Apprehending God

Prayers in Pursuit of God
Part 4 of a 11

O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8 (KJV)

How can we worship our Father when in truth we cannot comprehend even who He is? For most people our heavenly Father is and inference not a reality. Many say they know him but have only heard about him, from others, to them our heavenly Father is nothing but another name for goodness, or beauty, truth or nature, or He is some mystical force or even worst the cause of any event which we cannot explain. These people see Him this way because they do not know Him personally. The reality of an intimate relation with Him has never crossed their minds, while admitting He exist they will intellectually say He is not knowable, not as one person can know another.

For millions of Christians, our Heavenly Father is no more real than He is for non-believers; they attend church, bible study and prayer meeting without fail, yet find themselves trying to love the idea of God, and be loyal to the principle of God, because they are unable to perceive a personal relation with Our Father. Yet scripture and doctrine is clear that our heavenly Father, (God) can and should be personally experienced. The bible assumes with evidence of fact that men can know God with an intimacy that we know any other person. Yet most churches around the United States are filled with children of God, most of which can recite scripture perfectly, and intellectually comprehend any doctrine, but within them there is nothing alive which will apprehend the spiritual enough to know God personally.

So is God, our heavenly Father, really knowable? The bible tells us that He is. Just as we apprehend the physical world with our physical faculties (we see, hear, touch, taste and smell) we must apprehend God with spiritual faculties. Yet the spiritual faculties that are required to know God lie dead in the person of the unregenerate man, un-believers and Christians alike. These faculties have always been within us but have been dead because of unused.

It is unbelief, and lack of faith which makes so many children of God ignorant of the person of God. Faith that switch which turns on our spiritual faculties has been unused for most if not all of our lives, and unless we believe and have faith the spiritual faculties that we need to know God are rusted and defective.

Just as a blind man cannot admire a new painting, or a deft man cannot enjoy and musical symphony neither will a person that is numb and insensitive to the spiritual things ever know God personally. If only our physical faculties are working then only the things of this world is real. For the man who spiritual faculties have not been quicken (Romans 4:17, Romans 8:11, 1Peter 3:18 ) by Holy Spirit, God though that man speaks otherwise, can be understood only from another's experience of Him. For the man who spiritual faculties are dead God is but a idol in his mind, imaginary created out his own thoughts, and not any more real than leprechauns and unicorns.

However when Holy Spirit quickens your mortal body, the faculties which can apprehend God within us come to life. We see our Father not just as an idea or a principle but more real than anyone we can touch or see. Our way of thinking change from dependency on the visible to faith in the invisible, we began to focus on the things of the spirit greater than the things of the world. This is exceedingly difficult because our natural man hates the spiritual, so he fights to no avail against the knowledge of our Father. But to those that can hang the self upon the cross them only will move to obedience to Yehoshua. It is that obedient to Yehoshua which opens our eyes to the revelation of who the Father is, (John 14:21-23) Then we start of seek after God and He rewards us with a glimpse of Himself (Hebrews 11:6). But who can, once he has tasted the goodness of our Father turn back to this world? (Hebrews 6:4-6) So we only hunger even the more, a hunger which cannot be describe to the natural man. Like King David we can only encourage them to “Taste and see that the Lord is Good” (Psalm 34:8)

Let us pray;

Oh heavenly Father, quicken that which was once dead within me and allow me to apprehend You and all of heaven and everything which is eternal. Bring to life my spiritual faculties so that heaven more real and my relationship with You is personal than anything that I can touch, or feel, or see or taste or hear on this earth. Oh Abba open my spiritual eyes so I may see, spiritual ears that I may hear, give me a heart of flesh that I my feel You even the more personally. My God, my Father, my Savior let me spiritually know You, let me taste and see that You are good. In the Mighty Name of Jesus Amen

T.Charves FireSpeaks

Removing the Veil

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus - Heb. 10:19(KJV)

Prayers in Pursuit of God
Part 3 of a 11

Consider the tabernacle of the Old Testament while it stood only the high priest could enter. Drenched in blood he would push back the curtain and enter into the Holy of Holies. The blood was for the remission of sin, the lamb offering a sacrifice for the sins of his people and himself. Through the veil he passed into the holy place where no natural light could come, but the golden candlestick which spoke of Jesus the Light of the World. It was this veil that was permanently rend by the blood of Yehoshua[1] on the hill of Golgotha. It was this veil that open the way for every worshipper in the world walk directly into the presence of our Father.

