Experiencing Christ

Thine is the Glory

2010-06-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

The Lord's prayer begins with: "Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

We begin by bowing our hearts before God and in humble submission to Him we express our respect for God's Holy name and our desire for His kingdom and for His will to be accomplished, which will be done even if we do not pray. No one can hinder the will of God; no one can stop Him from performing His sovereign will upon our earth and in our lives.

We close in prayer by honoring God's name again. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matt. 6:13b kjv).

The purpose for which this earth and all its people were created, the end for which all Christians are called, and the main goal He desires we seek with all our hearts is that in all things He may be glorified. (Ryle, Matthew, 39)

“In all Christian prayer the overriding motivation is to glorify God and to discover his will for our lives. We glorify God by seeking to know his will, by beseeching him to disclose his will to us. We also glorify God when we seek his aid in order to accomplish his will.” (Donald G. Bloesch, The Struggle of Prayer, 71.)

Our chief purpose for praying and God answering is that He may receive all the glory and His name be praised. With one heart and mouth we are called to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 15:6).

Now may we offer the following Scripture prayer to our great and glorious God:

O Holy Spirit, You are God’s guarantee that You will give me the inheritance God promised and that You have purchased me to be Your own. You did this so I would praise and glorify You. Through Jesus, therefore, I will constantly and at all times offer up to You, O God, a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify Your name. “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.” “I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.”

(Ephesians 1:14 NLT, Hebrews 13:15 AMP paraphrased; Psalm 69:30 NIV, Psalm 86:12 NIV not paraphrased).

Forgive us Our Sins

2010-05-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

“Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us” (Matt. 6:12 nlt). If anything hinders our prayer-life it’s our daily need to seek the Lord’s forgiveness and our own unwillingness to forgive others, both of which I struggle with in my own life.

Forgiveness is such a serious issue, Jesus commented on it immediately after He gave the Lord’s Prayer. “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.” (Matt. 6:14-15, The Message)

Our part is to forgive others, to let go of hard feelings and grudges and prejudices. We think we hide those harmful attitudes, but most people see right through us and especially those we hold things against. We have no idea how much we hurt others by our lack of acceptance. Our critical attitude hurts and offends others even when we are unaware of it.

Why is it that God won’t forgive us if we don’t forgive others? How can He forgive us if we don’t forgive those for whom Christ died and saves from sin? Our hatred—that’s what unforgivingness is—dishonors His name and prevents us from glorifying Him. We honor God by forgiving, accepting, and loving others.

And as “bread" is the first need to the body, so forgiveness is for the soul. God’s provision for the one is as sure as for the other. We are children, but we are sinners, too. We owe our right of access to the Father’s presence to the precious blood and the forgiveness it has won for us.” (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 34.)

Deliver us From Temptation

“Don’t let us yield to temptation.” (Matt. 6:13a nlt). We are vulnerable at all times to temptation; how easily we are led astray and fall.

“We ask him, who orders all things in heaven and earth, to restrain us from going into that which would injure our souls, and never to let us be tempted beyond that we can bear" (1 Corinthians 10:13). (Ryle, Matthew, 41)

I have been struggling with a rebellious attitude about doing what the Lord desires of me. I give into the temptation to do what I please rather than what pleases Him. He convicted me that if I continued on this way, I would become more resistant to doing His will. The more I “get away” with doing what I want without consequences, the more I feel free to do as I please, the more resistant and harder my heart becomes to the Lord.

The Lord convicted me that I needed to make better use of my time, take better care of myself, and not stay up so late watching television at night. So what’s the big deal? you may think. That’s nothing! If only you knew what I’m doing wrong.

The Lord is teaching me that it is a big deal. I need to constantly battle giving into temptation and do what He desires. He commands obedience and any sacrifices I feel I am making or pleasures I’m missing are nothing in comparison to doing His will, His way.

Deliver us From the Evil One

“Deliver us from the evil one.” (Matt. 6:13b nlt). “We are here taught to ask God to deliver us from the evil that is in the world, the evil that is within our hearts, and not least from the evil one, the devil. We confess that, so long as we are in the body, we are constantly seeing, hearing and feeling the presence of evil. It is about us, and within us, and around us on every side. We entreat him who alone can preserve us, to be continually delivering us from its power . . .” (Ryle, Matthew, 41.)

Jesus cared so much that we be protected from evil, He prayed on our behalf, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15).

If we are ever going to grow in our prayer-life, we need to realize that the fight is not with ourselves, but our struggle is “against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12 nlt). They tremble when we pray, and so they fight hardest against it.

The only way we can overcome our struggles with prayer is to continually “use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy” (Eph. 6:13a nlt).

I have been in situations where the presence of evil seemed so strong that in order to combat it, I prayed, He [Spirit of God] who is within me is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). That simple prayer is powerful and I have offered it up repeatedly until the presence of evil leaves.

These prayers also have great effect:

1. Jesus, deliver me from evil.

2. Jesus protect me from the evil one.

3. Your name, Lord, is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. You are my loving ally and fortress, my tower of safety and deliverer from evil. You stand before me as a shield, and I take refuge in You (Prov. 18:10, Ps. 144:2).

Give us Our Daily Bread In Celebration of Curt's Birthday & Mother's Day

2010-05-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.

Simple prayer is asking God to provide our basic needs. “Give us our food for today” (Matt. 6:11 nlt). “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time” (Ps. 145:15).

Early in our marriage, forty-nine years ago, we were truly poor. We were living in Oregon and expecting Curt, our first son. We hadn’t been able to pay hardly anything to the doctor and had no medical insurance to cover the hospital. I had nearly miscarried and the medication I was taking to keep from losing our firstborn was extremely expensive. Our car was broken down, so we took buses to work.

Ron worked at a car dealership in the parts room and I taught preschool. Our gross income was $250 per month. After state and federal income taxes and a tithe of $25, we had $175 left to live on.

Ron has always prayed with the complete trust that the Lord would provide. I easily became anxious and worried. During that time we experienced the Lord’s faithful provision in marvelous ways. We owned our own home, an old 31-foot trailer and lived in a trailer park. Our neighbors, the Millers, were as poor as we were. He was attending Bible college, and they often went to see their parents and brought back fresh food from their farms that they shared with us.

I was also able to eat a hot noon meal, which was like a Thanksgiving feast, at the preschool where I worked, which I needed as an expectant mother. We couldn’t have afforded such delicious meals. The father and son pastors of the church and preschool were hunters, and so the children and staff had wild deer and elk meat and salmon fresh from the Columbia River. I also suffered from evening sickness with my pregnancy and couldn't eat much, but we had enough to fix a meal for Ron.

It was an extra cold winter and butane gas heated our trailer. As each freezing month passed, we kept thinking we’d soon be out of heat. We didn’t have the money to buy another tank of gas and kept praying for the Lord’s provision.

The butane tank should have been refilled a couple times, but we did not have to fill it because the fuel never ran out that entire winter. This provision of the Lord was a miracle to us and reminded us of the story of Elijah and the widow.

She was preparing what she thought was her last meal certain that she and her son would die. God sent Elijah who asked her to make a cake of bread for him and then make some for herself and her son. Elijah told her that the jar of flour would not be used up and the jug of oil would not run dry until the famine ended, which happened as the Lord had promised (1 Kings 17:12-16).

A couple months before Curt was due, we had a borrowed bassinet but very few clothes and necessities. A missionary friend in Alaska surprised us by sending a big box of baby clothes her child had outgrown. Friends and family from California had a baby shower for us. But we still had no idea how we would pay for our baby’s birth. I was feeling desperate but kept praying.

One Saturday afternoon a life insurance man came to our door to see why we hadn’t paid on Ron’s policy. We explained why and to our joy, he told us we could cash in the policy. We received enough to pay part of the medical bills.

Soon after, the Lord provided the remaining amount needed to pay the doctor and hospital bills in an unexpected way through the owner of the company where Ron worked. Ron had not shared our need with him, but the Lord who heard us in secret provided openly right before the birth of our son.

Ron also found a 1941 Ford for $18 and kept it running by pouring egg-preserver in the cracked engine block; the car had no heat and bounced like a buckboard, and I was sure it would induce labor.

We had prayed for a baby for four years before Curt was born and nearly lost him while I was pregnant, but God heard this mother's cry and preserved Curt's life. We were overjoyed when he was born and we loved him dearly and are grateful and blessed and proud of him.

Shortly, after Curt was born, we sold our tiny trailer and rented a fully furnished home and bought a better car. He is a faithful God, and we praise Him for His provision all these years as we approach our 53rd wedding anniversary.

Our part is to ask the Lord to provide our basic needs and His part is to meet our needs, but with one condition that He receive all the glory. Dr. John Piper said, “Here is a great discovery. We do not glorify God by providing his needs, but by praying that he would provide ours — and trusting him to answer.” (Piper, Desiring God: 140.)

"You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes" (Philippians 4:19-20, (The Message).

May Your Will Be Done

2010-04-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10 nlt). “Our truest happiness is perfect submission to God’s will, and it is the purest love to pray that all mankind may know it, obey it and submit to it.” (Ryle, Matthew, 40.)

Why should we request that God’s will be done since everything He planned will be done? “My word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:1).

“The will of God is the glory of heaven, doing His will brings the blessedness of heaven. As the will is done, the Kingdom of heaven comes into the heart. And wherever faith has accepted the Father’s love, obedience accepts the Father’s will. The surrender to, and the prayer for, a life of heaven-like obedience is the spirit of childlike prayer.” (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 34.)

We also pray to know God’s will because how else can He reveal it to us? If we don’t ask, how can we see what He is accomplishing in the world as His Word tells us? He reveals His plans and purposes through Scripture.

Reading and learning His Word is an essential part of our prayer-life for through it God speaks to us. Listening to Scripture is prayer.

We also need to know the Lord’s will for our own lives. That’s a daily request; it’s not reserved for a special calling to the ministry or serving in church. What is God’s will for me today? If we ask this question and follow the Lord’s guidance everyday we’ll do what He desires over a lifetime.

I’ve been struggling with God’s will in my own life, daily not doing the things I know I should be doing. I know what the Lord desires of me, but I’m not consistent in doing it. I have been having devotions one day then two or three days skipping them. I feel spiritually empty.

Our life has been so fragmented that I haven’t been maintaining a writing schedule, which I should be doing. The following was written more than ten years ago, but our life is still about the same, along with the added exhausting joy of helping raise our three young grand-girls.

It’s January and in the first fifteen days of this New Year, our sinks in one bathroom had been leaking and towels and lots of other things were mildewed or ruined. It was a time-consuming mess.

I’ve spent a couple days waiting while the car was repaired. Christmas decorations are still piled on the table. Plus we’ve had hours of doctor’s appointments. I am anxious about Ron’s two-hour eye operation that was suddenly scheduled for tomorrow.

I carry most of the responsibilities since Ron became legally blind more than a year ago, which I am grateful to be able to do. But all the ordinary tasks and unexpected problems that are a part of life make concentrating on writing books difficult. I’m a slow writer, and it is hard work for me.

Besides I’m sixties, and isn’t it time to retire? Yet I know Christians who are sacrificially serving the Lord in their eighties.

Yesterday I was praying about my frustrations and failures. I finally took time to have devotions, which the Lord was strongly convicting me to do. As I was talking to the Lord, I was torn between being obedient to His desires while not wanting to do His will even in some of the most basic things. I wanted to be free to do as I pleased.

The devotional was about the Apostle Paul, who served the Lord with gladness but had terrible hardships I’ve never experienced. Wouldn’t you know the Lord always has a way of making me put things in perspective?

Five times Paul was nearly whipped to death, three times beaten by rods, stoned once, three times shipwrecked, spent a night and a day in the open sea, was in constant danger, went without sleep and food and water, was cold and naked, besides daily feeling the pressure of his concern for churches under his care (2 Cor. 11:24-29).

So what did I have to complain about? Then this verse said, “‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you’” (Acts 26:16).

