Post #99

I feel like I should say something special to commemorate post no. 99. (Not post no. 100 – that would be too clichéd)

But those who know me will know I’m not usually the type who says something just for the sake of it. So what can I say? Only what’s on my mind at the moment, and which I will be sharing in an appropriate church context tomorrow, this little phrase which I read from Bill Johnson recently: “It’s much more fun to pray with God than merely to pray to Him.”

I love this phrase. For me it sums up brilliantly many of the important things the New Testament has to say about prayer. I think of Romans 8, where the Spirit helps us in our weakness, coming alongside as the ‘paraclete’ – that’s the Greek word which literally means ‘the one called alongside to help’. Jesus, who was Himself, God, nevertheless prayed, with His Father, for example, “I do the things which I have seen with My Father” (John 8:38) – there He talks of experiences He has with His Father where He is shown things that He will later do. It’s all part of prayer, the fact that we’re being WITH God, not just praying TO Him.

I don’t know how many Christians might take issue with this idea, but I guess there could be a few.

(INTERJECTION: I don’t know if it’s a strength or a weakness of mine that I’m always pointing out the people who would take issue with the things I write about – hence most of my blogs become polemics/apologetics. It’s probably both strength and weakness. Maybe from post no. 100, I’ll be revising whether I need to do this so much. Interjection over.)

For example some might think that the idea of ‘praying WITH God’ doesn’t make any sense, we are meant to be praying TO Him to sort things out, period. Praying with Him, and as I will go on to say, agreeing with Him, suggests that He needs our help. Without us He is somehow weak. Behind it I see perhaps the ultra-Calvinistic fatalistic approach vs. the open-view approach.

Well, I always think it makes sense simply to look at what Scripture says and go with it, but seeing as all Christians seem to do that and still come up with different things, I’ll just state my convictions: He doesn’t need our ‘help’ per se as though without us He is weak. However He has made it CLEAR from the beginning that we are ‘co-labourers’ with Him (1 Cor 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1); background studies of Genesis 1:26-27 and related passages in the early chapters of the Bible indicate that we were created to be ‘co-regents’ of God over His creation. There has never been excuse for sitting back and watching God do everything. I know that praying TO Him wouldn’t look like that, but the idea of praying WITH Him might be a step too far in the direction of incapable-without-us God. I’m saying this isn’t the case, but simply that He has stated His intention that we work WITH Him to see His kingdom (reign) come on earth.

God is looking for agreement on earth with heaven’s plans. I don’t believe that God’s will is being done all the time; it is only being done when His people come into line with His intentions. I believe all His plans are good. I don’t believe He was behind some of the great atrocities of history like the holocaust or many of the natural disasters that we have seen. The New Testament, to me, seems SO ridiculously clear that His will is done when WE get involved in it! Hence we pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” As those who have been made citizens of heaven, but live on earth, we should be those looking for heaven to come to earth. We are ambassadors but more than that, we are looking to salt and light the world with the heavenly kingdom.

In 2 Corinthians 1 Paul talks about how all the promises of God are “yes” in Christ – but then he goes on to say that through Him is our amen. He is the yes; we bring the amen. He has stated the promises, the many wonderful things He has done and wants to do, in Christ; but none of those things will come about until we proclaim our happy agreement and say “Amen!” Then, He will have a base on the earth to fulfill those promises, when there is a body of people (the church) who agree with heaven’s plans for earth.

It’s all very exciting. I haven’t described it very well. Maybe in later years I’ll be able to refine my language for it. But for now, for post no. 99, this is what I’ve been thinking about. This is what I’m excited about.

It really is all about grace

Regular listeners to the podcast that comes out from Bethel Church in Redding, California, will have heard Bill Johnson saying this kind of thing lately: we’ve got to remember that everything is by grace. Even our greatest victories, it’s only because of grace. We must never lose sight of that.

It’s a good point made in a fresh and refreshing way. And it really is true. And I think his emphasis indeed has reminded me that it IS easy to forget about the wonder of grace.

Grace is one of those things that has in some ways, at different times been ‘cheapened’. You can get ‘ticket-to-heaven’ grace where someone literally just ‘gets saved’ by grace but in and of themselves there’s nothing else they can do or give because they’re so evil so they just sit around waiting for the Lord to come, or to die and go to heaven. Or it’s cheapened the other way round by making it all-too-excusable to sin, and then say, “well, it’s alright, God is gracious.” There’s receiving His grace, and then there’s outright, dangerous cheek.

