Year2010

As I made mention of a couple of weeks ago, I'll be taking the next season to write simple, random thoughts from my heart. I will refer to books but I won't be going through any one particular book for awhile.

II Corinthians 11:2,3 "I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ."

I pray that the Year2010 will be a year in which urgency related to prayer and the end of the age will mark your life significantly. God's judgment always starts with His own House, and I believe the difficulties that are beginning (and will increase) are first of all to win His Bride's undivided devotion and allegiance so that the end-time people of God will be filled with His goodness and power and light!

God bless you with increased desire for experiencing the love of His Father heart in Jesus so that you are empowered to love Him and make His love known to others.

Teach Me to Pray - Final Week (#34): A Life of Prayer

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances." I Thessalonians 5:16-18

In the final chapter of Murray's book, Teach Me to Pray, he summarizes his teaching with the challenge to a life of prayer. Early in this book Murray spoke of Jesus "living to pray" (Heb. 7:25) and made the statement that because Jesus lives to pray, He can teach His followers to live to pray as well.

One of my greatest desires is to see a shift take place among God's people from a mindset of "praying to live" to a mindset of "living to pray." In other words, we orientate our life with the goal of effective prayer rather than orientating our life with prayer simply as a means to a better life. I'm asking the Lord to do this in me first of all and to do this for His Church at large. I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit is doing this in these days as I hear many people testify to how prayer is becoming much more important to them than before.

There is a vast difference between praying to live and living to pray. The Holy Spirit says through Peter in I Peter 4:7 that "the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers..." This is a startling word! When I was younger in my walk with God, I thought that I needed to pray in order to be disciplined; but here the Lord says that I need to be disciplined in order to pray. This makes prayer the number one objective in one's life.

Because real prayer is perhaps the hardest thing to do, it requires that I order my practical life so that I can be alert and effective in prayer. This gets down to hard decisions about how I spend my days and what I give my time and energy to. It boils down to putting prayer into my schedule as priority, making everything else fall into place around it rather than tacking prayer onto my day as something I hope to fit into my schedule.

It's like giving money to the Lord. If I wait to see if I have enough left over to give to God after I've taken care of everything else, it's more likely that I won't have any left for Him. But if I make Him the priority in my finances (which means giving to Him first before the other needs are cared for), then I discover that I have enough for those needs.

Prayer is a form of giving of my time to God. If I make Him priority in my time (which means giving to Him of my time before I give my time to other needs), then I discover that there is time enough for other needs in my life.

Murray's challenge in this chapter is to become people of prayer who serve rather than people of service who pray. As this mindset begins to take hold in us and the ordering of our day falls into line with this, we will discover that we are praying all the time everywhere (as we are admonished to do in I Thess. 5:17). We become praying people by prioritizing making time for conscious prayer.

I've quoted before from a saint in the distant past who said, "You will never pray all the time everywhere until you have prayed some of the time somewhere." In other words, without our calendar being affected by prayer, we cannot hope to become one who prays continually. God longs to meet with us regularly when we are giving Him the best time of our day and our attention. As we do this in an ongoing way, over time we will be delighted with the discovery that we are in communion with Him night and day.

Every person and circumstance has its peculiarities, so I suggest that you seek the Lord about how this should look for you. He is gracious and so wants a unique prayer life with us that He will help and patiently lead each of us. All we need is to have a strong enough desire and grace to obey His leading.

In closing I'll quote Murray: "Where the child of God truly lives and walks in the Spirit, where he is not content to remain carnal, but seeks to be spiritual, in everything a fit organ for the divine Spirit to reveal the life of Christ and Christ himself, there the never-ceasing intercession life of the blessed Son is revealed and then repeats itself in our experience.

"...our true aim must not be to work more, or to pray enough to keep the work on track, but to pray more and then work enough for the power and blessing obtained in prayer to find its way through us to others."

Lord, thank You for Andrew Murray and the gift of this book to us today. We cry out to you again and again that You would put within us the prayer that Your early disciples prayed: "Teach us to pray, Lord." Would you pour out Your Spirit upon us and strengthen desire within us to be a people of prayer who move according to what we have heard and seen in communion and union with You. Raise up a people at the end of the age who are characterized by effective, believing prayer that brings glory to You in the eyes of the nations of the earth and in the eyes of our own families. For Your name's sake, Jesus, we ask you for this and thank You for hearing and answering...Amen and amen!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #32: Our Boldness in Prayer

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." I John 5:14,15

The apostle John is giving us the basis for confidence in prayer when he says, by the Holy Spirit, that whatever we ask God in accordance to His will is heard by God; and if we know that He hears us, then we have the assurance that we have what we have asked for.

There are two things I want to point out here:

1. It's possible to know the will of God but we need to make the effort to find that out. Without this firm in our hearts, we'll never be able to pray with confidence and faith.
2. There are general promises in the Word of God concerning His people that we must take hold of by faith and apply to the circumstances of our lives. Comprehension of God's will for each of our lives is spiritually discerned, not simply a matter of logic. "Herein is the wisdom of the saints, to know this special will of God for each of us according to the measure of grace given us...It is to communicate this wisdom that the Holy Spirit dwells in us." In other words, we need both the Word and the Spirit to know the will of the Father for our particular situation.

For example, if you're praying for a family member who needs an encounter with God, either for salvation or for the fullness of His life to be actively at work in him/her, you can have a measure of confidence that this is the will of the Father because we know from His Word that He wants all to enter into their destiny in Him.

However, greater confidence comes through waiting before the Lord in prayer and humility to hear His heartbeat for this particular person and entering into His zeal and burden and passion for that one. We also grow in confidence through wrestling with God over the issue and genuinely seeking Him out and asking the hard questions while remaining in a posture of worship, which is a posture of submission. The psalmist and Job didn't hesitate to ask 'why?' and to argue their cases in their attempt to understand circumstances that made no sense. Jesus Himself cried 'why?' as He faced indescribable darkness and confusion on the cross.

All of this slowly builds confidence in God as we genuinely grow to understand His purposes and ways; we are learning to have a real relationship with Him rather than a religious relationship in which we say the right words but our spirit is closed down in the midst of the pain of the circumstances. If we will ask Him, He'll come and gently help us open our spirit to Him to help us trust once again and to pray with confidence.

Murray says, "Believe that you canknow if your prayer is according to God's will. Live day by day with the anointing of the Spirit that teaches all things. Then you will understand how the Father's love longs to have His child know His will and to grant the petitions he has asked of Him. 'This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us' (I John 5:14)"
"A great deal of the blessing that God wills for His people never comes to them...Prayer is the power that brings to pass that which otherwise would not take place." As we abide in Him and He in us, we can ask whatever we wish and it will be given!

I encourage you this week to set your heart to ask for something impossible (that's what God specializes in). Ask with confidence, having God's promises in His Word and the Spirit's personal "yes!" backing it up. Wrestle with God for understanding of His ways and purposes while worshipping Him in the midst of unanswered questions. Our boldness in prayer isn't based on a feeling or a style of prayer but on our ongoing union with Jesus and the knowledge of His will.

Lord Jesus, teach us to pray!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #31: Christ the Sacrifice

"'Abba, Father,' he said, 'everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.'" Mark 14:36

In the previous chapter we saw Jesus as Intercessor; here we see Him as Sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane as He anticipates His death. In a matter of a few hours, His quiet words, "Father, the hour has come..." has changed into His agonizing cry, "Abba, Father!...Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will..."

Murray says, "Because of the entire surrender of His will in Gethsemane, the High Priest on the throne had the power to ask what He would. He has the right to let His people share in that power also and ask what they will."

Jesus' authority in intercession comes from His willingness to give up His own will, and it is in His not obtaining what He asks for ("take this cup from me") that we have the right to ask "whatever you wish" in prayer.

"To understand the prayer, let us note the infinite difference between what our Lord prayed a little while ago as a royal High Priest and what He begs here in His weakness. There He prayed for the glorifying of the Father and the glorifying of Himself and His people as the fulfillment of distinct promises that had been given Him. What He asked He knew to be according to the word and the will of the Father...Here He prays for something in regard to which the Father's will is not yet clear to Him. As far as He knows, it is the Father's will that he should drink the cup...(but) When the unutterable agony of soul burst upon Him as the power of darkness came over Him and he began to taste the first drops of death as the wrath of God against sin, His human nature shuddered in the presence of the awful reality of being made a curse."

