Eyes Of Faith

Irv Everett Fri 15 May 2009, 8:38 pm

Eyes of faith

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

Help me recognize, Thy mercy and grace

For dimness impedes my heart’s perception

And worldly blinders; my eyes of faith

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

To Satan’s illusions of hopes and dreams

Proclaim the good news of Thy salvation

Introduce me to the King of Kings

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

To a personal relationship that purges my soul

To a close encounter with the living God

To the King of Glory; Scriptures foretold

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

Erase sin’s mark on a life I waste

Vanish from sight the fruit of Thy enemy

Bring Thy Wittiness to my eyes of faith

**Fenny West** Sat 16 May 2009, 12:41 pm

Thank you, Irv, for your prayer and poem from your heart. It compliments and underscores, 'Open my eyes'.

Surely the Lord is in this place and is speaking so loudly.

I pray that He will give us hearing hearts and understanding minds and grant us the boldness to do what He says.

**Waqar Daniel** Sat 16 May 2009, 5:32 pm

Open the eyes of my heart, prayer of every servant of LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. I would like to share something that I am experiencing in my prayers for some months now. Before praying to Heavenly Father, I ask Holy Spirit to help me pray in spirit as it it is pleasing to the heart of Heavenly Father. Now this is what I experience in my prayers, that God does open the eyes of my heart.

I cannot explain in words but I think this experience is quite connected to Irv's poetic prayer. I feel as if the whole world is shut to me. I can feel my body yet I feel that I am praying in spirit. I do not have words to express how I feel yet I believe that you and Fenny would understand.

Irv, your poem has inspired me to share my praying experience with you and I hope someone will try this and let me know if they feel the same or not.

WordofLife Sat 16 May 2009, 6:04 pm

Thank you Irv and this is just what Jesus ordered. I will try Daniel and let you know. I hope and pray that God will also make me pray in spirit as I long to do so. Thank you for your advice and help on how to pray in spirit.

Irv Everett Tue 19 May 2009, 12:59 pm

God is so good all the time and I thank each of you, Fenny, Daniel, and WordofLife for you kind comments. We are only able to do the things we do by God's mercy and grace. I am so glad that each of us offer suggestion to the others for growth and developement in our Christian faith. I too, will address my prayer life differently. God bless you all, Irv

Johntheservant Wed 20 May 2009, 8:01 am

I tried for three nights and finally I've got it and yes it is difficult to explain. This is what I felt that I feel like I am out of body and words in prayer connect with each other. Before this I used to search for words. Thank you and can you share something more on prayer with us? It will be a blessing.

Littlelamb Thu 21 May 2009, 3:30 am

It is a wonderful experience, when we allow the HOLY SPIRIT to just take over for us. Irv, your poem, really touches the heart of the issues. We need to have our heart open to recieve all that the LORD has for each of us.

Yes LORD, open the eyes of my heart, and let me see with YOUR HOLY EYES. In JESUS NAME, AMEN.

**Waqar Daniel** Thu 21 May 2009, 6:55 pm

Thank you for your interest in Prayers. I will be writing a series on Prayer, the things I learnt by prayers and through prayers. Let me tell you a very important thing that very few people know.

Blessings and Favors from God Almighty
Many people rather majority of us seek blessings and favors from God Almighty. God does bless them, however, I think and believe that we lack one thing here. Whenever you ask for blessings and gifts, you must add this at the end;

Father bless me and give me understanding, knowledge and the wisdom to use the blessings you give so that others can also benefit from them.

Prayers
Many people think that Prayer is a talk / dialogue between God and man. Many scream at the top of their voices as if God is too far away. Some makes faces and jump up and down to show that they are praying in spirit.

Bible is very clear on Prayers. Prayers are supplications (requests) made to God Almighty for mercy. Supplication is made in a very soft tone and in humility;

And the LORD said to him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me...my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually (1 Kings 9:3)

Let us look at another prayer

The LORD hath heard my supplication;
the LORD will receive my prayer. (Psa 6:9)

So whenever you have to pray, pray in humility as if you are in presence of God Almighty, who is King of the universe.

I have heard and witnessed many Pastors and others praying to God, screaming at the top of their voices. I believe that this is rude because if they say the same words and use the same tone with any other person, that would be utterly rude and disturbing. However, we are not afraid of God and are very rude in our prayers and order Him as if He has to do our will. Think about it when you pray next time!

dove Sat 23 May 2009, 7:25 am

Thank you Irv for "Eyes of Faith" and I am blessed through it.

Daniel thank you for your input. I want to ask one thing and this is for my understanding. You wrote

Waqar Daniel wrote:Father bless me and give me understanding, knowledge and the wisdom to use the blessings you give so that others can also benefit from them.

Why do we need to ask for understanding, knowledge and wisdom when God blesses? Is it very important because I have never asked this and the people I know also have never asked this. I discussed this few people I know have knowledge of the Bible and they say it is not necessary. I would like to know your take on this so that I can understand it. Thank you

Pastor Sat 23 May 2009, 5:44 pm

My question is same as that of Dove and I would also like say that I believe that prayer is a dialogue between God and the prayee. What are your comments on this?

**Waqar Daniel** Sat 23 May 2009, 6:19 pm

Thank you Dove and ChristianLady for asking questions and here is my reply:

Question

Dove wrote:Why do we need to ask for understanding, knowledge and wisdom when God blesses?

God the Father blesses us and gives us favors in His mercy kindness and love. Many times, we are either not aware of the blessings from God the Father or we waste them.

When we read the incident of Judas Iscariot, he completely wasted his blessing and favor from the Heavenly Father. When Jesus sent out the twelve out to heal the sick and cast out demons, Judas was among one of them. In other words he was given the same measure of Holy Spirit as it was given to the other eleven. Judas who betrayed Jesus was under Holy Spirit. To him money was important than the favor of God.

Second example is the crucified thieves with Jesus, one recognized the blessing and favor right next to him and he reached out claimed and received the blessing and the favor over the other who rejected and completely failed to recognize the favor of Heavenly Father.

Same is the case of King Solomon. God blessed and favored him over the house of David but he also did not understand and did not have the wisdom to use the blessing and favor of God Almighty.

Therefore, to me, it is very necessary to recognize when God the Father's blessings and favors are on us. Moreover, when we use God's favors and blessings, I believe others must also benefit from it. Like whatever God has blessed us with, we share it on this forum to guide others or to be guided by others.

I believe that when we ask God for blessings and favors, it must benefit others also. For example, when we seek wisdom from God, we should not keep it to ourselves, or sell it but we must use it to save souls.

Question

ChristianLady wrote:My question is same as that of Dove and I would also like say that I believe that prayer is a dialogue between God and the prayee. What are your comments on this?

I have given you references from the Bible, where does it say that it is a dialogue?

A Dialogue means a two way communication and not one way. In a dialogue it is necessary that God also speaks, like we see in the case of Moses, where God spoke to him face to face. Abraham had a dialogue with God where he reasoned God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, so did David and so Solomon. Did you have any such an experience? If yes then it is a dialogue, if no then it is monologue asking God to have mercy on you.

I was not talking about dialogues and monologues. I was talking of the mood of the prayers. We request God for His mercy, kindness and love and it is in His mercy that He listens to my prayers and it is His loving-kindness that He answers them. Let me give you two more references from the Bible;

Let my prayer come before thee: incline thy ear to my cry (Psa 88:2)

But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in truth of thy salvation (Psa 69:13)

I hope that I have answered both the questions.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:26–27 words of encouragement for trouble filled days. He said: "In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."