Prayer Journey: Repentance pt. 2

“Do you ask, “Well, now, where do we go from here?”  The answer is, “Where sinful individuals or sinful nations can only go—back to a merciful God.”  Hear me!  Every church without a prayer meeting condemns us; every lost heathen condemns us; every dry eye among us condemns us; every wasted minute of our time condemns us; every unclaimed opportunity for God condemns us.  Next year is not ours.  Tomorrow may be too late.  Unless we repent now, unless we fast and weep now, woe unto us at the judgement!”  — Leonard Ravenhill, Prayer Revival

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I have continued to pour over Scripture and focus on what it has to say about repentance.  I wrote the first part of Prayer Journey: Repentance and could not bring myself to post it without more study.  The more that I studied, the more that God shook me.  I have never felt so hungry for Scripture. Personally, I have been convicted of a particular sin that I struggle with.  Not a sin that comes and goes in spurts.  Not something that is a mere slip of the tongue or wandering of the mind.  A sin like a stone; a big, heavy boulder that weighs on my mind.  The type of sin that I find myself praying about more than anything else.  A thorn in my side.  A sin that I ask to be taken from me.  One that I have asked for forgiveness for many times before, yet continues to weigh on my mind.  A sin that steals away precious time spent in prayer praising God and focusing on His holiness. The sin is lust.

For others, it could be anger, bitterness, not forgiving someone, language, crudeness, sloth, gluttony, disobedience, lying, or any number of things that weighs down their soul.  The Bible never makes excuses for any of these things.  In each case, there is never a time that God doesn’t call for immediate repentance. Yet, there are days and sometimes weeks where I think to myself and others probably ask themselves, “Why even pray about it?  I know I am just going to do it again.”  This is the Devil’s “gotcha!” moment when we become poor witnesses, deflated and defeated.  It’s a weak point, unprotected by the full armor of God.

God holds His index finger up to His mouth and says (sometimes with a smack across the head), “Be silent.  I love you.  I sent my only son, Jesus, to die for you.  There will never be a way that you can overcome your own sin, but Jesus took your place on the cross and gave you a way to be forgiven.  Why fight against peace?  You will not find happiness outside of my will for you.  Make it your passion to serve me!  Come and stand in awe of my Me!  Proclaim my name amongst the earth!”

I have already posted the following video, but it is convicting and worth listening to multiple times. 

I have lost my rights as a man when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and proclaimed with my mouth that God raised Him from the dead.  I have been nailed to the Cross along with Jesus.  I am a bondservant of Christ. 

The word for bondservant in Greek is doulos, which means one who is devoted to another, disregarding their own interests.  Thus, to be a bondservant of Christ means that I no longer live for myself.  I live for Jesus.  This is a mighty and fearful notion; to not live for myself, but wholly live for another.

This is an age of instant gratification.  Meals are created in mere minutes.  People divorce each other because “love is hard”.  If it takes more than 1.2 seconds for a webpage to load, tempers flair.  I can buy a ticket to fly on an airplane at 15,000 feet in the air to any destination in the world in a matter of hours, yet complain of any delay or lack of peanuts. In my selfish nature, I live in a greedy survival mode.  I tend to subscribe to a “me first and the gimme gimme” lifestyle.  It can be hard to devote myself to a job, to a relationship, or even a tv station.  I’ve gotten into arguemtns with people over things like politics because they say they have a right to voice their opinion, yet they don’t vote and can’t name any politicians.  I will fight over who is the best baseball team or contestant on American Idol and can tell you who in Hollywood is sleeping with who.  Yet, I find it difficult to pray for longer than ten minutes. I marry myself to such mundane, worthless things.  How much more should I marry myself to the Creator of the entire universe?

“…We have no one to blame for our spiritual impotence.  We have not half a chance that anyone will believe us for transferring to another the guilt of our criminal stagnation.  We cannot blame the devil for this impasse, because Jesus said, “I give unto you power…over all the power of the enemy.”  We cannot blame our enemies, because the Word says, “We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”  We cannot blame the weapons combined against us, because we have “the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”  We dare not and cannot blame God, because He has said, “Ask, and it shall be given you.”  We cannot say that the supply lines have run out, because the Book says, “All things are yours.”  It looks as if we have run out of scapegoats!  As a wise man said, “The fault, dear Brutus, is within ourselves.”  — Leonard Ravenhill, Revival Praying

There needs to be a revival of this nation.  There must be a revival on a global level.  First, a revival call to leaders and second, a revival call for repentance for such a great magnitude in number of people who have grown lax in their conviction and study of Scripture.

There are far too many people with itchy ears listening to teachers and preachers who have made teaching and preaching a profession and commercialized the pulpit and pen. Truly, this is a time when gain is thought to be godliness.  The largest church in America follows a man who preaches prosperity over Christ and has changed the message of Christ’s crucifiction.  Yet, there is surprising few that are taking a stand.  I say, “If no one hears you shouting, shout louder.” I know many who say that they are too busy.  They are too busy to pray.  They are too busy to read.