Then I read how we often blame our trials on Satan’s attacks, not willing to admit that we are being disciplined by our Father. “What is often mistaken as Satan’s attack may actually be chastisement from our loving Father. . . . “God is disciplining you in order to gain your attention and bring necessary change to your life. How tragic never to make the connection between your problems and God’s discipline.” (Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day, Jan. 14, 14.)

My first thoughts were of someone else who needed to hear this rebuke, but God quickly reminded me that He was speaking to me.

“Only the power of God can free us from our natural self-centeredness and reorient us toward the mission of God.” (Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day, Jan. 15, 15.)

“Not every hardship you face is the chastisement of God, but Scripture indicates that God will discipline you. . . God, whose nature is perfect love, will correct you because He has your ultimate good in His heart.” (Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day, Jan. 14, 14.)

What I read was not what I wanted to hear. I wanted the Lord’s sympathy, but His rebuke is what I needed. I asked the Lord to show me His will and He clearly answered in a simple, straightforward way. I assure you that the peace and joy of gladly doing His will is far better with the inner tension and troubled spirit that I struggle with when I don’t do as He desires.

May Your Name be Honored

2010-04-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

“May your name be honored” (Matt. 6:9 nlt). We’re to pray with an attitude of loving respect for our Father’s holy and awesome name (Ps. 103:1). We are in the presence of our Father, whose name is mighty in power and equally as great in love and compassion (Jer. 10:6).

“By the ‘name’ of God we mean all those attributes through which he is revealed to us—his power, wisdom, holiness, justice, mercy and truth.” (Ryle, Matthew, 39)

We will never be ashamed of the Lord as some are of their earthly father. Our own fathers may have a bad name due to a poor reputation, may be uncaring and irresponsible, and break their promises.

God our Father is in no way like that. “The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made” (Ps. 145:13b). We are secure in Him for He is loving, responsible, and totally trustworthy. “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you” (Ps. 9:10).

Above all Jesus desires that we give glory to His Father’s name just as He did, “‘Father, glorify your name’” (John 12:28)! When we honor our Father’s name in our prayers and by our godly life, we are glorifying Him.

“In true worship the Father must be first and He must be everything. The sooner we learn to forget ourselves so that He may be glorified, the richer our own blessing in prayer will be.” (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 32.)

May Your Kingdom Come Soon

When we pray, “May your Kingdom come soon,” we are asking our Father to fulfill His plans for this world, which is people coming to faith in His Son, Jesus Christ our Savior (Matt. 6:10 nlt). “By his kingdom, we mean, first, the kingdom of grace which God sets up and maintains in the hearts of all living members of Christ by his Spirit and Word. . . .” (Ryle, Matthew, 40)

“The coming of the Kingdom is the one great event on which the revelation of the Father’s glory, the blessedness of His children, and the salvation of the world depend.” (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 33.)

A Cup of Cold Water

2010-04-19T19:40:00.001-07:00

Sunday, I had an unusual faith-testing experience. In many ways it was a trivial trial, certainly nothing to be overly upset about. I confess that I was anxious and stressed about what happened. At the same time, I realized that God was teaching me about His Sovereign relationship with us and what He chooses to bring into our lives that we might serve others and in so doing serve Him.

Sunday evening Ron wanted to go to church extra early as he was singing a solo that night. He was upset and wound up and certain we weren’t going to make it on time. As it was we waited outside the church for fifteen minutes until the doors were opened.

When I went to start my car to move it out of the driveway, it wouldn’t turn over. Two of the men who arrived early, pushed the car out of the fire lane and into a parking spot. I mentioned I would need help getting the car started after services. Now there is nothing I hate more than being stuck with a broken car. It unnerves me.

I went into the auditorium, where Ron was practicing and sat on the front pew next to a developmentally disabled man. He said his name was Chuck (not his real name) and began to tell me about the church and how he had belonged to it for years. He told me he had taken the bus to church, and then asked, “Can you take me home?”

I replied, “My car is broken down, but I will be glad to find a ride for you.”

Because I was feeling anxious about the car, wondering if it would be an alternator or starter or battery and not knowing if a battery jump would work or if the car would have to be towed, I felt it was best for me to help Chuck find a ride rather than take him home. It was going to be difficult enough for Ron who becomes disoriented and upset when he is out of his comfort zone and thrust into unfamiliar situations.

As we waited for the evening service to start, Chuck continued to mention every few moments that he needed a ride home, and I kept reassuring him I would make sure he got one. But he wasn’t convinced because he could see that I was anxious and uncertain.

After the service we waited at the front of the church, thinking that one of the men would help us, but they left. Then I mentioned our need to a staff member who said he would get help for all of us.

I asked a couple if they could take Chuck home, but they said they were going shopping. My first thought was, Why couldn’t they take him home and then go shopping?

Ron, Chuck, and I left the auditorium and waited in the hallway for help but no one came. Chuck didn’t look directly at me but spoke to the air saying, “There are no more buses coming, and it’s dark.”

I again promised him, we would make sure he got a ride home. I was feeling overwhelmed by two needs I could not take care of without help. I don’t remember praying at all, but God was fully aware of my concerns.

By then I thought about calling a towing service, but I don’t have a working cell phone. I started to see if I could find a phone when the staff person saw me and realized we had not gotten the help we needed. He came and said someone was outside ready to get our car started, and he would make sure Chuck got a ride home. Our car started and we were able to get home. It turned out that our car needed a new battery.

What did I learn from this unnerving experience?

First, one of the major things God is teaching me is that serving Him is an everyday experience, an every moment exercise. I must be open and aware when He charges into my life and presents me with a divine appointment to serve others. These moments usually come crashing in as unwanted intrusions. They are the last problem I want to deal with, because I was most likely right in the middle of taking care of some duty and have so many other pressures to handle. Nonetheless, God calls me to respond, Now.

Second, God presents people needs to us when we least expect it, and we need to be willing to shift gears to help and not lock into our own agenda.

Third, we need to change our attitude and mindset. If we act like the person is intruding on us and that we really don’t want to help, we only make the person feel humiliated and small and that we don’t care. It was the reaction of Job’s friends to his losses and needs that increased his pain to an intolerable level. No one should have to feel ashamed that he/she needs help. We need to feel reassured and loved and cared for.

Fourth, we need to reach out to those who are vulnerable, whose lives may be difficult, who need that extra mile of giving from us, and extra assurance that we care and will follow through to help or get needed help even if it is inconvenient and when we cannot do it and need to ask others to help.

Finally, this is the least of reasons for giving, but it is a reminder of Jesus call to serve. “If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded” (Matthew 10:42 NLT).

Scriptures to Ponder from The Message

Deuteronomy 15:7-11 “When you happen on someone who's in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don't look the other way pretending you don't see him. Don't keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don't count the cost. Don't listen to that selfish voice . . . and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He'll call God's attention to you and your blatant sin. Give freely and spontaneously. Don't have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God's, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.”

Luke 6:31-34"Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that's charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.”

1 Timothy 6:17-19 “Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.”

A Simple Answered Prayer

2010-04-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the Lord answered a simple prayer. It had been raining most of the morning and along with the wind, it was a chilly Santa Maria day. I got up at 6:30 am, showered and dressed, then went to help get my grand-girls off to school, urging them to dress, eat, brush their teeth, comb their hair, and get their backpacks and lunches. It's always a race against the clock with me urging the girls to get moving while they move at a poky pace.

I got Sierra out the door to catch her ride and watched the other two girls until right before 10 a.m. when I took Sadie to Kindergarten and Delaney to preschool and then went to a doctor's appointment. I was done by 11 a.m. and ready for a nap. Grandma's need them.

I sat in the car for a few minutes and read, which is my respite from the insistent needs of Ron and the girls and the phone and all the other tasks that call my name. It started to pour, a pounding rain that thundered and rattled, so I thought I better get home. I put my key in the ignition, but my car would not start. I waited and tried and it would not start. I panicked when the car didn't start after several tries. I didn't have a working cell phone, so it meant I needed to go back to the doctor's office and use their phone, which I did.

I was told it would be a thirty minute wait for an Automobile Club tow truck. I've been stuck with a broken car many times, and the wait had been that long if not longer. I had eaten a piece of toast for breakfast, but I am a diabetic, and I was starting to have a low blood sugar attack. There was no place to eat close by; besides it was pouring rain. If the car had to be towed to the mechanic, how could I pick up the girls at school? I was fearful about the cost of car repairs. Our bank account was already broken. I was playing the "anxious" game in my mind; I am a winner when it comes to worry at times like that. Finally, I simply prayed for the Lord's help. It was a quick cry of the heart.

Within a few minutes, the tow truck arrived in the thundering rain. The driver reminded me that my car lights were on, which I had forgotten. The car has this annoying habit of not turning off the lights when you turn off the ignition. The battery needed charging, and so did my faith. Within five minutes I was on my way relieved that the car was fine and grateful that God had heard and responded to my simple prayer.

Simple Prayer

2010-03-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

Soon after my husband Ron suddenly lost his eyesight we went to the Braille Institute, which offers many helpful services for blind people. I was trying to lead him by the hand into the building.

He was frightened by the changing shadows and the rough and smooth textured sidewalks, certain I was leading him into an obstacle he would trip over.

I kept saying, “Trust me. Just trust me.”

But he was terrified as we walked from the sunlight into the shadows, and from darkness back into the light again. I kept reassuring him, “The sidewalk is clear.”

He still didn’t believe me, and I couldn’t understand why he didn’t trust me to safely guide him.

As we inched our way into one of the rooms, both of us feeling forlorn and frightened, Pablo, one of the employees, said, “Let me show you how to guide him.”

Pablo told us about his grandmother who had been blind as he showed me that Ron needed to hold onto my arm instead of trying to pull him along by the hand as I was doing.

Finding Time to Pray

A few years ago, I met with Lisa and Peggy who expressed similar frustrations. We discussed the barriers and fears that we have about prayer. Why don’t we pray more? One shared how a woman in their church had started an intercessory prayer group and no one came. Why? we questioned.

Peggy, a mother of five and caretaker for her own mother, said, “Sometimes I think God doesn’t see what I have to do in a day. If He only knew, He’d understand why I don’t have time to pray. Of course, I know He knows,” she said, suggesting “Perhaps, we could try praying for two minutes at a time throughout the day.”

We also realized that we become caught in the trap that we don’t have enough time to pray now, but we’ll spend those hours in prayer when we get older and have more time. But will we have more time? As I pointed out, I’m in my sixties (71 now) and working harder and have as heavy of obligations as I did when I was younger. So the three of us agreed that waiting for the days when we had more time to pray might never come.

We agreed that we needed simple, practical ways we could pray. We needed a balance between developing a more disciplined prayer-life and not becoming too legalistic and rigid.

Prayer needed to be attainable and doable. We needed concrete ideas and clear direction on how and what to pray specifically for others. We needed to have a beginning place to build our prayer-life on, and not start off by trying to be an on your knees at 4 a.m. prayer-warrior.

A good beginning place would be to pick a routine task and commit to joining it with a time of prayer until the task was done. When we have our morning coffee, it could become a time of prayer rather than reading a newspaper. We don’t have to keep thinking that we have to squeeze an extra minute to pray. We can do tasks that don’t require our attention and pray at the same time.

We could build a habit of coming into the Lord’s presence for a few moments at a time as we were doing our regular tasks. While we’re driving, doing dishes, laundry, vacuuming, or any other routine task that doesn’t require much thinking but would provide an opportunity to pray.

Though we didn’t realize it at the time, we were talking about Simple Prayer, “the most basic, the most primary form of prayer.” It is called the” Prayer of Beginning Again.” (Foster, 9.)

Simple Prayer

Simple prayer is just that basic requests, short and to the point, talking to the Lord about our daily concerns. It’s everyday talk not flowery words or theological language that sounds super spiritual. Just being yourself and talking the way you do in daily conversation.

Richard Foster wrote, “There is no pretense in Simple Prayer. We do not pretend to be more holy, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God—or ourselves.” (Foster, Prayer, 10.) Simple prayer is being as real and truthful and transparent with the Lord as we can be.

