How Do I Enter In And Receive God’s Presence & Healing More Deeply In And Through Intercessory Prayer ?
Chef’s Menu For Today
Protection and Thanksgiving Prayer of surrender to Bow before Jesus our Lord
I Thank you Lord Jesus that you have given me authority in Your name to:
Close the Eyes of the Watchers,
Stop their Ears, Gag their Mouths and Turn their faces Away.
I declare there will be No Retaliation, Payback or Revenge,
No Accident, Infirmity or Calamity,
No Mischief, Hinderance, Confusion or Witchcraft to come against me, my children and family, relationships, ministry, property, computers and vehicles,
In Jesus Name.
I declare no weapon forged against me/us shall prosper, I/ we remain hidden under the Shelter of Your wings Lord, in the cleft of the Rock, under Your hand of Protection in all Your Promises of Ps 91.
I take refuge in You Lord at Your Banqueting Table in the midst of enemies, and I refute every word curse or accusation coming against me as this is my vindication as your son/ daughter, as You are the Most High God and my Good Good Father; I thank you that my righteousness is Your gift of Yourself indwelling me by Your Spirit through your divine exchange at the cross. (Isa 54:17)
I declare that I will live and not die prematurely, (Eph 2:10, Ps 118:14-18 ) even though You chasten me. As I surrender to You, You will cause me to walk in Your paths of Righteousness for Your Names sake Ps 23 – all the days of my life that You have written in my book of life, and I thank you for Your grace and gift of Faith in me to inspire me to persevere and to focus my eyes onto You(Ps 139:14-16).
I choose to Honour You as my Lord and the Shepherd of my soul. I Receive Your Blessings of Love and Life forever more in abundance by the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling me (Ps 23).
As I abide in You and Your Word and Love abides in me Lord Jesus, I Praise and thank you that You Lead me into all Truth and to discern my inner most parts as You cleanse, purge, heal and purify my heart and put Your Right Spirit within me to Restore the Joy of Your salvation to my life (Ps 51).
I surrender my heart, mouth, mind and mental attitudes under Your mighty hand for Your strengthening, establishing and stabilising me, often through suffering; for Your Glory to be revealed.
I thank you that You turn all things to good for those who love You and are called and predestined to walk according to Your Purpose which is to conform me to Your image and likeness of Your Character, to manifest Your humble, compassionate, generous, righteous, joy-filled nature. Rom 8:28-29
You are my merciful Lord, Shepherd, Saviour, Bridegroom and King and I chose to Bless You my Lord with all my soul and all that is within me. I Bless Your Holy Name, and forget not ALL Your benefits: Who forgives all my iniquities and heals all my diseases (Ps 103:1-5), Who redeems my life from destruction, Who crowns me with Loving Kindness and Tender Mercies, Who satisfies my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the Eagle’s. Thank you for Your nearness and Presence in me; I Love you Lord Jesus and am covered by You.
Prayer for Spiritual Strength – Ephesians 3:14-21 KJV
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen.
Ima Odutola from: Light and Grace Ministries
To Listen to Ima’s Prayer on “He Makes All Things New” via YouTube: Click Here
Scripture reference:
Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
A Prayerful Meditation with Olivia Helmore
New Wine and Oil Meditation
Receiving the Lord’s Remedy for our Shame
Walking with our Father in the Garden, we will find Rest for our Souls…
We are going to invite you into the garden of your heart, where you can walk with God in the heat of the day, find shade, rest, and discover the wisdom of God towards you in the hurting places of your heart which need healing.
God revealed Himself to us as the Father through sending His Son Jesus. This is how we know the heart of God towards us in all things. God doesn’t look at the outward appearance but sees our heart. Just as He is inviting us to dwell with Him in the shade of the garden of our heart, He is also inviting us to “step out of the boat” like Peter.
To do the Impossible, we look to the Son
Peter was coming to the revelation of Jesus as the promised Son of God. When the disciples saw Jesus walking on water to where He had promised to meet them, they were filled with fear – and even believed it was a ghost! Even if they desired to follow this One, who was revealing Himself to them as the Son of God through all His words and works, how could they expect to follow the One to whom creation bowed?
How could they expect to subdue creation when they were sons of Adam, whose sin meant man now laboured in frustration? Yet Peter, who dared to step out of the boat, did not do the impossible – walking on water himself – because of his own ability, but rather through looking to the Son. We do not rely on our own character to reform the ways of our heart. We turn to the One who has seen us all along, known our inward parts, and we believe for Him to restore us.
God’s Will for us: Dependence and Maturity
When Eve had partaken of the thing the Master Gardener had forbidden, Adam too believed another report to God’s and took part in Eve’s sin. In not referring to God’s wisdom before responding to Eve, he misjudged that he needed to resolve the situation alone. God has never expected that we should know how to live apart from Him; that we should know His wisdom apart from knowing Him.
He knew that we were lost; that we need to encounter a Father. He knew the depths of our hearts, understood the problem, and took compassion on us in our weakness. Therefore, He sent the Son, who depended on the Father for every word and work. In Jesus’ dependence on the Father, He showed us the measure of dependence on Him we are allowed; that He expects.
