When I first encountered
the Holy Spirit in 1976 I was astounded at how much love and peace and joy and
insight flooded into my life. I had been greatly prejudiced against trusting
the Spirit for some years. The motto in the Salvation Army was “Blood and
Fire” - the blood of Jesus and the Fire
of the Spirit. I knew fire burnt and hurt you. So that was my picture of what
the Spirit would do! I had no understanding of what having a burning heart for
God was all about or how empowered we become as the Spirit stirs our hearts
with faith.
My first
experience of a Pentecostal church was of what sounded to me like out of
control intense prayer and lots of noise. In
So God snuck up on me and made me
hungry to experience the reality of the ‘living water’ Jesus talked about in
John 4. Someone has called God ‘Jehovah
Sneaky’ because he has a way of getting around our barriers. I finally asked
for a drink, like the woman at the well - and I surrendered myself fully to
him. And I was bathed with his peace and his joy and a delightful love for
Jesus.
I had no idea all this was waiting for me. No
idea at all.
I kept saying to people ‘This is
not me!’ It was not the old me… the
fearful, easily angered, confused and uncertain me. But it was the real me that God
intended when he formed me and shaped me and gave me life.
I never knew that before. No-one
described it that way to me before… that we cannot become our real selves until
he lives in us and fills us. This is what we were created for. Anything less is
just a shadow of what we are meant to be.
And the result was that I just
devoured Scripture and any book I could find about the work of the Spirit, and
how God comes to people and changes them - and about revivals through history.
I must’ve read 20 or 30 books over the first couple of years on this. I could
tell you about dozens of passages of scripture about the Spirit and how he
works in our lives – because it all become so vivid and real for me. It
was like I had found a gold-mine.
I was astounded and fascinated by
it all. NO – ONE HAD TOLD ME THIS BEFORE. I had no idea it was all so
wonderful.
The Scriptures are full of
stories about prayer – all kinds of prayer, in all kinds of situations, by all
kinds of people – with wonderful results.
There’s Abraham debating and
pleading with God over the fate of Sodom
There’s Jacob, wrestling with an
angel and saying “I will not let you go until you bless me.”
There’s Moses asking God “Show me
your glory” – and God pronouncing all his goodness over him.
And Moses saying ‘If your
presence does not go with us, do not send us on.” What a great prayer!
There’s Hannah, weeping with her
pain and barrenness… “Give me a child!” and God hears and answers and gives her
many children.
There is David admitting he has
sinned and offended God. “Have mercy on me, according to your love and
kindness!” And all his prayers and songs
of praise and trust and heartache that are called the Psalms.
There’s the prayer of Jabez –
“Enlarge my territory – give me success!”
There is
Solomon asking for wisdom in the difficult task of ruling his nation.
So
many wonderful stories of prayer and how the Lord acted in power and love as
people cried out to him – for themselves, for their families and for their
nation.
And
there are all the stories in the New Testament, and the teaching right
throughout the bible, by prophets and priests, by Jesus and the apostles…
I would
recommend the little book. 21 Most Effective Prayers of the Bible.
And all of this
shouts to us – prayer is natural, it is normal, it is how we walk with God -
how we discover more about him – how we enjoy partnering with him.
But there is
more…. There is a glorious back- story to this life of prayer. And I want to
explore 3 key elements of this story behind prayer and how the Spirit helps us
to pray. See the next few blogs shortly.
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