We don’t have to be afraid that the Lord will criticize or tune us out. We can talk to the Lord without thinking ahead of time about what we need to say in order to persuade Him to hear and answer us.

Rosalind Rinker said, “The more natural the prayer, the more real He becomes. It has all been simplified for me to this extent: prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other.” (Rinker, Prayer: Conversing with God, 23.)

Simple prayer is conversational prayer. It is like curling up on a soft sofa for a leisurely chat. It’s talking heart to heart with our beloved Friend who knows us better than anyone else.

We can relax in His presence and be ourselves without apology or explanation. It’s a mutual friendship for the Lord desires we know Him with the intimacy that He knows us.

We are safe and secure and can have complete trust in our soul Friend, the One with whom we can tell our greatest concerns and will keep our deepest confidences. We can even sit quietly together without trying to fill silences.

Some Christians may feel that simple prayer is too self-centered, always asking, begging, and pleading is not pleasing to God. Our prayers need to be more centered on others.

Foster said, “What these people fail to see, however, is that Simple Prayer is necessary, even essential, to the spiritual life. The only way we move beyond ‘self-centered prayer’ (if indeed we ever do) is by going through it, not by making a detour around it.” (Foster, Prayer, 10-11.)

The Lord cares about our personal concerns. The Bible is filled with cries for help. “Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior” (Ps. 38:22). “Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need . . . ” (Ps. 142:6a).

Simple prayer is a beggar’s plea. When blind Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging and heard that Jesus was coming, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd rebuked Bartimaeus, but he shouted the same prayer all the louder until Jesus stopped and called to him (Mark 10:46-50).

“‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ ‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you’” (Mark 10:51-52b).

What a simple exchange between Bartimaeus and Jesus. We have this misconception that the longer and more eloquent the prayer the more power we have to persuade God.

Simple prayer is so much deeper than talking to the Lord, which we think it must be. “Prayer is a definite attitude of our hearts toward God, an attitude which He in heaven immediately recognizes as prayer, as an appeal to His heart. Whether it takes the form of words or not, does not mean anything to God, only to ourselves. (O Hallesby, Prayer, 16.)

Simple prayer can be one word, such as, “Jesus.” It can be a passing thought about a need or talking to another person about our concerns that was not prayer at all. For the Lord hears and knows everything on our hearts. “You know my every thought when far away.” “You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord” (Ps. 139:2b; 4 nlt). As Jesus said, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8b).

Simple prayer is a moan or cry of the heart without words. For He sees our tears and hears our weeping. In Genesis we see such an example in the story of Hagar and her son who were lost in the desert. She was so desperate she went off a short ways from her son because she could not bear to watch him die.

God sent an angel who told Hagar, “‘Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there’” (Gen. 21:17). Then the angel led Hagar and her son to a well of water and provided for their needs (Gen. 21:16-20).

Simple prayer can even be a conversation with other people that the Lord overhears. The Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron because they didn’t have food. The Lord heard and provided for their needs, but He was angry with the people for grumbling intead of simply asking and trusting Him to provide (Ex.16:1-4).

Then there was the woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She came up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his cloak because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed” (Mark 5:29).

She immediately stopped bleeding. Jesus felt power going out of Himself and asked who had touched His clothes. She came forward and told Him that she had been healed.

“He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering’” (Mark 5:34). Jesus overheard her thoughts and responded even though she wasn’t praying to Him.

Let us be encouraged that Jesus hears our thoughts we don’t realize are prayer. He desires to show us that He is aware of our every need. He longs for us to watch and see how He is working and answering.

Our Father in Heaven

2010-03-13T18:26:00.000-08:00

"In this manner, therefore, pray:

      Our Father in heaven,
      Hallowed be Your name.
      Your kingdom come.
      Your will be done
      On earth as it is in heaven.
       Give us this day our daily bread.
       And forgive us our debts,
      As we forgive our debtors.
      And do not lead us into temptation,
      But deliver us from the evil one.
      For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:9-12).

Jesus gave us the perfect model for simple prayer (Matt 6:9). Yet the Lord’s Prayer is so profound and has such great depth it covers all the essentials of prayer including everything we need to bring before our Father.

This prayer shows us that we don’t have to say many words to reach His heart. “It is so simple that a child can say it, and so divinely rich that it encompasses all that God can give. A model and inspiration for all other prayer, it draws us at the same time back to itself as the deepest utterance of our souls before God,” wrote Andrew Murray. (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 30.)

In the Lord’s prayer, we are saying we will give honor to our Father’s name, our Father’s kingdom, and our Father’s will. We present to Him our daily needs, our daily sins and weaknesses, and our daily dangers. We confess our daily need for forgiveness and to forgive others. We pray “our” and “we” that we may include others as well. We begin by honoring our Father and end by glorifying Him with praise.

Our Father in Heaven

Start prayer like this, Jesus said. “Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9a). Call him “Father, dear Father” (Rom. 8:15). He is a caring, loving Father who welcomes us. For we are His very own children, adopted into His family, and He desires our companionship.

Murray said that when we say our Father we are placed “at once in the center of the wonderful revelation that Jesus came to make: His Father is our Father, too. It is the essence of redemption: Christ delivers us from the curse so that we can become the children of God.” (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 30-31.)

“The title Father tells us much about God’s character. It reveals that He cares about us and takes us responsibility for us. As our Father, He desires what is best for us and loves us so much that He disciplines us for our own good. He is approachable and is involved in all aspects of our lives.” (Lee Brase, Praying From God’s Heart, 28)

“The knowledge of God’s Father-love is the first and simplest, but also the last and highest lesson in the school of prayer,” wrote Murray. “Prayer begins in a personal relationship with the living God as well as a personal, conscious fellowship of love with Him. In the knowledge of God’s Fatherliness revealed by the Holy Spirit, the power of prayer will root and grow.” (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 31.)

The word “heaven” may give us the feeling that our God and Father is far off and impersonal. But the Lord promises, He “is near us whenever we pray to him” (Deut. 4:7b).

So let us come to Him as children excited to see our Father who waits for us with open arms. His door is always open. He is the only one we can be sure will hear us and talk to us, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Why Pray?

2010-03-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

Jesus said to the disciples in teaching them how to pray, ^"When you pray, don't talk on and on as people do who don't know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers. Don't be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask" Matthew 6:7-8 CEV).

"O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.. . . I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence" (Psalm 139:1-5, 7 NLT)!

My first question in response to the above verses is: Why pray? The Lord already knows everything I need before I ask Him. God is sovereign and He knows everything about me and everything that will happen to me from the beginning to the ending of my time here on earth.

So then, why pray?

Pray because God loves us and desires to have a personal relationship with us. "This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love" (1 John 4:7-12 MSG)!

Pray because the Lord desires that we know and love Him more and more. Through prayer we can grow to love the Lord passionately with all our heart and with all our soul in the deepest part of our inner being and know Him with all our mind by spending time with Him (Matt. 22:37). Two people who love each other desire to be together and to share one another’s life. Through prayer a precious relationship with the Lord grows.

Ron and I have been married nearly fifty-three years. Our love for each other has grown over time, as we have supported each other through the various seasons of our lives—through hard winters that tested our faith and our marriage; springtimes of new beginnings that stretched us to grow; warm and restful summers that provided relief from trials; and the learning periods of autumn that challenged us to adapt and change.

In the same way our love-relationship with the Lord grows and changes over time through prayer and our dependence upon Him. As the Lord sees us through the various seasons of our lives, we are drawn closer to Him and our love is deeper and richer. For the Lord’s love is an everlasting love; He draws us unto Himself with lovingkindness (Jer. 31:3).

Pray because we need the Lord’s guidance and direction in everything we do as we don’t know the way ahead of us. He promises to lead us by ways we have not known, along the unfamiliar path we walk on each day. Surely, He will guide us and turn the darkness into light before us and make the rough places smooth. He will not forsake us (Isa. 42:16).

Pray because the Lord is our greatest source of help and strength in trying times. When we are struck by heartaches that overwhelm us and can do nothing about, we become more aware of our need to pray. We are faced with our total dependence upon Him when we have no one else to help us and nowhere else to go.

The more we share our sorrows with the Lord and seek the reassurance found in His Word, the more we are aware of His caring presence. The Holy Spirit is the source of all our comfort, the only One who is always beside us at all times in all our troubles, who is our constant support in suffering (2 Cor. 1:3-5).

Pray because that is the way we find out how the Lord will provide our needs and what He wants us to do in the process.

Pray because we need to be changed by the Lord so we may glorify Him. Through prayer the Lord transforms us by helping us renew our minds and to no longer conform to worldly ways (Rom. 12:2).

God’s purpose above all else is that we love Him, glorify and honor Him, and by our obedience He transforms us into His likeness. “And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more” (2 Cor. 3:18 NLT).

Our purpose for praying needs to shift from being focused on the answers we want to God Himself. If I don’t see my most important requests answered, but I grow in faith, see His transforming work in my life, and become more centered on Him and not on self then His will is being accomplished in my life.

I am constantly looking for answers and waiting for results, but this defeats me every time. What are we looking for then? In prayer, we are seeking to the know the Lord more personally, to understand and do His will, and to bring Him glory. Then we are able to see His answers, for His ways and will are often far different than ours.

Pray for yourself and intercede for others because it is the way you see the Lord at work in your own and other people’s lives. When we pray for and with others, we are not only encouraged by what the Lord is doing in our lives, but we see His work in their lives, which also strengthens our faith. Moreover, those we pray for are lifted up and encouraged. One of the highest ways we express our love for others is to pray with and for them.

Praise the Lord because His steadfast love is better than life (Psalm 63:3). "I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High" (Psalm 7:16 NLT). "I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High" (Psalm 9:2 NLT). "I will praise you with music on the harp,because you are faithful to your promises, O my God. I will sing praises to you with a lyre,O Holy One of Israel" (Psalm 71:22 NLT).

"Hallelujah! Thank God! And why? Because he's good, because his love lasts. But who on earth can do it— declaim God's mighty acts, broadcast all his praises? You're one happy man when you do what's right, one happy woman when you form the habit of justice" (Psalm 106:1 MSG).

Pray because our prayers are precious to the Lord. In Revelation we are shown just how important our prayers are as we are given a picture of a time to come when the living beings and twenty-four elders will fall down before Jesus the Lamb, holding golden “bowls filled with incense—the prayers of God’s people” (Rev. 5:8 NLT)!”

At that time incense will be mixed with the prayers of God’s people and offered on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke from the incense together with the prayers of the saints, will go up before God (Rev. 8:3-4).

Conversational Prayer

2010-02-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

Before Jesus gave His disciples the Lord's Prayer or the Model Prayer as it is also called, He taught them how to pray. I find great comfort in knowing that He desires that we pray sincerely and simply, and that God is turned off by phony pray-ers and insincere, manipulative people. Their prayers are directed at their audience in the guise of addressing God. Don't ever think that those who seem more spiritual than you do have a special "in" with God.

Many Christians pray fervently in a heavenly prayer language, cry aloud to God, dance in the Spirit, and feel that their prayers are not effective unless they intercede with such passion. God certainly hears their prayers and answers, but because He knows that we are all different in our personalities and walk with Him, He lovingly receives and responds to those saints who pray in a quiet persistent way. What a relief to realize that can be ourselves when we pray.

God doesn’t want to hear long speeches either. He simply wants to carry on a conversation with us. Simple, conversational prayer is talking with Jesus about the everday stuff of life. It’s being yourself and talking with a friend who’s easy to talk to. Its like curling up on a soft sofa for a leisurely chat.

Richard Foster wrote, “We do not pretend to be more holy, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God—or ourselves.” (Foster, Prayer, 10.) Conversational prayer is being as real and truthful and transparent with the Lord as we can be. We can relax and be ourselves.

