The Only Legitimate Way

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. – Jn 1:1

20 Similarities between Jesus and the Word

1. Both are the Word of God.

The scriptures are the written word (Ex 31:18)

Jesus is the living word (Jn 1:14)

2. Both are eternal (1Pt 1:23 & Heb 13:8)

3. Both came from heaven (Ps 119:89 & Jn 3:13)

4. Both partook of the human and the divine (2Pt 1:20 & 1Tim 3:16)

5. Both are faultless (Pr 30:5 & 1Jn 3:5)

6. Both are sources of life (Heb 4:12 & Jn 14:6)

7. Both are sources of light (Ps 19:130 & Jn 1:4,9)

8. Both are absolute truth (Jn 17:7 & Jn 14:6)

9. Both provide food for the soul (Dt 8:3 & Jn 6:35)

10. Both provide cleansing (Jn 15: 3 & 1Jn 1:9)

11. Both produce fruit (Mt 13:23 & Jn 15:5)

12. Both give peace (Ps 119:165 & Jn 14:27)

13. Both are called wonderful (Ps 119:18 & Is 9:6)

14. Both are called the power of God (Rom 1:16 & 1Cor 1:24)

15. Both are like a sword (Eph 6:17 & Rev 19:15)

16. Both successfully complete their assignments (Is 55:10,11 & Jn 17:4; 19:30)

17. Both must be received for salvation (Jn 8:31,32 & Jn 1:12)

18. Both have been attacked by sinners (Jer 26:7,8 & Jn 10:31)

19. Both have been rejected by sinners (Mk 7:9 & Is 53:3)

20. Both will eventually judge all sinners (Rom 2:12; 3:19 & Jn 5:22)

The LORD never asks us to try to interface with Him directly through meditation as some Eastern and New Age religions do. Interacting with God is never a mystical experience. Christianity never asks people to try to make a direct contact with God; Christianity instead directs people to the Word. God and His Word are the same.

What the WORLD calls “meditation” is an exercise of emptying the mind through repetitious chanting or yogic breathing exercises. But in what the WORD calls “meditation”, the believer’s mind is to be actively engaged and focussed on God’s Word.

We don’t seek any “oneness” with the Universe, and we don’t seek to attain “God-consciousness”.  We’re content to stay with the Word. Because that’s where we find God; that’s where we find Life.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Bible Scholars vs. Bible Fans

...Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. – 1Co 8:1.

What are the chances that a person who holds a Doctorate in “Religion and Critical New Testament Studies” will turn out to be a saved Believer? Very unlikely, (at least from my observations). It seems the more knowledgeable some people get about the Bible, the more atheistic they become. Yet some other persons study the same scriptures and become great blessings to themselves and to their generation.

I have categorised these two different types of Bible students into “Bible Scholars” and “Bible Fans”.

A “Bible Scholar” is one who studies the Bible for the sake of knowledge acquisition and mental stimulation. They are voracious and avid studiers of everything Scripture. They may be fluent in Koine Greek, ancient Hebrew and Aramaic, are up to date on Middle Eastern archaeological finds and are versed in all the various ancient manuscripts.

If you want to preach to a “Word Scholar”, the moment you mention “John 3:16”, they’ll quickly analyse mentally all that they know about that verse. This is because they’re already familiar with its historical setting, literary context and grammatical features. They’re also aware of the choice of words used by the author, the text genre, and parallel passages.

They probably have written dissertations on the Eschatological and Christological implications of John 3:16 and as true students of Church history, are conversant with what the writings of the Church fathers – Tertullian, Augustine, Kempis , Luther, Calvin, Wesley, down even to the Reverend Billy Graham – have to say on this most popular verse of scripture...

In short, a “Word Scholar” knows everything about everything and you have nothing to tell them.

A “Word Fan”, on the other hand, may possess all of the above knowledge, yet at your mention of “John 3:16” they get excited at what you have to say about that favourite verse. The fact that you’re not likely going to say anything is irrelevant to them; as long as it’s the Word of God, they want to hear it over and over again.

