"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 10:10
I was in a meeting a while ago in which the topic of prayer was being discussed. It was a good discussion and everyone agreed that we should pray.
But I found it very troubling as I listened to person after person say, "I know I should pray more.", "I pray but not enough", "I try to pray daily but sometimes I just don't" and so forth.
What disturbed me most was not the lack of prayer. It was the feeling about prayer that everyone expressed. It was like listening to people talk about the need to go to the dentist...... Yes we need to go but who really looks forward to it?
It kept up until I felt that I needed to at least say something.
I asked the men if someone gave them a ticket to a very expensive banquet hall in our city that promised a multi course meal with everything they loved to eat would they be saying that they knew they "should" go to the banquet but weren't sure if they would? They all joked and asked me if I had the tickets.
I further asked them if they were to receive a hand delivered invitation to spend an evening with the person they would want to be with above any other person on earth would they be saying it was such an inconvenience that they had to accept the invitation?
Yet Jesus said many would feel this way in spite of the great privilege they were given.
Luke 14:15-24
When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!"
Parable of the Dinner
16 But He said to him, "A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for everything is ready now.' 18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.' 19 "Another one said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.' 20 "Another one said, 'I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.' 21 "And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' 22 "And the slave said, 'Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' 23 "And the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 'For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.'"
I have found that many people, especially those who were raised in the environment of faith from the time they were very young, suffer from an inability to understand the absolutely amazing privilege it is to be even thought of by the Lord much less given complete access to Him twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and fifty two weeks of the year.
I often see intense anxiety and guilt in people around praying. They have been indoctrinated into a thought of duty that has left them incapable of understanding the delight of spending time with God.
As a result I hear so many excuses why they don't pray. And to be honest if I thought of prayer in the way they understand it I would be joining in the chorus of those who "all alike began to make excuses" why they would not be joining in the party.
Forgive me for being so bold but imagine if someone you loved dearly came every day an said. "I'm here to spend some time with you and I know I can never spend enough time with you to make you happy and I really don't want to be here because I am so busy with things that are really important but here I am....." I have the feeling that you would probably find them as boring as they found you!
It was not the wonderful dinner that the people were rejecting. It was that they really didn't understand it as a great privilege and great joy to be invited. And the saddest thing was that none of the invited would taste of the life giving meal that had been prepared with them in mind. They would never know the joy they had been offered.
I actually hear deep sighs coming from people as they describe their experience of prayer. And I deeply hurt for them. It is as if they are weary beyond words and wish they could be released from this terrible burden but can't find a way.
I try with everything that is within me to share with them that what holds them into a bondage of prayerlessness or prayer that lacks intimacy is what they have come to understand prayer as being - a burdensome duty.
I don't want this to be my experience. If God has prepared something for me to enjoy I want enjoy every bit of it! I hope you feel the same way.
When I find the feeling in my heart that somehow what God wants for me is a "burden" I don't let it hold me for a second. I tell myself, God and the devil that nothing God has for me is ever a burden, duty, bondage or lifeless. I then begin to praise Him for the great privilege I have to even be thought of by Him much less to be accounted worthy to share in His life. Soon my heart fills with thanksgiving and I can see correctly what a joy it is to do what He asks.
PRAYER IS THE WAY WE EXCHANGE OUR LIVES FOR THE LIFE OF GOD
Prayer is not a duty. Is the exchange of life between us and God.
Prayer is intimacy with the creator of the universe.
But even the word intimacy has been perverted so it is dangerous to use. I mean that spending time with God is better than the very best of friends spending a day just being together, talking together and immensely enjoying each other's company. Neither having to hide anything. neither having to impress the other. Both feeling that the best use of their time is just to enjoy the companionship they share in those moments.
Exodus 34:29-31
It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
The people were not afraid of Moses. They knew Moses. They were afraid of God. They saw God on his face. That was a different kind of encounter.
For a moment in history God let Israel and us see physically what occurs when we spend time with God. Moses face shone and he did not even know it. Why did it shine? Because the life of God was taking residence in Moses. It is that simple. We spend time with God and He enters more into our being.
What a wonderful thing that is.
Jesus showed us the same thing again when he took his disciples up to a mountain.
Matthew 17:1-2
Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
The light that shone through Moses and Jesus was the light of the Father and represented the His life in their lives.
We want people to know God.
We want Him to make us able us to reveal Him to them.
When we understand what transpires when we spend time with God we will find the way to make it happen. Moses did not have to strive to make it happen. When he spent time with God it happened by the exchange of life that occurred in those meetings. It is the same with us.
Exodus 33:9-12
And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. 10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man in his tent door.
Years ago I came to realize that it is only God's life in us that gives an authoritative witness. All Israel saw the evidence of the relationship Moses had with God. Moses did not have to tell them.
But sadly even Moses succumbed to the pressures of ministry and so in order to make sure no one noticed that the light of God was no longer on him he covered his face.
2 Corinthians 3:13
and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
Joshua had a better idea. Later the young man who stayed in God's presence even when Moses left would see miracles beyond imagination and would never falter in his faith. Why? Because he understood the wonder of being in His presence continually.
Exodus 33:11
Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
This is why Paul encourages us to "PRAY WITHOUT CEASING." The secret of the exchanged life is to continually set our minds and affections on God. To live our lives at all times in a precious communion with God. He is always with us but our part is to remember and consciously keep His presence in our minds.
In that continual remaining in His presence His life is imparted into ours and our life is continually given to Him.
I have found this to be the central way I become like Him. It is being with Him face to face.
Moses went out of the presence of God and the glory faded. Instead of going back to spend time with the Lord he put the veil on so that no one would see the fading.
We all have veils that we put on when the glory is gone. But they will never bring forth life. In fact the veil serves to keep us from finding the very transformation we desire.
When we take off our veils and just spend time with the Lord in face to face encounter we are changed.
2 Corinthians 3:13-20
and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
The Exchanged Life is the life that Jesus imparts to us as we are with Him. In the end we will be so identified with Him that we will look just like Him.
1 John 3:2
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
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