Yet though the veil has been rend, not even one of us desires to be in His presence (Romans 3:11). Because being in his presence means giving up our self. The Passionate desire that once drove men like machines after the Father is now gone. Ignoble contentment takes the place of burning zeal. We are satisfied to rest on the piety of the salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. We boast at our craving for the creation yet cannot see our lack of desire for the creator.

Though this lack of desire for the Father is itself sin; the sin of self, self-righteousness, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, and self-love. This sin of self is openly taught in the modern church. And when given to authority the sin of self grows into egotism, exhibitionism, and self promotion all accepted behaviors of church leaders and pastors by modern standards.

Yet these teaching have no part of Yehoshua, neither can they. How can we magnify the self? Was it you or I which rend the curtain of the Holy of Holies by hanging on the cross at the hill of skulls, or was it Yehoshua? Which one of us that is able to save himself? If none of us can bring about salvation of our own self, then why do we seek salvation by our own hands? We must confess, forsake, repudiate the self-life, and then crucify it forever more.

Crucify your “self” on the cross, let it die there. The pain of the crucified self is great, but it will not hang on the cross forever. It will die, and will be taken down. And after it dies, in a little while comes the resurrection, then and the glory and power, and the pain which was, is replace with the Joy of the Lord. Then you will see that the veil has already been rent by the blood of Yehoshua, and you will find your way into the Holy of Holies that you might know the presence of our heavenly Father.

Let us Pray;

Oh Father; How excellent are Your ways and how devious and dark are my ways. Truly my most righteousness is as filthy rags before You, yet I have for so long depended on myself for my salvation. Father I pray that you would show me how to hang myself upon the cross, so that I may be resurrected in newness of life. Rend the veil of my self-life tear it from top to bottom as Christ did the veil of the temple at Golgotha. Let me come in confidence into the Holy of Holies. Let me dwell daily in Your presence, and make me accustomed to Your glory here on earth even as I shall be in heaven.
In the Mighty name of Jesus I pray Amen.

Your Brother in Christ
T.Charves FireSpeaks

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[1] This is the Hebrew name for Jesus or Joshua sometimes it is spelled Yehshua, Y’shua, or Yehoshua.

Be Careful for Nothing in Prayer

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6

Prayers in Pursuit of God
Part 2 of a 11

We come piously before our Father in prayer; saying those things we think we should pray, holding back the truth of our heart. Yet our Heavenly Father knows even the most secret things of our heart. And there is nothing which we can kept from Him. So we pray a lie, or we pray those things which are not our true desires, hopes, feelings, angers, and thoughts.

Though the Apostle Paul tells us “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God”, this is not a validation that our Father will fulfilling our every whim, but is given that we might come before our Father honestly. Just as a best friend whom we tell our deepest secrets, much greater must the revealing of our heart before our Father in prayer and supplication. We must be careful to hold back nothing in prayer and supplication, because there is always anxiety in a relationship where there is no honesty, where only part of the truth is spoken.

For what gain is that when we are careful what we say in prayer? Just as a cheating husband that has already been found by his wife, the Father already knows the things we hold back prayer. And just as the wife sees the words of her husband as a lie, the Father hold our prayers in contempt because we are not honest, because we hold back the truth of our heart.

Let us then pray

Father I hold on to those things which are of no value, even when I come before You, it is difficult to be honest with my feelings, my desire, my hopes and my anger. So when I come before you in prayer I am careful not to reveal the secrets of my heart. However, Father these things which I fail to bring before You cause me great anxiety in my daily life and in holding on to them I am being deceitful in my relation with You.
Please dear Father forgive me for my dishonesty in prayer, forgive me for holding back, what you already know. Father root out those things that I have tried to hold from You; rip the hidden things from my heart so that You may take dwelling there without rival. Then Your light will so shine in me, that there shall be no darkness in my heart.
This I pray in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen

Your Brother in Christ
T.Charves FireSpeaks