Thank you for the application question, “If it’s very hard to go to Heaven through lying and fake churches, why don’t you be like Daniel and pray to God the Father through the Holy Spirit?”
The Scriptures declares that it is impossible for a sinner to enter heaven. It is more than just hard. One can’t achieve personal righteousness before God because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:23, Eph. 2:8–9).
Daniel did not earned his righteousness before God. Daniel believed in God and because of his believed in God, he wanted to please God by not defying himself with the Babylonian’s food and worship (Dan. 1:8–10).
Daniel’s lifestyle is to be admired for he faithfully prayed to God according to his custom. His prayers were pleasing to God for God heard and answered his prayers. If one is asking is that true of Christians today? I can’t speak for other Christians. I do believe that God hears our prayers and answers them if we pray in accordance to the Word of God and being guided by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus taught his followers how to pray and to live out that prayer in Matt. 4 in the Lord’s Prayer. The Apostle Paul further explains that the Holy Spirit takes the prayer of the believer and presents them to God.
Romans 8 says this, “26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (NIV).
Praise God that his Spirit that indwells us knows the mind of God and aligns our prayers with the will of God. We think that we know the will or desire of God, but quite often our prayers have skewed motives, hidden motives. We want God to bless us, not transformed us into the image of his dear Son, Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29). Prayer is about presenting our petitions and praises. To understand God’s will in the circumstances of our lives, we need the guidance of the Word, counsel of godly men and women, and his Spirit. We are to pray in the Spirit at all times being mindful of other brothers and sisters’ struggle and asking God to sustain or to provide for them. The church can do more praying and less activities.
SUMMARY: Prayer reflects our fellowship with God, while our faith/trust reflects our relationship in God.
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