St. Patrick

Psalm 23: 1 – 3

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!!  I decided to donate today’s devotional to Saint Patrick. Did you know St. Patrick was a shepherd? His story reminds me  of David who was also a shepherd boy. Patrick was abducted from his home in England and sold into slavery to an Irish land holder. There, much like David, he spent his youth tending sheep.

I wrote to you recently about feeling alone. I said you are never really alone because God is always there with you. There is a big difference between solitude and loneliness. These two lads, David and Patrick, spent much time with only the company of God and sheep. In that solitude with God, their faith was forged. They learned how to be by themselves without ever truly being alone. In their shepherding, they met THE shepherd, the great shepherd. In this famous psalm, David portrays, beautifully, the characteristics and manner of the shepherding God.

Patrick said that in his solitude, he grew closer and closer to God. The time he spent watching sheep was also spent in prayer. The more he prayed, he said, the more the Spirit grew in him. He was not bothered by cold temperatures nor was he plagued by fear.

As I ponder these two shepherd boys who grew to be giants of faith, I realize how little quiet and solitude most of us enjoy. Sometimes I feel we are a lost generation. We are either too busy, filling our days with every kind of distraction, or we are lost in loneliness when we should be reveling in time with our beloved. How is it that neither Patrick nor David fell into despair in the night watches?

Do you long to know Jesus as they did? Do you hunger for the kind of confidence in God they knew? It is for all of us, but there is a price. We must spend time in prayer and in seeking. What did their prayer look like? They were out in the fields for days and weeks. Did they pray like we have been taught, or did it take on the tone of conversation? Did they praise and worship God?

We have an opportunity to never be lonely again and to grow in the strength and confidence of the Lord. It takes humility, which I understand, can be a stumbling block. None the less, we can know what Patrick’s development looked like if we would begin our own journey in prayer. It begins with opening your heart and then your mouth to God. Begin to speak to Him. When we have spoken with Him for hours, then we shall find it possible to pray for days.

Did you ever wonder why the great shepherd leads us beside quiet waters? I think we have found the answer.

Getting it Right

Matthew 6: 5

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

2 So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

5 When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

I think this is a fascinating study and I hope you are enjoying it and really thinking through it. Imagine sitting with Jesus when He began to teach on righteousness. Wouldn’t you be curious to discover his ideas on what constitutes righteousness? What would your reaction have been when he began to discuss a relationship between practicing righteousness and being rewarded by God. Would that have made you uncomfortable, as it did me. As you sat there, anticipating what Jesus would say next, what thoughts were racing through your mind?

We think of righteousness as holiness. However they are not the same. In our skewed mindset, the last thing most of us would expect Jesus characterize as a practice of righteousness would be donating money. Money is dirty, right? And we certainly think it is profane for people to suggest we give away our money. It’s not so dirty when it’s in our hands but it certainly takes on a vile stench when someone suggests we give it away. Further, to link righteousness with filthy lucre is insane, right?

Well, we should all feel a bit more comfortable today because Jesus’ second point regarding practicing righteousness was on prayer. He said that some people make pretty, public prayers just so they can be seen as spiritual. He said they lose their reward. Ooops! There goes our holiness meter again. Doesn’t Jesus know that it is sacrilegious for him to suggest that our Father will reward us for praying? I mean, isn’t that kind of repugnant to our way of thinking?

Interestingly, that is Jesus’ whole point in this New Testament teachings. His ways are not our ways. He came painting a different spiritual landscape. Almost everything he said ruffled peoples’ feathers. That much has not changed.

We are going to have one more devotion on this subject before we move on. In that one, we will learn even more about the reality of righteousness. For now, I hope we have been able to loosen some religious strongholds and see truth from Jesus’ perspective. In these few verses he showed us that practicing righteousness is as simple as giving money and praying. Second, he taught that these are to be private practices, just between us and the Father; not secretive, just private practice. There is a difference. Selah! Third, Jesus taught that the Father rewards us for practicing righteousness. Because of Jesus’ teaching, we should expect to be rewarded. Many of us might need to shake the holiness dust from our robes and put on the new garment of Jesus’ teaching. It is befuddling, I agree, but, after all, Jesus is the stumbling block and blessed is the one who does not stumble over him and his teachings.

I hope you have been challenged, but I also pray that you have found liberty so far. Where Jesus is, there is freedom. All his teaching is truth, and his truth sets us free. Let this righteousness teaching revitalize you and lift you higher.

Prayer Temple

2 Chronicles 7: 15

My eyes shall be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.

After Solomon built and sanctified the temple, God made him the above promise. God’s omnipresence and attention would always be in the temple. At the time, that promise would have meant a great deal to the people of Israel. However, we don’t live in Israel. What has it to do with any of us?

The answer for that question is in John 14, verse 23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.” The apostle Paul made it clear, “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3: 16 GW). These verses bring 2 Chronicles into sharp focus for our lives today. God’s eyes and ear are always attentive to the prayers offered in His temple and you are His temple.

