Prayers
Praying for Grace and Mercy
Hi Faith-writers, I’m truly grateful for another opportunity to share God’s Word with all His people. We are still on the topic of Prayer. In fact, if you’ve been following along with the teachings that God has lead me to share this year it has been about PRAYER. We need to PRAY more than ever to be in-tune with the Holy Spirit so we may know the Mind of God (See, 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 NKJV).
This teaching that I’m sharing today will allow us to understand the instructions the Apostle Paul gave us in our approach to Prayer. We must be assured about the Divine Protocol that we need to come before the Throne of Grace (Hebrews 4:16 NKJV). We’ve been taught the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father who is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV) and for 2000 years that’ been the most recognized and most quoted Prayer by many believers. However, Paul taught Christians how he Prayed and instructed us on how to Pray. Then we must understand that what Paul Prayed so we can also Pray for other believers and for ourselves, because Paul expected us to follow in his foot-steps in our faith toward God so we may grow to the full Measure and statured of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13 NKJV
)
So let’s read what Paul taught about Praying for Grace and Mercy;
And there is no creature hidden from His sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (v. 13)
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession (v. 14)
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (v. 15)
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of GRACE, that we may obtain MERCY and find GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED (v. 16) (Hebrews 4:13-16 NKJV)
I recommend that every Born-again believer should read these 4 Verses in Hebrews 4:13-16 NKJV, over-and-over more than a 100 times, Why Manuel? Because these verses will bring you comfort and liberation from being overly sin conscious and feeling guilty and condemned without considering the Power of GRACE and MERCY that can come into our lives and lift us up and encourage us to continue moving forward in the glorious Power of Jesus Christ.
Outlining the Protocol of obtaining GRACE and MERCY
1. Verse 13 speaks about: Transparency and Accountability. First, God sees everything, in other words, there is nothing hidden from God. Everything is open, naked and exposed to HIM. So being that God is aware of everything that we did and will do, there should be no reason to hide it from HIM. We should come clean and give an account to God of what we did wrong that HE is fully aware of.
We have to stop running from God like Adam and Eve did and run to God when we fail or fall into sin, because Jesus had already died for that sin or sins that we have committed or are going to commit in the future (See Hebrews 8:12 NKJV). However, the more we realize that we must be accountable to HIM the more we can gain a sense of confidence to go to the throne of GRACE.
2. Verse 14 speaks about: Seeing Jesus and Professing our faith. How do we see JESUS NOW? It’s not a trick question; Paul told us how to see JESUS! Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God…(Hebrews 4:14 KJV)
The point here is that we need to see Jesus as the High Priest. He’s not on the Cross any more at Calvary, He’s not a Baby in a manger with the shepherds and wise-men with Mary and Joseph. He’s not on the piece of jewelry we have be it a necklace or bracelet. For 2000 years JESUS has been in heaven interceding for us and being our High Priest.
The way we see Jesus now (Today) is the way we can respond accordingly to the instructions given to us by the Apostle Paul, so we can successfully have the confidence we need to go to the Throne of GRACE.
The next thing Paul mentions in verse 14 is the Confession or Profession of our faith in the Lord. What is that Manuel? We claim to be Christians—well, it’s the same meaning “we Profess to be Christians”. However, the area that we must Profess to be Christians is knowing who we are and understanding what JESUS is doing at the right hand of God the Father and that is, HE is the High Priest. When we are Professing or Confessing something we must understand and know what we are talking about.
I ran into immature believers who said Jesus is always with me and then they would pull out a small Bible out of their pockets, or pull out a necklace or bracelet or even a portrait the size of a playing card. I don’t say this to be rude, I did the very same thing when I did not know any better before I was Born-again in 1991. So the more we have learned about Jesus, the better our Profession and Confession of who HE is will be concerning Him and our faith in Him.
3. Verse 15 speaks about: A Sympathetic High Priest that Identifies with us. When we go to professional psychologist, Counselors, or Life coaches. They will hear our complaints, emotional problems and the list of issues we have that we hope they will understand and be sympathetic toward our dilemma. However, not all professionals have the experience or the sound advice we need to get over ourselves and our situation and guide us to grab a hold of truth that will propel us into the next phase of handling our situations in a more mature and responsible manner according to Scripture.
Jesus, on the other hand, has been there and experienced the levels of temptations that we had encountered and HE knew how to Biblically overcome the temptation. He therefore, knows what we are going through and HE desires for us to understand what HE encountered and overcame so we can come to HIM so we may be lead by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to overcome our personal challenges as well.
Jesus said, in the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33 NKJV)
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down
with My Father on His throne (Revelation 3:21 NKJV)
4. Verse 16 speaks about: Confidence in Drawing near to God to be Bless with more GRACE and MERCY.
Boldly—means coming to God Confidently, Fearlessly knowing HE will receive us because of Jesus.
Throne of Grace—is understanding that HE has what we need to operate on this earth. It’s by GRACE we are saved (Ephesians 2:8 NKJV) Grace is a gift and like all Gifts given to us by GOD we must learn how to operate in it effectively on the earth. So we may need to go back to the Spiritual Garage several times and get fine-tuned to continue moving in the Power of the GRACE given to us.
Obtaining Mercy—is acknowledging that when we miss it (sin); Sin means to miss the mark. We can obtain MERCY from the Throne of GRACE to help us in our time of need to be restored and refreshed spiritually to continue to fight the good fight of faith.
Understanding How to Pray for GRACE and MERCY
So understanding how we are to obtain GRACE and MERCY from God we must;
1. Be Transparent and Accountable to Him.
2. We must see Jesus as our High Priest and hold on to that Biblical fact and Truth by our confession of faith.
3. We must always believe that God will be Merciful toward us because Jesus is Sympathetic towards us and identifies with our weaknesses.
4. So when we come to the Throne of GRACE we can easily obtain GRACE and MERCY to motivate us once again to serve Almighty God on the earth.
So I encourage everyone to go ahead and always come to the Throne of GRACE and PRAY knowing that God will receive you and grant you the abundant GRACE and MERCY you need to operate continuously in HIS kingdom on the earth.
Heavenly Father, In the name of Jesus, we thank You that You see all things and nothing is hidden from You. Therefore, we come before You humbly seeking Your Divine Favor and acknowledge our shortcomings. We thank You Lord that You are our High Priest and You are fully aware of our weaknesses. We Thank You for Your Compassion and Sympathy and ask that You once again Grant us Your abundant GRACE and MERCY to operate in Your Kingdom on earth efficiently and effectively. Lift us out of our emotional complexes and fears. Allow us to overcome the guilt and condemnation of the enemy and Bless us with the assurance in our hearts that You Love us by the Power of the Holy Spirit so we may glorify Your Holy Name. Hallelujah!
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