Are you Ready to Follow God's Voice?

                                    I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that

                                    ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, 
                                   which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world:
                                   but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
                                   prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

                                                                                                (Rom 12:1-2) 

                                    But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

                                    My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

                                    And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,

                                    neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

                                                                                               (John 10:26-28)


The voice of God comes to the sheep of God, and to no other. The topic of hearing the voice of God is much more than only a process to be learned, or formula to be developed. It is a life of turning away from the pattern of this world. At the heart of the all learning on this topic is the discipline of being and staying one of God’s sheep. We can hear and follow other voices: for there are many voices in the world. There is only one true voice of the God of the Bible.

There is something which comes before any hearing of Gods voice, it is the laying down of our lives before the living God. Until our life is surrendered to God generally, His voice speaking to us is particularly will be of no value. If in your heart you are still seeking your way, your plans and following your will there is no room for His; therefore God is silent.

Who is actively running your life Right now? Are you choosing your own way? Do you believe that any path through life is acceptable to God, as long as it is accompanied by Christian ethics, morals and regular church attendance? If God was to make instant changes in your life what would you be most afraid of losing? Or most anxious to be rid of?

It is assumed that surrender is no longer a valid when a person makes a confession of faith. Even after having followed the Lord to the cross, a person can at any time take the reins of their life back from God. To assume that a confession of faith at one point in time is sufficient to be counted as submission for a lifetime is unrealistic. This is not a discussion of the doctrine of salvation, but it an exploration of hearing the voice of God and the surrender that must accompany it. We must become and remain a sheep. Without the literal, actual and current surrender of your life to God: you will proceed no farther in hearing the voice of God, there is no need.

God alone is the determiner of the quality of this kind surrender. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and is fully able to be God to us. Our first learning of God is that He loved us so much that He came to us, suffered and died the most shameful of deaths on our behalf. After such a lavish display of love, should there be any doubt of His goodness toward us? If we are convinced of His love, and His fatherly care to us, we should feel at liberty to surrender all to Him without reservation. If we are not hearing God’s voice and God’s leading in our lives it might good indicator of the quality of offering we have placed before Him, that it might not be lamb at all, but possibly goat.

Have we been paying games with God? Surrendering only that which we find convenient and easy, and dismissing the rest as being “under the blood”? Are you really ready to hear a word from God, a word which will shakesthe very foundations of your life? Or have we places a blemished offering before God? Are we ready to die personally, actually and painfully to being the God of our own life?

I am persuaded of better things of any who would seek any writing on hearing the voice God. The nature of the topic alone is enough to indicate that a person is seeking a deeper and more complete relationship. Nevertheless, examine yourself and see if you be in the faith: for making a deepening commitment to Him is required to grow into hearing His voice. If this is not at the core of your seeking after God, there is no need for Him to speak. If this is not the very attitude of our hearts, there is no need for us to hear.

Playing with Idols

                                    Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart,

                                    and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face:

                                    should I be enquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto

                                    them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man

                                    of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and

                                    putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and

                                    cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh

                                    according to the multitude of his idols;

                                                                                                (Eze 14:3-4)

God made it very clear to Ezekiel the costs of not fully surrendering to the will of God before seeking to apprehend the voice of God. Leaning our lives toward anything else but God for support is the definition of New Testament idolatry. Idols own us when we need them more than God: our relationships, our career, our health, or our beauty, our retirement accounts, our credit reports. Anything that we can claim as "ours" independent of God, is not ours, but we belong to it. If our surrender before God has been honest and pure, God will deal with the idols one by one. If we presumptuously approach God, without consideration the state of our hearts, He will answer us according to our lusts. We will get what we wanted, but we will not like what we have gotten.

The person walking this path will eventually find that God has lead them into nothing but troubles. These troubles themselves are not the problem, but getting the idols out of their hands is. Many will turn back at this point because they do not knowing the ways of God. They did not know that He must accomplish a work in them, before promises can be fulfilled to them. Until that process is complete, we are unable to walk in the things which God would speak into our life, and unable to enter our promised land.

