Time Out For Evaluation

For the past month we have been looking at various aspects of prayer - the way in which we communicate with God and in which He developes His relationship with us. At this stage I am going to take a several day break in blogging to assess whether this method of input is value for time it requires. I would appreciate if you could take a few minutes to respond to the past posts either by e-mail to mclarkson@thechurchofthecross.net or by means of the comment box on this blogsite. I would appreciate knowing:

1. Was the information valuable to you and how?
2. How often did you acess the material and how much of it have you read?
3. What did you like best and what did you like least about the format or content?
4. Did you recommend it to friends?
5. Should this continue, if so what topics should we investigate and how should it dovetails with activities/services at church?
6. Any other suggestions you might have.

Thank you for your suggestions and advice.

Mike Clarkson

Prophetic Prayer

6 Paul and his companions travelled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Acts 16:6-10

We have seen how prayer is the chord that binds us to God. We have read how it can build our character, our relationship with Him and even the very fabric of the Kingdom of God. We have seen how it is ordinary, it is warfare, it is construction, it is praise and it can be solace. We have seen how Jesus is our model and our partner as we pray to the Father. We have seen how the Holy Spirit is our helper and our translator in the process. But if we are to pray effectively how is it that we can know what to pray for and in what way? How do we know that we are praying God’s will?

One way of course is to test our prayers by our own spirit. As we grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord our spirits will testify with His Spirit as to what is His good and perfect will. Another way that we have already seen is to take our prayers and God’s purposes from the Bible. Scripture contains both evidence of God’s past workings and His future intentions and these are reliable for our current understanding. But sometimes our own inadequacies – our confusion, our busyness, our well intentioned error, our selfishness, our woundedness, our immaturity – will cause us to be uncertain as to how to pray or act. It is at this time that the Holy Spirit may himself guide our paths.

We can see in the passage above how St Paul, headed at first for Asia, was carefully redirected by the Holy Spirit. Although we are not told how the information was imparted we see clearly that St Paul was prevented from going to Asia. Then, as he and his companions changed direction and tried to enter Bithynia, once again they were thwarted by God. Finally they were directed in the correct course by a dream sent by God.

We worship a God who speaks to His people. He speaks through our world/environment/ and the course of history around us, He speaks through the Scriptures and by His Holy Spirit. He speaks directly to us today. This may come in the way of dreams and interpretation, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, prophetic words or in other ways. We may “see” something of His purposes through dreams or visions, “hear” His words aloud or inside our minds, “understand” with a clarity which is more than natural or even be given information supernaturally. If we receive this communication from God we must first test it against Scripture, against human knowledge, with our God-aware inward spirit and through the counsel of other mature Christians. If however, it seems right after all of this, as with St Paul’s direction from God, it may be helpful in directing our steps or our prayer.

I can remember when I first thought that God might be calling me to an ordained ministry. Linda and I prayed for almost three years asking God for assurance and confirmation. Over time we found that assurance in the encouragement of other Christians, in the circumstances of our testing, in Scripture, through clear prophetic leading and insight into God’s purposes (both in dreams and inner voice during retreats) and finally in the peace within our hearts that we both felt. The Holy Spirit will work through this same process for major decisions or daily direction. It is one of the ways in which God builds intimacy with us in prayer, guides our steps and enables His sheep to hear and recognize His voice with increasing confidence.

Can I encourage you today, as you pray, to ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in what you pray and how you pray and see if in time it doesn’t make you a more effective prayer.

Mike Clarkson

Persevering Prayer

1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'
4 "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'"
6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 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? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:1-8

Living in a “fast food” society where instant gratification is the norm, waiting for God to act, even when we know He will, can sometimes be difficult. This must have also been true for the disciples or Luke would not have included the above parable in his gospel. It may have been that the truth of this persistence became real for him after Jesus’ ascension and he had to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Or it may have been necessary for Paul as he waited in prison for God’s purposes to be worked out. The perseverance is even listed as a fruit of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s letter to the Galatian Church (5:22) where the word used is makrothumia which can best be translated long-suffering or fortitude
.

In any case, it is clear that at times we have to wait for God’s timing before moving forward. Nonetheless, Jesus also makes clear that we are to keep praying throughout that time. It is the widow’s persistent entreaties that win the day not just her patience. We are also not to give up. If God has spoken to us of His will then we are to continue to bring that intention back to Him again and again. Unlike the uncaring Judge, God will hear us and not tarry a moment longer than necessary in answering our petitions.

C. H. Spurgeon, the great Victorian preacher instructed his listeners: “If you are sure it is a right thing for which you are asking, plead now, plead at noon, plead at night, plead on. With cries and tears spread out your case. Order your arguments. Back up your pleas with reasons. Urge the precious blood of Jesus. Set the wounds of Christ before the Father’s eyes. Bring out the atoning sacrifice. Point to Calvary. Enlist the crowned Prince, the Priest who stands at the right hand of God. And resolve in your very soul that if souls are not saved, if your family be not blessed, if your own zeal be not revived, yet you will die with the plea on your lips, and with the importunate wish on your spirits.”

I thought you might like to reflect in your prayers today on a tale of two frogs:

The two frogs fell into a can of cream,
or so it has been told.
The sides of the can were shiny and steep,
The cream was deep and cold.
“Oh, what’s the use,” said number one,
“It’s plain no help’s around.
“Good-bye, my friend, good-bye, sad world”
And weeping still he drowned.

But number two, of sterner stuff,
dog paddled in surprise.
The while he licked his creamy lips
And blinked his creamy eyes.
“I’ll swim at least a while,” he thought,
Or so it has been said.
“It really wouldn’t help the world
If one more frog were dead.”

An hour or more he kicked and swam,
Not once he stopped to mutter.
Then hopped out from the island he had
Made of fresh churned butter.
(Author Anonymous)

Mike Clarkson

Prayer and A Developing Trust

The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
21 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. 23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24 After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 25 and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
26 From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. 27 On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. Acts 14:20-28


St Paul and Barnabas, the encourager, were on the return leg of their first missionary journey to Asia Minor. They had been sent out from Antioch strengthened by prayer and fasting (Acts 13:1-3) and were now to return there after having encouraged the churches in Galatia planted on their outward journey. We are not told the details of the “good news” preached by the pair at Derbe but their efforts were clearly fruitful, empowered by the Holy Spirit. As they visited the various new churches on their return journey they clearly saw the need for leadership (what we would today call lay-leadership) and appointed elders in each church. This process, we are told, was accompanied by the same “prayer and fasting” into which the Holy Spirit spoke earlier and with which they had been strengthened throughout their journey.

But why prayer and fasting? Why was this “commitment” not accompanied by an intense training course or some other form of preparation? A clue to this practice might be found in this explanation from Dallas Willard in his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines: “Fasting confirms our utter dependence upon God by finding in Him a source of sustenance beyond food. Through it, we learn by experience that God’s word to us is a life substance, that it is not food (‘bread’) alone that gives life, but also the words that proceed from the mouth of God (Matt 4:4). We learn that we too have meat to eat that the world does not know about (John 4:32-34). Fasting unto our Lord is therefore feasting – feasting on Him and on doing His will….Actually fasting is one of the more important ways of practising that self-denial required of everyone who would follow Christ (Matt 16:24). In fasting, we learn how to suffer happily as we feast on God. And it is a good lesson, because in our lives we will suffer, no matter what else happens to us.”

