Praying In the Spirit
By Larry d. Wright
Prayer is both a natural and unnatural process. It is natural for a child to cry to their Father but there are times when even a child does not know what to say. Words fail to rise to the surface of our lips and even when they do, they seem inadequate.
In "Letters to Malcolm" (p.70), C.S Lewis reflects this dilemma as he quotes some anonymous lines:
“I seek in myself the things I hoped to say,
But, lo! My wells are dry.
Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The listener’s role and through
My dumb lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew.”
There are times when a prayer in our heart finds great difficulty arriving at our lips. Oh, the pain of dry wells! Good News! You do not need to articulate your needs and desires for God to know them since He knows the status and desires of your heart at every moment. Prayers that are not uttered do not go unnoticed from Him. David declared, “All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.” (Psalm 38:9)
However, God is so interested that you articulate your prayers that He will help you in your weakness. Paul declared, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” (Romans 8:26-27)
Good News! The Holy Spirit, who is God, will help you pray! However, He will not do this without complete cooperation from you. He will not overpower your flesh but work through you when you align your life with Him. Praying in the Spirit happens when your surrender is so complete that He can think His thoughts through you, express His desires through you and He can speak words through you.
Thomas R. Kelly in "A Testament of Devotion" describes this process with great eloquence:” There comes a time when prayer pours forth in volumes and originality such as we cannot create. It rolls through us like a mighty tide. Our prayers are mingled with a vaster word, a Word that at one time was made flesh. We pray, and yet it is not we who pray, but a Greater who prays in us…All we can say is, Prayer is taking place, and I am given to be in the orbit.” (p.45)
Prayer that takes you to another orbit because it is birthed and borne by the Spirit, that, friend, is Praying in the Spirit!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Homeland Security
Homeland Security
By Larry d. Wright
Just a few years ago our land was attach by terrorist. Until then the term homeland security had no meaning whatsoever. But all that changed on September 11, 2001. The devastation that we saw when two jet airliners brought down the twin towers in New York City and another plane crashed into the Pentagon killing thousands of people brought the concept of homeland security to the forefront.
Not only is our homeland under the threat of a vicious enemy also our homes are under attack as well. The most powerful resource we have to protect our homeland and our homes is PRAYER! We need men and women to meet the challenge with prayer.
What makes an ordinary obscure person a powerful weapon in the hands of God? Prayer!
Prayer is coming into the presence of God; it is entering the throne room of the KING of kings and LORD of lords; it is communicating with the creator of the world; it is bringing our questions to the one who has the answers; it is connecting our lives with the ALL knowing, ALL present and ALL powerful KING of kings. Prayer is coming near to God.
Charles Spurgeon said, "Prayers are the believer’s weapons of war. When the battle is too hard for us, we call in our great ally, who, as it were lies in ambush until faith gives the signal by crying out, ARISE oh LORD!"
Prayer can do anything that God can do because prayer involves God in the problems of man. Prayer literally unleashes the power of God. It is the slender nerve attached to the muscles of an omnipotent God.
Elijah was a man, a man passionate in prayer. He prayed the word of God into natural reality because he prayed with faith. Elijah impacted a nation through prayer because God honors this kind of praying.
Other Men Who Prayed Specifically
Job prayed for the purity of his kids. (Job 1:1-5) He prayed, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
Abraham prayed for the future spouse of his kids. In Genesis chapter 24 we see Abraham, who at the time was a very old man, praying for God to provided a godly wife for his son. A beautiful love story resulted.
Jacob prayed for God to Bless the Future of his children. Genesis 48 records the story of an aging Jacob gathering his son Joseph and His two grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh so he could pray and bless them. “May God, the God before whom my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac, walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life, and the angel who has kept me from harm – may he bless these boys. May they preserve my name and the names of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac. And may they become a mighty nation.” (15-16)
David prayed that his son’s desire would be to obey God. David prayed for His son Solomon the following prayer: “Give my son Solomon the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, decrees and principles, and to build this Temple, for which I have made all these preparations.”(1 Chronicles 29:19)We need to pray that our children will have a strong and consuming desire to obey ALL the commands of God.
We have become way too comfortable and assume too much! May we regain the desire for availing, fervent prayer! May we follow the instructions of Jesus and pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Earnest prayer moves God out of heaven and into earth! Biblical prayer secures our homeland.