But when grace is understood rightly it is not only wonderful but also deep, profound. You see we get our English word ‘grace’ originally from the Greek word ‘charis’, which you may well recognise as a girl’s name. It’s also in the root of our Christiany terms like ‘charismatic’ – coming from the Greek ‘charismata’ which literally means ‘grace-gift’.

I still haven’t fully got my head around this word, because it fans out into other words, with connections both in the Greek and in today’s English. For example this word ‘charis’ can mean ‘grace’ in the various ways we know it in the New Testament, but it can also denote ‘thankfulness’, or thanksgiving. So, one translation of Hebrews 12:28 says “let us have grace,” another says, “let us give thanks”. Interesting! This also imports into English when we think that when we ‘say grace’, we mean we are about to give thanks for dinner! So ‘charis’ can be translated ‘thanks’, as can its cognate, ‘eucharisto’, from which the Anglicans get their word ‘eucharist’ for when they celebrate the Lord’s Supper!

You can see then also how it is closely connected with the idea of gifts,
1. because of this term ‘charismata’ which comes up quite a bit
2. because of other passages which connect the idea (“to each one grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” Ephesians 4)
3. because when you receive a gift (perhaps ‘by grace’), your response is to give thanks (grace).

I love how beautifully these ideas are tied up, and at the same time I find it difficult to untie them to see all that is going on!

All I know is that His grace has been leading me lately to take more of an attitude of thankfulness. We often go through trials and difficulties, and one of the challenges to the believer is to be an ‘overcomer’ and learn how it is that we can get through and indeed ‘overwhelmingly conquer’ in such situations. I think this is possibly one of the simplest yet most important keys to the whole thing: being thankful for grace. When I think how, even very recently, I have been moaning, grumbling and complaining even just in my heart, where God can hear it (and perhaps sometimes consciously directing it to Him), I chide myself for being so out of perspective – how can I so quickly become grumbly when there is so much good to thank Him for?!

So even just last night, when wrestling with a situation in my heart, I decided to choose to give thanks for the situation, and what good there was in it. Later that night, when I struggled to go to sleep, I chose to thank God that I was awake and therefore had a chance to pray! It’s a bizarre reaction, and yet it is the response that will turn a situation around. God promised to ‘turn our mourning into dancing’, I believe we should agree with that idea in our reactions! Instead of moaning about a situation, whether directly or indirectly to God, we should choose – because of His grace (charis) – to give thanks (charis / eucharisto).

Because it is only because of His grace. Without it, I would not be in the position to be able to choose the positive response. It’s not my own godliness that helps me make the right decisions in moments of difficulty, it’s His grace, His righteousness, His faithfulness.

Thankfulness attracts heaven – I believe that. Last night as I chose to give thanks, I felt God draw nearer. We see in Scripture how Jesus, faced with thousands of starving people and only a boy’s packed lunch in His hands, chose to give thanks to His Father in that moment (John 6:11). Thanksgiving is the attitude of faith. So in that sense, faith too is ‘by grace’.

Amidst all that is going on in our lives, and amidst all that God is doing, I believe this is something He is saying really strongly right now: let’s not forget the measure of His grace which not only saved us, but by which we continue to operate in our walks with Him! And let us give thanks, whereby we may serve God acceptably (Hebrews 12:28). I believe it will liberate us from worry, and posture us for victory in our circumstances. A thankful heart is a believing heart. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith (1 John 5:4).

Thank You Lord for Your grace!

The Lord’s Prayer

Okay so this is a second post to mention my new song which you can listen to here – sorry about that. It’s just that it’s based on the Lord’s prayer, and I’ve since realised that (among many things that are profound and wonderful about the Lord’s prayer), it really encapsulates everything that we have come to know is involved in the Christian life: Worship (Hallowed be Your name), fellowship (OUR Father, not just MY Father; forgive us as we forgive OTHERS), redemption (forgive…), seeking first the kingdom (Your kingdom come…Yours is the kingdom), prayer praise and prophetic proclamation (the whole thing especially Yours is the kingdom), trusting in God for provision and daily needs (Give us this day our daily bread), deliverance and release from evil – that is a completely fundamental part of any Christian ministry (Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one).

