Jeremiah 419
Friday, October 29, 2004
HELP
Our Father in Heaven has an insight into us that is phenomenal. He seems to move in my life when I least expect it. Even if I am aware of the instrument He used there is usually no explanation for why that instrument accomplished His purposes.
I had an experience yesterday much like salvation. Suddenly there was a change. I know the change occurred. I know about the time that it occurred. It occurred very silently. I had some deep, open wounds. They were the type of wounds that were created by something that could never be corrected. It’s impossible to go back and undo things. These wounds were open and festering. The demons, like maggots, would crawl around in the wounds and create pain. Some would say the wounds were silly, but we all are different and the wounds were very significant to me. I had nights when I did not sleep when the demons were active inside the wounds. Because of the wounds I had slipped away from that intimate place with the Lord. Prayer seemed impossible and ineffectual when it was possible. I was in captivity to the wounds and to the pain. Periodically I would simply say, “Lord, You have to help me. I am incapacitated and useless to you.” At other times all I could say was simply “Help me.” Somehow the events of this week and last week, and I don’t know how but I know it’s all related, seem to have conclude with the totally healing of those wounds. I know that I was very intently involved with the Paul Cain issue in my heart and was writing about it, I know that I have been very intently related to T. Austin-Sparks’ work on Nehemiah and have prepared e-mails from it, and I know that I prayed for someone just before my workday was over with. A few moments after praying for that individual, I had the complete and total inner realization that those wounds were healed and no longer significant and demons had no access to me through them. The only thing I know to compare it to is the evening which I was saved. One minute I am hostile to the things of God, angry, rebellious and stubborn, then I humble myself to say, “Jesus is Lord,” and mumble a prayer and the next minute there is tremendous peace inside of me and knowledge, from what source I can’t tell, that is in my very fiber that I am a child of God and have done whatever needed to be done to enter into relationship with God. This experience was like that. I share it to encourage. It seems with some situations not much more is needed than to simply pray, “Help,” which recognizes that you need help, that you are beyond yourself, and only the Lord can help. There is humility in that type of prayer and it has its own simple faith. It is not much more than a faith that He “is” and that He “has to” because I have nowhere else to go. The answer to such prayer very often is not immediate. I might be able to come up with some explanation for that but don’t see the point in trying. It is enough to just understand that our God is a father, that He does not enjoy the suffering of His children, and if we cry “Help” He will arrange things so that help comes in His timing.
In His Love,
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
PRAYER AND TRUTH ARE WED TOGETHER
"Thus says the Lord God:
This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them:
To increase their men like a flock."
Ezekiel 36:37
"There are two kinds of means requisite to promote a revival: One to influence men, the other to influence God. The truth is employed to influence men, and prayer is employed to move God . . . Truth, by itself, will never produce the effect without the Spirit of God, and the Spirit is given in answer to prayer. Sometimes it happens that those who are the most engaged in employing truth are not the most engaged in prayer. This is always unfortunate. For unless they have the spirit of prayer, or unless someone else has, the truth by itself will do nothing, but harden men in impenitence. Probably on the Day of Judgment it will be found that nothing is ever done by truth, used ever so zealously, unless there is the spirit of prayer somewhere in connection with the presentation of the truth."
Charles G. Finney.
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
Thursday, September 16, 2004
A PRAYER OF PSALM 17
Father, give ear to my prayer that comes to you from unfeigned lips.
Concerning the works of men Father,
I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer.
I have not followed the spiritual beings of evil.
I am forever indebted to you Father for your word,
For the words of your lips,
For it is by them that I have been able to avoid the paths of evil.
When my feet have slipped
I have cleansed myself in the laver of your forgiveness.
I ask you now Father to hold my feet to your paths that my feet slip not.
I call upon you and you will hear me.
Incline your ear to me and hear the words of my prayer.
My prayer is this Father:
Keep me as the apple of your eye,
Hide me under the shadow of your wings.
Help me and show me how to draw near to you.
Let me nestle as a chick under the security of your provisions.
