This is the first book

Some Aspects of Prayer

Prayer is most important, so will give it some consideration for a few moments, not of course covering all aspects of this great subject. Our Lord Jesus found it so necessary to spend much time in prayer to His Heavenly Father, often He spent nights in this occupation as there was a very special relationship between Himself and His Heavenly Father, this cannot be touched by any one of us. Also remember the words of Tennyson, when he said, ‘More things are wrought be prayer than this world dreams of’. Now the special relationship that there was between God The Father and God The Son was unique. After the resurrection our Lord said to His disciples,’ Touch Me not for I am not as yet ascended to My Father, but go and tell my brethren. Then Jesus said, ‘I ascend to My Father and your father, to My God and your God’. Had there not been that special relationship then Jesus would have said, ‘I ascend to OUR Father’, but He didn’t. What has just been written is most important as far as my thinking is concerned, but we redeemed folk can also have a wonderful relationship with our Lord God Almighty. The One who is, ‘Immortal, invisible God only wise’, as through our Lord Jesus, He the great eternal God becomes our loving Heavenly Father

When our Lord Jesus was on The Cross, as He was burdened with our sin, so that at the moment the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, now what did this mean? When this happened there must have been many folk within the temple walls, Jerusalem was awash with people, all there for the Feast of The Passover, they would have been in the temple itself for their annual visit. The occasion was to remind them of the time when God passed over the people of Israel in Egypt. Those who were obedient to the commands of God had killed a lamb, had an evening meal with their family and sprinkled some of the blood on then door posts, thereby escaping the judgment of God that evening, as God said, ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over’

Yes, those in the temple on the day of the Crucifixion would have been giving thanks for their deliverance so many years previously. In the temple was a veil to divide the Holy of Holies from the rest of the people, it was through this veil that the High priest went, on behalf of the worshippers, he went into that area, into the presence of God. There in that place was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat, there was also the Shekinah glory as the people were obedient, this indicated the very presence of God. When our Lord Jesus was crucified, the people in the temple must have been terrified as there was a might sound, the veil was torn apart, it was so I understand 25mm (1 inch) think, what a noise there must have been as it was ripped in two. Now after that point we are able to enter into the presence of our Father God in prayer, go through the ‘veil’ by our Great High Priest our Lord Jesus Christ

After what has been mentioned previously the old priestly order came to an end, in God’s understanding, the wicked High Priest Caiaphas was the last one in the old spiritual economy. But the temple authorities seemed to continue with the old order up to the time when the temple was destroyed by Titus in AD 70. In Jesus a new order was introduced through His work on The Cross. No longer was it necessary for a priest to go into the presence of God on behalf of the worshippers, as a new and living way had been established through our Great High Priest our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let us understand this aright regarding our personal prayer life. As we pray we enter into the presence of the Lord God Almighty, we have fellowship with the great Divine; we men and women of earth communicate with our Heavenly Father. We talk to God and he talks to us, this all being done through our Great High Priest, our Lord Jesus. Our blessed Lord fills this office of High Priest in all His fullness – what an experience it is for our Lord and for us, note the words written by Joseph Scriven

In our prayers we pray in the name of Jesus, in all His name means and it is to Him that every knee will one-day bow. Shakespeare said, ‘What’s in a name’, as far as our God is concerned there is much. In the Scriptures names are very important, they touch on the character of the person, indeed just think of the many names of our God, think about them, even go a little further and consider their meanings and by doing so come into a deeper understanding of the One of whom they speak. Just look in a Bible Dictionary and find out the meanings of so many names of folk in the Scriptures, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel, Naomi and many more. Then consider the words in The Disciples Prayer, they are, ‘Hallowed be Thy name’ and in the Commandments we are told, ‘Do not to take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain’. So as we pray, it is through THE name, through the person of our Lord Jesus and we enter into the presence of The Lord God Almighty. It is also noted in The Disciples Prayer we are encouraged to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ and ‘Thy will be done', let us pause for a few moments here. First of all we all need for His Kingdom and Will to be more fully understood in my, in our lives, then seek for His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, when the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our God and his Christ. There are those lovely words by Kate B Wilkinson

As we sing, making the necessary noises, let us muse upon the words more so, may we understand what we are singing, that an expression of his Kingdom and Will might be seen in our lives

You see whatever we would seek on our lives, may we understand that all we pray for should be in accordance with the will of our Heavenly Father, as we say, ‘Thy will be done’ and pray in His name, how dare we pray in any other. Please may we not pray selfish prayers in His name, if we do this we break one of the Ten Commandments and ‘Take the name of the Lord our God in vain’. In our prayers we should pray for things that would delight out Father God, not to fulfill any of our selfish desires, but for His Kingdom to come. In Gethsemane

This is the first book