Spirit of Prayer; First John

May the mumbling commence!

We are now in the last four days of reading First John.  How shall we spend these days before we move onto Paul’s letter to the Ephesians? 

Prayer is an important element to spiritual life with God.  What does First John say about prayer?  I have chosen two different passages from First John.  Read the first one from chapter three:

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.  And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.  (Verses 21-24)

Prayer, done in the right spirit, leads to receiving anything we ask from God.  Receiving anything we ask for – that idea can be intoxicating.  That promise, however, is built upon our obedience to God’s commands.

Earlier in these thirty days, we looked at the command of God – to believe in the name of Jesus and to love one another.  Not so long ago, we plumbed the depths of obedience to God’s commands and the depths of the definition of sin that the author of First John gave us.  For a reminder here they are: (Note how the elements are opposed to one another – very much in black and white)

Obedience to God –

1.     Have faith/belief that Jesus is the Christ… and be a child of God.

2.     Love God… by keeping His laws.

3.     Love the children of God.

 (That is the simple flow chart.  Look at the more detailed list below.)

1)    Believe in Jesus.

2)    Abide…

A) In Jesus.

B)    In God.

C)    In the Holy Spirit.

D)    In the Word of God.

3)    Stick together.

4)    Love one another.

5)    Confess Jesus Christ.

6)    Allow nothing to contradict the anointing you have received through God.

Definition of Sin –

1)    Lawlessness

2)    Denial / Lying

3)    Hatred

4)    Disordered Desires (Lusts)

5)    Separation

6)    Apathy

There’s our list to do in green and our list to avoid in dark red.  Do these things and avoid those things; then, you can think about claiming the promise of receiving anything you ask for. 

And what is the first thing that we are given through our belief?  We are given of the Holy Spirit.  The presence in our lives of the Holy Spirit helps these things to happen as they should.  The Holy Spirit is God dwelling in us – both individually and as a worldwide Body of Christ, the Church with a capital “C”.

Looks like we will get to the second passage tomorrow…

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out