Prayer Streaming – #6

Prayer Streaming – The Loving Heart (con’t from yesterday)

Praying without ceasing becomes easier when we see God as our loving Father. This chapter in McHenry’s book also talks about seeing God as our Shepherd, Physician and Beloved.

Shepherd - Hmmm…Jesus said that his sheep know his voice. I guess that whole part from the other posts about listening to God’s voice came first so that I would understand the reason why I need to listen. Psalm 23 is so good for meditation in prayer, because it tells me the things that my shepherd does for me. Take time to sit with this Psalm today and listen phrase by phrase to what God wants to tell you about the way that He cares for you.

Great Physician – There is a song that ministers to me so greatly based off of the account of the woman who was healed by touching Jesus’ garment. The words are worth meditating on:

If I’m healed by just one touch of your garment, Lord
Then how much more of your love is for me than I’m tasting, Lord.

Beloved – This is the truth that changes lives. God, let me understand that your love is “stronger than death, and your jealousy is as severe as Sheol. Your love for me flashes like the flashes of fire and torrents of water cannot extinguish the fire of your love.”

Prayer Streaming – #5

Prayer Streaming – The Loving Heart

When I first read the title of this chapter, I figured it would be a chapter about loving people. So it was going to be about the work I need to do. I was wrong. This is a chapter about loving God. I love to love God! And I know that as His love works in me I’ll get better at the other.

In the PrayerStreaming book, McHenry details the life of Madame Guyon and her move into being able to pray without ceasing. McHenry notes that as this woman of prayer came closer to God she knew Him more deeply as Father, Shepherd, Physician and Beloved. Today I’ll post this longer entry and talk about the Father part and tomorrow post about Shepherd, Physician and Beloved.

FATHER: Just to spend time with Him! I find I am better able to touch this on a more regular basis. It is becoming easier and easier to simply enter His presence. Why? I have to guess it is simply because I’m making a practice of doing it more often. Finding the secret place where its just God and Me. Or maybe it is recognizing when He is whispering over me. I don’t understand every word yet, but I recognize more and more quickly and frequently.

McHenry uses Zephaniah 3:17 as the main passage to illustrate God as our Father. Which just happens to be one of my all time favorite Old Testament verses of all time! Here it is in NASB.

“The LORD your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

Just let each of those phrases sit over you as you pray.

He is a victorious warrior. - What ever battle you face, He’s already won.
He exults over you with joy. – He loves to be around you! Most of us do not get that!
He will be quiet in His love. – There is a steady warm assurance with that one. This is a love that doesn’t end. And it invites you up to sit on the Father’s lap and simply rest and relax into Him.
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.Now I missed this in NASB but the NIV puts it like this: He rejoices over you with singing. And there’s one of my favorite songs.

You dance over me
While I am unaward.
You sing all around,
but I never hear the sound.
Lord, I’m amazed by you.
How you love me.

Here’s the video of the song.

Prayer Streaming – #4

Prayer Streaming – The Listening Heart

“But listening for God’s voice can be much more difficult than talking to him.”

One of the things that the enemy throws at me when I need to listen to God is the fear that even though I talk to God, he might not be interested in talking to me. And so I avoid talking to God because he might not talk back. That’s scary!

Do I believe that He speaks today? Yes. Then I need to learn how to listen. McHenry gives some steps in learning to listen to God

#1 Open the door. Revelation 3:20 says that He stands at the door and knocks. Open the door. Believe that He is on the other side.
#2 Give Him a chance to speak. In other words take some time, ask a question, expect Him to answer, STOP TALKING and wait for Him.
#3 Allow Him to speak to you through his word. Whatever you are dealing with, there is scripture to go with it. Take the word, and then ask Him to enlighten your understanding.
#4 Allow your heart to be open to other trusted believers. The LORD frequently speaks to us through those He puts in our lives. Be sure you know who you are listening to because the devil will try to lead you astray and discourage you through well intentioned people. If you get something from someone else, and it doesn’t feel right then ask another person to help you discern truth and error.
#5 Train your ear. Listen to the testimonies of others as to what God’s voice sounds like. Then turn off the noise. No music, cell phone, etc.

Be quiet, he wants to talk to you.

Prayer Streaming – #3

The second quality of unceasing prayer is the quality of a listening heart.

McHenry writes about her study of the life of Frank Laubach. As she distills all that he had written and discussed about prayer the one quality that she came up with that revolutionized his prayer life was the quality of simply listening to God.

The testimony of Laubach’s life was that he knew he needed to listen to God and went through the exercises of working toward that end. He set a timer for 15 minute intervals but he could not carry through with the discipline. It took a real live encounter with the voice of God to change what was a duty like taking daily vitamins into enthusiastic expectation.

Today’s question for thought is this: Do you actually believe that God speaks today? Don’t answer that with the trite yes that religious training has ingrained in you. Do you really truly believe that God speaks today?

McHenry writes that perhaps the difference in Laubach’s experience was that he came to the point of expecting the LORD to speak to him.

Do you believe that God speaks today? Meditate and comment please!

Prayer Streaming – #1

LORD – did you know the word lord comes from Old English and means “bread keeper”?

This awareness of who God is and what He holds – my daily bread – should begin to produce a humble heart in me.

Use these questions as your prayer today. Write them where you will see them frequently or make a mark on your hand so that you are reminded to meditate on them today.

Do I remember to whom I am speaking? He is God; I am not.
Do I believe that He actually listens to me?
Do I believe that He acutally loves me and wants to answer me?
Do I believe that He has the power to do the things that I ask?

