Originally published at road2wholeness.com on 6/29/17
Welcome back! Thank you for taking the read today, and another stroll with The Road2Wholeness Blog. I also welcome you to this exciting new series: “Father!” In this series, we will seek to stretch out our thinking and understanding as it pertains to prayer. This time, before we come to our knees, let there be Light!
Welcome back! Thank you for taking the read today, and another stroll with The Road2Wholeness Blog. I also welcome you to this exciting new series: “Father!” In this series, we will seek to stretch out our thinking and understanding as it pertains to prayer. This time, before we come to our knees, let there be Light!
Along the path of this series, we will approach the reasons
for, the need of, and the keys to prayer.
First, I’ll like to begin with a quick look at a few scriptural
revelations about prayer. Let’s begin
with the story of the “Deceiving Spirit”, which God used to bring down a
king. In 2 Chronicles 18, you can read
the story, but here I want to focus specifically on verses 11-24.
After the prophet Micaiah informed King Ahab that all the other
prophets who were declaring victory for him in battle, had been deceived, one
of the other prophets slapped him in the face.
He asked, “Which way did the deceiving spirit go after he left me to
speak to you?” Micaiah replied, “You
will find out on the day that you go to hide in an inner room.” Here we see that Micaiah was able to bypass
the deceiving spirit the Lord was allowing to lead King Ahab to his death. Although the King did not take his advice, it
shows here that with the right relationship in prayer, we are able to see
beyond what is meant to be seen.
Let’s move on to Matthew 26:36-41. Here, In Jesus’ final moments before being
taken captive by officials, Jesus unveils what I like to call the 11th
Commandment… “watch and pray”. Specifically,
in verse 41, Jesus instructs the disciples, “Watch and pray so that you will
not fall into temptation. The spirit is
willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Lastly, let’s look at Mark 9:17-29. In this story, Jesus’ disciples tried to cast
out a demon, but were unsuccessful. In
verse 28 and 29, when the disciples asked of the Lord why they were
unsuccessful, Jesus responds, “That kind can come out only by prayer.”
In these three examples, we found question, command, and
acknowledgement. Throughout this series,
we will use these repeatedly to go deeper into the Light of Prayer.
In this first blog, the question is, “What do you do when
God says, you have to wait. Go back out,
and close the door.” Tough huh! I know.
I was in prayer the other day, and my nephew came bursting through my
bedroom door asking for something. I
heard myself respond, “You have to wait.
Go back out, and close the door.”
In that moment, the spirit said to me… “What do you when God says, you
have to wait… Go back out, and close the
door?” From the inside, having greater
understanding, and in God’s case; knowing all things… it’s probably not so
offensive. I know I didn’t mean it to be
offensive. But standing on the other
side of the door, what do you hear? What
do you feel? Where do you go? The truth is that there are proper questions,
commands, and acknowledgements needed to enter certain parts of God.
In John 14:1-4, Jesus says, “… My father’s house has many
rooms. …And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come back and take you to be with me… You know the way to the place where I’m
going.”
What was Jesus saying?
He was speaking about the many spaces (dimensions) in God, and He was
also saying that He would be the gateway to those places. Ultimately, Jesus went ahead of us, and He
showed “the way” through His walk on earth. Then He says… I will come back and take you to
be with me. He does that by spirit. Lastly, He said… You know the way. The way is in prayer. Now, about those rooms…
I like to think of those many rooms as many lessons. Hanging on the outside of each door is
probably a sign, but perhaps in our need, haste, or even ignorance we go
barging in. The beauty of God’s grace,
mercy, peace, and understanding, is that He never locks the door.
God, who knows our life’s expectancy and course, probably
looks at His agenda, and says… “You have to wait. Go back out, and close the door.” On the outside, we may feel bruised,
forgotten, frowned upon, or even defeated, but what is really being said is, “You’re
not there yet.” I can personally confess
that every time I thought I was ready for something that I did not receive, I
understood clearly that I had been wrong, once I eventually did received
it. God knows! He knows the order of each lesson we will
take in our lifetime, and if we attempt to go at them outside of the prescribed
order, we forfeit getting the tools (knowledge and understanding) we need to go
into the next door, or we show up with the wrong tools in hand. So we acknowledge order. Thankfully God never punishes our zeal or
allows us to be put to shame. He simply
redirects us. And if we ask, He will
even walk us to our next and rightful door.
All of this happens in prayer.
So, in essence we’re never really waiting; we’re walking. We’re walking out our life’s course. The wait is really in our head.
So, now we know the power of prayer. Remember in the example above, where Jesus
healed the boy after the disciples were unsuccessful, we know that Jesus did
not stop just then and pray. He already
had the tools. He already had the
power. They were given to Him by
prayer. Note, that in Jesus’ response He
said, “That kind can come out only by prayer.”
He didn’t say in prayer. So, it’s
not some prayer ritual that we need to have in the moment of crisis, but its
power we obtain “by prayer” that we use in moments of crisis.
But let’s go deeper.
In the next blog, we’ll talk commands.
How to be heard when you are in the right room. I hope you’ll join me then. Thank you for taking the stroll with The
Road2Wholeness Blog.
Remember to go within that you may never go without. The God within awaits you. Until our paths collide again, I wish you…
Peace, Love, Life, and Complete Wholeness in Christ.
In Service,
NaTisha Renee Williams
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