Category Archives: Prayer

Scared Spitless

That means really scared.

Habakkuk had that experience. His small book is look inside his prayer journal. At first, he seems pretty ferocious. He’s upset with God. The wicked are getting away with murder, blah, blah, blah.

“I’m just going to give God a piece of my mind and see what he does with that!”

2 Lord, how long will I call for help and you not listen?
I cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you don’t deliver us. (Hab. 1:2, CEB)

“So, there! Take that!”

God seems unfazed. Imagine that. We wag our tiny little fingers at him and “rage” at him in our pipsqueak voices… (Come on, even Charlton Heston’s voice sounds like some tiny little mouse from God’s vantage point. Admit it.)

Habakkuk is just so enraged. And God let’s Habakkuk know he’s got this one.

His answer?

5 Look among the nations and watch!
Be astonished and stare
because something is happening in your days
that you wouldn’t believe even if told. (Hab. 1:5, CEB)

Translation: “Shut up and watch something.”

Does Habakkuk learn? Not yet. He rages on in the latter part of Chapter 1.

Then, in Hab. 2:2-3, God shows up.

“Habakkuk, just watch.”

Whatever Habakkuk witnessed in a vision was enough. In fact, it buckled his knees.

16 I hear and my insides tremble.
My lips quiver at the sound.
Rottenness enters my bones.
I tremble while I stand, (Hab. 3:16, CEB)

This isn’t the warm and fuzzies. God showed up and let Habakkuk know what was about to happen and it scared Habakkuk spitless.

There are times we need to have THAT feeling come over us. There are times we need the realization that the warm fuzzies is not the entirety of God. We think WE see injustice? When God shows up and gives us HIS view, we need a sense of fear and trembling.

God is ready to do amazing things. But “amazing” isn’t going to necessarily be in our definition. But whatever God does, when he shows up, have a glass of water close by. You just might need it.

Tenacious Waiting and Our Millisecond Attention Span

I will take my post;
I will position myself on the fortress.
I will keep watch to see what the Lord says to me
and how he will respond to my complaint. (Hab. 2:1, CEB)

We often think we are just THE THING when it comes to walking with God. We’re smarter, faster, more “spiritual”…

We certainly know better than the old fogies who’ve gone before us. While they “tarried” in prayer, we can get things done. Plug in the right marketing strategy and BOOM… instant church. Good stuff.

And even when God seems to throw us a curve ball, no problem. We’ll just lodge a complaint. We’ll even sit and wait for his response… as long as he gets back to us by the end of the business day. And we have a RIGHT to complain! There is injustice in the land! And we know injustice. We are trained professionals!

So, we lodge our complaint with God and wait.

And we think, “Let’s just see what he says about THIS.”

What if God just lets us stew there? What if we wait and five p.m. rolls around?

We may be good at complaining… but how good at we at waiting? And more still, how good are we at taking God’s answer?

He basically tells Habakkuk, “If the revelation lingers… wait.”

Habakkuk probably could wait. Some of the “old saints” of the Church could wait. That was the point of “tarrying.” They knew what it meant to “pray until.”

In our day… do we know what it is to have a tenacious pursuit of God? Do we know what it is to latch on and not let go until we hear from God?

There are times we truly need to hear from heaven. I believe we live in those times. We are suffering from extreme prosperity as an American Church and it is killing us. We just don’t know it yet. We are living in an anorexic lifestyle spiritually that is killing us. Yet, we are not wanting to hear from God… at least not yet.

We need to repent of our ADHD spirituality and get back to the call to WAIT for the vision God gives.

Are We Faithful or Are We Drifting?

