Letting God lead

Peter Lord has learned to let God lead him in his ministry.

He is convinced that listening to God is essential in producing spiritual fruit.

In his book Hearing God, Lord writes: "Good works are what I do at the command of God for others.  They last for eternity.

"But dead works are what I do for others on my own, supposedly in the name of God.  They do not last."

After 15 years as a pastor, Lord looked back at what he had done in God's service and was devastated.

"I looked at people who had worked in various churches and others who had made all kinds of decisions at the altar, and I saw that basically they remained unchanged.  Or worse, they had reverted to worldly lifestyles."

Then, he recalled a statement by the great Chinese Christian Watchman Nee: "God will only back and bless what he initiates."

"Then God began to allow me to discover that all lasting ministry begins with a word from God," Lord says.  "When you have that word, then you walk with the Lord Jesus.  You listen to the Holy Spirit and obey him.  And you have an effective, exciting, enduring work."

Lord actively seeks direction from God through reading and meditating on scripture and listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes what he hears is baffling.

One night, he and his wife were settling down for sleep in a Georgia motel. While lying in bed, he felt God telling him: Get up and go to the motel office.

He got up reluctantly, feeling that the Lord wanted him to witness to the young man at the motel desk.  When he arrived at the office door, he saw someone checking in and decided to wait until he left.  As he waited, he saw that motel guest's licence plate was from the same Florida town he lived in.

When the man walked out of the office, he introduced himself as Peter Lord, a pastor from Titusville, Florida.

The man gripped him by the shoulders and said: "You're the very person that I need to talk to.  I am in great trouble.  As I drove up the highway, I called on God for help."

Time and again, he felt restrained from stopping, driving much further than he had planned that night.  Then, when he neared the Georgia motel he felt a desire to stop and drove in.

"Great, isn't it - to see how God works," writes Lord.  "This man cried for help.  God heard him.  God had me already in place, ready to help."

Lord's book is sprinkled with other stories about God leading him.

The author points to Jesus' words in John 5:19:  "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

Jesus carried out the Father's commands and the ancient world was turned upside down.

After ascending to heaven, he gave believers the Holy Spirit to guide them as the Father guided him.

What a gift!

Praying on the edge

Sometimes, our most powerful prayers rise up to God when we feel we're standing on the edge of a steep cliff with nowhere to go but down.

Why is that?

Perhaps because we have no other options but depending entirely on God.  Perhaps because the results of our prayers will bring glory to God.  Perhaps because the answer to prayer fits into a larger story than just this moment of desperation.

The prayer of the young Jewish captive Daniel in Daniel 2 is a good example.

The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had a bad dream one night and challenged his astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed as well as the meaning of the dream.  It was a supreme test because none of the astrologers could guess what the king had dreamed.

Daniel and his young Jewish friends, who were servants of the king, heard that they, too, were slated to die.  So Daniel asked the king for time to determine what the king had dreamed and what was the dream's interpretation.

That night, Daniel and his friends sought God's revelation of the king's dream.  God's answer came to Daniel in a vision.

When Daniel went to the king, he not only told him what the dream was but also the interpretation.  He did not claim credit for himself and his friends but gave all the glory to God.  His life and the lives of others were saved.

Daniel knew that he could not save himself.  It had to be God.  So, he went to God and after receiving the vision, he poured out praise to the Lord.

Why did God save Daniel?  Why did he allow Daniel to face this frightening test?

From the vantage point of history, the Lord had plans for the young man.  He knew Daniel's heart and his commitment to God.

The young man was on the bottom step of a life of sacrificial service to God that would stand as an example for all believers through the ages.  This incident helped shaped the man who was to become a great prophet.

We don't all go through experiences as spectacular and life-threatening as that.  But most of us run up against problems that seems overwhelming at the time.

Then, we must throw ourselves upon God in prayer, surrendering ourselves to whatever he will do.

God works best in our lives when we depend entirely on him.

Look, think, and thank

God takes thankfulness seriously, but do we?

I must say I take for granted so many blessings in my life - things that people in other countries long for.

But Jesus valued thankfulness greatly.  In Luke 17, Jesus healed 10 lepers but only one came back to thank him and give him praise.  He asked where were the other nine, noting it was a foreigner - not a Jew - who returned and gave God glory.