Jesus' plea to be spared this "cup" was made in the context of a phrase repeated 3 times: "Yet not what I will." He was asking for something that He didn't have certainty about and so He made the request in the context of a will surrendered to the Father's will. Murray points out several mysteries related to Gethsemane:
1. The Father offers His beloved Son the cup of wrath.
2. The Son, always obedient, shrinks back and begs to not have to drink it.
3. The Father doesn't grant His Son's request but rather gives the cup to Him.
4. The Son yields to the Father's will.

"In Gethsemane I see that my Lord can give me unlimited assurance of an answer to my prayers. He won the privilege for me by His consent to have His petition unanswered. This is in harmony with the whole scheme of redemption. Our Lord always wins for us the opposite of what he suffered...Here in Gethsemane the word 'if you abide in me' acquires new force and depth. Christ is our Head, who stands in our place and bears what we must have borne forever."

I find this an intriguing and wonderful truth related to our prayer life in Jesus - we sinners deserve to have God turn a deaf ear to our prayers, but because Jesus suffered under the burden of this unanswered prayer and went to death as a result, His merit has won for me the answer to every prayer if I abide in Him!

Does this mean that I can expect answers to prayers that are selfish and outside of the Father's will? No, because the very meaning of abiding in Him suggests that "my will dies in Him, in Him to be made alive again. He breathes into it a renewed and quickened will, a holy insight into God's perfect will, a holy joy in yielding itself to be an instrument of that will..."

"The more deeply I enter into the prayer 'Not what I will' of Gethsemane, and abide in Him who spoke it, the fuller is my spiritual access into the power of His 'But what you will'...Being of one mind and spirit with Him in His giving up everything to God's will, living as He did in obedience and surrender to the Father - this is abiding in Him. This is the secret of power in prayer."

"Lamb of God, I would follow You to Gethsemane...With You, through You, in You, I yield my will in absolute and entire surrender to the will of the Father. I claim in faith the power of Your victory, conscious of my own weakness and the secret power with which my self-will would assert itself...In Your death I would daily live. In Your life I would daily die...With my whole soul I say with you, 'Father...not what I will, but what you will'...Lord Jesus, teach me to pray. Amen."

Teach Me to Pray - Week #30: Christ the High Priest

"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am." John 17:24

This chapter is about Jesus' high-priestly prayer in John 17, and one of the opening paragraphs summarizes the chapter well:

"To let His disciples have the joy of knowing what His intercession for them in heaven as their High Priest will be, He gives this precious legacy of His prayer to the Father. He does this (also) because they as priests are to share in His work of intercession that they and we might know how to perform this holy work. In the teaching of our Lord on this last night, we have learned to understand that these astonishing prayer-promises have not been given on our own behalf but in the interest of the Lord and His kingdom. From the Lord alone can we learn what the prayer in His name is to be and what it is to obtain. We have seen that to pray in His name is to pray in perfect unity with Him. The high-priestly prayer will teach all that prayer in the name of Jesus may ask and expect to receive."

Murray reminds us of what a treasure we have in this written account of Jesus' prayer life! If this had not been recorded, we wouldn't have such a clear insight into what Jesus Himself is praying continually at the right hand of His Father nor would we know how we are to pray in our own priestly calling to intercede. Only in Jesus and from Him can we learn what true prayer is. In past chapters the author has pointed out clearly that true prayer is to pray in His name and to pray in His name is to be aligned with His heart and mind. In this prayer we have a peek into what's on His heart and mind. Praise the Lord for such a gift!

Jesus' prayer is divided into three major themes:
1. His prayer that the Father would glorify Him so that He could give glory to the Father. This teaches us that in prayer we want Jesus to be glorified (which means that His prayers are answered by the Father) so that the Father will receive glory. This is the ultimate goal of prayer - the glory of God the Father and Son. This implies oneness with God in prayer..."Draw near and appear before the Father in Christ. Plead His finished work. Say that you are one with it, you trust in it, and you live by it. Say that you too have given yourself to finish the work the Father has given you to do and to live alone for His glory. Then confidently ask that the Son may be glorified in you."

2. His prayer for the small circle of people in His life. This teaches us that our intercession must include regular persevering prayer for those God has placed us among: family, friends, ministry and work assignment, etc. Jesus tells us what to pray for them: that they will be kept from the evil one and that they will be sanctified through His Word.

3. His prayer for a wider circle: "...those who will believe in me through their message." This teaches us to pray for the Church universal and its many expressions. We are to pray for unity of the Spirit and love in the Church at large as a witness to the world of the reality of Jesus being God's chosen Messiah sent from heaven.

Jesus' high-priestly prayer ends with the expression of His desire (vs. 24). Because of His oneness in heart and mind with His Father, He could ask whatever He wanted and know that He would receive it. So with us: "He that loses his will will find it; he that gives up his will entirely will find it again renewed and strengthened with a divine strength. 'Father, I want...': this is the keynote of the everlasting, ever-active, all-prevailing intercession of our Lord in heaven. It is only in union with Him that our prayer prevails; in union with Him it avails much."

If you find it helpful for your growth in prayer, I encourage you to pray the following prayer which is part of Murray's prayer at the end of this chapter:

"Blessed High Priest...give your grace that this may increasingly be my unceasing life-work - to pray without ceasing, to bring the blessing of heaven down on all around me here on earth. Lord, I come to accept this as my calling...Take possession of my heart and fill it with one desire - the glory of God in the ingathering, sanctification, and union of those whom the Father has given you...Take me wholly and fit me as a priest to stand always before God and to bless in His name."

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for unveiling Your heart in this prayer...we love You!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #29: Christ the Intercessor

"I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf." John 16:26

"He always lives to intercede." Hebrews 7:25

In this chapter Andrew Murray distinguishes between prayer that sees Jesus as Intercessor on my behalf and prayer that understands that I pray with direct access to the Father because of Christ in me and my oneness with Him.

"See the difference between having Christ as Advocate or Intercessor who stands outside of us and having Him within us - our abiding in Him and He in us through the Holy Spirit - perfecting our union with Him so that we can go directly to the Father in His name." Having direct access to the Father in prayer doesn't negate the mediatorship of the Lord Jesus, of course, "but it is no longer looked at as something external, existing outside of us, but as a real, living spiritual existence within us, so that the Christ for us, the Mediator, has really become Christ in us." (quote from Dr. I.T. Beck)

And because Jesus lives forever to intercede, He dwells within us as the Intercessor. This means that, just as in all other areas of living, our power to pray and intercede is Christ in us! "Because He prays, we also pray."

In the beginning of this chapter, Murray points out that the work of Jesus on earth as Priest/Intercessor was just the beginning of a life of never-ending intercession at the right hand of the Father. "'Christ Jesus, who died -- more than that, who...is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us' (Rom. 8:34) That intercession is an intense reality, a work that is absolutely necessary and without which the continued application of redemption cannot take place."

Jesus' present mediation on the throne is as important as on the cross. "Nothing takes place without His intercession. It engages all His time and powers. It is His unceasing occupation at the right hand of the Father...He alone has the power of prayer...Christ is the guarantee for our prayer life."

Murray goes on to challenge the reader that we who are in Christ not only partake of the benefits of His intercessory work but we participate in the work itself. He is the head and we are His body; the body follows the Head.

If our power to pray and our effectiveness in prayer is bound up in our union with the Great Intercessor, the obvious need for us is to continually grow in oneness with Him, our hearts and minds being increasingly aligned with how He thinks and feels and desires. I believe that the way this happens is through simple openness of heart to obey whatever He tells us to do and maintaining a "yes" to Him as He directs our paths.

A simple response to this chapter would be to pause and allow this truth to settle into your spirit - Christ in you is the Great Intercessor; because He prays, you can pray directly to the Father in His name.

Meditate on Jesus in you as Intercessor; be aware that your praying isn't separate from His prayers as if there were two separate prayers ascending to God (Jesus' prayers and your prayers). He is praying in you and will pray through you to the Father in increasing measure as you grow in daily agreement with Him and obedience to Him.

Holy Spirit, open my understanding of this wonder...I ask you to make real to me the truth that the Christ Who is the eternal Intercessor really dwells within me, always making intercession for and through me to the Father. Convince me, Lord, of the power and need of growing oneness with You to increase in prayer and thereby affect change in my little "world" for Your glory. Your life in me is prayer; teach me how to unite with You in Your prayer life, and help me not see myself separated from You as I pray but one with You in prayer. Thank You for hearing and answering, dear Lord!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #28: The Holy Spirit and Prayer

"In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you." John 16:23-24, 26-27

"In that day" refers to the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the glorified Jesus came to be the life of His disciples; one of the marks of this coming of the Spirit was to be a power in prayer never before experienced.

