The Necessity of Prayer
Dearest Ones, I want to talk to you today about "the necessity of prayer." All of you are mighty in prayer and seek me and find me every day. But for the sake of those who are seeking to know me more intimately and have more success in praying for your family and others, I am going to share some insights to inspire you and help you to know what happens when you pray and why it is a necessity. The first principal to understand about prayer is the reality of the great controversy. All unseen to you, there are principalities and powers of darkness around you, seeking to entice you and destroy your faith, your connection with me, and eventually your life. I, on the other hand, have legions of angels who are belting the world, and holding back the powers of evil until the work is finished, and every honest soul has been gathered into the safety of my pavilion, which is the hiding place spoken of in Psalms 91 and 32. The function of my Sanctuary is to serve as a place of refuge for those who have given their lives to me. The whole Old Testament Sanctuary was a visible demonstration of how to connect successfully with me in the heavenly Sanctuary, so that you can know how to escape the fowler's snare and be safe in my arms of protection. So the following is a review for proper prayer. First, an attitude of praise is essential [Ps. 100:4], for the devil desires to speak to your mind in words and feelings of depression, anger, fear, guilt, passions of all kinds, and all other negative ways common to mankind. I don't need to have you praise me in order to respond to you, but you need to have an attitude of praise in order for your mind to connect with me and hear my still small voice [Isa. 30:19-21] speaking the impressions of my heart to you through the Scriptures. It is true that I do speak in thunder tones in nature to arouse those who are not listening to my voice any other way. [Isa. 30:30; 5 T. 136.] But I want to have my people respond to my slightest whisper and have nothing between your spirit and mine. Of course, it is necessary to confess your sins as I reveal them to you, but only as you have already connected with me through praise. The wicked will also confess their sins in burning words of anguish after the close of probation when the door of salvation is shut. But they have no love for me or desire to know me, therefore their prayers go unanswered. But my people will have their prayers and petitions answered, for they have connected with me through praise, confession, and cleansing their minds through the Word of God, and are filled by the Holy Spirit in a personal experience with me and an internalization of my character and my perfection applied to their lives. Then their prayers are heard by my Father, and He connects them with Himself and loves them just as He loves me, because through prayer you have become one with me. Cleansed, Spirit-filled lives produce prayers that are in harmony with heaven and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Thus you can be sure that these kinds of prayers will be answered abundantly above all that you can ask or think. I need these kinds of prayers to finish the great controversy, for the efficacy of my sacrifice and the indwelling of my perfect life in my people must be displayed as a second witness of the success of the Plan of Salvation before I can destroy the wicked, for no one is to be put to death without a second witness. [Deut. 17:6; 19:15.] Are you willing to be second witnesses to the efficacy of my plan of salvation and my sacrifice and my intercessory work in the heavenly Sanctuary by living the Sanctuary way [Ps. 77:13] every day by faith? Those who reign with me in heaven will have first reigned with me on earth through their obedience to me and their connection with me as we finish the work in the final phases of the cleansing and blotting out of sin. If you walk experientially with me through this closing part of my ministry, you will be hidden under the shadow of my wings when I go out of the Sanctuary to lay all the sins of my people on the head of Satan, the scapegoat [Lev. 16:20-22], and pour out the vials of my wrath [Rev. 16:1] against sin upon the earth and its inhabitants who have rejected my salvation and threatened my chosen ones with death. Then the great controversy will end, and peace will reign in the universe once more. Come my beloved ones, enter with me into the ark of safety - the Most Holy Place experience with me - and I will hide you from all harm when my wrath passes by. Lovingly, Jesus.