Do you ever feel like you are praying into a void? Me too! Sometimes it seems like our prayers are cast into a vast silence of brooding space. However, now we know that is not true so how we feel can be overwritten with truth. Last week’s Word of the Day told us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The point I tried to get across was that we should not let our feelings be the final authority. The same applies here. Though it does not always feel like God is listening, the truth is that He has no choice. He tied Himself to His temple thousands of years ago. Besides that, He loves you and is always attentive to your voice because He loves to hear from you. Still, I like having scripture to stand upon when I am not feeling my strongest. Scripture is solid and reliable.

So, what would you like to pray for today? Father is waiting and listening. Let Him know the desires of your heart.

Unusual Kindness

Luke 6: 35

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great; and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

Jesus says a lot in this short passage. It is a summation of the previous several paragraphs. He is giving us a model for living. This is the way He and His Father interact with others. Jesus tells us that God is kind to ungrateful and evil men as a way of showing us that we, being made in the image of God, should behave in like manner.

Anyone can be kind to those who are kind to them, but the life of Jesus calls us to a higher plane of existence. Jesus wants us to be like Him. To do so, we must expect more of ourselves than the simple life that anyone can accomplish. We should aspire to the high life, and that is the life and likeness of Jesus.

We need to love even when it is uncomfortable. We must learn to not only forgive those who transgress against us but also to pray for them; and moreover to pray from a generous and kind heart. We should learn to give generously, especially when there is no hope of a return. It is not a gift if you are expecting something in return. It is an investment. God, on the other hand, gives even to those who hate Him. He would have given His son even if there was only one person on earth and that person hated Him with the full strength of his being. Our God is a loving God, and we are seeking to be just like Him. Therefore, we must give from our heart love, goodness and every good thing, expecting nothing in return but just to please the Father.

Hindered but not Stopped

Daniel 10: 12

“Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.”

It can be very discouraging to pray for something and see no results. Daniel had the same experience. Verse 13 says that the “spirit prince” of the kingdom of Persia withstood the angel God sent for twenty-one days. Isn’t that amazing? From the very first prayer Daniel uttered, God dispatched His angel with the answers Daniel needed. Twenty days passed without Daniel seeing an answer to his prayer. However, on the twenty-first day, the angel arrived and greeted Daniel.

Don’t you find this passage fascinating? It is a glimpse into the spiritual realm. We learn that the bad angel of that region was able to hinder God’s angel. There are angels and then there are angels, and they are not all of the same strength and power. The angel who spoke with Daniel told him that the arch-angel Michael went to his aid. He was withheld until Michael showed up and helped him. Wow!

There is much going on in the spiritual realm of which we are mostly unaware but take heart. There is much good news in this passage. First, from the moment Daniel first prayed, God sent His angel with the answer. Yahoo! That is what we all need to hear. Second, even though Satan tried to prevent the angel from getting through to Daniel, God prevailed; as He always does and as He always will. Yahoo again!

There is a very important lesson in this too. Don’t give up! Jesse Duplantis says, “Don’t be defeated by time.” In other words, just because you have not seen the answer to your prayer yet does not mean that God has not answered it. Hang in there! Remember God’s answer is “Yes” and “Amen” (2 Corinthians 1: 20). There are, though, hinderances to prayer. You do not need to concern yourself with what they are actually. All you need to do is keep your confession of faith in your mouth. Remember, overcoming is achieved through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12: 11). So, we must keep our words in agreement with the Word of God and keep praying in faith. That means that we don’t need to beg to God, repeating the same petition over and over. No, instead we use that prayer time to talk with the Lord, to give voice to the Bible scriptures that speak to our need and to wrap it all up with thanksgiving and praise.

Persevere in prayer because the Lord is in agreement with you. Sometimes, it takes time. Keep making your positive confessions of faith. You may have to break through a battle that is going on in the spiritual realm and you can do that with the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony.

Faith Calls

Luke 18: 40

Jesus stopped and ordered them to bring the man to him.

A funny thing happened on the way from the showers . . .. I was at a bicycle weekend recently. My friends and I were walking back to our campsite after leaving the shower truck and walking by some lovely old homes in Edenton, NC. As we walked past one particular house, there were people sitting on the porch and somehow we began speaking with them. I noticed a crutch leaning against the house and asked to whom it belonged. A woman there said it was hers and without a moment’s hesitation I asked if I could pray for her. I didn’t know her from Adam and didn’t know what her ailment was. I just felt compelled to pray for her, so I did.

As I mounted the porch, she arose telling me she had scoliosis. Well, given one more minute I would have surmised as much for she was bent over. I prayed for her and as I prayed, I felt the Spirit moving. The woman began to pray along with me. I know something happened that day though when I left, she was not standing upright like when Jesus prayed for the woman in Luke 13: 13.

