Psalm 65 & Prayer

Prayer has been on my mind a lot lately as our men’s group has been studying it and trying to practice it. It seems like this extremely powerful spiritual tool is often ignored in favor of other spiritual activities such as: ministering, fellowshipping, and studying the scriptures. These are all valuable activities and do not always exclude prayer, but when they do I believe this is a problem. That said let’s takes a moment to look at what Psalm 65 says about the subject.

God Hears & Answers Prayer
God hears the prayers of His people. (verse 2: O You who hear prayer,
to You all men will come.) What is more, God desires to provide good things for His people from His massive domain. (verses 4 & 5: Blessed are those You choose and bring near to live in Your courts! We are filled with the good things of Your house, of Your holy temple. You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,)

God is All-Powerful
God created everything and has the ability to control all of His creation. (verses 5-8: You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by Your power, having armed Yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. Those living far away fear Your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades You call forth songs of joy.)

We Are Completely Dependent on God
Even more than that, all things that are produced ultimately come from God, even the food we eat. (verses 9-13: You care for the land and water it; You enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so You have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; You soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and Your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.) We are utterly dependant on God for all things.

Conclusion
In the U.S. we are taught to be independent from a very young age. Unfortunately this mindset has become ingrained even in our Christian society. Why is this bad? Because it keeps us trusting in ourselves instead of God. We have created another type of legalism. We grasp that it is through God’s grace that we receive our salvation, but we act as if God’s grace ends there. We spend our time laboring in “God’s” work without asking the all-powerful God for His help. We forget the promise “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7) God wants to and will help those who are doing His work; they just need to ask. This is so vital because whether we believe it or not we are dependent on God anyway. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 “I can do ALL things through Him who strengthens me.” Not just the hard things, or the impossible things, the Bible says ALL things. That includes the simple everyday things. What a relief that would be to rely on God’s indefatigable power rather than our own minuscule strength, completely accept God’s grace, and truly say “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:16)


For more read:
The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murray

Spiritual Dependence

If anyone's interested, there is a discussion going on about spiritual dependence on my blog.

first post and comments...

and my response...

Getting Naked - Supplemental to the previous post

So I guess the question is, what can we as a church do in order to make ourselves more open with each other? I think what it all boils down to is participation. I do not mean in the sense that some one does the church’s paperwork, someone runs the nursery, or someone organizes the pot luck. These things are all great and in many cases needed. I am talking specifically about participation in your weekly meeting. This must be more than singing along with the worship band or saying Amen at the pastor. Each person must stand in their rightful place as the priests of God and take an active roll in the ministering to the Body of Christ. Here are a few practical suggestions.

1.) Open Up the Worship Service Let every one share what God is doing for them. If one has a song; let them sing. If one has a prayer; let them pray. If one has a poem; let them recite. Let anyone one share anything thing, as long as, it is about the how great God is. (Ephesians 5:19-20, Colossians 3:15-17)

2.) Stop Sermonizing Let us get away from the Platonic tradition of retoric, and get back to the Christian tradition of honest sharing among believers. This is not to say that sermons are not occasionally appropriate, but these ought not be regular occurrence. The Holy Spirit is with every believer and provides every believer who is willing to listen with knowledge. Let every believer share their Inspiration with the entire Body. Let us learn from each other. (I Corinthians 12:1-13, Colossians 3:16-17)

3.) Confesses Your Sin to Each Other This one is tough but very important. It is difficult to share how you have messed up but it is harder still to live without forgiveness. Here are a couple of guidelines. For the confessor, do not be graphic or detailed, and never brag. This is not a contest to see who has received the most grace. Furthermore, use discretion, all sin should be confessed, but not all sin should be confessed to everybody. Some situations are best handled in groups of the same sex; some situations are best handled between individuals. Now for the Body, if someone is confessing sin they do not need to be told that they have sinned, they already know. Remember this is action is not to pass judgment or assign punishment. It is rather to offer forgiveness and spiritual support for cessation of sinful activity. (James 5:13-19)

Some of you may be saying I do not have the qualifications to do these things I am not a worship leader, a pastor, or a priest. I have never had training or been to seminary. To you I say no human knowledge can replace or subject the teaching of the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthian 2)
By way Biblical example please consider Acts chapter 1. Christ has risen from the dead. He has appeared to many people. Now He is with His disciples just about to ascend to Heaven (the disciples are not aware of this fact). At this point, the disciples ask Jesus if he is going to now restore the kingdom of Israel. (Acts 1:6) This is interesting these men, who had spent the last three years learning from the Messiah Himself, still do not get it. They still believe that the Christ had come to destroy the Romans and reestablish the Davidic line. At this point Jesus tells them that the Holy Spirit is coming to shown them the true nature of the Kingdom. (Acts 1:7-8)

For more ideas and consideration read:
The Open Church by James H. Rutz
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennon Manning