When We Pray and Nothing Happens (Luke 18:1-8)

(Luke 18:1-8)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, some people think God chose who he was going to be saved even before they were born. I tend to think He just knew who was going to follow him and who wasn’t. What is your opinion?

ANSWER: It is the age old debate about “election.” God in His omniscience knew before the foundations of the earth was formed who would accept Him and who would reject Him. Having said that, despite His knowledge, man has the free will to accept or reject Christ and God DOES NOT interfere with that free will choice, meaning each person is responsible for what they do with Jesus. Otherwise, there would be no need for preaching the Gospel, there would be no point in evangelizing, and all of the commandments regarding telling others (Romans 10) would be meaningless.

One of the greatest tests of our faith is when we pray about an issue and NOTHING happens. We pray some more, and still nothing happens. We pray until we simply can’t pray any longer. Let me say up front, there are some schools of thought that praying for something more than once shows a lack of faith. I disagree with that conclusion, since we have passages like today’s scripture that show us persistent prayer is encouraged. There is no RIGHT formula for prayer. It is not magic or some sort of mystical formula.

GOD IS NOT OUR PERSONAL GENIE IN A BOTTLE WHO IS SIMPLY WAITING TO RESPOND TO OUR WISHES!!!

The fact is, prayer is simply a conversation we have with our heavenly Father. It is like talking to our best friend, which He is. When we have a close relationship with someone, we may ask them to do something for us and it is done. We might only ask once, and it gets done.

There are some things, especially when it comes to husbands and wives, or children, that we have to ask 5, 10, 20, even 100 times to get it done. We have all been there I am sure. So it is with our relationship with God. We may share a need with God, and almost immediately it is taken care of. However, there may be some issues we pray about over, and over, and over for a long period of time before it is taken care of.

But, there are also some issues that we pray about for long periods of time that are NEVER resolved. It is at these times that we must allow our faith to become real and trust God. While the Bible clearly tells us to ask God for the desires of our heart, and we SHOULD do that, we must always pray with the heart. Jesus did. He said, “YET not my will, but thy will be done.”

Jesus understood that His life was totally surrendered to God. It was God’s life to use as He saw fit. God’s plans may not always be our plans. It is at those times we MUST set aside our desires for His. As we grow spiritually, we actually come to the place Jesus was, when we understand each day that our life belongs totally to God and our desires must be His desires. Hear this one more time.

OUR DESIRES MUST BECOME HIS DESIRES!

I love you and care about you so much. I will be praying for you today, praying that when you have to, you are like the widow and are not afraid to remind God over and over of the great needs that you have in your life. There is nothing wrong with reminding God.

I will also pray that you come to the place in your walk with the Lord where you can say, “Lord, not my will, but Thy will be done,” that place where we trust God enough to not worry when He s “silent”, but have a peace that what God wants is what we want. After all, God’s plans are ALWAYS better than our plans. While our plans don’t always work out the way we expect, God’s plans ALWAYS work out perfectly.

The fact is, God is NEVER silent and NEVER ignoring our prayers. He is simply waiting for His perfect timing to show you the right plan to meet your needs.

***AUGUST FINANCIAL UPDATE: With just 8 days left this month, we are still $9,000 short of covering our shortfall from July. This has never happened in the 13 years of Liveprayer. I am seeking the Lord today that everyone in the Liveprayer family who is able, will send the most generous gift they can so that by the end of today we can cover July’s shortfall and begin working on the $40,000 we need for our August operations as we celebrate 13 yrs of Liveprayer. That $9,000 shortfall is several weeks past due, and $12,000 of our August operations are now weeks past due. I am asking for 7 people who can make a special one-time gift of $3,000 to help me today so we can get our past due obligations caught up.
Each month for 155 months now, God has used the faithfulness of those in the Liveprayer family to help us cover what we need to operate for one more month. Each sacrificing what they are led and able to give to help us meet our needs. MOST EVERYONE CAN SEND SOMETHING. LET ME CHALLENGE YOU TO GIVE A GIFT OF $13, $130, $1300, OR FOR SOME, $13,000. THAT IS $1, $10, $100, OR $1,000 FOR EACH YEAR OF SERVICE. GOD WILL MULTIPLY YOUR GIFT EXPONENTIALLY IN THE LIVES AND SOULS OF THOSE WE REACH WITH HIS TRUTH AND THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!

