George Mueller on Prayer

“The primary object I had in view in carrying on this work…that it might be seen that now, in the nineteenth century, God is still the Living God, and that now as well as thousands of years ago, He listens to the prayers of His children and helps those who trust Him.”

George Mueller (1805 – 1898) created and ran orphanages in England. He wanted his life to be a testimony that God answers prayer. So he picked the hardest ministry he could think of and never asked anyone but the Lord for a dime.

The Lord provided and he was never in need and never went into debt. He built 5 orphanages at a cost of over L100,000, quite a sum for the 19th century.

He taught the children that God answers prayer. Once they sat down and prayed at the breakfast table. thanking God for providing their food, which they didn't have. There was no food. As they finished praying, there came a knock on the door. The town baker arrived, unsolicited, with bread enough for everyone. This type of thing was the norm of how he lived.

I'd say he succeeded.

EM Bounds on Prayer

EM Bounds said, “God shapes the world by prayer.” He's totally right. Actually, then, praying is one of the most practical things we can do. So how come it's often the last thing we turn to?

When we're sick, do we go to the doctor first, and then when they're stuck, at last resort, we turn to God in prayer? Prayer should be our first resort, not our last.

There's a man I know, Dale, who was bitten by a copperhead on his farm. He immediately collapsed into unconsciousness. His brother started to pray, “O Lord, if it be your will, please heal Dale.”

His wife, on the other hand, a mighty women of God, prayed boldly, “In the name of Jesus be healed! Dale, in the name of Jesus, wake up!” And he woke up.

Of course they called the paramedics, and he went to the hospital to get checked out, but he was totally fine. Praying was more practical than calling the paramedics. He'd have been dead by the time they got there.

So prayer changes things. Real prayer with authority, from sons and daughters of the King who know they are sons and daughters and know they are wielding his authority. That kind of prayer changes things.

Leonard Ravenhill on Prayer

Leonard Ravenhill said “No man is greater than his prayer life.” He's not just talking about the check-the-box-I-prayed-today religious kind of prayer, which isn't really prayer at all, but quality-time prayer, intercession, wrestling with God, like Moses, Jacob, and Daniel type of prayer. I think this quote speaks for itself.

Don't let this condemn you; let this inspire you – not to try harder because that won't work. Religion will never bring more of the Kingdom of God into our lives. But instead, let it inspire you to cry out to the Lord, with all your being, for a deeper prayer life, and he will call you into it. That place of intimacy is something he desires more than you do – he will always answer that heart cry in the affirmative.

Dealing with Life Suckers

“So how do you deal with negative people who suck the life out of you?” I was asked this question recently.

We choose to see them through the lens of who God created them to be, not through the lens of what they do. Then, in our eyes, they are not a negative person, because that's who God created them to be. They act that way because of the pain and deception in their own lives, either from their own sin or the sin against them, or both.

We ask the Holy Spirit, “HS, who have you created them to be? As your ambassador, what words of life and encouragement can you give me to speak your love to them?”

Then, after we have a positive relationship with them, at l;east as much as it depends on us, because we've told them positive things from God about themselves that no one else will, we can address their negativity as the Holy Spirit leads, next time it comes up.

It's an honor to be used by God to touch someone's life.

Saint Patrick

Happy St Paddy's Day! I'm not Irish, but it seemed appropriate to talk about Saint Patrick today. There's a wonderful movie called (no surprise here) St Patrick: The Irish Legend with Patrick Bergin in the title role. I highly recommend everyone watch this film.

Taken to Ireland and sold into slavery as an English abductee in his teens, he cried out to the Lord who he previously spurned. And the Lord answers with encounter far beyond Patrick's wildest imagination. The Lord gave him a mission that was walked out years and years later, that Patrick would save Ireland, at the time a completely pagan nation. And in partnership with the Lord, that is, Patrick boldly stepping out in faith, to the point of several times being killed if God didn't come through, Patrick did.

And it turns out that God's mission for Patrick involved more than just Ireland, but the survival of Christianity in general. While Europe was blunged into the Dark Ages, learning and education and Christianity flourished in Ireland, separated from the darkness of Europe during that time by an ocean. God preserved Christianity itself through Saint Patrick in Ireland, until the time of the reformers who lead Europe out of the Dark.

Saint Patrick was a true man of God. He had intimacy with the Lord first above all things, and out of that relationship, he knew who he really was and what he was for. Saint Patrick's is a wonderful story because the theme is partnership – God not accomplishing what He wanted to do, which He could have done sovereignly at any time, without partnership with Patrick. God did do it sovereignly – through Patrick.

God has a sovereign mission for you just as exciting. Let's not get so caught up in the details of day-to-day living that we neglect intimacy with Him and miss it.

Change in Blogging Days

Starting this week, I'm changing my blogging days (from Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) to Tuesdays and Fridays. This fits in better with my schedule. Please let me know in the comments if this causes any undo inconvenience for anyone. I look forward to sharing tomorrow with you in my first Tuesday blog.

Intimacy through Time Spent

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mark 1:35 NIV)

Jesus had to spend time with Dad. He just had to. He went out of his way to.

You can't say you really know someone (intimately) that you don't spend time with.

At some point each day, we need to unplug – turn off the computer, cell phone, pager, TV, etc – get completely off the grid – and get alone with Dad. Time with the Father. Jesus and the Holy Spirit show up, too. God party. Our own private God party.

That one-on-one time with him is more important than anything else. You get to the point where you get ruined, where it's like breathing. I guess you can technically exist without it, but you can't live without it.

