Prayer And Belief

Sermon by: Jared Thompson

Written by: Amy Adams

The thing that has completely engulfed the modern church today is disbelief. Do you really believe in prayer? Do you actually believe the Creator of the Universe hears what you say when you pray and takes it into consideration? A lot of us will run to scripture before we run to prayer. We have stopped believing in the most powerful force that has been given to mankind: prayer. Now it’s become a bi-product of being a modern Christian.

We sometimes bring in people as buffers to hang out with someone we don’t know very well when we’re not good at small talk. Sometimes we do the same thing with prayer. Every so often, we don’t know what to talk about with our heavenly Father. We insert people in between us and God too. We are severely disconnected from the person that we were meant to communicate with. Because Abraham believed and had faith, righteousness was attached to him. Belief is the number one thing we all struggle with. We go through so much effort to decipher the Bible without trying to get an actual relationship with God and with our belief in Him.

Putting scripture as a buffer is quite dangerous. It was written for you, not to you. Scripture is more of a to-do list. Tabernacle worship was never intended. When God helped the Israelites out of Egypt, He tried to form a relationship with us before Jesus came along. Genesis 1:26-27 says: “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” We are not God. We are however, created in His image. He made us like we are so we could be right with Him. Throughout the Bible, man gets scared numerous times and steps away from God. Why were they scared? We don’t know. Nowadays, we are still struggling with a belief issue and continuing to deal with faith at a fundamental level.

The next time you hear of something that could potentially kill you, how scared would you get? You should be thinking so much about eternity in heaven that you get happy when you hear of someone about to die. We are so earthly minded to the point we are no eternal good. There is nothing in church that is supposed to be natural and has no natural purpose. The Bible is full of symbolic metaphors and literal meanings. Christ died for the church. Ecclesia is Greek for a gathering of people and when we refer to church, it is meant to be a group of people. However, our definition of church comes from a German word that means a building: kirche. We are supposed to be a body of people who are so spiritually minded that nothing in the natural matters.

Eternity has already begun – without ending and beginning; God bonds all of eternity together. He is not some force to manipulate to our own benefit. God is not a force you can manipulate at all. He sees your heart. We have lost all focus, all meaning and all concept of what it really means to know God. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.” John 17:25, 26. All of John 17 talks about eternity and that they may know God and Jesus, whom He sent. The entire purpose of creation is to know God. The church is meant to get people to know God and build a relationship with Him, almost like you would with anyone else. The church is missing the mark completely. It’s not supposed to be about saving people from going to hell but about having a relationship with the Father.

What’s the core factor of being a Christian? To believe. We are trying to escape something God said to dominate. We need to return back to the original purpose in which man was created by doing things the way God does things; not our way but His. We are supposed to do things God’s way on Earth as He does things in Heaven.

Basileia is Greek for the right or authority to rule over a kingdom, not the actual kingdom itself. It can also be the way a king does things. If there are multiple kingdoms, you are either partaking in God’s kingdom or the kingdom of the world also known as hell. In other words, you are either advancing the kingdom of heaven or hell with every action you take. How do we push forward the kingdom if we don’t even know the sound of His voice? It’s kind of like knowing about and of someone who is famous but not actually having a relationship with them.

Real belief is putting some weight on our beliefs. If we’re considered gates or access points, we are essentially an open door and have the option to enter heaven’s gates or hell’s gates. Being a good, moral person is a natural thing, not spiritual. Scripture is given for spiritual understanding for natural application. If you are focused on the natural, you will be advancing another kingdom. We have missed the whole point about how God said to do things because we think we are good and moral. We seek gifts instead of the Giver. You cannot be casual with the kingdom of God. It is a total change in your thought process.

How do I actually do what God told me to do? The things that used to be important to you no longer matter. You should strive to know the voice of God in order to do things His way. Self-evaluate how naturally focused vs. spiritually focused you are. Here’s an experiment: download a counter app and then tap how many times you think about the natural one day vs. spiritual the next day. He takes the very thing that we do in the natural and uses it to His benefit. Our battles ebb and flow as we slowly start to take the kingdom of God back. Don’t get weary in doing well.