Father, we are so grateful to You that You have given us the full supply for this life and that which is to come. That supply is found in Your Son, Your beautiful and wonderful Son.
And so, Lord, we look to You this morning that, in that supply, we might discover even more the fullness of life. Lord, may we be transformed today through the revealing of Your Son to us by Your Spirit.
We entrust this time into Your hands, confessing, Lord, that we are unable, but You are able. You are able to take these words and inject them with Your life, and You are able to change the hearts of men and women. We trust You to do that. We ask this all in the precious name of Your wonderful Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I had on my heart for some time, sort of stirring in my heart, a message entitled “Evidences of Consecration.” I was going to speak on one particular evidence: Spirit-led service, which is an evidence of real consecration. But I am not going to speak on that today.
Wednesday evening, during prayer, I had been seeking the Lord, and He seemed to have changed my direction somewhat. Although we will be speaking of service to some degree, He began to stir in me this issue of prayer, which I have recently shared about in Toronto—a very practical issue.
Then I began to think, Prayer? There are a gazillion books written on prayer, and there have been many messages on prayer. So I said, “Well, rather than speak on prayer, I thought maybe I would talk about the essence of Italian cooking.”
You see, I am really familiar with that. As some of you know, I even owned a restaurant, and I love to cook. I have been cooking for a good portion of my adult life, and I enjoy it. I cook a lot at the house, and I really like that. So I thought, “That is an area where I am really capable and comfortable. You can start taking notes now. The first recipe—”
No.
But you know what? I think sometimes we do that with prayer. We sort of pigeonhole prayer. We put prayer in a portion of our lives.
We say something like this—and I do not want you to misunderstand me—“Well, Lord, You know I get up at 4:30 in the morning, and that time is for You. That hour and a half, that is my prayer time for You, Lord. Not only that, but if You notice, on Wednesday nights those two hours I am devoting to prayer, man, that is for You, Lord. Not to mention Sundays. Those two-and-a-half or three hours that we are together on Sundays—that is for You, dear Lord.”
Now, those things are good, my dear brothers and sisters, and I encourage all of us to do those things. But in one sense, the Lord is not much interested in your prayer time, as if He actually needs that little portion of your time that you allot to Him for prayer. He is after much more than that.
He is looking for a life that is a prayer.
If there is nothing else that you leave with today, I would want you to carry this away with you: prayer is not so much a thing that you do, but the outcome—the result—of a relationship.
Prayer is not so much a thing you do, but it is the outcome and result of a relationship.
There was a time when one of the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Jesus, John’s disciples—he taught them how to pray. Could You teach us how to pray?”
The Lord did not say, “Sure. Kneeling down is good when you pray. You can also pray with your hands up. There are certain words that could really get the attention of the Father, so if you incorporate those words into a little formula…” It was not like that, was it? No, it was not like that.
Nor did He say, “When you pray, this is how you are supposed to address God: ‘O great Spirit in the sky,’ or ‘O Father of Jesus, whom we also love,’ or ‘O Sovereign One.’”
Instead, He taught them:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
The Lord wanted to say to them, “I want you to have an understanding of whom you are praying to. Do you realize that My Father is your Father? You are to pray to your Father, Who is in heaven.”
Now let me ask you: Do you know Him as Father? We need to examine our hearts. Do we really know Him as Father, or is He still some sort of impersonal spirit in the sky? Do we really know Him as Father?
When the Lord Jesus saved us, what a wonderful salvation! I remember when He saved me. You have heard this story before, but maybe you can reflect upon when He saved you. He took me out of the street. I did not know Him, nor did I really want to know Him. I was not much interested, but He loved me enough to come and find me, seek me out, and love me.
That day, when I had the realization of His love for me, it changed my whole life. He brought me into His family, and He made me His child. He did not just say, “Okay, Len, I have forgiven your sins, and now you are on your own.” He brought me into the family, and He made me His child. That is what He did for you and me.
But has that become reality to us? Do you really know Him as Father? Some of us have such a poor conception of Who He is. Some of us still think He is this Guy up there who is just looking down, waiting for us to make a mistake, and boom—He is going to put the kibosh on us. Or He is nitpicking at your life.