God has a way of shaming our idols before our own eyes. If our trust had been in our ability to earn income, we might suffer job loss. If our trust has been in our career path, He might place a supervisor over that suffocates our hopes. He will place immovable objects before us, like mountains and leave us with no resource of our own able to remove it. Eventually we become tired of our idols, and we judge them as unable to save. Everything we once trusted in, all of what we counted as "our best" and "our strongest" has now been shown useless. The only answer allowed to remain is God, but to grab hold of Him we must first let go of our idols.


Our Attention

                                    Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

                                    Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation

                                    in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw

                                    my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation,

                                    and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known

                                    my ways...)

                                                                                                             (Heb 3:7-10)

An overemphasis on righteousness and willful ignorance of sanctification and holiness is trouble. It is leaving many without the basic tools needed for Biblical Christian living. Had we been attentive to the scriptures, we would have seen our oversights. We have a false confidence in righteousness. We have substituted its definition over the words holiness and sanctification, so that we have erased them from our usage. Fortunately God has written a book without any omission and it is highly recommended reading for anyone considering living as a Christian! Any deficiencies can be reestablished in the life of anyone literate. If we bold enough to take the scriptures seriously and to take God at His word. We need our Bibles!

The Living God has gotten our attention off of our idols and onto Him. We have surrendered to Him. Becoming sheep we are made dependent upon the Great Sheppard, whom we are grasping toward. We now desire to know the living God, and to hear His voice directing the particulars of our life. We should start by returning to what He generally said. The best examples of God are on display for us in the scriptures: what He might say and how He might act is in the pages of the Bible. I have heard the Lord many times using the some question from the Bible with me personally. He has asked me the same challenging questions, when I came with a heart worth of the Biblical Pharisees.

Foundational to hearing God is the nature of God. He does not change, and so neither does His voice. He has spoken in the scriptures, and at hearing His voice there upon the pages of the Bible, we can recognize it when it comes. This is new to us because previously looked into the scriptures to find if our will was consistent with His. Now we are considering this consistency in regard to the voice of God.  The voice of God will have the same spiritual sound; meaning to the untrained ear it might at first be indistinguishable from the scriptures. Isn't this how it should be?

Finding ourselves lead into desert places by God has an effect on our approach to the scriptures: we become amazingly attentive. The warnings in the book of Hebrews become real to us, and we will find them highly useful in understanding our own journey into our promised land. The historical narrative of Israel in the desert now becomes alive to us, with spiritually practical object lessons made personal. The truthful observation has been made that after God took the children of Israel out of Egypt, but it still took forty years to get Egypt out of them; though we hope will it be so long a journey for us.

God’s Dealings vs. Personal Reformation
                                 
                                    For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son

                                    whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you

                                    as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

                                    But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then

                                    are ye bastards, and not sons… 
                                    …Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but

                                    grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of

                                    righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

                                                                                                            (Heb 12:6-8,11)

It will be clear to you after this wilderness is passed that God has done a work in you, distinct from the circumstances around you. Looking back many are horrified by the reflections of their own pasts, but now speak favorably of such dealings they once begged to an end.  This is God’s work in us, a work which we cannot do for ourselves. We previously may have tried to do this work ourselves, but that is only personal reformation. Personal reformation has its season, but there is a work which only God can do.

God is recovering His rightful position in our life as God.. We are once again becoming sheep and He our Great Sheppard. The promise of yielding the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” is only to those who “are exercised thereby”. Take account if your willingness to follow the voice which you are about to hear. An entire generation of Israel perished in the wilderness when they followed God half heartedly. You will inherit a land flowing with milk and honey, but not without laying down all first. Half hearted following yields half hearted results, which is only enough to lead you into the desert, but not enough to lead you out. God will cleanse you, but in a place without resources save for Him.

The holiness and sanctification, which we had only heard about are become a reality in us. I had eluded our grasp when we tried to obtain it through personal reformation; but now we count it a cherished gift from God. If God had allowed us to apprehend it by our own efforts, pride would become the new idol of our promised land. The existence of pride requires this working to not be our choice, but a work which God chose to do in us.

