Choose to Lose Self
To Lose Self is to Find Life
The level of your prayer life will always correspond to the level of your spiritual development. As you grow spiritually, your prayer life will develop to different heights. Soulish, emotional prayers will give way to effectual prayers that issue from the heart of God revealed in you.
Effective prayers are not motivated by emotions but by the Spirit of God. Jesus said to His disciples:
I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is.
John 16:12 (THE MESSAGE)
Are you ready to receive truth – truth about personal strongholds, truth about yourself? If we are to become effective as channels of intercessory prayer, we must lay aside our egotistical love for self and let go of self-preservation tactics. When you choose to love God and seek first His righteousness, the personal strongholds will be exposed and you will use the name of Jesus to cast them down. Dare to become vulnerable to God who loves you unconditionally. Your desires will change, and you will pray for God’s Kingdom to come and His will be done on earth even as it is in heaven.
Jesus said that he who loses his life shall find it. (Matt.10:39.) As we grow in grace and the Holy Spirit reveals more truth to us about ourselves, we have to make choices. God will not deliver us from ourselves. He performs His will in us as we submit to the constant ministry of transformation and renew our minds to the Word of God. It is time to let go of all things that so easily beset us.
God loves us enough to bring correction and give us instruction. This correction may be painful, but it is exciting to experience the ministry of transformation administered by the Spirit. Prayer makes tremendous power available to us when we believe. And when we grow in confidence, our prayers make tremendous power available to others.
I am so thankful that God loves us enough to correct and discipline us, shows us where we are missing the mark. Our lives become the road God walks when we make a determined choice to be conformed to the counsel of His will.
Copyright © 2007 by Germaine Copeland
Germaine Copeland is the author of the best selling book series, Prayers That Avail Much. She has written scriptural prayers for the family. Read your Bible, pray and attend church where you can soak up the love and faith of God. You will receive emotional healing, experience spiritual growth and become more intimately acquainted with your Heavenly Father, and your relationships will grow stronger.