So, appreciation please for the greatest prayer in the world given to us to bring before Father:

Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom
The power and glory
Forever and ever
Amen.

Prayer Waves 5: Cultures of Prayer

Continuing in a vein that I have for some time on the subject of prayer, I wanted to take a look at ‘cultures of prayer’ – places and movements in the world which have really taken hold of the vision of prayer in a particular way, so that it becomes really a part of the identity of who they are as a people. This can be easily started of course from the book of Acts, where importantly (as I have touched on before) we witness a continually-praying community at the heart of the church that was bearing such a great revival. Without prayer we will not sustain God’s move in our midst; only prayer can keep us riding on the wind of His Spirit: continuous, persistent, breakthrough prayer.

Book of Acts

Before the famous outpouring of chapter 2, before any of the recorded miracles of the book of Acts, before there was church growth or evangelism, or preaching, or teaching, or anything else – the first thing in the life of the church was prayer. Luke, at the very end of his Gospel account, significantly recorded that ‘they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God.’ (Luke 24:52-53).

We witness here the beginning of what was to become the epicentral life of the church: the continuity of worship and prayer in the temple. It doesn’t actually tell us there was any prayer at this point, which is an important point: before ever we get into prayer, it is important to worship. But it is difficult to really prescribe this when, for the disciples, their worship stemmed from an overwhelming joy at the victory of their Lord and Teacher, Jesus Christ, whom they had also witnessed ascend into heaven. So we too need to make sure that we remember, and take note of, His good deeds whenever they occur or are mentioned around us, so that we cultivate this atmosphere of joy and worship.

The theme is extended clearly right into the book of Acts, again as I mentioned, before there was any Holy Spirit outpouring. Acts 1:14 says, ‘These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women…’ and so on. That was the culture in which the disciples sought to balance their authority and accountability in chapter 1, and eventually into which, ten days later, God poured out His Holy Spirit in great power.

Most readers may well know the story of chapter 2, of how tongues of fire came and rested upon each one of the one hundred and twenty disciples gathered into the upper room in Jerusalem. Many people heard a great noise, as the disciples were speaking in other tongues the wonderful works of God (praise is still a theme!), and were gathered together wondering what the commotion was. Peter preached a message far beyond what we would have expected from him if it were the Peter of the Gospels – but of course this one had now fully dedicated his life to the Lord Jesus, and had just experienced the fullness of God entering him! And 3000 people got saved that day.

It is an incredible account and one which often sets many hearts ablaze. It is significant to note that right away after this whole event is recorded, it notes carefully that ‘They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…’ and, ‘Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple…they were…praising God and having favor with all the people.’ (Acts 2:42,46-47)

There they are. Right in the middle of this now extremely vibrant church life, right at the core, are the worship and prayer life, along now with fellowship, breaking of bread, the apostles’ teaching and so on, all of which are important. But those things which they carried right from the beginning, remain. And there, I think, lies the key to the longevity and great power of the incredible movement and revival that we read about in the book of Acts.

Indeed, we witness the centrality of this lifestyle later on in the book too. When the first major problem in the church arose in chapter 6, of the widows not being cared for, the apostles appointed a few to look into this specifically, and then went on to say ‘But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word’ (Acts 6:4). What was going on? Were these apostles who said this being obnoxious and dismissive, assigning a few lesser-apostles to feed the widows? Well no, first of all it clearly says that they selected seven men of good reputation, ‘full of the Spirit and of wisdom’ (v.3). Secondly, their statement of devotion to prayer and the word, was meant to encourage those seven that they would be backed up by that same life of the church that had born so much fruit for them already in their presently-short history.

As we have seen before, Paul continued to encourage this kind of lifestyle when writing to the churches. He told the Philippians to ‘Rejoice in the Lord always…[and] in everything by prayer, and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.’ (Phil 4:4-6) He was even more blunt and straightforward with the Thessalonians, summing up that three things in the life of the church would essentially encompass the will of God for them: ‘Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thess 5:16-18) A life of continual praise, prayer and thanksgiving is the healthiest place a church can be.

Other cultures of prayer

The Moravians

I would love to know more about what I’m going to write. Some of what I know, I have only by hearing others talk about these different cultures of prayer (as I’m calling them). A few I have read about, which is exciting. I am sure that literature exists about the others, but sadly I haven’t laid my hands on it yet!

