2. Prayer
09/11/09 11:43
Great! If I were praying, I wouldn’t be reading about ‘maintaining or restoring my spiritual vitality’. It is important to understand that prayer is not in this case petition and intercession. Vitality isn’t maintained when you are praying down lists of petitions nor when you are interceding, i.e., standing in the gap for another. Both of these forms of prayer are warfare in that their goal is to undermine the foothold the enemy has in people’s lives. If anything they will eventually drain you and leave you worn out.
Often the daily grind of being a good Christian can slowly rob you of your spiritual vitality. You start off in the faith with a revelation of how much God loves you and what He did for you through His son, Jesus. Do you remember how wonderful that was? You didn’t have to do anything but believe and then His wonderful presence filled you with life and joy. But having started off in this wonderful grace we often end up working to maintain our salvation. Paul warned the Galatians in his letter to them. “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” (Galatians 3:2-5) Trying to attain your goal by human effort is the problem.
We all start well but somewhere along the way someone puts in a “you should”. The “you should” was probably well intentioned but usually puts you back under the law trying to please God. “You should” read your word everyday, “you should” witness, “you should” make sure you are in fellowship, i.e., in church, “you should” pray if you want to grow in the Lord. I have never seen a new believer who didn’t naturally share their faith when they first got saved. Likewise they are praying for everything and getting it, which makes the old timers mad. If we give them a bible, they’ll read it. They are excited and want to know God more. Unfortunately new believers look to the older believers for advice and mentoring, and therein is the rub. The law creeps back in and steals the joy out of being and it becomes about doing. Doing is human effort and that leads to nothing but joyless, dead service.
The prayer that revitalizes you is true communication with the Almighty who wants to speak to you too. It is crucial that you hear Him. Listening is an active form of prayer. It is the position from which one receives revelation. And revelation breathes life into us. It gives us purpose and vision. Without purpose and vision there is no focus and life becomes self-indulgent.
Revelation is so essential to maintaining and releasing spiritual vitality. Without it you are trying to grasp the majesty of Christ and the magnitude of His kingdom through the limitations of your intellect. Scriptures tell us the mind of man is at enmity with God. We need revelation in our heart to really see God and to understand. Jesus spent three years teaching and demonstrating the kingdom of God to His disciples. During that time He was waiting for the penny to drop. In the book of Matthew he asked them a question. Who do people say I am? Then, who do you say I am? Peter answered that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17) This knowledge and understanding did not come from the power of his observational skills. The disciples were forever mystified by what Jesus was doing. This was heady stuff, particularly the fact that the Lord was going to build His church upon Peter and His revelation.
“Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.” (Matthew 16:20) Why would He tell them not to tell anyone? Because it has to come to people by revelation! He didn’t tell people He was the Christ, He demonstrated it. The demonstrations left them asking and seeking God for understanding. That leads to Him releasing revelation, a fountain of life. No one can actually tell you that Jesus is the Christ. It has to come as revelation.
When Peter got the revelation, Jesus started to share more of what that meant. He told them of how he was to suffer, to die at the hands of the religious rulers and to be raised on the third day from the dead. Peter, I believe, still heady from his revelation began to rebuke Jesus, as what He was saying didn’t in Peter’s mind jive with his understanding from his culture of what the Messiah would do. He needed further revelation. Jesus rebuked him saying: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." When Peter had the revelation, he had the mind of God, but his thinking still needed to be transformed as he was now speaking the things of men. Revelation brought life, the thinking of men brought confusion and stole life from him.
When did you last sit before Him and just listen? This is the key. Find a quiet spot and say something like: “Lord, here I am, listening. Speak to me.” Then wait. Jot down thoughts that come to you. They may be random distractions or they might be from Him. Either way you want to capture them. If they are distracting and seemingly important, you will have them recorded to refer to later. If they are God, you will have them to meditate on and look back over at another time. Sometimes it is good to simply go back over things you think He has said to you in the past before you receive more. It allows you to clear the thoughts and to focus on how He does speak to you.
Be alert to busyness and all the important things we need to do that take up so much time. These are the “I just need to do this one more thing” scenarios that come up before you decide to sit and listen. You know the sequence; I’ll just whip off that email before I forget. The computer crashes and you spend an hour an half getting it functional again so you can do that 3 minute email. By the time you’re done it’s too late to pray.
