The Jesus Prayer is the only prayer you need.

The Jesus Prayer.

This is the prayer God gave Abraham as his guide and it was lived and taught by Jesus. It is the only prayer you ever will need to put you into your Father's lap forever.

Contents: 1.Preface, 2. Introduction, 3. Hopes and Dreams, 4. Walking the wondrous walk, 5. Wonder working attitudes, 6. Wonders of personal faith, 7. Wonder working reason, 8. Wonderful Teacher, 9. Wonder working authority.

When I graduated from college with a degree in business, I thought education was more important than experience. My father’s advice was, “If you go into business with anyone, be sure they are smarter than you.”

His advice sounded both cynical and worthless. Who could be smarter? I was a college graduate! And, why would I need to go into business with anyone? What I wanted was to use the information I had acquired and apply my intellect to make my mark. The great American dream lay before me and I had “free will” to plan my path and take credit for my successes.

I started my own small business and along the way thought I needed help to quickly expand. Partnering with a family member, I was sure great achievements were just ahead. Five years later we were failing and almost broke.

Still under thirty and with a wife and three small children, I was in despair. Fear drove me to seek God’s help. It was then I learned Jesus’ prayer and applied it. Money did not fall from the sky and no rainbow ended in my back yard. What happened was that God revealed his presence to me and began showing me the changes and choices I should make. Some seemed both radical and essential. I obeyed, made the changes, and found that “Father knows best.”

The day by day changes are not important enough to recount. The lifetime changes were that I both trusted God, and became obedient to the inspirations he put into my mind. In short, I had found a partner who was smarter than me. Not only was my partner smarter, he was also totally caring. I found he loved me by letting me actually feel his love, and he always worked for my well being in all things.

What God did for me was gift me with the “Abundant Life” Jesus promised. To detail the many miraculous events that took place in my life is unnecessary because the abundant life he gives is different for each person. Simply, he knows both what you want and what you need. His gifts to you will be different than his gifts to others.

Further, if I gave you a partial list of my blessings you might say I am either a braggart or a liar. I have received so many “impossible” achievements, experiences, and awards that those who best know me say, “God gives you anything you want!”

But that is not true. God gives me anything he wants. That is always better than anything I could imagine. Jesus’ promise of, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” became real in my life when I did the Jesus’ prayer. It will do the same for you.

If you sincerely do the Jesus Prayer, he will do for you what he does for me and all who trust him. He knows what you want before you say it. He promises all your needs will be met when you give yourself over to his will, ways, and works. This is the Abundant Life.

There is a strange and contradictory attitude toward prayer. Most everyone believes God operates the Universe the way he wants. Yet most really expect God to do what they want.

For most of my life I followed the traditional method of praying. That is, asking God to do things for me. That is the usual way of human thinking because self-centeredness is a primary component of “original sin.”

Many insist God is supposed to do what they request if they ask with enough “faith.” The fact is, no one receives immediate positive answers to all their prayers. The reason for this is obvious. If God did everything each of us asked, each of us would be manipulating the Universe. Imagine what chaos would result!

The great Patriarchs of Biblical history are remembered with universal respect. Their many feats in overcoming life’s trials and troubles astound us. We wonder how God chose Noah, Job, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, John Baptist, and Jesus to receive special power and direction for their special works. We want to know the “secret” of their powerful personal faith. How did they become so special?

Their “secret” is so obvious it is not a secret. Jesus taught it, lived it, and showed the world the Way. He said the Way is easy, but few believe him and fewer understand him.

This booklet, in the few pages that follow, attempts to do two things. First, it explains their “secret” as Jesus revealed it. Next it attempts to guide the reader into the same blessings and achievements.

Before reading this booklet, ponder this: Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:12, 13, RSV.)

To experience that promise, we need to know what kind of asking we should be doing. Let Jesus tell you. Let him explain the basic prayer that will put you into God’s house - The Kingdom of Heaven – now and forever.

If you succeed, you will become more than you ever expected. Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Mt. 11:11)

What if I came to your house for a visit and while we were talking I asked you, “What do you want from life?” What would you tell me? Would you list those things you want to own? Would your list include having power and notoriety? Would you tell me about physical pleasures you want to experience, or places you want to visit? Think about this for a moment. Can you list your life’s hopes and dreams on a sheet of paper?

Would any spiritual desire be on your list? What if you knew you could have a personal, one-to-one relationship with God every moment of your life? Would you want that?

Suppose God said to you: “Walk with me and you will be blameless. Go where I tell you to go, and do what I tell you to do, and I will make you a great person. I will bless you and make your name honored. You will be a blessing to the world. I will bless those who bless you and protect you from those who would harm you. And all who know you will be blessed.”

Those were the instructions and promises God made to Abraham almost four thousand years ago. They are the foundation of our understanding about the purpose and nature of God. They tell us what God wants us to do and the rewards of obedience – of walking with him.

Jesus’ prayer and instructions promised even more if we would walk with God. Jesus’ prayer carries God’s eternal guarantee. His prayer is not a magic ritual of secret words and mysterious rites. Jesus’ prayer is a commitment to a lifelong partnership with God. It is an agreement in which God promises to take you into his family as a much loved child. You agree to allow God to be your Father. As your eternal Father, God promises to be your wise teacher, infallible guide, constant companion, and eternal provider. Jesus called this the Abundant Life. Are you willing to make this agreement? If you are willing, what is to be done, and how is it done?