Knowledge does puff up (1Co 8:1), and Rom 1:22 speaks of those who Professing themselves to be wise, become fools. But God says “The meek will he teach His way” (Psa 25:9).

Which would you rather be then, a “Word Scholar”, or a “Word Fan”?

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Hollow 'Revs'

In his acclaimed work, Living By the Book, Bible professor Howard Hendricks writes of a certain time he overheard one person complaining to another about a teacher they had both just listened to. The complaint was that “He didn’t do a blessed thing but explain the Bible”.

That complaint is revealing of the impression people have of the work of preaching and teaching.

The job of a preacher is not to take a verse of scripture and ‘run away’ with it; or try to make a message out of it through some convoluted, mystico-philosophical extrapolations. The job of a preacher is to draw out the life-giving truths that are already in those words of scripture.

It is unfortunate that some persons of the pulpit feel there legitimacy is threatened if they are not able to whip up some unique twist or bent to a Bible passage. They want to have a reputation as the man or woman of Rev, which is slang for ‘special revelation that no one else has thought of’. A cursory look at the heretics of church history shows us that they all started with this penchant.

I am of the opinion that only someone who isn’t intimate with the Bible will bother to whip up Revs from it. We already need an eternity and a half to exhaust the treasures of God’s Word, why on earth would anyone want something ‘new’. Ps 119:96 says there’s a limit to everything human, but God’s commandment is “exceedingly broad.”

So when a preacher is handed, for example, “John 3:16” as their anchor text, they should, like the Psalmist, cry out, Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law (Ps 119:18). Rather than resort to gimmicks and metal gymnastics, like trying to point out “the philosophical and prophetic significance of the numbers 3, 1 and 6”.

Such fake Revs have a tendency to excite the mind but carry no attendant power to change lives. James, our Lord’s brother and leader of the early Church has a message to such preachers and to US as well:

“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. – Jas 1:21

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

“Your heart Will Thank You”

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. – 1Tim 4:15.

Have you ever thought about we English language users and our obsession with Bible translations? It will interest you to know that there’re at least FOUR HUNDRED different English translations of the Bible (up to 900 if you loosen your definition of “translation”). No other language in the world comes even close to that amount. Apparently, there’re 400 different ways for English speakers to say “theos agape estin” (“God is love”, 1Jhn 4:8).

One of the demerits of this glut of “modern” translations that we have is that they give a false sense of simplicity to the words of scripture that are sometimes absent in the original documents. For example, the 1st century Believers would have required a little more than an average knowledge of Greek to understand Luke’s words in Luke and Acts; but such a difficulty is hardly noticeable to the modern English reader.

This super simplification and easy-reading smoothness that has crept into the reading of God’s word has given us the impression that we KNOW what the writer is saying by just browsing through the text like a news article. We expect the translators to have done the hard work of EXEGESIS for us.

And to make it worse, some of us depend primarily on the so-called “Amplified” and “Expanded” versions to get our Bible truths; forgetting the fact that the amplifications and expansions are additions made by mortal, fallible persons like us.

Is it any wonder then that the regular believer today struggles with dogma, doctrine and truth?

The job of a Bible translation is to tell us, in our language, what the original human writers said in theirs. Getting the life-saving truths of those words engrafted into our hearts, however, requires a deliberate application of the mind to the text at hand, along with the help of the Holy Spirit (the Inspiration of the Bible writers, – 2Tim 3:16).

Yes, it sounds like hard work, but if you do it, you’ll be better off spiritually for it. Or, as a popular cooking oil ad here in Nigeria would say, “YOUR HEART WILL THANK YOU”.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

This Present Famine

Behold, the days come, says the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. – Am 8:11

Recently, the country of Chile was in the news for a peculiar reason. It was experiencing severe water shortage because of – wait for it – “massive rainfall and flooding.”  I was confused at first; how could they be suffering from water shortage when they were literally swimming in it? Then I saw the news footage: dozens upon dozens of Chileans waiting in line, buckets and other assorted containers in hand, in front of a water tanker. Around them, flowing unimpeded, were small streams and rivulets - remnants of the flood. The waters were brown with mud, and laden with driftwood, house furniture, dead matter and sewage.