In other words, through the prayer and fasting that was the form of committal of these elders they learned first hand through experience about the hardships that they would endure (vs 22) and the trust upon which they could rely (vs 23). This was not some abstract book learning for some future date but a practical on-the-job training in working together with the Holy Spirit which they would need from that day forward – just as Paul and Barnabas had.

As we learn about prayer and our relationship with God deepens so too will we need this practical understanding. We too will need the words of life that God has to give us. We too will find struggle and hardships and need the trust in the Lord that comes from prayer and fasting. We too will need the adjustments to our self-sufficient bent that accompanies a life given over to God in this way. As we move into a season of considering Stewardship and the role that God plays in the financial side of our lives, let us begin to pray that together our trust in one another and God’s relationship with us will build, that we will begin draw closer to Him and more closely embrace His purposes here at The Church Of The Cross.

Mike Clarkson

Prayer and A Conformed Life

11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, 12 the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
13 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
2 Chronicles 7:11-15


The people of Israel had reached the pinnacle of their position as the Chosen People of God. As a nation they had been birthed through Abraham, taken out of slavery through the help of Moses, taken into the promised land by Joshua, prospered under the Judges and been given a line of Kingdom through David. Now under Solomon they had completed the Temple as instructed by their God and were asking for His blessing on them and what they hoped would become His new home. And God answers their prayer with a resounding YES! But the Lord God of Israel warns them of more difficult times ahead and gives them a formula for dealing with the future: humble themselves, pray, seek His face and turn to obedience to God’s ways. Then, once again, God will hear, forgive and restore the nation. As we spend time thinking about our prayer life with God we might also look at the other three aspects of God’s direction to His people.

Humbling ourselves is another way of saying that we might not always be right and that we might, at least on occasion, want to listen to what correction God might want to give us. Acknowledging that God might know more than we do and trusting His direction can be very humbling. Yesterday we introduced the possibility of fasting alongside our prayer. Denying ourselves food or other activities is another way of humbling ourselves and saying to God that He is more important than aspects of our own regular habits or desires. It is a way of putting Him before us.

The Old Testament is full of examples of the people of God seeking either God’s face (relationship with Him) or the work of His hand (His deeds on their behalf). Here Solomon is told that it is out of relationship that a continued blessing will come – not just out of the occasional rescue or obliging environment which God could produce. Again, occasional fasting combined with regular prayer can keep us focussed on our dependence on God and our desire for increased relationship with Him.

Finally, our lives need to reflect all of this spiritual discipline. If we are focussed on God, seeking a developing relationship with Him, putting Him first in our lives, denying aspects of ourselves, there should be some evidence of this in our lives. Turning from our wicked ways, or those things which displease God, should be a constant theme in our work, our family life and our relationships with friends. There should be heavenly product in our lives and we should begin to look more and more like our Father in Heaven.
Seeking a greater intimacy with God and a greater empowering in His prayer life through fasting was the testimony of the well known Evangelist Bill Bright. In his book, The Transforming Power of Fasting and Prayer, written shortly before his death just five years ago, he says:
“After forty-five years of emphasizing evangelism, discipleship, and fulfilment of the Great Commission, some may think that I have gone off on a tangent with my strong emphasis on fasting and prayer. The fact is that the best way to help individuals become evangelists for Christ is to bring them into a relationship with God in which the Holy Spirit renews them. Only fasting meets the criteria of each aspect of 2 Chronicles 7:14. When you humble yourself and pray and seek God’s face and turn from your wicked ways, something happens to you and you get excited about the Lord in a way that you do not through any other means.
“Why fasting?
“First, Christians who fast say that it sharpens and sensitizes their spiritual faculties to become more in tune with what God is doing throughout the world….
“Second, fasting results in greater intimacy with and a deeper enthusiasm for God, which in turn spills over into every other area of life. The joy of the Lord becomes much more visible to others, and the motivation to witness is greater….
“Third, fasting prepares us for a spiritual harvest. Today, people throughout the world are hungry for the gospel. I have been a believer since 1944, and I can assure you that God is doing a great and powerful work, unprecedented in this century. This is most definitely a remarkable time of harvest.”

As we seek God’s face at The Church Of The Cross, let us also humble ourselves, pray and turn towards God’s ways. Let us allow Him to draw us ever closer and to equip us for the work to which we are called as His disciples. As a special appendix to today’s devotional, below is a further excerpt from Bill Bright’s book which may help a bit with the “how to” of fasting prayer.

Mike Clarkson




FASTING: 7 BASIC STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL FASTING & PRAYER
(BILL BRIGHT)

Step 1: Set Your Objective
Why are you fasting? Is it for spiritual renewal, for guidance, for healing, for the resolution of problems, for special grace to handle a difficult situation? Ask the Holy Spirit to clarify His leading and objectives for your prayer fast. This will enable you to pray more specifically and strategically.

Step 2: Make Your Commitment
Pray about the kind of fast you should undertake. Jesus implied that all of His followers should fast. For Him it was a matter of when His followers should fast, not if they should do it. Before you fast, decide the following up front:
- How long you will fast – one meal, one day, a week, several weeks
- The type of fast God wants you to undertake
- What physical or social activities you will restrict
- How much time each you will devote to prayer and God’s word

Step 3: Prepare Yourself Spiritually
The very foundation of fasting and prayer is repentance. Unconfessed sin will hinder your prayers. Confession, forgiveness and restitution are a beginning. Ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit. Meditate on the attributes of God. Do not underestimate spiritual opposition. Satan sometimes intensifies the natural battle between body and spirit.

Step 4: Prepare Yourself Physically
Fasting requires reasonable precautions. Consult your physician first, especially if you take prescription medication or have a chronic ailment. Prepare your body. Eat smaller meals before starting a fast.

Step 5: Put Yourself On A Schedule
For maximum spiritual benefit, set aside ample time to be alone with the Lord. Listen for His leading. The more time you spend with Him, the more meaningful your fast will be.

Step 6: End Your Fast Gradually
Begin eating gradually. Do not eat solid foods immediately after your fast. Suddenly reintroducing solid food to your stomach and digestive tract will likely have negative, even dangerous consequences. Try several smaller meals or snacks each day.

Step 7: Expect Results
If you sincerely humble yourself before the Lord, repent, pray, and seek God’s face; if you constantly meditate on His word, you will experience a heightened awareness of His presence. You will feel mentally, spiritually, and physically refreshed. You will see answers to your prayers.

Prayer and Fasting

1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
16 "When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matt 6:1-18

If one were to ask most people in the world what they could quote from the Bible, probably the most frequently mentioned text, by Christians as well as others, would be what we now know as “The Lord’s Prayer”. Matthew includes this as one of Jesus’ teachings, following the Beatitudes, in what we now refer to as “The Sermon on the Mount.” Although we often see this prayer out of the context of this teaching, here it is clearly included as one of a series of what we might today call Spiritual Disciplines: Forgiveness, Giving to the needy, Fasting and Simple Living.

This is not the only place that the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting are linked. Jesus prayed and fasted in the wilderness. The Pharisees accused Jesus and his disciples of failing to pray and fast when they ought. Jesus explained that the driving out of evil spirits in a demonized boy could only be done through prayer and fasting. Moses the lawgiver, David the King, Elijah the Prophet and Daniel the faithful governor all are recorded as fasting and praying. Hannah in the Old Testament and Anna in the New Testament both employed prayer and fasting as a regular spiritual discipline. Fasting and prayer were regular aspects of life for the Desert Fathers, many of the early Saints and the reformers Luther, Calvin and Knox.