Prayer, we are told, is the beseeching, asking, or begging a favor or gift from someone who has the authority to grant the favor. Underlying this request is the desire for, the wanting and wishing for the favor. Prayer, then, is the great mystery of talking to the unseen creator of the Universe and expecting him to reply. It is in fact miraculous mental telepathy to and from the mind of God. You are a necessary part of this miracle.

In prayers to God, we can unknowingly be asking for something we really do not need. We might sincerely ask for something which we do not fully understand, and cannot foresee what consequences will result if the prayer is granted. Sometimes we get results we did not expect and wish had not happened. To prevent unwanted results, we need to know what Jesus taught about correct prayer.

What you would ask if you had only one wish and you knew it would be granted? What would it be? An old joke is that the best wish would be that all your wishes would be granted. What is your wish? What is the best gift you could ever have?

Jesus had one wish and it was granted; and then all things he wanted were also given to him. Do you know what wish, what prayer, he made? He said if you make the same wish he made, it will be granted to you just as it was granted to him. Are you interested?

The gift Jesus sought was for his life always to be guided by God and to be continually in his care. Jesus asked to “walk with God.” God, our Heavenly Father, accepted the task and guided Jesus’ life in all areas.

Jesus’ asked God to take over his life and run it. He put himself in his Father’s hands. Jesus “surrendered his life to God,” He wanted to do God’s will in all things at all times. His choice was to replace his own wants with God’s wants. He could testify, “I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19, RSV.)

Jesus’ prayer was that his entire life would be under the constant direction and protection of God. He taught that all people should make this necessary great prayer to put God in charge of their lives to bring them continual blessings now and in the hereafter. When done, all things in our lives will begin to work out for our good. (Romans 8:28; Matthew 7:11 RSV.)

What Jesus did was simple for him but difficult for us. This choice was simple for Jesus because he knew God’s nature and experienced God’s presence from the womb. It is difficult for us because we start in ignorance. From our beginning we neither know nor trust God. When we do not know what to expect from a God directed life, we cannot be willing to totally surrender our situation along with our hopes and dreams to him. Fear of the unknown closes our minds and ends our desire to seek God’s will and obey it.

Much more than Jesus’ words is needed to motivate us to surrender our lives to our Creator. Motivation to do this comes from the conviction that this one great event is the key to life. Moving to complete surrender is not a short hop, but a long journey. Some of us can be motivated to hurry the journey. Others need more time.

An intense desire for a change in our lives is necessary. Self-satisfaction kills any desire for change. Our desire for change can have two main causes. A commonly seen motivator to surrender to God comes from a disrupted life. Unresolved danger, doubt, and despair moves many to seek solutions from God. In those times of severe need, answered prayer is seldom seen. This is because we never learned Jesus’ surrender prayer. What we ask for is a solution to a singular problem rather than a correction of the problem that caused our despair. Our problems are caused by living outside of God’s care and direction. The results of Godless living are bad choices. Bad choices usually bring unwanted results.

The other desire for change comes from God-given wisdom. Having heard the “Gospel,” the good news of a God directed life, some will see the wisdom of having God run things. So those easily present themselves to God as a gift. These will surrender their lives back to their Creator now instead of waiting until he takes it later. They hunger for holy guidance.

Once motivated to seek God’s will “on Earth as in Heaven,” the prayer words are simple and almost automatic. The surrender prayer may be phrased in different ways. It is the honest asking God to take over your life now, and not later. The results are unfailing. A sincere total surrender of self brings our Father’s loving response. He reveals himself to us when we sincerely want him to run our lives and ask him to do it.

So the Jesus prayer is to simply and sincerely ask God to take over our lives. We ask to be as submitted to his will as was Jesus. We promise to do his will and works. We ask God for his clear direction along with the courage and energy to do his will. What comes next is the excitement of taking the grand journey of life hand in hand with God’s indwelling Spirit.

The difficulty in changing of our old attitudes is becoming willing to change. Self-satisfaction marks the end of improvement. The new life with God in control must begin changing. We change and people’s attitudes toward us also change. New opportunities emerge carrying with them the excitement of new adventures.

Our spiritual walk with our Father begins as our life on earth began. Easy does it. Walking begins with pulling up and then crawling, stumbling, walking, and finally we can run. Our movement into the Abundant Life is analogous to those experiences.

First we see something we want to do such as driving a car or playing a game. Once we decide we want to do something, we have to learn how to do it. So we read a rule book on how to do whatever we want to accomplish. “How to books” are the most popular books published. Reading the rule book is the easy part. Once we learn the rules, we must put them to work. So we become a beginner driver, or tennis player, or cook, or dancer, or writer, or singer, or parent, or what ever. This is shown to us in nature as we have the urge to walk and run, but must go through the learning of crawling, learning to stand, and then walk before we can run.

Now you have read the basic rules on how to have an Abundant Life. So what comes next? The phases of our new walk under the power and direction of our Father can be reviewed like this:

1. We must crawl before we walk. As babies we saw people freely moving around and we wanted that same liberty. First we had to develop enough desire to get off our backs to put in the effort to roll over, get on our hands and knees, and begin to shuffle and crawl.

It is the same with the abundant life. We must want the new, free, and power-driven life to start the exercise. We must develop and hold on to the desire to change even when we do not know where those changes will take us. This requires continual effort.