The oppressor, the destroyer, like a lion that is greedy for his prey,
Like a young lion that is lurking in secret places where I am unaware,
Waits for me and longs to gain access to me.
Father I confess that I fall asleep on the watch.
Foolishly, in the comfort of Your blessings, I forget my enemies.
Arise, Father, arise! Disappoint him, cast him down:
Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword.
Yes Father, arise in me with Your word. Put Your word in my mouth. Deliver me from wicked men
Who do not consider You and have their portion in this life
And from the wicked spirits.
As for me Father, I will behold Your face in righteousness.
I shall be satisfied with Your likeness.
By the exercise of Your word I will awake from my sleep.
I will walk in the likeness of You.
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
PRAYER POEM
There is a place where you can touch the eyes
Of blinded men to instant perfect sight;
There is a place where you can say, "Arise!"
To dying captives, bound in chains of night.
There is a place where you can reach the store
Of hoarded gold and free it for the Lord;
There is a place upon some distant shore
Where you can send the worker and Word;
There is a place where heaven’s resistant power
Responsive moves to your insistent plea;
There is a place—a silent trysting hour—
Where God himself descends and fights for you.
Where is that secret place? Do you ask where?
O soul, it is the secret place of prayer!
Author Unknown
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
TEACH ME TO PRAY
O my savior, I say to you again with more insistence than ever: Teach me to pray; implant in me all the dispositions needful for the prayer of the Holy Spirit make me humble, simple, and docile; may I do all that is in my own power to become so. Of what use is my prayer if the Holy Spirit does not pray with me? Come, Holy Spirit, come to dwell and work within me! Take possession of my understanding and of my will; govern my actions, not only at the moment of prayer, but at every moment. I cannot glorify God nor sanctify myself save by you.
Jean-Nicolas Grou (1730)
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
PRAYER OF HABAKKUK THE PROPHET
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to wild, enthusiastic and triumphal music.
The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, and will make me to walk (not to stand still in terror, but to walk) and make (spiritual) progress upon my high places (of trouble, suffering or responsibility)! Habakkuk 3:1-19 (Amplified)
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
CONFESSION OF CONSECRATION
Therefore I testify in the Lord, that I will no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of my mind, having my understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God . . . I have been raised with Christ and I will seek those things which are above, where Christ is . . . I will set my mind on the things above, not on things on the earth . . . I will let the peace of God rule my heart, to which I am also called . . . I will hold fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. And whatever I do in word or deed, I will do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. I will continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Ephesians 4:17-18; Colossians 3: 1, 2, 15 & 17; Colossians 2:19; Colossians 4:2
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
ACCORDING TO YOUR WILL
Not my will Father, but Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. I know, Father, that in Heaven there is no will expressed, no will considered, no will presented, but Your will. I make no suggestion to You. I ask only to know Your will. Father let me not pray with hypocrisy that Your will be done on earth when it is my will that I desire You accomplish. As David at Ziklag, let me run all my notions, all my thoughts, all my conceptions, all my plans, all my ideals, by You, O Lord, and ask should I do this thing before I proceed. Count me not among the rebellious, Father; count me not among the stubborn, Father; let it not be characterized of me in Heaven that I am as the witch and as the idolater, but let it be said of me in Heavenly places that I walk with You Father and with Your Son, my Lord and my Savior. Teach me Father to hear and discern Your voice among the many voices, including the voice of my own presumption, that my mind hears. I vow to You to choose Your voice over all the tempting, exciting, beautifully presented, logically formulated, and ultra promising voices in my mind with which the demons and human flesh, including my own, deceive and delude me. You and You alone have knowledge and wisdom, Father, and I submit myself anew to You. Help me to not be deceived. Help me to not be self-willed. Help me to not proceed without instruction, help me not to attempt to do Your general will as revealed in scripture without knowing Your specific will for me in Your purposes for this moment. Reveal to me Your will, Father, I desire Your will, Father; I desire no other.
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
A PRAYER OF WORSHIP
Based on Psalm 142, 143, 144 & 145
I cry unto you Lord with my voice!
