by donfinto | Aug 8, 2018 | The Good Report
Amazing when you consider it! Jesus has asked us to be shamelessly persistent, shamelessly audacious in prayer.
You see, there was this man and his family who were already in bed for the night when a friend of his had unexpected guests arrive and he had nothing to offer them. So this man went to his already-in-bed friend’s house, saw that the family was already in bed – the lights were obviously already out – and kept knocking insistently until his friend yelled from the bedroom. “Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you” (Luke 11: 5-13 NLT).
Then Jesus tells us, “But I tell you this – though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence (The NIV translates this “shameless audacity”).
“And so I tell you (this is Jesus talking), keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
I’m stoked about this. Do you have anything you’ve been asking for that you have not yet received, but you are still sure that this is within the will of God? Have you been seeking, but have not yet found that for which you are seeking? Have you been knocking but have had no response?
Keep going for it! Keep asking! Keep seeking. Keep knocking. That what’s Jesus says to do. “Shameless persistence.”
by donfinto | Jul 25, 2018 | The Good Report
Ruler of the kings of the earth
Revelation 1:5
I like that verse! Jesus is the Ruler of the kings of the earth! No one gets into power in any country without His knowledge and even His permission. He will work everything to His glory!
“The Most High is Sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes,” Nebuchadnezzar found out (Daniel 4:18).
Yes, we are afforded an opportunity to vote for Godly people in governmental possessions (something unheard of in earlier times), but we also can know that God will use whoever is in power in the nations. He will do this in our own nation, to move the world toward the final harvest of souls from around the world and judgment upon wickedness.
Trust! Pray! He is in control!
by donfinto | Jul 18, 2018 | The Good Report
I was sitting in the prayer room alone, scanning through Scripture to pray into existence what God has ordained.
I paused already in Exodus 33 where Moses is having this conversation with the LORD (something I hope all of us have regularly).
“Teach me your ways,” Moses was asking (still a very valid prayer for you and me).
“My Presence will go with you…” God assured.
Moses’ response? “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here… What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
His Presence! His distinguishing Presence! That’s it. I spent the rest of the morning praying that I will walk more confidently and consciously in His Presence – in every conversation – in aloneness time – in the midst of much activity.
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” Jesus promised us (Matthew 28:20). If He is with us, and His Presence is the primary distinguishing characteristic of who we are, may we walk intentionally, constantly and joyfully forward in and with Him.
There’s another pretty amazing tag line in God’s answer to Moses: “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Presence is the path to rest.