2. Expect to feel awkward at first. As you review your life you remember you were clumsy when you first began any new endeavor. Early driving brought near misses and mistakes we are anxious to forget. Beginner cooks had cakes fall, bread that would not rise, and scorched and failed recipes. Artists and writers dumped many of their earliest efforts. Young athletes loose as often as they win. Many beginning efforts made us look and feel foolish. We were teased about our ineptness and laughed at more than once.

As we strike a new path to achieve the new relationship with our Heavenly Father, we are nervous about what others may say. Most dread being called a religious fanatic or foolish zealot. The inspiration to continue comes from remembering your Father wants you to keep on keeping on. Forget human opinions and seek only the praise of God.

3. Expect great changes. Your goal is to receive all God has for you, all that he planned for you from the beginning of creation. You are no surprise to your Father who created you. Keep your eye on the goal. Remember you are safer in God’s hands than anywhere else. So trust your Father to take you into new and exciting adventures.

Until you look for God’s hand working in your life you will never become aware of all he does for you. Many things that happen are common place – almost the same with all people. Those commonplace events are necessary for human life. Gravity applies to all of us. As Jesus said, “for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45). Because we take the commonplace events for granted, we fail to notice and appreciate the special events that happen exclusively to us.

Start each day asking for God’s will to be done in your life and expect special events to happen for your particular benefit. Too often we have taken good events for granted and even credited fate and luck for our Father’s gifts.

4. Our Father appreciates gratitude. Learn to say thanks when good things happen. A silent short prayer that brings more good things is “Praise the Lord.” Jesus warned against us being ashamed of him – ashamed to act spiritual. All of us know life has a spiritual basis. We did not create ourselves and did not breathe life into our bodies. Something outside of ourselves keeps life in us. Almost all, admittedly or not, know a power greater than ourselves will determine the day and hour we take our last breath.

Since we know our beginning and our ending is in the hands of our Father, we are starting to understand the “in between times” are also in his hands. It is these every day events that make our life an Abundant Life or a life filled with uncertainty and fear.

5. Cherish the little things and the bigger things will come to you. These events are comparable to our crawling and standing exercises. Doing these basics puts us on the path to spiritual perfection. Expect different and unsought events to occur. Knowing unusual events will happen takes a little of the mystery out of your move into God’s house. These unplanned and unsought events are part of the Abundant Life he offers to all who live with him and in his total will.

As Jesus said, “Your Father knows what you want even before you ask.” It is not for the wordy prayers he hears, but because he loves you as much as if you were an only child. Let him spoil you. He knows how to do that! Take it easy and let him do the work in you. And do not be impatient. It takes time to grow up. It takes time to become proficient in any thing. Never forget our society, our culture, has decided it we need twelve years of schooling for us to learn enough to live on our own in the world.

It is important to accept these changes and even relish them as new and exciting adventures. In time we see the changes as blessings. We begin to see what is meant by the phrase, “Whenever one door closes, another will open.” All we need is enough patience and vision to see the new door when it opens. The new one always leads to another blessing, one following another as beads strung in a necklace. Understanding the meaning of blessings and what is truly a blessing requires divine revelation.

God wants to bless us with favors beyond anything we can imagine. His blessings are both physical and spiritual. We can easily understand material blessings but cannot understand spiritual blessings until we receive them. Jesus taught us how to enter into God’s storehouse of blessings. The way into this storehouse requires having the correct key. That key is simple. The key is a desire to be in God’s eternal presence – now. The only difficult part is getting motivated enough to seek the blessings that are packaged and wait for you to claim them.

A blessing is freely given favor. A commonly spoken expression is “God Bless you.” What does God’s blessing mean? Why is it said? Will God bless you if I ask him to? If so, what will be the blessing? Will God bless America if asked? What life changing events will occur in our lives if God answers our request? How will we know if God does favor our request?

All of us would like to have God’s blessings and hope that means God will be kind to us and send favors that will make our lives more enjoyable. But what are these favors? If we want God to bless us and favor us in our daily life, we need to take a closer look at what Jesus taught about blessings and how God gives them.

Jesus explained God’s blessings. Many believe Jesus was, and is, God’s messenger even though they are not sure of his nature. Some say he was a good teacher. Others say he was a Prophet. Others say he was God in human form on Earth. Others say he was only a god, one of many. From these various disagreements comes a particular agreement - Jesus was a wise teacher. Jesus promised us an Abundant Life that is easy, and unburdened by useless effort. He promised God would reveal himself to us as our loving Father, even as our Daddy (Abba). He promised our Father would be with us always – in this life and the life to come. He promised that our Father would give us wisdom and guide us away from danger. He promised that our Father will always have our daily needs met and satisfied.

He promised that our Father would put his love into our hearts so we could return that love to both him and to other people. He promised what he did we will also be able to do.

The reason Jesus’ way is easy is because it does not require work or effort. The way to God’s blessings is based on our attitudes. When our attitude is to sincerely learn and consider what Jesus taught, we will be given God’s blessings. God does not ask us for gifts. The Creator of all things has no personal needs. No religious rites, liturgy, eloquent prayers, special words, or self-denial brings God’s blessings.

God has one special need. He needs us. We are his hands and feet on earth. Specifically God needs you! God needs you to be his example and spiritual instrument on Earth. Without you, his plan for creation is incomplete. He needs each person to do specific missions that will change the world.

