If anyone tries to tell you exactly how to pray, take their advice with a great big grain of freedom - i.e. don't listen unless the Holy Spirit is jumping around inside you going YES, YES, I wanna do that! (Thought I'd just start with that qualifier.)
If you have been following these posts, you'll see I'm trying to take you on a journey of dumping the old stuff, going back to the beginning - the Cross - and starting all over again to lift your expectations for who you are now in Christ - a saint, full of Love and Power because Jesus has taken over your body. We are zombies for Christ! Only these zombies don't belong to the dark side at all - we are totally full of Light, and because He is holy, we are holy. Woohoo! Can't earn that there - so as long as we give up trying to earn anything and learn to rest in His awesomeness, the Planet is ours!
Remember why you are on planet earth - ENJOYMENT in relationship with God, and the inevitable consequence is bringing a bit of Heaven to earth wherever you go.
That's where what we call 'prayer' comes in. Really what we are talking about is spending time with God to hear what He wants to do. No matter what our need is (or how urgent) the answer is in the question mate (John 5:19):
What is the Father saying? What is Heaven's perspective on this?
So in my books, prayer is whatever action you take to 'position' yourself to hear what Heaven is saying. I said last time that in prayer "we listen to what the Father is wanting to do and simply agree with Him." If there were three recommendations I could give as a basis of prayer, it would be: 1. Rest in Him 2. See what He sees 3. Speak it out.
1. We covered 'Rest is a Weapon' in post #3. Remember Jesus said in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you...Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." If we allow ourselves to get stressed out, worried, anxious or fearful about something, this can displace our peace and makes us vulnerable to reacting to the 'something' instead of responding to Heaven. The enemy seeks to pull us out of rest, therefore step number 1 is to make sure we get back into it.
How this looks for you is completely tailored by you. You need to connect with how you are wired to answer that. For example, what causes you to rest? Is it music? Singing? Praise? Worship? Dancing? Lying prostrate? Staring at the sunrise/sunset? Being immersed in nature? Reading the Bible or speaking out verses? Kneeling in silence? Going for a walk? (Prayer-walking). Focusing on some aspect of God's being?
You'll probably need to access at least three different ways in order to be able to enter 'rest' no matter whether you're at home, work, driving in the car, or at a party. So try different things out and see which you really get a buzz out of. Prayer is not supposed to be a chore! Mix it up depending on what you sense is going to work for that time. It could be different every time! No limits! Complete freedom. (As long as it doesn't wake the baby next door).
How do you know you've entered into rest? Believe me, YOU'LL KNOW! (I mean - whispers you'll know). You will know you're ready to move on from there and get into the good stuff. And quite frankly sometimes all you'll get to do is soak in rest and THAT actually is the answer for you at that time. You'll feel the conclusion (or get interrupted if you're a mum!) and all will still be well with the world.
Number 2 next time. Homework this time: get busy and rest!
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