Apprentice2Jesus

Ramblings of a Confessing Pentecostal

Archive for the category “Prayer”

20 Oct 2011
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God Speaks… and We Refuse to Listen

I received a new Richard Foster book in the mail (purchased through IVP). I am so glad this man is writing more!

This new work, Sanctuary of the Soul, is about meditative prayer. In the early pages he reminds us of our refusal to listen to God. It’s not that we can’t hear. It’s more of a condition that we don’t listen.

Adam and God walked in the garden. They communicated clearly. Sin took that away.

Moses could speak to God face to face. Israel was invited into that beautiful state once again… but they backed way (Ex. 20:19). So it is with us, it seems. We always want to be one step removed… or two or three steps…

But Jesus came bringing us the Kingdom of God. Along with that is the invitation once again to hear God. To walk with God and hear his voice once again. We continue to step away from that amazing invitation. We want someone else to tell us what God is saying… or we simply declare we can’t hear him anymore.

Is it that we are not able to hear anymore… or that we are refusing to listen?

Sanctuary of the Soul: Journey into Meditative Prayer

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11 Oct 2011

Arab Spring Isn’t All Blossoms

As we celebrate the “Arab Spring,” there are reminders that all doesn’t bloom evenly in the Arab world. The Church in Egypt is feeling the pressure.

And an Iranian pastor sits in prison awaiting execution.

Often when we see good things happening, what gets missed is the plight of the Church in regions of the world.

In our prayers, we must remember the Body of Christ. His Church.

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09 Oct 2011

The Passion of Pursuit

This past Friday night and Saturday I had the privilege of spending time in prayer with some great people in my church. For the short time we were together we simply spent it seeking the Lord. We had worship, times of prayer together, times of prayer on our own, and times of sharing what the Spirit was speaking to us.

What a refreshing time!

The thought we came away with in our time was the great need to simply ask for the presence of Jesus in our lives. There really is no greater request… nothing worth more! We have great needs and we have great questions, but what we need is a vision of our great Savior.

We want to become people of pursuit. Knowing Christ is simply the greatest goal.

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07 Oct 2011
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Come aside… and wait

The admonition of the Lord to his disciples was to wait until they are clothed with power from on high. This weekend I get the opportunity to come aside with folks from my church to pray. The agenda is prayer for about 24 hours. While we don’t get the opportunity to “wait until…” we do get the opportunity to stop and listen. Even if it is only for a short amount of time, I am grateful for the time to come aside.

We need to hear from heaven.

Posted in Prayer
04 Oct 2011

The Call to Come Aside

Our church is preparing for a weekend prayer and fasting retreat. The agenda is simply prayer. We are using the Book of Acts as our starting point for prayer.

In preparation this week, I am challenged by the command of Jesus: “Go and wait until you receive power.”

Just wait. And wait until it happens. (Whatever “it” is.) It’s longer than one weekend. But I want to go into this weekend already having a sense of “waiting” in my spirit. We need to hear from heaven as a church! I am anticipating good things for this weekend.

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25 Sep 2011

Being Truly Spirit-Filled

One of my main thoughts from my message from Philippians 2 today:

As a Pentecostal believing in the power of the Spirit, I will confess that all too often it is easy to see the true “power” of the Spirit in the manifestation gifts like healing, deliverance, prophetic words, etc.

What we need to start seeing is the FULLNESS of the Spirit and that surrendering our egos to serve the margins of society so that the gospel to come to EVERYONE is just as Spirit-filled. We need just as much of the anointing of the Spirit to do THAT as we do to see healing flow into broken bodies. 

 

Posted in Holy Spirit, Prayer, Spiritual Formation and tagged | Leave a Comment
15 Aug 2011

The Rage of the Prophets

I am off for a few days of vacation with family. Our attempt is to do as little as possible, which may be aided by a couple of days of storms.

As I enter into a very short period of “rest,” my reading for the week will actually be JEREMIAH. What a combination!