In the passage above we see Jesus’ assumption that his disciples will both pray and fast and his warning that these are not meant to be badges of spiritual accomplishment or produce admiration from others, but rather are one way in which we can grow closer to God. If prayer is the method by which we are empowered to carry out much of God’s work, its occasional accompaniment with fasting is what empowers our prayer. But what is fasting and what does it achieve? Elmer Towns in his book, Fasting For Spiritual Breakthrough, explains: “It’s important to note that religious practices such as fasting are less important than doing God’s will. As Micah 6:8 points out, what the Lord truly requires of us is devotion to Himself: ‘To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.’ Fasting is not an end in itself; it is a means by which we can worship the Lord and submit ourselves in humility to Him. We don’t make God love us any more than He already does if we fast, or if we fast longer. As Galatians states, ‘Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage’ (5:1). The goal of any discipline is freedom. If the result is not greater freedom, something is wrong.”

The act of fasting is withholding voluntarily something from ourselves. This might be food or drink, an activity in which we would under other circumstances engage, or a pleasure which might otherwise find ourselves enjoying. In short, we deny ourselves something. The purpose of this is to humble ourselves before God. But fasting without God is merely self-denial or asceticism. The power comes when we do this together with Him. If we couple the discipline with our prayer (relationship building) with God, then the denial becomes a giving over of ourselves to our Lord for His purposes. Our fasting then serves to remind us of our own weakness and dependency on God. It might give us the time or opportunity to add something of God’s purpose to our lives – like more time to study or giving to the needy. It can be a further joining of our souls to His Spirit. This can be true whether we deny ourselves totally as in the abstaining from eating for a prolonged period or partially as in refraining from certain foods or practices for a short time.

In coming days we will continue to consider what the Bible has to say about fasting and prayer. But whether or not you choose to accompany your prayer with fasting at this time, can I suggest that you join with Linda and me in asking God for His mercy and compassion for each other.

Mike Clarkson

Prayer and Spiritual Warfare

32 Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom. Luke 12:32

12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. Matthew 11:12


Over the past several weeks we have seen how God has called us to prayer in order that, through consistent and intimate communion with us He can make us more like Him. He can minister to us, can place His Spirit and His Kingdom values in us, can guide us and enjoy our company. We have also seen how our time in prayer can achieve the purposes of expanding the Kingdom of God that He is seeking. Through prayer we become partners with the Living God in the work of the Kingdom. This may be through praying for the welfare of others or on behalf of specific tasks and results.

Intercessory prayer is sometimes also called Spiritual Warfare. For the more peace-loving of us this may seem strange or even distressing. “I thought that Jesus came to bring peace and that we were to be people of peace,” we might well think. In this we would not be wrong – but, if we are to be effective in our prayers we need also to understand that we do not simply seek to build God’s work in a vacuum. The Bible tells us that we have an enemy. Peter describes this enemy whom we sometimes call Satan or the devil: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 1 Peter 8:8,9

Luke records Jesus’ reassurance above, that God intends for us to have His whole world. We saw the same promise earlier in Genesis. But we also hear through the words of Jesus recorded by Matthew that we may need to fight in order to obtain the Kingdom which has been promised us. That fight is part of what our prayer lives are all about. We struggle through prayer to allow God to make us all that He intends for us. We battle on behalf of others who may not be able to enter into such warfare on their own or may need additional help. We add our voices to God’s intentions to bring about His victories on this earth. This was the model that Jesus himself presented to us.

In his book, Born For Battle, R Arthur Matthews explains:
“It has been said that ‘the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.’ The essential principles that brought about the defeat of Napoleon were developed on the football field. Had there been no football-field discipline, there could have been very different results at Waterloo. It might appear to border on impudence to transfer the thought and say that the battle of the Cross was won on the praying field of Gethsemane, but I am serious. If not actually in terms of encounter with the enemy, then from the point of vital principle, it was most certainly so.
“The Soldier of the Cross had taught His disciples the need to pray, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ The obvious inference is that God has limited certain of His activities to responding to the prayers of His people. Unless they pray, He will not act. Heaven may will something to happen, but heaven waits and encourages earth’s initiative to desire that will, and then pray that it happens.
“The Cross of Jesus Christ represents the one focal point in history at which the redemptive work of God for man focused and culminated in one infinite, massive act. Gethsemane represents the vital principle which makes it possible for that redemptive work to be successfully consummated on earth.”

In other words, our prayer not only prepares us for the battle in which we are engaged every day, it also places ammunition in God’s hands for Him to be able to use in His own time and place to further the work of His Kingdom. In this way we are the sheep of His pasture but we are also the soldiers of His army! As you pray today, ask God for the one thing He would want you to pray that would help His cause and would make best use of your time in this battle.

Mike Clarkson

Prayer – The Work of the Kingdom

27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"
28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"
"Yes, Lord," they replied.
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no-one knows about this." 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel."
34 But the Pharisees said, "It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons."
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Matt 9:27-38

Martin Luther, when once asked what his plans for the following day were, answered, “Work, work, from early until late. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Martin Luther understood that the work of the Kingdom of God begins with intercessory prayer and is only completed through such prayer. In fact, it can well be said that the primary work of the Kingdom of God is prayer – all other is the outworking or result of this time spent apart with God.

Matthew’s account above of part of one of Jesus’ days is fascinating. It contains healing, deliverance, teaching, miracles, meeting new people, travel, persecution and misunderstanding. But Jesus’ instruction to his disciples is to pray (ask the Lord of the Harvest). The subject matter of that prayer is not strength, wisdom, healing power, protection from adversity; but rather for more people to help with the work. As this passage appears immediately before the sending out of the Twelve, apparently Jesus knows that as they pray, they themselves will be enlisted in this work and they will be empowered to do it. The prayer not only prepares the work and the worker, the prayer is also the work itself.

O’Hallesby in his classic book on prayer says, “Prayer is the most important work in the Kingdom of God. It is our Lord’s will that we should enter into this work as soon as we have been won for God. We should by our prayer enter into the work which has been begun by our Christian parents [or predecessors] and for which they have sacrificed, suffered, striven and prayed. We should enter and build upon their work, first and foremost by means of prayer.” Dr A. J. Gordon adds: “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”

One way of interceding is to spend the first few minutes of your prayer time asking God to show you what He is doing. This might be His plans for your life, it might be a vision for the The Church Of The Cross, it might be God’s purposes for a particular person or nation. Once you can see the shape of God’s will, then devote the rest of your prayer time towards asking God to accomplish aspects of that plan. Pray for the people involved, for the resources necessary for the environment in which it is to take place and against any interference which might seem possible. In this way you will be engaged with the Master Architect in the building of His Kingdom on earth.

Mike Clarkson

Moses The Mighty Intercessor

11 But Moses sought the favour of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance for ever.'" 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. Ex 32:11-14


Dutch Sheets in his book on Intercessory Prayer defines it as, “An extension of the ministry of Jesus through His body, the Church, whereby we mediate between God and humanity for the purpose of reconciling the world to Him, or between Satan and humanity for the purpose of enforcing the victory of Calvary.” In other words, we stand in the middle – or in the gap – between the forces of the Supernatural and the world for the benefit of humanity.

