A dear friend of mine says that faith believes that what God says is the most true thing. Working with this definition might mean other things are true as well but what God says is truer then even them. For instance, if we apply this to the practice of prayer, it is often true that many of our prayers seem to go unanswered or are answered in ways other than we had hoped they’d be. However, approaching the practice of prayer in faith would then mean that what God says is truer than my experience of prayer at times.
Beloved, what God says of prayer in His Word is most certainly truer than our experience and our feelings in prayer at times; perhaps many times, but truer, nonetheless. Let us not dare to settle for anything less than all God longs for us to experience as we re-practice the spiritual habit of prayer because it is true according to God’s Word that or Father God wants us to know the joy of answered prayer.
Jesus came to represent the Father to humanity and as He did He taught on and practiced prayer. In fact, Jesus’ teaching on prayer was one of the most positive areas of His teaching ministry. He tells us things that are truer than our experience sometimes, things such as:
“I tell you, 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or, if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give goods gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:9-13, ESV).”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it (John 14:12-14, ESV).”
Does your experience of prayer measure up to these verses? Are you receiving, finding, having doors opened, and receiving whatever you ask for in the name of Jesus? To some degree perhaps but not to the degree you’d like to see be your experience? I know that I am not. I want to see more answered prayer in my life, my family’s life, and in the life of the Alliance of Renewal churches network.
In acknowledging my practice of prayer not measuring up to the most true thing God’s Word says about prayer, I refuse to let my lack of experience be the last word on the subject. I refuse to settle for less than all God wants for me, for my family, and for all you in the ARC. I refuse to settle for less than the most true thing God says about prayer. I want His Word, not my experience to be the last word on the subject!
So I am going to re-practice prayer by continuing to preach, teach, and practice God’s Word, not my experience. I am going to continue to pray until there is a breakthrough in my prayer life, in the prayer life of my family, and in the prayer life of the Alliance of Renewal Churches. Will you join me? Will you join me in choosing this year not to settle for less than all God has in store for us as we pray? Will you join me this year in not allowing our experience of prayer, but rather God’s Word concerning prayer to have the last word in our lives, and in the lives of those we pray for?
If we will practice prayer more consistently and intentionally this year, if we will allow ourselves to wrestle with the mystery of prayer more this year and not give up, we will see more God breakthroughs; more God breakthroughs in our lives and in the lives of others.
We cannot experience and live fully into the vision God has given us in the ARC unless we are committed to being a people of prayer and our churches being houses of prayer. That vision, lest we forget is this: To see churches and leaders on the radical edge with God, kicking at the darkness until it bleeds daylight so the people of God live into their destiny as world changers, and the least, the last and the lost are touched by the love of God.
God did not give this sense of vision to us just so we could have a nice sounding vision statement on a piece of paper or on a website. He gave it to us to live into. He gave it to us to grow us and stretch us in our experience of what He can do through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through us. Let’s go for it. Let’s not settle for anything less.
Let us ask God to stir us pray more consistently and intentionally this year than ever before, even when our experience may not be resulting in as much answered prayer or prayers answered in the ways we thought they should be. Let us trust that as we make the effort to pray, God will meet us there, teach us there, transform us there, and enable our experience to grow through faith in matching what is most certainly true: Father God wants us to know the joy of answered prayer.
Mike
