God's Presence

For the Christian, the life-giving blood of our spiritual existence begins, continues, and ends with prayer.

My Journey of Faith

Only a man who had given himself lifelong to the ministry of prayer could speak to it with the illumination and conviction as did Edward McKendree Bounds. From book 3, The Possibilities of Prayer, pg. 151.

We live in a world that is devoid of God's presence, that is, so far as fallen sinners are unwilling and unable to observe the living God. For this reason, the Bible states in Romans 11:33 & 36, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him [be] the glory forever. Amen." God created and has sustained His creation whether men believe it or not.

God's Presence In My Experience

The world's mindset is to call an excellent arrangement of circumstances serendipity. They were wanted but not sought after; therefore, they must have been an exceptional coincidence. To a born-again believer in Jesus Christ whose sins have been forgiven and God has become His Father through the death sacrifice of His Son, these things are providential.

As I sought to praise God while living in Cheverly, Maryland, fifteen minutes from Capital Hill Washington, DC, God moved me to take my prayer life to a higher level and bring others with me. In the last few months, God has been leading in the same way again. I have been reading from the Gospels to obtain a fresh understanding of Jesus Christ. I have returned to E.M. Bounds's book, The Possibilities of Prayer. At the same time, I have been reading The Valley of Vision and The Confessions of Saint Augustine. Mixing how these books fit with my thoughts, circumstances, and conversations in my brothers' and relatives' lives is either a heightened form of serendipity or God's presence has become exceedingly close.

God's Presence In My Prayers

A few quotes from page 195 are necessary. "To answer prayer is God's universal rule. It is His invariable, specific, and inviolate promise to answer prayer. The few denials to prayer in the Scriptures are the exceptions to the general rule, suggestive and startling by their fewness exception and emphasis." God's word does not say, "Call unto me, and you will thereby be trained into the happy art of knowing how to be denied. Ask, and you will learn sweet patience by getting nothing," Far from it. But it is definite, clear, and positive: "Ask, and it shall be given unto you."

I know how Edward's words sound in 21st-century America, having experienced such abuse by "faith ministers" for over 100 years. That being said, Satan uses The Will of God as a sledgehammer to destroy any belief that God answers prayers. Nonetheless, let us briefly understand what God means when He says, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." 1 John 5:14.

God does not answer the prayers of selfish, self-centered people who cling to the world as if there is no heaven or eternity. However, those who desire more than anything the saving of souls and the building of Christ's church by discipling young believers pray in the will of God. Therefore, they pray specifically and without limitations.

God's Presence As A Burning Fire

This year, someone very close to me came to Christ, and he wants his friends to come, too. For this reason, my prayer life has gone to another level again. During the last four years, I have been accosted by churches I have attended, fired from a ministry for telling the truth and confessing Christ, and made indignant by the manner and audacity of the man-made religious who confirm each other and care nothing for God's calling. God could not speak more clearly to me these days than Jeremiah 15:17, 19, "Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone, For You filled me with indignation. ...thus says the LORD, ...Before Me, you will stand; And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman. They, for their part, may turn to you, But as for you, you must not turn to them."

God's Presence in Prayer

A brother in the faith called with some serious physical problems. He has been to me as faithful, humble, and loving a brother as any man could desire. I have prayed for him and believe God desires specific prayers that He intends to answer. I know the harm some preachers have inflicted upon otherwise faithful people of God. Name it and claim it is evil in conservative churches. Nonetheless, what did Jesus mean by His explanation of prayer, and what it could accomplish?

"Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not drive it out?" 20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you." Matthew 17:19-20. The people who place the passage as a dispensation for the Apostles alone remove the power of prayer from God's people.

God's presence is meant to be seen by the world through God's people: their transformed lives, God-ordained faith, and prayers that God answered explicitly. The just shall live by faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. "The righteous man shall live by faith." Romans 1:17. "BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH, AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM." Hebrews 10:38

If you have never asked for the impossible and received it, you are missing out on the greatest joy. "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. 24 "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full." John 16:23-24.