Category: Musings & Meditations
Everything about the Christ life within is full of intention. The purpose of God is to bring many sons into glory. We are to be made in His image. We are overcomers learning to become more than conquerors. We are citizens of Heaven here on earth. We are the Bride of Christ; the brother of Jesus; sons of God; servants of the Lord; good soldiers and heirs of His Presence. Everything in the Kingdom is connected to an Intentional Identity.
In every situation of life we are learning to choose the intention of God towards us in that moment. Relationship with God is never one-dimensional. It is a multi-dimensional reality in His great heart for us. To make us like Him He must elevate us to His eternal reality in the Spirit. In this life we have a destiny to be seated with Christ in Heavenly places, far above all principalities and powers.
We can, of course, choose a lower magnitude of life and response. We can elect to live under something rather than above it. We can choose to be a victim rather than a warrior. We may prefer to be an employee rather than an heir (Luke 15:19). We can cut down our dreams to manageable proportions. God will have none of this. He is faithful, powerful and intentional about how He sees us. To live the life that only He can create for us we must first, of necessity, accept His vision for us. We must step into the place of intention when we agree with the identity that He prefers.
When we take the road we must journey with the same intention as the Father. Every situation is concerned with Abiding. Learning to stay, rest and dwell from a place of agreement and alignment. Are your current choices in life coming from an understanding of your lot in this world or are they arising out of a place of agreement regarding your place in the Kingdom?
Every situation is useful to us. Each circumstance provokes our identity to affirm God’s kind intention. What the Father shows you specifically about Himself becomes implicit for you; i.e., it is what He is declaring He will always be for you in all your circumstances. When the Lord showed me His kindness it overwhelmed my mind and heart. I began to learn that He desired me to become kindness, not just to experience it. Kindness became the heart of His agenda for me in every situation. It became my testimony. My identity received an upgrade. The implicit nature of God in my circumstances became the explicit expression of my behavior towards others. We choose with intention.
Focus on the experience of His nature towards you. What is it that He wants to be for you now? He will always reveal His intention. He is continuously fixed on His outcome for you. He is choosing to make you like Him. Therefore, He allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent by His power. He chooses our situations to empower us to rise up in His intentional identity in us and through us. His intention becomes our choice. His intention is our identity. Our choosing, then, is much more powerful than we can imagine.
We do not choose our circumstances. We choose God’s intention. We allow the will of God to elevate our hearts into a place of identity. Intention triumphs over doubt, fear and angst. Identity exalts our response to the required level for that particular circumstance. Life in the Spirit flows from the internal Presence to the external circumstance.
The Kingdom always provides an experience for what we believe. In abiding we are choosing to stay in His intention, so that we continue to believe, until we receive the experience.
When Israel heard that giants lived in Canaan, they wanted to choose to return to Egypt. God’s intention is that we are defined by the opposition which is against us. Giants therefore are designed to make us bigger, bolder and better. A giant tells us who we are going to become next in the intentionality of God. There has to be at least one giant in your future. Ordinary problems build a stairway from this level to the next. All problems are an issue of height. They create a lift; a spring in our step, a learning to rise up in all things.
A giant is an elevator that can take us up several levels. From shepherd boy to being at the court of the King, from teenage stone thrower to becoming King. We are seldom ready for real elevation because we think too little of ourselves. When we believe in God’s intentions towards us then our choices take us to the appropriate level of significance.
When the Scriptures refer to the “heavenly host,” we usually think of “choirs of angels.” The word “host” in the Bible meant “army” (Josh. 5:13-14). It is an important truth: the hosts of Heaven are worshiping armies. Indeed, no one can do warfare who is not first a worshiper of God.
The Central Issue In Tribulation: Worship
One does not have to penetrate deeply into the Revelation of John to discover that both God and the devil are seeking worshipers (see Rev. 7:11; 13:4; 14:7, 11). Time and time again the line is drawn between those who “worship the beast and his image” and those who worship God.
In the last great battle before Jesus returns, the outcome of every man’s life shall be weighed upon a scale of worship: in the midst of warfare and conflict to whom will we bow, God or Satan?
Yet, while this warfare shall culminate in the establishment of the Lord’s kingdom on earth (see Rev. 11:15), we must realize the essence of this battle is the central issue in our warfare today. Will we faithfully worship God during satanic assault and temptation? True worship must emerge in the context of our lives now. For no man will worship through the great battles of tomorrow who complains in the mere skirmishes of today.
You will remember that the Lord’s call to the Israelites was a call to worship and serve Him in the wilderness (see Exod. 7:16). Indeed, when Moses first spoke of God’s loving concern, we read that the Hebrews “bowed low and worshiped” (Exod. 4:31). But when trials and pressures came, they fell quickly into murmuring, complaining and blatant rebellion. Their worship was superficial, self-serving and conditional—an outer form without an inner heart of worship.
