confession

  • update/prayer requests – July 26, 2010: “Word of God Speak”

    In my last post, I mentioned I would be attending Ignite, a Christian music festival near Chicago.

    We got back late last night (well, early this morning).

    I wasn’t planning to post anything today, but then decided to give a little update…

    Early this morning David (deepestrecesses@revelife) posted a prayer based on I Samuel 3:1, 7-11. If you’ve not read it and prayed it, I would encourage you to do so.

    After arriving home, I read through David’s prayer. It reinforced something God had already been speaking to me about: the need to be taking time more alone with Him, not only to speak to Him but also to hear Him … which was something God had impressed on me again last night at Ignite through Mercy Me’s song, “Word of God, Speak.”

     

    How can I (we) presume to speak the Word of God to others, if I (we) have not humbled and bowed before God and prayed, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening”?

    How can I (we) presume to prepare the way of the Lord in others, if I (we) have not humbled and bowed before God and prayed, “Prepare Your way in my heart”?

     

    Earlier today, I returned to David’s post and wrote a comment/prayer, which I’ve included below (w/ a little editing) as an update/prayer request/prayer.

    May our Lord continue to show us our constant need of Him so we might steadfastly devote ourselves to listen to Him through prayer and His Word. Praise God we can approach Him with full assurance of faith through the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we never take for granted the access to God our Lord purchased for us at Calvary. Apart from God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ, apart from Christ bearing our sin on His body on the tree, we would be eternally separated from God. May we not grieve or quench the Spirit as He calls us to draw near to Him. Praise God that as we draw near to Him, He has promised to draw near to us! May He sanctify our ears to hear His voice.

    Yours in Christ for His glory and your joy,
    Karen

    Holy Father, draw us into the Holy of Holies, by Your Spirit, not only to speak to You, but also to hear You speak. Your Son Jesus Christ is our Mediator, but not only for us to bring our requests but for You to speak to us. This is something You have been impressing on me and most recently did so once again last night, even before I had seen this [David's] prayer.

    How can we speak for You if we do not take that time to bow before You and turn our hearts and ears toward You to hear Your Words? What words do we have to speak apart from those You give us? Give us willing, humble and teachable hearts to come and put aside our agenda and bow before You and tarry in prayer and receive from You what You wish to give us in Your time. To whom shall we go? You alone have the words of life. How can we be ambassadors of Your life if we do not spend time in Your presence, time drinking in of Your Words, of Your Life.

    Forgive us for the times we are tempted to speak apart from listening to Your first. Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening. For the sake of Your glory, Your Name and Your Church we come to You. Holy God, we come to You through the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask You to hear us for we are called by Your Name and have been created for Your glory. Amen.

    Related:

     

  • “ALL public work must be subservient to my prayer work.” (Evan Roberts)

    I mentioned last week I’ve been reading through “An Instrument of Revival: The Complete Life of Evan Roberts, 1878-1951″ (Brynmor Pierce Jones, Bridge Publishing: South Plainfield, NJ, 1995) (see my post here). Evan Roberts was used by God in the Welsh Revival of 1904-05, but afterwards suffered a breakdown after which he went into private intercessory prayer ministry for several years…

         …Evan Roberts continually stressed the need to persevere: “In Luke it does not say, ‘preach and faint not’ but, ‘pray and faint not.’ It is not difficult to preach. But while you pray, you are alone in some solitary place, fighting in a prayer-battle against the powers of darkness. And you will know the secret of victor.” The idea is echoed in one of his poems:

    And never faint! Oh pray, full on and fast.
    Rough though the untrod way. Straight on! and last.
    And never faint, though those may rave for rest.
    The goal, not thee, is first. Pray one! thou blest.


    And never faint! Though strain may sigh thee down.
    Pray on! if thou wouldst fain have on the crown.
    And never faint! The end thou mayest not view.
    When bound, let nought thee bend. Press on anew.


    And never faint! Thy charge to God given o’er.
    Pray on! Thy tent enlarge. Enrich thy store.
    And never faint! Pray on each day with care.
    Strive for, till thou hast won, the answered prayer.


         Evan was so taken up with the idea of vigilant watching that he prayed night and day and was known to fall asleep on his feet, then awaken a few hours later fresh and alert once more. He told Welsh friends in a special letter that he was like a bondservant who could not stop his work even on a Sabbath Day: “The warfare must go on every hour against unseen enemy hosts who are set to weaken the church forces.” Like Moses who lifted up his arms all day long over the battle, Evan had to serve the Lord who had “taken hold of my spirit.” When he was invited in 1910 to go to India he replied earnestly:

    I could not give up my time to India without neglecting my prayer work and feeling I am behind in my prayer service, and that possibly some victory is lost through my negligence. When the [crisis] of the church is through I shall be free for public work. ALL public work must be subservient to my prayer work.

    (192-193)

    * * *

     

    Heavenly Father, I confess I so often put public work first, rather than making it subservient to my prayer work. It is so much easier for me to teach, to speak and to write than it is for me to pray. I want to produce something. I want to have some visible result I can point to. I want to have some visible result others can point to. My ministry for You becomes more about me than more about You…and then it is really no longer ministry, is it? Forgive me, Lord. Cleanse me from my sin.