Moses was well versed in this type of activity. Four times he interceded on behalf of Pharaoh and the people of Egypt to relieve them from God’s wrath. He stood between the people of Israel and God’s wrath at the rebellion of Korah (Numbers 16:20-22), pleaded for mercy for Miriam in her pride and rebellion (Numbers 12:9-14), sought on behalf of the dispossessed people of Israel to protect them (from Pharoah’s army at the Red Sea), provide for them (manna and water) and guide them (the pillar of fire and cloud of smoke). All of this he did through entreaty to his God.

But perhaps the clearest example of a life lived in close proximity to his God and on behalf of his people is the passage above. Having spent 40 days in the presence of the living God, Moses is now in a position to apply that relationship in hopes that God will show mercy rather than justice to a wilful and disobedient people. He reminds God of His past great love for His people Israel, His promises to them, the extent to which His reputation has been given over to them and His future intentions regarding them. His pleading is successful and, golden calves notwithstanding, the Law is provided once again to God’s people for their edification.

But how do we act as a prayer advocate for others before a Holy God? Ken Gardiner in his book “Standing in the Gap” explains:

“We, today, are God’s people in the world, but we have access to the storehouse of every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Our intercessory prayer is essential to God. He is only waiting, but He is waiting, for His own to cry to Him and He will open that storehouse and pour out all we seek.

“I constantly use my imagination and I have always pictured myself when I pray, as coming before the throne and facing God, so to speak: looking towards him. This attitude is surely right when we make our confession or bow before Him in adoration, praise and thanksgiving. It also has a place, initially, with regard to intercession. We need to come before Him as we present our petitions and share with Him as we seek to discover His will. However, once we are in a position of understanding what His will is and believing we have received our petition then, to use picture language, we have to turn so that we stand alongside God and face the object of our prayers. From this position we proclaim or command that what we have requested be fulfilled, made real, on earth.”

When our prayer begins to be for others, we begin to take onto ourselves the same attitude that Jesus showed throughout His ministry. He knew what the Father wanted for His people and so Jesus stood before God all the time asking that God would bless and help him bless those around Him. But we do this knowing that as we are praying for others, so Jesus is praying for us at the right hand of the Father and the Holy Spirit is directing our prayers all the while. In this way we become one with the Holy Trinity and God’s Kingdom is built in us and through us.

Mike Clarkson

PRAYING THE BIBLE III

This Saturday you might like to look into the Old Testament for language for your current intercessions. The Psalms are an obvious place to start but the interaction of God and His people are certainly not limited to there. A taster below for the coming week:

1. Psalms for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: Psalms 44; 45:3-5; 65; 67; 80; 83; 85; 86; 90:13-17; 102:12-22; 110:1-5; 132; 137.
2. Other intercessory prayers: Isaiah 63:15-64:12; Ezra 9:5-15; Habakkuk 3:2; Daniel 9;Nehemiah 1:4-11.
3. Personal defeat and need for help: Psalms 6; 13; 25; 51; 69.
4. Personal devotion: Psalms 25; 26; 27; 40; 41; 42; 43; 45; 63; 65; 69; 84; 96; 88; 130; 138.

God’s Plan Activated Through Prayer

13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. James 5:13-18


As the leader of the Jerusalem Church, James, the brother of Jesus, knew that it was essential for the members of his church to be praying regularly – asking God for each of their needs. In this passage he gives them some specific examples of ways in which they might bless one another through prayer and then refers them to the example of Elijah.

We see in 1 Kings 17 & 18 that God had a plan for Israel. He wanted them to turn from their worship of Baal and acknowledge the sovereignty the one true God who had chosen them as His people. He needed to convince both the people and the King of this truth and He chose to do that through Elijah. God spoke to Elijah and Elijah spoke to the King to announce the coming of a long draught. During the draught there was the famous showdown between Elijah and the Priests of Baal. Following this Elijah announced that he could hear the “sound of a heavy rain” and the draught broke as promised. A great story of God’s power but why did James then use it to teach the Jerusalem Church about prayer?

Dutch Sheets, in his excellent book, Intercessory Prayer, How God Can Use Your Prayers To Move Heaven And Earth, explains:
“Why, if it was God’s will, idea and timing, did it take a human’s prayers to ‘birth’ the rain? (Elijah was in the posture of a woman in that culture giving birth, symbolizing the concept of travailing prayer.)
“Why did Elijah have to ask seven times? Seven is the biblical number of completion, and I’m sure God was teaching us that we must pray until the task is accomplished. But why would this or any other prayer endeavour require perseverance, when it was God’s will, idea and timing?
“The only logical answer to the question of why Elijah needed to pray is simply that God has chosen to work through people. Even when it is the Lord Himself initiating something, earnestly desiring to do it, He still needs us to ask.”

James wants his people to understand that the way in which God works on this earth is through human beings. While He is capable of sovereign activity, for some reason He prefers to engage with us in the accomplishment of His plans. As I understand it, the process works something like this: He chooses a person, touches their heart, develops relationship with them, instills His character in them and shares with them the desires of His heart – His plans and purposes. He then expects the person to turn those plans back to Him in prayer. In answer to the prayer God will act and sometimes involve the original person praying, who then, in prayer needs to ask God for guidance and empowering. The process is: prayer, relationship, prayer, understanding of God’s plans, prayer, guidance, prayer, empowering, prayer, perseverance, prayer, accomplishment, prayer, thanksgiving & worship – more prayer….

Andrew Murray, the South African Missionary, wrote at the end of the nineteenth century: “By intercession we boldly tell God what we desire for others. We seek to bring down blessings from God. We seek the power of eternal life with all its blessings upon one soul or perhaps upon hundreds and thousands. Intercession! Do you believe that this can be the holiest practice of your boldness as God’s child? Do you practice intercession as the highest privilege and enjoyment connected with your conversation with God? Do you know the joy and power of being used by God as an instrument for His great work of making people His habitation, of showing forth His glory? The Church should count intercession as one of the chief means of grace. She ought to seek above everything to cultivate in God’s children the power of an unceasing prayerfulness on behalf of the perishing world!”

Perhaps today while meditating on this passage from James, or even the story of Elijah in 1 Kings, you might ask God to show you more about intercessory prayer and the way in which He can partner together with you in achieving His purposes. You might begin by asking for things on others’ behalf which you believe might be part of God’s plan and then looking to see the results.

Mike Clarkson

Purpose in Prayer

1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: 7all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8

7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery." Psalm 2:7-9

We have been thinking of prayer these past few weeks as one of the building blocks of our relationship with God, as sustenance and as the development of us into “little Christs”. But prayer is not only that which nourishes the builder, it is also the work of the Kingdom itself. God places the power in our prayer and then in turn uses these empowered pleas to generate His love to others. John Wesley said, “God does nothing on the earth save in answer to believing prayer.”

E. M. Bounds says: “Prayer, in one phase of its operation is a disinfectant and a preventative. The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon the earth. Men are to pray – to pray for the advance of God’s cause. Prayer puts God in full force in the world. To a prayerful man God is present in realized force; to a prayerful church God is present in glorious power.”