You must receive his blessings to have the necessary power and wisdom to do his work, to do his will – “on Earth as in Heaven.” With his guidance and power you can do those things that give the sense of achievement – the fulfillment – needed for contentment. God’s grace makes life significant and worthwhile.

The New Testament is the only record we have of Jesus’ words, works, and legacy. Within its first book, Matthew, is the “Sermon on the Mount.” The “Sermon” covers five chapters of that book.

Jesus said those chapters are the foundational instructions for the “Abundant Life.” Jesus’ “Sermon” presents two of the most important lessons he taught. These are his Beatitudes and his prayer. Both are lessons on blessings. The nine “Beatitudes” are listed in chapter five starting at verse three.

As time even can erode stones, time has eroded the simple meanings of these nine promised blessings. Originally Jesus words were spoken in Aramaic, and afterwards translated into Greek, Latin, Old English, and now with modern English. The two thousand years between Jesus’ original spoken words and today require our reviewing and restating his instructions.

Naming the first collection of these blessings the Beatitudes comes from the root word, beatify. We define beatify as receiving God’s blessings. Thus, the collection of Jesus’ blessing statements is called the Beatitudes. Each of the Beatitudes begins with the word “blessed.” Since each of us want to have the blessings God offers, we need to know what Jesus said in each of them.

First Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven.” It is easy to see that being “poor in spirit” is an attitude, not some religious act. This affirms the truth that blessings come from our attitudes and the Beatitudes are attitudes. It is difficult to understand the meaning of being poor in spirit; and how we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven now, while we are still on Earth.

Jesus’ blessing message is simply that when we become small in our own eyes we are ready to depend on God for direction. When our egos are at the high water mark, we are self-satisfied and have little interest in God. God is not considered as long as a person remains “rich” in spirit with an abundance of self-approval. With such self-satisfaction, life’s choices are by self-direction and are done with neither fear of, nor need of God.

It is only after the realization that self-efforts are not providing the inner satisfaction craved by all people that poverty of spirit emerges. Admission of human limitation opens the door for God’s entrance. When God is sought and asked he moves in and puts his spiritual presence, his Kingdom of Heaven, in us. The blessing of his internal Spirit is confidence of his eternal presence, approval, support and guidance.

Next Jesus says, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they will be comforted.” Mourning is a condition of sadness caused by loss of something valuable. In the broad spiritual sense, it is reviewing past actions and regretting wrong choices and the resulting unchosen results of those choices. This mourning comes from looking back, seeing our mistakes, and regretting those with an unspoken, “If only I had done that differently.”

Resolving to change attitudes and ideas is part of repentance. It is both turning away from the past and tuning toward a new beginning. When we mourn enough to seek God’s direction, God promises to bless us with forgiveness. He actually comes into us with the comfort of his love.

God lets us know when he forgives. Guilt for all past sins and mistakes is instantly removed. God’s comfort is only part of the blessing. The greatest part of it is the assurance God is real and will be present with us until the end of time.

Jesus’ third beatitude is, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the Earth.” The idea of meekness is as misunderstood as is “poor in spirit.” Meek, in this beatitude, does not mean weak or uncourageous. It means the opposite.

A meek person is one who is strong but not violent, able to endure injury with patience, and without resentment or retaliation. A better definition of “meek” is humility. The meek person of this beatitude is one who is secure, humble, and unassuming. Jesus called himself meek and gentle. It describes a person who is able to handle conflicts and insults without an ego crisis.

Jesus said these non-aggressors will inherit the Earth. Inheritance is to receive an unearned reward as a gift from another person. The recipient is an heir who without personal effort takes control and ownership of property as a beneficiary.

The Earth to be inherited is the realm of one’s personal existence. It is the place and circumstances of an individual’s life. So the humble and gentle will be given control of their personal existence. God does this so ideas about fate and luck become meaningless. God brings harmony to the meek in all the circumstances of life. Toil to compete for existence, survival, and success is no longer needed. The God who controls all things takes over our direction and protection to make life easier, more productive, more satisfying and enjoyable. Strife becomes an almost forgotten memory of the past. Worry and anxiety leave. This is his gift, his blessing to the meek.

The fourth beatitude is, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Built into each person is the desire to be right. Everyone claims a good motive for every act. Everyone imagines his motives are righteous and pure. No one ever claims to be mean, cruel, stupid, and unrighteous. But, admitted or not, everyone has some regretted acts regardless of good intentions and righteous motives.

Doing any dumb, angry, or revengeful act is painful in two ways. First, it is embarrassing when a bad action is publicly disclosed. Second, bad acts inevitably bring unwanted results. For our own sake we always need to be moral and do righteous acts. That makes life easier, less stressful, and much more rewarding. But that does not always happen.

Unchosen acts and poor decisions occur in every life. Regretted behavior brings the repeated question of, “Why did I do that?” Guilt from the damage caused by insensitive behavior makes the human soul “hunger and thirst” for right choices, decisions, and acts.

Finally understanding comes. To be complete we must be righteous: free of guilt, shame, sin, and regret. This understanding brings an intense desire to make righteous choices. Enormous intensity of this desire is what Jesus called hungering and thirsting for righteousness. The beatitude’s promise is that God will put his righteousness into our mind and heart in the degree it is sought. Our change is the blessing Jesus promised.