As well, the apostle Paul said we should give thanks in all circumstances for that is God's will for us. (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  And in Ephesians 5:20, he said we should always give thanks to God for everything.

Let's think of that for a moment.  We are called to always thank God for everything and in every circumstance - good or bad.

Charles Spurgeon, a great Baptist preacher in the 1800s, said many people "receive many blessings without making a note of them or even seeming to know that they have them".

He noted such people benefit from good health and other good things in life.  "And they live as if these things were so commonplace that they were not worth thanking God for."

How can we learn to thank God always for all things?

John Flavel, a Puritan writer in the 1600s, gives us a clue in a little gem about thankfulness which was reprinted recently in a book titled Thankfulness (Free Grace Broadcaster 190).

First, he says we should pay attention to the mercies or good things we receive.  So we should keep our eyes open to what God is giving us and doing in our lives - even in our normal routines.  We must make a conscious effort to take note of these things.

Second, we must not only see the mercies but think about them - what they are and how we received them.  This is an act of reflection, of our minds.

Third, we must value these mercies.  We must not be like the wandering Israelites in the wilderness who complained about the manna God gave them. (Numbers 11)

Fourth, we should record these mercies.  "Forgotten mercies bear no fruit," says Flavel. "A bad memory in this case makes a barren heart and life."

It is easy to forget, he admits.  But he notes the ancient Jews wrote about God's doings, recalled them in special feasts, and in other ways.

For us, we can jot these mercies down in a journal, or make a special point of recalling them frequently so that they settle down solidly in our memories.

Fifth, Flavel says "the thankful person must be suitably affected with the mercies he receives".

"Mercies are not mercies, deliverances are not deliverances to us, if we that receive them are not glad of them."

In other words, we are to meditate upon the goodness of God to the point where we rejoice in the Lord.

Finally, we are to respond to God's goodness and mercies by loving others as he loves us.

We benefit from thanking God, too.

A thankful heart is a joyful heart.

Many voices, one heart

Group prayer can be uplifting and dynamic if everyone prays as one - many voices, one heart.

A good example is Acts 12 where Peter escapes miraculously from jail after being arrested by King Herod's men for preaching the gospel.

While Peter lies in chains between two soldiers in jail, his friends are busy praying for him in a long vigil.

The result?  An angel appears in his cell, breaks the chains as the guards sleep and escorts Peter out of the jail.

His friends are so surprised when he knocks on the door of the prayer gathering that they can't believe it is him.

Dennis Fuqua uses this and a number of other examples from scripture and history to show how united group prayer can change things.  His book, United and Ignited: Encountering God through Dynamic Corporate Prayer, is a treasure trove of ideas for group prayer.

In his eyes, praying with others should focus more on seeking what God wants rather than what we want.  We should "behold him rather than just behold our circumstances".

"I am suggesting that dynamic corporate prayer has more to do with a group of people catching what is on God's heart than telling him what is on their heart," Fuqua says.

In this approach, people listen to others before praying - catching a theme and developing it with their own prayers.  They are influenced by the prayers of others and, in turn, influence the prayers of others.  The focus is on agreement and harmony.

These prayer gatherings begin with worshiping God.  They then move on to other things - perhaps personal needs or broader issues in the church or the community or the world.

Fuqua says the value of praying together in this way is that we get to know God more as we hear people pray who have a different background, personality or theological perspective.  We also understand someone else better as we hear him or her pray to the Father in a deep and personal way.

One way to bind a group closer together and deepen their spiritual understanding is to select one person to pray for himself or herself about "the one thing you would most like the Lord to do in or for you personally", writes Fuqua.

Rather than sharing the concern with others, this person and others in the group are to pray to God about aloud about it.  While one person is praying, others are listening and then join in with their own prayers about that individual's prayer concern.

"It allows a group to worship together, listen together, make common requests, and rejoice together in his answers," Fuqua says.

I have found this kind of free-flowing prayer - centred on God - can lift my spirits and build faith and hope.

And, as Jesus said in Matthew 18:19-20, he will act upon our prayers if we pray in harmony with each other and with God.