PRAYER: Part 3, About Prayer

S:

H: Yusuf, we were speaking about prayer. Tonight we shall continue speaking about prayer. If someone prays and
asks God for something bad, does God hear and accept his prayer? If the man says, "O Lord, I beg you to give me
cigarettes"; "O God, I want you to help me tonight because I want to commit adultery"; "O Lord, help me to take my father's soul" - then does God hear and accept such prayers? What do you think, Yusuf?

Y: No, teacher, God does not accept that kind of begging or prayer.

H: But Yusuf, why does God refuse to accept that kind of prayer? Can you tell me?

Y: I think I can tell you.

H: Alright, Yusuf, tell me. Yesterday you told me that God can do everything. Tell me now, why God refuses that
kind of prayer.

Y: I will tell you, teacher. God and His nature and His word are against sin. If you ask God to help you to commit sin, He will not help you. God will not accept that kind of prayer.

H: Your answer is right, Yusuf. If your demand is against God's nature, if your demand is against the word that is in the Bible, if your demand is against God's habit, then God does not accept it. Do you understand, Yusuf? If your demand is against the rule and the command and the will of God, He refuses to accept your prayer. The Bible says, "This is the boldness we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us: and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him"
(1 John 5:14-15).

Y: Alright, teacher. That word is clear. I have understood that God accepts prayers that agree with His nature, and
that He dislikes those that do not agree with His nature. He does not accept those that do not agree with His nature.

H: You understand now, Yusuf. If we want God to accept our prayers, we have to understand God's word, His nature, and His will.

Y: Teacher, if I came to know God's nature and if I asked Him for something that agrees with His nature and word,
will God give me what I asked for?

H: Yes, Yusuf, that is right. God is accepting the prayer that agrees with His nature and His word. If you want God to forgive you and give you a clean heart, then He will forgive you and give you a clean heart, because that relates to His word.

Y: But teacher, to get the forgiveness while living, does that agree with the Bible? Can the forgiveness be obtained before the day of Judgement?

H: Yusuf, the Bible says, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Today, the forgiveness can be obtained. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to shed his blood for all the world. The night before His death He said to His disciples, "I shall shed my blood for the forgiveness of the world."

Y: Do you say, teacher, that I can get the forgiveness from the blood of Jesus Christ?

H: Alxamdulilah, Yusuf, that is right. Also at this moment forgiveness can be obtained. The Bible says, "Therefore,
brothers, know that the forgiveness is preached unto you through this man (the Lord Jesus Christ)."

Y: Teacher, I wonder about that word. I didn't know that I could get forgiveness now. That is nice.

H: Yusuf, now I want you to hear what happened to priest Saul at the time of the starting of the church of Jesus Christ. This man who is called Priest Saul was a great man, and he always fought with those who accepted and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who brought the forgiveness to the world. Listen to Saul's story carefully. Priest Saul set out one day to the country called Damascus, to capture and bind those who followed Jesus Christ. Saul wrote: (and this is written in the Bible), "When I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest, at midday I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those that journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' And I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am the Lord whom you persecute. But arise and stand upon thy feet. I have appeared unto you to appoint you a minister and a witness both of the things wherein you have see, and of the things I will show unto you; delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send you, to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light, and may turn from the power of Satan and come to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me". (Acts 26:12-18).

Y: Teacher, I was told the story of Saul before. And I was told that he became a very great priest because of Jesus
Christ. He journeyed to many places and took the news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

H: Yes, Yusuf, that is right. When priest Saul believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, he lived for the Lord. He became
His witness and told the Good News of forgiveness that can be found in Jesus Christ. His people, who were Jews,
said, "Priest Saul has become an infidel". But he did not become and infidel. He didn't go away from his God, he got his God, and got forgiveness from his God. Praise the Lord.

Y: Teacher, what do you mean by those words? That is "Priest Saul didn't go away from his God, he got his God..." What do you mean by that? "He got his God"? I don't understand. Priest Saul believed in his God long ago. but you said, "He got his God". How did he get his God? Can you make that clear for me?

H: Yes, Yusuf, I can tell you the meaning of that. To believe in God and to get God are two different things. They are not the same. There are, in the world, many people who believe in God, but when God is found it is different from that.

Y: Teacher, I don't understand its meaning yet.

H: Now, listen. to believe in and to find are not the same. One is about the doctrine and the other is about God Himself. There is a book. The name of the man who wrote that book is Churchill. Many people read his book. But they are not introduced to him yet. (They learned his doctrine but they didn't know him).

Y: But teacher, I learned my doctrine from the Bible, but how can I learn God? How can I find God? Can you tell
me?

H: Yes, Yusuf, when you get the forgiveness, when you get the remission, God will place the Holy Spirit in your heart. God Himself will enter into your heart, and when God enters into you and lives in your heart, you can say, "God, I got it"! Listen to this verse, "I shall purify you from all your sin and I shall give you a new spirit: and I shall take out the stone heart from your body, and I shall give you a heart of flesh". (Ezekial 36:25-26). Listen to this verse also, "I shall cause my spirit to enter into you, and you shall be alive once again".

Y: Teacher, I want to get a pure heart very much, and the forgiveness. You told me that God would enter in my heart when I get the forgiveness. How I can get the forgiveness while I am living. Can I get it today?

H: Yes, Yusuf, today you can get a pure heart and the forgiveness. Today God wants to accept you. When He forgives you, then is when He will accept you. You can be His child.

Y: But teacher, how can I get the forgiveness? Will you tell me?

H: Alright, I shall tell you. The Bible says, "The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ purifies us from all sin". Without the blood of Jesus, forgiveness cannot be obtained. Because of that, the Lord Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood. When the sinner confesses his sin to the Lord Jesus, and believes in the blood of Jesus, at that moment the sinner gets his forgiveness. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is a substitute for sin. For His sake.

Y: Alright, teacher, I am beginning to understand now. The blood of the rams that the people offered God before, for their sins, is like the blood of the lamb of God that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

H: Now you understand its meaning! The blood that the children of Israel put on their doors, is like the lamb of God that is the Lord Jesus Christ. When you believe and trust in the blood of Jesus Christ, at the same time, God cleans your heart and forgives you. Now God is ready to forgive you. Confess your sin, and tell God. Say to Him, "O Lord, I am a sinner, and now I shall accept the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood. I shall trust in His blood and I believe that you will purify my heart by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ". Praise the Lord!

?: Brothers, the Bible says, "All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grave, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God set forth to be the appropriation through faith, by His blood;..."

Wash, O Lord. WASH ME BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND I SHALL BE WHITER THAN CAMEL'S MILK.

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