Though He provides the wisdom to restore our hearts, and expects us to receive, having nothing to bring in exchange for this wisdom except our faith and trust, His purpose for us is also to mature in our faith. We can only receive the kingdom in coming as children, receiving good things from our Father, in faith. And when we receive His true word to restore the brokenness in our heart, He also raises us up to stand as mature sons and daughters, leading others to the Father, doing the thing that we have seen Jesus do for us. He receives us in our brokenness and restores us to the Father.
God calls our Shame out of Hiding
When God searched for Adam in the garden, Adam hid. When God found him, he pointed the finger at God, and then at Eve. Because God has purposed us to walk in dignity as sons and daughters of the Kingdom, He wants us to understand that our faithlessness – our failure to walk in His ways – are not the measure of our future.
Shame is a difficult emotion. Adam and Eve experienced shame when they saw that they were naked, and this painful awareness of their vulnerability in the world came because of their stepping outside of God’s word of protection for them. Their shame reflects our experience as children, when we discover there are more dangers in the world than we know how to shield ourselves from.
What is your experience of shame? Do you remember at what age you first began to feel it? In shame, there is often a sense of extreme vulnerability to others’ judgement, and a sense something has gone deeply wrong.
What is God’s pattern for dealing with our shame?
In God’s pattern of dealing with the secret places of our heart, He doesn’t expose our pain just to leave us there. Rather, He meets us in the secret places of our heart in order to lead us back to the Father.
Remember, we are not depending on our own faithfulness to restore our hearts. God always intended for us to rely on His character, and His words; to receive Him everyday as the means to overcome the challenges we face, inward or outward.
Our part is to believe in what He has revealed of Himself, of His heart towards us, in the Son. Our part is faith. Our part is to trust Him; to look towards Him, like Peter, and do what He says. Jesus did not come for the healthy, but the sick.
Recognising there are places in our heart which still need healing is the first step. Such an important first step. We need His help for every part in this process. In some measure, it is incredibly challenging for so many of us. We need God’s help just to trust that He has seen and loved the places in our heart we feel the most shame.
Making Room for Jesus’ Healing Answer
We invite you now to believe that God will meet you in these places. We invite you now to get in a quiet place and ask yourself: what feelings of shame could I bring to the Father now? What feelings of shame in my heart do I need to encounter the wisdom and love of Jesus? Whether you have carried these feelings for a very long time or a very short time, we invite you to make room for those places in your heart.
We invite you to make some room in your heart, however much you feel ready to in this moment, to receive the healing word of Jesus, restoring you to the Father, who knows and loves us in our weakness. His Word is our protection from the many visible and invisible dangers we may encounter in the world.
Now, wherever you’ve landed in making room in your heart to dare to trust Jesus’ word to you in your brokenness, let’s go to Him for our medicine. Let’s look at Jesus’ remedy for our shame.
Encountering Jesus in our Shame
Peter had denied Jesus three times before He died on the cross. Now Jesus was alive again, meeting His disciples in the flesh. What was Peter feeling? Was there a place in his heart which didn’t know if Jesus could really forgive him the shame of the sin he carried?
Jesus addressed Peter directly: “do you love me?” “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” “Then feed my sheep”. We know Peter had already been convicted of his sin. But was he confident that Jesus found him worthy of being trusted again?
Jesus’ remedy for Peter’s shame was healing through action, walking by faith. Jesus was inviting Peter again to overcome, not through relying on himself, but looking to Jesus, receiving the identity of sonship through the true word of Jesus over him. Though Peter had been unfaithful, Jesus knew Peter could be restored to the Father through encountering the Son.
The Lord knew Peter’s heart already. Yet He engaged him in a conversation. For every time that Peter had denied Jesus, Jesus spoke a better word over Peter. He was speaking into Peter’s heart and identity, giving him a place of dignity and purpose in the family of God.
Restored to the Father through Faith in the Son
It is only through encountering Jesus in our hearts we will have good reason to entrust our hearts for healing to the Father; we know what the Father is like through the Son. Jesus’ remedy for our sickness, the shame of our sin, which makes us want to hide, from ourselves, from others, and from God, is to encounter us with the challenge of faith; of believing that as we look to Him, we overcome, not from our own strength or righteousness, but through His love and truth we receive directly from Jesus through His Holy Spirit.
We invite you now to make room for Jesus to encounter your heart and make room for the gift of faith He will give you, as you ask Him. Our part is faith. He knows all things; He knows Himself and is faithful to His Word. He knows that He will cause the smallest seed of faith to multiply and bring many sons and daughters to faith through hearing the Word.
May you know that He is able, and that you are able as you look to Him. He is the Author and Finisher of your faith. May you know the heart of the Father through the Son in every hurting place. May you receive the true Word of the Father and the Son over you. May you know that He is your Father, and through the Son, you are holy, accepted, and beloved.
Ps Jeff’s Special Today: “Prayerlessness”
Our first apostles prayed continually. Acts 6:4 says: ” ..but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
This follows Jesus’ pattern: ” He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer. ” (Luke 6:12).
However, being honest with yourself and your Holy Spirit, do you resist prayer in any way? Are you “leaning on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5)? Is there even a residue of something blocking prayer to Almighty God continually? God bless you as you seek His Holy Spirit Wisdom on that issue.
May you go forward on His path, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