The fifth beatitude describes part of that blessing. A merciful heart replaces the selfish heart. So Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

The best known and most popular prayer is short and simple. It is, “God have mercy.” What should be a serious supplication becomes trite and vain when it is too often abbreviated as, “Oh, God,” or simply, “God!”

The prayer expresses our instinctive belief that God is benevolent and will have mercy on those who sincerely ask for it. Mercy is a compassionate attitude toward others with a desire to alleviate discomfort and distress. In times of community crisis, cooperation to alleviate problems seems to prove mercy is natural human behavior. Thus we can be led to believe mercy is an instinctive part of human behavior.

A closer examination of human history proves the opposite. Man’s lack of sympathy to others has always been the ruling evil of existence. The tragic story of humanities’ past is indifference, selfishness, inconsideration, and cruelty. General indifference to social distress causes political oppression, poverty, war, and slavery. So the core human nature is not generous mercy but self-concern and indifference to others.

In this mercy beatitude Jesus tied receiving mercy with giving mercy. Here we are told God’s rule for mercy is the more we give, the more we will receive. This is the ancient spiritual and natural law: “As you sow, so shall you reap.”

God’s will for mankind is a merciful attitude that will bring about merciful acts. He asks us to be as merciful to others as we want him to be merciful to us. Mercy is marvelous. It brings its own rewards. But mercy requires a gracious heart – the God given “new heart.”

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” is the sixth beatitude. If any of Jesus teachings could ever convince us of God’s purpose, this beatitude will. In this simple sentence we are told the way to seeing God is by the condition of our “heart.” We do not earn God’s presence by what we know or what we do. We get there by desire.

Knowing and pleasing God must be so important that is our main desire. When this is our priority, God comes to us. He reveals himself so dramatically it is as if he is actually seen.

We are to concentrate on desiring pure thoughts, emotions, and feelings. We are to seek only the praise of God and not the praise of others. When we seek and ask for a pure heart, God will show himself to us – we will “see God.” This is the culmination of Jeremiah’s prophecy that we will be given a new covenant and God’s law will be written on our hearts and minds.

When that happens we do not need to be taught about God by others for each will know God personally. (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:10-12.)

The face-to-face encounter with God proves his reality and his nature. “Seeing” God and knowing him as our Father, our Abba Daddy, is the blessing promised in this beatitude.

The seventh beatitude is, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Most people agree that peace is a good idea as long as they get what they want. But, when they don’t get their way, peace ends.

Peace, according to Jesus, starts with personal attitudes and behavior. To help us understand, he gave many details in the Sermon on the Mount. There he told us to never return evil for evil. We are to turn the other cheek when struck, do what is asked from us, and forgive affronts. Is this “mission impossible?” It is without God’s grace to assist us. God empowers us to do the impossible if we are seriously employing the first six beatitudes.

What will it mean to be called a child of God? What would it mean to be the child of a world leader, or a king of some great nation, or some famous secular celebrity? Such a child would be highly visible and easily recognized. They would receive both protection and privileges.

So it is when God oversees a person’s life. God oversees that life, handles retaliations in his own way, and provides its protection. He continually sends blessings, both material and spiritual. His children get what they need by his grace. And, peacemaking brings peace and harmony into daily living.

The final two beatitudes carry warnings along with promised blessings. These are good warnings because they provide the proof you are living in God’s will and are doing his works.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven,” is the eighth beatitude. Persecution is harassment. Types and degrees of harassment vary. This is a warning that some will try to injure you, in one way or another, because you are righteous and they are not.

When anyone turns from worldliness and all that means, and makes doing God’s will the priority in their life, they are changed in a mysterious and challenging way. They are different from those who seek the things of the world rather than the gifts and grace of God. This mystifies and disturbs those who do not know God and his rules.

You know when God takes control of your life, good things follow. Those blessings happen because of his love and grace and not from personal conniving and striving. When God is in control, necessary worldly goods follow grace and spiritual gifts. The personal presence and attention God gives you proves you are in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The ninth and final beatitude is, “Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.”

Certainly Jesus and his followers experienced “all manner of evil” and slander during their time on earth. We want to say those days are gone and that will not happen in our times. However, as soon as one begins to enjoy the blessings of the God given Abundant Life, talk starts. Those who take Jesus’ lessons seriously, and openly talks about him, will be accused of religious excess.

Why is this? It is because those who have not met our Father cannot understand spiritual life and its blessings. There is an automatic rejection of the unseen spiritual side of creation. Those who only know about God from hearsay cannot believe anyone can claim to know God personally, experience his constant presence, and hear his directions.

The prophets before you had the experience you will have. You will make many people uncomfortable by showing God’s importance. They are suddenly challenged to seek the same spiritual experience you have, or deny its worth.

To deny God’s importance, they must ridicule you and your beliefs. Envy and criticism is yours simply because you and God enjoy each other.

The surrender prayer is honestly asking our God to take over our life now, and not later. An honest total surrender of self brings our Father’s loving response. He reveals himself to us when we sincerely want him to run our lives and ask him to do so.

Agreeing to live according to God’s will makes powerful and positive changes in our personalities. The results are uniform. The first way God shows himself is by miraculously giving peace, joy, new hope and the assuredness he is real and with you.

