Tiniest of Seeds
"He told me all that I ever did." - the Samaritan woman in John 4:39
Yes, life is messy and integration of Jesus and faith with life often doesn’t look like what we thought it was “supposed” to or think it "should" look like. Are we shocked? We are literally told by Jesus that this life is full of trials. Yet we as we show up we can heal and grow in ALL God promises. He has after all, overcome. We can too.
He saved me. I can’t say it more clearly than that. Yes, Jesus has proven to me to be the ultimate answer. Has it been easy? No. It’s been 25 years of a winding road that he has made straight. As I continue to walk it out, I can’t help but testify - and to talk with others in their own unique places on the discipleship road. How amazing.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
Tiniest of Seeds
Prayer: Receiving What Jesus Won For Us
Our humanity makes prayer way more complicated than it needs to be. There is NO condemnation for where ever you are at in your prayer life. AND there is always MORE by the power of the Spirit. He is the one who can guide us into deeper prayer and worship. We are designed to worship and pray in Spirit and Truth!
I am desperate for his presence and plans to be manifest in my life right now. I am learning in new ways how to pray without ceasing so that I can walk with him and actually have joy in every moment. HIS joy is our strengh. Stressors and anguish can feel especially real sometimes, even in the relative ease many of our everyday lives hold. Sometimes the awareness that we "should" feel differently compounds our anxiety and fear.
No matter the mental or physical circumstance, we are told we are more than conquerers and can have peace and love and joy! We are actually commanded to walk in these things, which tells me they are ours for the receiving in Jesus.
When we pray as Jesus taught us to pray, there aren't any downsides. God made us, he knows us, and when we pray in Jesus name by the Spirit, it transforms us and our lives. God is good, faithful, just and over all. He accomplishes his good plans 100% of the time. He tells us we don't have because we don't ask....and that when we do ask, it's with wrong motives. How can we hope to ask with his heart if we don't practice prayer and receive from the Spirit? As we get to know him, we know his good and perfect will and can pray and move mountains in his name. His will is always good, and he promises to fulfill it.
Yet, even when we "know" the power of prayer, we often don't practice it. We get distracted, we choose sin, we don't prioritize it as our lifeline! In short, we are all too human. The good news is, we can all grow in our faith and belief and prayer life! It's something he wants to give us in increased measure.
Welcome to the Tiniest of Seeds podcast. It's been a while since I've recorded because I've had a lot going on in my life and so I took a break. I'm learning how to do that. I am here today to talk about prayer, and I was originally going to talk about waiting, but today, as I was praying about the podcast, I felt really strongly I wanted to talk about prayer, and the reason is I have never been more sure that prayer is everything. I've also never been more aware of His grace and how much we each need to learn to pray. You know I've talked quite a bit about practicing, about disciplines, about my own journey, and I can tell you what prayer is, something that I hope and pray I will never quit going deeper into because right now, at this point of where I'm at in my life, I've never believed in it more, like I said, and I've never been more desperate for it. I've never been more confident that it is where our life flows from. I've never known more fully what it means to enter his throne room of grace, to find that mercy and grace for our times of need than I have right now. And you guys, I have been a disciple for quite a while and I've shared that before. I became a disciple of Christ when I had a conversion experience in 1998. But you guys, sanctification practice, it goes deeper and deeper and deeper, and around every corner your mind is blown and you think I didn't have faith before because now I do. And then you know what I know in 20 years I hope and pray I will be in the same place thinking, wow, I didn't know. I didn't know Because, you guys, his gifts are immeasurable, his promises are sure. Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death. He has everything that we need for life and godliness. And I'm barely beginning to taste the sweetness of that. And you know what unlocks that? What unlocks that abundant life and that sweetness it's prayer.
Laurine:Shocker, I don't know if you have been like me. I'm the first to admit I have been one that has talked much about prayer and actually prayed very little. I call myself out. Right now, I have been the one to shoot off the text saying I'm praying for you, but that text has sufficed to distract me from the true work of prayer. So right now I'm throwing myself out there to say you know what? I still have much work to do in the art of prayer.
Laurine:But our lives are hidden with Christ and God. We are created first and foremost to what Jesus said it to love the Lord God with all of our heart, soul and strength. Our lives are meant to be hidden with Christ and God. Those divine mysteries, they are unlocked through the power of the Holy Spirit as what as we pray. I also want to make a distinction. I think we get confused about community and corporate prayer. It can be so easy to replace our own prayer life with community prayer, and that serves a great and grand purpose. But first and foremost, again, that prayer closet. Jesus talks about it.
Laurine:Look at Jesus. He's always the one that we look to to walk and talk with him. As his disciples, we look to him in his example. Look at how often he withdrew to pray. You can bet that he was praying with his disciples all the time, just conversationally. He was one with the Father. So you can bet that prayer was a part of his daily being. And the disciples even said Jesus teaches how to pray. Jesus said to them this is how you pray. It was succinct, it was short. Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. That was the succinct prayer he taught his disciples.
Laurine:And yet, when we look at his personal life of prayer, they got to witness it a few times. It's recorded. How about in John 17, when he was wrestling, praying, pleading for his disciples before he was crucified. He was using a lot of words. It was messy. There were all sorts of emotions. He was pleading with God. Make them one even as we're one, and I don't pray that you take them out of the world, but deliver them from the evil one. I mean he used a lot of words, he was very human. Or what about in the Garden of Gethsemane? He was praying before the Father in his humanity.
