A TRUMPET IN THE WILDERNESS

 

Trumpet Blast # 65

February, 2014

Jack Hunter, Editor

 

 

Blow a trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm on My Holy Mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near.

Joel 2:1

 

 

Mailing Address:

624 W. University Dr.

PMB #280

Denton, Texas 76201

Telephone: (940) 255-9175

Internet: trumpetblast@centurylink.net

www.atrumpetinthewilderness.org

 

 

                                                     OUR MISSION STATEMENT 

 

1.  We are calling the Church to be holy, and prepare for the Great Tribulation, for it is at hand.

2.  We will trumpet out warnings of wickedness in the Church, our nation, and the world.

3.  We urge the United States to unequivocally stand by the Nation of Israel and for believers in Yeshua (Jesus) to also

     stand by Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

4.  We wholeheartedly stand by our brothers and sisters in the persecuted Church and urgently warn that persecution is

      rapidly approaching this country.

5.  We will proclaim the Word of God, calling all mankind to come to the cross and be washed in the blood of Yeshua

     (Jesus).

 

 

Do You Pray - I Mean Really Pray?

 

We all have heard the adage: “Familiarity breeds contempt.”  But familiarity can also breed complacency. When we hear something so much it can be deafening. This is an article on prayer. Originally I was going to write a two-part article on prayer, now I know it will be a life long work. While I will certainly write various articles, my writings on prayer will never cease, they will only intensify as I hope my prayer life and your prayer life does as well.

 

My challenge in this article is to motivate you to pray - I mean really pray.

  

Several months ago I wrote a two-part article on Believing and all through that article I asked the question: “Do you believe - I mean really believe?” Now all throughout this article I will ask you the question: “Do you pray - I mean really pray?”

 

I believe the greatest sin of the church, its pastors, and most believers is the sin of prayerlessness. When we do pray, I question if we really pray.  Too many people recite their prayers, think their prayers, but never pray them!

 

I do not have the spiritual insight or the intellectual ability to write an in-depth article on prayer. There are many articles and books that far surprise anything I could ever write. My feeble attempt to even try to duplicate others would be futile.  

 

Andrew Murray has perhaps written eight or nine tremendous books on prayer.   

One of the best and memorable   quotes on  prayer is by the prayer warrior himself E.M. Bounds: “What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use - men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men - men of prayer.”

 

Men, like Dick Eastman and others have added their insight on prayer, so I have nothing to add, it has all been written. So what is my purpose? It is to motivate you to pray.

 

I ask this: Do you pray - I mean really pray?

 

We must take note that Yeshua never taught His disciples how to preach or teach, but he did teach them how to pray!

 

Prayer, I mean real prayer is a language of its own. If you are perfected in your spirit, your heart will be ready, earnest, and willing to pray in its own language. When we pray, I mean really pray we find that our hearts change for the better and we will pursue holiness and seek to have the mind of Christ!

 

We must learn to make God the absolute rule and measure of our prayers and we must make sure we are praying according to His will and when we leave what I call the “prayer chamber” we must leave more holy than we entered. Above all as we pursue the day we must have the same vigor that we had in the “prayer chamber”.

When we pray we must pray that self is crucified in that even while we are praying we pray we have no thoughts or desires that are our own, but only one of a true, meek, and lowly spirit.

 

As you really enter into divine prayer you will learn to rejoice in being a worm, little and lowly, not only in your own eyes, but you will be content and rejoice that others share the same opinion of you.  

 

I ask you do you pray - I mean really pray?

 

Do you not realize that when you pray, I mean really pray you can be so connected with the Father and His divine presence and become so convicted of your sins that those prayers can only be confessed in the language of tears.

It is important to note that prayers that begin in haste, spoken in haste and end in haste will  at best produce a fleeting walk with the Lord or no walk at all!           

When you enter into divine prayer you are in the midst of the God-head. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all present and they are One. What an honor and blessed thrill to sit in the company of this Mighty and Holy Triune and as they are One, you can be united as one with Them. This is unspeakable joy.

Please hear me in the name of Yeshua. We must rediscover or discover what it means to pray, I mean really pray! I ask you:  Do you pray - I mean really pray?