Psalm 8 above, and the creation story in Genesis before it, makes clear that the God-given role of humanity is to care for the earth, its environment and its inhabitants. We are given the earth in trust to manage for God. He sees the process of this governance as a partnership between God and mankind. But how can we possibly add anything to the partnership? All that we are, all that we have and all that we can do are only derived from God’s goodness. Like children working in the workshop with a patient father, if we ask Him he will give us all that we need. He will show us how to do it. He will work together with us so that we can learn, so that we can be rightly productive and so that our relationship with Him will develop in the process. This is another role of our prayer lives.

We hear stereotypes of men who will not ask for directions at the petrol station or women who refuse assistance in the kitchen, but these contain a grain of truth for many of us. We are all brought up to be independent, self-sufficient people who are not a burden to anyone and a help to many. But God’s plan is for us to move from dependency through independence to a mutually dependant relationship with each other while allowing God to provide the resources required as necessary.

For this to be effective we need to ask God for what we are lacking, for guidance as to how to proceed; we need to partner with Him in His work in order to be effective. This is why God, through the Psalmist in Psalm 2 above, says “ask me!” Are you facing frustrations at work, unsure of goals for your life, unable to break through in a relationship, lack resources, feel insecure or undervalued, cannot seem to achieve what you believe God is calling you to? Pray and ask Him. There is power in our prayers. He wants to answer the prayers of His children and to uphold His part of the partnership but He needs our cooperation to do so.

Mike Clarkson

Prayer Through The Spirit

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Eph 6:18-20

2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Col 4:2-6


This week we have been looking at prayer as our communication with God: the dance which involves both leading and following, the flowing together in constant movement while only focussing on the wonder of the partner in our arms - prayer as conversation, as listening, as imagining. Later we will look further to some of the purposes to which God puts prayer and we will begin to experience intercessory prayer and touch on the role of the prophetic in prayer. But before moving on I would like to remind ourselves that our prayer is really three dimensional. We pray to the Father, with the Son and through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Our dance partner is three in one.

For our prayers to be effective we must pray “in the Spirit.” It is the Holy Spirit who shows us how to pray. It is the Holy Spirit who gives utterance to our hopes and directs our thoughts to God’s purposes. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to find the time and to stay focussed in prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers our prayers and makes them more than the discouraged whimpers that they sometimes appear to us. It is the indwelling Spirit of God who helps us to see the work of God around us that is often the fruit of our efforts. The way in which we do this is merely to ask the Holy Spirit to direct us as we begin to pray and then to look for small signs that He might be nudging us as we proceed.

The theologian, Tom Smail, in his book The Giving Gift shows how St Paul encourages his readers to see prayer: “He neither offers us new techniques by which to discover God’s will nor exhorts us to new faith to let it be effected. Instead of being told to do something, we are directed to a source of help in prayer that comes to us from outside ourselves and our human resources, namely the Holy Spirit. We are invited to see prayer not primarily as a duty required of us, but much more as a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit: God on our side of the relationship. That does not mean that there is no need for planned and disciplined activity by us in prayer and worship, but it makes that discipline a hopeful and expectant exercise, because at its basis is not our own effortfulness but our reliance on the divine help of the Spirit.”

I am constantly being reminded by what you tell me God is doing in your lives that God is, by His Spirit, dancing with us – answering prayer, sometimes before it is even recognized or uttered. That He is in our daily pains and frustrations, in our brokenness, in our joy and thankfulness and in every other aspect of our lives. This morning Henry Selby and I led the monthly Family Communion at Cross Schools and afterwards I engaged in five conversations – each one of which presented evidence of the working of God’s Spirit in someone’s life or circumstance. Sometimes this “Prayer through the Spirit” is initiated by His Spirit and we become both petitioner (participant) and recipient.

I believe that the wonder of the simple service this morning was a direct result of the willingness of God’s people to ask Him to work in their lives and to put themselves at His disposal to accomplish His will. A simple thing and yet one of the most important gestures we can ever do for each other. I have no doubt that the effect of these simple Spirit led, action prayers are far greater than we will ever realize. No wonder St Paul asks for the prayers of his readers. Let us take time for the rest of this week to do the same for ourselves and others whom we know.

Mike Clarkson

The Prayer of Life

12While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
13Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him.
14Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."
15Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:12-16


Emerson said that, “Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.” Philips Brooks claimed that, “A prayer at its simplest definition is merely a wish turned heavenward.” Donald Coggan, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, said that, “To pray is to stand at attention in the presence of the King and to be prepared to take orders from Him.” These are all correct, of course, but I sometimes believe that praying is not some type of “spiritual exercise” which like a daily vitamin ensures better health; or like a special skill which through practice we can hone to perfection. Prayer is both of these but also something deeper and simpler. What I call the “Prayer of Life” or “Ordinary Prayer” is more closely woven into the very fabric of our existence. When we are in tune with God we are praying with much of what we do and most of the time. Without such prayer we would be as unable to live as without water or air.

This type of prayer is almost unconscious and the sustenance of a soul preoccupied with God and His work. It is the easy and natural outworking of the Holy Spirit within our bodies, operating to turn every action into God’s purposes. The great Victorian preacher, C.H. Spurgeon puts it this way: “I cannot help praying. If I we not allowed to utter a word all day long, that would not affect my praying. If I could not have five minutes that I might spend in prayer by myself, I should pray all the same. Minute by minute, moment by moment, somehow or the other, my heart must commune with my God. Prayer has become as essential to me as the heaving of my lungs and the beating of my pulse.”

In the passage above we see the essential nature of prayer to Jesus. He made everything look so easy – after all He was the Son of God! But perhaps it was not all as easy as we sometimes seem to think with modern perspective. I believe that the teaching, the healing, the persecution of the religious officials, the inexorable pull of the cross must have been draining at the best of times and sometimes completely exhausting. Prayer was for Jesus the opportunity to take time away with His Father and to recharge. He could offload on the only one who could truly understand him.

We see only snippets of this prayer time in the gospels so we have to look carefully: Jesus returning to the disciples after having been up early praying, a quiet break by the well when the disciples went ahead to prepare lunch, a pause before facing the distraught sisters of the diseased Lazarus. Was Jesus praying as he drew in the sand while the Pharisees cried for the stoning of the woman caught in adultery? Did he send up an arrow prayer when the blind man required more than a single healing touch? Did he need to ask for patience as Peter misunderstood once again?

In any event, we do see signs, as in the passage above, of the continual dialogue between Jesus and his Father. A dialogue not confined to particular times of the day; not confined to particular geography or even a particular pattern of prayer. Jesus needed as much of the Holy Spirit as he could contain - being filled and refilled. Jesus needed constant communication and spiritual nourishing from his Father throughout the day and throughout his ministry. If he needed this, how much more should we also need the same?

Mike Clarkson

PRAYING THE BIBLE II

Once again it is Saturday and I would like to point to some of the prayers of the New Testament which we might use as language to pray ourselves for others. Listed below are some of the prayers we see Jesus praying and might be models for us.

INTERCESSORY PRAYERS OF JESUS FOR THE CHURCH

1. Matthew 6:9-13 - The Lord's Prayer
That God's name would be honoured, hallowed, worshipped and obeyed, that God's Kingdom would be established in great power, purity and wisdom. That God would provide for the needs of the saints and that God would victoriously lead the saints out of temptation into full obedience.

2. Matt. 9:37-38
That the Lord would release holy and anointed labourers into the harvest to minister to the flock and to win the lost.