"In the intercession of Christ, the continued efficacy and application of His redemption is maintained. Through the Holy Spirit descending from Christ to us, we are drawn up into the great stream of His ever-ascending prayers. The Spirit prays for us without words. In the depths of the heart where even thoughts are at times formless, the Spirit takes us up into the wonderful flow of the life of the triune God. Through the Spirit, Christ's prayers become ours, and ours are made His; we ask what we will and it is given to us."

Murray goes on to say that the logical conclusion of this truth is that we need to ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus and that this is more than what we see of Him in the Old Testament and in the conversion and regeneration of the disciples before Pentecost; and this is more than a measure of His influence and working...."This is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the glorified Jesus in His exaltation power, coming on us as the Spirit of the indwelling Jesus, revealing the Son and the Father within (John 14:16-23). When this Spirit is the Spirit not only of our hours of prayer but also of our whole life and walk; and when this Spirit glorifies Jesus in us by revealing the completeness of His work, making us wholly one with Him and like Him; then we can pray in His name, because we are indeed one with Him."

"HOW WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND AND BELIEVE THAT TO BE FILLED WITH THIS SPIRIT OF THE GLORIFIED ONE IS THE ONE NEED OF GOD'S BELIEVING PEOPLE! THEN WE WILL UNDERSTAND "AND PRAY IN THE SPIRIT ON ALL OCCASIONS WITH ALL KINDS OF PRAYERS AND REQUESTS" (Ephesians 6:18), and "PRAY IN THE HOLY SPIRIT" (Jude 1:20)."

An effective life of prayer in God is impossible with the Holy Spirit dynamically at work in and through us. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8 that we are weak in knowing how to pray but the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and makes intercession for us.

Exalted Jesus, send forth Your Spirit; baptize and fill us, Your people, with Your Spirit so that we may become a people of effective prayer. We confess that we need You and cannot hope to learn to pray without You. Thank You for hearing and answering our cry, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Teach Me to Pray - Week #27: The All-Prevailing Plea

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name...You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it...Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name...I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive...In that day you will ask in my name." John 14:13,14; 15:16; 16:23, 24, 26

This is the first time that we hear Jesus use the expression "ask in my name." In the context of asking in His name, He repeatedly uses the words "anything" and "whatever". This teaches us that "His name is our only but all-sufficient plea. The power of prayer and the answer depend on the right use of the name."

What's the significance of a person's name? Murray says, "When I mention or hear a name, it calls up before me the whole man - what I know of him and the impression he has made on me...each name of God embodies and represents some part of the glory of the unseen One." The name of Jesus embodies all that God is.

To do something in someone's name is to have the power and authority of that person as his representative. This presumes a common interest, because no one would allow another person to use his name if that person did not have the same interest as the bearer of the name. He only entrusts his name to someone who will rightly represent him.

"He who gives his name to another stands aside to let that person act for him. He who takes the name of another gives up his own (name) as of no value. When I go in the name of another, I deny myself...." So to pray in the name of Jesus is to give up my own agenda and to pray according to His interests.

This issue of the use of the name of a person can be seen in light of a legal union. A businessman may give his manager power of attorney to be able to access money in his name. This access is for the sake of the interests of the business, not for the manager's personal interests. "The use of a name always assumes the surrender of our interests to the one whom we represent."

Another context for the use of a name is that of a life union which, unlike a temporary legal union, is permanent. "A child has his father's name because he has his life blood. Often the child of a good father is honored or helped by others for the sake of the name he bears. But this would not last long if it were found out that it was only a name and that the father's character was in question. The name and the character or spirit must be in harmony...So it is with Jesus and the believer: We are one. We have one life, one Spirit with Him, and for this reason we may come in His name. Our power in using that name, whether with God or men or demons, depends on the measure of our spiritual life union."

The third relationship in which we see the use of another's name is in the union of love. In marriage, the bride gives up her name to be called by the bridegroom's name and therein has full right to use his name. No matter what her own status in society was before marrying him, once she bears his name, she has all the rights that he has. "The heavenly Bridegroom could do nothing less. Having loved us and made us one with Himself, He could only give those who bear His name the right to come before the Father for all they need."

"The bearing of the name of another supposes my having given up my own name and my own independent life; but it shows just as surely my possession of all there is behind the name I have taken."

When Jesus promises that He "will do whatever you ask in my name", He means it literally. We don't need to fear that this is license to pray selfishly, because the very phrase "in my name" is the safeguard against that. To pray in His name is to have given up my own name and agenda for the sake of His name and agenda; in that kind of relationship, I can pray with confidence that He will do whatever I ask Him!

"...So let us learn to pray in the name of Jesus...Let each disciple of Jesus avail himself of the rights of his royal priesthood and use the power placed at his disposal for his family and his work. Let Christians wake up and hear the message: your prayer can obtain what otherwise would be withheld, and it can accomplish what otherwise would remain undone. Use the name of Jesus to open the treasures of heaven for this perishing world..."

"Teach me, O Lord, to hold fast the precious promise that whatever we ask for in your name, you will do and the Father will give. Though I do not yet fully understand, and still less have fully attained the wonderful union you mean when you say, 'in my name,' I would still cling to the promise until it fills my heart with the undoubting assurance: Anything I ask in the name of Jesus...Lord Jesus, teach me by your Holy Spirit to pray in your name. Amen."

Confidence before God

This week I'm going to step away from Murray's book on prayer and share some thoughts about confidence before God.

I heard a young preacher (who is an intercessor) say recently that if he had to put prayer into one word, it would be "confidence." That really struck me and goes well with what Andrew Murray teaches on prayer. When we have confidence before God in prayer, we pray in faith, and it's faith with which He partners in the answering of prayer.

So how do we gain confidence before God?

As believers in Jesus Christ, we know that His blood is our solid ground for confidence before the holy God. Oswald Chambers says, "We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason." But it's possible to have entered into a genuine relationship with God because of Jesus' blood and not live and move and pray with confidence before God as a lifestyle. One major obstacle to this is a mistaken view of God's character and nature and our need for revelation of the Father.

Religion has taught us (me, at least) that God is difficult to please, demanding and impatient with our slowness and weakness as humans. We wouldn't necessarily say it in these words, but our lack of confidence with Him shows that we see Him as Someone like this.

In recent years I've realized how much I've related with God in a Master-servant relationship, or a Boss-worker relationship. Both of these are valid metaphors for our relationship with God, but they aren't the primary relationship that the Scriptures present. As we draw near the end of the age, I believe the Holy Spirit is going to awaken His people to the reality of relating with God as sons of God and the bride of Christ.

As the Holy Spirit fully unveils the Father heart and the Bridegroom heart of God, believers will gain increasing confidence before Him. We will see with greater clarity the extravagance of love and affection that He has for His own. We will understand that He's not an impatient perfectionist who is never satisfied, but rather a kind Father who loves our desire to love and serve Him, even thought it's far from perfect. Even His discipline of us will be seen in the beauty of His unwavering zeal and affection for us. All of this will give us confidence before Him and we will partner with Him in prayer that is filled with faith and assurance that He hears and answers.

I John 2:28 teaches us that this kind of confidence before God comes through abiding in Him, and abiding in and with Him becomes easier as we think rightly about Him.

Years ago I read an article by A.W. Tozer entitled, "God is Easy to Live With." The title says it all! God, the holy all-consuming Fire, is our Father. I'm discovering that the more I dare to believe and receive the truths related to His nature as Father and as Bridegroom, the more I desire to be like Him and to live uprightly before Him. The correct kind of confidence that comes with this understanding creates in me greater motivation and desire to walk humbly with Him and with my brothers and sisters.

Lord, the truth of what You are really like is so beyond our natural ability to receive that we ask You to send Your Spirit afresh upon our hearts and minds to empower us to say "yes!" to You, the real Lord. Come Holy Spirit and continue to reveal the true Jesus and the Father to us as we seek Your face. Fill us with understanding of Your nature so that we stand before You in confidence in prayer and in all areas of our life. Thank You that You want this infinitely more than we do and that You, Jesus, are praying for this! We love You, Lord...

Teach Me to Pray - Week #26: The Word and Prayer

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you." John 15:7

Quoting a new convert, Murray says, "When I pray, I speak to my Father; when I read, my Father speaks to me. Before prayer, it is God's Word that prepares me for it by revealing what the Father has told me to ask. In prayer, it is God's Word that strengthens me by giving my faith its ground for asking."

