The Bishop’s Mind: Christian Wisdom, Daily Devotionals & Empowering Messages for Kingdom Living

Father, as your will be done. “ Father, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but your will be done (Matthew 26:41).” One of the greatest gifts that God gave you is the power to choose.Your will is the part of your soul that makes decisions. Every day all day long, you make decisions and live out the consequences of those decisions. This higher-level decision making distinguishes you from other life forms such as animals, plants, and insects. Prayer bridges the gap between your will and the will of God. You can pray until something inside of you changes. In times, when you feel out of alignment, pray until your will aligns with the highest and the best and the right and the perfect for all parties concerned. Jesus, our example of what it means to be fully human and fully divine, built his life on the Divine idea, “I and my Father are one (John 10:30).” God is your loving Father, whom you can talk to about anything. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesu...

Praying with Others “ If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them of my Father which is in heaven (Matthew 18:19).” One of the most powerful things you can do as a human being is to pray for yourself. One of the greatest accomplishments of this life is developing a consistent, open, and honest dialogue with your Creator, God. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much (James 5:16).” Although it may seem like a play on words, there is a major difference in praying with someone and praying for someone. Your prayer life may begin with someone praying for you because you do not know how to pray or be knowledgeable of the truth that you can talk directly to God for yourself or even that there is a God in which to pray. Maybe you asked someone to pray for you because you were angry with God or disenchanted by those who represent God. Someone may have jumped started your prayer ...

Practice “ While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean (Luke 5:12).” It is one thing to read about something in the Bible; it is another thing to practice it. There is a huge difference between someone sharing his or her experience with you and you doing it for yourself. I read about Jesus laying prostrate in the Garden of Gethsemane. I was also familiar with the man in our text above who had leprosy and laid prostrate before Jesus for healing. However, I never used the prostrate position as a prayer posture until March 26-28,1990. What drove me to lay on my face was an experience that I had as the Assistant Pastor to my Spiritual Leader. He was a man in his 70’s who had been leading a congregation for over 50 years. I felt he was sabotaging all my efforts to grow the church. Fina...

Praying & Watching “ Watch and pray, so that you don’t enter into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).” Prayer opens you up to be more cognizant of what’s going on in your life. Jesus told his disciples not only to pray but to watch. Watching is being alert and paying attention to what you are manifesting in your health, relationships, and wealth. Jesus coupled prayer and watching as the antidote to temptation. All temptation is unique to you and happens when something outside of you stimulates something inside of you to overcome it. Temptation is one of the ways that your soul brings things up and out to be healed, resolved, or changed. This scripture does not represent the first time that Jesus taught his disciples about temptation. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught his disciples, “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13).” “Lead us not into temptation” is int...

“Yes!” “ Let your yes be yes, and your no be no ... (Matthew 5:37).” “Yes!” is a one-word prayer. “Yes!” says that you are open to Divine unlimited ideas and receptive to all the good that God has for you. God withholds no good thing from those who walk upright before him (Psalm 84:11). “Yes!” keeps you upright, operating in your higher consciousness. “Yes!” says that you offer the Holy Spirit no resistance to what God desires to do with you, for you, in you and as you. “Yes!” aligns your will with the will of God. “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God (Hebrews 10:7).” In one word, “Yes,!” you tell God that you will be who God created you to be, say what God is calling you to say, do what God is leading you to do, and go where God desires for you to go. Say “Yes!” to health and experience your healing. Say “Yes!” to harmony and experience the love that you desire and deser...

Laying Prostrate “ And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me (Matthew 26:39).” One of the biggest challengers to prayer is the ego. The ego is that part of you that does not want to heal, grow, or change. The ego is full of pride and is in opposition to the will of God. It feels that it knows better than God what you are to do. The ego is only interested in non-stop pleasure and instant gratification. The ego is a lower state of consciousness that can also result in you playing the victim and blaming other people or circumstances for your life. There are two major acronyms for E.G.O. The first one is Edging God Out. Little by little, you become too busy to pray. You miss a day here and there, and before you know it, a week, then a month has gone by, and you have not prayed. Another acronym for ego is Erasing God Out. This phrase is a more drastic man...

Prayer Tool of Meditation, Mindfulness, and Breathing - Level A level is a tool for establishing a perfectly horizontal plane. It consists of one or more small glass tubes containing alcohol or similar liquid and an air bubble. The tube is sealed and fixed horizontally in a wooden or metallic block or frame with a smooth lower surface. Meditation, mindfulness, and breathing are prayer tools that keep your soul leveled with your spirit. Different from the stillness and the silence where your mind is free, meditation focuses on a specific idea. You go into meditation with a question and come out with an answer. Perhaps, you choose to meditate on positive ideas that cause you to get in touch with your spirit, such as a verse of scripture, a song, an affirmation, a mantra, a principle, the ocean waves, etc. Meditation levels your mind and brings you back to the center of your being, which is Spirit. Popular opinion often refers to me...