But He is a Father Who really loves us.
Let me ask you something. This is sort of class participation here. If you were going to give some character qualities of the perfect Father, what would some of them be? Do not be bashful.
“Love.” He is a Father Who loves. He does not love by conditions—“If you are this way, I am going to love you”—but He loves unconditionally. He draws us into His love. When you are loved, you feel safe. You feel secure. He wants you to know that He is there for you all the time. He loves you.
“Disciple.” Yes, this Father takes the time to train up His children. That is what discipling is. He takes the time to teach them. He is not one Who says, “Do this,” and then, when you do not do it right, chastises you for it. He takes time with us.
Has that not been your experience and my experience? He takes time to teach us what righteousness is about—not merely through the Word, but through the circumstances of your life and my life. He teaches us how to do the right thing, so that we will live out the imputed righteousness that we have in Christ. He takes the time because He loves us.
“Forgiveness.” Yes, He is a Father Who forgives. When we are bad children, we can come to Him and say, “I am sorry, Dad. I am really sorry.” And He says, “I know you are. I just want you to know that I love you. I love you. Let us get on with it.”
“Merciful.” Yes. We have all experienced His mercy to some degree in our lives, have we not? His mercies are new each morning.
If you were to ask my children what kind of father I was—especially my daughters, I think—they would probably say, for the most part, “He was a perfect father. He was there for us all the time.”
My son Michael could say, “When I broke my shoulder, my father was there. When I got in trouble and wrecked the car, he was there.” My daughters could say I was there when they were pregnant and had their babies. I was there at their graduations, their engagements, and their marriages. I was there for them.
I was very affectionate toward them and encouraging toward them. If you asked them, they would say I was the perfect father to them. Now, I know I was not the perfect father. There are things I can think about now and say, “Oh, I wish I had done this. I am sorry I did not do this.” But in their eyes, I was the perfect father.
Jesus said:
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?
—Luke 11:13
If your son comes and asks for a loaf of bread, would you give him a stone? If he asked for a fish, would you give him a serpent? If he asked for an egg, would you give him a scorpion? If we, being evil, know how to give good things to our children, how much more does our heavenly Father know exactly what we need?
This is what I want to present to us. This whole thing that we are sharing today is about prayer. You might say, “What does this have to do with prayer?” Remember: prayer is more than something you do. It is the outcome, the result, of a relationship.
Our prayers are not heard because of how we pray, but because of Whom we pray to and who we are. Do we know who we are?
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God.
—1 John 3:1
But because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
—Galatians 4:6–7
We are not just slaves in the kingdom. We are not merely slaves or boarders in the household of God. We are children, and not only children, but called into sonship—those who can be given responsibility. These sons are heirs of the Father.
In Christ, all that Christ has is ours because we are in Him. He is our elder Brother. This is what we have been brought into. It is no small thing, my dear brothers and sisters. We are the children of the King.
These last songs that we were singing were proclaiming our ascendancy. It is wonderful what God has brought us into in His Son, the Lord Jesus. It is no small thing.
Psalm 139 says:
For Thou didst form my inward parts:
Thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks unto Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
Wonderful are Thy works;
And that my soul knoweth right well.My frame was not hidden from Thee,
When I was made in secret,
And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance;
And in Thy book they were all written,
Even the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was none of them.How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand:
When I awake, I am still with Thee.
—Psalm 139:13–18
Sometimes I am just taken by the thought that He is thinking of me. I am on the heart of God, as well as you. He knows everything that is going on in your life and my life. He purposes in His heart to think of us. I think that is such a wondrous thought.
My days had been fashioned even before I was. What a wondrous thought.
Today, knowing who I am—and today, knowing who you are—you should be able to say the same thing. It is a wondrous thought that we can be here today with the purpose in our hearts to gather around the Lord Jesus. For me to stand here and even speak His name is a miracle of God’s grace.
When you think that the world is against you, Satan is against you, and your own flesh is against you, who is able to do this? If it is not for the keeping power of God—our Father, your Father and my Father—Who has kept us to this very moment by His power, we could not stand.
