As we slowly pass through the waters of affliction with all prayers and supplications for our selves and those brought before us we will gain the more in the true and accurate knowledge of our LORD the Spirit of Grace and Truth. Again I will turn to Pastor Hoekstra's teaching on prayer as our example. And like all things that I share I have also taken the liberty to edit this.
"A Biblical Example of Spirit-led Praying"
"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may have a walk worthy of the LORD, fully pleasing Him." (Colossians 1:9-10)
"As we have seen, the LORD calls us in various ways to pray without ceasing. Every day in every way, every issue of life is to be engaged through continual, Spirit-led prayer-fullness: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18). In addition to this extensive call to prayer, the word of GOD also gives us heavenly insight concerning the general content of our prayers. Our next meditation reflects this by offering a biblical example of Spirit-led praying.
The Apostle Paul prayed consistently for the believers at Colosse: "do not cease to pray for you." GOD's Will was the primary issue that the Holy Spirit impressed Paul to pray about: "to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His Will." Such praying will ultimately lead people deeper into the word of GOD, where the Will of GOD is revealed. "This is the Will of GOD, your sanctification . . . in everything give thanks; for this is the Will of GOD (revealed) in Christ Jesus for you" (1Thessalonians 4:3; 5:18). Truly understanding GOD's Will requires heavenly insight (spiritual revelation and inward knowing and knowledge of understanding): "in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Of course, this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. "When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all Truth (all things pertaining to Christ)" (John 16:13).
The LORD does not inform us of His Will merely for our curiosity. Knowing GOD's Will is to lead to our actually living GOD's Will: "that you may have a walk worthy of the LORD, fully pleasing Him." Our LORD desires that we walk in a manner that is appropriate for identifying with Him and His great Gospel of Grace. "Only let your conduct be worthy of the Gospel of Christ" (Philippians 1:27). He wants us to be interested in what pleases Him, not what pleases self or the world: "proving what is acceptable [well-pleasing] to the LORD" (Ephesians 5:10). The LORD wants to work in us the heart seen in David's Messianic confession. "I delight to do Your Will, O my GOD, and Your law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8). Bringing the Will of GOD into the heart of man is what the New Covenant of Grace accomplishes. "I will make a New Covenant . . . I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts . . . Who also made us sufficient as ministers [servants] of the New Covenant" (Jeremiah 31:31, 33 and 2Corinthians 3:6). Living in prayerful dependence upon the Grace of GOD will make us true "servants of Christ, doing the Will of GOD from the heart" (Ephesians 6:6).
Waters of Affliction:
Psalm 42:4, 5-8, 9-11 "These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of GOD with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in GOD; for I shall again praise Him, my Salvation and my GOD. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and Your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands His steadfast Love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the GOD of my life.
I say to GOD, my Rock: "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your GOD?" Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in GOD; for I shall again praise Him, my Salvation and my GOD."
Psalm 69:1-4, 5-12, 13 "Save me, O GOD! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my GOD. More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore?
O GOD, You know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from You. Let not those who hope in You be put to shame through me, O LORD GOD of Hosts; let not those who seek You be brought to dishonor through me, O GOD of Israel. For it is for Your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons. For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.
But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O GOD, in the abundance of Your steadfast Love answer me in Your saving faithfulness."
Psalm 88:1-7 "O LORD, GOD of my salvation; I cry out day and night before You. Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry! For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom You remember no more, for they are cut off from Your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You overwhelm me with all Your waves."
Psalm 124:1-5, 6-8 "If it had not been the LORD who was on our side— let Israel now say—if it had not been the LORD Who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters.
Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth! We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped! Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth."
Isaiah 30:18, 19-22 "The LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is the GOD of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.
For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as He hears it, He answers you. And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, "Be gone!"
Jonah 2:1-9 "Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his GOD from the belly of the fish, saying, "I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon Your Holy temple.' The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet You brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my GOD. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to You, into Your Holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to You; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!"
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