Doom, obstinate one,
the defiled one,
the violent city.
2 She listened to no voice;
she accepted no discipline.
She didn’t trust in the Lord,
nor did she draw near to her God.
3 The princes in her midst are roaring lions.
Her judges are wolves of the evening;
they leave nothing for the morning.
4 Her prophets are reckless, men of treachery.
Her priests pollute that which is holy;
they do violence to the Instruction. (Zeph. 3:1-4, CEB)

As the American Church, we may need to pay close attention to this warning to Judah. Sometimes, if we will do ANY self-examination, we may find that we have become obstinate. The church on the “left” easily accuses the church on the “right” of being obstinate. And the favor is often returned. Yet… look inside. Perhaps there are times we are all obstinate in some way. We have failed to listen to God. We have failed because we are too busy talking and not caught up with listening any more.

We don’t trust God for alternate reasons. We are leaning on the public sector to be our supply… or we are leaning on rugged individualism. Both cases demonstrate a lack of trust in God.

And the spiritual leaders… Are we reckless? Do we care about people any more? It is a careful walk to be a pastor and spiritual leader in the Kingdom of God. We have to be able to see people. We have to be careful with the Word of God. Instruct people faithfully.

These words are harsh from Zephaniah. The easy thing to do is leave them in that era. Yet… we need to carefully hear those words once again. Do we TRUST God? Are we faithful to his Word?

Smith Wigglesworth on the Ministry of the Word

“By the grace of God I want to impart the Word, and bring you into a place where you will dare to act upon the plan of the Word, to so breathe life by the power of the Word that it is impossible for you to go on under any circumstances without his provision. The most difficult things that come to us are to our advantage from God’s side. When we come to the place of impossibilities, it is the grandest place for us to see the possibilities of God.”
-Smith Wigglesworth

Mortality

We’ve dealt with some heartbreaking losses over the weekend. A missionary’s father went to be with the Lord. A member of our church passed away Saturday. A pastor’s wife in our metro area went to be with the Lord on Sunday.

Now, I read Chuck Colson is near death’s door.

It seems to have come in a wave at this point in time. There is rejoicing over the promotion of dear people to heaven. There is the loss of family members and friends.

Facing mortality has come up close and personal this week, it seems.

 

Getting God to Change His Mind

This isn’t a very good Calvinist post. Good thing I’m not a Calvinist.  I’m probably not an Arminian, either.

I love Exodus because it messes with Calvinist and Armininian viewpoints. It brings the tension of the action of God and the action of humanity into sharp relief.

In Exodus 32 Moses has been up on the mountain receiving the covenant from Yahweh. Israel gets impatient. They’ve been slaves for 430 years and they can’t wait 40 days.

They slip right back into Egyptian mode and demand something to worship. Aaron, fine leader that he is, has the Israelites collect all the gold goodies they brought from Egypt, cranks up the fire, and builds them a couple of golden calves.

“These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Ex. 32:4, CEB)

Shockingly, God is angry. This is why the God of the New Testament is SOOO much better. (Just ask Ananias and Sapphira.)

God is ready to wipe them out. Moses intercedes. God changes his mind. 

There are those who love to talk about the power of intercession and how we can move the hand of God. There are those who are completely uncomfortable with the idea of God changing his mind, so they skip this passage or work out some scholarly explanation.

I see God changing his mind twice.

He has brought Israel out of Egypt because he wants to draw them to himself. Now, he changes his mind? 

7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Hurry up and go down! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, are ruining everything!8 They’ve already abandoned the path that I commanded. They have made a metal bull calf for themselves. They’ve bowed down to it and offered sacrifices to it and declared, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 The Lord said to Moses, “I’ve been watching these people, and I’ve seen how stubborn they are. 10 Now leave me alone! Let my fury burn and devour them. Then I’ll make a great nation out of you.” (Ex. 32:7-10, CEB)

He is ready to destroy them and start over.

Moses isn’t the only one to “change the mind of God.” Israel did it first. Their unruly behavior and utter disdain for the holiness of God sent God into thoughts of starting over.

Then, Moses intercedes and God changes his mind again. 

I have no great profound thoughts. All you Calvinists will get me straightened out on this passage.

