The Essence of Prayer – Living in the Divine Plus
February 13th, 2009 categories: Grazing Spiritual Pastures
For the last several months, my focus has been on reading, studying and writing a Bible Study (that my friends and I have been going through) on Prayer. It is a conglomeration of things I have learned from several of my favorite teachers plus what the Lord has taught me individually. Here is the Conclusion of my study:
The end result of the prayer process is to manifest Christ …. to bear Fruit … to be about our Father’s business “in union” with Him.
For a believer in Christ, deep with in us, we desire this because He has placed within us His Seed, which is Him, His nature, His desire, His Limitless Love, His Power that is always at work, which desires to manifest, to bear fruit, to be about our Father’s business. Our spirit IS willing (even though our flesh may also feel very weak at times).
In order to get there, we must deal with the “Old Man.” Another term for the Old Man is the “False Self.” The false self is everything/anything which is false about us, not consistent with who Christ made us to be. It’s me living independent of Him, but it’s me not being true to who I am either. Living independent of Him doesn’t work because it creates a falseness within me. As we grow in life, we discover this. Deep within I know that there is falseness in me and I don’t feel good about it. God’s objective is to get us to become honest about who we are and how we feel – the good, the bad and the ugly, learn to live from the True Self. He works through the true, the real us, not the someone we think we’re supposed to be.
It’s a process, of course. But He wants to reveal to us that He likes us! He loves us! We have value just as we are! He wants to live a “joined” life with us, the true us! So much so that He died to make it happen! When we stand in who we truly are, which is the truth (the Truth), His Light can then shine forth in us and through us. As the False Self decreases, the New Creation (Christ in me) comes forth, a self that is both emotionally mature and filled with His nature.
This process is not about denying “Me,” the True Me. It’s not a denial of self through striving either – I’m not going to do that because it’s wrong. It’s a denial of the False Self – I don’t want to do that because it wouldn’t be true to the Real Me – Christ in Me. We can do this because honestly living in the True Me (Light) dispels falseness (darkness) naturally. Christ in me is more powerful! Christ in me IS me!
We also have within the Old Man, a lot of STANDARDS of right/wrong, things we define as bad or good, things we were taught by our parents, school, the Church, and just our experiences in life. They are our standards of right and wrong. They tend to be black and white and often, while they may have some legitimacy in their reasonings, they often are not standards that the Lord would agree with, especially in EVERY given situation. The problem is that we filter just about everything through OUR standards. The bottom line is they often prevent us from hearing the Lord accurately when we are praying for direction. Our job is to challenge these standards … and to determine what the Lord really thinks on the subject.
In conclusion, here is an excerpt from a devotional written by E. Stanley Jones that synopsizes what we are trying to achieve in prayer:
“If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:19). The word “agree” is a word that expresses the harmony of two perfectly attuned musical instruments – the word “orchestrate” would express it. If two of you shall orchestrate – be attuned in perfect harmony – anything is possible. When the Holy Spirit and we orchestrate – think, feel, and act together – then identified in purpose we are also identified in power. … What He transfuses, He transforms. His Resources become our reserves. We can call on them for everything we need to do. We then find ourselves literally doing things we can’t do. We are a surprise to ourselves and others. Everything we do and think and say has a Plus – a Divine Plus added to it … You can’t tell where your energy ends and His begins, and where His energy ends and yours begins. You are a very ordinary person linked with Extraordinary Power and you leave results all out of proportion to your powers.[1]
For more information or if you would like me to forward to you the study material, you can either call or email me.
[1] Christian Maturity, “An Impossible Standard?” by E. Stanley Jones, p. 301
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