In fact, I have had personal friends claim that they do not have time to read the Bible, let alone pray. I know without a shadow of a doubt that many of these same “busy” people lack zeal for the Lord.  They are unable to answer truthfully that they read the Bible daily.  They lack a prayer life.  They are easily swayed by shoddy teaching.  They are a wildly emotional bunch and the first to shout, “You are judging me” when they are challenged spiritually as if equating the judgement of their works and their soul are equivelent judgements. If only they’d read just a small portion of God’s Word and be convicted of their laziness and infantile minds, which produce very little knowledge of the heavenly, yet are quick to spout facts about the latest fads, movies, and sports.

It is a desire of mine; to spark and ingnite flames inside sputtering hearts, including my own.  If I could just hide myself even more so behind the Cross and let Christ shine brighter.  Better to be rejected for my faith and good works in the name of Jesus than to fall victim to the swaying, weak nature of peer pressure and verbal abuse by giving in to popular thought. Here, in a country that does not understand suffering and is full of books imploring Christians to “Go and teach them to obey everything [Jesus has] commanded you,” there far too many people standing still.  There is a lot of gathering of things and many that have more than enough seek more.  Yet, these people have little or nothing of worth.  Nothing to look forward to but the empty promises of more stuff.  Their possessions die with them.

When I heard Ravenhill say that the gospel is a “sacrificial gospel” and not a gospel measured by success in worldly terms, I could not help but weep.  I know what it is to not live sacrificially and it is a burden to see many people live the same way.  Truly we are surrounded by a “million ways to hell” but there is only one way to heaven.  The thought of a sacrificial gospel is like a spear to my hard heart too often.  It’s important to go before God on my knees and be softened up.

When I see so much time, money, and effort spent on constructing new buildings to entice more people to fill seats on Sunday, so much money spent organizing themed parties to initiate sharing the gospel, the majority of time spent in youth group playing sports and games instead of learning about God, the smallest portion of time during church services being spent praying and the greatest amount of time spent singing songs that do a poor job replicating the sounds of today, and can regularly ask people at church, “What is the gospel?” and they can’t answer correctly or well, it makes me want to lose my lunch.

The world was and is never meant to come to me or anyone else.  I have been sent to the lost.  I have been sent to the poor in spirit just as Jesus came to save the very same. I must think about myself, my friends, and Christians everywhere that need to be more obedient to God; who have known for a long time what they are supposed to do and do not do it.

Have I ever been burdened for God?  I may have claimed to be burdened by God and complained, but have I ever been burdened for God?  Have I been such a bright light that people have asked me to turn down the light?  Has anyone ever traveled to me, like a city atop a hill, and entered my home for comfort because they saw me from a distance and were intrigued?  Have I been salt enough to this world to preserve conversations that spur on the gospel?  Have I been ridiculed for my love for the Lord?  HaveI been abondoned because I believe in Jesus?  Has there been divisions betweenme and my family and friends because the world and heaven do not mix?  Have I ever truly seen the battle between powers and principalities?

God does not burden those He can’t trust.  He will not burden those who are spiritual infants with tasks they cannot carry out.  Many spin this to mean that God won’t fill a life with difficulties that will bury someone emotionally and physically, but it is more than that.  It is the burden of the gospel.  It is the name of Jesus on the tongues of believers which the world hates.  This is a burden that God will give me strength to bear because Jesus bore the sins of all humanity then and now.

I ask myself, “Do I want to get to the judgement seat and hear God say that He had many things to tell me, but did not because I could not bear them?”  Certainly, I do not.  I want to pray more, learn more, sweat more, grieve more, weep more, sacrifice more, and love more. My God, I do not want to be too timid!  I do not want to be a spiritual child.  I want to break a spiritual barrier and be a giant, fed on a diet of prayer and the Word of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 says: ^“1Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. ² Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. ³ A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool. ⁴ When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. ⁵ It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. ⁶ Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? ⁷ Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.”

God is asking me to repent and to listen to him. I imagine standing at the cross as Jesus hangs there paying for my sins.  I see a neverending, incommprehensible love hitting you like a beam.  Jesus’s love brings humility and reveals God’s will for me.  Jesus is light.  His eyes pierce thoughts, desires, and hearts like fire; burning up all that is unclean.  There is nothing to do but fall to my knees in fear and awe. I should think about the challenges the world poses as it tries to keep me from uniting with God.

Nietzche once wrote, “You will have to look more redeemed if I am to believe in your Redeemer.” So, when I should be on my knees saying, “Holy, holy, holy,” yet I am looking from side to side or “When [I] come from church, [I] give the impression that instead of coming from the Father’s banquet, [I] have just come from a sheriff who has auctioned off [my] sins, and now [I am] sorry that [I] can’t get them back again” (Helmut Thielicke), I am doing nothing to get back to a merciful God.