There is no strength in you or me that could have fought the evil one, fought off the onslaught of this world, or overcome our own flesh. How many of us have battled with this flesh and been defeated over and over and over again? But God, in His mercy and power, has kept us to this very moment, that we can be here purposefully. It is a miracle of grace. It is nothing less than that.
You might say, “Yeah, but I am just a son by adoption. I am just sort of a second-class child.”
Now, you know Jay—my son, my stepson. No, my son. Some people may not believe this. I have shared this a couple of times, and I cannot help but get emotional about it, because I find that it is a real work of God.
Somehow God has done something in my heart, and in Jay’s heart as well, because I love him. He has made this love grow in me. Some may understand this and some may not believe it, but I am going to tell you from my heart that I love Jay like I love my other children.
Today, I would give up my life for Jay, just as I would for my other children. How has this happened? I cannot explain it. All I know is that it has happened, and I am very grateful for it. It is an experience I never thought I would experience.
He is not a second-class son to me. He is my son. If I, being evil, can experience this, how much more does the heavenly Father look upon us, consider us, and think of us? We are the children of the living God. We are not second-class sons and daughters. We are His. Everything He has is ours.
You know, if the Lord had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
The point of prayer is not merely to get answers from God, but to be completely identified with Him and to be one with Him. That is the bottom line. It is not just to get answers; it is to be one with Him.
This all has to do with the abiding relationship. We talk about this word, and we have heard this word: abiding. But the abiding relationship is a relationship based on love and obedience. It is a life that is true to the Word of God. That is the abiding life. It is a life of love and obedience.
You and I need to love God, appreciate Him, and come into an appreciation of Who He is. He is lovable. If we really knew Him in His character, we would know that He is very lovable and very intriguing. So we love Him, and we obey Him.
Turn to John 15, verses 7 through 11. Keep in mind that this abiding relationship is a relationship based on love and obedience.
If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be My disciples.
Even as the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you: abide ye in My love.
If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
—John 15:7–11
“Abide in My love.” Live in it. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love. That is obedience. Just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
So many of us are afraid to give our lives to the Lord, to really turn it over. We think, “What are You going to require of me, Lord? What are You going to take from me? What are You asking me to give up? I do not know if I can really do this. Can I just hold on to this?”
There is so much fear in us, oftentimes, about really surrendering to the Lord. Yet the Lord says, as our brother Rob shared from Scripture today, “I have come to give you life—and not just life, but life abundant.”
The Lord Jesus says, “Here, I want you to have My joy, that your joy may be full. What are you listening to the lies of the evil one for? You do not have anything that I want, but everything I have, I want to give to you. Surrender. Give yourself to Me. I love you. Abide in My love.”
This is the Father Who loves us. Augustine said—and this has stayed with me over the years—“The glory of God is man fully alive.” That is the way He wants us to be, but half of us walk around half dead, or half alive.
We think God wants to take something from us, to deprive us. No, He wants to give to us, so that we might have life fully. He would be glorified in that. He is not glorified in some puny life. He wants to see His children filled with life, filled with joy. That is the testimony of Him that the world can see.
But most of the time, the world looks at us and says, “Why would I want to be like them? They are not joyful. They are walking around with their heads hung down. What is the story?” That is because we have believed a lie. We have allowed fear to enter our lives.
The Father is saying, “No. I want to give you life. I want to give you life abundantly.”
It is out of this abiding relationship that prayer comes to life and the power of prayer is realized. In Acts 3, Peter and John were going into the temple through the Beautiful Gate. Outside this gate was a man lame from his mother’s womb. He was carried there and laid there every morning so that he could beg. He was there a long time; he was a grown man.
Peter, John, and the other disciples had walked through this gate numerous times and walked right past that man. Jesus had walked through that gate while he was there and walked right by him.
But Jesus had such a relationship with the Father. He said, “I only do the things I see My Father doing. I only say the things I hear My Father say.” He had this wonderful abiding relationship—a relationship of love and obedience. As God the Father directed Him, He healed and He spoke, and wondrous things happened.
Obviously, the Father had not said to Jesus on those earlier occasions, “Pick this one out.” But this day, Peter and John were walking through. They had walked past this man before, but on this day, Peter said to him, “Look at us.”