TO GIVE A GIFT TO THE BIBLE, you can use your major credit card on our secure server at: www.thebiblehomepage.blogspot.com under the “Donation” link, you can give using your PayPal account using my email address: ccc4jesus@gmail.com,or you can mail your gift to: The Bible
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In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
CHARLES C Christopher and Bill

The Mark of the Beast Exists Today

(Revelation 13:16)

“He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead.” Revelation 13:16
Over the years, I have written many times on the fact that we are in the “last days” according to the Bible. All you have to do is read the words of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 24, the words of Paul in 2 Timothy Chapter 3, and the words of Peter in 2 Peter Chapter 3, to see that what they describe as the conditions in the “last days” clearly exist today. Of course no man knows the exact date or time Christ will return, only God knows that, but based on the signs the Bible says will mark the “last days,” it is clear His return is imminent.
Let me explain to you how close we are. Ten ago, I was laughed at when I shared with you about a company called Mondex. Mondex (the word is a combination of the word MONETARY=money and DEXTER=belonging to the right hand) is a company that is providing a cashless system through microchip technology to over 20 major nations at this very moment. The system is based on SMART CARD technology which employs a microchip concealed in a plastic card that stores electronic cash, identification, and other information. 51% of MONDEX is owned by MasterCard.

The microchips for the SMART CARD are made by Motorola. They can produce 1 billion microchips per year and have been in production for over a year now. However, MONDEX has already determined that the SMART CARD has problems such as theft and fraud. The only solution is a biochip that can be implanted in humans. Motorola has developed several human implantable biochips. These biochips are the size of a grain of rice and measure 7 mm long and .075 mm wide. They contain a transponder (a system of storage for reading information in microchips) and a rechargeable lithium battery that is charged by a thermocouple circuit that produces voltage from the fluctuations in body temperature.

Motorola spent over 1.5 million to determine the best place to insert this chip in the human body and came up with only two suitable places…the forehead just under the hairline, and the back of the hand, specifically the RIGHT HAND! Why is this important? Revelation 13:16 says, “He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead.”
Just recently, a hair-thin electronic patch that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo has been developed, that could transform medical sensing, computer gaming, and even spy operations, according to a US study. The micro-electronics technology, called an epidermal electronic system (EES), was developed by an international team of researchers from the United States, China and Singapore, and is described in the Journal of Science.

With these recent developments it begs the question if it is really possible for there to be a one-world government, economy, and religion as the Bible speaks of? When I was going through my formal theological training 20 years ago, I have to admit that I really never saw the probability of some of the things spoken of in the Book of Revelation happening in my lifetime. I thought it was impossible in the world as we knew it in the 90s to ever see a one-world government, or economy, or religion. There were just too many factors that made that type of scenario impossible. Fast forward to the year 2012, and we now live in a world that is ripe for the emergence of a one-world government, economy, and religion.

We have already been living in a global economy for several decades now. China has recently been pushing for a new world currency to replace the dollar. With the weakness of the Euro, the declining value of the dollar, discussion of a new one-world currency takes on a new significance. There is no doubt that due to the economic crisis across the globe, the advent of a one-world currency and economic system could happen rather quickly. Economists will proffer the new one-world currency and economic system as the answer to the current economic crisis that is affecting all of the nations of the world.

A one-world government could easily fall into place as well. With the UN and other organizations involving numerous nations, with the European Union, the reality of a North American Union involving the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the ability to pull together the various governments around the world becomes a much easier task. Once again, the political philosophies of President Obama, make the United States a ripe candidate for these type of alliances that could easily evolve into a one-world government.

Also ripe like never before, is the reality of a one-world religion. With much of the world void of any faith, with the better percentage of two full generations in the United States having never even been to church, there is a great spiritual void in the world that could be easily filled by a one-world religion. Many of the New Age teachings have that type of universal appeal. People, still hunger to fill that spiritual void only being reconnected to God their Creator through faith in Jesus Christ can fill, so the emergence of a one-world religion is more likely today than ever before in human history.

I love you and care about you so much. My purpose today is not to get into a deep discussion of eschatology, or end time events. I am very aware of the many different teachings on end time events. I’ll let others argue the details and intricacies of the last days. My personal thoughts on these end time events is that so much is subjective, so much is not crystal clear from Scripture, that while it is interesting and fun to study, I don’t get too wrapped up or dogmatic about the order of the events, who will be who, and all of the details many get into.

The key is the Jesus is coming back as He promised, the world will ultimately be judged as God unleashes His wrath upon His fallen creation, those who know Jesus as their Savior by faith will be forever in Heaven, and that in the end, God wins!!! The key for you today is that the one-world government, economy, and religion spoken of in the Bible is more of a reality today than ever before. Time is very short and Jesus is coming at any moment.

This is why I am so passionate about the last work God has called me to perform here at Liveprayer, and that is to help lead this nation back to God and to Biblical Truth while we still have that chance. While we minister to the needs of people around the world each day, bring God’s Truth into the marketplace, and lead lost souls to faith in Jesus Christ, leading the United States back to God and to His Truth is the only hope we have to redeem this rebellious nation.

We no longer have the luxury of sitting back in apathy and hoping things will change. Things will only change is we actively initiate the change. We have the power of God with us. We have the Truth of His Word to gudies us. We either sit back and watch our nation continue to sink into the spiritual abyss and lost forever, or we take our stand now and lead this spiritual revolution since the only answer and the only hope we have of escaping God’s continued wrath and judgment is to turn back to our Creator and to Biblical Truth. There is no time left, we must act now!!!

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Charles C. Christopher
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