I pour out my compliant before you; I show you my trouble.
I cry unto you Lord –
You are my refuge!
You are my portion in the land of the living!
Bring my soul out of prison so I can praise your name!
I know Lord you will deal bountifully with me.
Give me your ear Lord; in your faithfulness answer me.
Enter not into judgment with me, your servant:
In your eyes I can never be justified.
I remember the days when we agreed.
I think about all your former works that I have experienced;
I marvel and ponder the work of your hands in my life.
I stretch my hands toward heaven and you Lord:
My soul is thirsting for you –
My soul is dry and in great need of your water out of your word.
Cause me to hear your lovingkindness—it is in you I trust.
Cause me to know the way and the path you desire for me to walk.
Teach me to do your will!
You are my God! Your Spirit is good!
Lead me into your uprightness.
In your mercy cut off my enemies that are afflicting my soul—
I am your servant.
Blessed are you Lord because you teach me to war and to fight.
You are my goodness; my fortress; my high tower;
My deliverer; my shield; the one and only in whom I can trust.
But who am I Lord that you even take knowledge of me or
Are willing to account for me?
I am vanity and like a shadow.
I will pass away unnoticed unless my mouth speaks your praise
And my flesh blesses your Holy Name.
You will fulfil the desire of my soul for you if I fear your name.
Now (that I have prayed) I can sense and know your close presence
because I am calling upon you in truth!
You have opened your hand and satisfied my desire for you!
I am happy because you are my God and my Lord!
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
2nd Timothy 2:19
Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, Having this seal,
The Lord knows them that are his.
And, Let every one that names the name of Christ
Depart from iniquity.
2nd Timothy 2:19
Father, I come to you in the name of your Son, my Lord Jesus, upon whom my life rests and finds its substance and being. Help me Lord to finish building the temple for You which I began the moment I said that your Son was my Lord. Help me to be governed only by Your Word and Spirit and divorce myself from the habits and lifestyle that were acquired in my old life and linger on. Help me to develop new habits and new lifestyle that rests upon the foundation of your Son and my Lord. Help me to dig deep and continue building the foundation. I want You to dwell in me and I want to spend the rest of my days ministering to You within this temple and serving You however You command. I have nothing to offer You, Father. I have no attributes that compare to You. You did not create me to add to the value of heaven or increase Your worth. You created me for a Holy habitation and in that I have not previously served You well. I have defiled the House of the Lord and entertained the profane and shunned the Holy, but the cry of my heart in this hour is for You to forgive and let us build together this vessel into Your house. Let me serve You, let me become through Jesus, a son that honors You and that serves You and that is what You envisioned when You created me. Father, mold me and make me into that which You saw and desired when You spoke me into existence. I confess if left to my own devises, I would remain corruption. However, I see in You and in my Lord Jesus a spiritual death of my corruption and a spiritual resurrection into the image of Jesus, into incorruption. I can see but I cannot perform. I cannot perform, but I can choose. I choose death and resurrection Father. Take me there. Take me into Your death and into Your resurrection. My faith lies there. Answer this my prayer. Amen.
Bob Highsmith
Aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
Monday, April 19, 2004
PSALM 85
Father, we ask You, the God of our salvation, to turn us toward you and to cause your anger toward us to cease. We ask You to revive us again that our hearts may rejoice in You. We ask You to show us mercy and loving kindness. Lord, we ask You to speak to us. We in turn, Lord, will open our ears to what You speak and not turn again to our folly. Your truth shall spring forth from our lips on the earth as Your righteousness goes before us and sets us in the way of Your paths. Let Your glory come forth out of our lives where Your mercy and truth have met and Your righteousness and peace have kissed each other for You have forgiven our iniquities and covered our sins.
Bob Highsimth
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
Friday, April 16, 2004
2nd Peter 2:10
Father, help me to not despise government and help me to not be self-willed, but rather to have reverence for the chastisement and discipline that brings me into a broader and more complete relationship with You and causes me to partake of the divine nature.
Bob Highsmith
aspiritualhouse@yahoo.com
