If We Don't Pray

This past Sunday as we were worshiping the Lord spoke clearly to me.  The message was on praying with boldness and the Lord said, "Sometimes people don't feel that they can or should pray boldly.  So, they will back down.  But know that there are people in this room whose prayer I will answer.  If they do not pray... this community will lose.

No doubt this is a season of learning to pray, of becoming a praying church.  Walk in confidence this week.  Pray the Lord's blessing and presence upon this community, your family, your neighbors and be assured that you are being heard.  Our prayer has more effect than we know!

Borrowing Faith

“Folks who have little appetite to be with other believers have, in fact, little appetite for Christ. To be a healthy part of the body always implies two things: a desire to stay connected, and the humility to admit our need for other believers.”

Excerpt From: Cymbala, Jim. “Breakthrough Prayer.” ZONDERVAN, 2003. iBooks. 

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This is why at GraceRiver Church we put such a high value on powerful relationships. As I look back on my life I can remember the darkest moments were the moments I felt alone. Alone doesn't have to be void of people. Alone is the feeling that, "no one gets or understands or could ever."  As an extrovert it is rare I find myself alone.  As a believer who has an enemy of my soul I can tell you that there are often times I do. Why that is so dangerous is because what the enemy wants to destroy is your faith.  Why that is so dangerous is because faith Is the mandatory ingredient for peace, love, hope, deliverance, joy; basically everything of value. 

So how does God protect us from the dangerous isolation of our faith?  Through the powerful faith in others.  When my faith is strong I have found myself telling those struggling, "borrow my faith.". In other words, believe because I do.  That is the power of Holy Community.  It is the ability to believe through the faith of each other.  Living out of each others faith when our faith feels week is the gift off God of community. 

Don't miss Sunday's.  Don't miss the fall relaunch of growth groups.  Don't miss the faith in Jesus offered through Holy Community.

Spiritual Presence Through Powerful Relationships

Unseen by many, spiritual battles are all around us.  The goal of the enemy is to ruin our faith, to move us away from a connected life with Jesus.  Testings, temptations, hurt and anger, the list goes on as to how we are pulled and pushed away from a life giving relationship with the Lord.

I've had a few of these over my lifetime.  I know what it is like to wonder if God is anywhere let alone here.  I know what it is like to begin to question this choice to follow Jesus.  I am aware of being so busy that my heart shifts to another focus and I lose my passion and then wonder if it was real in the past.

Chapter 10 of our reading of "Breakthrough Prayer" Cymbala describes how to endure these seasons.  The strategy?  Spiritual Presence through powerful relationships!  As I have had seasons of wondering what was going on, wondering where was God, I am one who has seen the Lord show up in the faces and voices of people who love me and love Him.  Sometimes it was just a phone call but the call would carry a sense of spiritual power.  The Lord was using a familiar voice to speak to my heart!  Their care was actually God in the flesh showing up in my life.  I've had people call "You've been on my mind lately."  Or, "The Lord stirred me to call you."

Amazing how the Lord is moving not just in my life but in the lives of others for me!  Yes, there may be moments of wonder, questions that leave my faith a bit shaky but always the Lord sends a love note, a call, a card.

At GraceRiver we speak of 2 values, spiritual presence and powerful relationships.  Spiritual presence creates powerful relationships as the Lord stirs us to care for each other, pray for each other, serve each other.  If you have powerful relationships look a bit deeper.  It is likely the relationships are powerful because the Lord has stirred life in the persons around you.  In the middle of "it", in the season when spiritual presence seems nonexistent look for the Lord to show up in powerful relationships!  He will send people your way, count on it!!

Ancient Truth vs. Modern Wisdom

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) (Acts 17:16, 21 NIV)

Why is it we feel, as a culture, a craving for new that has us abandon the wisdom of the old. With every generation it seems a knee jerk reaction to swing the pendulum completely the other direction demanding reform from the thinking and structure of the previous generations. It's as if we are always trying to fix the past with some new idea for the future. While this works for technology and innovation it doesn't quite translate equally when in regards to theology.

The Athenian Jews at the synagogue bought the myth hook line and sinker that new ideas about God were more valuable than all of their history with God. New ideas about God usually leads to an idol we build as an attempt to make God who we want Him to be. So as culture becomes more right or left wing so does God seem to become; as if our views of politics could frame Him in. So when what culture values shifts, so does God. So instead of some fixed point as the North Star defining life he becomes subject to whatever life we decide we want to live.

What if this was seeping into our prayer life and habits? When we pray, we pray for the things we desire, convinced somehow in our hearts, that God should care about what we care most about and grant that. No wonder our prayers have lost their power. It is so hard to pray as Jesus taught us, "your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.". But what if that is when real power is released?
But that would require a full surrender of self. And that is where the battle for our souls is waged.