Laurine:Hebrews tells us that we don't have a great high priest that cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. We do Jesus. He wrestled like we wrestled, Says. We haven't wrestled to the point of shedding our blood and our struggle against sin. You guys, I've been wrestling. This past two months has been hard. There's a lot of external things being thrown at me. I'm not going to digress, but you guys, it has been hard. I'm learning to wrestle it out in deeper and deeper measure in the spiritual realm.
Laurine:I want to revisit that verse in Hebrews. It says we can boldly approach that throne of grace. You know what that throne of grace is? It tells us in other places in the Bible it's holy, holy, holy. Lord, god Almighty. It's worthy, as the lamb that was slain, to receive power and honor and glory and wisdom. That is what that throne room of grace is. This is not meant to bring condemnation, but hey, how's your worship? Are you bowing before the Lord ever, even in your heart? Maybe you can't physically bow, are you bowing your heart before the Lord to say holy, holy, holy?
Laurine:It doesn't take a long time, it takes a moment to posture yourself again, to look back to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We set our eyes on the Lord Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, he endured that cross, he despised that shame and he sits now at the right hand of God, the Father, interceding for us, praying for us constantly. The Holy Spirit to interceding. I want to go back real quickly, to when Jesus taught his disciples to say deliver us from evil. You guys, that's because he also needed to be delivered from evil. Do you recall when he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? He has suffered as you have suffered by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He has suffered as you have suffered. He has been tempted as you have been tempted. He prays. That's how we combat it.
Laurine:We pray, we worship, we put on those garments of praise. We do what the Bible tells us to do. We pray without ceasing. Is it possible in our flesh? No, it's only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. How do we arrive at that? We submit ourselves as living sacrifices. We say, spirit, help me grow in a desire for you. Help me hunger and thirst for your righteousness. I'll throw myself under the bus again. I have not hungered and thirsted for righteousness much of my life, even as a disciple of Christ.
Laurine:I've needed to practice. I've needed to say you know what your word says. I'll be filled, I'll be satisfied. So I'm going to say yes, lord, I'm going to show up, I'm going to ask says in John the Holy Spirit is given to those who ask. We have that same power within us who raises Jesus Christ from the dead. How do we walk by the Spirit? Again, we have to posture ourselves, we have to ask. We have to posture ourselves, we have to ask. We have to pray. Not thinking about prayer, not thinking about worship, but showing up despite our feelings, despite our emotions, practicing prayer, practicing worship.
Laurine:I've talked quite a bit about how, maybe three years ago, I started posturing myself, literally bowing, because I recognized okay, there's another level of freedom that the Lord has for you. We are told that we will have peace, love and joy, that we'll have streams of water flowing from us. If we are walking by the Spirit and I started in my sanctification walk, I got to the place where it was clear that I needed more. I needed more and you know what we are told we can have it. And so I did start posturing and saying a simple prayer. I started out by saying Romans 12, 1 and 2.
Laurine:I brought it up many times and did I feel like it? No, that is my word to you. It is not dependent upon your feelings. It is dependent upon the salvation and the deliverance of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has declared you a new creature. Will you receive it? What if you are not acting like it? Will you receive it? And you guys, I spent a lot of time in the proverbial and still postured and said Lord, I'm a new creature, I receive it. I'm not acting like it. I'm going to believe that.
Laurine:You say to pray without ceasing. So I'm going to push, eject over and over and over. What about those external circumstances that you can't control? Are we going to believe him? Are we going to posture ourselves to pray? The Bible tells us nothing can contend against us. The Bible tells us no weapon formed against us shall prosper. The Bible tells us nothing can contend against us. The Bible tells us no weapon formed against us shall prosper. The Bible tells us that. Am I going to posture myself to receive it? How can I do that? Through prayer, you guys, I'm blown away over and over and over and over again. I was overwhelmed last night with fear and dread and anxiety, and it doesn't always lift immediately, but you know what happens eventually it lifts.
Laurine:Christ is Christ in the chaos. Christ is Christ when we see people be martyred. Christ is Christ through all sorts of injustices, travesties, trials, tribulations, going back to John 17,. I don't ask you take him out of this world. I ask that you help them overcome the evil one. He has overcome the evil one, you guys. He has conquered sin and death. Will I position myself to pray to receive from his abundant hand. He's my Jehovah, jireh, my provider. He provides everything I need for life and godliness, and you know what that ends up with Love. We look in 1 Peter. It always ends in love, love of God, love of others and a deep peace and love and joy that is ours in Christ Jesus.
Laurine:No one can convince me otherwise anymore, because I'm walking in it, and so this is an appeal to you, my listeners Will you take an extra moment to submit yourself Just that one practice? I don't know where you're at in your prayer life, I just know what my experience has been. I did a whole lot of talking, a whole lot of showing up and not a whole lot of praying. Will you submit yourself to him anew today as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him? It's reasonable because he has everything you need. He knows you, he sees you.
Laurine:So it's our reasonable act of worship, and then you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Laurine:You will be able to walk in that freedom that he has purchased. You will be able to walk in that peace, love, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. You will be able to walk in that, in that divine healing that he has won for you. He has healed your diseases, he has redeemed your life from the pit. And that is my exhortation today to myself May I be undistracted so that I can live life with the delight, with the joy, with the love, with the presence to God first and to others, so that I will not be a boundaryless doormat, so that I will not do things out of obligation but I will do things with those streams of living water flowing for me. That is his will for you and that is his will for me. So I pray that you will go with increased conviction to receive what the Holy Spirit has for you, what Jesus has won for you on the cross. Our Lord, god and Father has designed you to receive the fullness of the joy of your salvation. So go with blessing In Jesus' holy name, amen.