So what are we waiting for?

Intimacy through Sacrifice

Making a choice. Choosing not what I want. Dying to your yourself. Sacrificing myself for the good of the other. Intimacy has a price.

Some people accept Jesus as savior but not Lord because they don't want to sacrifice their lifestyle. But He only comes as a package deal; we can't have one without the other. Let me just say it: You can't be a follower of Jesus if you're sleeping with your boyfriend or girlfriend. At least not for long. He loves you too much to wink at compromise, to tolerate what's really hurting you.

But beyond just basic holiness, intimacy takes effort. Like fasting, getting up early, staying up late, doing whatever it takes to get away by yourself – just you and him. Like David in 2 Samuel 24:24, we can't sacrifice to the Lord something that costs us nothing, because if it costs us nothing then it's not a sacrifice.

But that one-on-one time with him is more precious than anything we have to sacrifice for it. You get to the point where you get ruined, where it's like breathing. I guess you can technically exist without it, but you can't live without it.

Intimacy through Suffering

Often times the pain in our lives is really God's blessings in disguise. Or they will be, once he's done working his God-thing in and through them. Because that pain and that suffering drives us to him.

Some of David's most beautiful psalms came out of his suffering. And some of the most beautiful music from our lives to the Lord comes out of our times of suffering. When we feel nothing but pain and can't seem to find him anywhere and it feels like he's abandoned us, but we still choose him through prayer and worship anyway, and through obedience (choosing to follow his ways even when it hurts, doesn't make sense, costs us dearly and we don't want to), those are the times we're storing up for ourselves treasures in Heaven (see my post http://www.davewernli.com/2015/01/i-like-winning-banners.html).

He wants to deliver you and heal you from your pain, and give you a ministry of bringing others hurting in the same area the same healing you received. And that's sweet revenge – making Satan sorry he ever messed with you!

The danger, of course, is that we'd turn away from him instead. Many do. But he loves you enough to take the risk.

Has Jesus Suffered Enough?

Someone hurt me really bad. Really, really, bad. Betrayal bad. Someone close to me, someone I trusted implicitly. You know those times when you're hurt so bad you can hardly breathe? Then they were unrepentant and the pain went on and on.

I knew I should forgive. I said the words. I tried to feel it in my heart. But the next day it would come up again. Forgiveness is a process. I would forgive again, do my best to let it go, but, boy, did that person owe me.

Then a Christian counselor taught me that the person is not the evil they did to me. Yes, they did evil to me, no doubt about it. But the person is not the evil they did. She taught me that once we can acknowledge that, then we can come to a place where the person doesn't owe us anything.

While she was teaching me, I had a vision. Not an open vision or anything, just in my mind's eye. I saw Jesus hanging on the cross, and he asked me, “Have I suffered enough to pay you back for what that person did to you?”

The question shocked me. I knew Jesus died for my sins against God, but it never occurred to me that he died for other people's sins against me. “Yes, Jesus, of course,” was all I could say. And I meant it. Instantly, the feeling that the person owed me a debt vanished. I can honestly say I felt like they didn't owe me a thing. It was the most freeing feeling in the world!

That person's sin is now between them and God. I'm out of it. Even if they are still bound by their sin, I'm not bound by it anymore. And I can pray blessing for that person.

That's forgiveness. Not that I'm patting myself on the back or anything. The point here is if I could learn it, so can you.

Law of Relationships #4 of 4

You become what you judge. When I first heard this, I took some convincing. But they showed it to me in the Word of God: Romans 2:1 says, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” See? You become what you judge.

Since learning about this, I have witnessed it to be true, both in my own life and in the lives of those close to me. When we harbor resentment and judgment, we will eventually start doing the same things, and eventually become what we hated.

If it's not too corny, think about this. Even George Lucas has figured this out. It's the theme of the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi. Luke's vengeance against his father (Darth Vader) gives him the opportunity to become his father. This is the choice Luke must make at the end of the movie – to complete his judgement on his father, and hence become him, or to forgive his father. And it's the power of Luke's forgiveness that frees his father from his deception, and he saves Luke. But whether Luke lived or died, he still made the better choice. Better to die at the hands of Emperor Palpatine than to live as Darth Vader II.

Judgment sets us up to become what we hated. This is why forgiveness is so vitally important. It releases us from repeating the evil done to us.

Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13b NIV).

Law of Relationships #3 of 4

Don't judge, or you'll be judged. This is an example of sowing and reaping (see Friday's blog http://www.davewernli.com/2014/10/law-of-relationships-2-of-4.html).

Judging and forgiving are complete opposites. When someone does evil against us, we are either doing one or the other. But we'll get to this in a couple of days. This relationship law goes far beyond evil done to us. Because unfortunately, our judging often goes far beyond evil done to us.

We judge things we don't like, even though the person isn't doing anything to us. We sometimes make our personal preferences into idols, and then our self-righteousness makes them doctrine to impose on others. At that point, we've become Pharisees, who made the Traditions of the Elders equal to the Law of Moses (Matthew 15:1-6).

Churches have split over the style of music or the color of the carpet. Ever condemn a style of music you didn't like? If the words are sinful, then the words are certainly wrong, but not the style. The style, the instrumental music itself, is ok even if we don't personally like it.

So if it's something that doesn't affect us, if it isn't in black 'n' white contradiction to the Word of God, and if it isn't self-destructive behavior, we're better of dropping it. It's probably just our personal preference. And we'll receive the same grace from God we give the other person (or not).

Mercy triumphs over judgment.