Prayer—Your Most Christlike Work - By Jim Tharp

The most Godlike life you can live is one of prayer. The most Christlike activity you can share is to pray for others. The heavenly seraphim around God’s throne never cease praising, adoring, and worshiping God (Revelation 4:8). How wonderful that we can join the heavenly host in praise and worship. But angels do not intercede. The ministry of intercession is, above all else, the ministry of Christ and those saved by Christ.

While here on earth Christ seemed to long for prayer time with His disciples. He sent them to preach, to teach, and to heal. But He took them with Him to pray. This was true on the Mount of Transfiguration. The glory of the transfiguration was God’s extra bonus. They were there to pray.

In Gethsemane, also, Christ longed for the prayer fellowship of His disciples. He repeatedly came to awaken them and plead for their prayer help. His request was for them to “watch with” Him, not to watch Him as He prayed. This is where they failed Him most—and where we fail Him today.

Christ wants your prayer more than He wants any other service or gift. You can do much in addition to prayer, but you can never do anything more Christlike or more spiritually significant. Prayer must accompany all you do and take priority over all else. You mean most to Christ when you join Him in prayer.

Preparing for the Second Coming of Christ - by James Thap

Jesus warned: “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36)

The way to prepare for Christ’s Second Coming, is found in John 3:16-19: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Our Bible reminds us that getting religious does not prepare us for death or for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. We also read in chapter 3 of John’s gospel about an especially important religious leader in Jerusalem coming to Jesus one night to question Him about His power to do so many amazing miracles. Jesus sensed the man’s hunger for spiritual truth, so His first words to Nicodemus were, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). We cannot earn our salvation by our good works; we are all sinners, but Christ died for our sins. To be “born again” we must ask His forgiveness and turn from our sins—that is called repentance. We are saved by God’s grace when we have faith in Jesus and believe that He is the son of God, who died on the cross to pay our debt of sin, and that He was resurrected and is seated at the right hand of our Heavenly Father hearing our prayers. We are now adopted into God’s redeemed family and ready to live the Christian life. Of course, this includes a life of prayer, reading our Bible, taking time to worship God, growing in faith, and finding a body of believers for fellowship.

TRUE CHRISTIAN LOVE - by Jim Tharp

John 13:34-35

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have

loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you

are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus came to earth in human form and was empowered to demonstrate what came to be known as agape love. Agape love is different from any other kind of love. Jesus longed for the day when His disciples would receive the Holy Spirit of power to love as He loved. This would happen when the Holy Spirit was poured out on 120 believers on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).

During the few years of training His disciples He could see their lack of love for one another. A few of them would seek to take authority over the others. They argued about who would be the most powerful. It was at these times of selfish arguments that Jesus would interrupt and remind them of the time after His death, resurrection, and ascension back to Heaven that He and their Heavenly Father would pour out the Holy Spirit upon them. Their praying faithfully for the Holy Spirit and their complete surrender to His will would empower them for ministry. Jesus trained His disciples to share the message of His gospel. But they were not to go out trying to preach the gospel until they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. His final command to them just before His ascension was to go back into the city of Jerusalem and begin praying for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5).

When those 120 believers were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts, chapters 1-5), they launched their first evangelistic service in Jerusalem where many thousands of people had gathered. That first gospel message preached by the apostle Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, brought conviction of sin and a desire to get right with God to 3,000 penitent sinners on that first day. These thousands were added to the church of 120, and we read about the gatherings of these new Christian believers for worship and fellowship. Those believers full of agape love were soon led of the Spirit to pray with the new Christians, many of whom soon experienced the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

The apostle Paul warned the Corinthian church, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things; endures all things. Love never fails. …” (1 Corinthians 13:1-8}.

As a minister of the Gospel, I am praying for all Christians in our churches to pray for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit that will bring heart-warming love. If we do this, it could allow God to open the heavens and pour out on weak churches and a wicked world the greatest revival in the history of His church!

Preparation for Revival - by Jim Tharp

I believe that God is saying, “Wake up and prepare for the great revival that I am going to give.” It has been said that revival is first a rude awakening before it is a great awakening. 

