Tuesday, May 3, 2016

You Don't Pray - Maybe You Don't Understand What Jesus Did And Is Doing So You Can?

My Utmost For His Highest
 
…having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus… —Hebrews 10:19
 
“Beware of thinking that intercession means bringing our own personal sympathies and concerns into the presence of God, and then demanding that He do whatever we ask. Our ability to approach God is due entirely to the vicarious, or substitutionary, identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.”  […] Vicarious intercession means that we deliberately substitute God’s interests in others for our natural sympathy with them. Am I stubborn or substituted? Am I spoiled or complete in my relationship to God? Am I irritable or spiritual? Am I determined to have my own way or determined to be identified with Him?” CHAMBERS
 
Think about this.  Because of Jesus, we have the right to enter into the very presence of God, the Father.  On our own we could not bear it.  Our sin … our fallibilities would be the end of us.  Yet, Jesus was the sin offering poured out on the mercy seat, once for all time.  His sacrifice satisfied the wrath of God.  We can stand in the Holy of Holies because of the blood of Jesus.  People don’t really like to talk about that much.  They would prefer to think of Jesus as the kind shepherd, holding a little lost lamb tightly in his arms.  When in fact He is the victorious savoir with his arms out stretched on a cross. And yet in Mark 15:37-38 it says “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”  What curtain?  The curtain that separated the holy of holies from the holy place.  (Hebrews 9:2-4) The place where the Shekinah glory dwelt.  The place where the blood offering was poured out on the mercy seat that sat on the Ark of the covenant on the day of atonement by the High Priest.
 
It is that place that we have gained entry because of Jesus.  Do not take your privilege lightly.  Jesus stands at the right hand of God as our eternal high priest making intercession for us. (Hebrews 7:24-27) “but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.  Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”  And the Spirit who is each of us, prays for us.  (Romans 8:26-27) “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” So why on earth or in heaven would we treat prayer as such a small priority in our lives? ELGIN
 
It’s me, it’s me oh Lord standing in the need of prayer.
 
Charley Elgin

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