Exploring open prayer
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Matthew 22:37
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
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What we know about prayer is that it is reaching out with hearts and minds and souls to God. Please note what is not mentioned is the body. Because the unseen qualities if God are uniquely tied to our unseen qualities that do not rely on the flesh. Our mind is our conscience which is not based on the brain, our heart is not based on or emotions but is aswell an expression of love which is the foundation of all life and is spiritual, and the soul which is the image of God within this vessel. All unseen qualities.
As Christians, our prayers are guided by the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Truth is a part, of the Father and His Authority. Christ is the Authority. The three are one, and when we carry prayers because of our faith in Jesus, we have that wholeness in us, as well as we are in that wholeness. All of this is of the unseen qualities of God.
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1 Thessalonians 5:17,18
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Pray without ceasing.
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In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
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'In every thing give thanks' does not mean give thanks for everything. There is a key to this that Paul is referring to. If the fullness of this chapter of Paul's letter to the Thessalonians is read correctly, you see that Paul is referring to what is said in Job for example: *He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.* - we are to be thankful for the good and the bad, as they all serve to strengthen us.
We have been told we can pray without ceasing. This is because in ourselves is an inner voice, that is capable of speaking without words being said. We can give thanks all day long in secret, we can ask for strength and guidance for ourselves and others, while remaining silent. It is a trait that some lose because they do not recognize this capacity, and instead rely on their flesh; their senses and emotions to express themselves to those who can witness them. But prayer does not need this, as a matter of fact, part of spiritual living is denying the vessel and relying on the unseen qualities.
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Luke 22:25
25
Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.
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In ancient times, governance was heavily reliant on using religion to control the will of the people. We know that we are as Christians supposed to honor the authorities of man, as if we were serving the Lord directly. But where the line is drawn, is making the authority of man an extension of Christ's authority. Christ's authority is in everything, yes, but it describes the will of the Father. For a human authority to honor the Father through the Son, that authority would have to act solely on the will of God. It would have to separate God from Money, treat everyone as equals, love its enemy, serve all others to be recognized as leaders, and devote itself to faith, allowing others to witness holiness come through it. This obviously cannot occur with a human authority simply because it is founded on the acquisition of wealth, power, and influence. So ancient governments would embrace man made religions to control the population through spiritual favor.
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Matthew 22:21
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Jesus said "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."
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When a Pharisee or a chief priest would stand up in the temple, or in a gathering, or out in the street, they would pray aloud so all could hear them. By doing so, they were forcing others to witness what they considered their righteous behavior, creating a sense of holy authority, which we know through Jesus, was hypocritical and essentially wicked. It was hypocritical because the prayers were done so people believed them as carrying righteousness, yet their acts in private were in opposition to what they prayed about openly. And the prayers stemmed from wickedness, because the Lord knew what was in their hearts and minds, therefore knew their will, which was not at all the will of the Father. If it was the will of the Father, Christ would have had no reason to come among us/them. So open prayer has always been a showing of human authority, whether as groups or as individuals.
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Matthew 6:5
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"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
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If a family gathers for a meal, and a prayer of thanks is given for the food they are receiving, whose will is being served? They are after all thankful for what they have prepared, and what was prepared was earned in a worldly manor in every circumstance. So giving thanks to the Father for that food, is qualifying what was gained by their will. Yes. It is identical as giving thanks for the murder of your enemy; it was done by human will, not the Father's.
Now, if we gather to praise God, openly giving thanks to the Father for understandings, for witnessing holiness that comes through the acts of one another, for His Spirit and His Authority granting us the service of His will, then that praise is like a song heard in heaven. But for us to be thankful for what we gain through the world is not acknowledging His authority, no, it is acknowledging the principalities that we in this flesh must rely upon to exist. And the only work the Father recognizes is what fruits comes from belief in the One He sent.
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John 6:29
29
Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
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Am I suggesting that we do not give thanks for the food we eat? I am simply saying when you do, you are not honoring Christ's authority nor the will of God. Instead, you claim Lord! Lord! In your name! In your name! And yet give thanks for what you did of your own will.
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Matthew 7:21-23
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“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
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Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’
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Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
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So people who sing or play music of devotion, are they not honoring the Father through Christ they claim? I simply reply, what they receive is all they will receive. For they are like a man who denies God yet acts in a manor that he knows to be good in his self interests. He receives his worldly wage, and honors only the knowledge he has. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
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Luke 18:1-7
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Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
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He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.
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And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
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“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think,
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yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ”
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And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.
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And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?
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I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
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Now having shared all this, I ask you, is it the will of God to have prayers said in public school? Simply, it is a work of human authority that is attempting to claim righteousness to empower its own will. It also harms those who do not know the gospel of faith, and will likely have the opposite effect. The sense of piety will be nothing more than vanity gained, and all while being said to honor Jesus name.
The conscience that seeks God in unseen ways, finds their inner voice prayers heard. Remove from yourself the religious and social misconceptions that honor worldliness in Jesus name. The Kingdom is open to those who can set themselves aside. Otherwise they are only doing what their knowledge and reactions describe and call it holy.
Glory to the Father through His Son.
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