This is a wonderful chapter and underscores what I've been learning over the past 10 years or so about the importance of praying the Word. As one of my mentors in the faith has said, praying the Scripture in faith is like putting the second signature on a check that requires two signatures in order to cash it. The prayers in the Word already have God's signature on them (He wrote them); but He looks for our agreement with His own prayers as the second signature that releases the fulfillment of what is being asked for.

"Prayer is not a monologue but a dialogue...Listening to God's voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine...His listening will depend on ours. To the degree that His words find entrance into my heart will my words find effect with Him."

It's through words that a person reveals himself. If he makes a promise, he is giving himself away, binding himself to the person he has spoken to. "It is through the words of a man, heard and accepted, held fast and obeyed, that he can impart himself to another. On a human level, all this is done in a very relative and limited sense. But when God, the infinite Being, in whom is life and power, spirit and truth...speaks Himself into His words, He really gives Himself, His love and His life, His will and His power, to those who receive the words in a comprehensive way. In every promise He includes Himself that we may lay hold of it with confidence; in every command He puts Himself that we might share with Him His will, His holiness, His perfection. In God's Word God gives us Himself. His Word is nothing less than the eternal Son, Jesus Christ..."

Murray goes on to talk about how the ability to speak is connected with the ability to hear. A child that can't hear isn't able to speak properly. This is true in our relationship with God; if we don't hear Him, we don't know how to pray to Him rightly. The primary way that we hear from Him is through His Word by His Spirit.

But Murray makes a strong point of saying that hearing God in His Word is much more than doing careful study of the Word (which is important but not to be confused with hearing God's voice in His Word). "There may be study and knowledge of the Word in which there is very little real fellowship with the living God. But there is also a reading of the Word in the very presence of the Father and under the leading of the Spirit, in which the Word becomes to us a living power from God Himself...It is on hearing this voice that the power both to obey and to believe depends...It is only in the full presence of God that disobedience and unbelief become impossible."

God's words abiding in us implies that they are fully accepted into our will and life and "reproduced in our disposition and conduct". Being immersed in His Word (which implies intimate fellowship with the living Word) is imperative if we are to grow in faith in our prayer life. The more we are in fellowship with Him in His Word, the more we will hear Him speaking to us during the day when we are not reading His Word. We find Him speaking throughout the day through our thoughts that are filled with His Word.

"Nothing but the word coming to us from God's mouth can make us strong. By that we must live..."

A couple of simple things that help me approach the Word of God in a lifegiving way are the following:
1) I consider the Bible God's love letter to me; all through it He is communicating His desire for intimate fellowship with weak humans, with me. When I approach the Word through this lens, it becomes life and food to me.
2) It helps to continually remind myself that Jesus is the Word of the Father, so the written word cannot be separated from a Person. When I approach the Scriptures, it is with a consciousness that I am approaching a Person Who cannot be manipulated. When we see the Scriptures as simply words on a page of paper, we can make them say almost anything we want if we're clever enough; but when it's the Living Word of God, Jesus Who gave Himself for me, then there is desire for relationship, not merely knowledge with which to win an argument.

As the days intensify and we draw closer to the end of the age when wickedness will increase in unimaginable ways, we must be people who know our God intimately, which means we hear and understand His voice and pray accordingly. May His Word quickened to us by His Spirit be our bread and strength in increasing measure.

Lord, I ask that Your Word and Your Spirit within me would radiate up throughout my entire being, causing me to have a quickened mind, a cleansed imagination, whole emotions, and a strengthened will that is aligned with Yours. Forgive me for being more interested in talking to You and not as much in listening to what You have to say to me..."Deliver me from the uncircumcised ear. Give me the opened ear of the learner, awakened morning by morning to hear the Father's voice." May Your word abide in me in reality so that whatever I wish, I may ask for and receive. Thank You, Lord, that you are doing this in and for me!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #25: The All-Inclusive Condition

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you." John 15:7

The one simple condition to Jesus' promise is that we abide in Him and His words in us. "To be in Him is the way to have our prayers heard."

In this wonderful chapter on abiding in the Lord, Murray points out that when we are growing in abiding in Christ, the first stage is the stage of faith: "...his aim is simply to believe that just as he knows he is in Christ, so in spite of failure, abiding in Christ is his immediate duty and within his reach. He is especially occupied with the love, power, and faithfulness of the Savior."

But true faith always expresses itself in obedience, and so as we grow in faith in Jesus' love and power and faithfulness, we recognize the importance of obedience to whatever the abiding Lord tells us: "Obedience and faith must go together...Faith is active in obedience in the home; then obedience is faith stepping out to do His will...The peace that as a young or weak disciple he could enjoy in believing now evades him. It is in practical obedience that the abiding must be maintained: 'If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.'...Now in this stage his chief effort is to unite his will with the will of his Lord and allow the heart and the life to be brought entirely under His rule."

Murray continues by saying that as faith increasingly expresses itself in obedience, we cling to the Lord in love; the inner life grows in its capacity to receive the life and spirit of the glorified Lord. We become more and more aware of the abiding presence of God in us (John 14:20).

"To those who abide like this, the promise comes as their rightful heritage: Ask whatever you wish. It cannot be otherwise. Christ has full possession of them. Christ dwells in their love, their will, their life. Not only has their will been given up but Christ has entered it. There He dwells and breathes into it His Spirit. He whom the Father hears, prays through them. What they ask will be done for them."

In the last part of this chapter Murray says two things that I want to underscore:
1. Our focus should not be so much on the abiding as on Him to whom the abiding links us. "Let it be Him, the whole Christ, in His obedience and humiliation, in His exaltation and power, in whom our soul moves and acts. He Himself will fulfill His promise in us." I have found this to be absolutely critical in order to walk well with the Lord Jesus! My focus must be primarily on Him and all that is true of Him or I will not abide (stay with Him) when the pressures come.
2. We must exercise our right to receive answers to whatever we ask when we are so united with Him in heart and mind and will. I've been challenged to be more active in taking hold of what is mine in Christ Jesus in the area of answers to my prayers. Murray expresses strong disagreement with our tendency to make up reasons why we don't have answers to our prayers and points out that if you gather together all that Jesus taught on prayer, you will find that He never taught that we should not expect prayer to be answered. "It is not that Christ would have us count the gifts of higher value than the fellowship and favor of the Father, but the Father intends the answer to be the token of His favor and of the reality of our fellowship with Him (II Samuel 14:22)."

The final sentence in this chapter is the following: "Prayer that is spiritually in union with Jesus is always answered."

Lord, I ask that You would open our eyes to Your beauty and power and desire; anoint the eyes of our heart to see You and empower us to focus on You and Your life dwelling within. Help us catch a glimpse of Your burning passion to live Your life in and through us and thereby may we find the divine power to live aligned with Your will. Come Holy Spirit of God and do this for us, and then help us take hold of and claim that which is rightly ours by virtue of the blood of Jesus through faith and obedience. May You be honored and glorified through continual answered prayer and may others begin to see Your favor upon us because of Your activity in response to prayer. Thank You, Lord, that You are doing this, in Jesus' name!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #24: The Chief End of Prayer

"I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." John 14:12,13

"That the Son may bring glory to the Father...Every answer to prayer He (Jesus) gives will have this as its object; when there is no prospect of the Father being glorified, He will not answer."

John 6:38 gives us the keynote of Jesus' life: "I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me." Jesus' greatest passion and desire is to glorify His Father, and He tells us that the way He will do this when He ascends to the Father will be through answering human prayers that are in agreement with the Father receiving glory.

Murray points out that this is a reality that divides soul and spirit, serving to discern the thoughts and intents of the human who is praying. "Jesus in His prayers on earth, in His intercession in heaven, and in His promise of an answer to our prayers, makes this His first object - the glory of His Father. Is it so with us? Or are self-interest and self-will the strongest motives that urge us to pray? Or, if not, do we have to confess that the distinct, conscious longing for the glory of the Father is not what animates our prayers?"

As I was reading this chapter, I paused and cried out to the Lord that He would burn this desire more deeply into me. As a sincere follower of His, I certainly want His glory in my prayers but I recognize that I need this to thoroughly fill my heart and mind and being, not only in prayer but in all areas of my living.

In fact, Murray goes on to say that it is only as we live all of life for His honor and glory that we can hope to pray with His glory as our chief desire and purpose. "Only when the whole life, in all its parts, is surrendered to God's glory can we really pray to His glory. 'Do it all for the glory of God' (I Cor. 10:31), and 'Ask all to the glory of God' - these twin commands are inseparable. Obedience to the former is the secret of grace for the latter."