Suddenly and miraculously our old nature is reformed and conformed by God’s universal love. Once we were plagued with unhappy emotions and feelings. From our fragility and selfishness God suddenly changes fear, worry, anger, jealousy, criticism, vanity, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, prejudice and greed into the new emotions of faith, hope, generosity, aspiration, patience, sympathy, non-judgment, kindness, courage, forgiveness, duty, and love. It is as if we have been born anew and are a new person.

These changes expand our personal faith. This first measure of our religious success is subjective rather than objective. That being the case, only the individual can determine if their religious efforts produce satisfactory personal faith. In the final analysis, religion is our one-to-one relationship with God, as we understand God.

As we calm down, let go of worldly concerns and let God guide our lives, we begin to see unexpected good events happen. It is an exciting adventure when we stop worrying about what will happen next and look forward to the next event. We find that when we are diligent in meeting our obligations time takes care of itself. We are always on time, and there is always enough spare time.

Our only concern is that we are correctly hearing and following God’s will for us. By regularly asking our Father for “more of him and less of me,” that concern gradually vanishes. At last we can stop taking credit for the good events in life and give God the credit. We see he is making things work out for us when we are powerless to control events and the acts of others.

The fact that our religious experience is personal precludes our judging another's actual personal faith and individual relationship with their deity. All we can see is another person's expression of faith. We imagine we can know the quality of the person's faith and relationship with God because of their individual behavior.

Such judgments produce religious systems' prejudices and lead to the diagnosis, “Your faith is shallow.” That judgment is always followed by a proposed cure, "Your way is wrong. You need to do it my way which is the only way to please God."

Now our own experience and new personal faith proves there is only one-way to God and it is open to everyone. It is through prayer. Everyone can pray. One-to-one communication with God is a universal privilege. God's inviolate rule is that humans can neither permit nor prevent prayers. God, the creator of all people, hears and carefully listens to all people. He is omnipresent and his love is universal.

God's openness to our prayers, whether verbal or only by thoughts, is a "done deal." God hears all prayers simply because God is omnipresent, always present. No one can escape God's reach or hearing. No one can escape from his eternal concern.

Humanity's great tragedy is the almost universal belief that what we do, rather than what we think, affects God and our stature before God. Said in another way, the most common religious idea is that God responds best to pious religious liturgies and rituals. Religious systems can be guilty of promoting this belief.

Those who have done Jesus’ prayer of surrender know the truth. God responds to our thoughts, not our acts. Our thoughts are our prayers. When we wanted God rather than things, He gave us what we wanted – himself, his Spirit within us.

Additionally, in more recent times the emphasis on education implies our faithfulness and spirituality is improved by study. Our great failing is to imagine that knowing about God, and being able to describe God's attributes, is somehow the same as personally knowing God – having personal relationship with him. Experiencing God’s attributes is greatly different from only hearing about them.

Adam and Eve are said to be the first to succumb to that error. They had known God personally, having visited with him daily. Yet Adam and Eve got the idea that knowing everything was somehow superior to knowing God. So they opted for knowing all things “and the rest is history."

Reality informs us that everyone can know God but none can know all there is to know about God or anything else. We can look to Job for confirmation of this statement (Job, chapters 38-41). So what profits any religious system to insist it knows more about God than all other religious systems? Claims of theological superiority put religious systems into conflict and continual competition. This competition puts people into conflict.

Human spiritual needs are alike. The evidence is clear. People joining together to seek God's grace and blessings have no need of a religious system. People of all religious opinions join to pray for the nation, offer thanksgiving prayers at banquets, meet at the flagpole to pray, ask others for prayers, remember the dead, and accept comfort from any person when in distress.

These are "we" events. We share our needs with each other. We pray with each other. In these times, we "love one another," and are members of God's family. Prejudices vanish, for the moment. Personal faith triumphs for the moment.

When day is done and the lights are out, the final prayer before sleep is to God and not to, by, or for a religious system. Intuitively we know faith is a do-it-yourself project. We are on our own. Our soul hungers for direct contact with God. We want to have God's presence, grace, and blessings. So we ask for that. We seek God in prayer and expect God's response.

In those times, we are truly little children relating to a spiritual Father. We tell God our needs and feelings. We want God to listen, comfort, and give us approval. We want to have the divine presence Adam and Eve traded away.

Too often the Adam and Eve disorder reappears at sunrise. Once again emphasis on what we think we know replaces our dependency on who we know. Debate about doctrinal opinions once again replaces spiritual harmony. The cycle of religious disputes, disruptions, criticisms, judgments, anger and separation goes on. Why have these when shared personal faith brings so much comfort?

Jesus said his New Covenant was easy and liberating, (Matthew 11-29, 30; John 8:36). It is strange that we who have so benefited from his freely given personal faith hasten to complicate and restrict it by adding on all sorts of requirements (works) that are said to be necessary for growing in personal faith.

The ways we do this are so complicated and so varied, a list of those detours could be described as endless. Borrowing from the Apostle John's allusion, we could comment, "I suppose the world itself almost could not contain the books written" for all these "add ons."

It is obvious we gain our oneness with God not by what we know, but from whom we know. This is the experience common to all who come into God’s presence. We come to him with only a bared heart and without a theological education. According to Jesus' promise, the Holy Spirit becomes our Teacher and we "learn" about God's love and forgiveness, by internal revelation.

The prophet Jeremiah's prediction (31:31-34) is fulfilled in our minds and hearts (Hebrews 8: 8-13). God "writes" his law on our hearts and minds when we are born again (John 3:5-7). Then we become a new person with a changed personality. At that time, we know nothing but God’s love and his presence.

