Another wonderful book has just been devoured. Oh the wonder of the marvels of what God is up to on the planet! I highly recommend Beni Johnson's 'The Happy Intercessor'. That's my kind of title too.
So far we have looked at wanting to change, learning to rest, cleansing, and being properly saved/i.e. totally exchanged at the cross and letting Jesus run our Christianity. But I have got so caught up in getting across all the theological barriers to true relationship with God and leaving behind religion, that I have just about let the whole point I started this blog slip:
Love and Enjoyment.
See, the reason God created you was because He delighted in you, enjoyed you, and wanted you to enjoy Him too! You were created for pleasure, and as such, you have a pleasure seeking missile within you. We get into strife of course when we try to try to fill up outside of anything other than the King Himself. Short term gain = lifelong pain!
Not only that, but He made you unique and so the things that bring you great enjoyment will be unique to you. That means that other people's formula's for fulfilment in Christ aren't necessarily going to work for you. No kidding! You've probably already discovered that! The Christian life gets pretty dull if we take a look around at some of God's children 'sacrificing' for Jesus, striving and straining to make the goal, burdened and weary, dancing one minute and crashing the next. No more. No more.
Where does prayer come into this? Let me give you a picture of what it could look like: Prayer is just a side effect, if you like, of being completely enraptured with the Creator. We are, in the end, compelled to take action as we become aware of our God given authority and ability to bring the purposes of Heaven to earth. We love to do it! We are so moved by a certain passion (that will be unique to us) that we listen to what the Father is wanting to do and simply agree with Him. We know we don't have to drum up some great prayer words, but just rest in Him, see what He sees, then speak it out prophetically - how it looks from Heaven's perspective.
Once we are enjoying God and learning what our purpose is, prayer, Bible reading, evangelism, and any other 'Christian' action just become side effects of the relationship. This is the ONLY way these things are effective- when we do them because we utterly want to, are drawn to it, or know we have heard from the Holy Spirit. We LOVE to pray. Therefore we don't do it as a habit or an obligation at any time! Can you ever feel like this? YES YOU CAN! Hang in there - the Spirit of Christ is contending for you, interceding for you, drawing you to Himself in love and enjoyment.
Next post: I'll give you some practical ideas of how to pray.
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