In addition, some Christians love to talk and will pray for hours on end. Others don’t enjoy talking at all and will offer brief prayers while many of us fall in between. How little or much we talk to the Lord has nothing to do with whether He hears us or not or the effectiveness of our prayer life. God knows us better than we know ourselves and hears us just the way we communicate.

We don’t have to learn how to talk better or be afraid He will criticize or tune us out. We don’t have to keep apologizing for the way we talk or keep trying to explain what we mean because we fear He’ll misunderstand us as others may do.

We can talk to the Lord without thinking ahead about what we need to say in order to persuade Him to hear and answer us. Rosalind Rinker said, “The more natural the prayer, the more real He becomes. It has all been simplified for me to this extent: prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other.” (Rosalind Rinker, Prayer: Conversing with God, 23.)

Conversational prayer is talking heart to heart with the One who knows us better than anyone else. It’s a mutual friendship for the Lord desires we know Him with the intimacy that He knows us. We can even sit quietly together without trying to fill silences.

We are safe and secure and can have complete trust in our soul Friend, the One with whom we can tell our personal concerns and will keep our deepest confidences. Being with the Lord is the most intimate of all relationships.

Conversational prayer is so much more than talking to the Lord. O Hallesby wrote, “Prayer is a definite attitude of our hearts toward God, an attitude which He in heaven immediately recognizes as prayer, as an appeal to His heart. Whether it takes the form of words or not, does not mean anything to God, only to ourselves.” (O Hallesby, Prayer, 16.)

Prayer may be a moan or tears without any words. It may be as brief as a beggar’s plea. When blind Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging and heard that Jesus was coming, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd rebuked Bartimaeus, but he shouted the same prayer all the louder until Jesus stopped and called to him (Mark 10:46-50).

“‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’

‘Go,’ said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you’” (Mark 10:51-52b).

What a simple exchange between Bartimaeus and Jesus and with such a miraculous answer. We have this misconception that the longer and more eloquent our prayers the more power we have to persuade God.

Crying out, “Jesus,” is the most powerful name we pray. We can cry out His name in times of desperate need, when we long for a sense of His presence, or to stand against temptation and He will hear and respond.

In Hallesby’s book, Prayer, he wrote, “Prayer is something deeper than words. It is present in the soul before it has been formulated in words. And it abides in the soul after the last words of prayer have passed over our lips.” (O Hallesby, Prayer, 16.)

Finally, God welcomes our prayers about our daily concerns and daily needs. As Richard Foster said, “Very simply, we begin right were we are: in our families, on our jobs, with or neighbors and friends. Now, I wish this did not sound so trivial, because, on the practical level of knowing God, it is the most profound truth we will ever hear. To believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary junctures of daily life is the stuff of prayer.” (Foster, 11.) To believe that God hears us and responds to us just the way we are frees us to be ourselves when we communicate with Him.

Jesus, Teach Us to Pray

2010-02-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

In this study on prayer, we have seen God's Role in Prayer. God created prayer. It begins with Him. He is speaking to us all the time. He is our heavenly parent; He is the Father we go to when we have needs. We pray directly to God the Father to seek His help and provision.

Second, we have discovered the Holy Spirit's Role in Prayer. The Holy Spirit dwells within in us and guides us in prayer. He helps us in our weakness, intercedes for us. He is our comforter, counselor, and the one who convicts us of sin.

Now we we will examine Jesus' Role in Prayer as our Teacher. "It came to pass, as He [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples (Luke 11:1 NKJV).”

Before Jesus gave them the Lord's Prayer, He taught the disciples how to pray (Matthew 6:5-7).

First, Jesus started His lesson on prayer by rebuking phonies. He said don’t pray showy sermons like hypocrites do in public so they can impress others (Matt. 6:5). “‘When you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! . . . ’” (Matt. 6:5 MSG)?

What a relief that we don’t have to pray in a showy way or be intimidated by those who do. God doesn’t want to hear long speeches either. He simply wants to carry on a conversation with us.

In one of Jesus’ prayers He showed us the kind of person to whom His Father will reveal things. “‘O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike’” (Matt. 11:25 nlt). To put it more bluntly, “‘You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people” (Matt. 11:25b MSG).

Our Father reveals Himself and listens to ordinary Christians who have childlike faith. Be assured that you can truly be yourself with the Lord and talk to Him the way you ordinarily do in everyday conversations. Who is the one friend you can easily talk to and be yourself? Think of the Lord as that friend, relax and talk to Him in the same way.

Certainly, we need to pray in a respectful manner, not cursing, joking, or acting foolish and silly. But if you have difficulty expressing yourself or have a hard time making yourself understood, be assured the Lord desires to hear you and knows you so well you don’t have to keep explaining yourself to Him. You don’t have to be afraid or freeze up as you may do around someone who is critical of the way you talk and doesn’t understand you.

Ask the Lord to free you from your fears and hang-ups about talking to Him, for He desires to spend time with you. He welcomes our prayers when we feel helpless, in great need, and can’t seem to say what we want to say.

The moment you feel He’s not listening, thank Him for hearing you out. The Spirit of God will reassure you of His presence.

Second, Jesus said we can pray by ourselves behind closed doors with the assurance that our Father who sees us praying in secret hears our every word (Matt. 6:6). He cares about our most personal requests that we feel we can’t share with others. He will reward our closet prayers by answering them out in the open. What hope!

Here’s what the Lord wants us to do when we pray alone, “‘Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.’” (Matt. 6:6 MSG)

Third, Jesus said we can pray briefly with the assurance that He hears and answers. We don’t have to “heap up empty phrases” thinking we’ll be heard because of our “many words” (Matt. 6:7 ESV). We don’t have to pray over and over again about the same thing. How encouraging!

Short prayers are powerful. So when we begin to feel guilty that we’re not praying long or hard enough, let us remind ourselves that the Lord hears and responds to our brief requests.

“Moreover, we don’t have to learn special prayer techniques that will gain us more favor with God. “‘The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply” (Matt. 6:7-9a MSG).

Seven Prayer Realities

2010-02-07T11:59:00.000-08:00

One workbook that has profoundly impacted my spiritual life and everything I write about is Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King. In their workbook they describe how we experience God. The authors call them seven realities, which I have quoted here.

“1. God is always at work around you.

2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.

3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.

4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.

5. God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.

6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.

7. You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.

Seven Prayer Realities

Based on the seven realities for Experiencing God, here are those realities adapted to the Spirit’s role in prayer:

1. The indwelling Spirit is always working in us, revealing how God is at work around us, and impressing upon our hearts how we should pray about God’s work.

2. The Spirit seeks an ongoing personal relationship with us. He pursues a relationship with us through prayer and at any other time He so chooses. He impresses needs upon our hearts and prompts us to intercede for the people concerned. His Spirit also moves us into action on behalf of the needs of others.

3. On a momentary and ongoing basis, the Spirit calls us to serve God and to pray that we will do so according to His will and purposes.

4. The Spirit speaks to us and reveals God’s promises and purposes to us through the Bible, circumstances, people, prayer, and worship. He is continually showing us Himself, His ways and desires, and how and what we should pray and do in response to His leadings.

5. Anytime, day or night, the Spirit may call us to minister to others, prompt us to pray, and serve Christ in a specific way. This often causes spiritual conflict and a crisis of faith as we struggle between choosing to obey or not.

The Spirit daily calls us to serve Christ in small and large ways and according to His will and purposes. This call to service requires obedience and action. The Spirit may prompt us to call or visit someone now. We must choose between obeying Him or refusing because we don’t want to do as God desires at that moment.

6. By prayer and the Spirit’s promptings, He helps us make major and necessary adjustments in order to become a part of what God is doing and how He desires to work in and through us.

7. The Spirit reveals Christ to us, who we come to know by experience as we pray, read Gods Word, do His will, and see Him accomplish His will and purposes in and through us.

The Spirit is our Counselor who personally gives us wisdom and guides us as we pray. He leads us in the right direction on straight paths. He watches over us, advising and counseling us along the way. (Prov. 4:11; Ps. 32:8).

“God reveals His purposes to us so we can join Him in prayer for the kingdom of God. He reveals Himself to us through prayer because He loves us and desires to draw us into an intimate love relationship with Him” (Blackaby, 81).

Our Comforter Part 2

2010-02-02T11:07:00.001-08:00

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought . . .” (Rom. 8:26a). He is our Comforter who helps us pray and personally ministers to us.

How do we draw upon the Spirit’s comfort? First, by turning to God’s Word no matter how discouraged we may feel. As we seek God and search Scripture, the Spirit will lead us to the passages we need to reassure us, encourage us, and even answer some of our questions. The Spirit speaks to us through Scripture.

Though the Spirit is always indwelling us, we begin realizing His comforting presence as we meditate on His promises and express gratitude that He is caring for us.

As we pray, the Spirit graciously takes on Himself the weight of our concerns. “He helps our infirmity, relieves our suffering, and enables us to bear the heavy burden without fainting under the load,” said Charles Spurgeon. (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

Though nothing may change about our trials we begin to see that He is indeed present with us reassuring us of His care.

And when floods of trials continue to rise and threaten to drown our hope, the Spirit quickly helps us if we but call out to Him. Though the flood may continue to rise higher and raging currents nearly drown us and destroy everything around us and do great damage, the Spirit is right in the midst of the flood with us, keeping our head above water.

“In the same manner as hope sustains the soul, so does the Holy Spirit strengthen us under trial,” Spurgeon said. “Hope operates spiritually upon our spiritual faculties, and so does the Holy Spirit, in some mysterious way,” operates upon our hearts so that we are spiritually strengthened in our trials. (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

The Spirit helps us pray by revealing light when we are in the dark. When we are so perplexed we cannot see how to solve our problems and cannot find a promise in Scripture to meet that need, the Spirit teaches us all things and reminds us of everything Christ has told us in His Word. The Spirit guides us in prayer, helping us in our infirmity.

Refining of Our Faith

What is God doing through suffering? He is refining and purifying our faith in our trials. “‘Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction’” (Isa. 48:10 esv).

When we pray for someone to be relieved of extreme pain or deliverance from a trial and it doesn’t happen, we must pray that the person’s faith will come out as gold in his or her suffering. Our own faith is also being tested as we care for suffering loved ones.

He promises that if we call upon His name, He will answer us. He will assure us that we are His. And in our suffering we will be comforted by His care and we will say with renewed assurance, ‘The LORD is my God’ ” (Zech. 13:9b esv)

I don’t understand how or why God refines a person’s faith such as Jerry who was in so much pain as he was dying. My mother-in-law had Alzheimer’s disease for many years. The last eight months of her life, she was confined to bed lingering near death, her body emaciated and mind destroyed by that terrible disease.

She loved the Lord and served Him faithfully her whole life. As impossible as it may seem her faith was being refined in the furnace of Alzheimer’s disease. How God brought that about in her condition is a mystery. God was refining her faith and ours as well even though we don’t understand how.

We have this misconception about how God works and who He works through. We think we or others are only valuable to God and can bring Him glory if they have certain abilities and quality of life. We may think that people who suffer severely and/or are significantly limited do not have any quality of life. We don’t realize their significance in God’s eyes and what He is doing in and through them even if it is only apparent to God.

In times like these we need to ask the Lord to reveal in what areas He is refining our faith. Does He want us to learn how to trust Him more and worry less? Which fruit of the Spirit does He desire to grow and mature in our spiritual life?

Affirm and thank Him for His supporting presence instead of accusing God of abandoning you. Remember as you pray that the Holy Spirit is within you, comforting and supporting you. Ask the Lord to help you see and experience His support and strength.

Our Comforter

2010-01-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

Karen shared with me about her friend’s suffering. “Our dear friend Jerry has been a major intercessor over the years—a prayer warrior in the truest sense of the word. But now he is suffering from terminal cancer, and the pain and nausea are so intense that he can barely swallow. His question to me is, ‘Why, when so many are praying for me, is nothing happening?’

“I don’t have any answers for Jerry,” said Karen.

My own faith would be tested just watching a loved one suffer such intense pain without relief. It makes no sense.

