Prayer 101
ÒWhen
I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the
land, or send pestilence among My people,
if
My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek
My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then
I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
(2 Chronicles 7:13-14)
Synopsis: The last nine newsletters (1) of mine have been leading somewhere, though I began
to recognize that only about a week ago. It's time for all of us to pray.
I have
been interested in the state of Christ's church ever since I became a follower
of Jesus back in 1962. Only gradually have I come to see how far most of our
churches today have drifted from the picture the New Testament gave us on how
local churches are supposed to function structurally and organically.
Two years
ago some health problems came along and I then began to examine more closely
the state of my own "interior world" -- the personal, intimate side
of my knowing Jesus in heart, mind and soul. All sorts of innate deficiencies
and culturally driven inadequate responses to life (garbage and sewage) began
to surface in me. I had been "going with the flow" in the streams and
currents of life in this world, mostly just staying up to date on trends and
movements, and then reacting to them. I did not stop and take note that the
church was not growing more militant and triumphant but gradually dumbing down,
losing her impact on society, and offering less and less challenge to pursue
moral excellence.
I knew
that "as the church goes, so goes the nation." Since the real church
is a small group (a remnant) within the professing church, one might say,
"as the remnant goes, so goes the nation." God is actually not
running the universe all by Himself, but in partnership with us, His people. He
gives us what we have deserved, often stopping us from total self-destruction
by a slender margin of pure mercy--at the last minute. We reap what we have
sown. The overwhelming problems coming down on us nowadays are our fault, not
God's.
When we
hear truth about God and ignore it, we go blind and become dull of hearing in
that area of understanding -- to our own greater hurt. The Old Testament shows
plainly that a mere outward show of integrity and religion in a nation is far
from what God wants. He hates hypocrisy and religious pretense. Yet these days we
are occupied with our own lofty goals driven by ambition, pride, and self
interest. Though we've been told by Jesus that we can't serve God and
self-interest, our response to this (and other similar pleas from the Lord) does
little more than make us slightly more religious. These days, who takes anything
Jesus said seriously, though Jesus owns the universe and we are only His
temporary house guests here? The real God is ignored, insulted, blasphemed and
demeaned in the ugliest language ever invented. We are a planet of idols,
self-made gods narcissistically worshipping our own creations. God's people
stay silent, saying and doing nothing to change the status quo, sometimes
contributing to it.
Jesus
designed and built the universe, serving the Father and the Holy Spirit as He
did so. The Three had us in mind. We were invited to stay here for a season (if
our behavior met the Landlord's basic rules on behavior). We were put here so that
we might learn to love in the same way that God loves. He'd like to teach
willing candidates among us to live out the life He demonstrated--a life that
restores, serves, and heals. Our rewards (if any) would come later. Instead of
quietly serving Jesus as He asked, we have turned everything upside down. God
is self-giving and we are self-seeking -- where is our common ground? Isaiah said, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put
darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet
for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their
own sight!" (Isaiah 5:19-20)
God is, a
Personal Being -- He deeply wishes each of us to walk with Him personally in
our interior life. He'd also like us to be real and transparent in our
relationships with other people out in the exterior world. The world needs to
see and hear Jesus in and through us. It's the basic design of society. Jesus
needs clear transparent vessels of integrity if He is to speak to others
through us. At the same time, God has designed things so that we should each find
a path in life which leads to holiness. Holiness is wholeness -- being
well-rounded and complete, wedded to the impeccable purity and integrity of
Jesus Christ in our hearts.
Genesis
says that man and woman were created in the image and likeness of our Creator. God
is a Spirit -- His image in us involves the making of two distinctive,
complementary sexes, not one, not three. Our creative and inventive gifts, our
capacity for worship, love and relationship reflect the Creator's image in us. What is called God's
"likeness" in us unfolds as we allow Him to transform us from
self-seeking to self-giving persons. Thus, over time, we become in time
"imitators of God." (Eph. 5:1) However we can' grow as followers of
Christ by sitting on the sidelines as passive bystanders.
We were
all born into a highly damaged creation. Human sensibilities, inside and outside,
are badly broken. Man's sin has caused the entire universe, the natural world,
to be fatally broken as well. The restoration and repair task for man and
nature required the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the second of the Persons.
In every
age of history, a few have been willing to follow Jesus to become new creations
and to be citizens, destined to assume leadership in a new heavens a new earth.
Only those who respond to Jesus benefit from his atoning sacrifice.
The power
supply and energy for living an authentic Christian life is the very same
resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead two millennia ago. It's the
power with which He also "upholds the universe by His mighty word..."
That same power will very soon raise us, his followers, to eternal life.
