" IF MY PEOPLE . . . "   ---  Practical Solutions to the World Order

by Fritz Springmeier
July 10, 2003


Today's message from God's Word deals with identifying solutions to major global problems, the kind of solutions which our eyes aren't seeing and our ears aren't hearing. If we  want God to attend to our prayers, we improve our prayer power by learning to hear our fellow man in everyday life.
" If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. " 2 CHR 7:14
" If my people "...humility...prayer...repentence...pay attention to God face to face...then our land will be healed...interesting! Here are the mechanics of success!
Unfortunately, because the Bride drank too much of the harlot's wine of fornication during our spiritual births, we are spiritually retarded when it comes to carrying out these powerful and straight forward instructions of the living God.
Prayer? How do we reach a God our minds can't comprehend and our eyes can't see? How do we pray to a God our senses can't perceive? We must cease praying with our minds and use our hearts. When prayers are from the mind and not the heart, they are merely lip service.
" For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. " 2 CHR 16:9
When God tells us to serve Him with our entire heart (Deut 11:13) it was a call for us to pray to Him. Prayer is the language of the heart, not the mind.
What is interesting is that each part of these mechanics of success (genuine humility, prayers from the heart, repentence for disobeying God, and paying attention to our Lord and Creator) lead us to the other parts. Likewise, the Spirit leads us to the Word, which leads us to the Spirit, and then back to the Word, and so on. The parts work together and will be discovered together.
" You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. " LK 10:27 (cf: MK12:28-33, ROM 13:9, & GAL 5:14).
When we repent from disobedience to God, that repentence translates into us loving God with all our heart. It will also mean we will follow His Golden Rule (to love our neighbor as ourself). If one loves his fellow man that in itself stops theft, murder and other crimes of spiritual lawlessness. Loving God with all one's heart (means a good prayer life) and loving our neighbor as oneself will develop the social and communication skills to have that good prayer life with God.
For if we can't communicate with and love our fellow man who we can see, how will we do so with God who we can't see or mentally understand or perceive with our senses?
" He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. " While some of the spiritually blind mistakenly see prayer as a wish list for a heavenly Santa, true prayer is about knowing God, which is a personal relationship with a living loving Creator.
" No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us...And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him...If someone says, ' I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he has not seen?" 1JN 4:12,16,20
Let's examine some practical things we can do everyday that will improve our prayer life with God, so we can have the power of God in our lives to challenge the Beast system. These practical everyday things will be seen to be relationship and communication skills with the people around us.
If we want God to reapond to our requests, then the Word of God says to ask in line with His will. (cf: MT 6:10, JH 4:34, COL 1:9,10) " And this is the confidence we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us." 1 JN 5:14
This is the same with our fellowman. We must appeal to our fellowman in terms of their own interests. When we talk to a person in authority, do we ask something that is meaningful enough for he or she to pay attention?
God is interested in our spiritual growth (such as positive changes, holiness, and spiritual productivity). Do our prayers appeal to His interests such as our spiritual growth? We can improve our ability to appeal to God by learning the same skill when we learn to appeal to the needs of others in our requests.
One vital ability displayed by popular socially-adept people-persons is the ability to let go and just be oneself. In order to do that, they must leave behind fears of who they are. A popular short person has probably come to accept his shortness and use it as an asset. Are we afraid to look at ourselves? If so, then our prayer life to God suffers from our shallow phoniness. God may not respond to us in hopes we will take an honest look at ourselves when we face Him. In fact, He may refuse our prayer requests in hopes our troubles motivate us to introspection.
And this ties in with the next tip. God will draw near to us if we're likeminded to Him. Have you ever noticed how two likeminded strangers at a party will hone in on each other like they had radar. Two rebellious teenagers will locate each other in a heart beat. In nature, two similar animals (for instance rabbits) will locate each other in the midst of many other things. If we want to find God, we need to be like Him, and He'll spot us instantly, and in turn we'll spot the hand of God in our own lives. God says He searches the world for hearts perfect toward Him. (2 CHRON 16:9)
A perfect heart is a praying heart. A praying heart is a communicating heart. A communicating heart is one that has the skills of communicating; and the people in our lives are the perfect place to develop and practice those communicating skills of love.
We nourish our relationship with our spouse, family and friends by having a grateful heart and showing appreciation for what they do. A typical side effect of poor communication and poor appreciation is a build up of resentment.
So we learn from this that we nourish our relationship to God by a grateful heart and lavish lasting praise. People who don't communicate with each other often develop animosities and begin a cycle of being blind to the positive traits and good acts of the other party. People who don't have good prayer lives do the same to God.
You probably know people who won't admit or notice the good things (blessings) of God. Did you realize that this is perhaps due to a poor prayer life?
Trust is the foundation of all human communication. In 1 COR 13 it tells us that in loving our fellow man we are to "believe all things, hope all things." In other words, extend trust to our fellow man. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that trust in God is essential to communicate with Him.
We are created with a built-in need to communicate with people and God. Mankind has a universal need to worship. Mankind doesn't always find what it needs. At times, life quenches these natural desires until we are more comfortable in isolated silence and we prefer our comfort zones of misery rather than risk the pain of trying to get what seems unobtainable.
We ourselves are the glory of God's creation. (cf: ISA 43:7) We are His craftsmanship. We are like gold and silver ready to be refined for His glory (PROV 27:21)
The ox knows his master, and the donkey his crib, but there are plenty of people who are lost on these issues, obviously blinded by the deceits of Satan, who under the disguise of enlightening us gives us spiritual poisons to sear our consciences (cf: ROM 1:28)
Humility is essential in human communication. A prideful person feels he has nothing of importance to learn from others. He dominates the conversation. For many reasons, humility is vital if we are to pray to God Almighty.
The Words of God are the exciting Words of a living God. People have questioned whether God was dead long before the 20th century. As PS 94:7-11 asks, " Do you question that the Creator of ears and eyes can see and hear? How silly." (paraphrase).
The living God YHWH is seen in history when He took a small group of slaves, drove out all the various kingdoms in Palestine and established the Israelites there as His people. JOSH 3:10. God is daily active in nature and mankind and is visible through these. PS 104:24-30. We are given a promise that God is aware of what happens (MT 10:29-32), as well as a warning that the living God will punish the nations with His wrath. JER 10:10-13.
It's always wonderful to get to know our heavenly Father. The road to knowing this great God is through loving and knowing our fellow man better. .