Living in such a way is not possible through our own efforts. Only in Jesus do we see such living, but the good news is that He dwells in us by His Spirit; as He increases in us and we decrease, Jesus teaches us to live and pray in Him to the glory of the Father. His increased presence within us comes through simple, daily obedience to Him in all areas of our life.

When we pray with lesser motives than God's glory, our prayers can't be answered; and when prayers aren't answered, God cannot be glorified! "How humbling that so often our joy or pleasure in prayer for someone or something is far stronger than our yearning for God's glory. No wonder there are so many unanswered prayers."

Faith is willing to give up all lesser motives so that the Father will be glorified in answered prayer. How often I have prayed wanting relief from the pressure and pain that comes from seeing others in pain. The Lord understands this human tendency but He comes with great grace to teach us to pray without mixture of motives, making our requests and interceding with thanksgiving and for His glory and praise. I'm learning to draw on His grace a day at a time to live with the pressures and pain while I cry out in prayer for Him to act in such a way that He will receive glory, even if that means I must wait longer in the pressure of pain.

Murray says that the way we attain to living and praying for God's glory is through confession of our sin in this. "Let us wait on God in prayer until the Holy Spirit reveals it to us and we see how we have sinned in this regard. True knowledge and confession of sin is the sure path to deliverance."

"Blessed Lord Jesus, I come again to you. Every lesson you teach convinces me more deeply how little I know how to pray in the right way. But every lesson also inspires me with hope that you are going to teach me and that you are teaching me not only what prayer should be but also how to pray as I ought...Teach me also to live and to pray to the glory of God. To this end I yield myself to you again...I have given self to death as already crucified with you. Through the Spirit, self's workings have come to nothing. Your life and your love of the Father are taking possession of me. A new longing begins to fill my soul that every day, every hour, in every prayer, the glory of the Father may be everything to me. Lord, I am in your school to learn this. Teach me...Lord, show me your glory. Let it overshadow me. Let it fill the temple of my heart. Let me dwell in it as revealed in Christ. Fulfill in me your own good pleasure...Amen."

Teach Me to Pray - Week #23: Power for Prayer and Work

John 14:12,13 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name…”

The Lord is addressing His disciples here as friends to whom He has made known what He has heard from the Father. He will entrust into their hands the care of His work and His kingdom and they will do even greater works than He has done based on His approaching death and resurrection and ascension to God. “Prayer is to be the channel through which that power is received for their work.”

The success and victories of His disciples were to be greater than His for two reasons:
1. He was going to the Father to receive all power.
2. They could now ask and expect anything in His name.

Whoever would do the works of the Father must pray!

“In prayer, power for work is obtained…His (Jesus’) approaching death was to break down and bring to an end the power of sin. With the Resurrection, the power of eternal life was to take possession of the human body and to obtain supremacy over human life. With His ascension, He was to receive the power to communicate the Holy Spirit to His own. The union between himself on the throne and those on earth was to be so intense and so divinely perfect that He meant it literally when He said, ‘He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father’ (John 14:12).”

“As He asks the Father, He receives and bestows on us the power of the new dispensation for the greater works. As we believe, and ask in His name, the power takes possession of us to do the greater works.”

Murray goes on to say that the lack of power to do the works that Jesus did is because of lack of believing prayer. “Prayer in Jesus’ name is the way to share in the power Jesus has received from the Father for His people…the most important thing for anyone who desires to do the work of Jesus is to believe, becoming linked to Him, and then to pray the prayer of faith in His name. Without this act of faith our work is merely human, carnal…Powerful, effective work first needs powerful, effective prayer.”

Six times in Jesus’ parting words, He repeats the limitless promises about prayer: “I will do whatever you ask…If you ask me for anything, I will do it...Ask whatever you wish…The Father will give you whatever you ask…If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you…Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.” (John 14:13,14; 15:7,16; 16:23,24)

Murray finishes the chapter by calling our attention to the fact that the reason we don’t see these promises fulfilled is that we separate them from their context. “The Lord gave the wonderful promise of the free use of His name before the Father in connection with doing His works. It is the disciple who gives himself wholly to live for Jesus’ work and kingdom, for His will and honor, to whom the power will come to appropriate the promise. He who tries to grasp the promise when he wants something solely for himself will be disappointed, because he is trying to make Jesus the servant of his own comfort. But the one who seeks to pray the effective prayer of faith because he needs it for the work of the Master, will learn its power because he has made himself the servant of the Lord’s interests…”

I’ll close with a gentle warning connected with this truth – because many of God’s children have been raised with a view of a perfectionist God, these words of the author could be understood through the lens of perfectionism. If so, it can leave us feeling like there’s no hope of ever being able to measure up to the requirements. Earlier in the book Murray emphasized how important it is that we not see God as a stern schoolmaster who demands perfection but rather a Father who loves the attempts of the child to obey even though the child falters and stumbles in his attempts; it’s the reaching for Him and for the highest in Him that moves God’s heart. So take heart – if you have a sincere reaching for God and His kingdom, desiring to love and serve Him with all of your heart, He will hear you and answer you; and in the process, He will teach you more about believing prayer and strengthen your heart in prayer.

“Lord…You have said that because of Your going to the Father You will do whatsoever we ask in Your name. From Your throne You would share the power given You with Your people and work through them as the members of Your body in response to their believing prayers. Power in prayer with You and power in work with others is what You have promised Your people…Teach me to pray so that I may prove that Your name is all-powerful with God, with men, and with demons. Teach me to so pray that You can glorify Yourself and do Your great works through me. Amen.”

Teach Me to Pray - Week #22: Prayer in Harmony with the Destiny of Man

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.’”

Andrew Murray begins this chapter by saying that the image that man bears “decides his destiny. Bearing God’s image, he belongs to God. Prayer to God is what he was created for. Prayer is part of the wonderful likeness he bears to His divine original; of the deep mystery of the fellowship of love in which the triune God has His blessedness, prayer is the earthly image and likeness.”

We know from Genesis 1 that God’s purpose for man was to fill and subdue the earth from a relationship of union and communion with God. Through prayer (the means of intimacy with the Creator), man and woman were to rule over the earth as His representatives. “Subject to God, he was to keep all else in subjection to Him. It was the will of God that all that was to be done on earth should be done through man…His prayer was to have been the wonderful, though simple and most natural channel, in which the close relationship between the King in heaven and man, His faithful servant as lord of this world, was to have been maintained.”

Of course, with the fall of man came catastrophic changes; but in the redemptive plan of God in Christ, the beginnings of restoration for humanity began. And although fallen humans can never bring justice to the earth without the second coming of the Messiah, we can taste of the age to come as we partner with God in the ministry of intercession.

“In Abraham we see how prayer is not only, or even chiefly, the means of obtaining blessing for ourselves. Rather, it is the exercise of his royal prerogative to influence the destinies of men and the will of God that rules them…His prayer for Sodom and Lot, for Abimelech, and for Ishmael, prove what power a man who is God’s friend has to create the history of those around him.”

This destiny for rulership of the earth was rooted in the fact that man was created in God’s image and likeness. “In bearing God’s image, he could bear God’s rule. Indeed, he was so like God, so capable of entering into God’s purposes and carrying out His plans, that God could trust him with the wonderful privilege of asking and obtaining what the world might need.”

Those who are in Christ and take seriously His word to abide in Him are those who have the promise that we can “ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:7) Prayer is still the means by which we partner with God’s purposes on the earth. In prayer we commune with Him and hear His heartbeat and get His mind for the situations and people where He has placed us; in prayer we agree with Him and ask Him for what He wants to do in our “little world” where He has given us influence.

“These (who have forsaken self to abide in Him with His life of obedience and self-sacrifice…and are entirely given up to the interests of the Father and His kingdom)…have indeed the power, each in their own circle, to obtain and dispense the powers of heaven here on earth. With holy boldness they may make known what they will…Church of the living God, your calling is higher and holier than you know.”

I believe that the Holy Spirit is raising up a generation now at the end of the age that will take hold of this holy destiny as never before and will enter into greater fullness in prayer than the Church has known. All around me and wherever I go I’m encountering people who are hungering to be established in a life of prayer in God.

God loves to hear and answer His children. Keep persevering in prayer according to His will, and in His time and His way, you will see the answer to your prayers. I continually hear testimonies of people who have persevered in prayer for many years before seeing the fulfillment of their prayers, but it surely comes in God’s time!

In my own experience of the grace to persevere in intercession, I’m sometimes tempted to believe that because I feel weak or without faith, then I’m not being faithful. The Lord keeps reminding me that weakness is good; it’s His strength and faithfulness that matters most and is the grounds by which I can be faithful in prayer and trust. My weakness is the very place in which God receives glory because that is where I am most aware that the outcome isn’t because of me.

