A Prayer Ritual

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God’s voice doesn’t make a racket—unlike the voice of our thoughts.

Job 33:14 (NIV) — God does speak—now one way, now another—though people may not notice it.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-25

This man (man or woman) who forgets who he is right after looking in the mirror, it could be you or me, if we're not taught. Who are we?

Everything that follows will be totally unintelligible if you are not born again. If you are not sure in your heart that you were born again, know and be assured that Jesus Christ was miraculously incarnated, by the supernatural operation of the Spirit of God in a woman who had not known a man, that He died, resurrected and ascended to glory, where He had come from, to send his Spirit of life. By this, He has successfully completed a complete work, the meaning of which has long remained hidden and which, in recent times, is revealed, described throughout the Bible, a completed work whose ultimate goal is that He may inhabit and reign in the hearts of men (men and women). It is this dwelling that begins the day we are born again.

New birth is therefore not a privilege reserved for a few but God's desire for all. He came in the person of Jesus Christ so that ALL may be saved, hear by saved, so that all may become a dwelling of Christ in spirit to form together the body of Christ on earth and for eternity. He expects you to simply invite him to become the Lord of your whole life today. If you want to know more about the new birth, I invite you to read From Believer to Born Again.

The day we were born again, an inner, invisible miracle occurred. We have been spiritually cut from the tree of rebellious humanity and have been grafted, by a supernatural action of the Holy Spirit, to Jesus Christ, the firstborn of a new generation, a new humanity, exactly from the same way that you would cut the fruit branch of a tree, to graft it onto another more vigorous tree.

From this moment on, the sap, the life, the nature of this other tree begins to circulate and invigorate the grafted branch. The same is true at new birth. Divine life begins to flow into us. The effects are not immediately apparent but gradually, the branch begins to show a new vigor and produce new and tasty fruits. Inside, in us, we know, everything has been changed, instantly. But changes on the outside are gradually manifested in new tastes, new reactions, actions and new ailments.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:17

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:4

At new birth, we receive a new nature that becomes our natural life. We are been made participants of the divine nature.

And when we read or listen to the Word of God, the Bible, it is as if we were looking into a mirror, the face of this new nature, what it looks like, what it is supposed to look like. Only others can see us. We cannot see ourselves except through a mirror. And the Bible acts as a mirror.

When we read it, we see the description of what we have become internally and what we are called to manifest externally.

make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Philippiens 2:2

Frankly, would it be in our power, by the sheer force of our will to be a same feeling, a same love, a same soul, a same thought with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you really believe that this is an additional command that we must obey with the force of our will?

No! What is described here is not a matter of will. I hope you do not continue to deceive yourself about this. You can make an effort to agree with your brother and sister, you can strive to forgive, to forget offenses, to be patient, to hold your tongue in a restraint, to think first of their interests before yours, to show acts of love. Yes, you can try to do a lot of things. But being one soul, one love, one thought with them....

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

Many of us read this text as follows: Force yourself to do the things above, worship, pray, daily read the Word of God, and deprive yourself of all that is in the world.

This text says none of this. Who said anything about depriving oneself? Where is it said here? Moreover, if I have to deprive myself of something, if I have this feeling I deprive myself of something, it is proof that somehow deeply within me, I like it. I will then try to cover it up with frustration. But I do not solve the problem of affection. I remain completely beside the intention of this verse!

The Lord purposely asks for something that a normal human cannot produce. You don't decide your affections. Affections spring from the depths and are uncontrollable. If I do not like things from above, imposing them on me does not change anything. I do not like them more by imposing them to myself. Neither you nor I have the power to obey this verse.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:5

And with Philippians 2:5, we culminate ! Can you control your feelings? However it would be possible, the bar is here much higher, you are commanded to HAVE THE MIND that was in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Who could that?

There is a problem in the way we read and understand the Scriptures. Old things have passed, all things have become new and the way we read God's Word must also change.

Let us begin by stopping reading the Word of God in the spirit of the old covenant, otherwise we will go from condemnation to condemnation and can fall very low.