3. Luke 11:13
That God would release the power, purity and wisdom of His Spirit upon His people.

4. Luke 22:31-32
That the faith of the saints may not fail and that God's servants would be empowered to strengthen one another.

5. John 17
Vs. 11 Keep the saints in Your name that they may be one
Vs. 13 That they may have Jesus' joy made full in themselves
Vs. 15 Keep them from the evil one
Vs. 17 Sanctify them by releasing the truth powerfully to their hearts
Vs. 21-26 That You would fully bring them into Your glory and into perfected unity and fill
them with Your love for Jesus.

Prayer and Meditation

23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 "All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
John 14:23-27

Richard Foster in his book, Prayer - Finding The Heart’s True Home, explains the process of meditative prayer:
“In Christian meditation we seek to live the experience of Scripture. As a practical aid in living the experience of scripture, Ignatius of Loyola encourages us to apply all our senses to our task. We smell the sea. We hear the lap of water along the shore. We see the crowd. We feel the sun on our heads and the hunger pangs in our stomachs. We taste the salt in the air. We touch the hem of His garment.
“Suppose you want to meditate on Jesus’ staggering statement ‘my peace I give to you.’ Our task is not so much to study the passage as to be initiated into the reality of which the passage speaks. We brood o the truth that he is now filling us with His peace. The heart, the mind, and the spirit are awakened to His flowing peace. We sense all motions of fear stilled and overcome by ‘a spirit of power and love and of self-discipline’ (2 Tim 1:7). Rather than dissecting peace, we are entering into it. We are enveloped, absorbed, gathered into His peace.”

The point of this “Centering Prayer” is to give over to God our whole beings: our minds, our emotions – our very souls. The use of Scripture as a focal point keeps us in tune with the Father’s will and helps us to hear His words more clearly with every fibre of our being. The goal of this prayer is to join with God in understanding, at the very core of our being, the meaning of His promises and His will for us now. In this we do not empty ourselves of who the God has made us, but rather, we take into ourselves more of Him and therefore we become more like Him. Joyce Hugget, in Listening To God, suggests using a seven-step process of Reading, Receiving, Reciting, Regurgitating, Responding, Resting and Realigning.

We can do this with the words of Jesus as noted above. We can do this with narrative scenes from all parts of the Bible and through a Spirit-inspired imagination see ourselves in different roles from observer to participant. We can do this with the many prayers themselves recorded in the Bible and thereby make them our own. This form of prayer is true dialogue; interaction with God and His Word directed by the indwelling Spirit. It requires giving and receiving, speaking and listening, asking and obeying.

Why not try this today. Perhaps with the promise of Jesus made to His disciples in the Upper Room before the most difficult few days of their lives: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you”.

Mike Clarkson

Centering Prayer

1Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
2But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
4Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 1

Over the past several days we have seen how God delights to spend time with us and to talk to us as well as listen to us. One of the ways He speaks to us is through His written Word, the Bible. Scripture was inspired by God and written by people that we might better know God, His thoughts, His past work, His future promises. Through all of this we can begin to understand God and His ways.

In the early 1500’s the Spaniard, St Ignatius of Loyola, wrote a book called the Spiritual Exercises in which he set out a journey of prayer by which ordinary people could engage both their minds and their emotions in listening to God. These exercises began with silencio (quietening the mind) moved on to lectio divina (the reading of Scripture) then to meditatio (thoughtful imagining of the Scriptural text) and finally, on occasion, reaching contemplatio ad Amorem (the entering into the mind of Christ). This pathway formalized a process built into the earlier practices of many of the early Fathers and Mothers: Francis, Benedict, Clare, Dominic, etc.

Modern day authors such as Thomas Keating, Margaret Hebblethwaite and Basil Pennington have taken this path and called it Centering Prayer. Keating says: “The practice of Centering Prayer, built upon lectio divina, is based on a millennium of Christian contemplative tradition. The teaching of the Divine Indwelling is a fundamental doctrine for the spiritual journey. The Father, the Son as the Eternal Word of the Father, and the Holy Spirit are present within us. These relationships, which are never separate in their unity, are forever interacting. The Father is the potentiality for all existence; the Son is the actuality of all possibilities of existence; and the Spirit is the love that motivates both.”

But in fact, the tradition of using Scripture as a focus for our prayer life is much older than the monasteries of the middle ages. Since the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, were written, people have read the Scriptures in order to draw closer to God. It is one of the most reliable ways in which He has always spoken and through which He still speaks to us today. It is not a coincidence that the Psalter begins with encouraging us to meditate day and night on God’s word. It is in God’s word that we are to delight. It is this meditation which feeds and waters us. This is the path to prosperity it tells us. It is through this practice that we will eventually bear fruit and be sustained says the Psalmist.

There are three clear benefits to this. Firstly the words of the Bible inform us as to God’s intentions and to His character. We learn more about God and His world. Secondly, it gives God the opportunity to apply those words to us and our current situation, should He so desire. Often when reading a passage intended for a readership of several thousand years ago we find the words take on fresh meaning for our current circumstances. Finally, when we use the words of Scripture towards God – for instance David’s words of Praise, or God’s promises to His people in the past or Jesus’ prayers, we find a new vocabulary which helps us in our conversation with God when we ourselves are barren of anything helpful to say.

We will look more tomorrow at the practice of meditation as prayer. If you have been following these devotionals for the past several weeks you will already have begun to establish the pattern of spending some time each day thinking about God’s word written as well as spending time in His presence. Why not begin to connect the two now and see if God has anything to say to you today through this passage or another from the Bible.

Mike Clarkson

Prayer as Conversation

11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."
14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."
17 Gideon replied, "If now I have found favour in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you." And the LORD said, "I will wait until you return."
19 Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
20 The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so. 21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. 22 When Gideon realised that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
23 But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die."
Judges 6:11-23

What an extraordinary story! A young man, going about his ordinary business in a time of great danger has an encounter with God that will change the fate of the nation Israel. This single conversation and its aftermath will turn him into a great warrior/leader and release Israel from a long suffered bondage under Midian.

If listening is a part of our prayer life, so too must be its corollary – dialogue or conversation. God wants not only to speak to us, He wants to interact with us. Our partnership with Him is neither silent nor one-sided but one of give and take. The difficulty in this is the inherent inequality of status between ourselves and the Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient God who created us. How can we possibly hear effectively from a being so far beyond us in understanding? How can we add anything to such a conversation? And yet without this exchange, the feedback and checks to understanding it provides, we cannot communicate or receive communication from God – not because of His limitations but our own.

Here we see such communication between God and Gideon generating surprise and fear but also providing assurance and direction to Gideon. It is a conversation which was broken off for a while and reengaged with later. It continues throughout the story and produces the growth we see in Gideon’s character as well as the strategy for battle which defeats Israel’s foes.

Rosalind Rinker in her book, Prayer – Conversing With God, says: “Prayer is the expression of the human heart in conversation with God. The more natural the prayer, the more real He becomes. It has been simplified for me to this extent: prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other.” She goes on to explain that there are four aspects to this form of daily prayer:
1. “When we converse, we become aware. Aware of the other person, his rights, his privileges, his feeling, and if we converse long enough, his total personality.
2. “Good conversation implies that we must take turn about and do it gracefully. When one person does all the talking we call it (if we are polite) a monologue.
3. “Finally, it should be clear that to converse we must all pursue the same subject, and pursue it by turns. We are, in a sense, the listening and speaking members of a team. We have agreed to agree upon our subject of conversation, and to do this each one must decide what is relevant and important at the moment.
4. “ To carry on a conversation of any significance or interest, each person must use his memory to recall, his patience to wait, his alertness to jump in, his willingness to get out, and above all his capacity to hold back the disruptive. In other words, he should be in tune.”