Romans 12:26,27 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

II Cor. 12:9-10 “…he said to me, ’My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

Lord, thank You for such a magnificent and noble destiny for humans! Have mercy on us, Your people, and open the eyes of our heart to see with greater clarity what you have designed for us in prayer as the primary means to seeing Your will and desires done here on earth as in heaven. We love Your ways – teach us more of Your ways; forgive us for the great sin of prayerlessness and anoint our hearts and minds for intimacy with You and for blessing others through intercession. Thank You for hearing our heart cry! Amen.

Teach Me to Pray - Week #21: Prayer in Harmony with the Person of God

John 11:41, 42 "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me..."

In this chapter Andrew Murray speaks of the value of asking theological questions that naturally arise about prayer as one grows in a life of prayer...questions such as "How can God grant to prayer such mighty power? How can the action of prayer be harmonized with the will and the decrees of God? How can God's sovereignty and our will, God's liberty and ours, be reconciled?" The honest pondering into such mysteries leads us to adoring worship of God.

In essence Murray says that the key to understanding the place and power and privilege of prayer is in the mystery of the Trinity. "If God were only one person, shut up within himself, there could be no thought of nearness to Him or influence on Him. But in God there are three persons...When eternal Love begat the Son, and the Father gave the Son as the second person a place next to himself as His equal and His counselor, there was a way opened for prayer and its influence in the very inmost life of God itself."

In Psalm 2 we see that the Father gives the Son power and place to influence Him. "The Father determined that He should not be alone in His counsels: there was a Son on whose asking and accepting their fulfillment should depend." Jesus lives forever to pray/intercede, and throughout eternity He will accomplish the will of the Father through asking, through prayer.

This is very important for us to understand, because our prayer on earth is meant to be a reflection of this same reality. The Father has opened Himself to be influenced by weak humans who will dare to ask Him in the name of His Son to do things that otherwise would not happen!

I'm beginning to touch this a bit, but I long to take a stronger grip by faith on the wonderful truth expressed in the following words by the author:
"God's decrees are not an iron framework against which man's liberty vainly seeks to struggle. God Himself is the living Love, who in His Son, as man, has entered into a tender relationship with all that is human. God through the Holy Spirit takes our humanness into the divine life of love and frees himself to give every human prayer its place in His government of the world. (Eph. 2:18)"

Wow! Unlike all other gods, our God hears us and allows Himself to be moved by human prayer. "...the Father-heart holds itself open and free to listen to every prayer that rises through the Son..." We have a real role in the governing of the world through prayer! When this begins to sink in even just a little, we are empowered to invest in prayer as the primary means to accomplish His will and live in simple obedience to whatever He may ask of us in prayer.

"This simple view of prayer is seen throughout Scripture: God hears us."

"Everlasting God, the Three-in-One, in deep reverence I would worship before the holy mystery of your diving Being. If it should please you, most glorious God, to unveil anything of that mystery, I would bow with fear and trembling and meditate on your glory...Blessed Jesus, in whom as the Son the path of prayer has been opened up, and who gives us assurance of the answer, we beseech you to teach your people to pray. Each day let this be the sign of our own sonship; that like you we know that the Father always hears us. Amen."

Teach Me to Pray - Week #20: The Power of Persevering Prayer

Luke 18:1, 6-8 "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up...And the Lord said, 'Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?' I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly."

Because of my own engagement in persevering prayer, I was very encouraged by this chapter and want to urge you to let the truth of what Jesus teaches on perseverance in prayer strengthen you as you read this. This week I'll quote large portions of this chapter because it is of utmost importance in these days when there is so much to discourage God's people in prayer.

Murray opens with these wonderful words:

"Of all the mysteries of the prayer world, the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest. We cannot easily understand that the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be asked time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes. This is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. After persevering supplication, when your prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our slothful self...to think that we must now cease praying because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request."

"By faith alone the difficulty is overcome...It (faith) knows from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible...To exercise the irresistible power it can have, faith, just like water, must be gathered up and accumulated until the stream can come down in full force. Often there must be a heaping up of prayer until God sees that the measure is full - and then the answer comes..."

The following is a core truth that we must fight to keep in front of us: "Faith knows that it deals not with human thoughts or possibilities but with the Word of the living God." (Romans 4:18; Hebrews 6:12) At times I find that the impossible circumstances in a situation loom so large that my heart loses strength if I don't fight to fix my hope on the Word of the living God which is more true than the impossibilities that are in my face. Once I stop and ponder God and what He says about Himself and about His power and desire to do the impossible, my heart finds peace again. (Sometimes the circumstances may be so overwhelming that you must lean on the faith of others for awhile.)

This portion of Scripture from Luke 18 makes reference to "putting off" or delaying the administration of justice, but then it speaks of avenging "quickly." So while God delays in answering, once the moment arrives, He avenges quickly! "He will avenge them quickly, the Master says. The blessing is all prepared. He is not only willing but anxious to give them what they ask. Everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal itself fully and satisfy the needs of its beloved. God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary...it is the Father, in whose hands are the times and seasons, who alone knows the moment when the soul or the church is ripened to that fullness of faith in which it can receive and maintain the blessing."

Revelation 8:3 shows that there is a filling up of the heavenly bowl of incense needed in order for the administration of the judgments that followed. It's the same principle that Murray is referring to, which is that there is a "heaping up of prayer" needed in order to reach the full measure that God is looking for before the answer to prayer is manifested. "The great danger in this school of delayed answers is the temptation to think that it may not be God's will after all to give us what we ask...Let us learn to give God time. God needs time with us...Child of God, give the Father time. He is long-suffering over you. He wants the blessing to be rich and full and sure. Give Him time, while you cry day and night."

I'll close with one more portion from this chapter and part of Murray's prayer at the end: "The blessing of such persevering prayer is unspeakable. Nothing is so heart-searching as the prayer of faith. It teaches you to discover and confess and give up everything that hinders the coming of the blessing and everything that may not be in accordance with the Father's will. It creates a closer fellowship with Him who alone can teach us to pray. It leads to a more entire surrender, to draw near under no covering but that of the blood and the Spirit. It calls to a closer and simpler abiding in Christ alone..."

"O Lord my God, teach me to know your way and in faith to grasp what your beloved Son has taught us: 'He will see that they get justice, and quickly.'...Lord, help us to understand the seasons in nature and know to wait with patience for the fruit we long for. Blessed Master...you know how quickly we grow faint and weary...Teach me how real the labor of prayer is. Show me how by giving myself completely to prayer and to live in the spirit of prayer, I will obtain what I ask....Lord Jesus, in this faith I will always pray and not faint. Amen."

Teach Me to Pray - Week #19: The Power of United Prayer

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:19,20

The Lord teaches us that both private and public prayer are necessary for His followers. In the Sermon on the Mount He speaks of the importance of praying in secret, and here He gives a wonderful promise to those who agree together in prayer.

"For its full development, a tree has its root hidden in the ground and its stem growing up into the sunlight. In the same way prayer equally needs both the hidden secrecy in which the soul meets God alone and the public fellowship with those who find in the name of Jesus their common meeting place...The bond that unites a Christian to his fellowman is no less real and close than that which unites him to God...Grace renews our relationship not only to God but also to man. We learn to say not only 'My Father' but 'Our Father.'"

A child needs to have one-on-one time with his dad in order to know him and enjoy him, but that isn't enough. The dad wants the children all to be together with him as well; and in that fellowship together, the children learn things about their father that they would never learn in purely one-on-one times with him.

Murray presents three marks of true united prayer that are found in the portion of Scripture quoted above:

1. Agreement in spirit and in truth; this requires knowing exactly what we're asking and whether or not we have the confidence that it is according to God's will. I'm discovering more and more that the Scriptures are our greatest material for prayer, and so praying the Word is important. Not only does it help keep us on track related to the will of the Father, but it makes it easier to agree with one another when our prayers are founded on Scripture rather than on human opinions and whims.

2. Praying together in the name of Jesus; His name must be at the center of our union in prayer. "...to meet in it (Jesus' name) is to have the Lord himself present. The love and unity of his disciples attracts Jesus." (Matt. 18:20) Without Him present among us when we pray, our prayer is in vain. Worship blended with intercession is a wonderful way to continually acknowledge that our gathering is first and foremost about Him and secondarily about the needs we present to Him.