In the old covenant, not the old testament of the Bible, but the old covenant, when God gave a commandment, he waited for all our efforts to do the best and to obey Him otherwise it was death and rejection.

In the new covenant, the born again receives a new spirit, a new heart eager to obey him.

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

In the new covenant, God creates the will and the capacity to work.

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:21

In the new covenant, God makes us capable of any good work for the fulfillment of His will THROUGH Jesus Christ and with our consentment, He does in us what is pleasing to Him.

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen Romans 11:36

In the new covenant, Jesus is the beginning and the end; He is the Alpha and the Omega. All things are of Him, through Him and to Him.

In the old covenant, men save themselves by their obedience to commandments or lose themselves by their disobedience.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

In the new covenant, God takes all initiatives. He sends a Savior!

He descends from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ, saves all men and women of all times and of all the earth. He dies for the sin of the world, rises, rises in glory, sends the Holy Spirit of life and invites men, all men and women, to agree to join him spiritually on the cross so that they can spiritually rise again in him and with him, in new life.

At considering the Cross, I accept God's condemnation of a rebellious and futureless humanity, of which I am part, and I accept the new life graciously offered and shared by the Risen One on the other side of that cross.

This resurrection experienced by the Son of God two thousand years ago then becomes a concrete reality for us today, by the Holy Spirit at the very moment we are born again. It is not a religious concept. At new birth, your inner being receives the resurrection life of the Risen One, just after you have accepted the Cross, its meaning and its consequences for your whole future life. You die voluntarily giving up your old life and the Spirit of God makes you new to life.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:17-18

All this is a supernatural gift, a perfect gift, an excellent grace, offered free of charge to all who accept the good news of the gospel.

In the new covenant, inaugurated by the cross, the resurrection and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, God saves us completely. He's doing the work. It saves and renews our whole being. Our minds come back to life. Our soul, will, intelligence and feelings are gradually and completely renewed and restored. And the bodies of those who will not experience the return of Jesus Christ will rise glorious and eternal. This is what the Gospel says.

In the new covenant, God builds his salvation in us through His Holy Spirit, through the Spirit of Christ in us.

It is therefore possible to read the new testament of the Bible, in the spirit of the old covenant, considering any new commandment: have the mind of Christ... set your affection on things above.... do… don't...as things that appeal to our own strengths and determination.

But we'd rather can read the old and new testaments in the spirit of the new covenant, i.e. considering that God is at work in us, already by the simple fact that He produces in us this desire to follow His commandments, while also giving us the capacity. He works, creating will and work in this new heart, this new spirit that He has recreated for that is His pleasure, for this is the plan of salvation that He has prepared from all eternity, His plan to make men and women, His temple, a dwelling in spirit.

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:28

God's work is that you believe in the One He sent to do the work in you and through you!

Now, in reading your Bible, you must consider commandments as a mirror of the type of life that is lived when one is in Christ, when one is led by His Spirit.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:2-3

This mirror reflects who we really are, now that we are spiritually united with Christ. Our real life is hidden in Christ but it appears in the mirror. And this life is not supposed to remain hidden. It must manifest itself more and more externally.

We must first see what is hidden, our true face, our natural face and then conform to it. Commandments show us our true, our new person who loves God with all heart, soul and thought. The commandments describe the normal life of the son or daughter of God led by the Holy Spirit.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; Hebrews 12:1

Aren't we invited to look unto Jesus? This means waiting continuously and only from Him for inner transformation, to do in us all that the law of Moses could not accomplish: to give us a heart joyfully willing to follow His ways: to walk in God's plans in small details and great movements of our daily lives.

Jesus, through His Spirit in us, is our true life. He is the source of our desires when we trust him and accept the terms of the new covenant where He is all in all. He is the strength of our decisions made in Him because we can do anything by the One who strengthens us. And He is the reason of our whole life since we are invited to enter into works that He himself has prepared in advance for us to practice them while we have received the desire and capacity.

And freedom in all this? What about our free will?