Oh, this foolishness and stubborn pride of mine!  I am not condemned any longer, but I am called to die to self-wants and self-”needs”.  I am to die to my whole self daily and be crucified right along with Christ, my sins buried with Him.  I am a new creation in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit.

I am not called to simply be saved, but also to be sanctified. My life is a process towards holiness.  If I continue in my sin, then I am fighting against God.  I am resisting God’s will for my life, which is to live in the fullness of Himself. Sin can be like a drug, but it only leads to emptiness.  Jesus is not just some rehabilitator.  He covers over my sin.  When I die and am judged, God will see Jesus and not my sin.

I ask for prayer that I find strength.  Pray that I continue to internalize His words.  I will do the same for you also.  A broken and contrite heart is what I long for and I ask for prayer that it becomes second nature to have God at the forefront of my mind.  It is my hope that this is also your desire. Inside my dreams, I see a revival.  A harvesting of those labouring in prayer.  There is a flame inside my heart to evangelize and raise up an army of those who are alive in prayer, not dead in lust for the world and slothful in zeal.

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Give Up the Stone

by Tim Young

03/30/2011

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Regret

Like a millstone

Tied around my neck

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I thought I could hide it

Under layers of skin

Where a battle wages on

Between flesh and sin

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Guilt

Like an anchor

Pulls beneath the surface

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I thought I could fight it

With will power and win

Still a battle wages on

Between flesh and sin

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Brokenness

Like a wave

Come crashing over me

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I thought I was good

A moral kind of man

Without a need for healing

Or a life with a plan

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Blood

Like winter snow

Blankets my heart

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I change my mind

And give up the stone

To carry a tree

And follow what I can’t see

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In my prayers, it is easy to turn God into a genie and ask for an infinite amount of wishes.  When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, it was to tell them that prayer is in the holy name of God and in seeking out God’s will. I can’t help but see a lack of sincere prayer in the Church.

Prayer becomes a series of habitual motions.  Prayer becomes something for meal times.  Prayer becomes something majorally for times of need. With daily bread and life in my bones, I am blessed.

I must go before the Father in heaven with thankgiving and reverence on my lips.  I should listen instead of doing all the speaking.  I need to ask for His will be done and not curse when my desired outcome and wishes are not fulfilled exactly how I imagined them (or not at all). I must not forget to praise God’s holy name first.  I should never forget to rejoice in Him.  I am blessed already.  I should repent and ask for forgiveness, praying for those who God has not called yet in reverent hope that God counts them worthy of His wonderful calling.

“Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power” (2 Thessalonians 1:1).

Altogether, I can’t help but think that people hold back in their prayers or fear sharing their prayers, especially if they are revealing that they are sinners.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.” Let’s not be

“[A] world [that] has lost the power to blush over its vice; [a] Church [that] has lost her power to weep over it” (Ravenhill, Revival Praying).

 

Prayer Journey: Prayer Fellowship

I want to act upon prayer.  God has convicted me that there is not enough prayer in Christianity today.  As Leonard Ravenhill puts it, “I grant you that to our modern Christianity, praying is foreign.”

I have sensed something is missing in my prayer life and in Church.

I am annoyed by the impersonal methods that are deeply established in churches and used to spur on prayer, such as prayer letters or email chains.  They do not constitute prayer and are not a worthy substitute for praying together.  They do not hold my attention.  They are impersonal and there is no connection between the request I am praying over and my own prayer because most of the time, Idon’t know who I am praying for or about.  There is no “where two or more are gathered in my name” prayer occuring.  There may be a few individuals behind the scenes that are weeping in prayer over the requests, but who really knows.

Another thing that annoys me are prayer meetings that are not really prayer meetings.  Instead, they are a time of teaching, with small amounts of prayer sprinkled in.  The time spent together is about as Spirit-oriented as a dozing dullard.

As one man put it, “With once-a-week prayer meeting[s] no church (here or in any other place, at this or at any time) is going to get us a heaven-born, Spirit-operated revival.  Before “Pentecost was fully come,” the disciples prayer; and as they were praying, the Spirit fell upon them; after Pentecost we discover that twenty-eight chapters in Acts mentions prayer, for they “continued in prayer,” says the record.  We need prayer to obtain vicotry and then prayer to maintain victory.  We need to pray about our praying…”

Currently, I can only imagine how much greater things would be if there was New Testament-like praying and fasting happening in churches and personal lives.

I desire to learn how to pray, teach how to pray, and most importantly pray.

I came across a prayer that expressed such a desire:

“O my Savior, I say to Thee, again with more insistence than ever: Teach me to pray; implant in me all the dispositions needful for prayer of the Holy Spirit.  Make me humble, simple and docile; may I do all that is in my power to become so.  Of what is my prayer if the Holy Spirit does not pray with me? Come Holy Spirit, come to dwell and work within me! Take possession of my understanding and my will; govern my actions not only at the moment of prayer but every moment. I cannot glorify God nor sanctify myself save by Thee.” Jean-Nicolas Grou (1750)

Such prayers are not the norm.  In fact, they are rare.