Wherever you are you can listen. It takes practise but once you value the importance of it the results are amazing. Life starts to flow afresh. That dead, desert time you were in reshapes and becomes a valley that the Lord is walking through with you. No longer feeling abandoned and alone His Spirit comforts you. In the darkest places the light will shine. Sssshhhh! Listen!
Often the daily grind of being a good Christian can slowly rob you of your spiritual vitality. You start off in the faith with a revelation of how much God loves you and what He did for you through His son, Jesus. Do you remember how wonderful that was? You didn’t have to do anything but believe and then His wonderful presence filled you with life and joy. But having started off in this wonderful grace we often end up working to maintain our salvation. Paul warned the Galatians in his letter to them. “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” (Galatians 3:2-5) Trying to attain your goal by human effort is the problem.
We all start well but somewhere along the way someone puts in a “you should”. The “you should” was probably well intentioned but usually puts you back under the law trying to please God. “You should” read your word everyday, “you should” witness, “you should” make sure you are in fellowship, i.e., in church, “you should” pray if you want to grow in the Lord. I have never seen a new believer who didn’t naturally share their faith when they first got saved. Likewise they are praying for everything and getting it, which makes the old timers mad. If we give them a bible, they’ll read it. They are excited and want to know God more. Unfortunately new believers look to the older believers for advice and mentoring, and therein is the rub. The law creeps back in and steals the joy out of being and it becomes about doing. Doing is human effort and that leads to nothing but joyless, dead service.
The prayer that revitalizes you is true communication with the Almighty who wants to speak to you too. It is crucial that you hear Him. Listening is an active form of prayer. It is the position from which one receives revelation. And revelation breathes life into us. It gives us purpose and vision. Without purpose and vision there is no focus and life becomes self-indulgent.
Revelation is so essential to maintaining and releasing spiritual vitality. Without it you are trying to grasp the majesty of Christ and the magnitude of His kingdom through the limitations of your intellect. Scriptures tell us the mind of man is at enmity with God. We need revelation in our heart to really see God and to understand. Jesus spent three years teaching and demonstrating the kingdom of God to His disciples. During that time He was waiting for the penny to drop. In the book of Matthew he asked them a question. Who do people say I am? Then, who do you say I am? Peter answered that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17) This knowledge and understanding did not come from the power of his observational skills. The disciples were forever mystified by what Jesus was doing. This was heady stuff, particularly the fact that the Lord was going to build His church upon Peter and His revelation.
“Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.” (Matthew 16:20) Why would He tell them not to tell anyone? Because it has to come to people by revelation! He didn’t tell people He was the Christ, He demonstrated it. The demonstrations left them asking and seeking God for understanding. That leads to Him releasing revelation, a fountain of life. No one can actually tell you that Jesus is the Christ. It has to come as revelation.
When Peter got the revelation, Jesus started to share more of what that meant. He told them of how he was to suffer, to die at the hands of the religious rulers and to be raised on the third day from the dead. Peter, I believe, still heady from his revelation began to rebuke Jesus, as what He was saying didn’t in Peter’s mind jive with his understanding from his culture of what the Messiah would do. He needed further revelation. Jesus rebuked him saying: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." When Peter had the revelation, he had the mind of God, but his thinking still needed to be transformed as he was now speaking the things of men. Revelation brought life, the thinking of men brought confusion and stole life from him.
When did you last sit before Him and just listen? This is the key. Find a quiet spot and say something like: “Lord, here I am, listening. Speak to me.” Then wait. Jot down thoughts that come to you. They may be random distractions or they might be from Him. Either way you want to capture them. If they are distracting and seemingly important, you will have them recorded to refer to later. If they are God, you will have them to meditate on and look back over at another time. Sometimes it is good to simply go back over things you think He has said to you in the past before you receive more. It allows you to clear the thoughts and to focus on how He does speak to you.
Be alert to busyness and all the important things we need to do that take up so much time. These are the “I just need to do this one more thing” scenarios that come up before you decide to sit and listen. You know the sequence; I’ll just whip off that email before I forget. The computer crashes and you spend an hour an half getting it functional again so you can do that 3 minute email. By the time you’re done it’s too late to pray.
Wherever you are you can listen. It takes practise but once you value the importance of it the results are amazing. Life starts to flow afresh. That dead, desert time you were in reshapes and becomes a valley that the Lord is walking through with you. No longer feeling abandoned and alone His Spirit comforts you. In the darkest places the light will shine. Sssshhhh! Listen!