Truly, one can be surrounded by water and still be thirsty.

Chile’s picture is illustrative of the condition the church is in today. There is an abundance and glut of preaching but a scarcity of nutritious, wholesome spiritual food.

Moreover, in areas where we do find healthy nutrition, it’s mostly baby food: effete, canned, 'milk' teaching/preaching meant for spiritual babies alone.

The church is not a nursery, it’s a barrack. The church does not need overindulged, pampered spiritual babes; the church needs strong, well-armed and well-equipped soldiers of the Cross.

We need to get back to the Word.

Believers today cannot feed themselves. They subsist essentially from Pastor’s revelation. Even their Bible readings and prayer points have to be prescribed. Give an average Christian a book like Nahum and they’ll struggle to make head or tails out of it. They have no direct relationship with the Word.

While the whole of creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, we’re busy running spiritual nurseries. In the book of Acts, a common deacon (Stephen) was arrested and his defence evinced a thorough familiarity with scripture that his detractors had to stop their ears! (Acts 7:57).

We need to end this present famine. And that means we need to get back to rigorous study and feeding on the Word.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Halleluyah! The Cheque Cleared

Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. – Rom 4:25

Halleluyah!!! Today we celebrate the unique, inimitable Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ from the grave after three days.

But was His resurrection necessary? I once heard a preacher say the Resurrection was just “God showing off”.  But the Bible says differently. The Resurrection of Jesus from the grave was not a superfluous, gratuitous show of power by God; rather it is an integral part of the salvation plan.

The Apostle Paul says it bluntly in 1Co 15:17: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; YOU ARE YET IN YOUR SINS.” Therefore, we see that the atonement of our sins is tied to Jesus’ Resurrection.

Christian poet, Propaganda, in his didactic song “The Gospel in 4 Minutes” uses a modern cash analogy to explain the significance of the Resurrection. In his words,

“God sent Himself as Jesus to pay the cost for us.

His righteousness, His death, functions as Payment.

He wrote a cheque with His life, but at the resurrection we all cheered,

BECAUSE THAT MEANS THE CHEQUE CLEARED

When someone who uses a different bank from yours writes you a cheque, the cheque has to go through a CLEARINGHOUSE. This is an association formed by banks as a central agency where members can settle accounts. At the clearinghouse, the representative of your bank presents your cheque to the issuer’s bank and asks for the value in cash. However, the other bank may also have cheques by its own customers to cash from your bank. If the cheques to your bank that they present sum up to more than the one your bank wants to cash from them, rather than get any cash your bank will now actually be OWING the other bank! Needless to say, if your bank doesn’t even up that debt, you won’t be getting a dime.

So if after the usual 48 hours, your bank credits your account, that tells you that not only was there money in the issuer’s account in the other bank, but also that YOUR bank has NO DEBTS TO PAY any other bank. All is even.

So Propaganda was on to something then with that “cheque” analogy.

Because the ‘Clearinghouse’ of Heaven had to make sure that all your sins – past, present and future – was well-atoned for, before allowing the Lamb of God to rise up from the dead.

Well, we know that Jesus did rise from the dead. So you what that means now. Today is Resurrection Sunday... let God hear your “CHEER”.

Have a HAPPY EASTER

GREG ELKAN

What You and 'Mary' Should Stop Doing

One distinctive objection of Protestants to the Catholic faith is their elevation of “the Blessed Virgin Mary” (the Mother of Jesus) to the role of Co-Redemptrix. This is the belief that Mary as a result of her (ascribed) sufferings at the crucifixion of Christ, (along with her unique role as the “Mother of God” and mediatrix) shares a role in the believers’ salvation. 

While the average Protestant Christian will scoff at this belief (taught by the Catholic Church but not given full Papal endorsement), we are many times just as guilty of this.

We object to the concept of a co-redemptrix because (we say) ONLY Jesus paid the price for our sins and ONLY Jesus took our punishment, yet we look for ways to perform penance whenever we fall from God’s perfect standard.