By Larry d. Wright
Just a few years ago our land was attach by terrorist. Until then the term homeland security had no meaning whatsoever. But all that changed on September 11, 2001. The devastation that we saw when two jet airliners brought down the twin towers in New York City and another plane crashed into the Pentagon killing thousands of people brought the concept of homeland security to the forefront.
Not only is our homeland under the threat of a vicious enemy also our homes are under attack as well. The most powerful resource we have to protect our homeland and our homes is PRAYER! We need men and women to meet the challenge with prayer.
What makes an ordinary obscure person a powerful weapon in the hands of God? Prayer!
Prayer is coming into the presence of God; it is entering the throne room of the KING of kings and LORD of lords; it is communicating with the creator of the world; it is bringing our questions to the one who has the answers; it is connecting our lives with the ALL knowing, ALL present and ALL powerful KING of kings. Prayer is coming near to God.
Charles Spurgeon said, "Prayers are the believer’s weapons of war. When the battle is too hard for us, we call in our great ally, who, as it were lies in ambush until faith gives the signal by crying out, ARISE oh LORD!"
Prayer can do anything that God can do because prayer involves God in the problems of man. Prayer literally unleashes the power of God. It is the slender nerve attached to the muscles of an omnipotent God.
Elijah was a man, a man passionate in prayer. He prayed the word of God into natural reality because he prayed with faith. Elijah impacted a nation through prayer because God honors this kind of praying.
Other Men Who Prayed Specifically
Job prayed for the purity of his kids. (Job 1:1-5) He prayed, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
Abraham prayed for the future spouse of his kids. In Genesis chapter 24 we see Abraham, who at the time was a very old man, praying for God to provided a godly wife for his son. A beautiful love story resulted.
Jacob prayed for God to Bless the Future of his children. Genesis 48 records the story of an aging Jacob gathering his son Joseph and His two grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh so he could pray and bless them. “May God, the God before whom my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac, walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life, and the angel who has kept me from harm – may he bless these boys. May they preserve my name and the names of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac. And may they become a mighty nation.” (15-16)
David prayed that his son’s desire would be to obey God. David prayed for His son Solomon the following prayer: “Give my son Solomon the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, decrees and principles, and to build this Temple, for which I have made all these preparations.”(1 Chronicles 29:19)We need to pray that our children will have a strong and consuming desire to obey ALL the commands of God.
We have become way too comfortable and assume too much! May we regain the desire for availing, fervent prayer! May we follow the instructions of Jesus and pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Earnest prayer moves God out of heaven and into earth! Biblical prayer secures our homeland.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Pseudo Spirituality
Pseudo Spirituality
By Larry d. Wright
In an issue of Newsweek magazine several studies claimed that America is a spiritual nation. One example cited in the survey claims that 64% of Americans say that they pray every day. Sociologist Alan Wolfe of Boston College suggests that the current spiritual searching is really about the empowerment of the self: “Rather than being about a god who commands you, it’s about finding a religion that empowers you.”
Albert Mohler weighs in on the point by saying, “The impression left by the total package is of a nation that increasingly embraces soft and self-centered forms of spirituality even as it rejects more demanding forms of belief…they see spirituality as a means of self-development…they want to get in touch with the universe and with their inner selves, but are not particularly concerned to know what the Creator would demand of them.” (www.crosswalk.com)
A Christianity Today poll found that half of all Americans believe in extrasensory perception. One of every four professing Christians believes in clairvoyance, and almost half in psychic healing. 25% believe the movement of the stars governs the affairs of men and women.
Browse any bookstore and you will find titles such as “New Age Spirituality”; “Do It Yourself Religion”; “The Higher Path”; “Self-Esteem and Enlightenment.” What might initially have appeared as simply a new trend has become a more dominant cultural shift that some call ‘postmodern spirituality.’ This new spirituality is reflected in countless popular books and through the philosophies of those who tend to draw upon an eastern worldview and esoteric mysticism. Spirituality without Jesus sells; but is it real? Is God simply a higher dimension reached by an inner journey to the soul? Is it true that “the more you love yourself, the greater your connection with God, the Spirit, Divine Source, or whatever you call God?” Can there be true spirituality without Jesus?
