How Firm a FOUNDATION

Genesis 8 [selected verses]

1 But God remembered Noah... 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down... 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was 'a freshly plucked olive leaf'* [*Noah's first 'sign' that the hope of God's promise was sure]! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. [insertion mine]

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Taken from my personal study time of this chapter today - where God is teaching me the INSIDE ~ OUT of His Heart. Do you see it here in this very passage? A true portrait of Christ and us = Noah and the Ark!

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Now~ will you join with me today at the feet of a great man who enveloped himself in a life of Faith and Prayer with our God?

E.M Bounds On PRAYER _____

Prayer and Faith
[Excerpts from Chapter 1 - with my emphasis added]

"In any study... of PRAYER... first place, must be given to FAITH. It is the initial quality in the heart of any man who essays to talk to the Unseen. He must out of sheer helplessness, stretch forth hands of faith.

He must BELIEVE, where he cannot prove.

PRAYER is simply FAITH, claiming its natural yet marvelous prerogatives---faith taking possession of its illimitable inheritance....

When faith ceases to PRAY it ceases to LIVE.

Faith does the impossible because it brings God to undertake for us, and nothing is impossible with God.

PRAYER projects FAITH on God, and God on the world. Only God can move mountains, but FAITH and PRAYER move God."

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Several years ago the Lord gave me a saying which was this:

"PRAYER ACTIVATES... what God has already purposed in your life." ~~~~~~~~~ skbrower © 2007

And that saying was based on these two verses of Scripture:

Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O LORD. ~Psalm 139:4

I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills {His purpose} for me. ~Psalm 52:2

We can see here, how important our FAITH is, being the very foundation of our PRAYER life.

As we go on with our study.... E. M. Bounds says:

"In His cursing of the fig tree our Lord demonstrated His power. Following that, her proceeded to declare, that large powers were committed to FAITH and PRAYER, not in order to kill but to make alive, not to blast but to bless.

'Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.' [Mark 11:24]

There is a need to emphasize [this verse], since it is the very keystone or the arch of FAITH and PRAYER.

We should ponder well that statement--- 'Believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.' Here is described a FAITH which realizes, which appropriates, which takes. Such FAITH is a consciousness of the Divine, an experienced communion, a realized certainty."

He goes on to ask these questions:

"Is FAITH growing or declining as the years go by? Does FAITH stand strong and foursquare, these days, as iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold? Does FAITH maintain its hold, as religion tends to become a mere formality and worldliness increasingly prevails? The inquiry of our Lord, may, with great appropriateness, be ours.

'When the Son of Man cometh,' He says, 'shall He find FAITH on the earth?'"

How do you see and understand these truths about our FAITH being the very foundation of our PRAYER LIFE?

Will you join me on The Prayer Walk today? click here: SHEPHERD'S WALK at Sweetbriar

Choosing JOY in EXPECTANT PRAYER!

Stephanie ___ JESUS ONLY in 2010