To Plea:
- an appeal or entreaty: a plea for mercy.
- something that is alleged, urged, or pleaded in defense or justification.
What is the Spirit of God saying to lives and a world in crisis (The God who can and will help you and the world)? I believe it is to prepare to have a personal relationship with him, and to pray effectively (John 14). Powerful prayer is conditional. If there is something not right with our relationship with God he wants it to get right in great part for intercession, because it's better to give then receive. Confessing our sins to Jesus, and repenting of them to walk with him, is turning to Jesus Christ for Lordship over our lives. It is the condition for powerful prayer. The prayers of a righteous man are very effective (James 5:16). Your prayers become effective because Jesus puts HIS righteousness over you once you place your trust in that (2 Corinthians 5:21). We could never be righteous alone, but he graciously gives us his when we are finally willing to own it. If we receive the righteousness of Christ by faith it is ours (2 Peter 1:1 ; 1 Peter 2:24), and we can then impact others lives through prayer (Hebrews 7:24-26). Jesus said he is the vine and we are the branches. We are to connect to him and remain connected. He said we can do nothing without being connected to him. We are dead and powerless by ourselves. The world is dead and powerless. Can we not see that? We are of the flesh. He's alive and powerful; the substance and source for life. He is of the Spirit of God. Therefore, if we are one with him we become alive and our prayers in Jesus' name are effective-able to tear down strongholds BY LOVE (John 15).
So many cowardly terror attacks, fleshly temptations, onslaughts from an enemy, lies from devils can be overcome through prayer rooted in a personal relationship in Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). Do you believe that? He promises to protect those who trust in him (Psalm 91; Psalm 27:5). Why haven't they already been thwarted then? Does the world trust in God? If it won't then will you? The question is, "Is your relationship right with God, ( is there rampant unconfessed and unrepented of sin in our lives), and do we pray?"
In the words of Jack Graham we find another perspective that keeps us from praying:
"We have many reasons as to why we don't pray or why we have a hard time praying, but if I had to pinpoint what's behind them all, I'd pin point that we simply forget we are at war. The quality of our prayer lives is solely determined by our awareness of the invisible war. Surely you have noticed this dynamic in your own life: the moment you find yourself unwittingly thrust into crisis mode – your spouse threatens to leave, you lose your job, unhappy creditors call- your prayer life kicks into high gear. Uncanny isn't it?
Truly, we have no problem praying when the battle confronts us. The problem is that when we don't see visible signs of that battle, we mistakenly believe that our lives are safe. In his classic book on prayer, E.M.bounds writes:
'It cannot be said to often that the life of a Christian is warfare, and intense conflict, a lifelong contest. It is a battle fought against invisible foes who are ever alert and seeking to entrap, deceive, and ruin the souls of men. The Bible calls men to life, not a picnic or holiday. It is no past time or pleasure excursion. It entails effort, wrestling, and struggling. It's demands putting out the full energy of the spirit in order to frustrate the foe and to come out, at last, more than a conqueror. It is no primrose path, no rose scented flirting. From start to finish, it is war.'
It's that last part that gets us, I think. The from-start-to-finish part. We may concede that at times we are at war, but to think that every moment of every day is shrouded by an unseen war? Honestly, we're not so sure. When we stay aware of the war, we will engage in prayer." Jack Graham
Unseen. P.163-164
We'll stay engaged in prayer when we remain in Jesus Christ. When we stop engaging and abiding in the many distractions that keep us from getting right with Jesus, and spending time in the Word of God ( John 6:22-59). We will experience the transforming power of God's Spirit in our hearts when we turn to him and trust him for our Salvation (Acts 4:8-12). He will cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7), give us new desires (Galatians 5:24-25; Philippians 2:13) that are pleasing to him and will awaken our prayer life (1 Peter 3:12)
John 14:
““Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do. “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.””
John 14:1-4, 6-7, 9-21 NLT
“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
James 5:16 NLT
“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT
“This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.”
2 Peter 1:1 NLT
“He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.” 1 Peter 2:24 NLT
“But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven.”
Hebrews 7:24-26 NLT
““I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:1-17 NLT
“We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 NLT
“The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.” They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.” Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.” Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.) “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.” Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked. So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”
John 6:22-59 NLT
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.””
Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12 NLT
“But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 NLT
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”
Galatians 5:24-25 NLT
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
Philippians 2:13 NLT
“The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the LORD turns his face against those who do evil.”” 1 Peter 3:12 NLT
“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you. Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished. If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet! The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.””
Psalms 91:1-16 NLT
“For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock.”
Psalms 27:5 NLT
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