A new humility becomes resident in our hearts, which was not present before the pressures were applied. Life springs up from once dead places in our souls. The scriptures come alive not just to us, but in us; taking their rightful place in our life. Reading the Bible becomes an adventure, a constant companion and living guidebook, rather than the object religious duty. In short, the life spoken of in the scripture is at work within us.

The process of rooting out idols began with the offering of our lives before God. He has been waiting for us to come. It ends when God says it ends, because these times (by the mercy of God) are seasonal, not continual. When it ends we might not judge ourselves fully clean before God, but the wisdom of God for our sake is at work here. We can see in ourselves that farther work needs to be done, but some things are left for the sake of humility. Even as Paul sought the Lord three times to have His buffeting removed, only to have the reply be “No”. Fear not, He will fully cleanse us; but this process is in His hands, not ours.

Goodness of God


                                    For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
                                    to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
                                                                                                             (Rom 8:18)

The severity of God cannot be compared with His goodness! The promises draw us to the living God for fulfillment, but it is His goodness that led us. The rebuke of Israel in the wilderness was because of their faithlessness that God was going to make good on His promise. The same hope we have from God in our lives and we do well not to lose sight of it. No dealing for the present seems joyous, but afterward, afterward is the blessing. The goodness and the promises are sure, thought the path might be as straight as we first believed.

The promises God made to you personally are true, for God is not a man that He should lie. At times we might be tempted to believe God has led us into a wilderness to kill us, and in a manner of speaking He has. We died in the wilderness, yet a new life sprang up within us. Both literally and figuratively, the promises God made are larger than the death we died.

God’s promises are eternal, larger than life or death. This is far beyond our understanding of simple honesty. If something God speaks is not true at the time, His power will create it into being. Obtaining such promises is not easy, as we witnesses in our wilderness walk, but if it were easy it would have no value. God who has promised us will bring it to pass.

                                    But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh

                                    to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them

                                    that diligently seek him…

                                    … Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive

                                    seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because

                                    she judged him faithful who had promised.

                                                                                                (Heb 11:6,11)


It is impossible to fully articulate these things for everyone. They are individualistic, personal and must pass directly from God to you. They are to be cherished, recorded in notebooks, and shared with spiritual friends as testimonies. The Lord will do the most personal and touching things as a display of His care for you is. The harshness and severity of God in the wilderness sometimes shakes our faith that He cares for us, but God takes opportunities to show us just how well He knows us. This is just one such story:

I was on my way to work one morning and was going to stop for the coffee I skipped because my stomach had been upset. As I positioned myself to turn off, the Lord spoke to me saying, “No!” When I asked Him why, His immediate response was, “I have commanded my servant to give it to you.” I proceeded to work and  found that a coworker had purchased a coffee at the same location for a friend who was out of the office that day, so she offered it to me. I thanked her with a warm smile, but upon opening it found it to be prepared with cream and sugar. In my heart I mused that I normally took my coffee black with sugar, the Lord replied, “It’s for your stomach!”

Nearly twenty years after that morning it still provokes me to tears at how God loves us, knows us personally, understands even our aches and pains. Surely the hairs of our head are numbered, for He has counted them while looking upon us while He was thinking of us!

He knows you, not just as a memory exercise, but with personal attention and thoughtfulness toward you; this is known as love. He formed you and has a path for you, a course and race for you to run in life which He has marked out. This course requires His personal leading; hearing His voice, apprehending His will and allowing Him to be God to you. He will speak to you directly, make promises to you personally, and keep them.

The ethics and morals of the Christian faith are not enough to follow God, and while they are not to be discounted or discarded they are yet insufficient. The scriptures themselves point to a life in God beyond their pages: a real life, in a real relationship with the Living God. The most basic message of the Gospel is that He is alive and risen, so we can no longer think of Him as dead and gone. He has spoken in the scriptures and continues to speak to any who would dare follow Him on an adventure by submitting their lives to him, and following after His leading. God bless you in it!