This same condition of shallow worship prevails in much of Christianity today. If a message is given that speaks of the Lord’s great care for His people, with eagerness do we bow low and worship. But as soon as the pressures of daily living arise or temptations come, how quickly we rebel against God and resist His dealings! The enemy has easy access to the soul that is not protected by true worship of the Almighty! Indeed, the Lord’s purpose with Israel in the wilderness was to perfect true worship, which is based upon the reality of God, not circumstances. The Lord knows that the heart that will worship Him in the wilderness of affliction will continue to worship in the promised land of plenty.
Without true worship of God, there can be no victory in warfare. For what we bleed when we are wounded by satanic assault or difficult circumstances is the true measure of our worship. You see, what comes out of our hearts during times of pressure is in us, but hidden during times of ease. If you are a true worshiper, your spirit will exude worship to God no matter what battle you are fighting. In warfare, worship creates a wall of fire around the soul.
Protecting Your Heart Through Worship
Most of us understand the basic dynamics of the human soul. We have been taught, and rightly so, that the soul is the combination of the mind, will and emotions. Generally speaking, when the enemy comes against the church, he targets any of these three areas. We must see that the protection of these areas is of vital importance in our war against Satan.
To further illuminate the nature of this battle, let us add that, in addition to the mind, the will and the emotions, the soul is made of events and how we responded to those events. Who we are today is the sum of what we have encountered in life and our subsequent reactions. Abuses and afflictions hammer us one way, encouragement and praise inflate us another. Our reaction to each event, whether that event was positive or negative, is poured into the creative marrow of our individuality, where it is blended into the nature of our character.
What we call memory is actually our spirit gazing at the substance of our soul. With few exceptions, those events that we remember the most have also shaped us the most. Indeed, the reason our natural minds cannot forget certain incidents is because those events have literally become part of our nature.
Our soul is shaped by how well or poorly we handled our past experiences. When Scripture commands us to not look back and to “forget . . . what lies behind” (Phil. 3:13; see Luke 9:62), it is saying we must undo the consequences that have come from our unchristlike reactions. With God, this is not impossible, for though the events of our lives are irreversible, our reactions to those events can still be changed. As our wrong reactions to the past change, we change. In other words, although we cannot alter the past, we can put our past upon the “altar” as an act of worship. A worshiping heart allows God to heal and restore the soul.
All of us receive a portion of both good and evil in this world. But for life to be good, God, who is the essence of life, must reach into our experiences and redeem us from our negative reactions. The channel through which the Lord extends Himself, even into our past, is our love and worship of Him.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28). The key for the fulfillment of this verse is that we become lovers of God in our spirits. Bad things become good for “those who love God.” When we are given to loving Him, all that we have passed through in life is washed and redeemed in that love. Bad becomes good by the power of God.
Therefore, it is essential to both the salvation of our souls and our protection in warfare that we be worshipers. The ship that safely carries us through the storms of adversity is worship.
Psalm 84 expresses in praise to God the wonderful effect worship has upon the soul. “How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca [weeping] they make it a spring; the early rain also covers it with blessings” (vv. 5-6).
If you are “ever praising” God (Ps. 84:4), your worship of God will transform the negative assault of the enemy into “a spring” of sweet refreshing waters. No matter what befalls a worshiper, their “valley of weeping” always becomes a spring covered “with blessings.” You cannot successfully engage in warfare, nor pass safely through the wilderness of this life, without first becoming a worshiper of God.
Worship: The Purpose Of Creation
We were created for God’s pleasure. We were not created to live for ourselves but for Him. And while the Lord desires that we enjoy His gifts and His people, He would have us know we were created first for His pleasure. In these closing moments of this age, the Lord will have a people whose purpose for living is to please God with their lives. In them, God finds His own reward for creating man. They are His worshipers. They are on earth only to please God, and when He is pleased, they also are pleased.
The Lord takes them further and through more pain and conflicts than other men. Outwardly, they often seem “smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isa. 53:4). Yet to God, they are His beloved. When they are crushed, like the petals of a flower, they exude a worship, the fragrance of which is so beautiful and rare that angels weep in quiet awe at their surrender. They are the Lord’s purpose for creation.
One would think that God would protect them, guarding them in such a way that they would not be marred. Instead, they are marred more than others. Indeed, the Lord seems pleased to crush them, putting them to grief. For in the midst of their physical and emotional pain, their loyalty to Christ grows pure and perfect. And in the face of persecutions, their love and worship toward God become all-consuming.
