From the Heart of Bill
Last month I opened up a dialogue on what
made the early church so EFFECTIVE in reaching people for Jesus Christ and we looked at Acts
2:42-47 and talked about FELLOWSHIP.
This month I want us to focus on the importance of PRAYER.
Acts 2:42–47 (NKJV) — 42 And they continued
steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in PRAYERS. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and
many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in
common, 45 and sold their
possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord
in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with
gladness and simplicity of heart, 47
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the
church daily those who were being saved.
The early church had demonstrated a dependence on God
in their daily practice of prayer.
Prayer is many things. It’s not
just talking to God, it’s LISTENING to Him.
In other words, it’s INTERACTING with Him.
Sometimes I think we make prayer more complicated than
it needs to be. Prayer is simply
interacting with God and as you develop what I call a “God Consciousness,” you
can pray at all times and in all places.
It doesn’t matter if you’re standing or sitting. It doesn’t matter if your eyes are open or
closed. It doesn’t matter if you pray
out loud or silently. When you think of
prayer as INTERACTING with God, prayer becomes as natural as breathing.
Brother Laurence was a French Priest who lived in the 1600’s and he put
together a collection of teachings called, “The Practice of the Presence of
God.” The book is Public Domain and can be read and
downloaded for free. In his book,
Brother Lawrence writes about little and big ways that we can practice the
presence of God. For example when you
sin (and we all do…) why not turn that sin around into something POSITIVE. It’s important that we confess and repent of
sin, but why not also pray…
“Lord, thank
you for reminding me what I am apart from You.”
Do you see the TWIST? Taking
something BAD and turning it around for GOOD.
That’s Biblical. When Joseph’s
brothers repented of the sin of selling Joseph into slavery, Joseph’s response
was, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” (Gen. 50:20)
Romans 8:28 says, “That we know God causes ALL things to work together
for good…” Why not take that principle
and use it in our prayer lives?
Practicing the presence of God IS PRAYING. I also believe that’s what the Bible means
when it tells us we need to WALK IN THE SPIRIT.
(Gal 5:16)
WALKING IN THE SPIRIT can be FUN!
Walking in the Spirit means that whatever situation you walk into, you
are interacting with God and sizing things up in the spiritual realm. Dialoguing with God, “What is it you want me
to know about this situation? How do You
want me to Pray? What is You want me to
say? What is it you want me to Do?”
As you WALK IN THE SPIRIT, I encourage you to keep
this church and its pastor
in your prayers. Things are going well
for us as a church. The tendency when
things are good is not to pray as much.
Prosperity can be a curse when it gets our eyes off God. That’s
why the Christians in China are praying for us.
They view our prosperity as a curse and to a certain degree they’re
right. I know that I go after God with
a lot more intensity when things are going BAD than when things are going GOOD
(more on this next month…)
Hebrews tells us that we need to always FIX our eyes
on JESUS the author and the perfector of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2)
My prayer is that we PRACTICE THE PRESENCE of God as
individuals and as a church.
Shalom,
Bill