Days later I was thinking about this incident, and something struck me. The two ladies I was walking with each had a need. One has MS and the other has Celiac Disease. I did not have a compulsion to pray for them even though I camped with them all weekend, but I was compelled to pray for a woman I literally was walking by and didn’t know at all. Isn’t that interesting? What was the difference?

Faith calls. Faith pulls. Faith demands. It turns out that the woman with scoliosis, Connie, is a person of faith. In fact, she is the worship leader at her church. The spirit in her sensed the spirit in me and pulled on that anointing whereas the two women with me have no faith for healing.

This was astounding to me. As I pondered this event, I recalled James 5: 14 – 15. It reads, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.” The person who is sick is to call for the elders and the prayer offered in faith shall restore the one who is sick. My friends had no faith, but Connie did. Her faith reached right out to me and stopped me in my tracks the way Jesus was often arrested by faith. Isn’t that amazing?

I think too about the woman with the hemorrhage. She, literally, went and pulled on Jesus. There is a lesson here. Your faith heals. Jesus felt power go out of him. He told the woman, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well,” (Matthew 9: 22). That statement causes me to pause. We know God is the healer, but our faith must connect with that healing power and that is when the miracle happens. Even though Jesus didn’t know the woman was there, her faith reached out and took a miracle. Bless God!

Did you know that Jesus couldn’t always work miracles? Mark 6: 5 reads, “And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them,” (NLV). As crazy as this first sounds, it does make sense when you recall Revelation 12: 11, “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony.” We would think that the blood of the Lamb is sufficient to overcome all obstacles, but we would be wrong and unbiblical. This scripture is very clear in teaching that overcoming is the product of the blood and the “word of their testimony” or, in other words, the words of our mouth. This reality makes us uncomfortable for two reasons. First, it places responsibility on our shoulders when we just want Jesus to make everything alright for us. Second, it defies our theology. We have been taught God is omnipotent and we took that to mean that He acts independently of us. That just isn’t Biblically sound. There is nothing in the Bible that says that. In fact, it says just the opposite. Psalm 115: 16 says, “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.” God gave us freewill, and He gave us authority and He will not usurp either.

Well, this devotional might speak to a number of different things for you today. One take away for me is that you never know when God is going to move or when and how He is going to teach you something. I would have never guessed that the blessing of the Lord would manifest while I was walking from a shower truck to my tent with a towel slung over my shoulder, but there He was. Ready to bless someone. Oh, but this touches my spirit. Paul told Timothy to be ready in season and out (2 Timothy 4: 2) and brother, I am glad I was ready. We were also taught to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5: 17). That means even when you are not at church and not dressed up.  Be ready to pray at all times.

You can see the implications for an entire message in each of those scriptures as it relates to this experience. So, be ready at any time to minister but also, stir up your faith for whatever you need. Pull on the anointing in your spiritual leaders. If you aren’t calling me or writing me, you are missing an opportunity for God to minister to your need. Be filled and overflowing in Jesus’ name.

Let Him Call

James 5: 14 – 15

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.

Earlier in this series I wrote to you on Matthew 18:19. Here is the text of that verse, “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.” The point of the message, and indeed of the verse, is that there is power in praying together. James addresses this point specifically related to healing. We all want to know what to do when we get sick and here is Jesus’ brother telling us exactly what to do.

Let me ask you a challenging question. Have you asked an elder of the church or pastor to pray for you for healing? If not, was it because you didn’t know this instruction or was there another reason? Truthfully, we have not been trained in the way we should go, so when things come up, we do not default towards these kinds of instructions. It is a shame that we have not been taught. After today, though, none of us will have that excuse. So, what is the next excuse?

Would you be embarrassed to ask me to pray for you? This isn’t just prayer list praying, is it? This is in person, anointing with oil. What? Does this sound weird to you? I imagine to some it does sound odd and how tragic is that? Jesus’ own brother gave us explicit instructions and yet it sounds strange to us. Some of us have been in the church for many years. This should be old hat by now, but here we are, feeling awkward. I hope, though, by talking about prayer for healing it becomes more natural to us.

There is one other part that we must tackle. You know if you get sick you are going to be hesitant to call me or another elder to go lay hands on you, anoint you with oil and pray the prayer of faith. Can we predict that? The first question is why? Why are we hesitant? The second question is, what do we call it when we have been given direction by God and choose not to do it? I think you see the problem. How are we availing ourselves of God’s grace for healing while we are in disobedience? This is a very hard lesson, I know, but believe me, things have been changing in my household as well. Once we see what God has said to us, then it is incumbent upon us to obey. Embarrassment is not an excuse for disobedience.

God loves you. He is trying to get blessing and healing to you. He isn’t trying to embarrass you. We embarrass ourselves, but don’t let that be an impediment. Do as the Lord says, receive prayer and be healed, in Jesus’ name.