To Will and To Do

                                    For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to
                                    do of his good pleasure.   (Phil 2:13)

                                   
A new work is always exciting, filled with expectation and the fruit of the Spirit springing from within. Beginnings are easy, but as we continue forward, resistance, pressure and confrontations take their toll. One day we awake and to find it hard to continue, the joy is gone, but the work remains. We press on for we know we must, but going forward wishing that the joy and fruit we began with were still present.

What changed? When we begin to use absolute terms like “duty”, “calling” and “faithfulness” to describe the way forward, a change has occurred away the grace of God we professed at the beginning. The fruit of the Spirit we once enjoyed, now no longer accompanies us as it once did. Faith is not the issue, if it was we would not choose words like duty and faithfulness as a way forward. 

                                    If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
                                    land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with
                                    the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
                                                                                                (Isa 1:19-20)

We missed God's warning to be both “willing and obedient” and the promise to us that God works in us both “to will and to do” His good pleasure. Are these one and the same, if God speaks of them separately? We believed because we were still obedient that we are still willing. Our willingness left, but our obedience remained, so to accomplish the task we begin to burn flesh instead of the grace of God. For this reason the “works of the flesh” are with us in our duties as the “the fruit of the Spirit” has disappeared. As our frustration has grown, mumurrings and disputings have broken out within us, and are about to spread to others around us, for we can no longer restrain them. What began as a work to shine the light of God into the world, has now become pit of darkness we have fallen into. How do we recover our willingness?


                                    Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
                                    even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.   (Mat 26:38)


Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is an example for us, but strictly speaking, Jesus’ requests were not the reason for His prayer. The object was not that "this cup be taken” from Him, but rather to align His will with the Fathers. “If it be possible that this cup pass from me” might be the actual words of our prayer in our circumstance, but the answer is about the agreement of our wills. Jesus had been heading to the cross for some time, He knew the will of the Father and the plan of salvation through His suffering, but this knowledge did not exempt Him from the crisis of human will. Such times of prayer are not about the requests we make, but about the submission and surrender we experience to the will of God.

                                    Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me:
                                    nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.   (Luke 22:42)

We might add will-power to the list of needs, but the will-power we are asking for is not the forcefulness of God’s will which carries us through to the end, but we means to wrestle our own will into submission; for only then can we obtain any power to do the will of God. The end of this wrestling will bring us to rest when it is fully accomplished it, but we must pass the night in the Garden of Gethsemane as did our Lord. If we find the grace of God to work within us “to will”, we shall again find the grace of God working in us “to do” which has eluded us.

                                    For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to
                                    do of his good pleasure.   (Phil 2:13)

Of Faith and Faithfulness

                                  

                                   And he said unto them, When ye pray, say,
                                    Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
                                    Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
                                                                                                           (Luke 11:2)
                                                                       
Successful prayers are in the quality of our asking, but in the power of God who answers. If we seek to only refine the quality of our praying, our prayers become only a duty to perform by us. The power of prayer is not wielded by those who ask, but by Him who answers. He answers not because of our asking, but because of His nature, for He is God and will be God in the circumstance before Him.
                                   
                                    Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure
                                    to give you the kingdom.   (Luke 12:32)


Jesus’ hints of something deeper at the start of the Lord’s Prayer: “When you pray, say…”. “Say” is not a request, but is the word “lego” which means to “lay forth”. This is exactly opposite of our tendency to make prayers constructed only of requests. Practically this is praise; specifically this is laying forth of the nature and attributes of God. First is our acknowledgement of God’s place in our prayer, as our Father and the Head of the Kingdom which is to be enriched by His answers. Beginning with praise, we are no longer alone in our requests that follow, but we stand before the Living God who desires us to come, who is waiting to answer.

                                    Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
                                    all that we ask or think… Unto him be glory in the church by
                                    Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.              
                                                                                                            (Eph 3:20-21) 
                                   

Now we stand before Him who sees all things, knows all thing, created all things; who purchased the rights to all things with His own blood. He is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. While Christianity has a strong emphasis on faith, faith has its foundations in the faithfulness of God. We find ourselves before Him who is worthy, faithful, and ready to answer. Our faith at the end, but His faithfulness is just beginning.

