Changing the Mind of God

I've wrestled with the concept of changing God's mind for a while and was somewhat confused about this until I realized that it is not The FATHER that Changes, After all our FATHER is Immutable and therefore never changing. 

Malachi 3:6 God Declares “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” 

Here we see that by his own word that The FATHER does not change. So what does it mean when it says that God repented or changed His mind?

First, when we think about immutability we should not think that God does something this way and only this way, but just as a father or mother may treat all their children equally they may not treat them all the same. For some children, a stern look is an acceptable discipline, for others harsh words, and even others Proverbs 23:14 (Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.)

Likewise, The FATHER is the same God never changing in his desires for man. In his awesomeness, he may have to do some things to bring us into a correction. Just as a child if playing in the supermarket get out of control his/her parent may say "If you don't stop I will spank your behind" THE HEAVENLY FATHER may have to impose what may appear to us as harsh punishments if our actions continue. (Give me a second I'm going somewhere with this.)

Now the written Word of The FATHER says that The FATHER knows the hearts of man ACTS 15:8 so when a man, Moses or Abraham, David, you or even I, come to our HEAVENLY FATHER in prayer saying Merciful God does not do what you said you would do! The Holy Spirit searches our heart and knows if our request is effectual and fervent if our request is contrite and the actions of The FATHER are determined by the contriteness of our repentance toward The FATHER.

For the simple mind of man this may appear that THE FATHER has represented or is even mutable, but in fact, what has happened is that our repentance from our sin did not dictate in the Eyes of THE FATHER what may have appeared as negative repercussions.

I once heard a pastor say after losing his son to drugs and violence, God has taken everything away, all the distractions that stop me from living my life totally for him. His spiritual knowledge and understanding of how THE FATHER does what is needed to bring us to a level of spiritual maturation were profound even in his time of mourning for his son he realized that God allowed what had happened to happen so that The FATHER could bring him to a higher place, and He could live up to the full potential that God had for him.

Can God Answer a Prayer for
Something Outside of His Will?

Again we are creatures of limited minds and thoughts and therefore we perceive the will of THE FATHER by our own terms. To keep it simple God will not answer prayers for something outside the scope of his will. In doing so THE FATHER would not be the immutable being that the Scripture says that He is. The flaw is that man with a limited understanding has thought because God says thou shall not kill and later tells King Saul to kill all the Amalekites that The FATHER contradicts himself. This is however a misconception because the immutability of God is that he does what he does for the best interest of his Children. Always.

This may seem hard to swallow but think about this. The FATHER who is always just acknowledged to mankind that all sin must be punished and paid for with blood. therefore because of His immutability, toward justice and man's inability to give good sacrifices, decided within GOD'self "I will manifest myself in flesh, take on the form of sin but being perfect and without sin and though innocent will be propitiation for the sins of the world." So that man may by the name of my son Jesus Christ return back to me unto salvation.

Your Brother in Christ
T. Charves FireSpeaks

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 Filling our Mouths with Arguments 

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Praying the Promises of God

Praying the promises of God is what we are so often told to do, but in reality most Christian are much too timid to even come to our Heavenly Father with anything but reverence to the Father’s Greatness. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that we should not honor and have reverence for our Father, nor I’m saying come to the Father as if we were His “Running buddies” What I’m saying is that we should know how to boldly pray with arguments and supplications.

For years we have been told to just pray, but I don’t remember even once anyone giving me instructions on what I should say, or even how I should present my request before the Father. No wonder we live in a world today where prayer is an afterthought even for the “devout” Christian. We have regulated prayer to nothing more than a last minute act of desperation to get something, anything to happen in our favor.

Romans 12:12 (TNIV) tells us to: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.” This statement is a very simple when dissecting the meaning of the verse, it gives us physical instructions to prayer.

So how do we be joyful in hope when we pray? What does it take to be patient in affliction while waiting on answers to prayers? And of course what does faithful in prayer mean? The simplicity of Romans 12:12 is almost shocking. The first two questions are simple; we learn God’s promises and pray them. Here is a excerpt from a previous blog on my FireSpeaks Blog which give a perfect example of how to pray God’s promises.