“In a time when we are so subnormal that to be just normal (according to the New Testament pattern) seems to make us abnormal” (Leonard Ravenhill), it is of the utmost importance to find a way and places to pray the most.

If a church is not a place of prayer, I must find another one.  If my home is not a place of prayer, I should make it one or go somewhere where I can focus on prayer.  If I’m not praying, then I must begin to do so.

I do not want to be spiritually trivial.  Rather, I need to be spiritually essential.

I live in a time where there is widespread spiritual impotence and not praying is a sin.

As Leonard Ravenhill puts it:

“We may call prayerlessness neglect, or lack of spiritual appetite, or loss of vision.  But that which matters is what calls it.  In 1 Samuel 12:23 God calls prayerlessness sin:  “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.”  Prayerlessness is disobedience, for God’s command is that men ought always to pray and not to faint.  To be prayerless is to fail God, for He says, “Ask of me.”  Prayerlessness is sin.”

“Prayer links man’s impotence to God’s omnipotence.”  Where we fail, God prevails.

At times, I have believed that God does not listen to my prayers or that I have sinned too much to pray.  I have also believed that God is able, but have not believed that He can and will do.  At these times, I am not allowing myself to have a relationship with the Father.

I just read the following story:

One day in the course of his hospital visitiation, a sick man listened to my father’s testimony, then jabbed back at him feelingly with, “I have prayed to God and He did not hear me.  Why?”

Dad answered the man this way:  “Suppose the king of our country came into this room right now, and I asked him for five pounds (twenty dollars then) [let's imagine $1,000 now], would the king give it to me?  After all, I am a loyal subject of the crown.”

The man thought for a moment and then replied, “I don’t suppose that he would give it.”

“Well then,” Father said, “suppose that after I had asked the king and had been refused, the Prince of Wales had come into the room.  Would he get the money he asked for?”

“Oh yes,” answered the man, “but then, he’s the king’s son.”

“Exactly right!” Father said.  “Relationship makes all the difference.”

Not only do I grow closer to God when I pray, but I grow closers as brothers and sisters when I pray together with them.

I have been given much and in prayer I should give back to God.  The Bible asks to be “more than conquerers.”  Yet, I tend to be on the spiritual defense and praying for the day-to-day.  I should be on the spiritual offense.  I should pray to have a life testimony to share.  I need to pray in order to have a relationship with God.

I often make my life a playground while people are perishing and going to hell.  I believe it is very important that I gather with others to pray for those who will rise up and take the call from God to bring about revival.  I should pray for the salvation of everyone I know and those that I do not know.

It is better to be over-reaching in my prayers than to skimp on prayer and therefore lack the faith that God will do and that He has given me all things for His glory.

 

Prayer Journey: Repentance pt. 1

Repenting is something that, as an unbeliever, I did before conversion and what I must do daily, but I ask myself, “What does repentance have to do with prayer?”

God draws  —–>  Repentance —–>  Confession/Belief  —–>  Grace  —–>  Faith  —–>  Indwelling  —–> Obedience  —–>  Spirit-filled prayer/fasting

God drew me to Himself, softening my hearts and gave me ears to hear according to His will so that I could understand the nature of Christ and repent of my sins.  Therefore, allowing me to change and direct my mind away from worldy affections and turn my thoughts towards God, which was the act of repentance unto salvation.  Repentance spurred on my spoken confession that Jesus is Lord and belief in one’s heart that God raised Jesus from the dead because as a man I then understood that I had fallen short of the glory of God and needed to be saved from my sins.  When I did that, God graciously granted me eternal life because of my faith in Jesus, filling me with the Holy Spirit.  I am now called as a believer to obey God’s laws and grow in stature before Him through prayer, reading the Bible, and fasting.

Without repentance, there would have been no conversion nor changing of my mind to walk away from sin.  Repentance comes before forgiveness and prayer.

“In Acts Chapter 8, the story is told of a man who obeyed the gospel, he was baptized, but later for the love of gold and popularity, he wanted to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. At this time it seems apparent that Simon’s heart was not sincere and pure. God, knowing the hearts of all men and certainly knowing the heart of Simon on this occasion, directed Peter by the Holy Spirit to tell Simon to “repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee”. Acts 8: 22. Simon was not even directed to pray first. The thing that was first and that was indispensable was to repent or change his attitude and desire. Simon was commanded to exercise proper sorrow for this act and to abandon his plan or principle or action. This lets us know today that all unrighteous men are exhorted to repent. This is their first work. They are not told to wait, to read, to pray, to receive an experience, to relate a revelation in the expectation that repentance will be given to them. Such unrighteous beings are to repent, to change their affection, and to turn to the living God. Then prayer will be acceptable. Then, and only when man repents, will God hear and answer. When man comes loving his sins and resolving to continue practicing them, God will not hear him (John 9:31, I Peter 3: 12)”  (http://www.bible.ca/g-repentance.htm).

