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..... there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Pro 18:24A number of weeks ago I began to contemplate what a "best friend" should look like in the Kingdom of God. I know one thing for sure and that a true Kingdom friend will put everything on Jesus. If I come to my friend with a need it will always be Jesus to whom I am pointed. If I send my child to a friend I must know he or she will put my child on Jesus. Today, I am blessed to have some "best friends", real "Kingdom friends" and what blessing to know that they know to put me, everything, and everyone I send on Jesus. In this series I will call these, "My Sticky Friends :-)"
Today I was led to pray all day about some situations I am involved in and also to intercede for other people involved. As always while in a day of prayer I also lifted up those that often pray for me. How precious it was tonight to find out that a friend, without my prodding, had been also praying all day concerning one of these situations I am involved in. So tonight, I begin a series of blogs on "Sticky Friends" and what a better place than to begin with the subject of prayer. I, for one, don't believe God does anything in the earth today save a man or woman somewhere has prayed about it. And to quote an old adage I also believe "he that loveth much prayeth much, and he that prayeth much loveth much."
The other day I read on a web site a woman's ponderings on prayer and I first thought, "dear lady you're close and the authors you recite are like wise, but you and these others haven't experienced it yet."
The central issue these writings examined seemed to be what is described as "emptying prayer." This is supposed to be the portal to the deeper experience of God. However to her defense, the neat thing about this web site writer was that she wrote in a pondering matter and came to what I believe a rightful conclusion. That concluding truth being, that the prayerful portal to God should not be the "emptying" state where one "thinks of nothing to gain everything." Instead if one embraces first and centers on "Christ and His Cross" in prayer, all will be set on a right course. To this I say Amen!
I believe there is an "emptying" of sorts within the position of prayer but as even this woman contemplated there is a counterfeit which opens one up to all kinds of spirits, where even "Emma" (Todd Bentley's angel) or the Goddess with six arms and three eyes might show up and show off. Truly the only emptying there can ever be is that all that we possess is surrendered upon God's altar and laid at the foot of the Cross. That is where true prayer begins and therein lays the "hidden portal" to the Father's heart. It is from that position we will even find the Son, within us, speaking and making petitions to the Father. For these sacred petitions there is only and always a "Yea and Amen." It is truly from the foot of the Cross that Resurrection Life is boldly breathed into our prayers and praise. Nowhere is it more evident that "less is more" ....... "down is up" ......"death breaths life" and the "servant ministers as king" than in the rightful obeisance of a man or woman entering into the Christ Spirit of prayer. Right prayer is not an eloquent and flowery mantra but is born of the sweat and blood of His Life poured out from within us. Only Jesus can teach one to prayer and I believe when one learns to pray, one discovers it is only Jesus that does the praying. This Jesus ....... Oh this Jesus, a Gift like none other. God's Lovely Gift that ever keeps giving of Himself. How truly wonderful is He!
"Whenever anyone is aligned with God's Purpose and begins to pray for God's Kingdom and for God's Will, all of Heaven will be moved to support, strengthen, encourage, protect, supply, and fight on behalf of that yielded vessel." "The heavens do rule" (Dan 4:26). Brogden
Lest brevity gain rare control of my soul(LOL) I want to share the anointed words of Preston Eby on prayer and it's mysterious and creative nature. Following this short excerpt allow me to close with one of my favorite stories on prayer. I always cry when I read this touching account and tonight was no different when I rediscovered it.
The prayers of the saints! Prayer is not a useless exercise, it is part of God's cosmic purpose. I don't pretend to understand it, but when Jesus was going away He said, "Up until now you have asked nothing in My name, from now on you will ask the Father in My name, and whatever you ask the Father I will do it." Ah, we have missed the importance of prayer in the redemptive and reconstructive and restorational purposes of God! Our prayers ARE important! Don't ask me to explain the mystery of the apparatus, but they are important. You'll find yourself praying, you'll find yourself desiring to pray, and that's the Holy Spirit urging you to do what is necessary to enable things to happen the way they are supposed to happen. There is a relationship between the decrees of God and the response of God's people! God created all things by a Word. God SAID, "Let there be ... and it was so." That's a CREATIVE WORD! Prayer is a participation in the creative Word of God, speaking the new creation into existence. It's a mystery I don't fully understand, but there are times when I have to pray, there are times when the altar of my soul is full of clouds of holy incense as I send up to God petitions, as I decree a Word, not for myself, but for others, and when I can't articulate them in English I send them up in an unknown tongue. And there is that deep inner consciousness that somehow I am participating in a great tableau and drama of history. Eby
"And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" Dan 4:35
"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us" 1Jn 5:14
The Empty Chair
A man's daughter had asked the local Minister to come pray with her dying father.
When the Minister arrived, he found the man lying with his head propped up on pillows, and an empty chair sat beside his bed. The Minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit. "I guess you were expecting me," he said.
"No, who are you?" asked the father.
The Minister told him his name then remarked, "I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show up."
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bed-ridden man. "Would you mind closing the door?"
Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
"I have never told any one this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the Pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, I'll be with you always. "Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now."
"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours everyday. I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm,"
The Minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, and returned to the church.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the Minister that her Daddy had passed on that afternoon. Did he die in peace?" he asked. "Yes, when I left the house about 1’ o clock, he called me over to his bed side, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, he was gone. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?"
The Minister wiped tears from his eyes and said, "I wish we could all go like that."
Jack & Joian
