tomdurst
Full Member
member is offline
![[homepage]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/www_sm.gif)
Joined: Feb 2006
Gender: Male 
Posts: 125
Location: Spokane, Washington
|  | PRAYING FOR THE WORLD
« Thread Started on Aug 24, 2008, 9:08am » | ![[Quote]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/quote.gif) |
PRAYING FOR THE WORLD
By Thomas E. Durst
God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six. Genesis 1:31 (The Message)
God has spoken once, twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God. Psalm 62:11 (Amplified Bible)
Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you're there!
If I go underground, you're there!
If I flew on morning's wings
to the far western horizon,
You'd find me in a minute—
you're already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I'm immersed in the light!"
It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you. Psalm 139:7-12 (The Message)
Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies." Zechariah 4:6 (New Living Translation)
One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:6 (New International Version)
Here are some of the principles that I find in Scripture which to me are so very wonderful in praying for the welfare of the world in general as well as specific problems and discords, such as adverse weather, approaching storms, troubled situations, etc. Some of these principles are:
1. In the world of God's true creation which is wholly perfect and spiritual all discords have no true reality in the sense that God didn't create them. Everything that He created was declared to be good--not discordant (see Genesis 1:31). Our goal should always be to see God's true creation restored to consciousness. Sometimes this is referred to as a "new heavens and a new earth" but actually it is becoming aware of what is already there.
2. Approaching the world from this spiritual perspective tends to move us from matter, the material, to the spiritual truth of our being in His image and likeness.
3. This viewpoint moves us to have complete hope and faith in God who is both omnipotent (all powerful) and omnipresent (everywhere present).
4. Approaching world problems from this perspective takes our attention away from the specific problem and helps us to focus on God from whom only all solutions can come. If we continue to focus on a problem and trying to fix it or make it go away we are locking ourselves into the the level of the problem itself. The focus must always be on God who ALONE is true power. Along with this is a spiritual realization of the utter NOTHINGNESS of all other so-called powers.
5. When praying about the needs of the world we can use these scriptural principles and truly make a difference. We can pray for our eyes to be opened to see the image and likeness of God in others, to see the allness of God that is always here, to see that God is ultimately in control, etc.
I encourage you to work with these principles. Start with your immediate environment such as your home, your neighborhood, your workplace, etc. I've seen wonderful improvement in my apartment complex simply by applying these basic spiritual tools. The simple prayer PEACE BE STILL in and of itself can make profound changes. Try it and see.
The path we often follow is to use human will power or force of some kind and this doesn't bring true healing, genuine peace, and long term restoration which should always be our goal (Zechariah 4:6).
|
To read more of my articles and my personal testimony go to the links below:
http://www.tomdurst.com/
http://tomdurst.livejournal.com |
|
![[Search This Thread]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Reply]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/reply.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Author
Logged
Thank you!