One movement that had a profound impact on especially the British church, in ways that I think most British Christians would not realise, was the Moravian movement.

This movement already had its roots and its beginnings firmly established by the time it began to experience renewal in the 18th century. In 1722 refugees, the poor and needy, began to be welcomed onto a site belonging to one Count von Zinzendorf in Saxony, Germany, shepherded by a group of Bohemian Brethren. As they built a community of help and care for one another, and of devotion to God, one of the unique and almost unprecedented things that they established was a continuous prayer meeting that went on night and day, non-stop for 100 years!

It would be impossible here to list the great achievements of this movement in any concise way, and they deserve really their own article and study (you can read the Wikipedia entry here). Suffice it to say that they really were the first modern Protestant missionary movement, sending out a large number of missionaries to extraordinary places, in sometimes extraordinary conditions: I have heard that some of their missionaries sold themselves into slavery in order to reach the people that they needed to. They had and still do have, to this day, a great motto saying: ‘Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.’ They would also encourage their missionaries to ‘win for the Lamb the full measure of the reward for His sufferings.’

I do not doubt that the great longevity of this movement, the power and efficacy of their witness to nations, was due in large part to their emphasis on prayer, especially continuous prayer, at the heart of their culture.

I mentioned that they were important even to us Brits. There was once an unbelieving Englishman named John on board a ship which was encountering a heavy storm. He naturally became scared, but there were some Moravians on that boat who were so much at peace, so unafraid and so trusting in their God, that it made him marvel. He never forgot that and it led to his being converted. This was John Wesley, who went on to pioneer the Methodist movement which radically transformed the face of Christianity in Britain at the time.

The Moravians have spread all over the place, and particularly have settlements now in the United States. I have heard tell of one place where they habitually and continually prayed, where now the heavens are so open that people experience some very unusual and incredible encounters with God and with the supernatural, because of the huge rift in the heavens that has been caused by so much prayer.

Korea

Another place that causes my heart to burn whenever I read or hear about it, is South Korea, and in particular the churches of such leaders as Yonggi Cho. For a long time Pastor Yonggi Cho lead the largest church in the world, and it still remains one of the biggest today. Yet it began with him in a small tent pitched on the streets, preaching to the passers by, to whoever would hear him.

What did he do when he wasn’t preaching? He prayed. He would retreat into his tent and spend time in prayer and the word.

Later when the church was beginning to be properly planted, his mother-in-law would apparently enter his room at 4am, with a bucket of cold water and a sponge, and begin to throw the wet sponge at him saying “wake up, you’ve got to pray”! How many of us would like that kind of rude awakening in the morning?! Yet it was part of what birthed one of the most significant churches in the late twentieth century.

Of course as they continued to grow (and the growth was dramatic), they taught their members to pray, and made prayer a core part of what they did as a church. They have now established what is known as ‘prayer mountain’, a whole area of land dedicated to prayer. They now take prayer requests from all over the world and systematically lift them before the Lord, often waiting until they get a testimony before they put down the prayer request.

All of this is and more is recorded in detail in Paul Yonggi Cho’s excellent book, Prayer: key to revival.

Wales

The Welsh Revival of 1904-5 was an extreme catalytic moment for the church of the twentieth century, globally speaking. It preceded and effected the great Azusa Street outpouring, to which many attribute the birth of Pentecostalism. It of course affected the British Isles, and evangelists and pioneers like Smith Wigglesworth may not have emerged in the way that they did, had it not been for the Welsh Revival. A prayer movement was actually born out of this particular revival too, which is surely significant, with Rees Howells and his Bible college years later coming to affect events on the international scene through their prayers.

But of course, it was prayer that preceded this revival. Just as the title of Cho’s book suggested, it was most definitely the key. The leader of the revival, Evan Roberts, before ever there was a revival, became unusually and distinctly hungry for God, until there became nothing else that would satisfy him. He became consumed by his desire for God, sometimes not even sleeping, instead lying awake praying and having significant encounters with God as he lay in his bed. He then began to gather his young friends around him, and other young people in different locations too, to really pray and lay hold of God, and it was from this group of young firebrands that revival suddenly began to spread throughout Wales.