Sometimes the greatest argument toward God in prayer is God's own promise. When Esau was coming toward Jacob at the brook of Jabbak in Genesis 32:11-12 Jacob prayed that God would deliver him from the hands of his brother, on the foundation of the promise that God had made to his grandfather Abraham. Remembering that the promise to Abraham would have to be manifested from his (Jacobs) bloodline, since he had received the blessing of his father Isaac, Jacob held God to God's word saying "It is through me that you would full-fill the promise that you made to my grandfather Your Servant Abraham," deliver me and I will make my grandfather's seed like the multitude of the sand. (Soli Deo Gloria)

When we come before the Father with sound arguments that have their origin in our Father’s Promises, we can be sure our prayers are heard. In Isaiah 41:21 our Father demands that we come before him with arguments; in Numbers 23:19 we read that our Father does not lie. So if He says he will, he will! Now if you knew that you prayer was in line with the desire of the one that created the universe; the one with omnipotent power; omniscience in all knowledge and understanding; and there was a promised made by Him our Heavenly Father, that He would do as He says, would you not have joyful hope of the fulfillment of the promise? Would you not be able to patiently endure the afflictions of this world knowing that your time will come because this has been promised to you by our Father?

Now before we can pray the promises of the Father we must first know the promises, and the only way to do that is to read the bible. Hosea 4:6

The last part of that verse is “faithful in prayer” the Word of the Father in Luke 18:1 tell us to never give up praying, to be diligent in prayer even when circumstances look contrary to our supplication. That we can have victory though Jesus Christ by our obedience, and the understanding that prayer is not a privilege of the saints but a responsibility of the saints. Therefore let us take our responsibility to God seriously with diligence and knowledge of the promises of our Father.

Soli Deo Gloria

Spiritual Vindication

 By Soli Deo Gloria

Spiritual Vindication
praying until the burden is gone

Well you knew it was coming, eventually I would be back talking about prayer. This installment though is a little different in that I'm trying to give you a different reason to pray. Not because you should, (and you should) not because it will build a better relationship with God. None of that is the motivation of this blog. This blog addresses suggest that you pray because… well if I tell you, you wouldn’t read the blog would you? Let us get started. 

Prayer for me was very difficult at first; now I pray even when I have no idea what to pray about,   I pray. (Romans 8:26 ) But it was not always that way. I had to study to show my approved to God. I had to learn how to pray and nothing has been more enlightening than Matthew 26:36-46 ( in blue below) in this prayer I found not just how to pray but some of the power that came with prayer. Let’s go over it for a moment and see.

Matthew 26:36-46 (KJV) Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

In the above verse we see that Jesus prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane at which time, when his prayers were heard he stopped praying. Now this does not mean that we should pray to God three times and stop but it teaches us that we should pray until we know God has heard our prayer.

I once heard a minister say that he prays until he gets a stop from God, a feeling from God that his prayer has been heard. Sometimes that stop take only a moment, sometimes it takes years to get that stop. But each time he gets that stop, he knows God has answered his prayers

2 Corinthians 12:8 "I besought the Lord trice that it might depart form me"

What is being given to us here is the instruction that we should pray until we are confidence in what God's will is concerning the situation for which we are praying. We should pray until the burden of the situation has been removed!

In his book "Powerful According to God" Watchman Nee suggest that even in prayer meeting (corporate prayer) we pray one for the same thing until all are confident in God's will concerning a particular thing.

Let's assume for clarity of subject that Sister Jones is sick, we should not assume that since one member has already prayed for Sister Jones that there is no need to pray for her yourself. Sometimes we say within ourselves that since Brother Smith has prayed and I am in agreement with him there is no need for me to likewise pray for her. But it is very important to understand that there most be a contrite heart in prayer and it is that burden (need that only God and fulfill) that is on your heart that brought you to prayer in the first place. (See my blog concerning prayer to tears.) This being so we pray until we have released that burden which brought us to prayer. In this case our compassion for Sister Jones' health, and then we can say confidently that God has heard our prayer.

