Prayer and Obedience

Learning Obedience Through Prayer

Having tried to figure out some dreams lately has caused me to lean heavily on prayer partners. This brought me to a place of realizing that all of us, regardless of our spiritual strength – need prayer partners. All of us! One of the lies the enemy of prayer uses is that since we are going through some difficult or trying times – we cannot pray for others – either in the altar, intercessory or our personal prayer closets. He uses this lie so often that some of you have relinquished your place in praying for others. When you do that you allow the enemy to defeat you and interfere with your anointing to bring others to victory in spite of your own spiritual battles or difficult seasons.

I am reminded of Paul the apostle when under tremendous pressure still found a place of ministry to others. He never allowed his “season” to interfere with the responsibility of working his anointing. Neither should we.

Read the following scriptures: 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (8) For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; (9) indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; (10) who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, (11) you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

What amazes me about this passage is that Paul did not have email, Twitter or FaceBook. He didn’t have internet. You have to realize that what happened on his missionary tours was communicated by word of mouth or by letter courier. Someone on a horse or riding a camel would bring the news. Days would pass before someone received notice that Paul was “in trouble.”  When you realize that and then read what Paul wrote: “you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many” – you realize the importance of prayer for the saints. You also realize the tremendous pressure both he and the saints he ministered to were under. You can’t even imagine the difficult times he and the church faced – and they survived by praying for one another.

Paul indicates that the favor of the Lord was on him due to the prayer of “many” of the saints. We don’t have to know the mechanics of how this works – all we have to know is that it does. Regardless of the load you or I am under – it cannot interfere with our responsibility to pray for others. I urge to you rediscover your place in altar working, intercessory prayer and your personal prayer closet. Do not allow the enemy to bring the lie into your spirit you are not strong enough to pray, you are too burdened to pray or you are not spiritually where you should be due to your own spiritual barometer. He is good at it – no doubt. We just can’t buy into his lies.

One of the greatest passages of scripture we can lean on when it comes to praying while under pressure ourselves is that which points to Christ as our example: Hebrews 5:7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

Bible scholars point to this passage as being one of the most transparent passages in all Holy Writ concerning Jesus as the Son of Man. The intent of this passage is that Jesus was praying for his personal need and for protection. Yes, you read it right. The language here indicates a man who is under pressure, facing death and is asking for help. Jesus, the Son of God, prayed for help. Look at this verse closely:

• Jesus prayed – made a request before God
• Offered supplications – asked for favor; a Greek symbolism of entering the temple with an olive branch in search of favor or blessing
• Prayed with loud crying – intense wailing
• Prayed with tears – deep emotional release

When you take this verse alone and break it down you see that “human” side of Jesus who is struggling with dying for the sin of the world. He bore on his shoulders the weight of the world. It was heavy. It was agonizing. He did what any other person should do in a crisis – he prayed.

We also discover that His prayer was heard. In John 11.42  Jesus exclaimed “I know you always hear me.” What I find amazing here was the sheer faith of the Lord. He “knew” his prayer was heard – and He still faced pain, suffering, agony and eventually death. His “knowing” he was heard was the open door to perseverance unto death. That, my friend, is pure faith in the One who hears our prayers. When we can “know” our prayers have been heard and still face calamity and crisis – we are people of great faith. There were no immediate false teachers to declare that since Jesus died there must have been something wrong with his faith. God forbid!

Let me address this for a moment. A prayer heard is not necessarily the quaint little phrase of “answered prayer by our will or standard.” His prayer was heard due to his piety – His tremendous reverence for the Father and pure submission to the perfect will of the Father. Without a doubt there is lesson here for all of us. A prayer heard is a prayer answered – according to the will of the Father. Jesus had to trust the One who heard His prayer and know that whatever suffering He was enduring was the absolute will of God.

I love the verse that follows: 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

Do you see what I see there? Jesus suffered. He wrestled with his own season of difficulty. He labored in prayer by asking for help and protection. He learned from his season of suffering. He did and so can we. Suffering should never move away from our calling to pray. Never. Ever.

Prayer is not easy. If it were we wouldn’t wrestle with the discipline of it. Accepting the full will of God is not easy. For many of us there is a huge gap, a colossal gorge between knowing God has heard us and how He chooses to answer our prayers.  I look to Hebrews here for another remark: Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

The word rewarder means “one who pays wages.” A simple word here from a guy who is rather simple. Wages are normally determined by the employer not the employee. God pays us for our faith at the determination of His will – not ours. Jesus learned obedience – following the will of another – through His moment of prayer.

I close with the following scriptures. Read them and then know that nothing should effect our responsibility to pray for others. Don’t let Satan lie to you and unjustly disqualify you from prayer.

Romans 15:30 Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.

2 Corinthians 1:11 You also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

Philippians 1:19   For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

1 Timothy 2:1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.

Philemon 1:22 At the same time also prepare me a lodging, for I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you.

So much to learn about prayer and trusting the ultimate will of the Father – our spiritual employer. How about you? Are you learning obedience through your season of crisis or are you complaining, whining and pouting? Just a thought.  Just a simple thought!

 

The Struggle of Experience

The Struggle of Experience

Mark chapter nine holds some unique isights for us. So often we have been trained to look at scripture from the hyper faith side of life. We tend to look at what Jesus did and the miraculous power He worked with. We sometimes over look the more cerebral side of what happened in scripture. Mark nine can present us with this dilemma.