3. The certain answer; "A prayer meeting for maintaining Christian fellowship or seeking our own edification may have its use; but this was not the Savior's view in its appointment. He meant it as a means of securing special answers to prayer. A prayer meeting without recognized answers to prayer ought to be an anomaly. When any of us has distinct desires for which we lack sufficient faith to believe for answers, we ought to seek strength in the help of others."

The Apostle Paul understood the power of united prayer so was always asking God's people to join him in prayer for the sake of the kingdom of God: Rom. 15:30; II Cor. 1:11; Eph. 6:18,19; Phil. 1:19; Col. 4:3; II Thess. 3:1.

"Most churches think their members are gathered into one simply to take care of and build each other up. They do not know that God rules the world by the prayers of his saints..."

The Holy Spirit is awakening a prayer movement that is spreading across the earth; I believe this will continue to increase until the Church at large finally moves into her primary identity as a praying and worshiping Bride. Jesus' prophetic words that His house would be called a house of prayer for the nations will be fulfilled.

Holy Spirit, thank You for what You are awakening among Your own in these days. Come and increase our hunger to know Jesus and to meet in His name for the sake of Your purposes at the end of the age. Lead us into our true identity as a praying, adoring Bride, for Jesus' sake. Thank You for hearing our cry!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #18: Prayer and Love

The fourteenth chapter of Andrew Murray's book, Teach Me to Pray, focuses on the imperative that we love others if our prayers are to be effective. Murray particularly underscores forgiving others and being a person with a disposition of forgiveness.

"And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." Mark 11:25

"Prayer from a heart that is not right - either with God or with others - cannot prevail. Faith and love are essential to each other." (Matthew 5:23,24; 6:12; 6:15; 18:35)

"Every prayer rests upon our faith in God's pardoning grace. If God dealt with us according to our sins, not one prayer would be heard."

Over the years I have come to realize that the true follower of Jesus must become increasingly good at forgiving. I say this because the more alive I am in God, the more aware I am of my own heart and how it can shut down quickly over slight offenses that a day brings if I'm not quick to release the perceived offender from my judgment. Most days bring some kind of small, if not large, offense that I get to choose my heart response to.

To live a lifestyle of forgiving and receiving forgiveness requires the grace and power of the Spirit of Jesus. In recent years I've attempted to make a habit of fairly regularly holding my heart before the Lord and asking Him to show me if there has been anything in the past day or so that I was hurt or offended by; if He highlights something (I don't try to make things up but simply wait to see if He surfaces anything to my mind), I take the time to talk it out and process the experience with Him, being honest about how I felt when it happened. Then I consciously release the "offender" from my judgment of him/her in my heart and ask the Lord to forgive me for anything He shows me in which I sinned.

Most of the ongoing offenses of life (whether I'm the perpetrator or the recipient) don't need to be processed with the person involved because often they are unaware of what happened. But it's important to process the little offenses with the Lord so that they don't fester inside and eventually become bitterness and poison.

Just this week I was talking over a situation with the Lord and realized that when it took place, I had not been honest with Him and with myself about my emotions over the incident. My logic argued that there were good reasons for what had happened (and there really were good reasons), but that didn't change the fact that I had felt hurt by the incident. All I needed to do was to be honest with the Lord, forgive and release those I had unconsciously held responsible (even though my head said they weren't responsible), and then ask the Lord to cleanse me of unforgiveness and to expand my capacity to love and forgive quickly.

When you practice this regularly, it doesn't take a lot of time because you aren't dealing with a backlog of offenses, and you begin to be a person, like Murray says, "of a forgiving disposition." I want to get better and better at forgiving; I want to be increasingly aware by the Spirit of what I have been forgiven so that I become a "hilarious" forgiver - not simply in theory but in truth.

I'll close this by quoting a portion of this chapter that is very well put by the author:

"Our frame of mind in the hour of prayer is judged by God against the total frame of mind of our ordinary daily life of which that hour is but a...part. Not the feeling I muster up in prayer but the tone of my life during the day is God's criterion of what I really am and desire...Not only the distinct consciousness of anything wrong between my neighbor and myself, but also the ordinary current of my thinking and judging, or unloving thoughts and words I allow to pass unnoticed, can hinder my prayer. The effective prayer of faith comes from a life surrendered to the will and the love of God...Love is the only soil in which faith can put down its roots and thrive."

May the Holy Spirit teach us what true love for God and for others is.

Dear Spirit of Jesus, the One Who freely forgave me when I was His enemy and Who continues to forgive me, would You reveal the cross to me in such a way that I am increasingly empowered to love and forgive others, thereby releasing them to You and Your perfect ways. Thank You that You love to do this for Your own. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Teach Me to Pray - Week #17: The Cure of Unbelief

"Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?' So Jesus said to them, 'Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed...nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.'" Matthew 17:19-21 (NKJV)

In this chapter Andrew Murray says that the cause of failure in the spiritual world is lack of faith or unbelief. Murray goes on to say that, according to Jesus' teaching, the cure for unbelief is two-fold: prayer and fasting.

"...He teaches two lessons of deep importance about prayer. First, faith needs a life of prayer in which to grow and remain strong. Second, prayer sometimes needs to be combined with fasting for its perfect development."

Faith only grows as it feeds on God Himself and prayer is the means by which we feed on the divine life. "It is the adoring worship of God, the waiting on Him and for Him, the deep silence of soul that yields to God to reveal himself, that the capacity for knowing and trusting God will be developed."

In western Christianity the idea of "much prayer" is foreign. With the increase of technology, the pace of life has accelerated with pressures on every side, and so we attempt to have a relationship with God without spending much time at it. Our model of feeding on His life is more like a drive-thru fast food eatery than a sit-down restaurant. "But what the Master says and what the experience of His people has confirmed is that people of strong faith are people of much prayer...Faith needs prayer for its full growth."

Secondly, "...prayer needs to be combined with fasting for its perfect development...Prayer is like one hand grasping the invisible; fasting is like the other letting go of the visible. In nothing is man more connected with the world of sense than in his need of food and his enjoyment of it. It was the fruit, good for food, with which man was tempted and fell in Paradise."

Fasting is a means of strengthening the "inner man" to be able to persevere in prayer and to empower one to "pray much." We don't naturally have strength to pray much, and much prayer is needed in order to see the will of the Father accomplished, especially in cases of the stubborn resistance of evil.

Murray finishes the chapter by reiterating that "prayer is reaching out after God and the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is of the seen and temporal...Without such voluntary separation - even from what is lawful - no one will attain full power in prayer."

Fasting is a huge topic that deserves much more attention in the western Church; the Spirit of God is bringing it to the forefront in these days, and it will become common practice for all God's people as we near the end of the age. There are a couple of outstanding books on this topic that have helped me immensely in the subject of fasting: "The Key to Fasting" by Mark Nysewander, and "The Rewards of Fasting" by Mike Bickle.

May the Lord grant us the grace to fast and pray in increasing measure in these critical days of human history. God bless you this week!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #16: The Secret of Believing Prayer

"'Have faith in God', Jesus answered. 'I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.'" Mark 11:22-24

Anyone who takes Jesus seriously has probably questioned how we can ever attain the faith that is certain of receiving all that it asks. Murray points out that it only comes through knowing the One Who makes the promise: "...Before He gave that wonderful promise to His disciples (Mark 11), He told where faith in the answer to prayer begins and always receives its strength. Have faith in God...The power to believe a promise depends entirely on faith in the one who made the promise. Trust in the person generates trust in his word. Only when we live with God in a personal, loving relationship where God Himself is everything to us, only when our whole being is continually opened up and exposed to the mighty working of His holy presence within, is a capacity developed to believe that He gives whatsoever we ask."

In this chapter Murray teaches that faith is the "eye" and "ear" of the heart; we must see and hear God in order for faith to grow. To see Him is to meditate on His beauty and power, His nature and character, allowing the truth of who He is and how He feels and thinks about me and those I pray for penetrate me deeply. To hear Him is to dialogue with Him, listening to what He wants to speak and whisper to me. "I must hear the person who gives me the promise. The very tone of his voice gives me courage to believe. I must see him. In the light of his eye and countenance, all fear as to my right to take (from Him) fades away."

I believe that the true Church at the end of the age will be a people of believing prayer because we will know our God, what He's really like. One of the reasons the Holy Spirit is raising up a prayer movement that is saturated with worship is that through Scripture-based and prophetic worship, God's people will become educated about the true nature and character of the One we love and serve. Without knowing the true Jesus, we can't hope to pray in faith, and the Holy Spirit is orchestrating a movement across the earth that is proclaiming truth about God and inviting believers into the intimate knowledge of God.