Prayer precedes Revival

There are more areas that I know less about. I hear rumours of these kinds of cultures in Nigeria, in South America, in China. I am hungry to find out more, but that will take more time for research. But suffice it to say that from what I know, one thing is clear: prayer precedes revival. God has never supernaturally visited a place in a significant way, but that there has been a praying remnant who have remained faithful to the vision and have not lost hope in praying for God to move powerfully in their area, city or nation. It was that way in the book of Acts, and it is still that way today. We need to establish communities like the Moravians, like the Koreans, like the Welsh, who aren’t just a friendly bunch meeting together to have a good time, but who consciously and deliberately come together to seek and lay hold of God. And to do this continually – not just once in a while; not just for a short season and then backing off again. We need a culture which keeps prayer at the absolute core of what we do. Some people say this has to be 24/7 prayer. I’m not going to be so tight about it – nothing in Scripture indicates that the church actually prayed around the clock. To take this literally is to potentially do ourselves in with something we can’t readily achieve.

This is not to say that it can’t be done – as we read above, we know that the Moravians did it. But it’s about the attitude of our heart being centered around prayer, keeping a check on ourselves that in our personal lives, and in our church life, that it always has the priority, and that we do nothing except that we thoroughly cover it in prayer.

Prayer Waves 4: Perseverance in Prayer

‘Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart…’

So Luke tells us at what is now for us the beginning of the 18th chapter of his Gospel account. Jesus tells His disciples a parable about a persistent widow, who was due justice, and so did not give up coming to this somewhat curmudgeonous and unfriendly judge depicted in the parable. I think if I’d had him as a judge I might have not bothered! But she persists and so the judge, miserly as he is, must give her justice, otherwise she’ll end up driving him up the wall!

Now, Jesus says, if this unjust judge gave her what was due, how much more shall God ‘avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him’? (Luke 18:7).

The message of the parable is clear. When it comes to prayer (and as I have explored before on this blog, the topic is seen to be hot among the disciples in Luke’s Gospel), if you’re going to really go for it, you’re going to need to know how to persist and persevere.

Another interesting parable on this subject actually earlier in Luke, sheds further light.

‘Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him”; and he will answer from within and say, “Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you”? I say to you, thought he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.’ (Luke 11:5-8, emphasis mine.)

There is a striking and again, clear message to this parable. To those of us who love to know and remember that God calls us His friends (John 15:15), the sobering truth nonetheless remains: there are some things that can only come by persistence. Even when we are God’s friends, and His sons and daughters, and anything else, there is something about this life of prayer that will always require persistence. Perhaps we don’t fully understand why now. But one thing I do know, is that when I do persist in prayer, it does me a whole lot of good, and carries of course the great benefit of having spent much time with God! Sometimes a journey is as much about the road, about both the pitfalls and the springs along the way, as it is about the goal. In fact, perhaps most of the time it is.

I know that one prayer request I had recently, I held for more than four years, before I really began to see dramatic breakthrough in that area. There was a specific person I prayed for, and at times during those four years I thought there was little hope left, and not much point in praying. But I’d heard the stories, I’d read the words of Jesus, and something of grace in my spirit knew that I should keep going. Sometimes it was really difficult to get the words out, because there was very little in me that wanted to keep praying them, when in the natural I was seeing no hope.

But I can testify now that throughout last year dramatic breakthrough began occurring with this person. In many wonderful and significant ways their life became transformed and today looks utterly different and much more wonderful, and I am so thankful to God for it.

Of course, not all prayers have to be pursued for years. Last year when I prayed with a particular friend about things, we kept seeing near-instant breakthroughs and answers to those prayers! But now we’ve come to a phase where we’re carrying prayers which have taken longer – indeed, aren’t answered yet. And so once again we remember that we have come to a place where we have to persist. I’ve learnt the lesson from the Scripture, from church history, and from my own experience, and so now I am more equipped to press on. It’s a challenge sometimes, still. But be encouraged: good things really do come to those who wait!

Indeed, there are many Scriptures, especially in the Psalms, that speak about the blessing of waiting on the Lord. I didn’t always understand these because, I had a shallow understanding of what ‘waiting on the Lord’ might be. But through experience, and through learning to pray, I have come to understand now why so many Psalmists and writers exhorted the people of God to ‘wait upon the Lord’.

