Silence
1. Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence
2. Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.
Praise and Thanksgiving
1. Think through your day, all the times that made you smile
2. Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people
3. Sing a song to praise God (you are welcome to use "Father, I adore you" which I have been singing every morning for the past 20 years or your own choice to praise God)
Father, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.
Jesus, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.
Spirit, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.
Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html
1. Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:
“Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”
"Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."
“Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”
2. Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:
"Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."
3. John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)
(Please click this link to see how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/
"Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.
Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.
Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."
Bible link: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%207&version=NIV
Time with Abba one year Bible reading: http://api.pastoralcareschool.org/twa/
Today's passage:
Mark 13
32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert[e]! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert[e]! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage we have just read. Offer this time to Jesus as you listen to him.
My Listening
The topic I received from Jesus is: Are you sleeping?
“If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch! “ Mark 13: 36-37
Jesus told me this morning one warning and two critical duties:
The warning:
Are you sleeping?
The two critical duties:
1. Do you know what kind of “assigned task” do you have from Jesus?
2. Are you those who are assigned to “keep watch” at the door?
I think a very large number of Christians have been sleeping for a long time! I should be one of those for many years until the past twelve years. I still want to sleep but the Lord Jesus Christ uses all kinds of method to wake me up and remind me of my “assigned task”.
I know that I am one of those who need to “keep watch” at the door as a prayer warrior and I try my best to keep my soul and “eye” open to keep watch and to encourage more people to become prayer warriors to keep watch.
I wish there are more Christians who understand and live out these two critical duties. You know how devastating it can be when those soldiers who are assigned to keep watch slept?!
Do you know how destructive it can be when the soldiers in a warfare are not performing their “assigned duties”?!
But, the worst thing is this: WE DO NOT KNOW THAT WE ARE IN A SEVERE SPIRITUAL WARFARE!!! George Hunter in his book , To spread the Power: Church Growth in the Wesleyan Spirit, clearly states Charles Wesley's four-stage process for the nuturing of Christians:
1. Awaken people
2. Enroll awakened people in a class(three months)
3. Teach awakened enrolled people to expect to experience their justification.
4. Teach justified people to expect to experience their sanctification in this life.
This is a system established early in the 18th century and just been discovered by leaders in the past twenty years as a solid small group system.
Hunter says Wesley observed that awakening people without folding them into redemptive cells does more harm than good. In a journal entry of 1743 he declares, The devil himself desires nothing more than this, that the people of any place should be half-awakened and then left to themselves to fall asleep again. Therefore, I determine by the grace of God not to strike one stroke in any place where I cannot follow the blow.”
Twenty years later, the principle had become even more resolute in his Journal, August 25, 1763: I was more convinced than ever that the preaching like an apostle without joining together those that are awakened and training them up in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer…How much preaching has there been for these twenty years all over Pembrokeshire. But no regular societies, no discipline, no order or connection; and the consequence is that nine in ten of the once awakened are now faster asleep than ever.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to keep watch and call others to wake up. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Reflect on these questions:
1. What inspiration have you received from today's catch and what have you heard from Jesus now?
2. What is your next step to be more closer to Jesus?
Family Corner:
Find an opportunity to share with your family the importance of today's message.
Please click this link for the video version of this blog:
To know, learn and practice the method of Time with Abba, please click this link: https://www.pastoralcareschool.org
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