Dr. Richard Swenson was giving a talk on the subject of God as related to space and time at Focus on the Family for the Christian Leadership Alliance meeting and he said these words, “Is it possible to pray today for something that affected yesterday? Space and time are no limits to God. If He knew you before He made you, He heard you before the words left your lips.” Now he did go on to say that we do not pray for God to change the past. But rather, he was simply trying to get the audience to break out of their mental boxes and understand that the living God can pause and listen to your every word. He can think about your words and determine when and if He should act upon your request and He is able to do this for millions of people at the same time. He could even spend a million years thinking about your prayer and not even one second would go by for humanity. Is that not a mind buster! Listen to the words of David. “When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:14-16). Then the Lord told Jeremiah, “before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). I won’t go into the issues of predestination here as I don’t want to get into a theological stumbling block. Rather, I just want you to see that when you pray, your conversation with God has no bounds and breaks even space and time.
In the words of E.M. Bounds, “prayer is the greatest of all forces because it honors God and brings Him into active aid. Prayer is the easiest and hardest of all things. It is the simplest and the most sublime, the weakest and the most powerful. Its results lie outside the range of human possibilities; they are limited only by the omnipotence of God.” Prayer is an act of submission.
Remember, in praying, it is not about us, it is about what we do for Him – who first loved us. You may never see some of your prayers answered in your lifetime. But we must tarry with our Father. We will discuss this in more detail on the subject of Intercessory Prayer.
Let us acknowledge the Lord; Let us press on to know the Lord. (Hosea 6:3)
Prayer is simply the expression of faith. Prayer and holy life are one. They mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone, for the absence of one is the absence of the other. The deep things of God are learned only in prayer. Our whole being must be in our praying; like John Knox, "Give me Scotland, or may I die." What passion he had for a piece of land. Why don't you have this passion in prayer? Guilt perhaps? Are you holding on to sin that you don't want to release or confess? “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” Hebrews 12:1b. You and the Father know what is holding you back from experiencing the fullness of a relationship with God. If you are clutching on to sin, your interface with the Father will be weak (I John 1:9). “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:16-18).
We must pray with all perseverance – Ephesians 6:18.
One person can change the world through powerful prayer:
• Elijah (prayed for the rain to stop and it did not rain for 3 ½ years)
• Moses (saved Israel from destruction – pleading with God)
• Samuel, Daniel, Paul…
"The best way to fight against sin is to fight it on our knees." – Philip Henry
God hears the prayers of men. That is truly amazing. He will hear your prayers. You have incredible power in your prayer. Far more than you can imagine. Again, we will address this as we discuss intercessory prayer later on.
You should begin the day in prayer as to avoid the foolishness of not having the spirit of wisdom with you while you make decisions.
"Work, work, from early until late. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." – Martin Luther
What a paradigm shift. Even now, as you read these words, you may be thinking about all the things that you need to accomplish. The tasks of the day can be overwhelming for many. It was no different for Martin Luther. But he understood that he couldn’t face the obstacles and challenges of the day without God’s hand guiding him. Just being in the presence of the Lord for a moment of solitude will ease your burdens. At first, I found it difficult to pray for 10 minutes and now, I have often found myself in prayer for hours. Dr. Henry Blackaby and I were discussing this very concept. We both agreed that our days were more productive and our minds better prepared when we committed our mornings to prayer. King David also understood this critical point:
• "Early will I seek thee" (Psalm 63:1)
• "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning (Psalm 5:3)
• "From the womb of the day, your men will come to you." (Psalm 110:3)
• "When I awake, I am still with thee." (Psalm 139:18)
"Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the prayer closet. There is nothing more fatal to the life and power of religion. More solitude and earlier hours – pray three times a day, at least. How much better might I serve if I cultivated a closer communion with God!" - William Wilberforce
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Power of Prayer VII
Okay, at this point, you should understand the basic premise of prayer…relationship with the Father. If you have not done so already, you need to learn balance between your study of the Scripture and your quiet time. God will reveal Himself to you through your diligent pursuit of Him. However, when you dedicate time to Him in prayer, it is there that He will unravel some of the mysteries of the Gospel and give you wisdom to navigate and understand the deep things of His holy nature. There is where the relationship develops. Trust me, it is an awesome experience when you dive into the waters of truth.
So, how do you begin to experience the fullness of prayer? Here are some of the fundamentals. Throughout Scripture, we are reminded to petition the Father with our requests:
"Ask in my name, and I will do it." (John 14:14)
"I will declare the decree…Ask of me, and I shall give thee…"(Psalm 2:7-8)
"Ask me of the things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me." (Isaiah 45:11)
"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." (Jeremiah 33:3)
"Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:2-3)
You have to ask to receive. That is not too difficult to remember and perhaps the thing that we often do the most of in our prayer time. However, it goes deeper than this. Remember, God wants to give to us and care for us (Matthew 6:28-33, Luke 11:11-13). It is in His nature as your Father…after all, you are His child. Just don’t forget that it is about relationship not privilege. Your heart is not in the right place if you simply call on the Lord for answer to prayer without desiring to know Him as your Father (Isaiah 29:13).