Would that all Christ’s servants were so perfectly surrendered. Yet God finds His pleasure in us all. But as the days of the Kingdom draw near and the warfare at the end of this age increases, those who have been created solely for the worship of God will come forth in the power and glory of the Son. With the high praises of God in their mouth, they will execute upon His enemies the judgment written (see Ps. 149). They will lead as generals in the Lord’s army of worshipers.
Where a Desolate Soul Finds God
by Francis Frangipane
In spite of breakthroughs in several regions, many Christians have grown weary. Their love is growing cold; their passions, lukewarm. The prophet Daniel warned of a time when the enemy would “…wear down the saints of the Highest One” (Dan. 7:25). To emerge victorious in this day, we must climb into the reality given to us by God in Psalm 91. There is a place of replenishing life, a fountain of light, wherein we can abide. The Bible calls this place the shelter of the Most High.
Elijah: A Man Like Us
Elijah was a man with passions like ours, and he fought in a spiritual war similar to ours. In his battle for the soul of Israel, he stood against the wiles of Jezebel and her husband, King Ahab. Yet his most intense battle was not against visible foes but against personal discouragement.
As bold as Elijah was, he lived as a fugitive moving in and out of caves and places of hiding. Jezebel had murdered nearly all of the Lord’s prophets, replacing their godly influence with the dark, satanic oppression accompanying the priests of Baal and the Asherah. A new initiative, however, had come from the Lord: Both Elijah and the prophets of Baal were to build altars, each to the deity they each served. The God who answered with fire would be acknowledged as Lord over the nation.
King Ahab and all Israel came to the confrontation. Try as they may, the priests of Baal could draw no response from their demonic idol, Baal. In dramatic contrast, at Elijah’s prayer, fire immediately fell from heaven and consumed his sacrifice. This was Elijah’s greatest victory. And when the Israelites saw the display of God’s power, they bowed to the ground saying, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God” (1 Kings 18:39).
But the Lord was not finished. After Elijah had the priests of Baal executed, he went to the top of Mount Carmel and, kneeling face down, he prayed seven times for rain until the Lord brought a great downpour that ended a devastating three-year drought. On this one day, both fire and rain miraculously fell from heaven!
Perhaps if this tremendous day had occurred at any other time in Israel’s history, the nation would have repented, but it did not. Baal worship should have ended, but it continued. In fact, nothing changed. Instead of the revival that Elijah envisioned, the opposite occurred: an enraged Jezebel vowed to kill the Lord’s prophet, spurring Elijah to flee into the wilderness. There Elijah collapsed, exhausted and despondent, beneath a juniper tree. “It is enough; now O Lord,” the weary prophet prayed, “take my life, for I am not better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4).
Elijah had offered the Lord his very best effort. This day had been the culminating event of his life. Elijah had prayed that Israel would know the Lord was their God and that, in response, the Lord would turn Israel’s “heart back again” (1 Kings 18:37). Yet, like the prophets before him, Elijah could not trigger revival for Israel. Discouragement overwhelmed him. He had had enough.
Have you been to the point of spiritual or emotional exhaustion where you too have said, “It is enough”? Perhaps you were frustrated by your own inability to effect positive change in your family; or, you’ve fasted and prayed for your church or society but no visible change occurred. You gave your all but found little success. Disheartened and weary like Elijah, all your resources were spent.
Elijah lay down and slept. As he did, an angel touched him and said, “Arise, eat” (1 Kings 19:5). At his head were bread and water. Elijah, weary with life itself, ate and withdrew back into sleep.
Once more the angel touched him. “Arise,” he said. “Eat, because the journey is too great for you” (v. 7). For all our visions, plans, and programs, the journey before each of us is also “too great.” Indeed our journey will always, at various points, be too great for us. For life is so constructed to drive us closer to God.
Back to Our Foundations
“So [Elijah] arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God” (1 Kings 19:8).
The Lord gave Elijah strength, not to send him back to battle but to bring him back to basics. If we become more consumed with our task than we are with our love for God, our lives will eventually become brittle and desolate. To restore our souls, the Lord brings us back to the essentials of our faith. Indeed, He might even stop our labors completely and direct us to the simpler realities of prayer, time in the Word, and worship. He reminds us that, of all He calls us to accomplish, His greatest commandment is to love Him with “all our heart” (Mark 12:30). Without this focus, we lose touch with God’s presence; we are outside the shelter of the Most High.
The Lord brought Elijah to “Horeb, the mountain of God.” In Hebrew, Horebmeans “desolation.” The barren environment mirrored Elijah’s soul. Yet to God, Horeb was actually a place where the issues of a man’s heart were flushed to the surface. There is no theater at Horeb, no acting. It is the place of unembellished honesty and core-to-surface transparency.
