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
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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
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
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
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
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
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
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
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
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