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\nIt\u2019s crunch time. All the things you have been attempting to deal with in your hectic life are beginning to over shadow you and decisions which need to be made are simply falling to the wayside as one interruption after another divides your already over-taxed attention. Frustrated, anxious, and weary you fall back into a mode of seclusion trying to find a remedy, a fix, the resolve to go on.<\/p>\n
In a moment of zombie abandonment, you flip through the mind-numbing channels on your television, not seek anything to watch but more an opportunity to tune out. And then with a flip, you hear it: \u201cLet us pray.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hold on there pardner! Don\u2019t for a moment think that this entire piece is about how to pray. This is actually a piece about why your prayers aren\u2019t working now, haven\u2019t in the past, and with great certainty, if you continue down the same path, won\u2019t work in the future.<\/p>\n
Yes, this is a brave claim that none our your clergy folks are going to present to you for one simple reason: They are having the same issue, but they can\u2019t tell you this because it will tip the balance of power away from them.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s step back for a moment and look back on events which have transpired throughout your lifetime. These global events have been met with prayers from all sides. But fires have raged on, hurricanes have howled, blizzards have stopped us in our tracks, while floods have wiped away all tracks and traces of our presence. But let\u2019s look at some of the biggies which have been happening since man began walking upon the earth. Consider the following passage from the book of James.<\/p>\n
Jas 4:1-3 What causes wars and contentions among you? Is it not the cravings which are ever at war within you for various pleasures? (2) You covet things and yet cannot get them; you commit murder; you have passionate desires and yet cannot gain your end; you begin to fight and make war. You have not, because you do not pray; (3) or you pray and yet do not receive, because you pray wrongly, your object being to waste what you get on some pleasure or another.<\/em><\/p>\n Now I\u2019ll admit that I don\u2019t like to quote passages out of the book of James because being a grace guy, James is written to an audience which is more law-centric than grace savvy. However, this passage is on point for all that it covers. At first glance, the most glaring issue is that we think that our prayers are designed to satisfy our cravings or desire for things. God is not Santa Claus. God is not your servant, waiting at your beck and call to do your bidding. I know some of you will find this hard to swallow, but you cannot influence God to do something for you today that He has never done in the past for you \u2013 even if you end your prayers, \u201c\u2026in Jesus name.\u201d<\/p>\n (Heb 13:8) Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.<\/em><\/p>\n Here is the rub: We have no clue what it means to be someone whose character never changes. We look at our short life span and can pick out changes in our nature and our character as we advance toward maturity. There are not many of us who can claim how we were the same person in our twenties, with the same values and ideals we possessed as we do in our retiring years. So, when we are confronted with this next passage, we wince.<\/p>\n (Mal 3:6) For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.<\/em><\/p>\n Notice how the Lord makes reference to the sons of Jacob, not the sons of Israel. Let me put this matter in context by rephrasing it in terms which maybe you can identify with. \u201cI am the Lord, I change not; therefore you breed of liars, thieves, impostors, and conniving scoundrels are not consumed.\u201d<\/em> Pretty accurate description of our issues. Thank God we don\u2019t get what we deserve!<\/p>\n In our brash immaturity, defined by a life which spans 60 to 80 years, we miserably fail in understanding the eternal nature of God. In doing so we think that we are the only ones who are going through this stuff and there have been none other who can possibly understand our predicament.<\/p>\n Isa 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, (10) Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:<\/em><\/p>\n Look, I have been involved in prayer for decades. Intercessory groups, prayer chains, closet God-talkers. However, things have changed in my prayers. I can assure you how you pray, and I pray are at two extremes of what most would call prayer. I have been where you are, pressing in, calling down heaven, storming the gates. Yet, one day it all changed and has been evolving ever since. Let me offer this, not as a story, but as an example of what you have to look forward to.<\/p>\n I was in an intercessory group a number of years ago and like today, it was an election cycle. We had assembled with the intent of proclaiming God\u2019s will for the \u201cchosen\u201d righteous candidate and the opening of the eyes for the public who had been seduced by the enemy through his lies. We tarried, we pressed in, we groaned, we repented with weeping and wailing, we declared the word of God garbed in the armor of God, pleaded the blood of Jesus\u2026you know, the whole arsenal of prayer.<\/p>\n There came a moment maybe two hours into the session when the entire group was fervently in prayer, praying in tongues (yes, we were charismatic) decreeing the Word as it came to us, striking down and binding the powers and principalities. I was lying face down on the carpet, tongues gushing from the well within me, when I heard deep within me a very calming voice say, \u201cStop this. You don\u2019t know what you are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n The intensity of the moment, the angst and drama which accompanied it, suddenly evaporated and a cloak of peace enveloped me while my fellow intercessors pressed on in their high calling. I lay there for what seemed like hours in this peaceful embrace, quiet, yet listening to the utterances coming from my compatriots. Something inside me had changed and it affected my entire prayer life then, and has held up to this day. This is the point where I bring in the verse which all prayer warriors rally.<\/p>\n Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.<\/em><\/p>\n At this juncture I am going to make a claim that goes against what you have always been told regarding this verse (surprise!). \u201c\u2026groanings which cannot be uttered,\u201d actually means, SHUT UP, STUPID!<\/p>\n Look, here is your issue: you don\u2019t believe that God is omnipotent, all powerful, so you pray for more power; you don\u2019t believe God is omniscient, all knowing, so you feel it is your responsibility to tell him things you believe he doesn\u2019t know; you don\u2019t believe that God is omnipresent, always present, so you call down heaven and the kingdom of God to invade your situation. Because of these three issues, you pray amiss and have not. Let me take it one step further, the god you are praying to is merely a grander, less corrupt version of yourself who you have made as an idol of for your glorious worship and heart-felt supplication. Before you turn aside from me for preaching truth, understand that I have been there and the road of good intentions is often a smooth mirage designed to hide the life-altering potholes which wait to deflate and impale you.`<\/p>\n So then what is prayer? When someone says, \u201cLet us pray,\u201d what are we to do?<\/p>\n (Psa 46:10) Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.<\/em><\/p>\n Life comes at you from all sides, top and bottom included. Being still is the last option, right? There are no means available to you to duck, dodge, or deflect what life throws at you. It is going to hit you in the private parts when you least expect it, and while you\u2019re bent over gasping for air, it will do it again simply because you were exposed from the back side. Anything you are able to utter in prayer will be based on somewhere in time to an eternal God who knows what you are going through (omniscient); has promised He will never leave you or forsake you (omnipresent); and who has chosen to place His kingdom of grace and peace within you (omnipotent).<\/p>\n Prayer at these moments is not what you can say to an eternal, immortal God, but what He wants to say to you as the holy vessel for His kingdom on the earth. Prayer, all forms of it, comes down to this simple statement: Be still; God is still speaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s crunch time. All the things you have been attempting to deal with in your hectic life are beginning to over shadow you and decisions which need to be made are simply falling to the wayside as one interruption after … Continue reading