    My attitude towards prayer shows how prideful and selfish I am. If I were truly Your humble servant, if You were truly my Lord, I would be willing, not only willing, but rejoicing with great joy to go into my closet and never again return to public work, if that were Your will for me. Should it not be a joy to commune with You in prayer? Is not fullness of joy to be found in Your presence? Are not pleasures forevermore at Your right hand? O, and the worse thing is that You have allowed me to begin to taste and see the joy it is to tarry at the throne of grace. Forgive Me, Lord, for seeking to find my joy in my public work for You rather than my joy in You alone in that solitary place. O, Lord, how much more brutish since I have tasted and seen…Cleanse me from my sin.

    I confess how I still do not yet really comprehend the vital importance of the work of prayer. If we are to expect power and anointing in public ministry we must be seeking Your face in secret. Teach me, O Lord. Truly the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much. Truly our laboring in prayer allows the saints to stand perfect and complete in Your will. Truly the warfare must go on every hour. Truly I ought to be praying day and night. Forgive me, Lord, for not being vigilant in prayer.

    Jesus Christ, You are my great High Priest. You ever live to intercede for me. How little I really understand the preciousness and treasure of prayer. Pour out on me that spirit of grace and supplications that fills You, so I might delight to linger for hours at the right hand of our Father as You do. I am part of Your holy priesthood which means not only giving out Your Word to Your people but also going to the throne of grace on their behalf.

    You hung on the cross so I might enter into the Holy of Holies and yet I confess how little I do so. Forgive me, Lord. Circumcise my heart, teach me more of the joy of prayer and sweet communion with You. Yes, You have been graciously teaching me of these things, but I am slow to learn. Thank You that You are longsuffering with me.

    Loving Father, I was once not Your child but You have made me Your child by grace through faith. You have given to me the glorious Spirit of adoption. Your Spirit now dwells in me and calls out from within me, “Abba, Father!” O, how I grieve Him when I do not take that time to come into Your house. I thank You and praise You for disciplining me yesterday, for taking hold of my spirit and shutting me away in my closet. O, shut me away with You whenever You will have me there. O, shut me away with You when I insist on skipping that time in the closet or short-changing it. Draw me to Your throne of grace with Your cords of love. Compel and constrain me to that altar of prayer. I am not my own. I am Yours to do with as You will. Can the clay command the Potter? O, I marvel that You have shown me the joy unspeakable in prayer, as I have sat at Your feet and tarried in prayer. Yes, my life is to be a life of continuing prayer – as Paul said, we are to pray without ceasing. However, we also must have those extended times of prayer as well. Help me not to leave that closet a moment sooner than You wish. May I not be negligent. Take hold of my spirit! I am prone to wander. As I begin to wander, turn me and I will be turned. Humble me and I will kneel. Psalm 116. I love You, Lord. Help me to love You more. Amen.


  • More on love for the brethren (George Whitefield’s Journals)

    In a post last week I shared my struggle with loving my brothers and sisters in Christ. Then yesterday I posted some excerpts from Evan Roberts’ biography “Instrument of Revival” on love for the brethren. Today I’d like to post some words from “George Whitefield’s Journals” on the love and unity in the Body of Christ.


    Saturday, Feb. 25, 1738. … Oh, when will that come, when all differences about externals shall be taken away, and we all with one heart, and one mouth glorify our Lord Jesus Christ!     (132)

    Monday, Feb. 27, 1738. Went to the church, and did as yesterday; and was visited afterwards by two of the Nonconforming Society, who seemed to be Israelites indeed. I exhorted them to love and unity , and not to let a little difference about a few externals occasion any narrow-spiritedness to arise in their hearts. I advised them to come and hear me expound int he church, which they did; and providentially the Lesson was the 4th of the Ephesians, from whence I took occasion to urge on them the necessity of loving one another with a catholic disinterested love, to be of one heart and one mind, and to join without respect of persons in hastening the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope God gave a blessing to what was said, for I observed they came constantly afterwards, and was told there was a perfect harmony between them. What infinite mischief have needless divisions occasioned in the Christian world! Divide et impera, is the Devil’s motto. (133)

    Wednesday, April 18, 1739. Preached this morning with power to a much larger congregation than we had last night. Several servants of God said they never saw the like before. We shall see greater things than these; for almost every day persons of all denominations come unto me, telling how they intercede in my behalf. And it shall now be my particular business, wherever I go, to bring all the children of God, notwithstanding their differences, to rejoice together. How dare we not converse with those who have received the Holy Ghost as we? (253)

     

    Acts 10:44  While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45  And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46  For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47  “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 

     

    Now (We need this now, O Lord! Be merciful and gracious to us, for certainly You see how we struggle with loving one another and we have so often grieved you … We have seen how the devil delights to divide us and conquer! Yet  we know that You who dwell in us are greater than he who is in the world. May we sober and on the alert against the enemy’s crafty schemes so we might be more than conquerors and not end up as lion’s bait!) – Now, may You, the God of patience and endurance and the God of consolation and encouragement work in us through Your Holy Spirit (the one Spirit who breathed life into all us and united us in Christ, the one Spirit whom we share and who now dwells in us) so we might live in harmony with one another and be like-minded toward one toward another in accord with Christ Jesus: That we may be one, so together we may with one mind, one heart and one voice glorify You, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we welcome one another as Christ Himself received us, to Your glory, O God. (For when we don’t welcome one another, we rob You of Your due glory.) Grant us patience and endurance, so we might be instruments of consolation and encouragement to one another so we might reflect Your gracious dealings with us in Jesus Christ. Amen.

     

    More on Whitefield and love and unity in the Church:

    Other related posts:

     

    Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.