How Did You Get Here?
Perhaps Elijah’s greatest virtue was his zeal. Indeed, twice in his communication with God, Elijah speaks of having been “very zealous” for the Lord. But zeal unattended by wisdom eventually becomes its own god. It compels us toward expectations that are unrealistic and outside the timing and anointing of God.
To remain balanced, zeal must be reined in and harnessed by strategic encounters with the living God. Otherwise we become frustrated with people and discouraged with delays. We step outside our place of strength and spiritual protection.
Elijah had come to Horeb and lodged there in a cave. Soon the Word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (v. 9). This is one of the most important questions God will ever ask us. His question probes the reality of our spiritual state: “How did your service to Me become dry and desolate?” God wants us to know that when we fail to esteem Him as our first love, we will always find a desert awaiting us.
Our primary purpose in life must be to abide in Christ. Otherwise we can become so consumed with the deteriorating condition of the world that we fail to see the deteriorating condition of our own soul. In His love, the Lord stops us and forces us to look honestly at our heart: Is this existence that I now live the abundant life promised me from Christ?
Let’s speak candidly. We have nothing to prove and no need to pretend. We can abandon the internal mechanisms of defensiveness and pride. If we are disappointed, we are free to express it; if frustrated, we can admit it. We must simply and truthfully evaluate, without rationalization, our true spiritual condition.
Transparency is the outer garment of humility; and, humility draws the grace of God to our hearts. Is not intimacy with God the very thing we most neglect? And is not the Lord alone our source of strength in battle? If the enemy can distract us from our time alone with God, he will isolate us from the help that comes from God alone.
Let us approach the living God without any garment, but with transparency.
A Fresh Anointing
As the pressures of this age escalate, we will soon discover that yesterday’s anointing will not suffice for today’s battles. The Lord brought a new beginning to Elijah’s life at Horeb—one that would ultimately release a “double portion” of power to Elijah’s successor, Elisha. Under this new anointing, Jezebel would be destroyed, Baal worship abolished, and the only period of revival the northern tribes ever experienced would begin.
To reach a similar place of breakthrough, it will take more than the momentum of our own zeal. We should not be surprised if God calls us to pass through our own Horeb.
How will we recognize this place? Horeb is the voice of personal desolation; it is the desperate compelling of our heart to possess more of God. We must now listen carefully to the voice of God. For it is at Horeb that He brings us deeper into Himself. It is here, under the canopy of His compassion, that we discover the purpose of our brokenness: our desolation is in fact a time of preparation.
The Lord is about to bring a new beginning to you. When you return to the battle, you shall war from the shelter of the Most High.
Lord Jesus, apart from You, my life is dry and desolate. Forgive me for trying to do Your will without abiding in Your presence. I desperately need You, Lord. This day, I commit my heart to return to my first love. Teach me, Lord, to consider intimacy with You the greatest measure of my success. Let me see Your glory; reveal to me Your goodness. Guide me, Oh Holy Spirit, into the spiritual fortress of the presence of God. Amen.
The Greatest in God’s Kingdom
by Francis Frangipane
Of all virtues, Jesus elevated meekness above the rest. Why humility? It is the door opener to grace, and no virtue enters our lives except that humility acknowledges our need and requests virtue to come. Without humility, we see no reason to change or appropriate future grace.
Yet, humility not only hosts the other virtues, it is also the life essence that sustains them. It is humility that recognizes when love is growing cold and humility that confesses our need for greater purity. Without humility, our virtues harden into lifeless statues; we are outwardly religious, but inwardly unable to change.
Humility is the taproot of true nobility. For it provides increase to wholeness, and life and maturity to all other virtues. It is the antidote to Phariseeism and the cure for a Jezebelian attitude.
A Child
Consider: when Jesus was asked by His disciples, “Who then is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” He put a child in their midst. He said, “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:1,4).
What a sublime wonder! In Heaven, the height of greatness is measured by the depth of one’s humility.
Consider Wuest’s Expanded Translation of Jesus’ statement:
“Therefore, he who is of such a nature as to humble himself like this little child, esteeming himself small inasmuch as he is so, thus thinking truly, and because truly, therefore humbly of himself, this person is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Jesus came to establish Heaven in the lives of His followers. Thus, He introduces the realm of God to His disciples with the words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 5:3).
Beloved, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the “poor in spirit.” Who are these poor? They are people who “know their need” (Goodspeed Translation). Beloved, there are people in Heaven who were sinners on Earth. The streets of God’s kingdom are filled with people who, at some time or another, failed and fell short. There are adulterers who’ve been washed and cleansed by Christ’s blood, ex-drug dealers and prostitutes whose hearts are filled with praise to God – all who came face to face with their need, repented and found forgiveness of their sins.
