EXHORTATION:
Epp 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 places 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 its 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 our lives that God proves or touches with His fire to melt it and we will touch on each one for the next few days; asking the Lord to refine us, to cleanse us and purge us as gold and silver so that our lives truly reflect His image. For the next five days, the five areas we will touch on as we pray for the Lord to pass through the refiner’s fire are:
- Your personal desires
- Your self-pride
- Your motives
- Secret faults and presumptuous sins
- Your yieldedness/consecration
We have already touched on the first one yesterday. Today, we will pray about SELF PRIDE.
The natural man is full of pride and this would always set us up against The Lord. Pride makes God resist us thereby making it impossible for God to draw near to us. James 4: 6: But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Every human being is proud except the ones that allow the Lord to break this nature in them. As we go into prayer this morning, God will work on your soul breaking the hardness of your soul which results in pride and rebellion.
The cause of your rebellion towards God is a hardened heart. Pharaohs heart was hardened and therefore did not put value upon the Word of the Lord. Such attitudes come from a prideful heart which is a result of a hardened soul. As you pray, God will pass that hardened and prideful soul through the refiner’s fire and you will come out humbled before Him.
Have you noticed that every time God meets a man, He deals with their pride first? Check out the encounters of men like Moses, Zacchaeus, Isaiah, Daniel, Paul, etc with God. The first thing that was touched by the finger of God in these men’s lives was their pride. Pride had to die otherwise that encounter would not have proceeded further. Pride always sets God against you and if He doesn’t deal with your pride, you will come under His wrath rather than His mercy.
It is a humble soul that attracts the grace and mercy of God. James 4:6 (AMPC) But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it)
The prayer today will be that the Lord will break your pride as He passes you through the refiner’s fire. Lord break my pride and rebellious nature, bring me to my knees.
May the Lord work in you, breaking your pride.
Ps 19:13(NCV) Keep me from the sins of pride; don’t let them rule me. Then I can be pure and innocent of the greatest of sins.
SONG: Draw me close to You
PRAYER: BREAK MY PRIDE O LORD; MELT ME AND MOLD ME
Make the prayer below in your understanding and then proceed to pray in the Holy Ghost:
As I come to the place of prayer, I bring myself to God’s workshop
I present myself as the clay for the potter to mold and to make into what He chooses
I surrender myself to the refiner to refine me in the fire
So that all impurities in my life will be removed
Lord, take away the dross from my life so that my life will become a vessel you can use
I ask you Lord, that as I begin to pray and draw near to Your presence
Break every stubbornness of heart and pride in my soul
Bring me to my knees in humble submission under Your mighty hand
Make me see my poverty and emptiness without You
Keep me from the sins of pride; don’t let them rule me
Then I can be pure and innocent of the greatest of sins.
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 to seek Your honor only
Sit upon me and touch the little sins that take me away from You
Holy Spirit, work in me to humble myself under the mighty hand of God
Work in me make myself of no reputation and to be poor in spirit
I yield myself fully to you Lord
I give my life to You, take me Lord and use me for Your glory alone
Pass me through the refiner’s fire and remove the dross from the silver as you break away every pride in my soul
As I stay in the presence of God, Holy Spirit, give me utterance to pray as I ought
Let the work begin right now in my spirit, soul and my body in Jesus’ name.
VERSE OF THE DAY: James 4:10 (AMPC) Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].