What I find in this passage is not only the powerful intercession of Moses, but the incredible impatience of the people of God. They just couldn’t wait.

There are clear lessons for us. We want God to answer us in our way and in our time and when he takes his sweet time we want to take our bat and ball and go home. We are so impatient when it comes to waiting on God. Maybe our impatience changes the mind of God more than our “fervent prayers.” (Or our lack of fervent prayers, anyway.)

My impatience with God lately is a huge temptation. I get impatient with what to do in the way of income and I panic. Anxiety sets in. I try to solve problems on my own.

My foolish actions to try and solve my problems when God is trying to get me to wait on him may make God change his mind. He may step back and say, “Well, Dan, have at it. You want to get this thing solved on your own? Give it a shot.”

Maybe my quick action is changing the mind of God.

Maybe I need the heart of Moses on these types of decisions. I think I’m more like Moses than the children of Israel. I don’t build golden calves. But I AM impatient. And perhaps my impatience is changing God’s mind more than my perceived “powerful” intercession.

Call it what you want… God changing his mind or something else… it often our actions that are like the children of Israel that create a response rather than our action in prayer.

We need to be people of PRAYER rather than people of impatience. God… help us. Well… help ME.

Eating and Drinking in the Presence of God

9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw Israel’s God. Under God’s feet there was what looked like a floor of lapis-lazuli tiles, dazzlingly pure like the sky. 11 God didn’t harm the Israelite leaders, though they looked at God, and they ate and drank. (Ex. 24:9-11, CEB)

My own Pentecostal/Charismatic conditioning says this is not how you act when the presence of God shows up. You’re supposed to fall down (forward or backward, depending on your theology), and “be undone.” Then… write a book.

Or something like that.

I exaggerate (somewhat), but when the presence of God comes down, I never heard about eating and drinking.

In that day, it was a sealing of a covenant. It was the acceptance of a peace offering. This was what they knew to do. God shows up, the covenant is agreed upon, so we eat.

The presence of God makes all the difference. His presence in our lives is key. We are to be people of the presence.

And the invitation comes to us on a regular basis. Eat and drink.

Where?

“Take and eat.”

“Take and drink.”

In our church, it’s every Sunday. We come to the Table of the Lord. We are invited to remember this covenant, and by partaking of the table we are invited into his presence. God comes down and we eat and drink.

In most churches of my denomination we are seated and the deacons serve us. The communion generally comes at the end of the service and is generally “tacked on.”

We serve communion weekly and ask people to come forward. I give the bread and say, “The body of Christ for you.”

They move to the next server who gives them the cup saying, “The blood of Christ for you.”

This is nothing new for mainline Christians. (And I’ve probably butchered it. My apologies.)

But every week we are invited into the presence of God. It’s not overly emotional… though I must admit it IS emotional for me. Every week, I love giving communion. It is precious.

But I don’t fall over. (Well, not every week.)

Yet, here I am in the presence of Almighty God. Eating and drinking.

And his presence changes everything.

The Place of Authoritative Prayer

20 Early in the morning, as Jesus and his disciples were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered from the root up. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look how the fig tree you cursed has dried up.”

 22 Jesus responded to them, “Have faith in God! 23 I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive it, and it will be so for you. 25 And whenever you stand up to pray, if you have something against anyone, forgive so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your wrongdoings.” (Mark 11:20-25, CEB)

Jesus had cursed the fig tree the day before, even though it wasn’t the season for figs. He was illustrating what Israel was like: Always looking good but never bearing fruit. He did it because it was an illustration. (And all the environmentalists wept.)

But the disciples noticed the next day the fig tree was indeed withered so they asked how that happened. Jesus launches into a lesson on faith, which we have debated about ever since. What is “faith?” Do we have “faith in faith?” All kinds of things.

Basically, I think Jesus is simply saying, “Well of course it dried up. I told it to!”

