Prayer....

Just a word for the herd today.  Was going through some old books and found a great quote about praying.  Doing inventory about my life and some of the situations I find myself in.  Trying to weasel my way out and find that I am not able to.  Many people think Jesus is a crutch and that to pray to Him is beneath their dignity.  Let them get a heart attack or a cancer and they squirm under the weight of the Eternal Reality.  But for us that trust God for all things, there is a way in which we should pray.  Jesus in Matthew chapter 6 gives us a "model" prayer.  That is not all inclusive of how we should pray, just a model.  Watchman Nee, writes about one aspect of praying....and that praying effectively....

"Many prayers are inconsistent prayers.  A person can pray for one or two days.  But after three months, he completely forgets it.  Some people can pray about something only once.  They cannot even pray a second time for it.  Such ones care little whether they receive what they ask for.  Please count how many of your prayers have been offered for the second time, the third time, the fifth time, or the tenth time.  If you have forgotten your prayers, how can you expect God to remember them?  If you do not have a heart to pray, how can you expect God to have a heart to listen?  If you have forgotten your prayer, how can you expect God to remember it?  Actually, you have never wanted what you asked for.  A person will pray persistently only when he is pressed in the environment and driven by needs.  In such cases he may persist for decades and still not give up praying, 'Lord! If You do not answer me I will not stop asking."  If you want to ask for something, you should trouble God about it.  If you really want it, you must ask persistently until God hears you.  You have to ask in such a way that God cannot do anything except answer your prayer.  You have to ask until God is forced to answer you."-  Watchman Nee Prayer.

Like it or dislike it, chew on this statement.  (Also see Luke 18). May the Lord reveal how sincere we are with our prayers.  One thing the Lord corrected me on recently is, "Stuart, you are complacent in your lack".  I said, 'wow! are You serious?  I am trying to be content!'  and God says to me in my heart, "I want to bless you!"  Pray people....and pray persistently and sincerely.-   Stu

EARS TO HEAR

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The latest thing of great importance to me lately is the fact that God speaks even yet today.  Recently I have been taking a lot of my personal burdens to the Lord in prayer.  Taking my fears and anxieties, uncertainties and such to Him and asking Him to deliver me and rescue me from my situation.  As I went into my prayer room at home I went again to lay out my soul before Him.  My focus was on myself and my struggles, so I just felt the urge to listen.  In my listening I began to open up my mind.  In an instant I had a thought come across my mind that was a solution to a problem in the ministry we were having.  In this problem I was having to appoint a leader over a small group that was really not prepared yet.  I felt awkward about it, but at the same time I felt like I had to do it.  I logically thought it all the way through and there were no other options in my mind.  I shared it with some of the other close saints that work with me at 180 and they all thought my plan was pretty good as well.  In the prayer closet, however, God gave me the solution to the problem we were facing.  The solution was so outside the box that I couldn't see it.  He told me who to bring in, when to do it and how it would work.  Now this might not seem big to you, but as I write this, it simply encourages my soul more and more that God is relating WITH ME!  I am crying out about my this and that, and He is directing me in my that and this.  Did I get my rescue I have been praying about?  No..... but I know the Lord is with me.  He is directing me.  He is relating with me.  YES!  Be encouraged that as you go and invest time with the Lord, in His presence, He will speak.  And the way He speaks might surprise you ("on another topic"...He might say).  May God give us all an ear to hear even when God is speaking on something we are not even focused on. 

The Presence Factor

Just coming out of a season of God "dealing with us" as a church.  You know as I go week to week and have discussions with the members of the church, I can't help but think that God allows me to hear things that He wants me to hear.  You know, scripture says, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Romans 8:14.  People all the time say, "Man you were preaching to me!  That ain't right."  I should say in response, "stop giving me something to preach about!"  Joking of course.  On a serious note, a lot has been revealed to our church that God wants HIS PRESENCE to rest in the Church of God.  If Jesus is the HOPE of the world and He dwells in the heart of His followers, then He better be present!  Moses said it like this when God was tired of dealing with the Israelites in Exodus 33

   ¹³"Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight Consider too, that this nation is Your people."   ¹⁴And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest."  ¹⁵Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.

   ¹⁶"For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?"   ¹⁷The LORD said to Moses, "I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name."   ¹⁸Then Moses said, "I pray You, show me Your glory!" 

Truly this is how God has been dealing with Heather and myself.  Just recently (5 weeks ago) I was shaping up my 2 year goatee and I felt impressed to cut it off.  Then as I was shaving it off I sensed the need to shave my whole head.  I know it sounds fanatical, but I truly felt God was DEALING with me.  Trying to say in a voice I could understand, "Come on Son, I am trying to take you to the next level, but you are too slow in staying where you are."  I felt I needed to physically strip my head as a sign to myself to get basic with myself and God, sanctify myself and go where God is calling me and wanting me to go.  In my repentance I asked a sister in the church to pour anointing oil on my head and pray for me.  She poured the whole bottle of oil (vial) on me.  As the scented oil dripped down my head and in my eyes and on my shirt, I couldn't even see.  I was so much in pain because of the eye burn, and all I could think was, yes Lord, this is what I need, I need You. Everyone in the service probably thought I was a freak, but what I was saying to God is "I DON'T WANT TO GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT YOU LORD."    Without you Lord, without your PRESENCE, what good is this stinkin ministry?  What has been accomplished yesterday is in the books, so my prayer and I hope yours too is, God if You won't go with me, don't send me!!!  -STU

A Heritage of Movement

I have been reading a very interesting book that I picked up a couple of weeks ago.  Jeremiah asked me, "Dad, how many hours are you going to read that book.'  Obviously I am in a trance and amazed to learn some new things about the move of God in American history.  The book, Jonathan Edwards a New Biography (Iain H Murray), has been amazing so far (1/2 way through).  What I was shocked to see is how in the olden times (1720-50's) the church was very much what I had envisioned in America, specifically in the North Eastern section.  Pews, lecterns, starchy (dead) church services that left many people unchanged.  However in the late 1720's America entered into what is a time of "Revival".  Called the Great Awakening, the church it is documented, came alive.  Even with the old starchy robes of the preachers the likes of George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards and others came to move the dead church into a frenzy of activity.  First the preaching was significantly different than the preaching of that day.  The preaching probed the consciousness of the hearers of that day. Digging to the heart, it questioned if truly the listener was "right with God."  Were the people merely expressing an outward form of worship or did they truly KNOW the God they professed to be "worshiping."  What made this season of movement so intense is that people came to realize in their heart of hearts that they were truly lacking in a proper relationship needed for eternal assurance.  Outbursts of tears, sighs and groanings and many "unsanctified" activities ensued.  This weird movement caused so much division that denominations and church fathers argued back and forth whether it was a divine movement or a movement of man.  In this book it is estimated that over 40,000 souls came to faith in Christ through this movement.  In our experience, for many of us, in churches across America, we have been guided to experience a dead and lifeless god, because what we are being led to is liturgical crosses, incense, beads, robes and pulpits, starchy white collars, traditions of man and arguments over whether to sing hymns or contemporary songs.  I pray today for some MOVEMENT.  Let the spirit of Whitfield, Wesley, Edwards return to the church. Lord, let the Spirit of Christ return to wake a sleeping church.  When revival hits the church, people will not be able to sit still knowing their souls are dangling over eternal damnation while being deceived with the comfort of elevator organ music lulling them passively to slumber.  Time for a new Movement!