One woman said to me a few years after her daughter was murdered and her son killed in an accident, “If God doesn’t care for me, I don’t want to have anything to do with Him.”

I don’t know how I would have felt about God if I had the same losses. I just know that in such times, we need God’s comfort and loving care more than ever.

As Karen said, “It doesn’t mean we need answers, as much as we need our questions validated. Job never got any real answers, did he? Yet he did come to a place of relinquishment and trust.”

We don’t know the mind of God nor why He makes certain judgements or acts in certain ways. His ways and why He allows some Christians to suffer so intensely is beyond our understanding. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor” (Rom. 11:33-34 ESV)?

Why God?

The hardest time to pray is when we are heartbroken, don’t know what to do, and see no answers in sight. We desperately need to know God cares, but we have questions and doubts.

I’ve seen many people walk away from their relationship with the Lord due to disappointment over a heartbreaking loss. They were angry and bitter and felt forsaken and wanted nothing more to do with God when He didn’t answer the way they expected.

Let’s look at two different approaches we may take when praying about our trials. One approach weakens our faith and causes us to feel alienated from God. The second approach helps us realize God is our tender-loving comforter and caretaker.

The first is the “Why me, God?” approach. We keep questioning God and wanting answers. We need to understand the reasons we or others suffer.

Some trials have a direct cause and effect relationship. If a car ran a red light and broadsided your car that is the cause of your suffering. The effect may be that you were seriously injured and permanently disabled. You know the reason why, but that answer won’t satisfy you.

Why did this happen to me? is what we really desire to know. We want to know the reasons why we “personally” experienced such a terrible accident that changed our life, and what was God trying to accomplish?

Why did God do this to me or let this happen? we also ask. In the first place, God does not harm us, we humans harm one another. Because we are free to do both good and bad, we are free to hurt each other. We have an intimate, personal relationship with God. But if He took away our freewill, we would be like robots with no mind or will of our own.

Unless we were the direct cause of the problem, God is most likely not going to answer us. God didn’t tell Job the reason why he suffered the deaths of his ten children and the loss of everything He owned. Moreover, understanding the reasons won’t change our suffering. We still have to deal with it. Asking God why is a normal reaction to suffering, but we can become stuck trying to make sense of our suffering.

If we focus on wanting to know why we cause ourselves more grief. God may not give us answers that satisfy us in human terms. When this happens we become more discouraged and our prayer-life is weakened.

We dwell on how badly we feel and what we want. As a result we become more and more desperate in prayer. This way of praying only increases our pain and weakens our trust in the Lord. Asking why is faith-defeating.

On the other hand, many Christians accept whatever happens and say that they don’t ask God why. They don’t need to know, but they may feel abandoned and alone.

In the second approach to prayer and suffering is that we seek God’s comfort, compassion, and support. In this way of praying we open our hearts and minds to the indwelling Spirit’s presence. For example, when we’re hurting we don’t want others to give us advice. We need to be with loved ones who will bring us the most comfort. We need their reassuring presence.

When we’re hurting we need our Comforter. We need His loving caring presence. If your own child needed treatment for a terminal disease and the treatment was painful, your presence would comfort and encourage your child. You could have prevented your child’s pain by not allowing him or her to be subjected to the medical treatment, but then the disease would only grow worse.

You can’t stop the treatment even though it hurts your child because it may cure him or her. But when your child cries, you can comfort, hold, and soothe your child. Your loving presence alone helps ease the pain of such an ordeal.

So the Spirit of God is present with us when we hurt. Though He has the power to relieve our pain He may not do so, but He will comfort us and stay close to us throughout the ordeal.

The indwelling Spirit is our ever present helper and comforter. Instead of crying out, “Why, Lord, why?” let us pray, “Lord, comfort me. Help me. Let me feel your presence.”

Let us open our hearts to Him and find healing for our souls and respite from our suffering. For the indwelling Spirit is with us twenty-fours hours a day seven days a week, so we can call on God at anytime. He will never abandon us because He always lives to care for and console us. He is our constant comforter and helper in prayer. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us, lives with us, and indwells us forever so we can completely rely on Him.

The only thing we may be able to change about our situation is our attitude, mind set, and the approach we take to prayer. If we focus on our relationship with the Lord and His indwelling, supportive presence we have the help and comfort we need to see us through. When we harbor anger, bitterness, and keep asking why, we feel alienated from God.

As I practice opening my heart and listening to the indwelling Spirit, it’s amazing the many practical ways He guides me and reveals what I should do.

The Spirit Burdens us to Pray for Others

2009-11-16T13:28:00.001-08:00

I glanced at the clock uneasily. It was 11:00 a.m. I picked up the receiver and dialed the number by memory.

“Karen, I have this feeling that won’t leave me. I can’t concentrate on anything. Ron left early this morning to inventory an auto parts store. He has a five-hour drive to Blythe. I keep feeling he’s going to have an accident. Would you pray with me for his protection?”

Karen wasn’t startled by my unusual request. We’d been prayer phone partners for two years. Together we prayed for Ron’s safety.

Ordinarily, I didn’t worry about him traveling hundreds of miles daily, but that morning I kept feeling an urgency to pray.

At about 1:00 p.m. the phone rang. It was Ron. “I’m in Blythe,” he said.

I felt apprehensive because it wasn’t like him to call at midday.

“I had an accident in Indio. I’m okay, and the car is drivable,” he assured me. “I was turning into a gas station when a young man driving a truck ran a yield sign. He was coming from so far back and moving so fast I didn’t see him. He left 45 feet of skid marks before he smashed into the right rear fender of the car. The gas station owner said he’s been cited more than once for reckless driving,” Ron sighed. “I had a strange uneasiness before I left this morning.”

“So did I. Karen and I prayed for your safety.”

“I’m fine,” he reassured me again. “Only the car was damaged. It can be repaired.”

The police officer estimated that the speed of the pickup truck passing the yield sign was 65 to 70 miles an hour before the driver braked and smashed into Ron’s car. The impact was so hard that the truck’s engine was knocked loose and fell sideways. Yet Ron wasn’t injured, and he could drive his car.

We were greatly relieved that he had been protected. Surely God’s miraculous intervention prevented a fatal accident.

In unusual situations, the Spirit of God may impress upon our minds exactly what we need to pray about and even at a specific time. When Karen and I prayed, it had to be very close to the time of the accident. The Holy Spirit not only prompted me to pray, but Ron had been impressed to pray for his own safety that morning before the accident.

God knows our needs before we ask (Matt. 6:8). He knew Ron would be safe, so why did the Spirit burden our hearts and impress me to pray with Karen? The Spirit moved us to pray so we could see God’s provision and protection and give Him glory.

“Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2 NIV). Share each other’s concerns through prayer, responding to the Spirit’s urgings.

Spurgeon said, “He can lay certain desires so pressingly upon our hearts that we can never rest till they are fulfilled.” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

The Holy Spirit may place a burden on our heart to intercede for someone facing a critical need. We may not know why the Spirit is urging us to pray for that person, but we can’t shake the impression that we must pray.

At first, we may not realize that the Spirit is moving us to intercede and so we ignore it and try to put it out of our mind. If only we could realize that the greatest part of our prayer-life is learning to hear the Spirit’s voice and responding to the needs He puts on our hearts for prayer.

When the Spirit prompts us to pray for someone we need to ask Him what we should pray. If He doesn’t reveal that to us, we have the assurance that the Spirit knows the need and is also interceding.

We can lift that person up to God even though we don’t know his or her need. Sometimes this burden to pray is a light impression; other times it’s heavy.

As we go about our daily work, the indwelling Spirit keeps urging us to pray. This urgency becomes increasingly stronger until it’s like an undercurrent just below the surface of our thinking pulling us along, compelling us to pray. This pressure keeps surfacing again and again within our mind so that we feel the need crying in our heart all day and night long. This urgency to intercede can become so consuming it crowds out all other thoughts and concerns and even wakens us in the night.

More than thirty years ago, I had this heavy feeling that someone was going to pass away. For three days I felt that strong impression. I passed the name of every loved one I could think of through my mind, praying for them and the feared unknown. Perhaps I could protect them by my prayers. It was a useless guessing game. My unleashed imagination only fed my fears and increased my anxiety.

My favorite aunt never once entered my thoughts. On that third day, I received a phone call that she had committed suicide. I was heartbroken, but it wasn’t until years later that I realized that the Holy Spirit had prepared me for this loss and moved me to intercede.

The urgency to intercede may also be contrary to the facts as we know them. One time a woman in our church entered the hospital for routine tests. As I prayed for her I kept feeling this persistent apprehension and a strong urgency to intercede. But I kept shoving it out of my mind because it didn’t make sense. She had a minor problem. Suddenly, she turned seriously ill and in a few short hours she was gone.

The Spirit of God moves us to intercede in a crisis not only to prepare our heart for a tragic outcome, but also to move us to pray for those who experience such a loss. Tragedy may not be diverted because of prayer, but in some way our prayers were critical to supporting others in times of crisis.

The Apostle Paul had many such experiences of the Holy Spirit speaking to him and preparing him. “I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me” (Acts 20:23 NIV).

As it says in The Message, "But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I'm completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won't be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God” (Acts 20:23-24 MSG).

Paul did not die away of self-pity as he prayed and realized the Holy Spirit was preparing him for suffering. What meant the most to him was serving God in his affliction. “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20: 24 NIV).

God’s Amazing Provisions

How the Holy Spirit speaks to us as we pray is a continual amazement to me. As I was writing this, I was praying and thinking about how I needed an illustration about the Spirit burdening us to pray when there is a critical need. I remembered Ron’s accident and that I had written about it, but that was 27 years ago.

Could I possibly have a copy of an unpublished article I had written about it? We had moved twice since then and I’d thrown away file drawers full of papers. But I felt strongly impressed to see if I could find the article. The first place I looked I found it in an unusual place among college term papers.

At the same time, a friend’s name kept coming to mind and was constantly in my thoughts. I wanted to talk to her about something and didn’t realize that she was on my heart for a reason other than for my own interests. I felt compelled to call her at work. I found out she was away on a family emergency and had a great need for prayer support at that time.

These are amazing examples to me of how the Spirit moves us to pray about a need, reveals the need, giving us the privilege of joining in with His work, and honoring Him with our thanksgiving. “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens” (Ps. 68:19 NIV)

The Will of God

2009-10-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

The Spirit helps us pray according to the will of God (Rom. 8:27). “God can see what is in people’s hearts. And he knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way God wants” (Rom. 8:27 ncv).

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15 esv).

We don’t know what we need, what is best or “what God’s will is, but the Holy Spirit controls those prayers and promotes those desires which are consistent with God’s purposes and which are best for us. Such prayers are always answered,” said Charles Hodge. (Hodge, Romans, 256)

Moreover, the Spirit prompts us to pray only for that which is holy and consistent with God’s Word and will. The Holy Spirit never urges us to ask for anything that is sinful or forbidden by Scripture. He never prompts us to pray for anything that is contrary to God’s predestined purposes and will.

Spurgeon said, “Reflect for a moment: the Holy Spirit knows all the purposes of God, and when they are about to be fulfilled, he moves the children of God to pray about them, and so their prayers keep touch and tally with the divine decrees.” Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

God always answers yes when it’s His will and His timing. Spurgeon said, “The mind of God is one and harmonious; if, therefore, the Holy Spirit dwells in you, and he moves you to any desire, then his mind is in your prayer, and it is not possible that the eternal Father should reject your petitions.” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

Moreover, we can be assured that “counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.” (Ps. 33:11 esv). Nothing or no one can prevent God from answering our prayers that are part of His plans and accomplish His purposes.

All we need to do is ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in prayer when we cannot see our way. When we are in the dark, He gives us light. When we are perplexed and foggy in our faith, He will open our eyes that we may see.

The Holy Spirit is our Counselor, Comforter, and Friend when we are going through trying times. He reminds us of His faithfulness and how He has cared for us in the past and assures us of His presence now and in the future.

