Have You Come To “When” Yet? – And Mary’s Confession

TODAY'S READING IS FROM https://utmost.org/ and the print version of Oswald Chambers Daily Devotional:  My Utmost For His Highest -- Date: June 20

The plaintive, self-centered, morbid kind of prayer, a dead-set that I want to be right, is never found in the New Testament. The fact that I am trying to be right with God is a sign that I am rebelling against the Atonement. “Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer; I will walk rightly if You will help me.” I cannot make myself right with God, I cannot make my life perfect; I can only be right with God if I accept the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to resign every kind of claim and cease from every effort, and leave myself entirely alone in His hands, and then begin to pour out in the priestly work of intercession. There is much prayer that arises from real disbelief in the Atonement. Jesus is not beginning to save us, He has saved us, the thing is done, and it is an insult to ask Him to do it again.

If you are not getting the hundredfold more, not getting insight into God’s word, then start praying for your friends, enter into the ministry of the interior. “The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” The real business of your life as a saved soul is intercessory prayer. Wherever God puts you in circumstances, pray immediately, pray that His Atonement may be realized in other lives as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now; pray for those with whom you come in contact now.

---

MARY’S CONFESSION:

LORD GOD, HELP ME TO PRAY FOR OTHERS AND MYSELF …

Oh, my soul, why are you satisfied with crumbs which fall from the table when Christ wants me to sit at His table?  Why must you continue to be a broken, orphaned spirit when there’s intercessory work to be done for yourself and others through the atoning work of the Father?  What is it that you desire? ASK! Make your requests known to God and when your mind harshly says “no” turn it into the “know” of Psalm 46:10:

Be still and KNOW that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.

Mary, when the enemy attacks remember your training in Christ. Ask humbly, with a pure heart – you’re right – you’re not where you should be because this place isn’t your home. It’s not about your past, it’s that we were made for heaven and regardless of how your soul feels, the TRUTH of the situation must prevail; and it does so only by prayer and meditation of the scriptures.

Don’t let this world confound and wound you through its evils. Remember to talk to God regularly and be completely honest about your hurts and your unanswered prayers. Take you family and friends – the nation and the world into the throne room and present them to your heavenly father.

But first, remember to always take any of your own broken pieces back to the foot of the cross – for that is where your soul finds its rest and your brokenness becomes smaller and smaller as you surrender it to the great I AM. 

This is the key to your transformation dear one, the closer you abide with Christ, the stronger you become in Him and the quieter those attacks from the enemy become. Remember your training indeed – for this world is not a florally procession of beauty, but rather a bloody battleground. Be sure to grab your field manual for your kit bag and finally lovey:

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;  19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,  20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.   
~ Ephesians 6:10-20