More on the Harp and Bowl issues

[DeanZF]

Part 2



As a believer, what should my personal goals be for my relationship with Father God? Who do I look to as examples? What traits do I need to cultivate to become ever more mature? How do I work out that part of my salvation?



Most men that I know and a fair number of the women in my life have playfully asked, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With The Wind fame was asking just that when she asked Rhett Butler, "Where shall I go? What shall I do?" Unlike Mr. Butler, God cares and provides us with several examples.



I believe that the greatest example is indeed the twenty four elders before the throne in Revelation 5. They are there as ensamples/examples, as models for us. Yes, it's true, as members of the Church Triumphant, they don't have to earn a living or even eat! They do, however, have lots of lessons for us in the Church Militant. King David also has lots of positive lessons for us. The other psalmists pour out their hearts and share what it means to walk in faith in a faithless world. Jesus as a lad had among the most mature statements in the Word, "I must be about my Father's business." Isn't that really what maturity teaches us?



It is very important for us to recognize that we belong to Father, that we are strongly and vibrantly connected to Him through our constant conversion process. We are made in His image, we are being conformed to the image of Jesus, we are decreasing that He might increase in us. That's part of maturing. As we reach the awareness that Jesus had at twelve years of age, we are aware that Father's business is an important part of our earthly lives and that we need to find ways to let that be an important influence on the rest of our daily activities. How do we bring our love of Father to our workplace or our social encounters? To the soccer or baseball fields when we're encouraging kids or grandkids? To the supermarket when wheeling about, gathering the week's food? How do we bring that love into struggles or tragedies? How can we bring it into the struggles and tragedies of others in our lives, both within the congregation, and outside the walls?



I shared with some folks this past weekend that so often we have tried to whump things up in Jesus' name. I've done that way too often, and I've watched it in too many places. If we whump up the right stuff or the right thing, I think we'll be far more successful in our walk and that we'll see many more prayers answered.



Ready for a trick question? What is the one thing I can do to please my wife? I'll wait while you ponder that one...



Time's up. The one thing that I can do to please my wife is to find out what one thing I can do to please her! And to find that out, I can ASK!!! And when I ask and then do that thing, she beams. How much more so with Father. There is an interesting little snippet of Scripture that I've found fascinating over the years--probably not from the Hebrew, but from English implications. Bear with me while I twist a scripture for a minute. In Psalm 37:4, the psalmist admonishes us to delight ourselves in the Lord; and He will give us the desires of our hearts. Normal interpretation would be that we would have secret hopes, aspirations, or petitions that were closely guarded within our hearts. I like to re-parse the English translation and wonder that if I busy myself with delighting in Him, that perhaps He will cause HIS desires to be place in my heart and become MY desires as well. If I pray for HIS heart's desires, will He not cause them to come to pass? "Thy will be done..."



If it's about "Thy will" that we're praying, is it enough to simply mouth the words, "Thy will be done" or should be be conversing with Him (prayer being a two way conversation, remember, not just a gusher of requests), asking Him to reveal what that will is so that we can pray in agreement with Him? During the 80s, we were at a Charismatic seminar and received teaching on how to minister in prayer at the altar. This was in a non-liturgical situation where the Word preached was most important and where worship and praise were a large portion of every service. When people responded to the sermon or to words of wisdom or knowledge, the people in the pew were trained on how to respond to their response. Novel concept at the time.



What we had to learn for effective prayer was when to pray for what. If there was a word of knowledge for "someONE with a hip problem, there would often be several people who would try to claim that word for themselves, for a loved one, or they would interpret it as an elbow or shoulder instead and still try to appropriate the healing unction and adapt it to their need. We were taught to listen to their prayer request with one ear and listen to Father's heart with the other ear. If Father was saying, "Yes, I desire to heal this one," the prayer was for healing. We were also taught to try to discern Father's timetable. Was this a "right now" healing or maybe by the time they came back next week healing? Pray with intention and with understanding. It was an incredible time of practicing the gifts of the Spirit in that congregation. We regularly saw changes in people's lives and we regularly saw answered prayers. Why? I believe that it was because we were trying hard to tune into Father's will. We were, in effect, praying HIS heart's desires. I remember one in particular. She answered a word of knowledge about pain near the solar plexus, that soft triangle at the lowest front junction of the ribs. She had a hiatal hernia and was actually facing surgery the Tuesday. Prayer was for healing now. She was in church the next Sunday. "It was the oddest thing," she shared. "I heard that word and knew it was for me. I went to the doctor the next day and he said, 'Well, I'm going to take one more picture to see what I have to do tomorrow on the table.' He came back with the xray still dripping, eyes open wide, and said, 'It's not there. There IS no hernia!' No hernia? No surgery! God healed me!"



That was a huge faith builder in the congregation. We came to expect that God was going to work, that prayers would be answered, and that this was a natural part of our now supernatural lives! We had grown and matured significantly. These things were borne out of significant amounts of worship to focus us in on the Throne (and He Who sits thereon, of course), and intentional prayer. Rifle shot prayers, not buck shot. If people came for prayer and we did not sense Father telling us to pray for healing, we often just prayed in tongues and prayed His blessing on them. In my mind, I prayed that it would be their turn soon, and that God would gain glory through both the waiting and the healing.