 

The real and true prayer will seek no one exalted except Him and Him alone! We must ask that we ourselves will be destroyed, that our thoughts will no longer exist!  We must seek to have no thoughts, plans, or desires that are apart from His holy thoughts and desires.  Then our thoughts will be holy and by His grace so will our actions! We must ask and even plead to be brought low so we can be lifted up and become strong and develop spiritual hinds feet to enable us to tread on the high places with our Master!  I believe one result of prayer is to strip ourselves of self so it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives.

A minister cannot lead his congregation any higher than he himself is.  This is one reason we must never depend on any man to lead us into the deeper things of the Lord. While it is certainly true that God has, is, and will continue to use individuals to instruct us and help guide us into the deeper things of the God, spiritual knowledge can only come about as we get on our knees and allow the Holy Spirit to teach us in to all truth.

Do you pray - I mean really pray?  

I cry out to you in the Name of Yeshua - spend quantity and quality with the Lord.

Real prayers have become out of date, they have become Neolithic. They have been replaced with show-time hyper bombastic prayers. But these are not new and novel prayers; they have been round since Yeshua warned against them.

When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.         Matthew 6:6-7

The Greek word used for “room” is “tameion” which means an inner storage chamber or a secret room.

While I think it is extremely important to have a certain place to pray, this does not have to be.  What is being taught is that spending time alone with the Lord is not only important, but it is absolutely vital for any kind of spiritual growth!

There is an important point Yeshua is making. He is not saying to be terse in our prayers, but we are not to make a mockery out of them. Mockery or hypocritical prayers    were spoken   then and are spoken now! You can watch this on television, hear it over the radio, and witness it in some of our pulpits and church-goers.  People want not only to appear holy, but to sound holy as well. This is bombastic rhetoric   spoken with tongues of hypocrisy!  Yeshua said they have their reward and their reward is basically the ones hearing them and the accolades they bestow.  

As you study the life of Yeshua, you find out that He sought to be alone with the Father. Sometimes He would climb a mountain. Sometimes He went into the wilderness. Sometimes He went into a garden. You see, it is the secret place that is the sacred place.

Many church members are under the power of the flesh. When you do not destroy the flesh it thrives, and our spirit is quenched to the point that even it can die. The flesh can thrive so much; it can transmute into an evil Cyclops!

 


What I Do:

 

I usually go to my study, which has four large windows in it; as I watch the sun rise in the East, the Son of God rises anew and afresh in my heart.

Sometimes I go outside, other times I may get in my truck and drive some place, but the most important action I take is to be alone with the Lord.

 

I prefer to spend two hours in the early morning - what I simply call “My morning Watch”. The phrase was certainly not coined by me; that phrase has been around for many years. Others call it there “quiet time”, many simply call it their devotion. 

I often just sit and do nothing for awhile. After I am still and quiet, I begin my main prayer with praise. I lift up my hands and praise Him. No one is around to try and impress or disgust - it is just me and God. I talk to Him in language I know. I don’t try to impress Him.

I confess my sins and ask forgiveness. This is most important. Unconfessed sin is deadly to your relationship with the Father. I believe it is important to mention each sin by name.

 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9  

 

I will often sing to the Lord and for the Lord.  I think it is so ironic that there is only one in the entire universe who loves to hear me sing and that is the One who created the universe. The lord loves to hear my “melodious” voice of praise. Believe me; it is only melodious to Him.

The Lord will actually sing over us.

 

The Lord thy God, in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest I His love, He will joy over thee with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

 

Just think, God will sing over you!

 

As you pray, be sure to praise Him in your prayers, even if your voice is as terrible as mine, for the Lord covets the praise of His people. He will enjoy your singing as He does mine. What a mighty and loving God we serve!

 

While this article is about prayer, reading His Holy Word should always be part of your time with the Lord!

 

 

As a footnote may I add – Never get so familiar with the Father that you refer to Him “as the Man upstairs”! While we are to approach the throne of God boldly, we are to always be reverent and yes full of awe. We must never lose the fear of God!         

 

I have committed many sins and those sins have hurt even more than I care to think about, including my own children.  I have deep regrets and the consequences go on and on and on.  Perhaps as much as I regret those sins I regret more the lack of time spent in prayer – real prayer during those times in my life. If I had spent more time in prayer and wasted less time in prayerlessness I do not believe those sins I regret so much would have ever occurred!

 

This is basically an introduction on prayer. I will be writing other articles, I close by asking you this one question: Do you pray - I mean really pray?

 

 

  

Now may the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob bless you through His Son Yeshua.

In His Service,

Jack Hunter

  

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