When you can’t find a promise to sustain you, Jesus promised that “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26 esv).

Realizing the extent of the Holy Spirit’s help has transformed my faith. He is teaching me how to pray as He desires and I am learning to rest in the assurance that He hears me. I am better able to see how He is working. His power is more than sufficient for all my weaknesses in prayer. This lifts the burden off of me!

He knows the right words to pray when I don’t. He is always speaking for me. What encouragement! He understands the cries of my heart, knows my thoughts, and presents them to God. What assurance!

Here is Jer. 17:10 in three versions:

“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve” (Jer. 17:10: NIV).

“But I, GOD, search the heart

and examine the mind.

I get to the heart of the human.

I get to the root of things.

I treat them as they really are,

not as they pretend to be” (Jer. 17:10: (MSG).

“But I know! I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve” (Jer. 17:10: NLT)

Too Deep for Words

2009-10-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

The Spirit is interceding for us with sighs too deep for words (Rom. 8:26). “The Spirit himself speaks to God for us, even begs God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain” (Rom 8:26b ncv).

“The Spirit dwelling within us prays, not always in words and thoughts, but in a breathing and a being that is deeper than utterance,” said Andrew Murray. (Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 189.)

“The praying of the Spirit is too deep for words . . . it cannot be expressed. It is felt only in the heart; it never comes to the surface of the lips; it never can be expressed. In other words, these are those deep yearnings of the soul that all of us feel at times for more of God for ourselves, or, perhaps, for someone else,’” said Pastor Ray Stedman. (Ray C. Stedman, “Prayer, Providence, Praise,” Sept. 9, 1962, No: 15, Catalog No: 19)

The Spirit not only intercedes for us with groanings, but He also interprets our aching sighs, stumbling sentences, and even our senseless babbling. He understands what we’re trying to express and explains what we mean to God.

When our granddaughter was two years old and she first started talking she babbled, repeating only an intelligible word or two, such as “Mama” and “Papa.” Now she is saying lots more words, but she still says “words” that make sense to her but not us.

She becomes frustrated when she keeps repeating the same unintelligible word, but I don’t know what she is saying. I can tell by the look on her face that it is perfectly clear to her.

Recently, she kept pointing and repeating the same word sounds, and I said, “I don’t understand you.”

“Yes, you do,” She replied.

We can be grateful that the Spirit of God understands us clearly; He interprets our babbling and crying and sighing. He understands what we mean and presents our needs to the Father.

Our burdens may also be so deep we cannot talk about them or we have such internal conflict we don’t know how to express ourselves to God. Our trials may be so heartbreaking and horrifying we are overcome by grief and shock to the point of numbness. Our thinking may become irrational. Our spirit groans inside us, and we cannot talk.

Yet we have this assurance, the indwelling Spirit interprets our sighs and presents them to God for us. He hears and comforts us in our sorrow. “So it is with those prayers which are all broken up, wet with tears, . . . and anguish and bitterness of spirit, our gracious Lord reads them as a man reads a book, and they are written in a character which he fully understands.” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

The indwelling Spirit“ creates all real prayer,” when our mind is incapable of reason and “of clothing its emotion in words.” “I pray you never think lightly of the supplications of your anguish. . . . That which is thrown up from the depth of the soul, when it is stirred with a terrible tempest, is more precious than pearl or coral, for it is the intercession of the Holy Spirit, ” said Spurgeon. (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

The Mind of the Spirit

God searches our heart and knows the mind of the Spirit (Rom. 8:27). “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds” (Jer. 17:10 esv).

The Holy Spirit tests our thinking to see how sincere we really are. He sees the hidden things deep in our heart when we pray. He examines our motives, gets to the bottom of the truth, and strips away all our pretenses.

He convicts us, challenges us to change, and corrects the direction we are headed in. We can’t hide anything from God when we pray. “For he knows the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21 esv).

God is omniscient, meaning that He has perfect knowledge of all things. He knows absolutely everything about us. “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!” “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether” ( Ps. 139:1, 4 esv). God reads our unexpressed thoughts; He knows every hidden thing about us.

Before a thought is our own, “it is foreknown and understood by” God, said Spurgeon. No one can else can hear what we think, and we do not fully understand or know our own mind. (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 1419)

“He is intimately acquainted with our person, nature, and character. How good it is for us to know the God who knows us! Divine knowledge is extremely thorough and searching.” (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 1418-19)

God is aware of every careless thought. When we ask God to do something, He knows our true intentions, those that are right and wrong, and those we rationalize or minimize. God knows every good and evil desire.

When I ask God for something, He knows my motives even when I don’t understand them myself. One quick glimpse of my heart and God can “sum up all the meanings of my soul.” His glances are so piercing “everything about me is transparent.” (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 1419)

Spurgeon said, “My most common and casual acts and my most needful and necessary movements are noted by” the Lord. He knows “the thoughts that regulate them. Whether I sink in lowly self-renunciation or ascend in pride,” He sees “the motions of my mind as well as those of my body. This is a fact to be remembered every moment: when sitting to consider or rising to act, we are seen, known, and read by Jehovah our Lord.” (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, 1419)

The Spirit Helps Us Pray as We Should

2009-09-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God”(Rom. 8:26-27 esv).

The Spirit helps us pray as we should (Rom. 8:26). We don’t know what God will bring about today or what will happen in the future to us or those for whom we’re praying. We need the Spirit’s assistance in order that our requests come in line with God’s plans and purposes.

“All true prayer is due to the influence of the Spirit, who not only guides us about what we should pray about but also gives us the appropriate desires and works within us to produce that faith without which our prayers are useless.” (Hodge, Romans 254-55.)

I have faced problems where I didn’t know what to pray. I have looked at both sides of the situation, but I can’t figure out the right solution. One way of solving the problem seems as if it will work, but looking at it from another angle it seems like something entirely different would be the best way to handle it.

There have also been times when I sensed something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. I felt as if I were lost in a dense fog and couldn’t see my way. I would catch a glimpse of what was wrong, but it was all so hazy. I continued to stumble along through the fog praying God would make things clear.

But when the sky broke open and the problem was revealed, it was devastating. I didn’t know which way to turn or how to pray as I should. There have been some heartaches that I wished I had never found out about because I could do nothing about them.

But in finding out what was wrong I gained greater insights into the underlying problem. I was praying one way, but once both sides of the situation were revealed, the Spirit showed me how to pray the way He desired.

Have you ever been through a trial like that and you were helpless to do anything about it? We can ask God for many things, but we don’t know what He would want for us or the person for whom we are praying.

“For spiritual blessings which we know to be according to the divine will we could ask with confidence, but perhaps these would not meet our peculiar circumstances.” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

One thing I am certain of in those situations is that the Spirit helps me pray the way I ought to pray, even when I don’t know how. He gives me peace even when the circumstances have not changed and are as hard as they were when I started praying.

We have this assurance that the Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know how or what to ask as we should. When we can’t pray He prays for us and with us. He knows what to say when we don’t. We find our hope in Him and in the power of His intercession.

The Spirit’s Intercession

The Spirit of God is interceding for us in harmony with God’s will (Rom. 8:26). The Spirit teaches us how to pray, interpreting our prayers, and presenting them to God in a way that is acceptable to Him. The Spirit also makes intercession for us personally and offers petitions to God on our behalf.

What if you were being sued and had to represent yourself in small claims court? But you knew very little about the law and had no idea how to plead your case.

A lawyer friend offered to advise you for free. She helped you gather evidence, drew up the legal documents, and taught you how to present your case in court.

She came to the hearing to counsel and support you during the proceedings, but she could not represent you before the judge. Because of the lawyer’s help, the judge ruled in your favor. Though you presented your own evidence, your lawyer friend would deserve the credit for helping you win the case.

The Holy Spirit is such an advocate. He will teach us what to say and how to present our case before the courts of heaven. He stands with us and supports us before God.

The indwelling Spirit “will write the prayers which I ought to offer upon the tablets of my heart, and I shall see them there, and so I shall be taught how to plead. It will be the Spirit's own self pleading in me, and by me, and through me, before the throne of grace,” said Charles Spurgeon. (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

“If you are spiritual the Holy Spirit is offering up prayers in your bodily temple that you know nothing about, it is the Spirit making intercession in you . . .” Oswald Chambers, Biblical Ethics, 46.)

Moreover, we don’t know how to pray in a manner that is acceptable and pleasing to God. But we have this assurance that the Spirit intercedes for us in the right way. The Spirit works in our heart to bring about the right attitude, humility of spirit, and strength of faith so that our prayers are acceptable to God.

Spurgeon said, “This is something more than helping us to pray, something more than encouraging us or directing us,—but . . . he puts such force of his own mind into our poor weak thoughts and desires and hopes, that he himself maketh intercession for us, working in us to will and to pray according to his good pleasure.” Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

Panic Prayers

2009-09-24T00:19:00.000-07:00

I thought the breast cancer scare was tough enough, and then I went to the ear doctor last week to find out why I had such a sudden and severe loss in hearing and understanding words, which was discovered during a routine hearing test. I am deaf and wear hearing aides, but even with the aides I cannot clearly hear voices.

The doctor said I would need to see a specialist, and that I needed to have a brain MRI immediately to see if there were any abnormalities that could have caused the sudden loss.

During a Bible Study, when I requested prayer for the MRI brain scan and expressed my fears about possible brain abnormalities, my friend Marsha insisted on going with me. She cancelled an appointment she had for that time, stating that I should not be alone when I had the MRI.

About an hour before the test last Wednesday, our pastor-friend, Greg, called as he felt impressed of the Lord to do so. He prayed for my healing as he did before the mammogram. I especially realized that it was a miracle I didn’t have cancer after my friend, Shannon, told me she was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at the age of thirty-eight. It all started with a massive breast infection, such as I had.

Throughout the hour brain MRI test, the top half of my body was in a long capsule-like tomb. I have claustrophobia, and so I started to panic. I had to stay perfectly still for an hour as the machine whirred, screeched, whined, and screamed. It was so loud the technician had given me earplugs to help me survive the noise.

My panicky feelings began to worsen, and so I repeated names of God and “Jesus.” Then the words of this worship song began to play in my mind:

Praise the name of Jesus,

He’s my rock,

He’s my deliverer,

In Him will I trust.

Praise the name of Jesus.

The unusual part is that I had not heard that worship song in a long time. I knew God had given it to me to calm my heart and to draw me to trust in Him and praise Him who would deliver me. Before the final fifteen minutes, the technician put an IV in my arm so that dye would flow throughout my brain and contrast tests were made for comparison with the non-dye portion of the MRI. As my mind drifted off to other thoughts, I panicked, and felt compelled to sing the song. I was amazingly relaxed as long as I kept singing Praise the name of Jesus.

Marsha had come with me and kept patting my leg throughout the test to let me know she was praying for me. I was grateful for her caring presence.

I have discovered that whenever I am experiencing a stressful test or experience, it helps me to repeat the name of “Jesus” or a scripture verse or to sing a worship chorus or hymn. The second I began to think of anything else, the panic and fear overwhelm me. I am again reminded that prayer begins with God. He puts on our hearts exactly what we need to pray, and in this instance it was Praise the Name of Jesus. Praise and worship songs are also a form of prayer.

God is my rock and deliverer, and I am thankful to say that every part of the MRI showed that my brain is normal. I still don’t know why the sudden hearing loss, but I am praising the name of Jesus.

Lana’s Prayer & My Cancer Scare

2009-09-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

Early Thursday morning, September 3, 2009, Lana had her devotions and prayed, “Lord direct my day, and show me what to do.”

Lana and I have been close friends for many years, and we had been trying to get together. She wanted to come over for a visit and to see our new laminate floors that our son Chris had laid. But Lana and I kept playing phone tag and hadn’t gotten together yet.

What she didn’t know is that I was super sick. The week before, I discovered that I had a breast infection with a lump and a large area that was fiery red. Every bone in my body ached, and I was scared.