Among the testimonies of those who persevered in prayer, one that stands out is the story of Rees Howells, a Welsh intercessor who was swept up in the Welsh Revival of 1904-5, and continued in his intercessory ministry right through the second world war until his death in 1950. His biography, Intercessor by Norman Grubb recounts many stories of his various breakthroughs in prayer, many of which took years to accomplish, some requiring the greatest patience when seemingly nothing was happening in the natural.

Prayer Waves 3: Prayer Provides Power

James, the brother of Jesus, once wrote: ‘the prayer of a righteous man avails much’ (James 5:16). This slightly obscure phrase (not actually helped much by the alternative ‘accomplishes much’) has in many translations hidden the Greek word ‘dunamis’ which is present in the original text. This word which you would be right to think sounds like ‘dynamite’ is usually translated ‘power’ in the New Testament, when speaking of miracles and wonders performed by Jesus and the apostles. The Amplified Bible has it, thankfully: ‘the earnest…prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available.’ This I think is the best understanding we can have of this verse. It has always helped and encouraged me to know that when I am praying, power is being made available in the heavens to resource me and for me and those I am praying for to lay hold of.

I guess what I have been discovering with this is that prayer often carries a supernatural effect, in the heavenlies, which can manifest in different ways. I know that we talk a lot about simply ‘answered prayer’ – and answered prayer is great! When you’ve been asking God for something, and then it happens in a way that only God could have achieved, you know it’s Him and are grateful.

But you might find that your spirit also becomes more alive at times when prayer is answered. Or even before it is actually manifestly answered. Because when we pray, we’re opening lines of communication with heaven, and tearing a bigger and bigger hole in the heavens to bring heaven to earth. At Jesus’ baptism Luke writes, ‘and as He was praying, heaven opened’ (Luke 3:21). Now that’s what I call prayer! Again in the record of the transfiguration it states that it was as He was praying, that His appearance began to change into a heavenly, glorious appearance (Luke 9:29).

I know at times in my life when I’ve really been making a conscious effort to ‘pray more’ (whatever that means or looks like for me), I’ve known a greater release of dreams and visions, and of hearing God’s voice. I’ve heard too a number of stories like that of a child, who while in the womb was possibly at jeopardy of not surviving until birth because of various problems. This required continual prayer to be made for him by the church, and miraculously he made it to birth and was born healthy. As he grew up his parents became aware that he seemed very sensitive to the presence of God and what went on in church. And when on one occasion when he was only four or five years old, his dad walked past his room, he heard his son talking. He entered and asked if he was talking to himself! “No,” the boy replied. “I was talking to Jesus, and He was talking to me and telling me what to do.” Profoundly impacted, the father knelt and told his boy to make sure he always did this, and to never lose it.

When I was hearing that story told, we all felt sure it was because of the measure of prayer that had been poured out over his young life.

There are many other stories too, surrounding those who have been given to prayer, whose lives witness that they knew a profound measure of the supernatural in their lives. This could be no more true of Jesus, of course, whose ministry in many way remains unparalleled for the release of miracles and the supernatural. I have been studying the book of Luke especially and have written elsewhere of how His life was so riddled with occasions of deep prayer, and how it was the one thing that moved the disciples to beg Him to teach them about it. They must have begged Him because they likely saw what a profound place of power it provided in the life and ministry of Jesus, and if they were to follow Him and do and say the things He did, they ought to have it in place in their lives too!

So it should be with us. Above all the privilege we are granted through prayer is to know God and have fellowship with Him. It takes time to develop and grow, because often we need to break through the flesh, and break through the heavenlies, but if you begin on this journey, after a time I hope you should be able to see that you’re not where you started, and that there is a greater measure of God’s presence in your life because of prayer.

Prayer Waves 2: When it comes to good prayers…

I was reading this earlier today and was thoroughly inspired, I think this was one colossal prayer for the Colossians… (couldn’t resist):

‘we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.’ (Col 1:9-12)

What would happen if we got regularly praying prayers like this for our churches?

The phrase that especially grabbed me was ‘increasing in the knowledge of God’. ‘Knowledge’ in the Bible often has within it the idea of experiential knowledge, and this could be no more applicable that in our relationship with God as it is here. What do I mean by that? It’s the difference between reading about a chemical reaction in a text book, and performing the experiment yourself to determine what happens. It’s the difference between knowing about me because you read my blog, or knowing about me because you’ve spent time with me and spoken to me.