But there is not one proud individual in Heaven. There are no self-righteous beings in Heaven.
Here on earth we see the strutting pride – the air of self-importance – manifest in leaders and celebrities. Again, we behold the air of false superiority in our cultural prejudices. We see unrepentant pride in the conflicts that lead to divorce and the offspring of pride – envy and jealousy – in the inordinate desire of men to be glorified before other men.
Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor in spirit! Not the perfect, but the poor. Yes, we are called to standards of perfection, and strive we must toward that upward call. Yet, perfection in Heaven is measured, not in degrees of self-sufficiency, but in degrees of dependency and surrender. We can search for an eternity and we will observe truly: there dwells not one proud soul in all of Heaven.
Today, we cry for revival and pray for breakthroughs, and persevere we must. Yet the Lord’s eyes are upon a certain individual. He says,
“For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isa.57:15).
The disciples were arguing about who is greatest in the Kingdom. Jesus placed a child in their midst. This is greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven: to possess a humble heart.
Draw Near
Intimacy with God begins when we radically pursue Him with our whole heart. King David wrote, “When You said, 
‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek’” (Psalm 27:8). God invites us in James 4:8 to “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
God is saying to us, “Seek my face! Draw near!” Our hearts are crying out, “YES!” But our flesh is screaming “NO!” The sad part is our flesh usually wins.
We are instructed in Psalm 46:10 to “Be still, and know that I am God.” The wording “be still” literally means to cease from striving. It means to let go and relax, to turn down the volume of the world and listen to the quiet whisper of God. It’s getting still and coming into a place of rest. It means soaking in His Presence. The result is that you will know He is God.
The word “know” is literally an experiential knowledge of God. It’s not being still and knowing about God. It’s being still and knowing God experientially. You will experience God. You will know the Presence of God.
As we focus our heart, spirit, soul, mind, and body (the whole person) on His manifest Presence, we become oblivious to the natural physical world around us.
The key is where your focus is – on the things of God or on things of this world.
Bible reading and prayer is not enough. We must take time alone with Him, not asking for anything but more of Him, more of His fullness, more of His presence in our everyday lives.
God releases power through us as we dwell in intimacy with Him. The natural outworking of His Presence is miracles.
How to Soak in God’s Presence
How do we soak? We soak like a sponge. Put a dry sponge in a bucket of water and slowly the water permeates the sponge. This is the same as soaking in God’s presence. The more we soak, the more we become filled with His Spirit.
I’m often asked, “What do you do in your time of seeking His presence?” I don’t have a set formula. In my life, it varies from time to time, but the basic components are as follows:
First, I go into a private room, lock the door, and get on the floor before the Lord. It doesn’t matter whether you sit or lie down. What’s most important is the attitude of your heart.
Second, I repent of any sin in my life and I receive God’s forgiveness.
Third, I worship the Lord in both my native language (English) and in the language of the Holy Spirit.
Fourth, I do the vital prayer of Romans 6:13 that has transformed my life: “…present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
Fifth, I begin to recall experiences with the Lord (i.e., healings, miracles, provision) where He has manifested Himself in wonderful ways. This creates more of an expectancy and awareness of His Presence as I relive these times.
I tell the Lord: “God, I want more of You, more of Your Presence, more of Your fullness in my life. Fill me with more of You.” I may repeat this statement many times as I wait on the Lord and focus on Him.
Then, I get quiet and that’s when I begin to hear His voice. Many times, I begin to have visions and supernatural experiences.
The key here is learning to wait in solitude. I cannot overemphasize the importance of waiting on the Lord until I experience His manifest Presence daily. I don’t come out of that private room until I have experienced His Presence.
During our soaking times, we position ourselves to receive impressions, nudges, quiet whispers, pictures, angelic visitations, and supernatural revelations. Here is a partial list of what to expect:
Dreams (Job 33:14-16, Gen. 28:10-16)
Visions (Dan 7:1-3,9, Acts 16:9-10)
Trances (Acts 10:9-17, 11:5)
Out of body experiences (2 Cor. 12:2-4)
Angelic visitations (Luke 1:57,11-17, Acts 12:7-10)
Being transported in the Spirit (Acts 8:39-40)
Experiencing the true intimate Presence of the living God will radically change your life. People describe His manifest Presence in different ways. To some, it is heat, electricity, or shaking. To others, it is lightness, peace, or weeping.
Experiencing the manifest presence is not the goal but the gateway to the supernatural realm. It’s the beginning. We go into the spirit realm where we can see Him, hear His voice, walk with Him, and be empowered by Him.
