The Purpose of The Knowing Christ Deeper

We are a Christian Ministry whose purpose is to encourage Christians to pray. While doing this, we proclaim Jesus Christ to those who have never accepted Him as their personal Lord and Saviour.    

     "The Purpose of The Knowing Christ Deeper™ is to promote and encourage prayer among all Christians everywhere, and in so doing, to bear witness of Jesus Christ to all people everywhere."

     Why does God want Christians to pray?  There are three main reasons.  The first is: to show us His great love for us by answering our prayers.  The second is: to change us.  When Christians pray, we grow closer to God, closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.

     We become better Christians as we allow Christ to live the Christian life through us.

     We become better witnesses of Christ to a lost world.  The third reason is: to change the world.  When Christians pray, God releases the power of the Holy Spirit to anoint His work in this world, to accomplish His Will.

    Prayer is one of the main ways through which God has chosen to release His power to His people, His representatives on Earth, His church; and to accomplish His Will in the World.  God also uses Faith, Hope, Love, His Word, and Sovereign Acts.  One or more of these (or even all) may be working together at the same time.  The power is God's, the power of the Holy Spirit.

     God is Sovereign.  God is not limited to using mere men, but He has chosen to use mere men and women when we pray to Him in Jesus' Name.

     The Knowing Christ Deeper™ seeks to "get Christians praying" so that God's work on Earth can receive more of God's power, the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish God's will.

     Why has God chosen to use our prayers as a channel for releasing the power of the Holy Spirit on Earth?  Certainly He could do it without us.  It is the same with preaching.

God has chosen to anoint our testimony of Jesus Christ, and the Word of God, with the power of His Holy Spirit. He has chosen to work with and through His people to accomplish His Will.  It is an honor that astounds and amazes us, leaving us in a state of reverent awe.

     God wants Christians to pray. God has chosen to release the power of the Holy Spirit for God's work on Earth in answer to our prayers.

    The Bible teaches that all Christians, though not called to the ministry of Evangelist, are called to be witnesses of Christ.

     Of His death and shed blood on the Cross for our sins.  Of his Resurrection and the offering of His blood before God in Heaven, that we might obtain forgiveness of our sins and enter into a relationship with God, being Born-again from above to new life as sons of God.

    We believe that the same is true of Christian ministries, as of individual Christians.

The Purpose of The Knowing Christ Deeper™ is to encourage and motivate Christians to pray.  And to lift up Jesus Christ.  For He has said that when we do this, He will draw all men unto Himself.

     Though we are called to a ministry to Christians, we believe that all Christian ministries are also called to lift up the Name of Jesus to those who are not Christians.

    God has chosen that His work on Earth should be strengthened, furthered, and increased in intensity and magnitude through the prayers of His people.

Forgiveness: The Freedom to Let Go

Forgiveness: The Freedom to Let Go

       This is just a beautiful reminder to all of us. May the Lord will touch our hearts as we read and meditate upon His Words. 

       When you forgive someone do you feel like you're letting them off the hook? Do you feel like you're making an excuse for their behavior? Contrary to what we may think, forgiveness isn't any of these things. It's not saying that what's wrong is okay. It's not forgetting hurt feelings. Forgiveness is extending grace. It's commanded by God, and it's something you can do for others . . . and for yourself.

        Notice the word "give" in "forgive." When you forgive, you give someone a gift − you waive a penalty − and you give yourself the gift of grudge-free living. When you withhold forgiveness, you not only refuse to offer what God has given to you, but you also hurt yourself. Unforgiveness bears down on your heart and gets in the way of spiritual growth. God knows it's not easy to forgive, but He wouldn't ask you to do something without giving you the strength to do it! Ask Him for the ability to forgive freely as you have been forgiven. He's the Master of the impossible!

What God Says;

        "Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:12-13

        "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:32

        "Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Matthew 18:21-22

Christ, who is our Example, spent many whole nights in prayer. His custom was to pray much. He had His habitual place to pray. Many long seasons of praying make up his history and character. Paul prayed day and night. It took time from very important interests for Daniel to pray three times a day. David's morning, noon, and night praying were doubtless on many occasions very protracted. While we have no specific account of the time these Bible saints spent in prayer, yet the indications are that they consumed much time in prayer, and on some occasions long seasons of praying was their custom. E. M. Bounds

SAVED BUT NOT SAFE

 “The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas.  When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now.” Acts 9:11

Ananias no doubt is a true child of God who truly believes in Jesus as his Lord. His soul is already delivered from darkness and sin and his destiny is to be with the Lord in eternity. Yet here on earth, the Lord needed to deliver Ananias . . . not from sin but from being a safe and selfish servant of God. To be a Christian in those times required a bold step from your safe zone. Initially, Ananias took that step when he followed Jesus. God needed to push him a little bit more into the water of obedience. It is God’s commitment to lead us to live an obedient life, eventually becoming an obedient church.

