Praying without ceasing may seem like an impossible task. I have written about a 10 step nerd approach to praying without ceasing, but here is a short video that could open up hours of conversation with God. Enjoy!
4 steps on the journey toward your miracle
The other day my nine year old daughter and I were traveling to a Wednesday night service at my home church. I don’t schedule a lot of speaking out on Wednesday’s because it allows me to be a part of a church community and be a part of something as a family. My wife was already at church because she is one of the children’s teachers so it was just my daughter and I with some time to talk.
As someone who has embraced the nerd within you may be able to guess what my daughter and I were talking about in the car. Time travel. We were discussing where we would like to travel back in time to if we could choose. Of course, we discussed the importance of having some sort of cloaking devise in order to not mess with the space time continuum.
I made the suggestion that it would have been fun to see some of the miracles of Jesus. Seeing Peter walk on water or raise someone from the dead would be pretty amazing. But from there I turned the conversation and shared about how I had heard stories in my lifetime of people who had walked on water. I shared of people being raised from the dead. The next day in the car my wife and I continued the conversation with our daughter by sharing stories of miracles that God had done in our life and ministry.
She was blown away. She was shocked as she heard the stories. It struck me that we are always one generation away from having a church that has never heard stories of miracles or experienced them for themselves. Are you looking for the miracles of Jesus in your life?
[tweetthis]We are one generation away from a church who has not experienced miracles for themselves[/tweetthis]
If we are to be a generation that experiences the miracles of Jesus today we need to set the stage for Him to work. I think of the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5 and see some things that help set the stage for a miracle. I am not going to dissect the story but just point out some aspects to start you on your journey.
- It wasn’t about what she said–
She didn’t say anything to Jesus before her miracle. We make too much about our super Christian prayer when this lady didn’t say a word. It was about her reaching out to Jesus in faith. Anyone can do that. She didn’t let her 12 year problem define who she was in the moment. I watched a video of T.D. Jakes speaking about this lady and he said, “Sometimes the problem so envelopes your life that it swallows up your identity.”
2. She was looking for a before and after moment.
What are you asking God for that could change in a moment? It is too easy to be satisfied with the normal that doesn’t push us into desperation for God. I need to move from it would be nice to have a miracle to I am really looking for a miracle. Expectation in life is important.
3. Her focus was on Jesus
Her faith wasn’t in herself but what she had heard about Jesus. When she looked to Jesus not only did she receive a miracle but He spoke words of life over her. He spoke to her as daughter. He spoke about her peace. What words of life would Jesus speak over us if we put more focus on Him?
4. She had to push through the crowd
How bad do you really want to be close to God? How much are you willing to push through? There were a lot of people in the crowd, but she got her healing. I must be willing to go after God even if it is difficult or inconvenient.
I know this doesn’t tackle all of the issues involved in miracles, but it is a place to start. Let’s pursue Jesus with the faith we have even if it is difficult and see what He will do!
2 Steps To Improving Your Speed of Listening To God (Expanded)
One Sunday evening, after I had spoken at a church in the morning and then led their prayer meeting in the evening, a gentleman came to me to ask a question. He had seen me respond quickly to God’s voice and wanted to know how he could do it as well. The answer I gave him could help you too so I thought I would pass it along.
I basically told him he needed to do two things. First, he needed to walk outside his comfort zone more and make some mistakes. Second, because of the first one he was going to have to walk in a high level of humility. Let me unpack it a little more. I will add an important bonus at the bottom as well.
Make More Mistakes
First, my challenge to him was to try and step out of what was easy in listening to God. I enjoyed reading Joshua Foer’s New York Times Bestseller, Moonwalking with Einstein. It is about memory and the world memory championships and is not a spiritual book (I have embraced the nerd within). But he shared a principle that fits in this situation.
He describes a place in learning that he called the “OK Plateau”. Basically he says you can get to a place in learning a skill where you feel good enough. You are not making a lot of mistakes. But at that point the only way to get better was to make more mistakes. By going faster, and therefore making more mistakes, you are actually able to learn more.
The same is true of listening to God. It is one thing to hear God when you have spent hours in His presence. It is another thing to listen as you are walking in the middle of a crowded grocery store. But in the stretching is new learning.
Walk in Humility
This leads us to the important second part. We must walk in humility. When I am walking outside of my comfort zone in listening to God I make more mistakes. This means I can’t be arrogant. It requires us to say more things like, “I think the Lord is saying this…I could be wrong…” I may even need to clean up some messes along the way.
Without walking in humility in listening you can produce a lot of damage. Coming at things from a “Thus sayeth the Lord” perspective gives people no out if they are hearing something different or if you make a mistake. We need a lot a grace and mercy for each other as we walk out the adventure of listening to God. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stretch ourselves (we should) but we just need to walk in humility as we do it.
A bonus thought is the encouragement to increase your reading of God’s word and walking it out. It is a fun place to grow. I recently read the excellent book by Rod Loy called Immediate Obedience. In it he challenges us to listen to God’s word and immediately obey. The book is full of stories of where that adventure took Him. I dare you to read the Word and obey what God tells you to do. Who knows where it will take us?
But if we are willing to make some mistakes and we are willing to walk with humility we can experience more of God. As we listen to the whisper of heaven we enter new zones of spiritual adventure. I want to go there even more. Do you?
[tweetthis]As we listen to the whisper of heaven we enter new zones of spiritual adventure.[/tweetthis]
