Friday, June 27, 2008
How To Hear God - The Secret to Answered Prayer
Have you ever felt like God wasn't answering your prayers?
Do you know how to pray in a way that gets answers?
Being able to hear God clearly is a key to lining your life up with God's plans and living productively.
Jesus didn't do anything without hearing from the Father first; hearing God is an important key to getting your prayers answered.
Secrets To Answered Prayer - How To Get your Prayers Answered
God Does Answer Prayer
If you want to see more answered prayer you first need to truly believe that God wants to give you the desires of your heart. He loves you and wants you to have faith that what He says is true. He wants you to agree with Him - how can two walk together unless they be agreed?
Do you believe God when He says that He will reward those who seek Him? The Bible makes it clear that God will hear and answer your prayers when you come to Him in faith:
"Ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Don't let that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord" James 1:6-7
Without faith it is impossible to please God
Do you pray and ask God for something without really believing that He will answer your prayer? If you believe that God will only answer your prayers if you pray in a certain way, you need to think again. Answered prayer is not about any formula you might use, it's simply about having faith in a loving God and praying in the way that He leads you.
Obstacles To Answered Prayer
There are things that can hinder your prayers. One of those things is getting too focused on how you think God should answer your prayer. When you do that you can be the obstacle to having your prayer answered. God does answer your prayer but He doesn't always choose to answer in the way you expect Him to.
Something else that can get in the way of answered prayer is unwillingness to forgive other people. If you harbour unforgiveness you block God from answering your prayers.
Another obstacle to answered prayer is praying your own will without any htought to what God wants in teh situation. Answered prayer idepends on lining your will up with God's will.
Do you ask God how He wants you to pray?
Do you listen to see what God's will is before you begin to pray?
How To Get Your Prayers Answered
The next time you pray, try asking God to show you how to pray first. When you've heard God and know His will you will be able to pray in faith, knowing that He will give you what you ask for.
The Bible gives lots of guidelines for how to pray. If you follow God's instructions you will have your prayers answered. But if you ignore God's directions don't be surprised if your prayers remain unanswered.
When you are willing to do things God's way you will see amazing answers to prayer.
If you'd like to hear God more clearly, check out my new immediately downloadable step by step guide to hearing God
How To Hear God
I've kept the price low for now because I want to make it easy for you to have the keys to hearing God more clearly.
A Renewed You
I also have a very affordable 16 week coaching program delivered by email.
If you would like someone alongside while you transform your life but don't want the expense of one to one coaching, this is for you. Take a look and see if this is what you have been looking for to help you get unstuck.
You can get started in minutes - click here for details of A Renewed You
Friday, June 20, 2008
Awake O Sleeper and Christ Will Shine On You.
Spiritual Drowsiness
Just because we walk and talk does not mean we are truly awake. Zechariah was not sleeping when an angel roused him "as a man who is awakened from his sleep" Zechariah 4:1
Perhaps we too need to be shaken from our slumber to possess the promises of God! Amazingly, in spite of all the signs, wonders, and warnings announcing that we are truly in the last days, Jesus also said there is a mysterious drowsiness that we have to overcome. Indeed, immediately after highlighting the various evidences of the end (see Matthew 24), He compares the Church to virgins who "all got drowsy and began to sleep" Matthew 25:5
Virgins sleeping at the end of the age: this seems incomprehensible with all the signs in the Heavens and wonders upon the earth, not to mention the increasing presence of Christ. Yet this phenomenon is something we each battle: the tendency to become spiritually drowsy and lose our focus as we wait for the Lord's return.
There is a subtle activity of the enemy that dulls our perception and seduces our zeal. Our vision takes a backseat to other less important aspects of life. From the beginning, the voice of satan has had this lulling effect on mankind. Eve's excuse for disobedience was, "The serpent hath caused me to forget" Genesis 3:13
This sense of spiritual forgetfulness, of drowsiness, is the cloud of blindness that we each must discern and overcome. It was in regard to this that the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart through the following dream.
"If You Want Your Dream to Come True, You Have to Wake Up"
There was a temple standing in an open field. My view of the temple was from its side, about 200 yards away. I could not see its front, yet it must have been completely open because great light flashed out from the inside; it pulsed like lightning, yet was solid like sunlight. The block of light issued straight out, and I knew this light was the glory of God.
The temple was so close that I knew that with a little effort I could enter the glory of God. His holy presence was clearly within my reach. There were also others directly in front of me that I recognized as people from church. Everyone seemed very busy. And while the temple and its light were visible and readily accessible to all, every head was bent downward and turned away from the light; each was occupied with other things.
I heard one person say, "I have to do laundry." Another said, "I have to go to work." I could see people reading newspapers, watching televisions, and eating. I was sure everyone could see the light if they wanted to - even more sure that we all knew His glory was near.
There were even a few people reading the Bible and praying, but everyone maintained the downward thrust of their gaze; each had a mental barrier of some kind between themselves and the place of God's presence. No one, in fact, seemed capable of standing up, turning, and steadfastly walking into the very near glory of God.
As I watched, suddenly my wife lifted her head and beheld the temple in the field. She stood and walked without pausing toward the open front. As she drew closer to the light, a garment of glory formed and thickened around her; the closer she went, the more dense the light surrounding her became until she stepped in front of the temple and turned completely toward the blazing face of God.
Oh! How jealous I felt. My wife had entered the glory of God before me! At the same time I realized that there was nothing stopping me from approaching God's presence - nothing except the pile of things to do and responsibilities that, in truth, ruled my life more than the voice of God.
Pushing the weight of these pressures from me, I determined to rise and enter the temple myself. But, to my great regret, in my dream as I rose up, I suddenly woke up!
The longing and disappointment within me seemed unbearable. I had been so close to entering God's presence. How I wanted to enter the temple and be swallowed up in His glory!
I cried, "Lord, why did You let me wake up?"
Instantly, the word of the Lord responded to my cry. He said, "I will not have My servant's life fulfilled by a dream. If you want your dream to come true, you have to wake up."
Breaking Passivity - Setting Priorities
Beloved, today, God is awakening us to the reality of His presence. The promises the Lord gives us in the Scriptures must become more to us than dream-like realities only reserved for the hereafter. Moses frequented the glory of God! Israel's seventy elders ate and drank in God's resplendent glory (see Exodus 24:9-11). Jesus unveiled God's glory on the Mount of Transfiguration! Paul says that we all can behold the glory of God and be transformed by it, 2 Corinthians 3:18
For this reason, the Scripture says, "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Ephesians 5:14). If we truly want Christ to "shine" upon us, we must arise from the distractions that entomb us in lethargy and spiritual darkness.
Right at this moment, the presence of the living God is near enough to hear the whisper of your heart. But if we want our dream of standing in the presence of God to come true, we must wake up.
Copyright Francis Frangipane
Monday, June 16, 2008
Heaven and Hell Are Real - watch this amazing video of one man's brush with hell and experience of heaven
His story is compelling and well worth the nearly ten minutes it will take you to watch.
It's truly amazing! I hope watching it encourages you to look with spiritual eyes and come to appreciate the reality of the spirtual realm.
The man here died as a result of a plane accident and was on his way to hell. But the amazing grace of God gave him the opportunity to cry out to God to save him.
God did save him and he's sharing his experience of and heaven and hell. Heaven is real. Listen to this compelling story and be blessed.