Prayer and Promises

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. — John 17:3,18,19, NASB 

The Lord does not choose or accept laborers according to the numerous advantages which they have enjoyed, or according to the superior education which they have received. The value of the human agent is estimated according to the capacity of the heart to know and understand God. 

This knowledge is the secret spring from which flows all power. It is through the exercise of the faculty of faith that we are enabled to receive and practice the word of God… There is no if about God’s requirements; His word is yea and amen. There can be no question in the heart of faith as to the power of God to perform His promises. Pure faith works by love, and purifies the soul. 

Jesus said: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” All things are possible with God, and by faith we may lay hold on His power. But faith is not sight; faith is not feeling; faith is not reality. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” To abide in faith is to put aside feeling and selfish desires, to walk humbly with the Lord, to appropriate His promises, and apply them to all occasions, believing that God will work out His own plans and purposes in your heart and life by the sanctification of your character; it is to rely entirely, to trust implicitly, upon the faithfulness of God. If this course is followed, others will see the special fruits of the Spirit manifested in the life and character. 

There is no limit to the usefulness of those who put self to one side, make room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts, and live lives wholly sanctified to the service of God, enduring the necessary discipline imposed by the Lord without complaining or fainting by the way. If they will not faint at the rebuke of the Lord, and become hard-hearted and stubborn, the Lord will teach both young and old, hour by hour, day by day. He longs to reveal His salvation to the children of men; and if His chosen people will remove the obstructions, He will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through the human channels. 

— Fundamentals of Christian Education, p.341,346 

My Father, thank You for sending Your dear Son, Jesus Christ, into the world that I may know Him and understand Your truth. Give me a heart to receive Your words of truth and Your promises, which are Yes and Amen in Christ. Work out Your own plans and purposes in my life, for my life is Yours. Make me a channel from which You may pour out the waters of salvation in abundant streams. All things are possible with You, O Lord, You have all power to perform Your great and precious promises!