I went to the doctor and she ruled out a spider bite or boil but the worst words out of her mouth was the “C” word. I had had cancer in the right breast a few years ago and had surgery to remove the cancer. The inflammation was in the exact same area but in the left breast. I had kept current on my mammograms, but it had been a year since the last one. I had been cancer-free, but the possibility of it returning had continued to concern me.

I made an appointment to have a mammogram, but I could not get in until a week, which was too long to wait. I was scared because I was so sick and the antibiotics weren’t touching the infection or easing the pain in my bones. I felt sorry for myself and fell into depression. The doctor told me adamantly, “You need to start taking care of yourself, or you won’t live to take care of your family.”

My doctor also sent me to the Senior Connection, a nonprofit organization, to see a counselor for help. The senior’s counselor was immensely helpful and said, “Sixty-five percent of caretakers die before the person they are taking care of does.”

I take care of Ron, and our three granddaughters. Delaney and Sadie are four years old, and Sierra just turned seven. We love them dearly, and they are a joy, but I am nearly 71 and my steam spews out of the pot super quickly. Those girls never run out of steam; their pots are full of boiling energy.

Wednesday, the day before the mammogram I was thinking about what I needed to do if I did have cancer, especially if it had spread throughout my body. With Ron being blind, how would we manage? I was exhausted, sick, overwhelmed, and felt deeply sorry for myself, and didn’t want to face the mammogram alone, but I am not one to call friends to ask them to go along with me.

That same day, Dixie, a friend of ours, felt impressed to email me and ask how I was doing, not knowing about the infection or the cancer scare. I emailed her back and told her. Ron attends a men’s Bible study her husband Greg leads in their garage and has been a caring pastor to us. Greg has called on us many times and prayed with us, especially during the long hard years our son and his wife were waiting to see if they could adopt Sadie and Sierra.

Thursday morning, at 7:15 a.m., Greg called. Dixie had told him about my need, and he wanted to pray with me before the test, and as he prayed for my healing, he quoted Isaiah 65:24, (NKJV), “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.”

I was so thankful for his call and his prayers. I took Sierra to school at 8:00 a.m., and later Sadie to kindergarten at 10 a.m. Though the mammogram was scheduled at 11:00 a.m., I went to the fabric store to get the rest of the yardage I needed for Sierra’s birthday quilt. (She turned seven yesterday.) When I walked into the fabric section, there was my friend Lana. She was thinking about making a quilt, but she didn’t have anything definite in mind.

I was so thrilled to see her, and we chatted for a few minutes to catch up, and I told her about what was going on. I finished buying my fabric, and she walked me to the car. As I started to drive away, she ran back to the car and asked me, “Would you like me to go with you to your mammogram?”

I started to say, no, but then I blurted, “I would love to have you come with me.”

What a comfort. I did not have to be alone as I waited for the test and was so relieved. Though I had not asked God to send a friend to go with me, he had heard my heart cries.

After the technician called me in for the test and it was done, I felt apprehensive as I waited, scared and anxious for the doctor to read the mammogram and give me the results.

When the doctor came in the room and started to speak, I couldn’t take it all in and went into shock, and so he had to tell me twice, “You do not have cancer. Your breasts are completely clear. There is hardly any sign of an infection. Come back for your next mammogram in a year.”

I was overjoyed and thrilled. No sign of cancer! God had answered before we called on him and healed me. We don’t know what caused the infection, but it is healing.

Lana and I went out to lunch together to celebrate the good news. God knew she was the one to send to the fabric store for a divine appointment. She was just the dear friend I needed to be with me. We were able to catch up on our lives and the many ways we could see God working. We also shared our concerns and supported one another; just what good friends need to do.

Another amazing part of this story is that Lana lives in Nipomo a town north of Santa Maria that has a wonderful fabric store, and she later said that she considered going to that store or the other stores north of her, especially one that has excellent discounts on fabric. But that morning she felt impressed to drive south to Santa Maria, which really made no sense at all since she had better stores closer by. Here in Santa Maria, there are two fabric stores next door to each other; one is huge, and the other one is a craft store with a small fabric section. She went to the store with the small section right where God wanted her to be.

Lana and I were astounded by this divine appointment. God works in wondrous ways. Prayer is a full circle of communication even when we don’t realize it. Lana casually prayed for direction that morning, something she normally does. God spoke to her heart to go to that very fabric store not even in her own town. He impressed me to go to the same store before my test instead of afterward. God directed us to go to the same store at the same time because I needed a friend that day, and He wanted to show us both how much He cares for us and guides our lives.

The Spirit Helps Us Pray

2009-08-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

After Ron suddenly lost his eyesight, he could see some things but it was like looking through mud. But blindness is strange. He has blurry vision of things in the distance, such as trees or cars. If you came up to him to shake his hand, however, he can't see your hand, and unless you introduce yourself he won't know who you are.

He also needed help to learn how to do ordinary tasks. A mobility trainer taught him how to walk on sidewalks, using his cane to feel for obstacles and bumps in the cement. He learned how to cross streets and listen for the sounds of traffic. Since then he has been able to walk by himself, which he does everyday for a mile or more.

Another specialist for the blind came to our home and showed Ron how to do basic tasks that we sighted people automatically do. He learned how to pour water in a cup without it spilling over, prepare food, and organize his clothes in the closet. She even showed him how to identify his food on his plate. She taught him, both by telling him and by putting her hand over his to guide it to the right place.

I have discovered so many parallels between prayer and blindness. As we face the events of each new day, we can’t see the way in front of us or what’s around the corner. We need the Holy Spirit to help us navigate the obstacles and bumps of life. We need His spiritual eyesight because we all have muddy vision. We need the Spirit to teach us the basic things of prayer and His guiding hand to show us the way in the darkness.

We have this assurance. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26-27 esv)

We will closely examine those verses in order to see how the Holy Spirit guides us in prayer. I hope that it will relieve you of some of the inadequate feelings you might have about your prayer-life as you see the Spirit’s role, all that He does for you to enable you to pray, and as you realize His constant presence with you.

In what ways does the Spirit help us?

First, the all-powerful Spirit of God helps us pray in our weakness. In Greek the word “weakness” means both suffering and weakness. This verse states that we are weak; it doesn’t say “if we are weak” or “when we are weak.”

I have come to realize that I am powerless to pray in my own strength. In my weakness the Spirit comes along side me, takes hold, and assists me in prayer.

Jesus also promised, “‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever’” (John 14: 16 esv). The word “helps” means “‘to take hold of anything with another,’ ‘to take part in his burden or work,’ and thus to give help.” (Hodge, Romans, 254.)

“Have you noticed that nobody prays unless he feels a sense of dependence?” said Ray Stedman. “People that feel independent, and able to run their own lives, never pray. It is only when we come to the place where we realize we can’t handle everything that we begin to pray, and out of that sense of dependence comes the instinctive cry of the heart expressed in prayer.” (Ray C. Stedman, “Prayer, Providence, Praise,” Sept. 9, 1962, No: 15, Catalog No: 19)

Once I accept my weakness and dependence on the Holy Spirit, I am better able to relinquish my concerns to Him. But it’s always a process for me, and I don’t do it easily.

God is sovereign and answers prayer in line with His will and purposes not mine. This is difficult to accept especially in certain heartaches that I feel need His immediate intervention.

I have found that the more I ask the Spirit of God to reveal His desires and will, the more I am able to let go of my own. I can see how God is answering and working because I am not so locked into what I want.

Prayer is hard, however, when we are facing something frightening such as when my husband Ron had melanoma skin cancer surgery. We were afraid that it had spread throughout his body. My faith was weak and my prayers were weak. We are thankful that the surgeon was able to get all the cancer, and Ron didn’t need more treatment.

The Spirit helped me pray even though my faith wavered between fear and trust. I felt distressed and helpless when I prayed, but my roller coaster faith didn’t prevent God from answering in a positive way.

You can be assured that “if the problems of prayer have become so dark and heavy to you that the words of prayer freeze on your lips,” wrote O Hallesby, “then pray in your distress for the Spirit of prayer. He will solve the deepest mysteries of prayer by revealing to you that, the more helpless you are, the better you are fitted to pray, and the more answers to prayer you will experience.” (O Hallesby, Prayer, 171.)

Because God is Sovereign he already knew the outcome of Ron’s surgery, so why bother asking God for what we desire? And what if the answer had been “no” as it was when Ron went blind? Many prayed with us that he would regain his eyesight.

So why pray? Because we need to communicate with God, we need to experience His presence and see Him at work in our lives no matter what the answer might be. One way to experience this is through our conversations with the Lord.

The Spirit of God gladly helps me pray and fills me with His comfort when I am afraid. The more I surrender myself to Him and come before Him in humble dependence the more I realize the Holy Spirit’s presence and assistance to see me through those hard trials.

O Hallesby said, “He will help you in your weakness and show you in what ways you misunderstand prayer, and will make it simple and easy for you to pray.” (O Hallesby, Prayer, 170.)

I also desire to pray effectively, but sometimes I am depressed, and all sense of hope and trust has failed me. I don’t know how to pray with enough faith to move the heart of God. How can He hear me when I feel so spiritually dead? If God answered prayer based on my poor faith and flat feelings, His answer would be “No.”

I find great assurance in what Charles Spurgeon wrote, “The Holy Spirit also divinely operates in the strengthening of the faith of believers. That faith is at first of his creating, and afterwards it is of his sustaining and increasing: . . . have you not often felt your faith rise in proportion to your trials? . . . You have felt as sure about the promise as you felt about the trial. The affliction was, as it were, in your very bones, but the promise was also in your very heart. . . .” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

When we saturate ourselves in Scripture and look to God to increase our faith the Spirit strengthens our confidence in God and reassures us of His presence. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17 esv).

“Blessed be the Divine Spirit then, that since faith is essential to prevailing prayer, he helps us in supplication by increasing our faith.” (Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Holy Spirit's Intercession,” No. 1532, April 11th, 1880, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.)

Furthermore, we have this assurance that from the moment of our salvation, the Holy Spirit indwells us (John 14:17). “The New Testament clearly teaches that all believers are permanently indwelt. . . . It means that whether or not we feel it, God the Holy Spirit lives within our beings constantly,” said Charles Ryrie (Basic Theology, 412-13.)

Our eternal security as believers and the “permanent indwelling of the Spirit are inseparable doctrines. . . To be sure, sin affects the effectiveness of the Spirit in the believer’s life, but it does not remove His presence from believers.” (Ryrie, Basic Theology, 410.)

The Spirit of God indwells us, intercedes for us, and works in and around us. Realizing that the Spirit of God indwells us, can transform our prayer-life.

The Holy Spirit is our Helper and sure foundation in prayer. The indwelling Spirit is our very assurance in prayer. We can be certain that He is within us helping in our weakness and guiding us as we pray.

The Spirit of “God himself is in us, having taken up residence in the believer to perform all that is required, and each one of us has a power within which is quite sufficient to meet every need that we have: God is that power. He is the originator and the performer of it all. Nevertheless, he always involves us in conscious cooperation,” said Ray Stedman. (Ray C. Stedman, “Prayer, Providence, Praise,” Sept. 9, 1962, No: 15, Catalog No: 19)

Therefore, we “pray in the Holy Spirit,” meaning under His influence and by his assistance. The indwelling Spirit also helps us in our weakness by teaching us how and what to pray (Jude 20b, Eph. 6:18).

How God Spoke to Us

2009-08-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

“It is crucial that Christians clearly understand what God is communicating to them and know how to respond appropriately. The question, then, is not whether God speaks to his people but how he does so. (Hearing God’s Voice, 17)

“God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son . . .” (Heb. 1:1-2 ESV).

God spoke to people in the Bible to reveal Himself, His plans, and His purposes for them. He spoke by many different means, including angels, burning bush, casting lots, creation, donkey, dreams, fasting, God the Father, Holy Spirit, Jesus, miracles, people, prayer, preachers, prophets, Scripture, signs, wonders, and visions.