I say “No!” New Age Spirituality, or as I call it Pseudo Spirituality, sells so well because people are hungry for meaning and spiritual significance. God has placed an eternal longing in the heart of His creation that can only be satisfied by Him. Still man-made religion is popular because it does not humble sinners or place any demands of holiness upon them.
Many today recognize a whole new level of popularization of Pseudo Spirituality through the influence of Oprah Winfrey. “Oprah Winfrey has risen to a new level of guru. She’s no longer just a successful talk-show host worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes’ most recent estimate. Over the past year Winfrey has emerged as a spiritual leader for the new millennium.” "She’s a really hip and materialistic Mother Teresa," says Kathryn Lofton, a professor at Reed College in Portland, who has written two papers analyzing the religious aspects of Winfrey. "Oprah has emerged as a symbolic figurehead of spirituality." (USA Today, article by John Jalsevac March 7, 2008)
In her words Oprah said, “The new spirituality is that you are your own best authority as you work to know and love yourself, you discover how to live a more spiritual life. While Christianity is a valid way to achieve high states of spirituality, it must not be considered a unique way, or a correct way."
In considering the cultural trend towards being freed from the old paths in pursuit of new spirituality, we do well to recall George Orwell’s words:
“For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake: the thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all; it was a cesspool full of barbed wire. . . It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic.” (George Orwell , Notes on the Way)
By Larry d. Wright
In an issue of Newsweek magazine several studies claimed that America is a spiritual nation. One example cited in the survey claims that 64% of Americans say that they pray every day. Sociologist Alan Wolfe of Boston College suggests that the current spiritual searching is really about the empowerment of the self: “Rather than being about a god who commands you, it’s about finding a religion that empowers you.”
Albert Mohler weighs in on the point by saying, “The impression left by the total package is of a nation that increasingly embraces soft and self-centered forms of spirituality even as it rejects more demanding forms of belief…they see spirituality as a means of self-development…they want to get in touch with the universe and with their inner selves, but are not particularly concerned to know what the Creator would demand of them.” (www.crosswalk.com)
A Christianity Today poll found that half of all Americans believe in extrasensory perception. One of every four professing Christians believes in clairvoyance, and almost half in psychic healing. 25% believe the movement of the stars governs the affairs of men and women.
Browse any bookstore and you will find titles such as “New Age Spirituality”; “Do It Yourself Religion”; “The Higher Path”; “Self-Esteem and Enlightenment.” What might initially have appeared as simply a new trend has become a more dominant cultural shift that some call ‘postmodern spirituality.’ This new spirituality is reflected in countless popular books and through the philosophies of those who tend to draw upon an eastern worldview and esoteric mysticism. Spirituality without Jesus sells; but is it real? Is God simply a higher dimension reached by an inner journey to the soul? Is it true that “the more you love yourself, the greater your connection with God, the Spirit, Divine Source, or whatever you call God?” Can there be true spirituality without Jesus?
I say “No!” New Age Spirituality, or as I call it Pseudo Spirituality, sells so well because people are hungry for meaning and spiritual significance. God has placed an eternal longing in the heart of His creation that can only be satisfied by Him. Still man-made religion is popular because it does not humble sinners or place any demands of holiness upon them.
Many today recognize a whole new level of popularization of Pseudo Spirituality through the influence of Oprah Winfrey. “Oprah Winfrey has risen to a new level of guru. She’s no longer just a successful talk-show host worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes’ most recent estimate. Over the past year Winfrey has emerged as a spiritual leader for the new millennium.” "She’s a really hip and materialistic Mother Teresa," says Kathryn Lofton, a professor at Reed College in Portland, who has written two papers analyzing the religious aspects of Winfrey. "Oprah has emerged as a symbolic figurehead of spirituality." (USA Today, article by John Jalsevac March 7, 2008)
In her words Oprah said, “The new spirituality is that you are your own best authority as you work to know and love yourself, you discover how to live a more spiritual life. While Christianity is a valid way to achieve high states of spirituality, it must not be considered a unique way, or a correct way."
In considering the cultural trend towards being freed from the old paths in pursuit of new spirituality, we do well to recall George Orwell’s words:
“For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake: the thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all; it was a cesspool full of barbed wire. . . It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic.” (George Orwell , Notes on the Way)
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