I'm discovering that the more concentration I give to ministering to God in worship and His Word, the more faith is rising in my intercession. Knowing well the One to whom I make my requests gives me increasing confidence that He will answer and give me what I ask. Capacity to believe increases as I grow in knowing Him intimately, and worship that is based on the Word is one of the most effective ways of getting to know Him and focusing on Him. (Obedience to Him is part of true worship.)

"Faith is simply surrender. By faith I yield myself to the living God because of what I hear and learn about Him. His glory and love fill my heart and master my life. Faith is fellowship. I give myself up to the influence of the friend who has made me a promise, and I become linked to him by it. When we enter into this living fellowship with God himself in a faith that always sees and hears Him, it becomes easy and natural to believe His promise as it relates to prayer. Faith in the promise is the fruit of faith in the one who promised...

"Let faith look to God more than toward the thing promised...the cure of a weak faith is only found by revitalizing our whole spiritual life through close fellowship with God...See Him as the God of love, whose delight is to bless and impart himself to us. In faith make God your own; then the promise will be yours also."

"Let faith look to God more than toward the thing promised..." Could it be that the Lord waits on the answer to our requests for us to reach the place of wanting Him more than we want what we're asking for???

Murray ends this chapter by alerting us to the fact that although the Bible is full of promises, we must hear them personally quickened to us by the Spirit of God Himself in order to have spiritual power. And so we need to take the time to wait before Him and listen for His voice in His Word.

"Lord Jesus, increase my faith. Teach me to take time to wait and worship in Your holy presence until my faith takes in all there is in my God for me." Holy Spirit, open the eyes and ears of my heart to see and hear the living and true God. You, Lord, are my Reward and my Life; grant me increasing capacity to receive Your love and truth whereby my faith will grow and take hold of all that I ask. Thank You that You want this infinitely more than I want it, and so I pray with confidence that You will do this. In Jesus' holy name. Amen.

Teach Me to Pray - Week #15: The Faith that Appropriates

Mark 11:22-24 "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

"What a promise - so large, so divine, that our limited understanding cannot take it in. In every possible way we seek to limit it to what we think safe or probable instead of allowing it just as He gave it in all its quickening power and energy. Faith...is the ear that has heard God say what He will do, the eye that has seen Him doing it. Therefore, where there is true faith, the answer MUST come."

At the heart of true prayer (faith-filled prayer) is worship of the one true God Who is able and Who will bring to pass what His mouth has spoken. Murray makes two striking statements related to faith in prayer:

1. "Faith is so wholly the work of God's Spirit through His Word in the prepared heart of the believing disciple that it is impossible that the fulfillment should not come. Faith is the pledge and forerunner of the coming answer." When I read this, I was struck with the phrase, "Faith is so wholly the work of God's Spirit..."; in a sense this truth is liberating because if taken hold of, it releases us from trying to find faith in ourselves or in others. Romans 10 says that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, not by trying to make it up artificially. It comes as we hear Him in His Word.

2. Speaking of Jesus' use of the word "whatever" in Mark 11, Murray says, "Faith is to have its food and strength in this 'whatever'; if we weaken this, we weaken faith...The only condition is what is implied in the believing. Before we can believe, we must determine God's will with certainty...When once we believe, nothing will be impossible..." Again Murray points us away from ourselves to God, helping us to fix the eyes of our heart on Him rather than on our limitations. When our gaze is primarily on human limitations and weaknesses, then it's a given that we will need to "dumb down" the promise of "whatever" that Jesus makes.

Murray goes on to distinguish between prayer related to the daily needs of life and the prayer of faith: "As children we make known our desires in the countless areas of daily life and leave them to the Father to give or not to give as He sees best. But the prayer of faith that Jesus speaks of is something different, something higher."

The prayer of faith takes its stand on a promise that the Holy Spirit has quickened to us; once we have the assurance of the Lord's will concerning something, then we are to believe that we have received it. "The receiving or accepting of an answer to prayer is just like the receiving or accepting of Jesus or of forgiveness; it is a spiritual thing, an act of faith apart from feeling...I believe that I have it; I hold it in faith. I thank God that it is mine."

What I ask for is mine now even though I don't yet see it manifested in the visible. Then the question is whether I should continue to ask or to quit asking; Murray says there are times when we sense that we no longer need to ask for the fulfillment of the request but we simply continue in praise and thanksgiving for the answered prayer. However, there are other times when our faith is still being tested and strengthened through persevering prayer, and in such a case we continue to ask in faith.

"God alone knows when everything in and around us is fully ripe for the manifestation of the blessing that has been given to faith...Through faith and patience we inherit the promises. Faith says most confidently, 'I have received it.' Patience perseveres in prayer until the gift bestowed in heaven is seen on earth. 'Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.' Between the 'have received' in heaven and the 'will have' on earth is the link (of) believing praise and prayer."

Oh Lord, thank You for Your unbelievable desire to give Your children whatever we ask! We believe; help our unbelief...Open the eyes of our heart to see You in Your power and love and to hear Your words and promises that You quicken to us. Give us faith to take hold of Your words and perseverance to stay true to what You have said. Thank You, wonderful Lord!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #14: Prayer Must be Specific

Speaking of the blind man in the story of Mark 10, Murray points out that he had been crying a general prayer for mercy from the Son of David, but Jesus pressed him to be specific by asking him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And until the man specifies what he is wanting from Jesus, he doesn't receive his sight.

Murray says, "It is not that Jesus' loving heart does not understand our cry or is not ready to hear, but He desires that we be specific for our own good. Prayer that is specific teaches us to know our own needs better. To find out what our greatest need is demands time, thought and self-scrutiny. To find out whether our desires are honest and real and whether we are ready to persevere in them, we are put to the test. It leads us also to discern whether our desires conform to God's Word and whether we really believe that we will receive the things we ask. It helps us to wait for a definite answer and to be aware of it when it comes...To all of us, the Lord asks, 'What is it you really want and expect me to do?'"

He goes on to say the Lord gives each of us our "own special field of labor in which he works, so his prayers encompass a particular group too. Each believer has his own circle, his family, his friends, and his neighbors. If he were to take one or more of these by name, he would find that this really brings him into the training school of faith and leads to personal and pointed dealing with God."

(He says that as we practice praying and receiving in specifics, then our general prayers will be believing and effective as well.)

A few years ago I was struck with the truth that Murray refers to here - that there are certain domains of life in which I carry God-given authority in prayer, such as my family and church and friends and co-workers, etc. This realization has grown steadily in my consciousness until I'm praying with much more faith now for these persons and situations. This faith comes from understanding the authority given to me and from gaining increasing spiritual insight into the jealous love and power of God related to those I'm praying for. I will be growing in this all my life, but it's a joy to walk at least in part in this grand partnership with God of believing prayer for particular areas. I'm regularly praying with prayer partners for particular people and needs, and we're growing in our faith as we pray according to what we know is the Lord's will for those we are interceeding for.

In this chapter Murray suggests a few questions we could ask ourselves as we wait before the Lord in prayer:
1. What do I really want?
2. Am I asking for it in faith, expecting to receive an answer?
3. Am I ready to place the thing in the Father's keeping and leave it there?
4. Is it settled between God and me that I will receive an answer?
5. Do I want this so much that there is no price too great to have it?

"It is sad that many prayers are merely wishes, sent up for a short time and then forgotten, or sent up year after year as a matter of duty, while we remain content without the answer. You may ask, 'But is it not best to make our wishes known to God and then let Him decide what is best, without seeking to assert our will?' By no means! This is the very essence of the prayer of faith to which Jesus sought to train His disciples: one does not only make known one's desire and then leave the decision to God. That would be a prayer of submission for those cases in which we cannot know God's will. But the prayer of faith, finding God's will in some promise of the Word, pleads for that until it is given...Faith is nothing but the purpose of the will resting on God's Word and saying, 'I must have this.'"

The chapter ends with this wonderful summary statement: "It is...when the child has yielded his own will in entire surrender to the Father that he receives from the Father liberty and power to will what he would have (wants)..." One caution about this is to not interpret "entire surrender" through the lens of perfectionism and religion but through the eyes of the Father Who is delighted with the wholehearted and childlike surrender of His child which is weak and filled at times with failing and stumbling steps, but is nevertheless genuinely sincere in looking to Jesus.

"Lord, I yield my will unreservedly to you as the power through which your Spirit is to rule my whole being. Let Him take possession of it, lead it into the truth of Your promises, and make it so strong in prayer that I may hear you say, 'Great is your faith. Be it unto you even as you will.'"

Teach me to pray just as You taught Your disciples. Thank You, Lord.