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25

James tells us about the perfect law, the law of freedom.

This law is perfect in the fact that it gives both desire and capacity. What the law of the old covenant had no power to. In the old covenant I don't do what I want and I do what I don't want to. I'm not free.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Romans 7:14-16

In the new covenant, God seasons our desires with His light and love and gives us the intelligence and power to renounce harmful and unsanitary ways, to choose and follow paths that, while certainly ours, are also his own, highly inspired and made powerful by His mere presence in us, excellent ways for others and for ourselves.

It is a perfect law that works for all those who take as a lifestyle to expect from Him, to create will and work, for all those who have the heart contrite and lucid enough to recognize its natural coldness, misery, instability , cowardice and its inability to please God through the old mechanisms and the very limited power of the ancient nature.

That is why only repentance, that is, the desire to turn our backs on a lifestyle we had before or a penchant of the old nature, only repentance and trust in Christ's work in us is the gateway to true freedom.

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Galatians 5:17

Come on, let’s have some biblical ‘philosophy’. This text basically says that absolute freedom does not exist. Either we are led by the flesh to do things detestable for others and for ourselves in a climate of insatiable and inextinguishable dissatisfaction, or we are led by the Spirit to do magnificent things for others and for ourselves with as pay, joy, peace and an immense happiness overflowing from our hearts. In both cases we do not do what we would like. No real freedom.

The free ‘you’, is in fact, in the middle, in the choice of what by whom or by what we want to be directed. This 'you' only needs some guidance to the best for him.

In both cases, there will be one who will not have a say, who will not do what he wants. We can choose who's behind the steering wheel. The ‘you’, led by the Spirit. Or the 'you' driven by the old reflexes of the old nature.

The Lord gives us intelligence to see that the two paths are not equal. One leads, in spite of very deceptive appearances, to a transient satisfaction followed by a profound lasting dissatisfaction, to sorrow and disgust while the other way is life and peace. Who would voluntarily choose a path of pain and dissatisfaction unless forced to do so

for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 2 Peter 2:19

Thus, when I read the Word of God, old or new testament, I no longer see commandments out of reach that continually plunge me into condemnation. Rather, I look in a mirror, what the new Man, Jesus Christ, the last Adam is in me and will produce in me as long as I put my trust in His work, to have finally understood and believed it, in the work of His Holy Spirit in me.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25

It is in this that he is a perfect Savior (to the uttermost). He brings us back into an Eden Garden to make a choice and an experience that Adam and Eve missed. At new birth, we were led to choose the tree of life. We no longer need the tree of knowledge of good and evil and its helpless fruits.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 1 Corinthians 1:30

Jesus Christ in us is this active, operating knowledge of good and evil. He himself was made for us wisdom, righteouness, sanctification and redemption. He's all in all. Moreover, we need Jesus the head as much as Jesus the body, that is, the Church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will talk about that in a near future.

When we simply follow the directions of the Holy Spirit within us, when we trust in Christ and we continually wait for Him to produce his life, his feelings, the desire to walk in righteousness and convert those desires from of our spirit united with His Spirit, in concrete actions in daily life, we walk according to the spirit. Each of these actions propelled by Christ's life and habitation in us through faith, leads us to more and more concrete actions on earth and to an ever deeper communion with Him. We no more forget who we are!

We are a bit like a pipe continually crossed by a stream of divine life gushing from an inexhaustible spring in order to water a flowerbed, a sick, dry, thirsty world. We are thus filled and always filled as long as on one side the spring is not blocked and on the other side the watering tip is not clogged either and willing to water generously everything that is within its reach.

It is in the practice that we know, that we experience this living water that passes through us, and invigorating us in passing, springs through all the ends of our voluntary behaviors in droplets, streams, rivers of love, goodness, patience, gentleness, kindness, fidelity, self-control, purity, forgiveness, mercy, generosity, empathy, power, healing, deliverance, wisdom, intelligence, science, manifesting through our unique personality, all sunny with the virtues of Jesus Christ, the works that God has prepared in advance for us!