                                    Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;
                                    (for he is faithful that promised;)   (Heb 10:23)

                                    Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed,
                                    and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she
                                    judged him faithful who had promised.   (Heb 11:11)

The Table of the Lord

                        Lev 24:6 And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row,
                        upon the pure table before the LORD.

                        PS 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of
                        mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

                        Luke 22:30 That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom,
                        and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

                        1Co 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils:
                        ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

                        Rev 19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun… Come and gather
                        yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

From beginning to end the Bible speaks of a table which God has set up. While libraries of books have been written on the doctrines of the “Communion Table”, they have distracted us from a fuller understanding of The Table of the Lord. The image of this table appears in the tabernacle, the temple, the private chambers of prophets, the halls of kings, the upper-room, church gatherings and at the end of the age is even a "the great feast”.

An experience common to all humanity is the dining table, where food and drink are laid out and all the activities of our lives are nourished. In Africa or Asia this might be no more than a woven mat placed on the ground, while in the West, iconic images of Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” are brought to mind. A thread which has been woven throughout the scriptures and is experienced in the daily lives of all mankind must have its origins in God; so we are not talking about just the tables of men, but the Table of the Lord.
                       
                        But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
                        Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him
                        ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that
                        sent me, and to finish his work.   (John 4:32-34)

                        Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup
                        which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?   (John 18:11)


Jesus considered doing the will of God as nourishment placed on His table, the cross like a cup given Him to drink, the ministry to the Samaritan woman as secret food which even His disciples knew nothing of. On this table is served the will of God for our lives, the things which God Himself has set before us. In His position as God and Father over his own household, He laid before us a ministry, so personal in quality; it is laid out only for you. Small and great callings, bitter and sweet servings, large and small helpings, all intended for the nourishment of lives.
                       
                       Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
                        thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. (PS 23:5)


The Table of the Lord is the place of prayer in which we receive our purpose and priorities. Contrary to our tendency to lay our needs before Him, here God lays His needs before us, as His will and instruction for our lives. Without the Table of the Lord it is impossible to be truly nourished in our lives: our scriptural studies will have no focus on the realities of life and quickly become only personal exercises in private ethics. Without it, our prayers will quickly dwindle into “self-focused-askings” over things we are told to take no thought for. Simply, without doing the will of God, why should we expect to be nourished by God?

                        For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any
                        would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some
                        which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
                        Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ,
                        that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. (2Thes 3:10-12)
                        

If our prayer life has become stale, could it be that we are only spending our time chattering away with requests for our needs and paying little attention to the needs of God's heart? Have we become spiritual busybodies walking disorderly, not filling our lives with the will of God, but bloated with our own moral preoccupations? Has our time in the scriptures been the spiritual food God intended it to be, or is it the stale bread of ethical behavior and private conformations of our own godliness? Prayer begins not with our requests, but with the will of God, at the Table of the Lord.

                        Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
                        Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
                        Give us day by day our daily bread.  (Luke 11:2-3)

The Door of Prayer

                                  
     
                                   … Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight,
                                   and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in
                                   his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he
                                   from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut,
                                   and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
                                                                                                                                     (Luke11:5-7)


The needs of others can surprise us. When needs are presented which are beyond our faith, beyond any words of scripture we know and beyond all our personal experience, we discover we have nothing to set before them.  At the appearance of great need a sense comes over us that we have suffered a humiliating failure in God, one in which we ourselves are deficient, as if we are unfaithful stewards, because we have nothing to offer. We leave their company with a promise of future prayer, but as our private attempt begins, we come face-to-face with the door of prayer, a door which we have found shut.  

Our humanity is against us opening it: “It’s late”, “I don’t know how to pray”, “I am ashamed, for I have judged myself lacking!” Our culture is against us, for we have learned that to meet practical needs we must have practical activity, and prayer we have dismissed as exactly the opposite. Any need, weakness, or lack on our part is felt to be a shameful circumstance and not equal to the self-reliant backbone of our ancestors. We have kept the appearance of self-reliance, we have always played it safe, never place ourselves in a position in which we are not supported: financially, spiritually, and practically. Having done these things we ourselves have shut the door of prayer behind us, and these actions we have called wisdom.