Henry and Richard Blackaby said, “Some may see the concept of God speaking today as a threat to the Bible’s authority. Is the Bible the only means God has at his disposal for speaking to people? . . . While there certainly have been abuses by some who claimed to hear from God in nonbiblical ways, does that discount the legitimate avenues through which God speaks? While the Bible is God’s definitive, authoritative word to us, is God not capable of applying that word to our lives in numerous ways? (Hearing God’s Voice, 6.)

The Spirit of God daily speaks to us. He impresses upon our hearts and minds what He desires that we do and the attitudes we should have. He seems to speak to me through His Word, other devotional readings, friends, family, in prayer and worship services, and strong, but quiet impressions and urgings.

God simply speaks to us in very ordinary ways about very normal living experiences. In Numbers 27, we see how God instructed Moses on some very practical matters. As the people of Israel were entering the Promised Land, Moses distributed land to the different tribes. The daughters of Zelophehad could not inherit land because it was only passed on to sons and there were none. They asked Moses to give them property among their relatives.

“Moses brought their case before the LORD. And the LORD said to Moses, The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them’” (Num. 27:5-7 ESV).

When God speaks to us He has a specific purpose, a lesson He desires us to learn, a truth He desires us to grasp. He has a plan that He will accomplish and knows our present and future needs and guides us accordingly.

Once God speaks to us about what He desires of us, His Spirit will guide us throughout the process. He doesn’t tell us everything all at once. He prepares us for what He desires to do, and then takes us through a process as He reveals His purposes and plans a step at a time. What seemed to be God’s plan in the beginning may turn out entirely different than we expected or could imagine, which has happened to us time and again.

Before we moved to Santa Maria, the Lord began impressing upon our heart that is what we were to do. I desperately wanted to leave Garden Grove, because our neighborhood had turned into a high crime area, and wanted to move to a quieter area. Our sons also wanted us to make the move near them and urged us to do so as soon as my husband Ron retired. Over the next five years, I wasn’t sure if this was God’s will or my own, but the desire to move grew more urgent.

God began to reveal His will to us as I applied for a part time job at the community college in Santa Maria and was hired to teach English as a second language. We sold our house in Garden Grove, or so we thought, and I came to Santa Maria to begin teaching while Ron retired and finished his last six months of work. Then the sale of our house fell through. Were we making the right decision? Had God spoken to us or were we just desperate to move?

Finally, the house sold and closed escrow, but the job Ron thought he had did not come through. I began to worry again, but in two weeks he found another job. Later, our youngest son and his wife bought a home three doors away from us. We weren't sure that being so close would be ideal, but we would soon realized why God had provided them with a home nearby.

Ron and I had settled into our local church, and I expected that we would have a nice leisurely retirement. I could spend time with friends, write, sew, and do pretty much what I pleased. But that wasn’t God’s plan.

Ron suddenly went blind while driving. He made it safely home but never drove again. Our lives were turned upside down, and we were faced with hard adjustments. Having our son so close has been incredibly helpful, and I don’t know how I would have made it without him. Then he and his wife adopted three girls. The journey through the adoption process was a six and a half year ordeal. They had seven children until they finally were able to adopt an infant girl and later two sisters. We have had the joy of helping our son and his wife through the adoption process and taking care of the girls.

I can see God’s plan now, but would never have dreamed that when we felt so urgent to come to Santa Maria what we would be facing. God already knew our future and all of our needs, and He spoke to our hearts and prompted us to make the move.

Cautions about How God Speaks Today

2009-08-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

“Some people contend that God no longer speaks to people beyond what he has already said in Scripture. They are reluctant to believe God gives specific guidance to individuals today. Others . . . are experience driven. They tend to be controlled by their emotions.” (Hearing God’s Voice, 17)

How can we be assured that God indeed is speaking to us? We need to learn to recognize God’s voice and understand exactly what He is saying to us, but we have to be very clear about what that means and doesn’t mean.

Henry and Richard Blackaby said in their book, Hearing God’s Voice, “When God speaks, he does not give new “revelation” about himself that contradicts what he already revealed in Scripture. Rather, God speaks to give application of this Word to the specific circumstances in your life. When God speaks to you, he is not writing a new book of Scripture; rather, he is applying to your life what he has already said in his Word” (Hearing God’s Voice, 18).

“Perhaps you have been confused about what God is saying to you. You may have been taught that God does not speak to people. Maybe you have grown disillusioned because of professing Christians who claim God speaks to them in excessive and unbiblical ways. If you have not heard God speak to you, perhaps you have come to assume your experience is normative for the Christian life,” said the Blackaby’s. (Hearing God’s Voice, 17)

God willingly reveals to us what He wants us to know, we just have to be willing to see what he desires to show us. What are some guidelines to help us know if God is speaking to us or not?

First, God never changes or lies, therefore, when He speaks to us it will always be the truth and consistent with Scripture. Therefore, we must learn how to discern between the Holy Spirit’s, our own, the worlds, or Satan’s voices. Otherwise, we will be deceived. Here is how we know the difference. The Holy Spirit is the truth, always speaks the truth, and cannot lie (John 14:17). Satan lies and twists God’s Word. The Spirit always directs us in perfect harmony with God’s will and His Word.

Second, the indwelling Spirit convicts us to stop committing specific sins and to change worldly attitudes and behaviors. He will never tell us to sin. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11 ESV)

We must be careful that we don’t listen to our sinful nature and give into “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19-21a esv).

If it’s a relationship with another person or material goods we are desperately asking God for and are sure we can’t live without, we need to be cautious. Is it our own voice, the world’s enticement, and/or Satan cheering us on to beg God to give us what we want? If it’s questionable, we have doubts, and its one of those shady areas, we can be certain that the Spirit is not speaking to us.

We have this assurance that God will make His voice clear to us and will warn and convict us when we are determined to follow our own will, worldly lusts, and/or Satan’s enticement. Our conscience bears witness and confirms the truth or a lie to us by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 9:1). Moreover, God impresses upon us godly choices He desires us to make.

Third, God compels us to serve Him in ways we would never choose and to submit to His transforming work. He gives us specific directions as to areas of change we need to make, and how we should obey and glorify God. All we have to do is open our hearts, listen, and do, as He desires. Though this is simply stated, it is not easily done.

Fourth, God does not tell us to hurt or harm anyone, including children, friends, family, and strangers.

Fifth, He can speak to us through any means He so chooses, but constantly pleading with God to reveal Himself to us in some spectacular way can put us on an emotional roller coaster. We go from a spiritual high and then plummet to the bottom when the “miracle” doesn’t happen.

“Many Christians use alleged divine revelations as a means of manipulating others. Perhaps they are troubled by what they deem to be restrictive in the Scriptures, so they appeal to visions and dreams to release them from what they find too restraining. (Hearing God’s Voice, 17) They may act in outrageous ways, claiming God is speaking to them and blessing their lives or will do so soon. They act on their feelings and claim that God is speaking even if what they are doing contradicts scripture.

Sixth, another “approach to Christianity elevates doctrine about God over relating to God. This view can be adopted in reaction to the excesses of people who behave as if God constantly speaks to them in ways that contradict the Bible. Others who take this approach are uncomfortable with the idea of God being involved with people on a regular and intimate basis. They feel that God is above taking regular time to commune with ordinary people about seemingly ordinary things.” (Hearing God’s Voice, 17)

Moreover, we must also be clear about how God speaks to religious leaders and ministers of the Gospel so that we are not deceived. As the Blackaby’s state, “History brims with accounts of charismatic leaders who gathered gullible followers by citing divine visions. In recent years colorful, controversial televangelists have claimed outlandish revelations from God. Some have secured sizable donations for their ministries by promising certain favors from God.” (Hearing God’s Voice, 8).

You can be certain God is not speaking to religious leaders or ministers of the Gospel who use their powers to be abusive, extremely condemning, over-controlling, or to manipulate you with promises of wealth and prosperity if you give to their ministry. You are not contributing to God’s work; you are more than likely supporting the religious leader’s lavish lifestyle.

“Tragically, delusional, paranoid cult leaders continue to gain followings by claiming to receive messages or visions from God. Even when the Word they purport God spoke to them completely contradicts what God has said in the Bible, people will often accept their leadership uncritically.” (Hearing God’s Voice, 8-9).

God does not give any person total authority over us. False religious leaders demand that you not relate to other Christians outside of their sect or associate with family or other people. They may claim God is giving them special revelations for your life and how you are to obey them without question. Cult leaders twist the meaning of Scripture for their favor and try to take complete control over how you live and think.

The Scripture says in Matthew 7:15-16, (ESV): ”Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?

Or as The Message says in the same passage: ”Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for [godly] character.”

Note:

In our next look at prayer, we will see how God speaks to us today and how He spoke to people in the Bible.

In this study, Prayer Begins with God, we will be looking at God’s role in prayer, followed by the Holy Spirit’s role in prayer, and Jesus’ role in prayer. I hope that as we progress, you will realize the depth of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s roles in prayer, which I pray will encourage you in your prayer life. That will be followed by a study on the Lord’s prayer and what Jesus taught us about prayer.

Prayer Begins with God

2009-08-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

In the beginning, God spoke the heavens and earth into being.

“Let there be light, ” (Gen. 1:3 ESV) He said, and the light appeared.

“Let there be. . . ,” He said, and you were born.

God speaks and life comes into being.

God speaks and prayer is born.

God created prayer. It begins with Him. He is speaking to us all the time.

But shouldn’t prayer begin with us? Shouldn’t we be praying all the time?

The truth is I forget to pray and I don’t pray hard or long enough. For years, I felt like a failure in this area of my spiritual life.

How does the Spirit of God speak to us and help us pray? Henry and Richard Blackaby state, “Every day numerous events magnify the awareness that Christians need a timely, specific word from God. Most Christians acknowledge their need for God’s guidance. Many people regularly seek it. The problem is that they are not sure they recognize God’s voice.”

Hearing God can be compared to making a business call that can be extremely complicated. You almost never get a human voice. Instead you get a dizzying selection of menus to choose from, none of which may be the one you need. You make your best guess and after you’ve pressed all the numbers, you find out you still have more options to choose from. One mistake, and you have to start all over again.

Or you get a voice mail recording telling you to leave a message. What’s worse is when you finally reach a real human voice only to find out you have the wrong person. You get transferred or you have to start over and work your way through more menu options.

When we pray we may feel the same kinds of frustrations. How do we reach God and does He really hear us?

A friend of mine said, “My struggles with prayer are very much like the struggles I first had with leaving a message with voice mail. It’s easy to talk to someone you can see and hear — someone who responds to you at that very moment. But to talk and continue talking with no feedback or immediate response is hard for me.”

The difficultly with prayer is that God does not communicate with us in the same way we do with people. We can’t have face-to-face, back-and-forth conversations with the Lord as we do our loved ones and friends since He is not visibly present.

We cannot do things with God as we do loved ones, such as play sports, eat a meal together, or do other activities. We cannot see God’s face or hold his hand or hug Him. Prayer is not even like talking on the phone because we can’t hear His voice audibly.

Moreover, you may be “understandably wary of any talk about hearing a direct word from God because of the rampant, exaggerated abuses of this claim, both now and throughout history. People can recoil from talk of God speaking to people because they think this can refer only to God’s audible voice,” said the Blackabys. (Hearing God’s Voice, 6,)

How do you discern when God is speaking to you? You need to know God, which “comes through experience as He reveals Himself to you.” (Experiencing God, 57.) He desires to guide you, have a personal relationship and open communication with you. He is the only One who fully knows you and your needs because He is the only One who is with you twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.

To hear God, we need listen to His Word and open our hearts to what He is saying to us through His Word. If we only listen for what we want to hear or what we want from Him, we will be deaf to what He is saying to us. He makes His presence known to us as we open our heart to Him and listen. Knowing God is a growing experience; it’s a process that comes over time as He reveals Himself and His plans to us and as we share ourselves with Him in return. The Lord gladly guides us and gives us the wisdom to live and be the godly person He desires us to be. But how? That is the question we need to answer.