The fire that makes you pray

The Prompting of Prayer

 

Nadab and Abihu offered "strange fire" before the Lord, and God killed them because of it.

 

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord" (Lev. 10:1-2).

 

They were doing a right thing, but in the wrong way They were the sons of Aaron and had a right to offer incense. God does not tell us where they got the fire, but He does say it was "strange fire...which he commanded them not." Because of their disobedience, God destroyed them with fire.

 

In Leviticus 16:12 the fire to be used in the censer to offer up incense was to come from the burning coals fire on the brazen altar. That which was to kindle the incense and cause it to ascend to God was to come only from the brazen altar, from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces" (Lev. 9:24). Here we see the origin of the fire which God wanted used to offer not only the sacrifices, but also the incense. It was fire from the Lord Himself that consumed the sacrifice. When the people saw the sacred and unusual fire, they shouted and fell on their faces. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross 1900 years ago the Bible says "it pleased the Lord to bruise him" (Is. 53:10). Men did not put the Lord Jesus to death, but God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all and caused Him to suffer. It was the fire of God, the judgment of God, that came upon Him for our sins. This is why He was consumed. This is why He died.

"Thanks for being an inspiration to me!" Thanks for your encouragement. ABC Sumner

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"A man with outward courage dares to die. A man with inward courage dares to live."

 

The perversion of prayer- you must be careful

          After God had given the prescription for prayer, He warned, "Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon" (Ex. 30:9). There was to be no perversion of the offering of the incense. Anything offered other than what God had prescribed was "strange incense," a perversion of what He had instructed. The word "strange" in Hebrew means "alien" or "foreign," so anything offered that was not in accordance with God's prerequisites was alien or foreign. Jesus warned, lest our prayers be as that of the hypocrites, that we should not pray to be seen or heard of men, and not to make vain repetitions as the heathen do. Those practices are "strange incense."

 

          To read a prayer from a prayer book simply because we think it is pretty, when it has not become our own from our heart, is certainly strange incense not prescribed by God. Many times in churches people pray aloud with high-sounding phrases and clichés they have heard from others, and we become more conscious of what they are saying than to whom they are praying. Praying to be heard of men can easily become the strange incense we are warned not to offer.

 

          What would a mother think if her little child came and read to her a flowery statement by someone else, as though it were her own request? The mother would rather have her come and just say what she wants, out of her heart in her own words.  Whether flowery and high-sounding or not, this would be real and not foreign to her. The best way to pray is to come with open, bared hearts, sincerely before God, and simply make our requests known to Him. God is not so much concerned with the words and the way we express them as He is with the earnestness of our hearts and our coming in faith, believing. We need to be sure that our prayer is our own, from our heart, prescribed by God, ascending to Him. Any other prayer is strange incense forbidden by God.

Practical application: God asks us to "Pray the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into the harvest" "The harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few."

Matt. 9:37, 38. Studies show that less than 5% of Christians ever lead a soul to Christ. The results? "But while men (Christians) slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." America is drowning, with tares chocking out the wheat. America was founded on the Lord Jesus Christ and Christian principles. Now the tares, unbelievers, atheists, irreligious, godless and the likes are doing everything possible to rule out God, the Bible and Christianity. When have you heard prayed in your church on Sunday morning, "Send forth laborers." When have YOU prayed what God told us to pray, "Send forth laborers". Politians can not change people. We can lead them to Christ and He can change them for "if any man be in Christ he is a new creature" 2 Cor. 5:17. We Christians are to blame and we MUST obey God and like Peter say, "At thy word, I will" Lk 5:5 and go fishing for men to change them, our nation and the world.. Make sense?

Enter the drawing once a day, daily. Many do and most win. Order "Your Ticket to Heaven" 1-877-872-2871. Almost daily, I hear an unusual story of God using it. Remember I get nothing from it.

He did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief

Second, we must pray believing, for God said, "And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" (Mt. 21:22). "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). An essential ingredient in prayer is to come believing that God hears prayer and that He is a prayer-answering God. A good practice is to make a list of our requests and, after we have prayed for them, to mark down the date of the answer.  Many never expect to see God work miracles in answer to prayer and because of their lack of faith, they never get their prayers answered.
 
A third ingredient for prayer is that we pray in His will. "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (1 Jn. 5:14-15). Prayer is to be in God's will, according to His will, for Him to answer our prayer.
 
In all three of these instructions God makes blanket statements that whatsoever we ask, we will have. For results, we need to be sure prayer has these three ingredients.        

Application. "Pray for all that are in authority...that they may be saved" 1 Tim' 2:1-4. Now this staggers me. Who are these? I do not know but they have big time influence, for they are "in authority". When have you heard this prayed in any church and yet it is in the Bible. Don't fuss about those in authority if you have not prayed for them like God told us. Pray for all men, that is some 7 billion people but not all are in authority. These in authority will impact our country. Pray "they might be saved" and "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Make sense? Love you, ABC Sumner

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"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart" over their sins or needs. Ps 34:18