King James Bible Study – [Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.]
Date: Saturday, October 30, 2021
Chapters: Luke 18
Message: Releasing The Power of The Spirit
Hello My Friend,
I was not feeling very well when I woke up this morning, I even asked God to help me get up out of bed this morning. Then when I was praying it was short and kind of jumbled as I jumped from one thing to something else, begging Him to forgive me for praying that way. That was when God said to me, “Child, I already know how you feel this morning, but you are up and talking to me, and know exactly what you are trying to say.” It is fitting that today’s chapter is mostly about prayer, which reminded me of this verse, [Ephesians 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,]
Do you see the key phrase in the verse? [according to the power that worketh in us,] If we are saved, then we literally have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us. That means that we also control that power, so, if it seems as though our prayers are not getting heard or we are not seeing God do anything that we are asking, perhaps it has to do with our not releasing the full power of the Holy Spirit inside of us. When we do release His power, there is nothing that God will not do for us, [Luke 11:9-10,13 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?]
As we continue in the reading of the Gospels, Jesus starts speaking some parables about praying, the first one has to do with why we are to always pray and never stop until we receive it. Notice what He uses as this example, [Luke 18:1-8 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?]
[that men ought always to pray,] We do not deserve all the blessings from God, it His by His mercies and grace that He does grant us what He does. Nevertheless, He does love and adore us above what we ask or think of Him, and truly does enjoy giving them to us, [Romans 3:10-12,23-24 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:]
[shall he find faith on the earth?] When Jesus returns there are not going to be very many people left who have faith in Him. In fact, the Holy Spirit will be gone as well, so, they will not have Him here to nudge them to Christ either. It is really going to take the power of their own conscience to believe in and accept Christ as their Saviour, and many will get saved, but it will be to their own death, [Revelation 7:9-10,13-14 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.]
Not praying at all or ceasing from praying is one reason why the Holy Spirit power is not working inside, another reason could be is that there may be some arrogance in our praying. When we come to God in prayer we need to be humble, not proud in thinking that we are deserving of what we are asking Him for. Through another parable, Jesus explains why God only hears the prayers of the humble.
[Luke 18:9-14 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.]
[trusted in themselves that they were righteous,] I think we have all been guilty of comparing others sins with our own a time or two thinking, “At least, I am not doing this.” Sin is sin to God, He does not compare notes as to who sins less and what sins they commit, He detests it all, [Romans 2:9-10 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:]. The second that we think that we have no sin, that is when we in fact, do sin. So, if we are going to ask Him to forgive us of our sins, and we are not forgiving others for theirs, then we can expect that God will not forgive ours, according to the Scriptures, [Matthew 6:14-15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.]
And that brings us to another reason why the power of the Holy Spirit is not released, He may not there to begin with. If we are not humble or forgiving, then God will not hear us, even when we are saved, but God does not hear one prayer from those who are not saved, and it does not matter how many commands we can obey. Jesus explains to a rich ruler why his good works will not save him.
[Luke 18:18-23 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. 20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. 21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. 22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. 23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.]
[All these have I kept from my youth up.] When I was little, the most popular item for a girl was literally a necklace or bracelet with charms of little Bible pages, each one having one of the ten commandments on it. My goodness, how much times have changed, and it is not that really long ago. When I finally got a necklace of my own, I was so excited, I would read through each one, and try to follow them. It did not matter if it was even possible for me to follow every command, I was not saved at the time, so, not following one of them would have been the least of my problems. If we do not one; admit that we have sinned, and understand that the payment for sin is hell. Two; believe in the Gospel of Christ, that He died a sinless death, was buried, and resurrected three days later to pay that price for us. And three; personally confess that we need Him to save us, and ask Him to, then we are not saved and the Holy Spirit does not live inside of us, [Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.]
Jesus was not really expecting the man to sell everything that he had and give it to the poor, what he was asking him to do was what he asks all of us to do who truly does want eternal life, to follow Him. However, money and all his wealth was the most important thing in his life, that was actually his god, And that is why Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get saved. And that actually prompted the disciples to ask Jesus who actually can be saved.
[Luke 18:24-30 And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 26 And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? 27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. 28 Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. 29 And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, 30 Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.]
[receive manifold more in this present time] Do you see why I say that when we are saved and faithful, we are blessed with so much more than we could ask or think while we are here? I always picture God answering prayer from the perspective of a traffic light. Some of them, He gives us the green light and says, “Yes!”. Some of them, He gives us the yellow light, and says, “Not yet, but keep asking!” and the some He gives us the red light and says, “Stop! And do not ask me again!” Remember, what He told Moses when he asked Him to let him go into the promised land after He told him that he could not? [Deuteronomy 3:26 But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.]
Here is the thing, we are not always going to get everything we ask God for, but that does not mean that we are to stop praying. There are some things that are not in God’s will for us, if we did get them, then it would be devastating on us. If I had actually been able to marry the guy I was with for a year and a half, it really would have been a disaster. What did happen during that time was not all bad, it did bring me to release the power of the Holy Spirit in me, and that was something that I had not felt in a long time. You see, sometimes, the only option to release the power of the Holy Spirit is to simply call out to God and do not let anyone stop you. Now, as Jesus was walking toward Jericho, a blind man was sitting on the side of the road, begging for money. When he heard all the commotion that always takes place whenever people heard that Jesus was in town, he asked what was going on. When someone told him that Jesus was near he cried out for Him.
[Luke 18:35-42 And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging: 36 And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. 37 And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. 38 And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 39 And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 40 And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, 41 Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. 42 And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.]
[but he cried so much the more,] When the people were telling him to be quiet the man yelled out for Jesus even louder. Now, how do you suppose that Jesus actually heard him crying out His name when so many people were around? He knew the man’s faith even before He made his way to him. It is only though our faith alone in Christ that we can be saved, and all we need for that to happen is to simply call His name and ask Him to save us. Never be afraid to speak up and say that you are trusting in Jesus, that is the greatest testimony of our faith and what releases the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, [Romans 10:11-13 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.]
[What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?] So, how do we know that what we are praying for is in God’s will? The things we are asking for actually do need to line up with Scripture, so, we need to think about what we are asking Him for and that should give us the answer. God hears our prayers when we come to Him according to His Word, release the power of Holy Spirit to teach us what to pray for, and when we pray without ceasing, [1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 Rejoice evermore. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 19 Quench not the Spirit. 20 Despise not prophesyings. 21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil. 23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.]
Today’s Prayer: Jesus, There is such great power in Your name, which is why so many people cringe when we speak it. Just by speaking Your name, believing, a soul is saved, a prayer is answered, a life is changed. Power that with the Holy Spirit that lives inside and we have one powerful God that lives inside of us and is capable of giving us more than we could ever ask or think. We love You because You first loved us, and You promise that if we ask anything in Your name, it will be done. Now, we know that You answer prayers according to Your will, and Your time. Lord, Lead us and guide us, give us Your mercy, grace, and protection as we come to You in humble prayer. Let us not become weary in well doing, or cease from praying, keep us encouraged, and looking to You so that we will not faint. Give us Your strength and power to get back up should we start to feel faint, let us abstain from the appearance of evil, and hold fast to all the good that You instill us with. I ask these things in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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