The plan of God for prayer is a divine plan, made of divine wisdom, which hides the secrets of prayer from those without a heart after God. Hearts that look for systems or methods of approaching God may pray by closing their eyes offer a few pious requests and ending in the name of Jesus; but for them there is no answer from beyond the door. In the face of this surprising need we realize our own lack: we have no answers, no training and no method sufficient and when we turn toward the door of prayer we find it shut.

The entrance is opened to those possessed by faith, hope, love, humility, poverty and dependence upon God, even to those whom confess their need for such things; but curiously closed to those who have only heard of their existence, but possess not their substance. Feelings of helplessness, lack and dependence must be our constant companion in prayer; for when we have nothing to offer, this is all that is required.  

In the course of writing this entry I have been told that this is the most depressing few paragraphs some have ever read: I am inclined to say that they are right, but I will change them. We have for too long tried to reach God through our faith, our self-confidence and our doctrinal correctness; of such stones are the foundations of Babylon made, not the New Jerusalem. Come to the door of prayer with your need, lack, sickness, bankruptcy, shame, and pain; then He will meet you there and open. There you will find provision, for yourself and for others; you will find His sufficiency, a river flowing through the deepest parts of you.

... and yes, and He will answers your prayers too.

Ask

 
                                                And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you;
                                                seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
                                                unto you.
                                                                                                                 (Luke 11:9)

Our first reading of the verse seems to be the ultimate key to answered prayer: expressed in a “cause and effect” style which harmonizes with our technical input-output world. The simple acceptance of this spiritual truth might have rewarded with answers from God at first, but this did not continue for long. A short while after we joyfully discovered this verse, we painfully discarded it, but with such promises as “answers from God” and the “authority of scripture” at risk, we dare not speak publically of our disappointment, or accuse God directly of lying. We cast the verse aside like a puzzle piece we have not found a place for, but are confident we will.

We had taken it to mean that “if we just took the time to pray, God would reward us with an answer”, so by asking, our part is done; but our experience over time does nothing to prove this verse true and has not given us the answers we were seeking. We ask ourselves, “Why when it simply says, “ask, it will be given you”, does it not give me unlimited access to answered prayer?” The answer, though it adds a condition, holds much greater riches and practical blessings than we first imagined.  

The Greek word for “ask” is more descriptive than its English counterpart, so when “ask” is translated, a subtle meaning is stripped away which leaves us with only “the action of making a request”. Vines Expository Dictionary has eight words which are translated “ask” in the KJV, and this is only one of them. The word means “to ask from one lesser, to one greater”; much more meaning than we had originally given it. Viewing this as only cause and effect was simplistic view, but now we find a new condition placed on us and the scripture demanding of the pray-er more than just the act of praying, but an attitude of heart.

Our altered view does not mean we have been cheated; on the contrary the new condition makes it is significantly richer. Now the times when we feel the smallest in our own estimation, feel the neediest and without the faintest hint of drawing toward prayer becomes the very circumstance to which the verse is speaking. Recognizing our position as needy, humbles us, and becomes the very attitude of heart to which He promised us an answer for our asking. Now our most down trodden moments, at the very height of our need, in our most pitiful circumstances, now become the Promised-Land and mother-load of answered prayer, and all for the same action of “asking” we had before. Truly He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (PS 138:6).

The door of prayer is not opened to those that simply “do the activity” of making a request  and demand they be rewarded with answer; but is thrown wide open to those who give glory to God as God, but see themselves as needy. They come before Him with boldness, though feeling their neediness and the needs of others which they cannot meet, buy they obtain mercy and find grace to help them. To these the door of prayer is open.

The Manifestation of Jesus

                         I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

                        Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me:

                         because I live, ye shall live also.

                        At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

                        He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:

                        and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him,

                        and will manifest myself to him.

                       

                        Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest

                        thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

                        Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words:

                        and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and

                        make our abode with him.

