COMMUNION WITH THE FATHER

We have been taught how to walk in the Spirit. This teaching is the most important thing we could ever learn. It is the centerpiece of our faith. It is the knowledge of God that enables us to anticipate a crown of life at the return of the Master.

Galatians 5:25

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT.

This is the work of the Father. He has placed us in the Holy Ghost, thus enabling us to become one with His mind and heart. This operation of the faith of God has also destroyed that middle wall of partition that stood between us by making us one with each other as well as one with the Father and the Son.

In the Old Covenant men called upon the name of the Lord and waited days and sometimes weeks for the Lord to send the answer. In the days of old it was the angels of the Lord who carried the Word of the Lord to the earth for the ears of those who sought after the will of God. The old patriarchs fasted, prayed and covered themselves in sackcloth and ashes in an attempt to acquire an audience with God. The people went to the temple daily in hopes that the priests would mediate their inquisitions. However, we are the Sons of God. For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Acts 17:28

We are in Him and He is in us. This is the reality that it is our state of being. We know that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost. As in the days of old, communication with the Father continues to take place in the temple, which temple we are.

Our communion with the Father must be from within ourselves for the Father and the Son are present with us by His Spirit.

Revelation 3:20

I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

St. John 16:12-15

12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Sometimes we feel we have to set the stage with fasting, a sabbatical or a conference in order for us to get in touch with God so that He can lead us. This is not true. The Father lives within us. He is there waiting for us to consider Him in everything we say and do. He wants to be involved in our everyday routines. He does not want us to alienate ourselves from Him as we make decisions and purpose to do those things we declare.

When we walk in the Spirit we are merely being natural. It is natural for us to commune with the Father and to bring the Father’s input into our decisions, situations, circumstances and relationships, on a daily basis. So, we do not have to create another platform to talk to Him. We should always be mindful that we are able to meet with Him in the temple. When we do, the outer shell is led by what is going on at the supplication table within. In the first prayer conference we ministered a lot on purifying the heart. We have learned that God will not hear us when we have impure hearts. If we regard (hold on to it, or make precious to us) iniquity in our hearts, God will not hear us.

Psalm 66:18

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

The perception of walking in the Spirit has been that the Spirit is something separate from us.

But, we were created in the Spirit. So when we walk in the Spirit, we are just being who we are. In actuality, we were made one by the self same Spirit. It is when we do not walk in the Spirit that we live a lie.

When the sons of God walk in the flesh, our lifestyles become so stressful. It is then that we have to strive to accomplish anything. In a sense, we are on our own. The angels of the Lord have been assigned as watchers over the Word of God. We were predestined and ordained to become the Word of God. So, the angels of the Lord come down as watchers and look inside of our lifestyles.

They take inventory and make reports concerning us. We see this inside of the story of King Nebechudnezzar and in Daniel’s prayer and supplications. The stress that is in our lives is due to the fact that we do not meet Him daily in the temple. We are constantly waiting for someone else to pray a prayer of agreement or we are waiting to get to the next prayer session. All of this is good, but what happens when we leave a prayer session and are on our jobs and dealing with the issues of life; an irate boss, children misbehaving in school, . . . etc. Are we in touch with the Father during those times? We have to make sure that we take what we have gathered from the prayer session with us and now “that prayer” is our spiritual umbrella for the rest of the day.

This is an erroneous interpretation of prayer! What happens if you miss the prayer session? We come to prayer sessions and watches to fellowship with the saints of God and to come on one accord with them concerning things that we pray about. But when it comes to our relationship with God and our own lifestyle, we must leave those prayer sessions and watches and go into our individual routines. It is at those times that we need to know that our communication and fellowship with the Father did not stop when the prayer session ended.

Prayer is a lifestyle! Prayer is communion in the temple! So, if we begin to entreat our Father as if He lived in the temple, (which temple we are), we would always have communication with the Father. In our daily walk we do not always get a chance to set up the formal platform for prayer. But when we understand that God is present with us in everything we do, sometimes we would not even have to open our mouths. We could just think on what our needs are and know that our Father hears us.

When Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb, He said, “Father, I know that you always hear me.” Basically, He was saying that He was always in communication with the Father. Christ was in the Father and the Father in Him. Everything Christ could think on, the Father knew, and every time Christ spoke, the Father heard Him. Christ endeavored in all things to please the Father. Therefore, Christ knew His prayers were answered. The reason Christ prayed formally was so that those around Him would know that Christ was in the Father and the Father was in Him.

FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER

1 John 1:3

That life which is from the beginning that we have seen, handled and heard, we declare it unto you, because we have fellowship with the Father and the Son and we desire that you have fellowship with us.

John made us know that the life that is within us keeps us in fellowship with the Father and the Son. If prayer is placed on any level other than fellowship then we are not really praying. Neither are we walking in the Spirit.

Prayer is fellowship with the Father and this fellowship should be a lifestyle.

WE ARE IN THE FATHER AND THE FATHER IN US.

We should always be mindful that God hears us, knows our thoughts and the intents of our heart. We must bring prayer back down to a fellowship level and stop making it so foreign and mystical. This will stop us from running from conference to conference looking for formulas for prayer.

Prayer is just being who we are. If we walk in the Spirit then we would know that we are in constant fellowship with God. Prayer must come back to the level of fellowship and supplication. Supplication means we are connected to the supplicant. The Lord said He would sup with us. Our strength is drawn from His presence and Him supping with us. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so if we are to draw on the power of that treasure, we must look to the God within us.

I know that the Lord’s Prayer begins, “Our Father, which art in heaven . . .”. Nevertheless, He has raised us up to sit with Him in heavenly places. Greater is He that is within us than any situation, circumstance or relationship that is in the world. So, our strength, supplication and intercession must come from within.

Let us look at this on a practical level. If we always consider God sitting on the throne in heaven and not that He is omnipresent, then our prayers would have to leave earth and go all the way to heaven by carrier angels. We would then have to wait for those same angels to return with the answer, even as Daniel did. Satan and his angels could hinder that. It took Daniel three weeks to get an answer because he was not a begotten Son of God, living in the Spirit of God.

Nevertheless, saints still feel as if they have to wait for something mystical out of heaven. This is erroneous! Prayer is a conversation. It is not a one way asking, declaring, etc. Inside of the conversation we can make our requests known, just as Jesus did at Lazarus’ tomb. Jesus knew if He said for Lazarus to rise, he would get up. He knew that the Father always heard Him because He always remained in fellowship with the Father.

The Father had given Him power. The devil had nothing in Him. Thus, He was able to walk in the confidence of that power. This is the kind of confidence we must have. But such confidence cannot be without fellowship with the Father. We have to know that we are in communication with the Father. We do not need the frustration of uncertainty.