The word for repent in Greek is “metanoeo,” which means to change one’s mind for better or to heartily amend with the abhorrence of one’s past sins.  Broken down, metanoeo is meta, meaning after or later (implying change) and noeo, which means to perceive or understand and to change one’s mind to the extent that one changes his life.

Repentance is not feeling sorry for myself.  It is not quitting a specific sin for a season.  It is not a concealment of sin.  It is a complete change of mind and a turning from that sin.

As I have stated before, there is repentance unto salvation for unbelievers becoming believers and repentance unto restoration and purification for believers.

Jesus began and ended his ministry asking for repentance.  He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” when ministering to the public for the first time in Matthew 4:17 and in his vision of the end times, the Apostle John saw Jesus say, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest, and repent”  (Revelation 3:19).

If Jesus began and will end his ministry with repentance, it surely is of the utmost importance yet often I act as if I do not understand repentance.  I understand guilt.  I become depressed, wallowing in sadness.  I say sorry, yet continue to commit the same sin over and over again.  Remorse overcomes faith and a vicious cycle continues to go on and on. Yet, Jesus came to free me from the bondage of sin and death, not to condemn me for my sins.

The question then would be, “Why is there a disconnect between the reaction of man (me) to sin and the freeing grace bestowed on us through Christ on the cross?”

The answer is simple:  Pride.  The Bible calls it the hardening of the heart.

I tend to think that I can overcome things on my own as if I are waging a battle on my own against an entire army.  In the case of man vs. sin, I tend to think that I am some kind of spiritual Braveheart and able to work up enough will power to overcome my sin.  This leads to nothing but failure.

Unbelievers tend to think they are generally good, but have sense enough to know that they are not perfect.  They continually go through cycles of “drama” or “issues” and deal with it with revenge, spite, bitterness, anger, or suppression.  They have yet to understand that any sin, may it be one or a thousand, means separation from God who is fully holy and without sin. 

Sin perishes in the presence of God and therefore without repentance and belief in Jesus Christ which is the propitiation (or appeasment before God) for for my sins then I could never stand before God without being cast out into hell, apart from God for eternity.

Without repentance, there is no salvation.  Luke 13:5 says, “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, ”Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

What is worldly sorrow?  Arthur Pink, an English evangelist said of worldly sorrow, “The sorrow of the world does not arise from just views of sin, nor does it proceed from any concern that God has been offended. It does not lead the soul to God in true penitence, nor turn to Him for consolation. The sorrow of the unregenerate is occasioned by temporal losses, which fill them with chagrin and dismay; by crimes which incur public disgrace for their perpetrators and their families; from the squandering of a goodly heritage which terminates in poverty and despair; from wandering from the path of chastity, and in consequence losing their good name among men: from intemperance and reckless living, which ends in ruined health and vain regrets for having played the fool. In all such cases there is no contrition of heart for having violated a righteous Law, offended a kind Creator, or been an occasion of stumbling to their fellows. It is only that they are incensed at the harvest which follows their evil sowing and fretful because lack of money or health prevents them from continuing such excesses.”

God says that repentance leads to conversion.  In fact, he sent Jesus to call sinners to repentance. Paul stated, “… the goodness of God leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4) and Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:17).

On the other hand, believers are called by Jesus to “deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” and repent of their sins so that their sins may be forgiven.  Repentance is a daily thing.  Yet, believers tend to neglect a changing of their mind and do not then truly ask for forgiveness.

Those who believe that Jesus is their Lord and that He was raised by God from the dead are not saved.  They are being saved.  There is a difference.  One is final and the other is progressive.  I need God at all times.  This is the process of sanctification.  It is the process of carrying one’s cross, so to speak, dying to my own desires and following Christ’s will for my lives.

I know Jesus’s will for my life by reading the Bible and through prayer. The Bible calls God’s house a “house of prayer.”  It commands me to share my sins and burdens with my brothers and sisters in Christ so that they can pray over them.  It also commands me to pray ceaselessly.  How could I do these things without repenting?  Without repentance, spiritual growth is stifled.

It is not until after repentance that prayer becomes acceptable to God.

For both the unrighteous and righteous, it is important to note that when they do something wrong, or sin, that they not only are wronging someone else or doing something wrong “in secret” (God sees all, so there are no secrets), but we are also sinning directly against God.  “I have sinned against heaven and against you” (Luke 15:21).

Therefore, I must repent in order to be right not before others, but before God.  This is a key difference between apology (worldy sorry) and repentance. Sin is a heavy burden.  If anyone tries to carry that sin on their own, they will be weighed down.  It will be difficult for them.  Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).  A good example of the need for repentance and the easy yoke of Christ is a story written by Taran Bainter, a friend of mine:  http://rinnovato.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/spring-break-essay/

What Jesus says sounds wonderful, does it not?  A life lived in peace.  Yet, when God draws me to Himself, I tend to resist His will.  It’s easy to pray for things that I want or when there are problems in our lives, but I tend to neglect praising God for his holiness and admitting I fall short of His perfection, needing to change my minds as I turn away from our sins and asking for forgiveness.

