Gerry Gutierrez' Update

“Prayer and fasting is a matter of the head for unseen your Father”

Matthew 6:16 -18. Georgia June 29, 2017.


 

‘Before we start praying, Jesus has been praying already for us as the intercessor of the brethren and as the head of the church his body.”

Prayer was a way of life in the Garden of Eden at the cool of the day. It was as natural as breathing the gentle breeze set by God’s thermostat. However, after the fall, prayer become an acquired taste as disciples saw Jesus praying and wanted to learn to pray as the discipleship of John were taught to pray by John the Baptist.


Prayer then is joining Jesus in his Office of Intercessor at the present time which he exercises it at the right hand of the father, to the right ear of the father who already knows our every need before we can say even the first word.

Prayer, and the answer to prayer, as anything else that involves God, is a consummated fact before time begun. There is no room for improvisation in God’s economy. God does not only know the end from the beginning but every step of the way including the miss steps and the out of step steps.

It cannot be any other way. Prayer as every deed of God is like a stone thrown into a still lake. For example, Predestination deals with salvation and every aspect from then on to our glorification is as the ripple effect that goes unstoppably to the other wise undisturbed life of man as the ripple gets to the farthest shore of the lake.

Jesus in his teaching about fasting, seems to step aside from the oneness with God and in unity with the believer he shares the insider scoop from past experiences with the Father about fasting and tells us how YOUR FATHER likes fasting.

Jesus our senior brother who has taking his exam many times over before God, knows the right answer in order to obtain a passing grade in relation to fasting and prayer. Jesus wants us to pass the test by leaking the answer to us the sophomore and under classmates.


By the way, the midterm examination's from God's part is not in order to surprises the students and show us how stupid we are. No. It is in order to bring us to the point of no option but to adopt the Truth of which the sophomore is not confident yet or does not know the sweet taste of the scroll of God handed down from heaven as it was in the case of Ezekiel. 

In my view, when a student fails a test in front of an examining jury, it is not the student who has failed but the teacher. Students are reflection of their teachers. Jesus in this passage is helping his students to pass the test before the Father.


In the good sense of the word, Jesus and the believers are plotting behind The Father’s back and cramming for finals with the right answer for an open book exam on how to pass the test of fasting.

 

Jesus says: “When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to man that you are fasting but only your father who sees what you have done in secret will reward you".


Before we take Jesus as the taleteller of the answers to the exams on the one hand and be hard with ourselves in our self-righteousness and hypocrisy on the other hand and treat ourselves as cheaters in and exam; let us remember that it is OUR FATHER and the Father of Jesus who sent this teacher or ours by endorsing Jesus personally in the mountain of transfiguration when he said: 

 

“This is my son whom I love, in him I'm will please, listen to him. Yes, listen to Jesus, listen to him alone. If we found cheating in a exam it is more likely that we will behave as classic children of Adam and once again blame God the father saying: “This teacher that you gave us is the one who leaked the answer of the exam on fasting.” As Adam, when found guilty of sin, he blamed God saying: “The woman that you gave me make me do it” 

 

Even though men would sound right in both counts, the judgment of the father in heaven is not on the basis technicalities and circumstantial evidence. Besides, it is not God who is in the bench of the accused. The judgment of God against men in both cases is based on facts: "Did you or did you not listen to the answer that Jesus share with you in the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Olives.” It is not for the felon to decide where the felony rests. It is not in the eating of the fruit but in the disobedience to the direct order that felony rests. 

 

God does not want to flunk anyone. Nor does God want any clever and original dissertation with words never heard or spoke as if to go after a PHD exam. No. 

God’s ultimate and unchangeable desire is that we agree with him and his will and pass the test with open books and revealed answer by Jesus who literally is the revelation of God. Further more God wants us to know that his Will is bound to prevail on earth as is in heaven and conveniently as it is for the angel therein.

 
Refusing to surrender willfully to the teachings of Jesus is disagreement with the Will of the Father, and the disagreement with the father will means death. Even more, God does not find pleasure in the death of the wicked in his wickedness. But the death of his saints is of great joy to him and to heaven. 

 

Therefore it's not the will of YOUR FATHER to flunk you in the exam. Neither is the will of Jesus or the Holy Spirit to leave us without the reward of God the Father to them that love him in Secret. 

The Holy Spirit was sent to be the teacher at large by covering more ground and people at the same time because he is not confined to a reasonable body like Jesus. The Holy Spirit and Jesus both are our teachers and our tutors leading us and remind us of all truth by passing the exam unto salvation.


Let us go back to the point of our discussion about fasting. “Get up early, take a shower, wash your face, comb your hair, use a good conditioner and put oil on your head so people may look at your silky hair and not be distracted by your sober and disfigured faces with hunger or self pity like hypocrites do.”  

 

Do not “show and tell” your fasting to men; less you want their applause and if you do, then applause you will get as reward and nothing else. God only rewards the Secret Service done as result to his instructions that is worth his name. 

Your fasting should be obvious only to your father who is unseen and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.      

 

 

There are two things that must not scape the scrutiny of our discussion, on this passage of the scriptures. The first is that God is unseen and that God sees all and rewards the secret service to his name. The Judeo Christian Faith is a matter of the heart to the unseen God who dwells in the heart of the believer.

 

The beauty of our faith is that the invisible God makes himself visible in the person of Jesus the Son of God and Lord of all. It is Jesus God the Son who is speaking to us and declaring us about God as “YOUR FATHER”.

 

Therefore, seek no confirmation from any source under heaven over your identity before God. YOUR FATHER is God according Jesus and he is extremely wealthy and omnipotent, generous and able to reward to those who take him at his word that secretly love, fast and pray to him. 

 

Let us wash our faces, comb our hair, and put oil on our heads and wear a smile with the joy of the redeemed. Remember father Abraham who was known as the friend of God and the father of our faith. The secret of Abraham’s greatness was that he had an intimate secret relationship with God. 

 

In the secret closet of your heart make room in the Inn for the Lord Jesus the invisible God in the flesh made visible for us. Then you can be sure to receive reward and be satisfied with plenty by your father through fasting and praying at the right hand of Jesus to the right ear of Jesus, who in turn is also seated at the right hand of the Father praying to the right ear of YOUR FATHER in heaven.  Amen.

 

Gerry Gutierrez