- Confidence in the One Who hears… The power is in the one who hears. Not only the power for our lives… but also the plan.
- Your father knows that He has an incredible plan for you. That your life is not what you think it is. We are eternal creatures.
- Imagine a line…
- God is acting out a great conspiracy – changing life on earth as we know it… preparing hearts and souls for eternity. God has a terrific plan and wants to use us as agents in accomplishing this plan.
- God already knows what he wants done. We just have to ask. We must ask Him to reign in our lives. Lead our decisions, our daily actions, our devotions, our deepest thoughts…
- To pray for God’s reign is to pray for God’s RULE
& Matthew 6: 9-10
“This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
“God’s Kingdom” – the range of God’s effective will, where what He wants done is done. (Divine conspiracy)
In Heaven, God’s will is without hesitation, without doubt, without struggle, without difficulty. The same is to be true of our lives on earth. So we join Jesus in his prayer – Your will be done… In my life Lord…
We pray for God to reign, to rule, to produce his will in our lives.
Pursuing God’s will in my prayer life will:
§ Change my heart (Psalm 40:8)
§ Satisfy My Soul (John 4:34)
§ Open God’s plan and power in my life (John 6: 39-40)
à Ask God to Rule your World
- “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”
- Take control of everything under my rule
We believe that God has something specific and powerful he wants to accomplish in our lives. Sometimes, we ask God to hand us a roadmap – telling us all the details
When I went to have my driver’s test again last week the gentleman administering the test had figured out that I was a pastor and we enjoyed a very upbeat conversation. Then suddenly, he asked: “If I were to have gotten into your car with you this morning and then said the following: Start the car, turn right and head out of the parking lot, make a left on main; turn right at the third light, make a right at the second street, park parallel with the curb. Then, merge with traffic, head up the hill, execute a legal u-turn, turn right at the park, turn left on the third street, park uphill; resume course, merge with traffic on the interstate; take the second exit, turn right by the red brick house…” How would you have done on the driving test if I gave you all the instructions up front instead of giving them to you one at a time as you were ready for them? Isn’t it strange that we get upset with God for not telling us everything up front?
Assumption: Human mind can reason out the plans and will of God.
Truth: Only a mind infiltrated and inundated by the Spirit of God can decipher the will of God.
& Romans 12:2
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
What does it mean to have a mind ‘renewed’ by God?
w Rejection of my worldly priorities
w Revision of my conventional wisdom
w Remaking of my personal passions
w Reinvention of my unseen heart
à Ask God to Rule your Mind
- “be transformed by the renewing of your mind”
- Remake who I am in your image
- Therefore, we regard no one from a worldly point of view – New Creation – Old has gone, new has come
- (ill) The Old Warehouse – A gentleman was buying an old, abandoned warehouse one afternoon. He had offered a pretty penny for the facility. The seller, feeling a twinge of guilt for the high price shared, “You know, there’s just not much you’re going to be able to do with that old warehouse. The equipment is outdated and the building’s not up to code…” The buyer smiled. “Oh, I don’t want to do much with it – I’m going to tear it down – and building something brand new.”
God has to tear down what we’ve built in our minds. God has to create a whole new mind inside of us.
Assumption: Everything that God wants to happen, happens.
Truth: Not everything that God want to happen, happens.
& Jeremiah 29: 11-13
“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
§ God has divine purposes He wants to accomplish in my life
§ God is waiting for me to join Him in His purpose for my life.
Ü Sovereign God sometimes chooses not to fulfill His will – until asked to do so.
- My prayer life may be filled with self-fulfillment
- My prayer life may be frozen with sinfulness
à Ask God to Rule your Will
- “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
- Jesus, in the garden – “Not my will, but yours”
- “Give me an undivided heart”
Ask God to Rule
- your world – day to day life
- your mind – thoughts, analysis, assumptions, beliefs, convictions
- you will – your desires, pleasures, wishes, dreams, goals, plans
Why do we ask God to rule? By asking, we are inviting God to work through us in His great power
- The Big Rock and the little Boy – One day a boy was playing in his sandbox while his daddy watched from the kitchen window. The boy is pushing his little toy trucks through the sand, imagining a whole new world when he suddenly discovers a large rock in the middle. He can’t tunnel under it and its taking up so much room he decides to try to move it. Remember this is a little boy and a big rock.. He pushes it, he pulls it and nothing happens. The more he does, the less he seems to gain. Finally, he gets the rock to the edge of the sandbox. But there is a tiny wooden rail outlining the box. The boy gets behind the rock and pushes with all his might, but everytime he gets it close to the edge, his strength gives out and the rock tumbles back in to the sandbox. After this continues for 20 minutes or so, the boy is near exhaustion and his emotions begin to give out. As tears begin to fall, a shadow falls over the sandbox. The boy looks up to see His father looking down at him. “What are you doing?” the father asks. “I can’t get this big rock out, daddy” the boy sobs. “Why didn’t you use all your strength?” “But Daddy, I tried. I pushed, I pulled, I worked as hard as I could…” The father shakes his head. “No son, you didn’t use all your strength. You didn’t ask me to help.” That father reaches down, picks up the rock and throws it out.
- Such is true of us – instead of straining at things with flimsy muscles we should call on our ever-present and ever-powerful father to bring His strength to bear on our lives!
Prayers to practice for Pursing God’s reign in your life:
1. Father, make my world ‘your Kingdom’.
- Make my life a place of where what you want done is done.
2. Father, I want your will, not my own. Defeat anything in my life that is not under your reign.
- Dangerous prayer. Much may have to change…
3. Father, renew my mind so that I can discover your will.
- no more thinking the way I used to…
4. Father, help me to seek you and your will with all my heart.
- hold nothing back / ‘give me an undivided heart’
5. Father, help me to trust and follow your purpose and reign in my life, regardless of where it leads.