The most crucial time in revival is at the earliest stage when the Spirit is rousing Christians and congregations from their slumber and bringing about an awareness of their deadness. We must make a critical decision about waking up,coming fully awake, and receiving the whole truth about our undoneness and desperate need as God reveals it.

Clothed with Power - by Jim Tharp

“But you shall receive power when the 

Holy Spirit has come upon you . . ..” (Acts 1:8, NKJV).

“Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; 

but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are 

endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49, NKJV)

The church of Jesus Christ is filled with powerless Christians, many who are not sensitive to the Holy Spirit who was imparted to them in their experience of receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior. Actually, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin and leads us into repentance and then into the faith to place our trust in Jesus. Then, He abides in our hearts to help us live the Christian life—worship God, pray, understand the Scriptures, and seek the fullness of power.

Too many people who decide to trust Christ as Savior seem to think that this is all there is to the Christian life. Also, there is more to getting saved than being baptized and joining the church. We will need power to control our selfish desires, resist Satan’s lies and temptations, and find our place in life. We will need power to pray, power to worship, and power to know the will of God.

The Holy Spirit comes to abide in our hearts when we are saved. But as we begin this journey in faith, we must pray for more of the Holy Spirit. Realizing our weaknesses, we must pray for the Holy Spirit’s fullness. Now this requires us to surrender our hearts to Christ and devote ourselves to His will—not for just an hour or a day but for the rest of our lives.

Surrendering our lives to Christ is the Christian’s most wise and important decision after his or her experience of salvation. Being totally surrendered to Christ means that the Holy Spirit is within us to enlighten us as to who we are, what we are to do with our lives, and how to understand the word of God. He wants to help us grow in grace, turn all our dreams, hopes, ambitions, and strengths over to the Holy Spirit to live a Christ-centered life. This devotion to Christ will not only assure us of a successful life here on earth but also eternal life when we are called home to be with our Lord.

The Sin of Prayerlessness - by Jim Tharp

James 4:17, NKJV 

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” 

There is probably no easier sin to commit than that of prayerlessness. We all need to realize that we can sin not only by doing what is wrong, but we can commit sin by not doing what is right—and certainly when it is something that God’s Word commands us to do. The prayerless man or woman who claims to be a Christian is disobeying our God of love, showing disrespect for the Word of God, and grieving the Holy Spirit who is available to help us and empower us for prayer.

 

Prayerlessness is a sin of neglect. Jesus taught His disciples to pray. They were absolutely amazed at His praying! They soon caught His secret—Jesus’ relationship with the Holy Spirit. He realized the need of getting His disciples prepared for receiving the power of the Holy Spirit after His return to heaven. As His apostles who would be called to spread His gospel to the world, they must learn to pray. Therefore, Jesus took the time to make sure they knew how to pray and how to receive the Holy Spirit. Because they were already believers in Jesus Christ, they could learn to pray. But they would realize the difference in their praying when they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Praying for Our Nation in 2021 - by Jim Tharp

I Timothy 2:1-8, NKJV

“Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”

Christians are called upon by God to pray for many things—our homes, our churches, and our governments. On January 20, 2021, millions of Americans witnessed by television or in person the inauguration of Mr. Joe Biden as the 46th President of our United States of America. Please notice in the Scripture above how the Apostle Paul appeals to Christian believers to pray for those in authority: We are to offer “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and . . . thanks for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”

Most Americans realize that our nation has experienced more violence, division, and chaos throughout the last 36 years than we have known since the Civil War. I do not believe we can blame any one political party for all this chaos.

I have been a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for 75 years. In 1983, having pastored churches for 43 years, I realized the weakness of the American church. I felt called of the Holy Spirit to travel America and other parts of the world as an evangelist and challenge Christians to take seriously God’s promise in II Chronicles 7:14, NKJV: “If My people who are called My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ poured out the Holy Spirit on the early Church to revive the powerless disciples and other believers. Because they obeyed and fervently prayed for 10 days, there came the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts, chapter 2). Since that first outpouring, God has kept His church alive thorough those who grow hungry to get back to God and begin repenting of sins and praying. 

I want to close this message by urging my readers to seriously consider taking more time each day for prayer. If you are an unbeliever, ask God to forgive your sins, and then place your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord; begin living the life of prayer, worship, and studying the Bible—especially the Gospels.