Isaiah 64:4 says God “acts for the one who waits for Him.” The Amplified version states, “God…who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who earnestly waits for Him.” He’s waiting on us to wait on Him.
The Cumulative Effect
Sometimes we may feel our soaking time has been unproductive. We ask, “Is it worth it?” because we see no immediate change or benefit. I realized some time ago that there is a cumulative effect that takes place when I spend time in the manifest Presence of the Lord.
From this cumulative effect, God is making a deposit into my inner most being. As I begin to give out, that anointing flows out of the deposit He had been making all along.
We must learn to come quietly into His Presence just wanting more of Him in our lives. We need to “soak in His Presence,” extracting more of His fullness into those places where we are barren. The cumulative effect of spending time with the Lord will produce an increased anointing in your life. The release of that anointing will serve as a springboard to a life of miracles.
The apostle John offers believers a mind-boggling statement in 1 John 4:17 (NASB) “…as He is, so also are we in this world.”
The implication of this verse is clear – believers should be like Him. That is next to impossible without spending quality time in His manifest Presence. We will never even understand His compassionate nature for a lost and wounded humanity without regular, daily times with Him.
Conclusion
Intimacy with God is the simple means by which we access living in the miraculous. Spending time in His manifest Presence is the discipline we must develop to access all that God has for us. And, the cumulative effect is what happens in our anointing (or gifting) to function in healing or any of the supernatural.
God’s timing has come for greater works to be accomplished among His people. Press in for more of God’s Presence in your own life!
Gary Oates Ministries
www.GaryOates.com
Love is the highest value of the kingdom (I Corinthians 13:13). It is the central motivation of all the
commandments (Mark 12:30-31). It is the character of God Himself (I John 4:8). It is the motivation behind the life mission of Yeshua (John 3:16). And it involves pain.
Love involves a relationship, which in turn involves another human being. All of us human beings cause trouble. We sin. Sin hurts other people. If we love people, we have to deal with the pain that sin causes.
I have wonderful, loving, faithful relationships with people in all spheres of my life – marriage, family, work, congregation, partners and friends. Yet they all involve pain. Faithfulness and patience means bearing the pain of relationships over a long period of time. The beauty of love is well worth the pain involved, but it does cost the price. Pain is the price of love.
Romans 15:1 – We who are strong should bear the weaknesses of the weak.
I Corinthians 12:26 – If one member is hurting, then all the members suffer.
I Corinthians 13:7 – Love covers all things… suffers all things.
Galatians 6:2 – Bear one another’s burdens.
Ephesians 4:2 – Suffer one another in love.
The pain of loving relationships comes in several dimensions. First we bear the weight when those we are in relationship with are weak. They cannot do all they should, so we need to “make up the difference.” Here there is no intended harm meant. It is more of a weight than a pain.
The second dimension is that we feel vicariously the pains of others. Yeshua would weep in His daily prayer times (Hebrews 5:7) as He felt the suffering of others. Paul (Saul) said that he felt the suffering of those in the congregations under his authority. This pain is a spiritual pain; not your own pain. It is the loving identification of compassion and intercession.
The third dimension of pain is when someone you love hurts you. Here the pain is more direct. The depth of love is intimacy. Intimacy demands openness. Openness makes for vulnerability. That means you can be hurt or wounded. When we are hurt, we have the grace of Yeshua to help us forgive, overlook, communicate and receive healing. Yet the process still hurts.
Yeshua suffered the pain of the crucifixion in order to maintain a relationship with us. Our sin and His love caused the pain. Unfortunately, we are still causing Him pain. He forgave us on the cross. He continues to forgive us today.
Colossians 3:13-14 – Bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against one another, even as Messiah forgave you, so you also must do. But above all things, put on love.
We are called to follow in Yeshua’s footsteps. We act as He did on the cross. As He forgave us, we forgive others. He paid the price to continue in relationship with us. He suffered pain in order to love us. We suffer pain in order to love others. We walk by faith in the kind of sacrificial love that Yeshua had for us.
Question: What will happen if, in your spiritual walk, you turn lukewarm instead of steadfastly seeking the Lord? The answer is, nothing will happen. Meteors won’t fall from the sky and hit you. Nothing that is not common to man will happen to you. You will simply remain the same as you have been: unchanging. An unchanged life is judgment enough.
If we don’t steadfastly walk with God, we simply cannot be transformed. Yes, one’s spirit can still be saved even if we have built our lives with “wood, hay and stubble” (1 Cor. 3). But we will have accomplished little toward our eternal destiny. The glory awaiting us will be barely noticeable, a flicker, compared to those who embraced their transformation on earth and now, in eternity, “shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:45).
