I’ve had several people lately ask me what I’ve been reading and so I thought I’d devote a few blog posts to the things that have been impacting me lately.
Sorry about the abrupt ending to last week’s call to prayer. My two month sinus infection came to a crisis point and I spent a few days in bed. Ahh…but the blessing in that was a book that I devoured in just a few short hours.
Left to Tell is the story of Imaculee Ilibagiza’s life in the horror of the Rawandan genocide. And really it is a book about prayer and the power of forgiveness.
The genocide in Rawanda started on April 7, 1994. Imacculee spent 91 days hidden in a tiny – 4′x3′ – bathroom with 7 other women. Hutu death squads came repeatedly looking for any Tutsis who might have escaped previous notice. The bathroom, in the house of a Hutu minister, was hidden from the eyes by divine intervention. During her time in hiding, Immaculee discovered the how to pray and to hear the voice of God. Most importantly, she learned the power of forgiveness. The horror of the graphic details of the murders of her family members were recounted to her when she had moved out of the bathroom and into the protection of French UN forces. Later when confronted with the jailed murderer of her beloved brother, she simply said to him, “I forgive you.”
This book is a must read for those who are concerned for godly justice in the earth, for those who know that there is more to prayer than they understand, and for those who have been traumatized by life in any way. Only the way of forgiveness leads to life.
The title of the book reflects Imaculee’s understanding of her purpose in life. She was left alive to tell her story. God’s got a purpose in her message. I think we should listen.
Over the past several months I have been slowly digesting an amazing book called The Gospel According to Job.
This book has short two page “devotional” type chapters as it walks slowly through the book of Job. Just like Lays potato chips, you can’t read just one. But you can’t digest a whole chapter at a time either. They are rich and thick with deep truth and wisdom.
Last night I ran across this thought that I would love to shout from roof tops in order to help every single person think differently about prayer and to become more and more successful at prayer.
Most people, of course, have questions for God. But hardly anyone is willing to hold out and wait (let alone to wheedle and pester the Lord) for an answer. Most people will not wait on God for one minute. Why not? Surely it is because we do not really expect any answer. But the message of Job, of Habakkuk and Jesus’ parables on prayer is all the same: the word of the Lord comes without fail to those whose faith takes a peculiar form – the form of despair, honestly and passionately expressed, combined with stubborn persistence in holding out for consolation.
Wow! Take just five minutes and re-read that and allow God to speak it to your heart. For me it was conviction and hope all rolled into one paragraph.
Last spring Bob Kilpatrick visited CATG for a memorable time with the worship team and in both Sunday morning services. During this time he talked about his new book that will be released in August. The title is The Secret of Silence. Bob talks about how the business of our world, the cares and worries of life precludes our ability to sit in silence before Him. Being silent before the LORD is commanded in scripture multiple times and in the his book, Bob leads us into a deeper understanding of the power of silence in a 21 day journey.
I am hoping to have a Life Group based around this book in the fall, so I figured it would probably be a good thing to practice the spiritual discipline of silence before I tried to communicate it.
Today was day 1, and it is really hard to sit silent and keep your mind from running around like a hyper chihuahua. Before I went into the prayer closet in this lovely home, the words to a hymn called Let All Flesh Keep Silent came to mind. In particular one line in the first verse. “Ponder Nothing Earthly Minded.” I kept on shaking my head like an EtchaSketch to maintain focus. This is going to be an interesting journey.
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Lord,
I get up this morning knowing full well that you have called me to tasks and encounters that the enemy would like to shut down. Because of that I put on the full armor that you have given me in order to accomplish your will this morning.
I buckle around me the belt of truth, because without truth there is no discernment of right and wrong. Only truth will make everything else hang together. Bless you Jesus that you are Truth. And that with you surrounding me today everything will be connected and in the right place for every step I take, every conversation that I participate in, every group I am around and every task you will give me to perform today.
I take up the breastplate of righteousness. Not my own righteousness, because all my acts and intentions are like “filthy rags”. Thank you Jesus that you are my righteousness. You are perfect and no weapon can penetrate you. Thank you that you protect my heart and my soul and all my emotions with your perfection.
Make my feet ready to go where ever you send me with the good news. Allow the joy of the news of your love be ever on my lips, and as the constant motivator for all I do.
Give me the shield of faith because the enemy will shoot arrows at me on my way. Help my faith to grow stronger, because you are it’s author and perfecter. I long to have perfect faith.
Finally keep me steady and certain as the helmet of salvation rests on my head. Protect my mind from the evil one and all his schemes to attack me in my thoughts.
The final chapter to this book gives the key to making every single word of this work in our lives:
Just do it!
Just do it!
Just do it!
We cannot however learn to pray without ceasing unless we pray.
