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
Today, you will pray about your personal desires and ambitions. Scripture tells us in Rom 8:7 that the mind (emotions) controlled or governed by the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to the law of God and therefore cannot please God.
When God refines you, your desires come under the influence of the Holy Spirit making it possible for you to walk with God, pleasing Him. Your fleshly desires are mostly selfish and God purifies your desires in the place of prayer, removing the selfish and lustful desires like dross is removed from silver. (Prov 25: 4: Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer) God changes your desires to begin to reflect His own desires. Your affections are touched by God and you will begin to desire what God wants.
Look at Jesus as He prayed at Gethsemane; as He prayed, His desires began to change to desire the will of God. God will reset your priorities as we pray this prayer and we will soon discover that we desire to do the will of God. Your flesh will be changed to be willing. He touches your souls and your appetites change. And we can say like the Psalmist in Psalm 40:8 “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.”
Your prayers today will be that the Lord will refine your desires and your affections until all things that surround you become shadows in His light. May you begin to love the things that God loves and hate what He hates. Until you come to God and ask Him to change you, your fleshly desires will always run contrary to the will of God for your lives.
Come humbly before God today and ask Him to change your desires.
Phil 2:13 (AMP) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
May the Lord work in you, creating in you the power and desire for His will in Jesus name.
SONGS:
1. Change my heart O Lord;
2. Breathe on me breath of God
PRAYER: REFINE MY PERSONAL DESIRES, O LORD
Pray this prayer in your understanding and then proceed to pray in other tongues:
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
That You will change my desires, my affections, my dreams and ambitions
Make me love the things that You love and to hate the things you hate
Lord, I ask that You create in me a clean and a pure heart and to renew a right spirit within me
Purify my desires, affections and ambitions
Purify my thoughts and dreams to reflect Yours alone
Take away from me every hypocrisy and the fear of men
Take away from me the longing and desire for man’s approval
Lord, give me again the joy that comes from Your salvation, and make me willing to obey You.
I give You the right of way to deal with my soul touching my emotions
Sit upon me and touch my inner self
I yield myself fully to You Lord
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: Phil 2:13 (AMP) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