Thus,
there is another subtle feature of being a genuine Christian. We can not live
this high-quality new life in our own self-effort (that power is what the Bible
calls man's natural life, or "the flesh.") Those who love Jesus and
follow Him with the right motives understand that our part is to make ourselves
available to Jesus so that He can live His endless life through us. Some have
called the normal Christian life, the "exchanged life." For Jesus to
obtain that life for us was the greatest gift ever given. The Bible says,
"...you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and
gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified
your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the
brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again,
not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives
and abides forever, because ÒAll flesh is
as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass
withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever.Ó
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you." (1 Peter
1:18-25)
Nowhere
does the Bible picture the church of Jesus as an audience of consumers
assembled to be entertained by a professional choir, with the hour capped off by
a lofty, but irreelvant, message in the style of Greek Oratory.
Rather, a
very important aspect of our calling to follow Jesus is our individual and
group prayer. God uses the prayers of His people as very central key to his communication
with His people. This very Personal God wishes to speak to us in many loving
ways best described as the courtship of Lover and Beloved. Courtship never
succeeds if the beloved is indifferent and fails to respond. Indifference to a
suitor's patient calling is a very uncivil way of expressing hatred.
"A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you,
that you also love one another," should not be all that difficult to
do -- when we pay attention to our
Leader. In a world of information overload, a world-culture saturated with
deception and lies, we surely need the Wisdom of God as never before. We are
surely now very near to the end of the age. Yet, when the world all around us
needs to hear from Jesus through His own personal representatives, we followers
of Jesus have become weak, unavailable, ill-informed -- languishing in
indifference.
One obvious
solution to today's enormous problems is to encourage our fellow Christians to
come together and start praying. Apparently we aren't bothering to pray very
much. Do we wrongly assume we are doing just fine without Jesus, or do we
suppose He really doesn't care?
I believe
that if we begin to pray, from the heart, now, God will quickly respond. We may
think we are not in need of prayer. Let's pray anyway and see if God doesnÕt
answer. When we pray we may well discover that God is ready to answer with
torrents of living water. I believe our needs for radical help from God have
never been greater. If we start to pray I'm convinced it won't be long until
God shows us how much we need to repent and how perilous our condition really
is right now.
Prayer 101: A few friends and I are proposing a new format for
prayer tailored to the uniqueness of our time. We are suggesting that each and
every one of you gather your family, a few friends, your home Bible class, for
some down to earth serious prayer. Since it is now the midnight hour and the
dangers are very grave, please step in and learn to pray immediately as part of
your in-service Christian training. The suggested starting format below has
been chosen to help you avoid a couple of common pitfalls when praying in a
group. But go, as the Spirit leads.
God
willing, we'll be post some guidelines and comments on a web site so you can share
your experiences with others and learn from them. Every prayer group needs to
stay on track and to stay keenly aware that is a solemn gathering between us
and our Lord Jesus. Yours is a unique prayer meeting, owned by and led by Jesus
Christ the Lord -- make sure He stays in charge.
Every
person in the group should pray. Shy-persons can write their prayers down on
paper and pass them to the Facilitator. Yes, we think your group should have a
Facilitator. An essential feature of Prayer 101 is that you are each communicating
with the living God. He is supremely intelligent, emotional deep, and fully
acquainted with every human need. Jesus will listen and respond to your prayers,
and more importantly, He will change the members of your group, breathing new
resurrection life into each one of you. Be prepared to be changed by a style of
transparent praying. The overall reasons for gathering in prayer in this
"family style" is to allow the Spirit of God to change us. Beyond
that, expect the Sovereign Lord to begin to change the world around you.
Pray like this:
1. Thanks-Giving. Each member of the group
should briefly thank God for what he or she is grateful for here and now. We can all do this, even in hard times.
Starting our prayer times by thanking God is a form of worship; it's where we
should always approach God. As evidenced by many of the Psalms, God knows that we
have overwhelming problems and needs these days, and He invites us to bring
them to Him daily. Let's start by acknowledging that we need to come into
alignment with our Holy God first. He is the One who continues to show us
kindness and mercy, though we deserve to be banished forever from His very
presence. You might want to open with a short reading from the Bible and an
opening prayer to get started on the right wavelength.
2. Far-Away-Lands. Our planet seems like
it is all about ready to self-destruct, and indeed the Bible says it is. To
start praying for our beleaguered earth, let's pray for a few public figures in
the news, first, for people who are half-a-world away today. Let's pray that
God would move these leaders and persons of influence away from opposition to
God and God's programs. Christians in foreign lands are often in constant peril
all their lives. Our prayers will enable God to empower them. Leaders near and
far away are often unwitting servants of evil demonic powers--our prayers directed
at the invisible powers of evil behind the scenes can make a difference. "We
wrestle not against flesh and blood but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
--remember Ephesians 6:12?
The one
key, pivotal, most important country on earth is Israel. If you donÕt see this,
read the Old Testament.