There’s a thin, fine line between remorse for sin and a feeling of the need to do penance. If after we fall, we feel all our previous prayers and fastings are now inconsequential, or we feel God would no longer bless us, or we feel the devil is now free to do whatever he wants in our life, then we have become co-redemptrices with Christ. We and Christ are now both being punished for our sins.

Of the world’s religions, only Biblical Christianity shows the severity of SIN. Sin is a most objectionable transgression against a perfectly Holy God. The just consequence of sin is not a bad day, or an incurable disease or a lost job. Whenever we attribute negative circumstances in our temporal life to a sin we have committed, we insult God’s wrath against that sin.

The punishment for sin was taken upon by Jesus ALONE on the Cross. He alone knows what it means to suffer for Sin, He alone knows what it means to face God’s wrath at iniquity, and He alone is the One we are to look to at our moments of failure.

“Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation” (2Co 7:10), not an expectation of punishment.

Let Heb 10:17-18 throw some light on the issue:

Then he says, “I will forget their sins and never again remember the evil they have done.” And after everything is forgiven, there is no more need for a sacrifice to pay for sins. (ERV)

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The Divine Abomination

“He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.” – Pro 17:15

The 18th century English hymnist, Joseph Hart, wrote in one of his hymns, “A sinner is a sacred thing; the Holy Ghost hath made him so”. It’s a strange construct, but checks out with scripture. Rom 4:5 calls God “Him that justifies the ungodly”.

That’s a very serious statement; because Pr 24:24 says, “He that says unto the wicked, you are righteous; him shall the people curse...”

What’s more, God told the Israelites in Ex 23:7 “Keep far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay you not: for I will not justify the wicked.” This verse seems to worsen the conundrum, because now it mentions slaying “the innocent and righteous”; which is exactly what happened at the Cross!

At Calvary, the One in whom the Father admits is the Son in whom He is “well pleased” received the full brunt of said Father’s wrath  so much that the Son cried out to Him “Why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 3:17; 27:46). When the prophet Isaiah presciently saw the Cross, he declared that “It pleased the LORD to bruise Him (Christ) (Is 53:10).

So, in one swoop, God justified the wicked (me) and condemned the just (Jesus), which is exactly the abomination Pro 17:15 talks about.

Or is it?

Completing our Isaiah prophecy, he says “thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin...” and Paul explains it further in 2Cor 5:21 when he says that God had “made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

So, no, Jesus wasn’t innocent at the Cross, He was there as ME – weak, sinful, and guilty of every just judgment of God. And I, – “through the operation of God” (Col 2:12) – stand faultless and justified through Christ’s righteousness.

God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. –  Eph 2:4-5 GNB)

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

“Who’s Afraid of the Cross?”

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God. – 1Co 1:18

There's a direct, deliberate attack on the Cross of Christ in the world today, and I'm not referring to ISIS. Rather, this attack is coming from the other side of the globe, the West. From Supreme Court decisions to the Liberal professors at institutions of higher learning, to the secular media in charge of news and entertainment, the Cross has been made an object of hate and ridicule.

Twice during U.S. President Obama's tenure, he gave a speech at a certain Catholic University and twice a Cross and other religious symbols in the hall were covered up for the occasion, ostensibly for the sake of  "consistency" (whatever that means).

When I was a kid, the regular vampire horror movies followed a certain trope: vampires cannot handle the sight of a cross, even those on gravestones! At the sight of a crucifix, they'd begin to shriek, scratch and choke.

This is the picture I see anytime the World reacts aggressively against the any sight of the Cross.

This anger and aversion to the Cross by both ultra-right Islamic terrorists and ultra-left liberal/secuscholars shows that the god of this World's system,  Satan, is scared of undue exposure of people to the Cross.

Human experience has shown us that exposure to the Cross will save the most hopelessly lost, transform the most vilest sinner and convict the most hardened critic. So ultimately, Satan is the one that's afraid, nay, terrified at sight of the Cross. Because in it is the solution to all of humanity's problems.

