go into your prayer closet

143- Jesus said to go into your closet and shut the door when your pray.

Did he mean that literally? What is Jesus really asking us to do?

Imagine you were in the crowd when Jesus was giving his Sermon on the Mount. He's talking about praying and all of a sudden he says you should go into your closet and shut the door.

Most people you know pray on the street corners or in the synagogues. Jesus basically just called them hypocrites. How does he get away with that?

In this week's episode, I talk about what it actually means to go into your closet and pray. Here are several of the important ideas I talk about:

• The Greek word here means a storehouse. It's where you'd keep your resources. 
• When we pray, Jesus wants us to go into our spiritual storage room where God has already provided an answer for our needs. 
• It's not a literal closet or a literal door
• Jesus never went into a little room and shut the door to pray. For him the closet was a spiritual state of mind that shut out the material influences of the world so he could hear the voice of God.
• Jesus took his spiritual closet with him wherever he went

Another way to think about this is to ask: Where do you stand when you pray?

Jesus stood on his oneness with the Father when he prayed. He understood his relationship with God.

When you pray, do you stand on and in your relationship with God?

When Jesus prayed, he knew the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Is it possible for us to have that same conviction when we pray?

Are you standing where Jesus prayed for you to be? If not, you don’t have to go anywhere to get there. You just have to shift your whole perspective from what the world tells you is true to what Christ tells you is true. This is allows you to see that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and not just way off in the future after you die. 

To acknowledge that the kingdom of heaven is at hand goes against everything the world has taught us. That’s why we have to shut the door on it. 

To the degree that you and I see the supremacy of God’s rule, God’s kingdom, here and now on earth and bear witness to the truth that heaven is at hand, we will think like Jesus did. We will pray like Jesus did. We will heal like Jesus did.
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Check out the Bible references quoted in this week's episode here: thebiblespeakstoyou.com/143

If you have questions or comments please

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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life.

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