Two voices

God is always speaking to us - but so is Satan.

So, how are we to tell the difference?

For believers, this is an important question.  It is a key issue for those who are seeking to draw closer to God through prayer.

Peter Lord offers some guidance in his book Hearing God.

Unlike Satan, God “desires a relationship of love and trust,” Lord writes.  “He seeks you and offers himself to you.”

He points to the great passage in Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

It is up to us to open the door to Christ and let him in to our hearts.

On the other hand, Satan tries to force his way in “through your emotions and your reasonings”.

“He bombards you with ideas and feelings and bombards is a good way to describe Satan’s approach,” says Lord.

God wants fellowship with us while Satan wants to subvert us for his evil purposes.

Referring to Jesus’ picture of the shepherd of the sheep in John 10:2-3, Lord says God wants to lead us - not push us and drive us.

Satan “threatens and intimidates”, suggesting that if we don’t do something, bad things will happen to us.  He tries to compel us to do things.

Jesus knows all about us because he lives within us.  He speaks to us in loving terms.

I have learned through my own experiences in writing what I believe God is saying to me in my spiritual journals that the Lord knows all my weaknesses and yet is constantly offering his counsel - and sometimes correction - in love.

Satan takes a different approach.  As the scriptures say, Satan is “the accuser”.  He seeks to discourage us and condemn us.  He wants to make us feel worthless.

Lord also says that Satan tries to compel us to brood over the past or worry about the future.  God wants us to keep our eyes on the present, offering to walk with us through our everyday work and relationships.

He quotes Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:34 that we are not to “worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself - each day has enough trouble of its own”.

“When your thoughts are filled with worries and cares about what tomorrow may bring, you can be sure you are not hearing his voice,” Lord writes. “Jesus commands you to be concerned about today, and he will certainly guide you about the present.”

Jesus also says God will provide us with our needs and help us in the situations we are in.  We just need to trust him with these details and not spend restless nights worrying about them.  Worry is Satan’s weapon.

I find Peter Lord’s thoughts helpful.  

God wants me to lean on him and reject Satan’s agitating voice.

Promises

Don’t neglect the power of praying the promises of God!

So says Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher, author and prayer warrior.

Spurgeon, known as “the prince of preachers” in 19th century London, said he soaked himself in God’s promises from scripture to fuel his prayers.

That’s because what God promises, he will fulfill.

In an 1886 sermon, Spurgeon talked about Jacob in Genesis 32, struggling with God before he was to meet his brother Esau the next day.  Jacob was afraid of Esau because he had cheated his brother out of his inheritance.

As he wrestled in prayer with the Lord, he reminded God that he had promised Jacob he would do him good if he returned to his country.

Jacob, the schemer, admitted that he was not worthy of the love that God had shown him.  He pleaded with the Lord to deliver him, based on his promises.

After a night of grappling with God, the Lord granted him his request.

Spurgeon said that “when we come to pleading terms with God, there is nothing that so helps us as to be able to quote the promise and plead ‘You said’.”

“I would have all Christian people know God’s promises,” Spurgeon said.

No businessman would ignore the value of cheques in his possession, he noted.  But Christians often seem unaware of the value of the Lord’s promises.

The author said he looks at the circumstances in which God makes promises because they may be similar to his own.  That gives him extra confidence in his prayer requests.

“Many and many a time has God brought a promise home to my heart with such freshness that I have felt the Bible was made on purpose for me.”

We can count on God because the Lord “cannot lie”.  By his promise, God “engages himself to act in a certain way, and he will do so”.

God is all-wise so he does not make promises that he cannot keep.  And he does not make promises that would be bad for us.

Spurgeon pointed out one important condition to praying God’s promises - confessing our own sins and becoming right with God.

As Jacob came before God, he admitted his own unworthiness.  We need to do the same if there is anything standing in the way between us and the Lord.

But we should not feel that past sins prevent us from asking God to fulfill his promises in our lives.  

Spurgeon underlined the fact that God is a god of mercy and will carry out his promises once we throw ourselves upon him.

Many great believers have memorized and meditated upon the promises that are sprinkled throughout the Bible.

I have neglected this for too long.  I am inspired to follow Spurgeon’s lead.

Help!

HELP!

God has given us the key to unlocking his great power in the world around us - prayer.

But we often fail to use it because we are discouraged - or we don’t believe it really matters.

The great Christian author, Andrew Murray, says that’s a shame - and a sin.  It’s a sin because we are to obey God and prayer is a Biblical command.  Prayer demonstrates our dependence on God and establishes intimate relations with him.

