EXHORTATION:
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
The platform of prayer puts you in God’s workshop, giving God an opportunity to mould you using the ministry of the word and the Holy Spirit as tools to shape you into His image. Every man or woman who has found use in God’s hands were those who allowed God to make them in the privacy of His workshop, also called the secret place of the Most High.
You must be convinced that what prayer accomplishes in your inner self is more than what it does outside of you, the benefits of being in the presence of God is beyond earthly benefits as we could easily observe from the prayer life of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Heb 5:7)
Ex 20:20: Moses said to the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not
God asked the people to draw near to Him in order for Him to prove them. The word prove is the same word used by the refiner or blacksmith to refine gold in the fire until it’s purified. Mal 3:3 He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah be pleasant unto the Lord…
In other words, until the refiner works on Judah, their offerings would not be pleasant unto the Lord.
There are many areas in your life that God proves or touches with His fire to melt it and you will touch on each one for the next few days; asking the Lord to refine you, to cleanse you so that your life truly reflect His image. Five areas we will ask the Lord to touch and to pass through the refiner’s fire are our personal desires; your self-pride; your motives; secret sins; your yieldedness/consecration. We have already touched on the first two on the list.
Today, you will ask the Lord to purify your motives; like the Psalmist prayed in Ps 55: 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. The Holy Spirit works on your motives purifying your inner self. He works in you to create pure motives in you, purging your consciences from dead works and hypocrisy so that your life will be well-pleasing unto Him in Jesus’ name.
God rejected Eliab because his heart was not right, God looks at the heart and not the outward appearance.
Your motives reflect your true self, why do you do what we do? You will ask God today to purge your motives, Lord, may my inner life be acceptable unto you in Jesus’ name.
Ps 86:11 (NLT) Teach me your ways, O Lord,that I may live according to your truth!Grant me purity of heart,so that I may honor you.
Zech 13:9 (ESV) And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’
SONG: Create in me a clean heart, O Lord
PRAYER: THE REFINER’S FIRE: PURIFY MY MOTIVES, O LORD.
Make the prayer below in your understanding and then pray in the Holy Ghost:
Heavenly father, in the name of Jesus
Lord, I humble myself before your throne of grace
To ask you to forgive me for everything good I did from an impure motive
Father, your word says let nothing be done out of selfish ambition and conceit
And when I ask, I do not receive because I ask with the wrong motive
Forgive me Father and purify my motive
Because I need to be in your presence
Do not cast me away
When my actions and decisions have been motivated by pride or greed or unforgiveness or insecurity
Forgive me and deliver me Lord
Where I have done anything to prove a point or motivated by a spirit of competition
Or the need to please people or the need to be seen
Deliver me Lord
Break me free from impure motives in the name of Jesus
Create in me a clean heart, O lord
And renew a right spirit within me
I want to be free from impure motives and intentions Lord
For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty and freedom
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
And uphold me with your free spirit
Purify my thoughts and motives and intentions Dear Lord,
Let my intentions and actions be pleasing in your sight
Take away from me the longing and desire for man’s applause
Take away from me the desire of my flesh to be seen and praised by men
Seeking the honor of men rather than the honor of God
And help me seek your honor only
As I stay in the presence of God, praying in other tongues
Holy Spirit, give me utterance to pray as I ought
Let the work of God begin right now in my soul
To create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me in Jesus’ name.
VERSE OF THE DAY: Matt 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