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25

Whoever sets out to work says James is happy and blessed in his activity.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:8

Remember.

When we read ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus’ : let’s understand, believe, accept, patiently ask, expect from the Holy Spirit and trust Him to convince us (what He knows perfectly how to), that He may impregnate us with this very special revealed faith that Christ in us is at work, through the Holy Ghost and the Living Word, to produce Christ desires and make His sun shine on our lives and by reflecting on those around us.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

We then discover that we can do anything through the One who strengthens us. Christ living in us through His Spirit is LIFE. He's the WAY.

When you read any commandment, any instruction in the Word of God, see it as a reflection of what Christ is already in you, of what He has begun and will continue to produce in you, from progress to progress.

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

The vine does not eat grapes. It produces it for others. Its glory and pleasure, that it does not express with words, is to see its branches bend under the weight of the fruit to finally see all its fruits picked to the delight of the gourmand.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. John 15:8

We are called to bear a great deal of fruit because this is how the Father is glorified. So it is the Father's will. And bearing fruit is not the result of the exhausting efforts of a branch but the natural consequence of any tree full of sap and life.

This is what Jesus is to us, a tree full of life and we are his branches destined to bear much fruit. It is this life that the Holy Spirit communicates to us if we expect it from Him. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The Holy Spirit is the sap that the vine flows into the branch. Let us believe in Him, always, all the time, now and in the minute that will follow.

A precious truth

Today, I caught myself praying one of those prayers we sometimes make without having previously checked if it can be answered. With words that are said kind of mechanically, without having deeply thought about what they induce. 

This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us. 1 John, 5 : 14

In my prayer, I was asking the Lord to grant my family and I today, with His abundant grace. And suddenly, I realized that my prayer was useless. Even worse, it could be a flagrant demonstration and confession of incredulity while it was so sincere and apparently so humble.

It is right to bless our neighbor praying for grace and peace in Jesus Christ on him/her or directly pronouncing to him/her those words of blessing. Almost each epistle begins with such a blessing. But why should we pray it for ourselves?

Why should I ask God for the abundance of His grace when it is already pouring, at this very moment? Is it reasonable to ask for what is already here? Unless we do not believe it! Shouldn’t we rather ask God to give us a simple, humble and believing heart, eyes to see so we are able to receive this abundance without limit. Because grace is pouring, it’s pouring, pouring and pouring without stopping. It abundantly pours at this very moment as truly as God is alive and that He loves us!

Therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.. 2 Timothy, 2 :1

Grace is already in Christ Jesus (Christ in us). We are recommended to get strength from this grace already and constantly available.
And those who reign in life, who reign on their rebellious nature, over circumstances, over temptations are those who receive the abundance of grace. They are made capable to reign thanks to and through the inner power that is generously given to and pours within them, because of the living union with Christ, such a real union, although invisible to natural senses.

For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. Romans, 5 :17

There is clearly an abundance of grace pouring in us. The living union that ties us to Christ, is similar to that of the branch that constantly and without any personal endeavor receives life from the tree.

Trusting in this extraordinary union with Christ in us, gazing at it, in our thoughts and faith, WILL trigger the reception of this grace. Do it ! This is what means looking to Jesus and reigning through Jesus. It will make us run to him, more and more, day after day.

and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith… Hebrews, 12 :1-2

The simple fact of continuously gazing at, thinking of, reminding us and meditating this invisible reality which is such an encouraging and tender truth, this will maintain us in its blessing, continually...
And if our heart suddenly begins to fear not to be able to maintain itself in this amazing communion and its extraordinary effects, be reassured: it’s Him who holds you and not you who hold Him. And thinking so, our look is softly redirected to Him in faith and the miracle resumes and continues.

don't boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.  Romans, 11 :18

The good news, the Gospel (Christ has forgiven, purified me and now lives in me) is a power for the salvation of anyone who believes it. Christ knows how to maintain us in Him by His Spirit. Let’s simply trust Him and His power to do so. He is a perfect Savior.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes  Romans, 1 :16

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