In all cases, the time for repentance is immediate.  It is imperative.  “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).  There was a time when ignorance was overlooked, but we now live during an age where we are commanded to repent.

It cannot be stressed enough that I must be daily in God’s Word, intent on learning His ways for us.  Not doing so results in Christians lost at sea without a wind to carry them. The longer I hold on to my sin, the worse it will be.  The heaviness, the guilt, the sense of loss, and sadness will overtake my life.

Not only am I to repent and pray for forgiveness, but Jesus said that “repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47), meaning that I am to teach others repentance and forgiveness of sins under the banner of God’s name to all people.  How can I do that if I do not practice the very things that Jesus commands me to preach to all nations?

In conclusion, God says that He will listen to my prayers if I repentant.   John 9:31 says, “We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.”   1 Peter 3:21 states, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

 

Spiritual Gut Punch

Leonard Ravenhill speaks of passion and faith.

 

Prayer Journey: God Draws

God’s will for prayer is not about opinion.  It isn’t just talking to God and hoping He’s listening.  It is not about simply sharing some requests and hoping someone will pray for them.  It is much more than that.

His will for me in my walk with Him is that I continue to find joy in obedience to Him.  That I search out His ways, which He says are not my ways.  That I learn about Him in Scripture and that I have intent to honor His name in my deeds and when I pray to Him.

I couldn’t be more convicted of the fact that while Jesus is the only way to salvation, once someone confesses with their tongue that Jesus is Lord over their life and believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead that there are essential commands to live by according to Scripture.  They aren’t simple suggestions.  They aren’t whimsical.  They aren’t opinion.  They are things that when God says ”Do this” that I should comply.

It would be easy to skip over learning about things like prayer and go right on to the action step of the command, which is in this case, praying.  However, God demands more from me than that.  He has laid out a process that leads to Spirit-led prayer, which is much different than ignorant prayer, idol prayer, and the prayers of unbelievers.

Hebrews 6:1-2 states:

^“1Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

²Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”

And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:

^“1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.”

With these things in mind, if the Bible gives a command such as “Pray ceaselessly” and says of prayer in Romans 8:26-27, “²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” Then do I not know that I lack in knowing what I ought to pray, yet am to pray ceaselessly?  That I am to learn and no longer be infantile in my spiritual thoughts and not continually having to lay out what the Bible is calling base doctrines?

The Bible gives many commands and each one of them I should learn through study.  Jesus told His disciples to go and begin “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).  In order to do this, it is self-apparent that I must read Scripture, pouring over it so that we may internalize it.  Paul calls it solid food.  The more I study more, the more I will receive.

Therefore, if God says to pray ceaselessly and yet I lack in knowing what I ought to pray, wouldn’t it be glorifying to God and obeying His desire for me that after receiving Christ as my Lord and Savior, our Prophet, Priest, and King that I do the very thing Jesus tells me to do by learning and going out, teaching the world to obey everything that He commanded me, including how to pray?

In order to do this, I must open up the Bible and intake it like food for our souls.  If I don’t, I hinder spiritual growth in my life and become stagnant.  I lose our saltiness and are no longer are much of a light to this dark world.

It’s a great and powerful thing to know what prayer is and what it is not.  A great message about prayer that addresses this can be seen here:

———————————————————————————————————————–

“Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

Ken Thomas wrote this stanza to conclude the hymn “Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun” in 1674.  These well-known lyrics have ironically become a common doxology, even though Ken Thomas believed that only Scripture should be used in corporate worship, pray, and song.  He wrote the words and instructed others to only sing them at home during their personal devotions.

I can invision hosts of people singing these words then concluding them with a prolonged, “Ah-men” in a low octave.  As tradition goes, words can be repeated so often that they lose their meaning and purpose.  Thus, when praying or worshiping God, words can become hollow.  It is sinful, human nature to grow lazy in reverence of God and having a heart to plunge the depths of his goodness.

Being a sinful creature, I tend to fail to focus on the meaning of God’s words and often lack obedience to daily go before God in prayer.  I miss daily communing with God and do not even know the purpose of prayer.  I rarely, if ever, think, “Why do I pray?” and “How do I come to pray?”

Meditating on the meaning of Ken Thomas’s hymn, I realized it resembles the prayer Jesus taught his disciples as an example of how to pray.  The focus is on thanking and praising the God from whom all blessings flow.  Soon, I realized that an obedient way to thank and praise God is to obey His words.  This may seem obvious, but how often do I neglect the fact that God is a God of order and He has told me what He desires from me?

God has declared Himself ruler over all things of all things, full of purpose, and worthy of study and worship.  It is important to know how He wants me to learn about Himself.  Because He is a God of order, He has designed an order that, when followed, fills my life with joy that can only be found in His holy presence.