Prayer Streaming – Intro

For the next couple of entries, I’m going to share some gems from a book called PrayerStreaming, by Janet Holm McHenry.

McHenry delves into the topic of praying without ceasing. (I Thessalonians 5:17). Talk about a guilt producing verse, how on earth is a person supposed to pray every moment of every day? After a few years of studying the “greats” of prayer, she devotes a chapter to the lessons that each of these spiritual giants and how they moved from prayerlessness to praying with every breath. It is possible. It can be done.

The devil has used this one to beat me up for a long time. It used to be a guilt producing drag for me before I discovered the beauty and thrill of prayer. But today, my heart yearns for more intimacy with the Father, so I want to learn more and more of how to stay in constant communion with him.

I hope these gems motivate you to great depths of prayer. The book is also available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNobel.com for $12.99. It would make a great Life Group…if you are interested in leading it, I would help you get it done!

Jealousy is a good thing

To study the etymology of a word is to study its history and its origin.

The etymology of the word jealous shows us this:

“Most of the words for ‘envy’ … had from the outset a hostile force, based on ‘look at’ (with malice), ‘not love,’ etc. Conversely, most of those which became distinctive terms for ‘jealousy’ were originally used also in a good sense, zeal.

So jealous has its roots in Greek in the word zeal. A God who is zealous for me is passionate and committed to me and my good. A far different spin than a jealous God who is based out of malice.

A great web site to study the etymology of words is: Online Etymology Dictionary

Jealous God

I can’t leave this one alone. Oprah talked on the video on my last entry about how the thought of a “jealous” God stopped her pursuit of Him. For me, there is a HUGE amount of security in the jealousy of God.

Here’s the first problem. It is a preposition. Oprah says, “God is jealous of me?!” And that didn’t hit her right. No, God is not jealous OF you; He is jealous FOR you. There’s a huge difference in those two little words. Every reference in the Bible to God’s jealousy relates to how He feels when the people that He loves forsake Him for other gods. The definition of jealousy supports this. Jealousy = “fearful or wary of being supplanted; apprehesive of losing affection or position.” God’s LOVE for people makes Him jealous the same way that a devoted spouse would feel if their beloved cheated on him/her. Song of Solomon 8:6 says,
“Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame. “

God’s love and jealousy FOR us is unavoidable and relentless. But there is the melancholy note to it too in that He gave us free will. We can choose to not love Him. We can choose to not serve Him. We can choose to play the harlot with lesser loves.

So, dear Oprah, I find security in the fact that the All Knowing, All Powerful, Magnificent God loves me in such a way that it can be called jealousy. I revel in the security of knowing that I am so loved and protected that not even death kept Him away from me. Knowing the jealousy of God FOR me drives me deeply into His arms rather than flinging me into the place where I have to depend on myself for my salvation.

GOD IS LOVE!

What’s with the title? – Part 3

Remember this Sunday School song?

“Give me oil in my lamp,
Keep me burnin, burnin, burnin;
Give me oil in my lamp, I pray.
Give me oil in my lamp,
Keep me burning til the break of day.”

Even as a child in Sunday School, I wondered, “what is this oil I am supposed to be wanting?” So as it relates to this blog title, I’ve been searching Matthew 25 again.

If the 10 virgins of Matthew 25 are not chastised for falling asleep, then the problem the 5 are noted for is that they don’t have enough oil for their lamps. Thus I ponder… what does the oil in Jesus’ story represent.

I’ve got a few ideas for myself, but I dug out the commentaries and tried to see what the “authorities” have said. Here’s what I found.

In the context of the chapter, Jesus is talking about the day of his return. These 10 women have come to the point where is Jesus is on the threshold, and suddenly 5 don’t have enough oil. Some commentators point to grace and personal piety, and some point to simple preparedness. One commentary points out that you have to go get it yourself, there is a price to pay to get the oil, I can’t share mine with you or I won’t have enough. This quote from a very old commentary says, “the piety that had satisfied the young women before was not sufficient in the presence of death and judgement.”

So still the question is, “What is the oil?” Nobody specifically says. I think the oil is simply our relationship to Jesus. If I am sticking close to him everyday and allowing him to fill me with the Holy Spirit then I’m not wandering off into personal, self-righteous piety or my own ideas of what it takes to be like him. I’m letting him teach me and speak to me about areas I need to grow and repent and change. He’s breathing over me the areas where he is pleased with me and tells me how he loves me. The Love of God my Heavenly Father motivates me to be more like the Son in whom He is well pleased. I am motivated by the oil of love.

In scripture, we are told to buy from the LORD. Revelation 3:19, he speaks to the lukewarm Laodecian church and says, “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”

So, I want to be ready for the cry that comes at midnight. I want my lamp to be ready. Midnight Cry is the title for my blog, because there is nothing more important that knowing that I can rest at the appropriate times, because I am ready for Him at the moment’s notice. Everything flows from this. I love to be with him because he draws me in and I am refreshed and refilled. I will want to evangelize, because I don’t want anyone to be short of oil. I will do the work of the Kingdom, because I want him to return quickly, but laboring in love is the work that energizes my spirit not drains me.

In this blog I will share my thoughts and experiences (where I find oil) and want you to share yours with me so we can be ready together. So that if tonight is not the night that the Bridegroom stands at the door then I want my lamp to keep shining just like the song…
“Keep me burning til the break of day.
Sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna til the break of day.”

Jesus, teach me to daily care for my lamp. Let the light of your oil shining in that lamp draw others to you. The let the chorus go up “Come, Lord Jesus!” and the cry to go up “Behold, the Bridegroom!”