In the World, Not of It

Many of us have heard that:  as a Christian, you are in the world, yet not of it.

How does that happen?

The Sunday School answer is that Christ is in you, so you are to be different.  The reality is it is immensely difficult.  The world is very tempting:  physically, emotionally, spiritually.  We look to the world for good times, good advice, and good feelings.  As a Christian, we are to always look to Christ.  For His strength, His Word, His Power, His Love, His Mission.  

Then, when we do look to Him, and when we proclaim Him, the world wants nothing to do with us.  We see this all the time – from celebrities who profess Christ and are ridiculed, to professing Christ to friends and not getting as many invitation to parties.

Jesus says that His followers would “have His joy fulfilled in themselves”  (John 17: 13).  How can we have joy when we are persecuted?  When we suffer dishonor for His name?  How can we truly live in this world, yet not be of it.

This Sunday at Bellwether, we try to answer that question.  We will focus on John 17 and the message is Jesus’ Prayer.  In Jesus’ Prayer, He shows us how we can have His joy, and how we can live in this world now, yet be completely His – which is not of this world.

We hope you can be with us for worship Sunday morning.

We hope you will pray, as we continue “Utter Dependence – Prayer & Fasting.”  You can text in prayer requests, time prayed or fasted, and testimonies to 601.896.3200.

We hope you will be with us Sunday Night for our Night of Worship at 6:30pm.  And bring a friend!  

The Holy Spirit in Prayer

Many people ask these questions:  why should I pray?  Does it really work?  What happens in prayer?   

The short answer to such questions would be: Yes, in prayer we are communicating with God our Heavenly Father.  He is with us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

How all this happens is reliant and dependent on that, the power of the Holy Spirit.  He (not an it - the 3rd person of the Trinity) is our Mediator, Helper, Counselor, and Advocate.  He is real.  He speaks to us in our prayer.  He reveals the things of God to us, as amazing as that sounds.  1 Corinthians 2: 12 says - "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God."  

That we may understand the things of God - our sin, the Truth of our salvation in Christ, and His guidance - by prayer.

We are focusing on prayer during this Lenten campaign called:  "Utter Dependence - Prayer & Fasting."  As we pray and look at prayer in Scripture, we must focus on the Holy Spirit - who leads us and speaks to us in prayer and even prays for us......when we don't know how. 

Ultimately, if we have salvation in Christ, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Often, we don't fully know or understand the power of the Holy Spirit - what He can do in prayer for us and through us.  We hope to help you understand what He can do for you as our Helper, Counselor, Advocate, and Mediator.  We want you to know this, believe this, and feel His presence in your prayers in a fuller, greater way.  Because if Christ is in us, the Holy Spirit is speaking and working on us.

This is our focus Sunday morning as we worship at Bellwether - "The Holy Spirit in Prayer."  Our Scripture passage will be John 16: 7-16.  We hope you can be with us for worship and prayer as we lead up to Holy Week & Easter Resurrection.

More so, we hope you will know how the Holy Spirit helps you in prayer and even prays for you.  May we all rely on Him to fill our lives.

Life...IN...Prayer

Often we hear about people who lead a life OF prayer.  We all know them - saints, pastors, mentors, or simply our "prayer warriors."  Hopefully we all have them in our lives.  

We can easily say - "that's not me.  I can't lead a life of prayer.  It's not my gift or my thing."  Instead we focus on achieving, accomplishing, producing, and doing.  We let other people pray for us.  Until things in life hit the fan and we fall on our knees.  

What if, instead of thinking about living a life OF prayer, we lived a life IN prayer.  That is, each day, we were constantly lifting up prayers:  when we woke up, during meals, driving our car, in between meetings, playing with our children, even in the middle of a conversation (they won't realize you're doing it) and before we end our day.  What if we could focus our life being lived IN prayer.  

Every day.  Every hour.  Lifting up prayers.  To Christ.  In Christ.  For Christ.   

We can do this.  And it will benefit us.  It will draw us closer to God.  We will be in constant communication with Him.  We will hear Him more.  We will, I believe, see results.  Even if it may not always be the result we want.  

"Utter Dependence:  Prayer & Fasting" continues over Lent at Bellwether Church. We hope you are praying more.  We hope you are fasting from something to get closer to God.  Why?  Because life in prayer matters, is real, and what our lives are to be all about.  It is life with God, our Heavenly Father.

Sunday we talk more about what Life IN Prayer looks like.  Our Scripture will be from John 14: 12-20.  We hope you can be with us, invite someone to worship with you, and continue this Lenten season in prayer.  Our prayer is it leads all of us to living our lives IN Prayer.   

Who we pray FOR

When the majority of people pray, they believe they are praying TO God.  As Christians we pray to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Other religions believe they are praying TO some other god (even if they are praying to a false god).  Even agnostics would admit that when they pray, that their prayers are going TO some higher being.

Yet the bigger question is, in our prayers, who do we pray FOR?

We all pray for different people:  the loved one we know we want healed, the child we want born healthy, the spouse we want to love again, the past relationship we want healed.  When we pray, most times, we are praying FOR someone else.

Often times we simply pray for ourselves:  the job we want, the marriage we want, the child we want, the family we want, the love we want, the healing we want, the peace we want.  We could go on and on.  Our prayers, for the most part, revolve around ourselves.  We are praying for US.

All that to say, do our prayers reflect Christ?  Do we pray for Him?  Not that Jesus needs anything from us.  However, He does need to be lifted up in this world.  He does need to be proclaimed over and over again to the ends of the earth.  Do we pray FOR His Name to be exalted?  Do we pray FOR the glory of God?  Do we pray for Jesus to be honored – in our prayers, in our churches, in our families, in our lives.

We should.  That is what prayer is essentially all about.  It is what the Lord’s Prayer – our Lord, Jesus Christ – instructed us to pray for:  ”Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven….”  His Name uplifted.  His Will done.  

During Lent, Bellwether is doing a campaign for Prayer and Fasting.  We call it “Utter Dependence.”  It is to do just that:  utterly depend on God by prayer and fasting for all our needs.  If we believe this – that we have to totally depend on God, then we need to be praying FOR His Will to accomplished in our lives and in our world.

Tomorrow at Bellwether, we continue this preaching series with “The Names of Prayer.” We hope you can be with us for worship, prayer, and holy communion tomorrow morning.  And may we pray in this Lenten season for God’s Will to be done and for Jesus Christ to be heard, seen, and followed.