There is a place of authoritative prayer the people of God can walk in. Very few do, so the rest of us are left to debate the true meaning of this passage. By authoritative prayer I don’t mean someone who is just plain “arrogant.”

I have met a few who walk in authoritative prayer. They are humble. They are not loud, obnoxious, standing on stadium platforms doing things that impress the masses. Ones I have met that I sensed had truly authoritative prayer were often quite soft-spoken. They were confident.

There was one I heard about. He passed away before I was probably born, but others knew him and I knew they weren’t exaggerating things. This particular man had a quiet confidence in God, walked in prayer, and at one time had commanded a tornado to move around a piece of property… and it did. He expected it.

Another great saint I never got to meet knew how to walk with God and wasn’t bothered if he had to cry out to God all night long to see a miracle take place. He knew God was going to do it.

I was at a conference a few years back where the speaker was talking about the presence of God in our lives and the power of prayer. He walked that talk. In the last session he stepped to the podium and in that instance there was a sense of the presence of God settling down onto the audience. It was incredibly moving. The speaker then stepped back from the podium and waited. I thought, He knew that was going to happen. He EXPECTED it.

Authoritative prayer is not something that is conjured up for one moment. Failure occurs when that happens. That is the disciples when they couldn’t cast the demon out of the boy in Mark 9. That is the sons of Sceva in Acts 19. They try to do something that sounds authoritative, but the enemy is not fooled.

Don’t sound authoritative. Walk in authority.

Jesus expected that fig tree to wither up. He wanted to demonstrate something so he used the tree. (And the environmentalists wept.) But he did so in authority. Then, he turns to his disciples and says, “Of course it happened. You go do the same.” (And he didn’t mean, “Go curse some fig trees.”)

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

 15 They came into Jerusalem. After entering the temple, he threw out those who were selling and buying there. He pushed over the tables used for currency exchange and the chairs of those who sold doves. 16 He didn’t allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He taught them, “Hasn’t it been written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you’ve turned it into a hideout for crooks. 18 The chief priests and legal experts heard this and tried to find a way to destroy him. They regarded him as dangerous because the whole crowd was enthralled at his teaching. (Mark 11:15-18, CEB)

We are far too easily distracted as a culture. There are too many things flying at us, screaming for our attention. The main thing of turning our attention toward God… prayer… is too easily set aside. The main thing of keeping the mission of God (not OUR “mission statements”) in front of us gets shoved to the side too easily. We create noise and motion and think it’s the same thing as serving God.

The temple leaders had created a culture of distraction. It was noise and motion but it wasn’t going anywhere. Everything was supposed to be for “worship” and “sacrifices,” but it was only weighing people down. They weren’t free. And the house of God wasn’t for all nations at that point. It was exclusively Jewish, and they were maniacal about that point.

“A house of prayer.” 

I was reflecting back to my years in high school when I really learned prayer from a couple of godly men. My pastor at the time was the greatest example. What he did, I did. He got up at 5 in the morning to pray. So did I. He paced when he prayed. So did I. He would call out boldly. So did I. He prayed the Scriptures. So did I.

The priority was prayer. There was nothing more precious than being in the place of prayer seeking the face of God.

“For all nations.”

We are to bring this good news to the world. We are to make sure this gospel isn’t so “ethnocentric” no one outside our culture can’t understand it. The great news of Jesus Christ is not shackled to one particular venue and one particular method.

But distractions come. To feel better about not praying “as much” we create motion and noise. And then we do things in such a way it makes sense to us… to make us feel good… and that’s about it. We get so easily distracted.

The call of Lent and the journey toward Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is the keep the main thing the main thing. We worship an incredible God and that news is to be shared with all nations.

This gospel isn’t to be consumed on ourselves alone. It’s too good!

I think of the great C.S. Lewis quote:

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us,like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at sea. We are far to easily pleased.

We are so easily distracted. We are so easily pleased. There is so much more.