The Almighty doesn’t demand we change. True, He will convict us of sin and push us away from a slope into hell, but He isn’t going to dominate our will or make it impossible to disobey Him. Convictions and warnings from the Spirit will help save us from hell, but they won’t equip us for Heaven.
My point is this: our pursuit of the Lord cannot be motivated simply by fear or relief from a present conflict. The treasure of God’s Presence is the extreme value in all the universe. He must be sought for the incomparable worth of knowing Him for Himself. For this goal we seek Him.
Yet, He also seeks something from us. Does He simply enjoy watching, year after year, billions of humans feeding incessantly upon temporal realities? Or is the Most High seeking something more profound in His creation of man?
Here’s what Jesus taught about the nature of God. He said that the God of creation is a seeking God: He seeks that which was lost; He seeks true worshipers, and He is “like a merchant seeking fine pearls” (Matt. 13:45). We need to understand this about the Lord: He is not seeking the typical, but the valuable. It is in His nature to seek people who, having accepted Christ, now pursue conformity to Him as the central passion of their hearts..
He tests the sincerity of their commitment: will they offer their precious lives to God as followers of Christ? Though they rise and often fail, they do not withdraw. They have purposed to offer to the Father hearts made pure in the fire of His love.
Is this not what the Father should expect, especially since the actual Spirit of His Son dwells within us? Though many are called and few are chosen, yet from those who respond does He not anticipate a reward for His sufferings? That reward is this: that He would see replicated within us the same faith, love, and redemptive nature that Christ Jesus Himself manifest. This is what the Father seeks.
Trained Not Just Saved
“By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:5-6).
It is one thing to believe in Christ, another thing to believe like Him. Jesus said that His goal with us is not only to save our souls, but then to “fully train” us until we are actually “like [our] teacher” (Luke 6:40). This is the holy quest of God; it is the first and eternal purpose of creation: to make man in the image of God (Gen. 1:26).
One may argue: well, I tried to follow Christ but I was hurt (or, I didn’t agree with my church’s doctrines; or, I faced a battle greater than I could handle).
Yes, but without such challenges how will the nature of Christ develop within us? God put us in impossible situations specifically to accommodate our transformation – where we would learn to draw upon the grace and power of His Son. The journey toward Christlikeness will, inevitably, compel us beyond the boundaries of our human nature, and so it should be.
The Father found one pearl of great price in His Son. Yet His heart searches still to see His Son revealed in a many-membered body. He continues today seeking for true worshipers whose hearts stay soft even when conditions are hard. He seeks the precious value of a redeemed people who, when faced with injustice, find greater manifestations of Christ’s love by which they respond. Their hearts are steadfast regardless of delays or trials.
There may be just one individual in a neighborhood or just two in a city that are truly seeking hard after Christ, but these worshipers have attracted the attention of God. They are the salt of the earth. They pursue sonship. They are the focal point of the seeking God.
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In my forty plus years of ministry I have seen many who began the race well, only to stumble over the issues of life and go spiritually dormant. Yet among those who stumbled, there are true sons and daughters, and Jesus promises that a “bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (Isa. 42:3). God is calling them back. In spite of their failures, He intends to use them: they will showcase Christ’s grace. For those who have been forgiven much, love much. They will reveal the wonders of Christ’s glory.
Jesus’ first mention of the Church also gives us His first description of His intended action of the Church: the authority to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth through prayer! ”I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven” (Matthew 16:19).
Jesus intended for the Church to be His ruling Body on the earth – His ekklesia, governing and advancing His Kingdom through prayer. He is the Rock, and the praying Church is the vehicle through which the Rock – to whom and through whom all authority in Heaven and earth has been given – reigns and rules on the earth.
Therefore, initiative in all world affairs is with the Church! Christians are the only people personally and directly in relationship with the One who rules from the Throne of the universe. He has appointed us as His representatives on earth where we live. He hears our prayers and answers.
God is Willing
Prayer is not so much a duty as a delight for God and His creation. It is the place where we get to fellowship with Him, know His heart and He ours, and participate with Him in the affairs of His creation. Proverbs 15:8 says, ”The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.” In Song of Songs, the King speaks to His beloved, ”O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely” (Song of Solomon 2:14).
When we pray, we are turning our eyes to our Father and communicating our love, our joy, our faith and expectation in Him. We are calling on His name that is the fullness of every covenantal promise and blessing and delighting in Him. In prayer there is an exchange, like the kiss of Heaven. We breathe Him in and exhale out His answer to the earth.
It is His delight to answer us. When we come, we should come expecting His open arms and open door: ”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened”(Matthew 7:7-8). This is the posture Jesus tells us to take when we come,”Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22, see also Mark 11:24).