So, what does Murray recommend to help us use this gift - this key that God has given us?  Cry: “Help!”

In his book The Ministry of Intercession, Murray says we first need to confess our own impotence.  We can be sure that the Lord will help us.

Then, we must throw ourselves on the Lord, realizing the Christ lives within us and is our sole source of strength.  As Jesus told us, we can do nothing of eternal value by ourselves.

“This dependence upon God secures our true independence,” says Murray.  We are freed from self and yielded to the Lord of the universe who governs everything.

Many of us - myself included - are afraid to let God have full control of our lives, fearing we will have to give up too much that we treasure.  But vital prayer for others - intercession - depends on allowing God to lead and us to follow.

The next step is to rely on the Holy Spirit to move within us (Romans 8:26).  The Spirit is already praying for us when we don’t know how to pray.

Murray goes on to Jesus’ amazing words in Mark 11:24: “Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

The author says there are several important elements in these words:

• Desire: The word for “ask” in this verse is translated “desire” in the King James version of the Bible.  As we are yielded to God, the Spirit plants his desire in our hearts.  Murray calls this the “soul of prayer” - without it, our prayers are feeble;
• Pray:  Our desires must be expressed in concrete words and thoughts - not just general wishes.  We count on God to give us the grace of prayer as we express our desires in words;
• Believe:  Jesus asks us to have faith that God will answer our prayers.  This may be just a pinch of faith - at the very least, we must be willing to trust the Lord to do what he has promised to do; and
• Receive:  “Faith has to accept the answer, as given by God in heaven, before it is found or felt upon earth,” writes Murray. He acknowledges this causes problems for many believers, but he suggests spiritual answers to prayer can only be accepted on a spiritual level before they are visible.  If we have prayed according to God’s will, we must praise the Lord for whatever the answer is that he gives us - even if the answer is a long time coming.

Initially, we may not feel differently as we pray like this, Murray says.

But, “in due time, we will become conscious of his presence and power”.

A praying king

Hezekiah, King of Judah, could teach us a few things about prayer.

He knew where his power came from - God.  He was a man of prayer who depended on the Lord to deliver his little nation from Judah's enemies.

In the face of huge odds, he helped turn his idol-worshiping people back to the Lord and then defended his kingdom against the overwhelming forces of Assyria.

His story is told in 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32 and Isaiah 36-39.

Hezekiah became King of Judah after a long line of ancestors had turned to idol-worship and desecrated the temple in Jerusalem.

The new king - just 25 years old - set about restoring worship of God and wiping out idol-worship.  It may well be that he was influenced by the prophet Isaiah who played a large part in later events in his reign.

The young king demonstrated a deep faith in the Lord, turning to him in prayer in key developments in the next few years.  Here is a brief summary of the role of prayer in Hezekiah's life:

• He began by ordering the priests to return to worshiping God and cleaning the temple of idol-worship.  Then, he called on the people of Israel and Judah to come to the temple and consecrate themselves to God.  Next, he interceded in prayer to God for those who had not fulfilled all the legal requirements of purification for the restored Passover celebration, showing a loving and caring heart for his people.  God responded to this prayer by healing the people;
• Clearly, his intimacy with God grew as the years went by as he sought God in prayer as soon as the invading Assyrian forces threatened Judah with destruction.  Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, brought his hordes to surround Jerusalem, taunted Hezekiah, and tried to intimidate the people into surrendering.  Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet cried out to God and the Lord promised Isaiah that he would defeat the Assyrians.   More than 180,000 soldiers died and the seige was lifted; and finally
• Hezekiah fell seriously ill and Isaiah told him that the Lord informed the prophet that the king would die and he should prepare for this.  But Hezekiah prayed to God, telling him that he had been faithful to the Lord and asking for more time on earth.  God then told Isaiah that he had heard Hezekiah's prayer and would heal him,  declaring he would prove it by causing the sun to fall back on the sundial by10 degrees.  The sun fell back and Hezekiah was healed.

Writing in the 1800s, E.M. Bounds suggests in his book Prayer and Praying Men that we can draw these lessons from Hezekiah's prayer life:

• God hears prayer;
• God pays close attention to prayer;
• God answers prayer; and
• God delivers us from dark times as a result of prayer.

For me, the biggest lesson from Hezekiah's life is his complete commitment to honouring God, no matter what.  He could truly say he served the Lord wholeheartedly.

Prayer flowing from a heart dedicated to the Lord is powerful.