3. Our Home-Land. Pray next for national
and local leaders. Often churches stay away from controversial political issues
in praying and in preaching. Therefore things get worse. Ask God to show your
group ways to change the world from backstage, from behind the scenes, using
our God-given powerful weapons of spiritual warfare (2). Instead of simplistically praying for a certain
person in power to be "saved," pray for God's influence in his or her
life by means of love, kindness and mercy. [Yes, we do not seek to convert others to our way of thinkingÉwe
seek to model lives that demonstrate the love of Christ.] The New Testament asks every church to make corporate
prayer (3) our high priority. As a group why don't we ask
our Almighty God to quietly set aside and to dry up demonically empowered projects
now running unchecked in our communities. Deal in prayer with the fallen angels
behind collective evil in the world. Only God's remnant knows how to do this. We need to pray so we
will be given eyes that see and hears that ear, not merely by the physical
observations we can absorb daily, but asking God to show us what HeÕs doing in
the unseen worldÉ.praying for hearts to change, believers and unbelievers
alike, for priorities to shift away from ourselves, our agendas to align with
His.
4. The Local Scene and Your Circle. You
have touched upon the big picture in prayer, now pray for the needs in your group.
(This is where most small prayer groups start and end--going no further. In
your prayer group who is ill, who is out of work, who is out of action because
of illness or emotional exhaustion? The dynamics of YOUR prayer group are the
most important issue you will be dealing with--that's why we listed this last.
We Christians say we love each other but in reality we often harbor grudges,
bitterness and resentment toward one another. In the symbolic language of First
Corinthians 12-14, the whole body of Christ is sick. Broken relations and
unconfessed sin in the group must be sought out and carefully healed. Go slow
and be very careful. The Holy Spirit knows how to gently show every member of
your group where and how they need to change. We can all be blind in some areas
of our own lives and fail to see that it is "we," not
"they," who have unresolved conflicts with others in the group.
Remember, the church as a whole, the Body of Christ, is weak these days because
of sin. Repair and healing of our nation therefore starts with our small group.
When your prayer times ends, write down a list of "to do" items so
that new life and healing God makes known can spread to others. God will want
to use you to answer some of the prayer requests that came up.
As your
prayer group begins to see things as God sees them, branch out to other areas
of prayer, to special projects or certain people. If your find yourself not
knowing how to get started in your prayer group, select one of the great prayers in the Bible (4) as a model. Read and apply.
Invite the
Lord Jesus Christ to step down into the midst of your prayer group every time
you meet. He will gladly direct your prayer activity, provided you stay out of
the way. Invite one or two seasoned "prayer warriors" to help out in
your group by keeping you all on track. We suggest you stay informal in your
prayer group and not tie yourselves down with extra rules and unnecessary
protocol. It is not necessary for you to address God in perfect King James
English. Put a few guidelines in place then stick to them. When your group gets
too large, divide and multiply.
There is
nothing new here. Truth never changes. "Jesus Christ is the same,
yesterday, today and forever." Your prayer group has the privilege of
being used by God to change history.
Please pitch in and allow God to work through you in this simple new
way? Let us know what you learn and what God shows you.
In short,
what my friends and I feel called to do is to urge you to all become actively
engaged in praying -- and please start immediately. We strongly feel God wants
to meet us in prayer at this critical hour in our nation's history. We are
confident that Jesus is ready to respond if we will make the first move; confident that Jesus is ready to
respond if we will engage with Him fully as the branches to His vine.
Seek the LORD
while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake
his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And
He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. ÒFor
My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,Ó says the LORD.
ÒFor as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your
ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. ÒFor as the rain comes down, and the
snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it
bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me
void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing
for which I sent it. ÒFor you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all
the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come
up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier sall come up the myrtle tree; And
it shall be to the LORD for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be
cut off.Ó (Isaiah 55:6-13)
Write: Lambert
Dolphin, mailto:lambert@ldolphin.org; Postings: http://paracleteforum.org/prayers101/; 12 September 2010
My web
site: http://ldolphin.org/;
Links: 1. Previous newsletters: http://ldolphin.org/news/
2.
Spiritual Warfare, http://www.raystedman.org/thematic-studies/spiritual-warfare/
3.
Corporate Prayer, http://ldolphin.org/prayoption.html
4. Prayers
in the Bible, http://www.raystedman.org/thematic-studies/prayer/
Other Concerns--Finances: Month after month, year after year faithful friends
have contributed to my monthly
support. I realize all of you are
very likely being affected adversely by the current economic down turn. As
usual, I am trying to look to God alone to keep my bills and expenses paid. I am not backed by any
organization, I have no staff or secretary. I am very grateful for the generous
help of friends near and far, clear evidence to me of the grace of God. Your
may send contributions directly to my PayPal account. Ray Stedman Ministries
has graciously provided a channel for tax deductible donations. If you'd like a
tax receipt, send your check to Ray Stedman Ministries, Attn: Lambert
Dolphin Ministries, PO Box 413, Mount Hermon, CA 95041. Thank you very
much!
Class in Psalms: I am currently teaching through some of the Psalms on Sunday mornings at my home church, Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, CA. My classes are posted weekly in mp3 audio. Current series: http://ldolphin.org/psalms/index.html. My past newsletters are on my web site, http://ldolphin.org/news/ for your amusement. I am always writing something new, but articles seem to take me forever to finish. See my main library page, http://ldolphin.org/asstbib.shtml. Lambert Dolphin. mailto:lambert@ldolphin.org.