In this time of rest I am reminded of a stirring of the Spirit I have sensed all summer long. As we approach the tenth anniversary of 9/11 I have a greater sense of urgency in my spirit that a radical shift is happening for the Church again. It is something I believe the Church in America largely ignored after 9/11. The sense of urgency in my own heart is even stronger this time, though I don’t know exactly why.

But I do know this: It’s not about “America coming back to God”. It’s about the Church being the Church… finally. Regardless of political games, regardless of who is in political power, regardless of whatever else this culture is doing, the Church is failing to be the Church. Subversive. Powerful. Light.

And I turn to Jeremiah, the rage of the prophets, to hear once again. Walter Brueggemann helped me with this. He refers to them more as “poets.” But the pictures of the Old Testament are meant to show us the disruptive power of God. He is just not who we think he is at times! (The gospels certainly show us that, too, but the prophets paint much more vivid pictures!)

So, in my “rest”, I am out to have the disruptive power of the prophet stir me once again. I fell down on the job last time (ten years ago). I have a sense in my spirit I do not want to fall down on this again!

Posted in Holy Spirit, Prayer, Spiritual hunger and tagged , | Leave a Comment
11 Jul 2011
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Dallas Willard Paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer

Based on what Dallas taught in The Divine Conspiracy on the Lord’s Prayer, he wrote this paraphrase:

Dear Father always near us,
may your name be treasured and loved,
may your rule be completed in us –
may your will be done here on earth
in just the way it is done in heaven.
Give us today the things we need today,
and forgive us our sins and impositions on you
as we are forgiving all who in any way offended us.
Please don’t put us through trials,
but deliver us from everything bad.
Because you are the one in charge,
and you have all the power,
and the glory too is all yours — forever –
which is just the way we want it!

Posted in Dallas Willard, Prayer, Spiritual Formation and tagged
10 Jul 2011
1 Comment

Lord, I’m a Wimp

Dallas Willard’s book The Divine Conspiracy walks us through the Sermon on the Mount. I have been posting from time to time this summer on his book as I work my way through it again. I want to understand more fully the cost of discipleship.

The section he has on the Lord’s Prayer is helpful. This last part is great. “Lead us not into temptation” is basically a recognition that we just don’t do good in trials! We don’t withstand pressure very well and this part of the prayer is just an admission of it.

God expects us to pray that we will escape trials, and we should do it. The bad things that happen to us are always challenges to our faith, and we may not be able to stand up under them. They are dangerous. To know this, one has only to watch how quickly people begin to attack God when bad things start to happen to them.

We simply put too much confidence in our own “faith” at times! I actually think more highly of “my faith” when I don’t have a trial, but that’s beside the point. ;)

Just as we need to pray for daily provision of food, we need to take to God our awareness of our very own weakness… every day. We can begin to understand, then, that when trials come God has something in mind for us. He brings strength through trials, but it is HIS strength, not “our faith.”

Trials are not “joyful.” However, they are, at times, necessary. They DO yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Heb. 12:11).

But here is the thing: I am NOT GOOD at trials! And I need to acknowledge that every day. I just need to say, “Lord, you know I’m a wimp. If tough things have to happen you better be here!”

Posted in Dallas Willard, Prayer, Spiritual Formation and tagged ,
08 Jul 2011
2 Comments

The Lord’s Prayer — “Forgive us our trespasses”

Dallas Willard’s thoughts on this particular part of the prayer get right to the point:

Today even many Christian read and say “forgive us our trespasses” as “give me a break.” In the typically late-twentieth century manner, this saves the ego and its egotism. “I am not a sinner, I just need a break!” But no, I need more than a break. I need pity because of who I am. I my pride is untouched when I pray for forgiveness, I have not prayed for forgiveness. I don’t even understand it.

We are still this way. We just don’t like to admit our condition. It is “offensive” in some way to discuss things as “sin.” It’s almost like we pray, “Could you help me get past this little quirk of mine?”

But we need pity. We need the incredible grace of God touching us as we feel the pain of our failure. We don’t need minor adjustments. We need a complete overhaul.

fatherssword.wordpress.com

Posted in Dallas Willard, Prayer, Spiritual Formation and tagged ,

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