I see that turning at GraceRiver. I see us becoming that powerful source for "thy kingdom come thy will be done". I am seeing surrender becoming the new way of life for us as a body of faith. It is so cool to be a part of that with you. Spiritual Presence and Powerful relationships as a New/Old way of life.

Praying For Someone Who is Being Sifted

This past Sunday we walked into Jesus words in Luke 22:31 where Jesus told Peter, "Satan has asked to sift you like wheat."  Sifting was a grueling process of crushing, beating and trampling of wheat.  That was coming at Peter.  Most often when people go through sifting they are unaware of the spiritual battle and begin to "act weird" (anger, frustration, irritable, full of fear, controlling, etc).

Praying for people who are being sifted begins with us recognizing that a person may be in a spiritual battle whether they know it or not.  We must begin to see beyond the moment to the spiritual challenges and implications.  That alone is a prayer, for the Lord to help us to see beyond what frustrates us about another.

The second step is to reflect on what you may know the person is going through.  That reflection typically must be slowly thinking and praying, allowing the Lord to speak to you about the focus of your prayer.  You might see they are fearful and begin to think what might be causing that and what that fear may cause them to do.

Then, once we have entered with our hearts into their lives we are ready to pray.  Ask the Lord to be real to them, to protect them, to send others who will speak words of love, encouragement, etc.  Pray they will not make life ruining choices while they are being sifted.  Ask the Lord to bless them and take a moment to think what that blessing might be that would meet their need.

We've made a commitment at GraceRiver to not be in the face of someone being sifted but be on our faces (in prayer) for them.  That is the hardest prayer but maybe the most significant.

Forced by Faithfulness

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. (Acts 16:6, 7 NIV)

Ken and I have talked about the revelation of which God has, after 6 years, opened to us. That revelation is of a God who won't let a people of faithful hearts become anything less than his full expression of love and power to the world.

For 6 years the Holy Spirit has been leading us as a church to the place we believe we have finally arrived to. We could tell you countless stories of how God has blocked us by the Holy Spirit in order that we would land here: 1. Spiritual Presence. 2. Powerful Relationships.

Six years ago we would have become a church of bells and whistles seeking to attract people to our modern expression of a relevant Jesus. Three years ago we would have been a church of crazy activity leading people from event to event as the means to evangelize the community. Today we know now what the expression of GraceRiver is to be and why our community so desperately needs us here. We are to be a church full of the Spirit of God who's lives are being formed by His presence; held in that pattern by relationships of power until our hearts match 100% His. We are to be a church of life giving disciples in Jesus Christ.

Sometimes the blocks we find in our life are from sin. But sometimes the blocks are from the Holy Spirit guiding his faithful people to real kingdom impact. I am more fully His than I have ever been. I am more committed to his call than I could ever have imagined.

The Fruit of LOVE...

The Fruit of Prayer

When Jesus is was asked to name the greatest of all commandments He listed two.  He said that it was to love the Lord God with all that a person is, and to love all those around you.  As I read the book this week and the author spoke of spiritual fruits of the spirit, I could not help but be amazed by the powerful connection between Jesus' interaction with with Jewish leaders who questioned Him on the most important of God's commandments and the list of qualities Paul gives of those living in the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians:

"22 The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. You won’t find any law opposed to fruit like this."

(Galatians 5:22-23 The Voice)

I find it intriguing that the very first characteristic that Paul lists it the main element of both of Jesus' greatest commandments.  What this tells me is that there is a lot of weight placed upon the importance of love.  In fact, the author of the book goes on to describe just how important he deems love to be:

"Without love, every form of religious observance is worthless. Proficiency in Scripture is just a deception. We may understand the divine attributes or probe into the mysteries of predestination, but without love we have no proof of citizenship in heaven. We may perform miracles and preach eloquently, but all our efforts are for nothing if we do not have love."  

(Cymbala, Jim ~ Breakthrough Prayer) 

So, in a season when I am searching for restoration.  When my heart, mind, and soul search for rest, my natural place of turning to is prayer.  I speak to my God, my savior, and prayer for Him to speak to my heart and lead me.  During my prayers, I am always plagued by a feeling being unsure of what to pray for.  However, as I consider this weeks reading and my study, I find myself continually asking for love.  I ask for an increased ability to show love in every area of my life.  I may not always be comfortable, but if I am demonstrating the first listed fruit of the spirit, then I will always be following the greatest of my God's commandments.  If I love my God and love my neighbor as they should truly be loved, then restoration my my life will be assured.