As soon as we openly testify of our new spiritual life people will appear to tell us what we must do next. These "next steps" are opinions presented as faith essentials, as "Gospel truths" that should be followed. These opinions, offered with good intentions, are apt to change from day to day, if not from hour to hour. These opinions are as many and as varied as the number of people presenting them.

Common sense tells us we came into the presence of God by a contrite heart coupled with an earnest petition to God - by prayer and supplication. Why do we need more than prayer to stay in his presence? God's Spirit is our Teacher, our Guide, with Jesus promising he will never leave or forsake us and will stay with us until the end of time. Nothing more is necessary on our part to stay in God's presence. (Matthew 28:20b; John 14:18-21)

So what do we do next? We talk to God. We "pray without ceasing" (1 Th. 5:16-18). Prayer is simply talking to God. So what do we say to God? Everything we think. He knows what we think but he wants us to communicate with him just as we would if we could see him standing beside us - because he is standing beside us at all times. We tell him all our needs, all our feelings, all our hopes, all our doubts and fears, and give him thanks for his presence and providence. He wants a personal relationship with us and he responds to our search for him.

This is companionship with our loving parent. We met and know God as Father, Matthew 6:9) and even more intimately as Abba/Daddy (Mark 14:36). We are to relate to God as we would relate to a perfect earthly parent. Although our parents were not perfect, and neither are we perfect parents, God in his combination parental role of Father/mother, is our perfect parent.

Simple? This is too simple for most who counsel you to do more (or less). But there is nothing more to do. There are no special works - rituals, liturgies or sacrifices - you can do to change God. God already loves you as much as he can, and ever has, or ever will. We should accept his love for what it is - a gift. It is free. It was demonstrated in, by, and through Jesus' works. We can do nothing to earn God's love because we already have it. Nothing more is needed from us but to believe this.

Many say this is too good to be true. Those cynics and doubters have not experienced God's close companionship and love because they have not sought it. They would lead you into useless religious works that in no way increase God's love and concern.

Cynicism and doubting comes from those who have not met God "face to face" and, therefore, do not experience God's real presence.

Theological statements about God's omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence do not satisfy us. Personal faith does.

You tell God you want to walk and talk with him now, not later. You tell him you will do what ever he requires from you. He unexpectedly gives you his loving companionship, just as Jesus taught and promised. You can ask him to send the Holy Spirit into your mind to be your teacher that Jesus promised. You can ask him to give you the complete "living faith" he gave his disciples on the Day of Pentecost. This is common sense Christianity, the key to life. It is a matter between you and God. No one and nothing more can do it for you.

When you get serious about God, you have many questions. You realize you want to learn all you can about God. It is time to begin your own research, and put away "hear say" information. In the Western World Judeo-Christian traditions prevail. All information on these religious traditions comes from the Bible. It is our "holy book," our accepted source of God information.

Many testify that God’s spirit teaches them his will and ways as they read the Bible. Jesus said the foundation of spiritual wisdom is in his “Sermon on the Mount” found in chapters five, six, and seven of the book of Matthew.

"Hear-say" information, (things we heard about God before now), on God and the Bible can lead to serious misunderstandings about life and the individual role you and God have together. Many of us have found that some of the most cherished ideas we held are absolutely wrong. That causes us to question teachers who have taught us their opinions, implying their opinions are truth. It is time for us to do our own research. But where do we start? A good plan is to try to erase all the "hear-say" information you have accumulated and make a fresh start.

Bible means “books” and comes from the Greek word bibliotheke. It contains the primary recorded religious history of both Christians and Jews. It covers the period from creation (Adam) through Jesus' last disciple (Gospel of John) who died at the end of the first century A. D. Its two part division is for two epochs of human history. The first epoch is called the Old or B. C., the time before Jesus' birth. The New is from Jesus' birth forward and is designated A. D., or anno domini. Testament simply means testimony about, or witness to those two epochs of religious history. If you are in the Christian tradition, you start with the New Testament.

For Jews and Judaism, only the Old Testament is considered sacred - most especially the record from Abraham (c.1800 BC) through Malachi (c.460 BC). Historical Judaism is rooted in the first five Old Testament books. Those are known as The Law (Torah), or the books of Moses. The Old Testament divides into the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Old Testament records a closed religious era of how God once worked exclusively with tribal Jews through their monarchy and Temple. It is the history of Judaism and the genealogy of Christianity.

The Jews' religious system, known as Judaism, had a double ending. It ended spiritually at Jesus' death and resurrection. It then ended temporally when the Roman Empire's army under their General Titus conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple in AD 70.

Because of Jesus, Temple worship was no longer necessary. Because of Titus, it was no longer possible.

After Jesus and Titus, with Temple worship eliminated, the only remaining path to God was through Jesus and his teachings - the Gospel, the Good News, "The Way." Because of Jesus’ primacy, Christians start Bible study with the New Testament.

All Christian denominations claim they are based on the Bible, but all differ. One wonders why. If all start at the same place, why does each come up with different conclusions? It may be because few read the Bible the way God transmitted it.

Most religious people believe the Bible is the "inspired word of God." If we seriously believe God inspired the Bible, we should be more careful about handling and reading it. Assuming God planned and inspired the Bible, its order is his plan. We should read it in the order we find in it. That is, the New Testament starts at Matthew 1:1 and ends with the final verse at Revelation 22:21.