It takes on-the-knees training. We can only learn to pray without ceasing by ceasing to study the copies!
Maybe that is why most books about prayer irritate me so much. Why would we want to learn about Jesus by looking at him in a mirror, if he were standing right behind us? I just want to pray. I just want to study his face. I just want to find myself back in that place that is so familiar (but not familiar enough). Don’t tell me about prayer; I just want to experience prayer that is life changing forever and ever. Amen!
Commitment seems to be all about intimacy. McHenry’s chapter frequently uses analogies with marriage relationships. Which as usual brings me back to a need to delve back into the Song of Songs. When we fail at praying without ceasing, it is imperative that we remember the God who loves us. Love that is incomprehensible. Love that simply welcomes us back and makes all things new. So what should I do in response to that love. McHenry helped me with this quote from Brother Lawrence:
All things are possible to those who believe, less difficult for those who hope, more easy to those who love and still easier to those who persevere in these three virtues.
So prayer streaming is all about believing, hoping and loving and practicing those everyday. Hmmm…sounds like Paul Now abide these three: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13
So I pray out of love and the desire for intimacy with the Father, Son and Spirit, and in that my faith grows, my hope rises and my love increases. And I need all of those.
When you think about praying without ceasing, THE classic that comes to mind is Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. Its a classic; if you haven’t read it, you should.
When McHenry writes about Brother Lawrence, she uses phrases like…faithful dedication, passionate pursuit and determined goal. Brother Lawrence knew that unceasing prayer wasn’t something that we could do just because we wished we could. It was a commitment that we needed to make much like the commitment of a marriage vow. Here’s a great quote from McHenry:
Just as a wife cannot make a marriage commitment and continue seeing other men, when we make a commitment to pursue a relationship with God, we need to discontinue the pursuit of activities or relationships that would draw us further from Him…when we allow the pulls of the world to come between Christ and us, we are committing spiritual adultery.
Nothing articulates this better than the song Blessed Be Your Name. I’m using it for my meditation today. Here are the lyrics followed by a youtube video of the song.
Blessed be Your name
in the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out I’ll
turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name when the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s “all as it should be”
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name
Finally McHenry’s third activity to develop an interceding heart was to go the distance.
Here are the questions that I pose to myself as I read this:
1) Am I willing to pour myself out in prayer? Jesus poured himself out for me; will I do likewise?
2) Am I willing to keep praying even when there doesn’t seem to be an answer?
3) Am I listening to the truth of God or the discouragment/perspective the the enemy in this situation?
4) Am I listening to God for directions on how to pray? Or am I imitating the way that others pray because it seems like they do it “right”?
Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
We cannot interceed for others without compassion.
This is not a quality that is second nature. Human nature is a pretty demanding self-centered nature. And while we can be moved with compassion for a few people or for very brief moments, God asks us to broaden our field of vision and die to ourselves. We have to be trained to see the needs of others over our own needs.
McHenry writes it this way:
“When we are filled with the Spirit, we’ll have the compassion of Christ within us. We’ll then see the diseased, the harassed, and the helpless so that we can pray they’ll be healed by the Healer, comforted by the Comforter, and shepherded by the Shepherd.”
McHenry acknowledges that intercession may not be the most normal response of our hearts. Yet it is a call on our lives, so how can we cultivate intercession? She gives three ways.
1. Prayerwalking – the discipline of praying over homes and businesses as we walk past them.
Now I have to admit that I’m not out there walking like I should be, which is probably why I’m outgrowing everything I own. But I take and change prayerwalking into prayerdriving as I chauffeur people around town. I pray for businesses as I pass and ask God’s blessing over them. I ask Holy Spirit to teach me how to pray for my city and then listen and hear his prompting. One of the most surprising directions for prayer came to me as I drove past the state pen one day. The phrase “house of singing” came to my mind. So now every time I drive by, I ask God to do a miracle in there and to change if from a “house of punishment/despair/crime/discouragement” into a “house of singing/redemption/joy/salvation”.
I also find that as I drive around the city, I sing over the city too. There is one song by Misty Edwards that has these lyrics in it:
People get ready;
Jesus is coming.
People get ready;
Jesus is coming.
He’s not a baby in a manger anymore.
He’s not a broken man on a cross.
He didn’t stay in the grave
And He’s not stayin in heaven forever.
He’s Alive!
He’s Alive!
He’s Alive!
While the people I pass may not hear me sing (unless the windows are down), the powers of darkness are very aware that I am declaring that their kingdom is a defeated kingdom and THE KING is coming back soon!
Left to Tell is the story of Imaculee Ilibagiza’s life in the horror of the Rawandan genocide. And really it is a book about prayer and the power of forgiveness.