Let’s think on the judge which is sought by the widow to avenger her against her enemy Luke 18:1 Why does he avenger her? Was it for justice, or for her righteousness? No the judge says to himself I will avenger lest she wears me out from continual coming.

There is real power in this parable in that it gives perfect instructions in our to pray for answers. You see when that Judge said to the women "I will avenge you" her burden was removed. She no longer had to come to the judge for that problem with her enemy. The judge had removed the burden of getting what was rightfully her possessions.

In Luke 18:7 Jesus says "…and shall not God avenge his elect that cry to him day and night"? This is instruction to pray continually, because in that we are accusing our enemy before God (I'm going to use this word again) continually! And we must take this mindset because you can believe that the enemy is before God continually to accuse us of our transgressions.

Revelation 12:10 (KJV) And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night

When we come before God concerning our circumstances we are exercising spiritual vindication for all that the devil does to us.  Therefore as the devil accusess us before God so must we seek vindication against him before our heavenly Father. And it cant be a single prayer and never thought of again, we must make our argument befor the judge of the universe against our enemy until God avenges us for what satan has done. 

Therefore oppose the devil before God , with prayer and supplication until God says to you I will avenge you for what the enemy has done. Pray until you are confident that God has heard you and all your worry will be gone. So that when the Judge of the universe has spoke to you , you can be confident of the victory that is to come.

Other Post on Spiritual Vindication

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Your Brother in Christ
T.Charves FireSpeaks

Why We Should Keep a Prayer Journal!

 Exodus 17:14-15 (KJV) ¹⁴ And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. ¹⁵ And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi: 

When I think of Prayer Journal the first thing that comes to mind is the above verse form Exodus 17 chapter. It gives clear instruction for keeping record of God’s dealing with us.

I have heard people over and over say they keep records of their spiritual growth through a prayer journal, and others say they keep record of God fulfillment of prayers in a prayer journal, all of these are very admirable but if you ever come to my house you will find many years of prayer journals in the book shelves. My bookshelves are filled with little marble notebooks that record everything from how I felt when I prayed, to my actual record of prayer, and even instances of God speaking to me, through revelation, dreams, or other encounters.

But if we can go back just a little to the end of verse 14 of Exodus chapter 14 you will read God’s reason for us keeping record.“Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua; for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”

See the real reason for a prayer journal is as an Ebenezer of God’s promise to you. What has god promised me? This may seem a bit confusing for many people “they say God hasn’t promised me anything” there is a reason, you have spoke with him enough!, you haven’t read and studied his word. You haven’t had any real dealing with God and so you have no idea what God’s promise to you is.

Now don’t get me wrong you can find many of God’s promises in the bible but you prayer journal is for your personal revelations of God’s promises.

It’s so you can go back over these promises and see where you stand with God, it’s your record of what God wants from you, and for you. Anyone that says that a Prayer journal is about their spiritual growth is forgetting the simplest thing it’s not about them; it has to be about God always.

Then it is the knowledge of this information (past promises and dealings that God has with us through past prayer) that we later use for the composing of arguments in (future) prayer. Isaiah 41:21 says “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.”  When we can compose argument in prayer that is founded in our past dealing with God this prayer has meaning to you and God, it become personal in that it moves you (and God) this is the real spirit of a Fervent Prayer .

So am I saying that we can only have fervent prayer by keeping a prayer journal? Of course not, what I’m saying that those that keep a prayer journal, are more likely to have prayer from a contrite and sorrowful heart, by keeping a prayer journal you are bale to go back and see how God has dealt with you (revelation) concerning past issues and get a better understanding of how God will deal with you in future.

So start keeping a prayer journal for 30 days, record not just your prayers but also your answers, your trials, your thoughts and feeling and I promise you after about 30 day you will have developed a deeper relationship with God than you ever thought was possible.

So write the things of God in a book and rehears them in your ears to know how God is dealing with you.

Soli Deo Gloria


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