Here is a thought that may rock your very foundations. In 1915, Albert Einstein first proposed his theory of special relativity. Essentially, this theory proposes the universe we live in includes 4 dimensions, the first three being what we know as space, and the fourth being spacetime, which is a dimension where time and space are inextricably linked. According to Einstein, two people observing the same event in the same way could perceive the singular event occurring at two different times, depending upon their distance from the event in question. These types of differences arise from the time it takes for light to travel through space. Since light does travel at a finite and ever-constant speed, an observer from a more distant point will perceive an event as occurring later in time; however, the event is "actually" occurring at the same instant in time. Thus, "time" is dependent on space (thinkquest).
On September 10, 2008, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located underneath the Franco-Swiss border between the Jura Mountains and the Alps near Geneva, Switzerland, circulated its first particle beams. The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) at a cost of nearly 3 billion dollars. It is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons with very high kinetic energy. Its main purpose is to explore the validity and limitations of the current theoretical picture for particle physics. However, it may also be the means for unlocking the string theory which suggests there are 11 dimensions not just 4 as theorized by Einstein. The very concept predicts that an intelligent force could travel through space and time and be in a million places at once conducting a million conversations without time ever passing.
It is still amazing to me that such a device was even constructed while only miles away, men and women are living in mud huts unsure whether they will eat the next day. What a vast difference. Regardless, there are several things to consider here. First, it is incredible how capable the human mind is. What a design by God Himself. The brain can process and store more than 25,000 books worth of data. That is more than the Library of Congress. Secondly, we know that God will only allow men to learn and accomplish so much. We know this from the story of Babel where men were building great and mighty things including a tower to God himself (Genesis 11). The LHC is really no different. Nothing new under the sun as we often say. However, it has enabled us to ask the questions, contemplate and dwell on the idea that God…like the very concept of eternity…has no bounds. He is not limited to space and time. “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by or like a watch in the night” Psalm 90:4. “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” II Peter 3:8.
So, how do you begin to experience the fullness of prayer? Here are some of the fundamentals. Throughout Scripture, we are reminded to petition the Father with our requests:
"Ask in my name, and I will do it." (John 14:14)
"I will declare the decree…Ask of me, and I shall give thee…"(Psalm 2:7-8)
"Ask me of the things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me." (Isaiah 45:11)
"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." (Jeremiah 33:3)
"Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:2-3)
You have to ask to receive. That is not too difficult to remember and perhaps the thing that we often do the most of in our prayer time. However, it goes deeper than this. Remember, God wants to give to us and care for us (Matthew 6:28-33, Luke 11:11-13). It is in His nature as your Father…after all, you are His child. Just don’t forget that it is about relationship not privilege. Your heart is not in the right place if you simply call on the Lord for answer to prayer without desiring to know Him as your Father (Isaiah 29:13).
Here is a thought that may rock your very foundations. In 1915, Albert Einstein first proposed his theory of special relativity. Essentially, this theory proposes the universe we live in includes 4 dimensions, the first three being what we know as space, and the fourth being spacetime, which is a dimension where time and space are inextricably linked. According to Einstein, two people observing the same event in the same way could perceive the singular event occurring at two different times, depending upon their distance from the event in question. These types of differences arise from the time it takes for light to travel through space. Since light does travel at a finite and ever-constant speed, an observer from a more distant point will perceive an event as occurring later in time; however, the event is "actually" occurring at the same instant in time. Thus, "time" is dependent on space (thinkquest).
On September 10, 2008, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located underneath the Franco-Swiss border between the Jura Mountains and the Alps near Geneva, Switzerland, circulated its first particle beams. The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) at a cost of nearly 3 billion dollars. It is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons with very high kinetic energy. Its main purpose is to explore the validity and limitations of the current theoretical picture for particle physics. However, it may also be the means for unlocking the string theory which suggests there are 11 dimensions not just 4 as theorized by Einstein. The very concept predicts that an intelligent force could travel through space and time and be in a million places at once conducting a million conversations without time ever passing.
It is still amazing to me that such a device was even constructed while only miles away, men and women are living in mud huts unsure whether they will eat the next day. What a vast difference. Regardless, there are several things to consider here. First, it is incredible how capable the human mind is. What a design by God Himself. The brain can process and store more than 25,000 books worth of data. That is more than the Library of Congress. Secondly, we know that God will only allow men to learn and accomplish so much. We know this from the story of Babel where men were building great and mighty things including a tower to God himself (Genesis 11). The LHC is really no different. Nothing new under the sun as we often say. However, it has enabled us to ask the questions, contemplate and dwell on the idea that God…like the very concept of eternity…has no bounds. He is not limited to space and time. “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by or like a watch in the night” Psalm 90:4. “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” II Peter 3:8.
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