Mark nine within itself is an awesome chapter. Who wouldn’t want to live on the side of hyper faith with this event. A dad has come to the end of his rope with a demon possessed child (not up for debate – the child was possessed). The disciples tried and failed to cast the demon out. What an indictment against the church then and even now if the same were to hold true. Jesus over hears the arguing and sees the crowd gathering and inquires about it. The dad speaks up. He explains the issue to the Jesus. Jesus goes into action!

Jesus lays out this statement that is so “hyper faith” according to today’s standards of faith. Jesus says, “All things are possible to him who believes!” Botta-boom botta-bing! There it is! So simple. So true. So hard to get a hold of.


This dad has been struggling with this issue for many years. Since his son was small. The boys behavior was overwhelming, embarrassing, humiliating, unbelievably strong and down right violent at times. Every day this dad would wake up and wonder what events the day would bring to him because of his son’s “condition”. Everyday was filled with depression, oppression and possession. Not a lot of answers. When he thought he found an answer he witnessed failure on the disciples part (ie: the church). The church failed him. Didn’t “they” represent Jesus? Weren’t they ambassadors for Him? Hadn’t He given them authority to do this level of ministry?

Mr. Mark Nine speaks up again and opens himself up in a powerful and real way. He says to Jesus, “Lord, I believe, but there is part of me that can’t grab hold of this ‘“all things”’ issue!” This dad is being what we know as “rubber meets the road” honest with his feelings about the church and about God answering his prayer. He is being brutally honest with Jesus. Been there done that was possibly what was crossing his mind. Yeah right! Just believe! Have you been there?

Have you depended on the church only to be let down? Have you put your trust and confidence in other believers only to find they can’t come through for you? Have you been told the same thing that Jesus told this dad – “All things are possible if you will just have faith!” The only problem is that your faith has been violently attacked by false doctrine, false hope and false shepherding in the past. You have prayed and have been disappointed. You have sought God and have been terribly let down. You can’t help but be honest and say what Mr. Mark Nine said, “Lord I believe but help my unbelief.” You want to believe – but there is a struggle to catch all of what Jesus has promised.

Jesus gives you an assuring Word. He speaks to the issue you have brought to Him. He says, “Come out, go away and don’t ever come back.” Oh my! So simple! Right now you would expect everything to go to pure sunshine, no clouds, no overcast skies, quite and calm and soft symphonic music playing somewhere in heaven and finding its way to your hearing. Not so.

When Jesus spoke by His authority – pardon my expression, but all hell broke loose with this boy. Something that Mr. Mark Nine had seen so many times in the past was happening again – right in front of Jesus. Really? Couldn’t there have been at least an image of immediate deliverance? Really Lord? Did you have to let this boy go through this again? You call this deliverance? You call this healing? You call this an answer to prayer? Are you kidding?

This poor dad is standing there witnessing his son fight for survival again. The dad can’t see the fight will be the last one his son ever has with his assigned demon. All he can see is what has always happened, what has been a manifest curse in his home and what has broken his heart far too many times! The boy screams with sounds that only a demon can produce. He is violently thrown into convulsions. He suddenly stops and lays lifeless in front of Mr. Mark Nine. You could have heard a pin drop on the ground. The silence was so loud no one moved! He laid like a corpse in front of the crowd. Whispering starts among the people and before long what everyone was thinking is spoken out loud by someone who had the guts to do so – “He is dead!”

All Mr. Mark Nine has to go on at this point is what he can see. He sees his son in the position of death. What he asked God to do once again comes across as a failed attempt at hyper faith – someone’s hyper faith but not his. Mr. Mark Nine has something to learn here. While those around us see our predicament as being dead, lifeless and violently destroyed in spite of faith in Jesus – Jesus Himself sees what we and others cannot. He sees through eyes of faith. He reaches out to this lifeless body that images a corpse and takes it by the hand. He presents Mr. Mark Nine Jr. to Mr. Mark Nine. What a day for this family to remember!

He then explains to his dumb-founded disciples who just can’t understand what happened that this kind of event can only be secured by prayer. End of story.

Mr. Mark Nine struggled with experience.
- dissatisfaction with the church
- a demon possessed boy who he wrestled with for years
- broken promises from religious people
- his son laid seemingly dead after Jesus dealt with him
- at least before he had some semblance of life – now he looked too much like a corpse
- dealing with an ongoing problem with evil that no one seems to understand

The disciples struggled with experience.
- the lack of it to bring deliverance to this boy
- the lack of understanding as to how to go about spiritual warfare
- the humiliation of facing Jesus when they were not successful in ministry
- the humiliation of facing this dad who had so much confidence in them to begin with

Jesus struggled with experience.
- His own disciples lack of prayer to perform deliverance
- the dad’s lack of healthy experience with the church (disciples)
- proving deliverance to this dad when everything seemed to go from bad to worse
- a crowd that lived by sight and not by faith

All of us have been there from time to time. We have prayed prayers and clothed them with all the faith we could find in our heart. We released our issue to the Lord. Then all hades breaks lose and it looks like things have gotten worse (the boy imaging a corpse). We struggle with life and experience. We wonder sometimes silently to ourselves and sometimes out loud to family and friends. We can’t see what Jesus sees. He sees an act of deliverance while we see an act of violent possession that kills.

It’s at these moments we step into those quite moments just before Jesus takes our problem by the hand and gives divine life to it. We have a choice. Listen to the crowd or wait on Jesus to manifest His Word.

Hebrews says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Where was the evidence that Mr. Mark Nine’s son had been healed? He couldn’t see it. Therein would lie the answer to his prayer – in what He couldn’t see but in what Jesus would present. Maybe we haven’t given Jesus enough time to walk over to our defeated problem and hand it to us personally. Just a thought!