Feeding our Faith with Prayer

The difference between to pray and a prayer is that pray is a means of addressing God, but prayer is the two-way conversation that we have with Him.  In other words, to pray is a verb, but prayer is a noun, a sacred thing.

As Christians, we are called to pray and there are many reasons to do so, but sadly, we only seem to do it earnestly when in need.  Prayer should be our first response, not our emergency back-up when nothing else seems to work.

We should pray before the event, over the event and through the event, and not just after the event.  Although God knows our needs before we even have to ask them, He desires our interaction of being alone with Him. He wants us to commune with Him, to converse with Him, to vent with Him and to seek His presence earnestly and early.

There is something special and powerful when we make the choice and sacrifice to start our day early, alone and in a quiet place, to get into the presence of God in prayer. There is much rest, replenishment and wisdom to be found in this secret place, which sets up our attitude for the day correctly, to face whatever lays ahead.  

When we study Jesus’s example of prayer, we can clearly see the awesome benefits and miraculous results of time spent with His Father.  Unlike ourselves, it should not be a rushed quick request chat, but a lengthy, sometimes overnight time of seeking and listening.

Our prayers are a time of memorial and for remembrance – to remember the person and His faithfulness and to remind God of His promises towards us. It’s like a court case where we get to go before the Righteous Judge with our advocate Jesus and our counselor the Holy Spirit, and plead our case for His ruling, to make our requests and supplications known.

Many of us when faced with adversary, either isolate or talk to anyone who will listen, when instead our prayer time should be when we turn to God for His advice and opinion on the situation, and then wait to hear it, either for Him to speak to our hearts, or through His Word.  When we spend time in prayer, I like to imagine God lays His hands on us to bless us with the touch of His anointing, for there is nothing more powerful than having felt His touch after spending time in His presence.

When we develop a posture of prayer, either with our hands together, eyes closed, or on our knees or with our hands up in praise, it is like a tap that opens up to pour out the filling of the Holy Spirit into our lives, our minds and our hearts.

When we prayer regularly, constantly, consistently and persistently, it fuels our faith and grows our belief, so that every doubt, worry, fear or temptation is destroyed.  It is the power that gives us our Spiritual strength to face our stormy situations with a nevertheless, overcoming faith.

If you are facing a situation with no answers or a scary future, I challenge you today to get serious about prayer and see how God can transform the situation; if not the problem itself, then definitely ourselves to deal with it.  Our breakthrough will come when we stop asking God to remove the problem and start asking Him to help us to get through it.

Just like our muscles need exercise, and how we say Grace before we eat to bless the food to our bodies, we need to exercise our faith with prayer so that God can bless our day.

In conclusion, I leave you with this simple acrostic for prayer –

P = Praise God for who He is and for His faithfulness
R = Repent of your attitude, sin or lack of faith and unbelief, and ask for His forgiveness
A = Ask God for His help, for answers, for whatever you are needing
Y = Yield and submit to whatever is God’s will for your life and for your situation
E = Empty your mind of all your worries, concerns, doubts or what makes you confused
R = Rest in God’s presence and be replenished and restored

 

 

 

Pentecost - Power of God's Presence

Whilst the Jewish people around the world have celebrated the receiving of the gift and commands of the Torah, Christians have celebrated the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit at the Upper room. Both events were witnessed by believers as a magnificent, powerful and full sensory experience, one that left them with praise of the presence of God. Both of these supernatural events were manifested by fire and God’s dazzling light. See this clip to imagine this Acts 2 miraculous event – https://youtu.be/U241fqTaAz0

Some may argue that the Holy Spirit was already present before the event of Acts 2, and that it was just God calling back His lost sheep to reinstate or renew His covenant that was broken after Sinai, but whatever purpose it was, we cannot deny that it was the birth of the Christian Church, as we know it today. It was from this springboard that believers were empowered to be effective witnesses in declaring and spreading the Gospel message of Christ, with confidence and boldness.

Another parallel event from the Old Testament is found in 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 where the Glory of God’s presence filled the Tabernacle, which was a man-made Temple. In contrast, the Upper room event of Acts 2 is God’s way of telling us that we, the Body of Christ, the Church, is God’s new Temple, His living stones, where His presence can now dwell. He is no longer confined to just a building, but can now live in our hearts.

The Holy Spirit is not some strange or weird entity. It is a person and part of God’s trinity who deserves just as much honor and worship as God and Jesus. It is God’s presence in us that allows us to have a personal relationship with Him and gives us the strength and will to walk daily in His Spirit, instead of by our flesh.

Throughout the Bible, the Holy Spirit is shown as God’s power in action. He is depicted as a dove when Jesus was baptised, which makes sense that a dove is the symbol of peace, because He too is the giver of peace.  He is the destructive breath and the moving wind of God Himself. He was given to believers with the specific purpose for the redemption and salvation of God’s people.

God’s Holy Spirit empowers us to be tools of God in action at specific times, purposes and situations in our lives. It is God’s presence of His Holy Spirit in our lives that empowers us to be effective agents and witnesses of Christ. It is His power that enables us to overcome our addictions, to resist temptations to sin,to forgive the unforgivable and to love the unlovable.

Experiencing God’s presence today is a foretaste of eternity and what we can look forward to when we get to Heaven. I realise that our faith should not be based on emotions but on what we believe, but if you have never fully experienced the joy, comfort and peace of God’s presence of His Spirit, then you are missing out on the abundant life God had in store for you. We cannot expect to live a Kingdom kind of life without the partnership of the Holy Spirit.

I have been blessed with countless, amazing and intimate experiences with God’s Holy Spirit, and urge you to seek Him if you cannot say the same…

Reference: Sermon ‘God is back in His Temple’ by Daniel van Schalkwyk of Shofar Century City (https://youtu.be/cD6V9AaqSng)