Mission Venture Ministries

George Mueller’s friends said he would not voice a petition without a “word from God” to support that request. In fact, Mueller never started praying until after he had spent time in God’s Word. He then prayed with an open Bible and filled his petitions with God’s promises. In George Mueller’s lifetime God gave him not only over a million sterling pounds, but also, Mueller believed, more than thirty thousand souls in answer to prayer.

Dear Lord, help me be aware when my prayer is not expressing a desire for You to receive glory.

“We do not know what we ought to pray…the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Romans 8:26, 27).

This is the famous letter Gerhard Tersteegen wrote to the Lord Jesus that should be the desire of all our hearts:

“From this day to all eternity, Your will, not mine be done. Command and rule and reign in me. I yield up myself without reserve, and I promise, with Your help and power, rather to give up the last drop of my blood than knowingly or willingly be untrue or disobedient to Your.”

Excerpts from “The Blessings of Obedience” by Andrew Murray

The New Law of Love

To be merciful as the Father in heaven, to forgive just as He does, to love enemies, to do good to them that hate us, and to live lives of self-sacrifice and beneficence – this was what Jesus taught.

Let us look on an unforgiving spirit when we are provoked or ill-used, unloving thoughts and sharp or unkind words, the neglect of the call to show mercy, do good, and bless, as sheer disobedience. It must be felt, mourned over, and plucked out like a right eye before the power of full obedience can be ours.

Self is the root of all lack of love and disobedience. Our Lord called His disciple to deny himself, take up his cross, forsake everything, lose his own life, humble himself and become the servant of all. He asked this because self, self-will, self-pleasing, self-seeking – is simply the source of all sin.

When we give in to the flesh by overindulgence in eating and drinking; when we gratify self by seeking, accepting, or rejoicing in that which indulges our pride; when self-will is allowed to assert itself and we make provision for the fulfillment of its desire; we are guilty of disobedience to His command. This gradually clouds the soul and makes the full enjoyment of His light and peace impossible.

The Love Of The Whole Heart

The Christian who has not definitely aimed to sacrifice everything, who has not determined to seek grace in order to live, is guilty of disobedience. There may be much in his religion that appears good and earnest, but he cannot possibly have the joyful consciousness of knowing he is doing the will of his Lord and keeping His commandments.

When the call is heard to come and begin a true life of obedience again, many try to slip quietly into it. They think that by more prayer and Bible study they will grow into obedience and that it will come gradually. They are greatly mistaken. The word God uses in Jeremiah might teach them their mistake. “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 3:13).

A soul that is in full earnest and has taken the vow of full obedience may grow out of a feeble obedience into a fuller one. But there is no growing out of disobedience into obedience. A turning back, a turning away, a decision, a crisis is needed. That only comes by very definite insight into what has been wrong and confession of the sin with shame and penitence.

Only in penance will the soul seek divine and mighty cleansing from its filthiness. Repentance prepares the consciousness for the gift of a new heart. God’s Spirit will cause us to walk in His statues.

If you would hope to lead a different life, to become a man or a woman of a Christ like obedience, begin by asking God for the Holy Spirit of conviction to show you all your disobedience. He will lead you, in humble confession, to the cleansing God has provided. Rest not until you have received it.

¹⁹I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! (Romans 6:19-21)

Abraham saw nothing but God and His promise, the power and faithfulness of God who guaranteed him the fulfillment of His promise.

There are differences between healing which is expected from earthly remedies and the healing which comes from God.

It is interesting that when we have a choice of remedies for healing; all the attention of the sick person is upon the body. However, divine healing calls us to turn our attention away from the body, and to abandon ourselves, soul and body to the Lord’s care, focusing on Him alone.

Sin is not the only sign of why we are sick, but if it is, in order to receive divine healing, sin must be so truly confessed and renounced, and we must be so completely surrendered to the Lord. Self (pride) must be yielded up and we must so focus on Jesus, that healing becomes the commencement of a new life of intimate communion with the Lord.

When we learn to give up to Him entirely the care of the health, and the smallest indications of the return of the evil is guarded as a warning not to consider your body, but to be occupied with the Lord only.

What a contrast this is from the larger number of sick people who look for healing from remedies. They are focused on themselves. What a constant preoccupation to them is their eating and drinking, the anxiety to avoid this or that! How much are their lives taken up with what they consider due to them from others, whether they are sufficiently thought of, whether well enough taken care of, whether visited often enough! How much time is thus devoted to considering the body and what it requires, rather than the Lord and the relations which He seeks to establish with our souls! Oh, how many of us who, through sickness, are occupied almost exclusively with ourselves!

All this is totally different when healing is looked for in faith from the loving God. Then the first thing to learn is to cease to be anxious about the state of our body; we have trusted it to the Lord, and He has taken the responsibility. If we do not see a rapid improvement immediately, but on the contrary the symptoms appear to be more serious, remember that you have entered on a path of faith, and therefore you ought not to consider the body, but cling only to the living God.

The commandment of Christ, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body . . .” (Matthew 6:25), appears here in a new light. When God called Abraham not to consider his own body, it was that He might call him to the greatest exercise of faith which could be, that he might learn to see only God and His promise. Sustained by his faith, he gave glory to God, convinced that God would do what He had promised. Divine healing is a marvelous tie to bind us to the Lord. At first, one may fear to believe that the Lord will stretch forth His mighty hand and touch the body; but in studying the Word of God, the soul takes courage and confidence.

At last one decides saying, “I YIELD UP MY BODY INTO THE HANDS OF GOD; AND I LEAVE THE CARE OF IT TO HIM.”  Only then do we loose sight of self, and only the Lord and His promise are in view.

Will you also enter upon this way of faith, very superior to that which we call natural? Walk in the steps of Abraham. Learn from him not to consider your own body, and not to doubt through unbelief. To consider the body gives birth to doubts, while clinging to the promise of God and being occupied with Him alone gives entrance into the way of faith, the way of divine healing, which glorifies God.

Parts taken from Divine Healing by: Andrew Murray