The order is as follows:

God draws  —–>  Repentance  —–>  Confession/Belief  —–>  Grace  —–>  Faith  —–>  Indwelling  —–> Obedience  —–>  Spirit-filled prayer/fasting

God drew me to Himself, softening my hearts and gave me ears to hear according to His will so that I could understand the nature of Christ and repent of my sins.  Therefore, allowing me to change and direct my mind away from worldy affections and turn my thoughts towards God, which was the act of repentance unto salvation.  Repentance spurred on my spoken confession that Jesus is Lord and belief in one’s heart that God raised Jesus from the dead because as a man I then understood that I had fallen short of the glory of God and needed to be saved from my sins.  When I did that, God graciously granted me eternal life because of my faith in Jesus, filling me with the Holy Spirit.  I am now called as a believer to obey God’s laws and grow in stature before Him through prayer, reading the Bible, and fasting.

Each part of God’s plan deserves study and each are individually important.  If one is missing, the rest do not happen or do not happen correctly.  For example, if God does not draw someone to Himself, they would never know to repent and so on.  Therefore, it is important to know what God has said about each one of these things in His inspired Word.

It’s important not only to know something exists, but the qualities of that particular thing.  For instance, it’s important to not just know that a wheel turns, but also know who made the wheel, what they made the wheel out of, when the wheel was made, where it was made, why it was made, and how it was made.  If I know these things, I won’t be inclined to try and reinvent the wheel and make one of my own that is prone to flats.

In this case, God is the “who” that created prayer.  He has showed me what to pray, when to pray, where to pray, why to pray, and how to pray.

Isaiah 64:8 says,

“⁸But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.”

Similarly and more expansively, Romans 9:15-23 says, “¹⁵For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

¹⁹You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” ²⁰But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ²¹Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? ²²What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, ²³in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—.”

God has made it abundantely clear that unless He chooses to draw someone to Himself, then they will never choose Him.  In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, “None is righteous, no, not one.”  Unrighteousness will never choose righteousness.  They cannot share the same space.

Therefore, it is a blessing to know that God chose me and molds me.  If He didn’t, then I’d never know Him and is it not a glorious, wonderful thing to know the LORD?  In fact, Isaiah 6:10 says,

“¹⁰ Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

It is clear that if I were to understand God with my own mind, I would become prideful and deny Him, claiming that I am able to do works that only God can do.  I would deny God and His power over me.

God has chosen His own from all peoples.  Acts 13:48 says, “⁴⁸And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”  In fact, being chosen is part of God’s expressed plan.  Ephesians 1:5 says, “⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

It is a wonderful thing to know that God graciously gives me an inheritance of eternal life spent in His perfection in heaven.  “¹¹In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,” the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 1:11.

I should continually thank God for what He has chosen to give me.  God makes it known in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, “¹³But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. ¹⁴To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Most importantly, John 6:44 says, “⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”  Without this drawing of me to God, I would never receive the Holy Spirt and I am told in Scripture that because of my sinful nature, I don’t know how to pray.  Romans 8:26 states, “²⁶Likewise 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.

Studying the sovereignty of God fills me with reverence, humbleness, and thanksgiving.  What better way to enter the presence of God in prayer than in such a state of mind, with a sincere and broken heart?

 

Prayer: In His Name

A friend of mine posted a status update yesterday that simply said, “Matthew 21:22″.  I couldn’t recall the verse, so I looked it up and read it.  It says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

I remembered hearing this verse preached and spoken about at length.  Many use it to justify what is often called the prosperity gospel.  The prosperity gospel is basically the following message, “If you believe in Jesus Christ, he will bless you with your desires and give you the things of your prayers.”

The true gospel is, “Repent!  You are a sinner, unable to stand in the presence of Holy God.  Yet, God sent Jesus, His only son, to live as a man both fully God and fully man without sin so that he may die on a cross.  His blood is the propitiation, or the only satisfying thing before God, as the one thing that can cover our sins so that we may stand forgiven before God.  If we repent of our sins, acknowledging that we have done wrong before God and turn from them, and confess with our tongue that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.”

John 14:13-14 expands on Matthew 21:22:  ”¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Today, when I was reading about prayer, I came across a link to a video that specifically speaks about John 12:13-14:

The Bible never says that God will give of the desires of the heart without adding a clause about the glorification of God.

I believe that it was important to reiterate what the gospel is and what it is not because without that understanding, there is no purpose to prayer.  If one does not believe in the true gospel, then they have not been grafted into the body of Christ and therefore they are unable to do anything for and ask for anything in the name of Christ.  They are still spiritually dead.

Secondly, I believe it is important to begin rightly dividing the Word and taking a deep look at what prayer is scripturally.  In other words, learning the WHY and HOW of prayer according to God.

 

Prayer: What is it? Why do it? How do I pray?

In the past week, I have been humbled yet again; this time about prayer.  God has shown me that the importance of prayer cannot be over exaggerated.  Without prayer, Christians will never know the will of God for their lives.

I have been praying that God will reach those that I know and love, friends and family, and work in them the importance of prayer just the same.  