If this is not already a natural part of your prayer repertoire, why not try it today? Try speaking to God and waiting for His response. Try asking questions and listening for the answers. Try waiting for Him to direct the path the conversation might take. He may speak in audible words, in impressions, in the “voice inside your head” in pictures or even by touching your feelings. As you become more familiar with the form of dialogue so you will you grow in understanding of your conversational partner. Jesus says that the sheep come to recognize the shepherd’s voice. So too will we grow in knowledge and love of our Lord.

Mike Clarkson

Listening Prayer

1God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah
4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
6Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.
10"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
11The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Psalm 46

Reading this Psalm we can almost hear the sound of the busyness of the earth. We can hear the clash of battle, the bustle of commerce, the arguments and the cheers of success, the groans of everyday toil and the sighs when the day is over. We hear the quaking, the roaring, the rushing and surging as the psalm so poetically puts it. Over this cacophony the Lord lifts His voice (vs 6) and invites us to see Him at work (vs 8). He bids us to “Be still, and know that I am God.”(vs10)

The Bible tells us that our God is a God who speaks! He spoke the word that created everything. He spoke to Abraham and began His chosen people Israel. He spoke to leaders, rulers, prophets, ordinary people, soldiers, women in childbirth, children and youth – people about their businesses and those carefully listening. We read His words of encouragement, warning, guidance, comfort, foretelling and consoling, directing and upbuilding.

I can remember the first time that I realized that prayer was a dialogue; not a one-way stream of requests or commentary - but a conversation in which listening was as (maybe even more) important than speaking. What a revelation! I had never imagined that God might want to speak to me. My prayer times suddenly ceased being times of grocery-list needs or striving to be heard, but rather became a time of interchange or even pure receiving. For me prayer began to achieve a new rhythm and fruitfulness.

Joyce Huggett in her well known book, Listening To God, tells of one such time for her after a service in a nearby Abbey:
“When the monks left the church, I would linger there, as I did on this occasion. And I would be aware that every part of my being – body mind and spirit – were open, attentive to the divine presence. I had done nothing to prepare myself for this eventuality. God had done it. The initiative was His. The miracle was His. By beaming his love on to me in such a way I could feel, parts of me which normally remain closed, unfolded. I suppose I was rather like the water lily which opens itself when it can bask in warm sunshine but which closes its petals when cloud or rain obliterate the sun.
“What I heard in those times of listening was more than a voice. It was a presence. Yes. I heard the Lord call my name. But I also “heard” his tenderness. I soaked up his love. And this listening was on a level which runs deeper than mere words. Sometimes it seemed as though Jesus himself stood in front of me or beside me or above me. This encounter with Him overwhelmed me.”

In our times with God we should expect to receive from Him as well as to petition Him. Although for those of us with busy lives or active families it might be difficult, practically it might be helpful to set aside particular times of the day or particular places of quiet where in uninterrupted peace we might listen for that “still small voice” which so nourishes.

Mike Clarkson

The Prayer of Rest

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. Rom 8:26-27


There are times in our lives when even the most simple of prayers seems to be beyond us. We are confused or distressed. We are ashamed or guilty. We are angry with God. Life is too full of other priorities. We are just too exhausted to be able to face God or even go through the effort. These may be the times when God is most able to bless us with His presence. It is in the eye of the storm that the silence and calm can be most appreciated and nourishing. This is the time for the prayer of rest. There is perhaps no more appealing invitation in the Bible than Jesus’ gracious words, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Richard Foster explains this time, “While we are full participants in the grace-filled work of prayer, the work of prayer does not depend upon us. We often pray in struggling, halting ways. Many times we have only fragmentary glimpses of the heavenly glory. We do not know what to pray. We do not know how to pray. Often our best prayers feel like inarticulate groans. The point is that we do not have to have everything perfect when we pray. The Spirit reshapes, refines and reinterprets our feeble ego-driven prayers. We can rest in this work of the Spirit on our behalf.”

Allowing God to minister to us in the imperfection of our everyday lives is an important part of our time with Him. Our prayer lives are not like exams in school or important presentations at work where we need to have it all together before we are able to perform. Our prayer time can be the time we rest with God: our “hanging out” time. It can also be our broken time when we go to him wounded and battered. These are the times, as well as the joyous ones, in which God can just hold us and let us know how much He loves us; how acceptable we are to Him anyway. This is the communication of the soul more than the mind. This is the good “Daddy” time.

Jean Vanier, the leader of the L’Arche community for handicapped people which started in France describes this process in this way: he will cup his hands lightly before him and say, “Suppose I have a wounded bird in my hands. What would happen if I closed my hands completely?” The response is immediate, “Why the bird would be crushed and die.” “Well then, what would happen if I opened my hands completely?” “Oh, no, then the bird would try to fly away and it will fall and die.” Vanier goes on to say, “The right place is like my cupped hand, neither totally open nor totally closed. It is the space where growth can take place.”

If this is a time of distress, pain or indecision for you, a time where you are not sure where to turn and what is right or wrong, perhaps even a time where the temptation may be to turn away from church or God – this must be a good time to just rest with Him. Let Him be with you and minister to you and eventually carry you in His perfect direction.

Mike Clarkson

PRAYING THE BIBLE - I

THE APOSTOLIC INTERCESSORY PRAYERS

It is Saturday and the end of the first week of this Blog and I want to give you something a bit different and very practical:
Sometimes it is difficult to find the language to pray. How can I express to God what is in my heart? If I am to pray within His will - what is that will? Sometimes I get "Intercessors Block". I hope that the below list may be helpful in their entirety or as a stimulus. Today’s submittal is a list of prayers prayed by the Apostles. I have adapted the language so that the prayers may be applied to different circumstances by the entire church in any given geographic area. These prayers are personalized and are meant to be used for all the saints in all the congregations in any given city or area.

I. Acts 4:29-30
Lord, grant that your bondservants may speak your word with all confidence and boldness by releasing the anointing of your Spirit upon them, while you extend your hand to heal through them with signs and wonders being released through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

2. Romans 10:1
Our hearts desire and prayer is for the salvation of the lost (for natural and spiritual Israel).

3. Romans 15:5-6
That God may supernaturally grant the saints and the congregations of the Lord in this area the ability to be of one mind and one purpose with each other, that with one accord we may with one voice glorify God in the church in this area. / Cor. 1:11-12; Phil. 1:27; Phil. 2:1-3; John 17:21-22

4. Romans 15:13
That the God of all hope would supernaturally fill the church with all joy and all peace in believing that the church in this area may abound in hope by the power and revelation of the Holy Spirit, (vs. 33)

5. Romans 16:20
That the God of Peace would soon crush Satan's works and put them under the feet of the church by the manifestation of the works of the kingdom with wisdom, signs and wonders.

6. 2 Cor 1:3-5
May the God of all comfort fully comfort the saints and enable them to comfort others by the power of your Spirit. That your comfort abundantly flow to them in Jesus Christ.

7. 2 Cor. 13:9
That the church in this area may be made complete in gifts, fruit and wisdom, by the
demonstration and revelation of your Spirit.