The road to obedience is not a safe road. The only guarantee is that God promised to walk with us in this unchartered road of obeying His will. For Ananias, his assignment was to minister to Saul, the butcher of Christ’s followers. This time, Ananias thought of arguing his case before the Lord, which the Lord graciously heard. At the end of his dialogue with Jesus, Ananias chose to obey! The Lord first needed to disturb Ananias’ safe life, then, as he was jolted from his comfort zone, the Lord gave His direction to him. Whenever we ask for God’s direction in our lives, we are also asking for Divine disturbance! Without God’s disturbance, I doubt if we will want His direction?

Unknown to Ananias, God was delivering him from living an uneventful life. As he obeyed God, Ananias crossed his Jordan to the other side. [It is in obeying that we become more dependent on God; more sensitive to listen to His guidance; more walking by faith than by sight.] From the moment Ananias stepped out from his home to step into the apartment of Paul, he was being delivered from the safe life and radically ushered into a God-ordered chaos! And from the moment he stepped out from Paul’s abode, Ananias tasted a deep sense of God’s peace and God’s presence that originally came from God’s disturbance. Disturbed, directed and delivered!  As Christ’s follower, you and I have our own assignments from God. Expect a Holy kind of disturbance that you and I might experience a deep Holy fear of God eventually leading us to plunge into the ‘unchartered’ road of obedience. It is not always safe but surely, this is the pathway of the saved!  “Oh Lord, from the desire of being so safe, deliver me; from the addiction to always be in control of my life, release me.”  Amen.

Prayerfully,

REV. ARNEL TAN

Quotation - Andrew Murray

‎"Christ teaches us to pray not only by example, by instruction, by command, by promises, but by showing us Himself, the ever-living Intercessor, as our Life. It is when we believe this, and go and abide in Him for our prayer-life too, that our fears of not being able to pray aright will vanish, and we shall joyfully and triumphantly trust our Lord to teach us to pray, to be Himself the life and the power of our prayer. May God open our eyes to see what the holy ministry of intercession is to which, as His royal priesthood, we have been set apart. May He give us a large and strong heart to believe what mighty influence our prayers can exert. And may all fear as to our being able to fulfill our vocation vanish as we see Jesus, living ever to pray, living in us to pray, and standing surety for our prayer-life." -Andrew Murray

Insights

"We would not have any think that the value of their prayers is to be measured by the clock, but our purpose is to impress on our minds the necessity of being much alone with God; and that if this feature has not been produced by our faith, then our faith is of a feeble and surface type." -E. M. Bounds

Quotation - Brother Lawrence

"That his prayer was nothing else but a sense of the presence of God, his soul being at that time insensible to everything but Divine love: and that when the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with God, praising and blessing Him with all his might, so that he passed his life in continual joy; yet hoped that God would give him somewhat to suffer, when he should grow stronger. That we ought, once for all, heartily to put our whole trust in God, and make a total surrender of ourselves to Him, secure that He would not deceive us."  (-about Brother Lawrence)

Quotation

"We are stressing true praying, which engages and sets on fire every high element of the preacher's being -- prayer which is born of vital oneness with Christ and the fullness of the Holy Ghost, which springs from the deep, overflowing fountains of tender compassion, deathless solicitude for man's eternal good; a consuming zeal for the glory of God; a thorough conviction of the preacher's difficult and delicate work and of the imperative need of God's mightiest help." -E. M. Bounds

Insights

"Christ teaches us to pray not only by example, by instruction, by command, by promises, but by showing us Himself, the ever-living Intercessor, as our Life. It is when we believe this, and go and abide in Him for our prayer-life too, that our fears of not being able to pray aright will vanish, and we shall joyfully and triumphantly trust our Lord to teach us to pray, to be Himself the life and the power of our prayer. May God open our eyes to see what the holy ministry of intercession is to which, as His royal priesthood, we have been set apart. May He give us a large and strong heart to believe what mighty influence our prayers can exert. And may all fear as to our being able to fulfill our vocation vanish as we see Jesus, living ever to pray, living in us to pray, and standing surety for our prayer-life." -Andrew Murray