It’s God’s desire that we keep on increasing in the knowledge of God. I don’t just think this means reading the Bible and gathering more facts about Him. I think it’s to do with getting into His actual presence, communing and communicating with Him, speaking to Him and hearing Him speaking to you – worshiping and praying, and through the living Word hearing His voice. Sometimes the biggest and most helpful encouragement we could use is: go and spend time with God. Maybe you’ve not given Him so much time lately. Maybe you’ve got busy, or feel far from God. Remedy the situation: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8)

Prayer Waves 1: Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Luke

I have been thinking about prayer in the book of Luke and also of Acts (given the relationship of the two). I had already observed how there was a definite connective string of prayer running throughout the two books and I think holds the subtle key to the incredible ministry that we witness in those books, of the Lord Jesus and the apostles. Right from the beginning you have people of prayer including Simeon and Anna in the temple; later you have Jesus running off to pray alone, or praying so that the heavens open at His baptism, and so on. Unsurprisingly we find His disciples then taking up this pattern from Luke 24:53 and on into the book of Acts where it clearly becomes a continual part of their life, and I believe acts as that which sustains the incredible move of the Holy Spirit they begin to witness of course from Acts 2:4 onwards.

They had obviously seen the power of prayer in the life of Jesus, and yet we read quite a number of verses about Him praying before He finally comes to teach on it. I suddenly wondered why this was. If it forms such a central part of ministry and life in general (and I STRONGLY believe that it does!), and if Jesus loved it so much that it says He ‘would often slip away to the wilderness and pray’ (Luke 5:16), then why didn’t He tell His disciples about it for a while?

What got me along these lines was thinking again about the request put to Him when He finally did teach on it. In Luke 11:1 we find that again Jesus was praying in a certain place, and so finally one of His disciples says in so many words, “so come on then Jesus, John taught His disciples about prayer, why don’t You too!” There is some hunger perhaps to his words. Perhaps he was thinking about the power he had witnessed on Jesus’ life. He had seen Jesus often slip away to pray, and here He was at it yet again. Had it been Peter, James or John, they would even have witnessed the transfiguration occurring out of Jesus’ prayer life (9:28-29). I think it’s fair to say he probably thought it was about time, given how much Jesus prayed, and given that John the Baptist taught his disciples about it, that Jesus should do some teaching too.

It didn’t take any more than this one request from this disciple for Jesus to give a fantastic little discourse on prayer, ending wonderfully with a promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit (11:13) – and I am sure that there is no coincidence in that, seeing as we have the pattern of Luke and Acts, where prayer is clearly linked to the release of the Holy Spirit. He gives other instruction later on too at the beginning of chapter 18 where He teaches again on persistency in prayer which He touched on in 11:5-8.

But it made me wonder that Jesus hadn’t taught on this important subject before. He clearly lived it, and it was obvious to the disciples that praying was what He did when He slipped away – and sometimes of course in their presence too (3:21; 9:29 and 11:1 being the examples already mentioned). But He only opened His mouth about it after one of the disciples – and it was only one – demonstrated hunger and a real desire to know about prayer. That way, His teaching wouldn’t fall on disinterested ears – guaranteed.

This strikes me as amazingly tactful and beautiful of Jesus – He was clever! Usually we think of subjects as being so important that we have to share and teach on them. But Jesus saw this one at least, prayer, as being so important (perhaps in a certain way) that He wouldn’t teach it until He was decidedly called upon by a disciple who truly wanted to know about it. Jesus, you’re wonderful! Wasn’t that smart of Him?

So it makes me think freshly about the way that I ‘teach’ (whatever capacity that may be in as I’m not exactly a regular teacher/preacher at the moment but I sure can disciple people). Maybe it can apply to other subjects we might share with people but I think it’s significant that Jesus did this specifically when it concerned prayer – because as we have seen it is that which stands behind everything else that goes on in the life of the disciples/church (ie. most other things that Jesus taught on, which were not through these tactful means).

I guess you can be pretty much guaranteed that if you know someone is hungry for the word you have to share on a subject, they’re going to get it. We have the word of God spoken every week in churches yet most of the time we’re not transformed by it because we’re not truly hungry for it. And perhaps the word we need to be most hungry for is the word on prayer and what it is, and to get hungry we need to look for those who live the life soaked in prayer, and – surely – witness the power that is present as a result, for “the earnest prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available.” (James 5:16)