Therefore, this season, more than ever, let's make sure the Cross gets the fullest exposure to the World, they may be blinded but that's the only way they can be free.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

A Most Important Event

Its Easter season again; and it’s time for sober reflections (“stations of the Cross”), joyous celebrations (resurrection Sunday), evangelism campaigns (“Let’s-Go-A-Fishings, “Walk-With-Jesus”, etc.) ... and controversies (“this whole Easter thing is a pagan festival to an ancient dawn goddess”). Yes, Easter has them all.

Our duty as Believers, however, is to make sure we’re not swept up in the wave of customs and religious traditions that have – over the centuries –stripped this most important event of its powerful message.

The Easter season is a commemoration of the most important event of all of humanity and of eternity. It’s an occasion in real time when Divinity took on Humanity; the day when the One “who only has immortality” (1Ti 6:16) took on mortality.

That is why the Gospel writers devote a disproportionately large percentage of their works to it. Of Mark’s sixteen chapters on the life of Christ, six are devoted to just these seven days.

Paul, the apostle who wrote most of the Epistles, also places his focus of Christ’s life on the Cross. He mentions next to nothing about the nativity, gives scanty references to Christ’s teachings, but places all his focus on the CROSS.

He says, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially His death on the Cross. 1Co 2:2 (GNB) 

The Cross and the Resurrection is all that Christianity is about. And in this season we get to pay an especial attention to the events. Hallelujah!

 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” – Php 3:10.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Prayer Should Be All About You and The Father

And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” – Luk 18:1

From the prayer of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, it’s clear His prayer life  didn’t revolve around miracles. He didn’t spend all-nights praying for healings, raising the dead and such; His prayer times were devoted to communing with the Father.

In our longest record of any of His prayers (John17), we see such expression of intimacy and communion between the Father and the Son. There was no binding of Satan there, and no praying for miracles.

Beloved, there’s nothing wrong with praying for a particular need or binding demonic spirits; but something is critically wrong if those are the defining characteristics of our prayer life.

Check the content of your prayers, if God answers that prayer (or says you don’t need to pray about that anymore) will you find yourself looking for what else to say? (Maybe, you’ll now pick up another ‘problem’ to pray about).

Beloved, God is not honoured when we spend a whole night binding demons and witches. Satan didn’t give his life for you, yet we spend more hours on him than with God. We can fast for days and spend hours to battle already defeated demons, yet will struggle for words if we’re asked to stay with God and “just talk”.

You’re bought with a price, you’re God’s baby, when you talk to Him, let the conversation revolve around HIM and what He did for you on the Cross, and not about problems and demons.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The Faith of Jesus?

...but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? – Rom 8:24

Looking at the miraculous and supernatural exploits of Jesus as He travelled round the cities of first century Palestine, it is evident that the level of His faith was nothing short of stratospheric.

Here was a man who could subdue a legion of demons, stop a 12-year long haemorrhaging condition (without even trying!) and raise up a dead girl – all in one stride. He fed a stadium-full number of people with a little boy’s lunch, and when He had to pay tax, he ordered a fish to bring it for him!

The level of His supernatural capacity was so intense that He once walked on water to his disciples in the middle of the sea, and when he got there, teleported them all – crew, boat, equipment, everything – in one swoop, to their destination! (Jn. 6:16-21).

Indeed, John admitted that the miracles that were documented in the Gospels are but a tip of the iceberg compared to all that He performed in His short lifetime, (Jn. 20:30; 21:25). What great faith!

But seriously, What ‘great faith’ are we talking about? Paul says “hope that is seen is not hope” (Rom 8:24). You don’t need faith for things that are already done; you only need faith for things that you want God to do. And as far as Jesus was concerned, everything he asked for was already done!

He expressed this principle when He stood before the tomb of Lazarus, (Jn. 11:41,42): “Father”, says Jesus, “I thank you that you have heard me.

And I knew that you hear me always but because of the people who stand by I said it, that they may believe that you have sent me.”

His prayer life was powerful because He knew His prayers were already answered. And many of the things we pray for have already been answered in Christ. Eph 1:3 tells us that God has “blessed us” (past tense) with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Peter takes it further by affirming that ALL that we need with respect to life and godliness has been given (past tense), “through the knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue” (2Pe 1:3,4).