                                                                                                                        (John 14:18-21)

Prayer must be the most unimaginable thing to an atheist! A person goes off by themselves and speaks words into the air, to nothing and no one. From this perspective there could be no greater waste of time or more foolish scene than a man in prayer. Would it surprise you if the atheist is found to be you, and the truth of this scripture to be more real than we have dared to believe?

In an attempt to make Christianity less mystical to a skeptical, practical and scientific world, we have pretended that such scriptures about the manifestation of Jesus to be only a natural outcome of our religious activities: as if through devotion to the Bible and faithful church attendance we might somehow obtain an enlightened-similitude of Jesus Christ impressed on our souls, a better picture of the Savior in the imaginations of our hearts or through knowing His teachings we could have a better picture of the man. To this approach the world has asked the most obvious of all questions; “How would this manifestation differ from the manifestation of Buddha, or Mohamed, or other religious leaders?” The simple answer is, if that is our approach, there is no difference.

Could it be that Jesus meant what He said and more literally then we have dared portray? What injustice have we done to the gospel by portraying Jesus as more dead than alive? Could He actually be really alive and active as an individual, as God, and the literal leader of His church? Could He be the personal recipient of our prayers? Could He be so real that our prayers stop sounding as speeches made to a deity far removed, and more like a dialogue with a well respected and powerful friend whom we know well?

Christianity made to be devoid of the living God is non-distinct compared to the pantheon of the religions of the world, and leaves us no better prepared than an atheist in prayer. With the manifestation of Jesus, prayer becomes as natural to the Christian for spiritual life as breathing is for the natural life: because the object of prayer has been recovered and the declaration of “in Jesus name” can now be spoken with boldness before the Father.

We have said the right words when speaking of salvation, saying that a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” is the only way to be saved, but as soon as the person is converted to the faith we excuse the term from meaning a real relationship with God, and leave them with only devotion toward God, rather than fellowship with Him. To take the term “relationship” to mean only the exercise of our devotions toward God closes us off from the life of prayer: leaving us only with a duty we find impossible to perform. The same can be said of prayer as with salvation: not only does it require a “personal relationship with God”, it is the very reality and activity of that relationship.

In the most practical of terms, the manifestation of Jesus is not a projection of our thoughts about who He is, a recollection of all that we know about Him or a construct from our learned minds; it is His actual personhood present with us during prayer. We might say this is the “presence of God” as commonly expressed in charismatic and pentecostal circles, but it is more than these terms can hold; for we are speaking of the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Himself.

All of the scriptures about Him, all of the learning about Him has not been wasted or useless, but compared to the manifestation of Jesus Christ Himself, these have been only misty shadows. Indeed the gospels have re-presented Him enough that when praying, having not seen His form, we can identify Him when He speaks. Many times I have seen the same Jesus of the Bible alive and well while praying; asking me the same piercing questions as the Jesus of the Bible.

The questions He asks are the questions of God to a man, which are not of God’s ignorance, but are revelations themselves. Can you hear Him in the garden calling to Adam, “Adam where art thou?” God already knew! Can you hear Him asking for the coin used to pay taxes to Cesar? “Whose image and superscription is this?” This is an inquiry based on knowledge, not on ignorance: asked for the sake of the responders, not the responses. When I come with questions and hear, “I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you…” This is the same Jesus portrayed in the scriptures; it is Him who we have encountered in prayer.

                         For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged

                        sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints

                        and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

                        Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are 

                        naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

                        Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens,

                        Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

                        For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our

                        infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

                        Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,

                        that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                             (Hebrews  4:12-16)

The Word of God here is not speaking of the scripture, but the manifestation of Jesus Himself as we standing before Him in prayer. The writer calls Him “living and active”, “quick and powerful”, “zaō and energēs”, “living and strong.” He is sharp like a sword, His words and questions piercing right to core of matter. It is He who sees all, all of creation manifested in His sight, all creation laid bare and open to His eyes. It is Him who is touched with our feebleness, yet the writer say, “let us therefore come boldly”. This is the manifestation of Jesus Christ, and this is His throne of grace, just on the other side of the door of prayer.