Mere Brats

Exodus 3:9 (NLT) Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them.

Psalm 18:6 (NLT) But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help.He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears.

Psalm 141:1-2 Lord, I call upon You; hasten to me. Give ear to my voice when I cry to You. 2 Let my prayer be set forth as incense before You, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Revelation 8:3-5 Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out. 5 Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake.

When the burdens of the world become difficult and we are oppressed by the enemy, what must we do? We must cry out to the Lord. Crying out to the Lord is not a 10 second prayer over a meal. Crying out to the Lord is not telling everyone else to pray for you while you sit in self pity watching TV and eating out of depression. This is what religious people do.

Soldiers of prayer must be like John the Baptist who wore a camel's woven coat. When a crisis is before us, the true sons of God will begin to pray. Their life is disciplined prayer. The camel has very callous or hardened knees. The camel's coat that he wore represented a man of prayer. He was a man of prayer who prayed hours a day and spent time with God. He was one who cried out to the KING for the sake of God's people.

We must become trained disciplined prayer warriors which means you can at least sit with your eyes closed praying in the spirit for one or more hours daily. The Roman army drilled once a day. They would march 20 miles once a month. Their life was a soldier. They were willing to drill once a day, march 20 miles in heavy gear, and die for their Caesar. They were willing to die for a mere mortal man. We serve a GREAT KING, we serve a GREAT GOD but why are so many Christians lazy and not even willing to give God one hour a day in prayer? Why is it we say we will give our lives to HIM but our actions are that we give our lives to Caesar instead? Why are so many Christians willing to obey Caesar rather than God?  It is because many Christians are mere brats and many do not honor HIM. But serving Caesar (world), they choose to honor a man more than God since Caesar is giving them the sports, coliseum, entertainment, money, and glory of life.

Matt 15:7-9: You pretenders (hypocrites)! Admirably and truly did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said:8 These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me.9 Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men.

If we want our prayers answered, then they must reach the throne. They must reach HIS Ears. Our lives must be fully surrendered to HIM. We must be a people disciplined, repenting, cleansed, dedicated and committed, filled with HIS Love and Spirit. Only then, as it is mixed with incense will then the prayers be answered as the angel throws the filled incense burner with fire from HIS altar to the earth. HE answers with FIRE.

Pastor Steve Yong Kim