Beloved, your faith will increase when you know that your prayers have already been heard. Lazarus “heard” the voice of Jesus and came back to life, because God had heard the prayer of Jesus. Because God has heard – and already answered – your prayers, every mountain before you will hear your voice in Jesus’ name!

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

God Hears Your Prayer

And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.” – Joh 11:41

One of the secrets to our Lord’s successful prayer life is that He had Perfect audience of the father. Remember, He is the one of whom the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mat 3:17). There was nothing standing between Him and the Father, He was perfectly accepted.

I wish that can be said of us; if only we were spotless and guiltless before God, then you too could experience uninhibited, unhindered access to not just the Father’s heart but also the Father’s hand. But WAIT... wasn’t that the whole point of God coming in the flesh and dying on the Cross?

“And so, brothers and sisters...” Heb. 10:22 says, “we are completely free to enter the Most Holy Place. We can do this without fear because of the blood sacrifice of Jesus” (ERV).

One of the greatest obstacles to answered prayer is a guilty conscience: the feeling of disqualification or not being good enough to merit the desired blessing.

This natural hostility between God and us has been taken care of by the Cross. In the verses preceding the above, the LORD says, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, I will put my laws into their hearts, ...  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more,” (Heb 10:16,17).

Beloved, as long as you’ve accepted Jesus into your life, you have complete, total and unfettered access to the Father: because you have the very righteousness of God Himself! (2 Cor 5:21).

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.  – Heb 4:16.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Prayer Tips from the Master: Thanksgiving

And he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” – Luk 18:1

An oft-quoted line says, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. When it comes to the prayer style of Jesus, it amazing how banal the first lesson is: thanksgiving.

But this is vital and indicative of Jesus’ success.

When He had only 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed 5,000 men (plus an unspecified number of women and children), He first gave thanks, (Joh 6:11).

When He was faced with the 4-day old corpse of Lazarus, He gave thanks (Joh 11:41).

And at the Last Supper, just before He inaugurated the Eucharist, He gave thanks, (Mat 26:27).

Thanksgiving and blessing the Father was never far from His lips.

Thanksgiving is more than the canned recitation of the obligatory “names of God” before we go into the REAL prayer; it’s an attitude and a mindset of total surrender and total persuasion that God is in control.

1Th 5:18 says, “In everything give thanks” and Eph 5:20 tells us to “give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NLTse).

In one of his most memorable passages, Paul ties the whole act of prayer with thanksgiving when he says, “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Php 4:6).

So when next you pray, think about how much time you spend thanking God, and how much importance you place to the thanksgiving. Let’s stop seeing Thanksgiving as the prelude to the prayer – it IS prayer.  

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Learn It from the Master

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, “Lord, teach us to pray” – Lk 11:1

When it comes to prayer, our Lord should be our standard. He’s the epitome of godliness, the quintessence of divine grace, and the most perfect example of prayer.  

The book of Hebrews calls Jesus our “forerunner”, our “apostle”, the “author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 6:20; 3:1; 12:2)

While He was on earth, our Lord was undoubtedly a man of great miracles, healings, and signs and wonders. He was also a man of prayer; the Gospels contain several mentions of Him separating Himself unto prayer, sometimes “a great while before day”, other times “continuing all night in prayer”. Luke 5:16 says Jesus “frequently withdrew to the wilderness and prayed” (NET).

There have been, and there are, many prayer leaders and warriors in the body of Christ; but all their feats pale into insignificance when compared to that of Jesus. His prayer life was perfect, He got it right all the time.

It’s true Jesus never spoke in tongues (no, Jennifer, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani: is NOT speaking  tongues), but beyond the dispensational and doctrinal implications, He really didn’t need tongues. He knew exactly what He should pray for, per time.

Reading books on prayer and about the prayer life of our spiritual fathers are great, but would to God we spent half that time asking the Lord like that astute disciple of His in Luke 11:1,          “teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN