Pray Then Like This

Exodus 30:
6 And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you.
7 And Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it,
8 and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the LORD throughout your generations.
9 You shall not offer unauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it............
34 The LORD said to Moses, "Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part),
35 and make an incense blended as by the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.
36 You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy for you.
37 And the incense that you shall make according to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the LORD.
38 Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people."

1John 5:
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Lev 10:
1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them.
2 And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
3 Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD has said: 'Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.'" And Aaron held his peace. 

zûr = unauthorized/strange (Hebrew)
To turn aside (especially for lodging); hence to be a foreigner, strange, profane; specifically (active participle) to commit adultery:

True prayer that originates from the will of God, i.e. from His revealed Word of scripture, is not to be wasted on the wills,wants, and and self-gratification of those offering the prayers; which is the strange fire of Leviticus 10.

Matthew 6:
5 "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Speaking Truth In Love

2Timothy 4:

1  I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

2  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

3  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

4  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

muthos=myths

a tale, that is, fiction (“myth”): - fable.

2Thess 2:

9  The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,

10  and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

11  Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,

12  in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Jeremiah 5:

30  An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land:

31  the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

Often quoted, seldom taught or understood in context. Paul (Jeremiah as well) is speaking of those who profess to be believers. Week in, and week out within professing Christianity, the clockwork like ritual of the “faithful” filling pews, and being fed a “mythological meal”, rolls on. “You will not surely die”, (i.e. I’m ok, you’re ok, we’re all OK), being the main course. (Genesis 3:1-7)

People are deceived for the very reason that they want to be deceived.

God sends them a strong delusion as judgment; the judgment being, they are handed over to the lie. They would rather believe a lie since the cold, hard truth is not a pleasant thing, nor are those who proclaim it, a pleasant people, (at least in their estimation of what is “pleasant”).

energeia=strong                                                                                                                               efficiency (“energy”): - operation, strong, (effectual) working.

plane=delusion                                                                                                                                         objectively fraudulence; subjectively a straying from orthodoxy or piety: - deceit, to deceive, delusion, error.

Ephesians 4:

11  And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

12  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

13  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

14  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

15  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

16  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love……

25  Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. (2 Timothy 2:15-26)

How much more clarity is needed here? The redeemed are those who love the Truth, and

subsequently speak the Truth, in love (not tolerance), to one another. They do not speak “in

love” without speaking the Truth. The two are forever bound together in Christ. (John 14:6;

Romans 5:8)  

This is the true prophetic calling of the church, not the peddling of fortunes, (one of the myths

men get lost in).

1Cor 13:

4  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

5  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

6  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

To “spare one another’s feelings” by lying to each other, and so deceiving ourselves, is not love;

it is wrongdoing.