Let us celebrate together Father's Day at the "Cool of the Day.

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“TO WISE FATHERS ON FATHER’S DAY”

 

“Behold the difference between the wise and the foolish.”

 

Oil is what makes the difference between the wise and the foolish.
How good is a lamp without oil in the dark?

Two oil tankers are burning in the Waters of the Persian Golf as I write this letter. How good is a car without oil?

Imagine for a moment about all the oil in the world drying completely.
The whole world would literally come to a Screeching halt.
Now imagine yourselves in the dark ages and without any oil in your lamps, “where would you be?” Wherever you were, you would be helpless and in the dark.

In the same way, a life without prayer has no oil reserve to face life in times of need of oil for the lamp. It is foolish to take prayer for granted and despise prayer just because of personal or past experience of prayer has turned off your interest in prayer.

I do not blame those weak kneed believers who are sick and tired of endless prayers that are like clouds without rain in a season of drought.

Just because “praying” is dry you must not stop believing in “prayer”.
The problem in not with “Prayer.” The problem is with “praying.”
There is a secret dimension to prayer that like oilfields are hidden deep under the soil. That is also true with prayer that develops in the secret chamber of the “closet” that is the heart of men where no one has access but to God.

Powerful prayers come from listening God in a language so unique to reproduce for public consumption but clearly evident for those who have been in the “closet.” Wise people know the value of prayer more than praying. Wise people save the oil of their prayers in the reservoirs of their minds, heart, and soul and have the strength to discipline themselves to save that precious oil for darker night or the proverbial “rainy days.”

On the other hand foolish people trust in the flesh and in their looks and show to be foolish by taken prayer for granted and do not save that oil because they have not fed their faith by listening Jesus. That is why there is no power or discipline to save the oil that can only be extracted from the intimacy of the closets.

Just like if you want to build high, you must dig deep to set the foundation, in the same way if you want to have plenty of oil for the dark night ahead, you also must dig deeper for plenty of oil.

There is a modern technique to get oil from the inner most parts of the ground when oil seems to stop flowing. Oil diggers pump water into the ground in the certainty that if there is oil left under ground, it will be pushed to the surface because water is heavier than oil and oil will have no choice but to come out to the surface by nature.

When I approach my time of prayer I fear to pray from the top of my head because more likely the content of my prayer will be affected by my wants and need rather that the will of God for which I am created to be his “executioner.”

Therefore my beloved, know that prayer is more listening than talking.
Safe prayer is repeating after Jesus the Lord’s Prayer and by so doing come to understand prayer instead of praying as if you were a “rapper” and God delighting to listen to you talk about things you have not thought about carefully or considered before you speak in the fear and reverence of God.

Much of my prayer life before my wife died was a self-center Prayer around my wants and needs. In other words “an abomination to the ears of God.” Today it is my convictions that the only prayer worth God’s ears is “YES.” That should be prayed before God to let us know any specifics of his will for the day.

The Lord’s Prayer is the “YES” of the body of Jesus to God the Father taught by the Son of God. The priestly prayer of Jesus in John seventeen is the “YES” of Jesus, the head of the body, to God the Father. Prayer is Monolithic and beautiful.

Adam and Eve knew how to pray in the garden at the cool of the day before the fall by just saying “YES” to everything they heard Jesus say.

Yes my dear brothers and sisters, faith to say yes to God comes from hearing and hearing comes from listening to the word of God, who was Jesus in the garden.

It should not be surprising that just as belief come from hearing; unbelief also comes from hearing lies from the father of lies that is the mouth of the serpent who is the enemy of God and the enemy of our souls which belong to God.

Before such great foe we all are sitting ducks and vulnerable to its craftiness and hate.

 

Prayer is the provision of God that will not only protect us but also make us wise as opposed to the foolish virgins who did not value the wealth of prayer and were found without the oil of prayer when they needed the most.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Five of them were foolish and five were wise. ³ The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. ⁴ The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. ⁵ The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

⁶ “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

⁷ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

⁹ “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰ “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

¹¹ “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

¹² “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

¹³ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

 Let us pray and pray without stopping just as normal as breathing.

“YES” Jesus “YES”.

Gerry Gutierrez.