8. Eph. 1:16-19
That God may give us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Jesus. That the eyes of our heart may be enlightened, so that we may experience the fullness of God's calling and might understand the fullness of the glory of the Father's inheritance in the entire church in our area and that we might experience the surpassing greatness of God's power in our lives and ministries.

9. Eph 3:16-19
That God would strengthen each believer in the church throughout this area with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that the fullness of Jesus may be expressed in our hearts and lives as we are rooted and grounded in love for God and for one another. That each believer may be able to fully comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Jesus' love for them and Jesus' love for His Father so that we might experience the fullness of God's Spirit working in and through our lives and through each congregation in this area.

10. Eph 6:19-20
Pray on the behalf of the leadership of the entire church in our areas, that words of utterance would flow through them supernaturally as they open their mouths to speak the word. That they might minister with the boldness that comes from being under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. (I believe this is a prayer for anointed prophetic preaching with the operation of the gift of Faith.)

11.Phil. 1:9-11
That the saints deep love for Jesus and for one another would abound more and more and that this love would be expressed with true spiritual knowledge and discernment, so that we might be able to clearly discern what God calls excellent so that our lives might be sincere and blameless in God's sight until the end. That our lives might be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through experiencing the presence of Jesus in our hearts.

12.Phil. 4:7
That the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension would supernaturally guard the
mind and the emotions of the saints in our area, especially in times of spiritual warfare.

13. Phil. 4:19,23
That God the Father would supply all the needs of the church according to His riches in glory and that the grace of the Lord Jesus might be powerfully manifest on the human spirit (inner man) of each believer.

14. Col. 1:9-11
That each congregation and each believer might be filled with the knowledge of God's will in each specific area of our lives and ministries and that God would add spiritual wisdom and understanding to this knowledge so tat we might fully please the Lord and bear good fruit in our ministries.

15. Col. 4:3-4
That God might open to the church a greater door for the word. In other words, that the word might go forth by the spirit of wisdom and revelation and be confirmed with signs and wonders.

16. Col. 4:12
That the church and its leadership might firmly stand in perfect wisdom, being fully assured in all the will of God for all its ministries. That the prophetic spirit of wisdom and revelation would flow in the hearts of the church.

17. I Thess 3:10-13
That God would release ministry that would complete what is lacking in any area of church life and that God may cause the church to increase and abound in love and compassion for one
another and for the lost, so that God may establish the saints with hearts unblamable in holiness.

18. 7 Thess. 5:23
That God Himself would personally sanctify the saints in every dimension, spirit, soul and body and that He would keep us in this purity without blame, until His coming.

19. 2 Thess. 11-12
That God may purify and lead this church into maturity that, He may count this church worthy of completely fulfilling our specific calling so that we might fulfil every aspect of our vision and desire to do good and that we might fulfil the work of faith with manifestations of great power, in order that the name of Jesus may be glorified in us.

20. 2 Thess. 2:16-17
That the Lord Himself and God our Father would comfort and strengthen our hearts in every
good word. In every ministry and every outreach of His word.

21. 2 Thess. 3:1-5
That the Word of God may spread rapidly and be magnified through signs and wonders and that God would grant the release of the full conviction of the Spirit on the Word. (7 Thess 1:5; John 16:8; Acts 19:20) That we may be delivered from perverse and evil men as God's anointing rests upon us. That the Lord would strengthen and protect us from the evil one, and that the Lord would direct our hearts into knowledge of the Father's love for us and that He direct our hearts into His love for Jesus and for all the saints and into the patience, perseverance and steadfastness that Jesus had under trials and temptations. (Rom. 5:5; John 17:6; Gal 1:11)

22. Hebrews 13:20-21
That God might fully anoint and equip us in every good work and ministry, to completely do His will in this area and then in our outreach to the nations. That God would supernaturally work in us that which is pleasing in His sight for the church in this area.

23. 1 Peter 5:10
That the God of all grace will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish each congregation in this area and each believer, in a supernatural way with power and revelation.

24.2 Peter 1:2
That grace and peace be multiplied to the saints as God supernaturally releases greater revelation of the knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ by opening the eyes of our heart. (2 Peter 3:18; Eph. 1:17-18)

Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving

1Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
2Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
3Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.
4For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
5For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
6Splendour and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
8Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.
9Worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
10Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
11Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
12let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
13they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. Psalm 96


Richard Foster says that, “Prayer is the human response to the perpetual outpouring of love by which God lays siege to every soul.” He calls this type of prayer “adoration” and says that it contains two aspects: Praise and Thanksgiving. He goes on to explain, “In one sense adoration is not a special form of prayer, for all true prayer is saturated with it. It is the air in which prayer breathes, the sea in which prayer swims. In another sense, though, it is distinct from other kinds of prayer, for in adoration we enter the rarefied air of selfless devotion. We ask for nothing but to cherish Him. We seek nothing but His exaltation. We focus on nothing but His goodness. In the prayer of adoration we love God for Himself, for His very being, for His radiant joy.”

In the Psalm above David’s (see 1 Chron. 16:7) total focus is on the wonder of God. He asks for nothing, for himself or others, he communicates nothing about himself, rather he can only sing of the marvel and the nature of the most important person in his life. Such a prayer can be said all day long and for years without running out of material. Such prayer is a measure of the hold which God has on us. It can be said at the most difficult of times or the most joyous of occasions. It can be said collectively out loud with others or in the solitude of our souls.

O’Hallesby calls this prayer “the breath of the soul.” A. W. Tozer wrote, “True Christian prayer is the heart’s harmonious response to the Lord’s song of love.” E. M. Bounds adds, “Gratitude and thanksgiving always looks back at the past though it may also take in the present. But prayer always looks to the future. Thanksgiving deals with things already received. Prayer turns to gratitude and praise when the things asked for have been granted by God.”

The lovely aspect of prayer as adoration/praise/thanksgiving is that it takes our vision off of ourselves. It causes us to look heavenwards and recognize the author of all true goodness, the carer of our souls; remind ourselves of His attributes and His great unceasing love for us. As we do this, our perception of our current environment changes and we find ourselves transported – or our circumstances transformed – into one of God’s perception. Even as we look adoringly at Him we begin to see ourselves and those around us more accurately and this changes our response to the circumstance. None of this is deliberate or difficult, but automatic, as His Spirit works in us and in our prayer lives. This too is a part of the “simple prayer” we have been looking at these past few days.

If at present you are struggling with the “how to” of all this I thought that you might also like to read this short story of simple prayer by Leo Tolstoy:

There were once three hermits who lived on an island. Their prayer of intimacy and love was simple like they re simple: “We are three; you are three; have mercy on us. Amen” Miracles sometimes happened when they prayed in this way.
The Bishop, however, hearing about the hermits, decided that they needed guidance in proper prayer, and so he went to their small island. After instructing the monks, the Bishop set sail for the mainland, pleased to have enlightened the souls of such simple men.
Suddenly, off the stern of the ship he saw a huge ball of light skimming across the ocean. It got closer and closer until he could see that it was the three hermits running on top of the water. Once on board the ship they said to the Bishop, “We are so sorry, but we have forgotten some of your teaching. Would you please instruct us again?”
The Bishop shook his head and replied meekly, “Forget everything I have taught you and continue to pray in your old way.”

Mike Clarkson