His prayer life is not the exception, but the model for all who would come to His Father in His name: ”And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14). The result of all prayer is joy – in His presence is fullness of joy, and a life of prayer necessarily will draw us closer and closer into abiding relationship with Him (See John 15:7, 16:24; Psalm 16:11).
How We Pray
1. The Name of Jesus: First and foremost we pray in the name of Jesus. He is the access through the veil to the Throne of Heaven (Hebrews 10:20). It is the name above every other name (Philippians 2:9). It is His instruction to His disciples, ”If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14). His name carries the riches of Heaven and every blessing and promise there,”And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19); ”For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
2. With Praise and Thanksgiving: ”Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name” (Psalm 100:4). Our focus will determine the effectiveness of our prayer. Thanksgiving sets your eyes and your heart on the awesome certainties of God. It brings you into harmony with His glory and directs your heart and prayers with the authority there: ”Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). We guard our gates with praise (see Isaiah 60:18). Praise and thanksgiving enthrone the King of the Universe over our lives, our circumstances and our world (Psalm 22:3).
3. Without Condemnation: Jesus, our great High Priest, has gone before us with His cleansing Blood. He paid your debt in full, and there is now no condemnation for you (see Romans 8:1). His righteousness is now yours, and you can boldly enter before the Throne in full confidence: ”Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). The Apostle Paul instructs Timothy, ”I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting” (1 Timothy 2:8). Our assurance is in Christ, and that is how the Lord expects us to approach Him in prayer.
David writes, ”If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:18). When we pray from the standpoint of our own limitations and failures, we are putting ourselves in slavery to what we alone can do. Let go of your doubts and fears, shut out the accusation of the enemy and step into faith to receive the boundless power and generosity of God: ”If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”(Romans 8:31-32).
4. Right Motive: Effective prayer is prayer that glorifies God. Jesus promised, ”Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). In Jesus, ”all the promises of God are Yes and Amen, to the glory of God through us” (see 2 Corinthians 1:20). On the flip-side, prayer that is from the wrong motives, goes unanswered: ”You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures”(James 4:2-3).
5. Right Relationships: When it comes to prayer, our relationship with one another is as important as our relationship with God. Jesus includes it in His model prayer, ”Father…forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”(Matthew 6:12). It is so integral to prayer that He makes sure that”whenever you stand praying,” if we realize we have an out of kilter relationship with someone, we should forgive them (see Mark 11:25-26). Peter writes to husbands to be in harmony with their wives so their ”prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7). Let Jesus stand between you and every other person, between you and even yourself to bring wholeness, forgiveness and love as you release forgiveness and receive grace to fill that empty and broken place.
6. Directed by the Holy Spirit: True prayer is like slow-dancing with God. As He leads us and as our hearts are joined to His, our steps follow His. We come into alignment with His will. Being led means being governed by the Holy Spirit day to day, finding moment to moment fellowship with God (see Romans 8:14). The Holy Spirit will direct our prayers, dropping His thoughts and desires into our hearts. And when we do not know what to pray, we can pray in the Spirit, and He will pray through us:
“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).
His power working in us and directing us will bring God glory through prayer:”Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen”(Ephesians 3:20-21).
7. According to God’s Word: When we pray God’s Word, we pray the will of the One who committed it to us. His Word is living and active, discerning, a powerful spiritual weapon and everlasting (see Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17; Isaiah 40:8). One of the most powerful prayers is that of Mary, ”Be it unto me according to Thy word” (Luke 1:38). Her agreement with God’s Word made her the vessel for the Son of God to come into the world and answer every heart’s cry. When you make your heart’s cry align with His, your prayers will do the same. Daily time spent meditating on and reading Scripture will breathe life into your prayers. Take note of particular verses that stand out to you, or that the Holy Spirit highlights for you, and begin to pray those words of God as your own.
You can also pray the great prayers of the Bible; the prayers of Daniel, the prayers of Moses, the apostolic prayers of Paul all are examples. When you do so, you are praying for the desires of God’s heart as they appear in Scripture. Two of these are God’s specific commands:
A. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). His covenant promises for Israel, her land and people have not passed away, but are still being fulfilled to this day. When you pray for the restoration and peace of natural Israel, you are praying the will of God (see Zechariah 10:9-10; Isaiah 11:11; Hosea 1:10; Ezekiel 36:24-28).
B. The other is, ”Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
Good government is the will of God – it gives us a secure, blessed and morally upright society. It facilitates the advance of the Gospel, and thus the praying Church is fulfilling the great commission to preach the Gospel. Good government will harmonize with God’s will for His people Israel. Good government is an example of God’s Throne as central government over all. Good government and the Church are divinely connected. Praying for good government is the primary responsibility of Christians when we come together in prayer.