The devil has done a work in my laft in the past.  He convinced me that prayer doesn’t matter.  He convinced me that I am too busy to pray.  He works to keep me away from learning about prayer.

If other people are anything like me, they tend to keep their desires and petitions to themselves.  They have no idea how to praise and thank God through prayer.  They don’t even know how imperative it is that they pray and do it constantly.  It’s as if prayer is an off-topic, a no-fly-zone in their spiritual lives.

Without prayer, Christian life becomes worldly life.  Without prayer shared between friends and family, those relationships are nothing but worldly friendships and bonds.  They may look outwardly different, but they are dead inside.  Individuals who do not prayer to God or pray but don’t know how to pray and why they pray are like stagnant ponds.  

In the Bible, it says that God pours out a river of His pleasure to us.  If I am not praying, that water comes into backs up and nothing flows outward.  The water becomes stagnant and anyone knows that stagnant water becomes poisonous.  It’s not worth drinking.  Yet, this water is supposed to be life giving.  If I don’t pray, then I am turning God’s outflow of blessings into something worthless.

I imagine that I am a soldier at boot camp and I am told that I will be the radio man.  Soon, I am sent off to ward and called into a fight.  Instead of loading my weapon with ammunition, I throw all of the ammunition in a hole before chargin into battle.  I also destroy the radio, so that my platoon can no longer contact the commanders. Not much time passes before I am being shot at and asked to call in air raids to protect the troops.  I can neither call in air support or get directions from the commanding officers nor protect myself and my platoon.  I watch as they are shot down one by one.  In an attempt to reconcile the situation, I charge head strong at the enemy with nothing to defend myself but my bare hands.  

That’s what it’s like to live a Christian life without prayer.  I cannot produce spiritual fruit without prayer.  I can’t grow as a Christian.  I am not communing with God.  I’ll never know the will of God for my life without prayer.

Prayer was designed to thank God for all that He has done.  Jesus gave an example of prayer in Matthew 6:9-13:

                                                                “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 also have forgiven our debtors.

                                             And lead us not into temptation,

                                                    but deliver us from evil.”

Most people do not notice that the main point of Jesus’s example of prayer is that God is to be exalted.  He is in control.  He alone is holy.  Everything in life is according to His sovereign will.  I should live my life according to His will.  How do I do that?  I must pray and learn His will which He has made explicitly clear in Scripture.

Also, Jesus shows me the importance of repentance.  True prayer acknowledges that we are sinners and fall short of the glory of God.  Repentance means in Greek to “turn away from”.  There is a difference between telling God I am sorry and having a change of heart by truly seeking to cease and desist a specific sin and turning away from it.

Without prayer, I am not letting our petitions to God be known.  I must praise Him and give allegiance to Him in prayer.

Lastly, 1 Peter 5:8 says that the devil is like a roaring lion, looking for people to devour.  God is my deliverer and I show Him humility in acknowledging He is my deliverer from the evil one.  A poet, William Cowper, said, “And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.”

Nothing about prayer is actually about me.  It’s all about God.  Most people make prayer about themselves.  Prayer is about knowing God.  Andrew Murray, a South African minister once said, “Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God.”

It is my desire and prayer that God continues to break me and teach me about prayer and that I stay on task, sharing what it means to pray, why to pray, and how to pray.

Last night, my friend Roy told me a story.  He said to imagine a man that says he is a Christian like a man with a stick of dynamite.  Then he said to imagine a man who states he is a Christian AND prays as a man with a stick of dynamite WITH a match.  Which one is useful?  Which one is going to cause an explosion?

The Holy Spirit is my match.  God has graciously given the Holy Spirit to me.  If I don’t pray, I am actively attempting to snuff out the flame of the Holy Spirit in my lives.  I am dynamite with no boom.

I should desire to want to cause explosions of Holy Spirit all around us.  I should love to petition the Lord, interceding for the people all around us, for our government, for those in need, all in the name of Christ Jesus.

 

Praise

 

Crossing Out the I

I wrote this prayer three years ago and when I read it now, it makes me think of Romans 3:10.  Paul states that no one is good, not even one.  But he later states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” — Romans 3:23-26

My life is not my own and this gift I have received is so great that there is nothing I can do in return.  Yet, with the receiving of the Holy Spirit, I am to strive to live as a man after God’s own heart.  This is definitely a challenge, but one that is accomplished in prayer and by reading God’s holy Word.

Crossing Out the I
By Timothy Young

Lord, make me uncomfortable
Challenge all of my ways
Let me make you my all
And proclaim you all of my days

Lord, I have what I don’t deserve
Challenge me with a heart to serve
I get lost in my pride
Holding possessions close to my side

I see
I feel
I act
I am crossing out the I

Lord, hold me doubly accountable
Chastise all of my sinful displays
Make me needy and small
I will proclaim you all of my days

Lord, show me how to love
Shape me with your righteous hands
Cut me down to size
And let me see through your eyes

Lord, you see
You feel
You act
Now you’re living through me