern the things we are hearing, things we are watching. Help us to be sweet. Lord I'm praying if there are things in us that we don't even know where they came from send the help that is necessary to deal with things in us.  

Lord I pray and by your spirit this year will be different. Not because we have greater plans, but because we're drawing closer to you. That we are growing in our faith in our spirituality in the way we think, in the way we speak and the way we hear. 

Let that be the difference this year. You have already plans for us, we know that the way tells us that you already have plans for us.  

So we are praying, Lord, that those plans may they become desires in our hearts so we can accomplish what is here on earth for us to accomplish. I pray for every single person on this call as we go through this day.  

We want to keep your spirit and your divine your divinity in front of us. The possible vessels of honor, help us to be diligent with our time, help us not waste time. 

Lord, I pray today, do something new for somebody. Expose and show yourself so that our faith can be strengthened and can be grown. Pray for wisdom as we make decisions, quality decisions, pray for wisdom. Pray for guidance when we lack wisdom, guidance. 

Send help when we need it. If we are contracts that are still hanging in the balance Cortina don’t send you just to push those things over. Thank you for your sovereign authority. Thank you for this family of believers and Lord now sanctify all of us.  

Thank you for giving us today's prayer. Father I Pray for the revelation of this day to come before us so that everything that we do, every step that we take want to shed your word onto it. Because the word says that word is the light unto thy feet, which means that Lord we cannot walk without your word.  

Because it is the light that we need. To see where we are stepping. So be with us as we step from here on until we lay in bed. And, Lord, I'm praying for this group, I’m praying for visions. I'm praying, Lord we're giving you permission to speak to us in dreams.  

Giving you permission or to give us vision. Spiritual encounters. Send angels on assignment. When it's all said and done we give glory back to You. Bless each and every single one of us in the name of our Lord Jesus. Christ, we pray, Amen