As we read any book, we read it in the order its creator intended. We start at the beginning and, sooner or later, we finish by reading the last sentence. How strange it is that most people read secular books as written but skip around when reading the Bible. If we read the New Testament in its preserved order, we receive our spiritual education as God programmed it for us. It is just as if we attend God's seminary.

First, in it God gives us four different collections of Jesus' words, works, and way. If we read all four - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - we know what God wants us to know about his will and ways. If we understand what Jesus actually said, we can stay clear of any peculiar "hear say" ideas that conflict with Jesus' lessons.

Acts follows the first four books about Jesus. Acts tells us the words, works, and ways of the early Christians and their fellowship groups called “the church," the ekklesia. These small fellowship groups of believers worshipped in different places – usually in homes.

Paul's letters follow Acts. Paul was Christianity's first trained theologian after Jesus. Paul was supernaturally called by Jesus, had studied under a great rabbi in the Temple, was "blameless under the Law/Torah, a Jew's Jew, and a Pharisee's Pharisee." That is, Paul had the training and credentials to be the leading theologian of that time. Jesus had picked the best.

Paul's thoughts and writings freed Christianity from Judaism's traditions for all time. Paul's letters give practical understanding of Jesus' ministry and mission. Paul clearly explains that Jesus' words replace the old system of winning God's favor by a series of required religious works - liturgies, rituals and "good acts."

Next is Hebrews which explains the exchange of the first (Old) Covenant to the second (New) Covenant. Jesus' New Covenant offers every person citizenship into the "Kingdom of Heaven," God's new Holy Nation. That citizenship is available to all humans regardless of intelligence, literacy, age, gender, race or national affiliation. The author of Hebrews is unknown, but the ideas in it follow Paul's beliefs.

After Paul the thoughts and comments (letters) from more of Jesus' Apostles are presented. First Peter and First John are especially important.

The final book of the New Testament is Revelation. Controversy has always swirled around it.

That is because its style and theology differs from the prior twenty-six New Testament Books. There has been much dispute about its writer who allegedly had this revelation while on the island of Patmos.

It is sure, however, that no two people ever come to the same conclusions about what the Book of Revelation means. Those many different opinions lead to much debate, argument, and division. Most people think there is more than enough to learn in the first twenty-six books without being diverted into debates about Revelation.

Because the Book of Revelation is so filled with controversial ideas, and does nothing to tell us how to follow Jesus by faith, most Christians ignore it.

The fact remains that all people since Jesus have lived in the New Covenant (A. D.) era. The Old Covenant has vanished (Hebrews 8, esp. verse 13). Jesus words and works made God easily available. God is now freely open to all who want to live in his presence and do his will. Every person who has surrendered their life back to their Father has learned this by personal experience.

Jesus astounded his listeners by speaking with convincing authority unlike their teachers and rabbis. Of the many miracles attributed to him, all were done with his authority and none by direct prayer.

So he said to the storm, “Peace be still,” and it shut down and quit howling. He told the man with the withered hand to stick it out and it was made whole. He told the cripple to take up his bedding and walk, so he did. To the dead child he said, “Tal’itha cu’mi” (“I say unto thee, arise”) and she returned to life. He told dead Lazarus to come out of his tomb and he did. He touched the loaves and fish and they multiplied. He told the disciples where to cast their nets and they hauled in a load of fish. He simply knew when to do these things and spoke what was appropriate.

He told us to seek first the Kingdom of God and we would have an Abundant Life with all our needs supplied. He said what he did, we could do also. If we are to believe him and follow him, we must do as he did. Jesus gained his authority from something more than reading “magical” prayers, long winded liturgies, and pious rituals. His authority and power came from his relationship with his Father. Ours does also. Remember:

1. You have “inherited the Earth.” Your life is now being lived in the power and presence of your Father, and it is under his control. You gave him permission to take over. You “let go and let God” direct your life.

2. God gets the credit for what happens so you can no longer take credit for your accomplishments. What you can do is praise the Lord and give him thanks.

3. You can follow your instincts and inspirations always knowing, regardless of immediate appearances, all things will turn out for the good. (Romans 8:28)

4. When you need special support and guidance, you can find it in the New Testament, especially in the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The shortest and easiest understood moral guide is in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters five, six, and seven.

5. Never repeat “hear-say” theology and theological opinions until you personally verify them. Now you have become a serious spiritual student. Few can match the efforts you have put forth. Learn to trust yourself rather than in some stranger’s untested opinions.

6. Take it easy. You cannot change the whole world and your Father does not expect you to do that. He wants you to let him change you so you will be a “light to the World.”

7. You are God’s hands, feet, mind, and voice. He will use you to change others in ways you will not understand and cannot expect. Watch with awe what he does for you and with you. Expect miracles and you will see miracles.

8. Continue daily to remind your Father and yourself that you want only his will to be done in your life, here on earth as it will be done in the hereafter.

9. For the greatest comfort zone in this life, always treat others as you would want to be treated if your roles were reversed. Say yes to requests.

10. Do not make idols. No material thing has divine properties unless it is you. If you have become a “Temple of the Holy Spirit,” you have God within you. No inanimate object has that privilege. Put aside titles, uniforms, religious artifacts, “saints,” books, and superstitions. Trust and praise your Father while enjoying your Abundant Life.