The man looked up, expecting coins. Peter said, “Look at us.” I think there is something we can find here. Peter was saying, “Look at us. Do you see who we are? We are just like everybody else. We are flesh and blood, made from the dust of the earth. There is nothing special about us. Look at us.”
Then he said, “Silver and gold I have not.” At that point, I believe that man probably thought, “Well, then I have nothing to do with you either. Just keep going. What do you have to give me? I do not need you.”
But Peter said:
Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.
—Acts 3:6
Peter put his hand down, grabbed the man by the hand, and pulled him up. The man stood on his feet. There was life in his legs and ankles. He was jumping around, and they went into the temple. He was clinging to them, jumping, singing, and praising God.
And as the lame man that was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this man? or why fasten ye your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him to walk?
—Acts 3:11–12
They had seen this man lying there all those years, and now they saw him jumping, dancing, and singing. “Wow, that is the lame man. What is going on?”
Do you see it? It has nothing to do with your godliness or holiness. It has everything to do with Jesus and the abiding relationship. When Peter and John were walking in, as they had walked past that man on numerous other occasions, on this occasion, because of Peter’s relationship with the Father, the Father said to Peter, “See this one? This one. Today is the day of salvation for him.”
At that point, Peter said, “Okay, Lord.” He stepped out of himself, you might say, and said, “Look at us.” What was going on? What was happening? You heard Peter’s proclamation: it was not by their godliness or holiness that this man was raised up. No, it was not.
It was Christ in him. The Lord Jesus in Peter was simply doing His thing. It was Jesus living out His life through Peter. Peter was the vessel; Peter was the conduit for that life. Peter had this relationship of love and obedience.
Through Peter, the Lord Jesus was able to be Himself and give salvation to this man.
We see the same thing in the life of Paul. I love that passage in Philippians, I think in the second chapter, where he says:
Yea, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
—Philippians 2:17
Paul had a life that was poured out. Who was Paul? Paul was you and me. That is who Paul was. But it was a life given over to love and obedience.
What do we see in Philippians 2? We see the Lord Jesus, Who gave up His throne. “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The Lord Jesus had a life that was poured out, a life given up. He said, “I came not to be served, but to serve.”
So when Paul says that, all we see is the Lord Jesus living out His life through Paul. That is what He wants from you and me. He wants a life that is given up, a life that is in love with Him and will obey Him.
Then we see the blind see, the lame walk, lepers cleansed, and the deaf hear.
Are we living as children whose Father is ever before us? Do we talk to Him? Do we listen? Do we ask? What is your day like? Where is your mind during the day?
This is not something for which we have to disengage from life. You may be taping, spackling, hammering, or whatever, and suddenly think, “Oh, I have to talk to God,” so you put the hammer down. No.
Where are your thoughts? Are you talking to Him in your heart? Are you listening? Are you asking, “What is this about? What did You mean by this? I was reading this the other night and did not understand it. What is this?”
During the day, when you are talking to someone else, is there something happening inside of you? Are you praying while you are talking, saying, “Now, Lord, give me the words to say here”?
I am somebody who could hardly walk and chew gum at the same time. But you can do that, because if I can do it, you can do it. Is your relationship with your Father real enough that, during the day, you are talking, listening, and asking? Is it real?
Now the other question is this—and this all has to do with prayer, I hope you are hearing this—how is your relationship with your Father? Is there something going on in your life such that your relationship is not right with your Father?
When I was a younger man, a teenager and even older than that, I would do something wrong and get wind that my father knew about it. I could walk into the house dreading the meeting with him, dreading the encounter.
I knew my father loved me, and I loved my father. But because I had done this thing, and I was aware that he was aware of it, I would come into the house with a barrage of words: “Yeah, Dad, everything is good. Work was fine. Everything is okay.” If you speak fast enough, they cannot ask you any questions, you know?
I can see people have identified with that. You batter them with words: “Ta, ta, ta.” Then at the end, I would say, “Yeah, I have to go now.” Boom, and I am out the door.
Or I would walk into the house and there would be that look on his face—the “I want to talk to you” look. I would say, “Oh, I forgot something in the car.” Boom, into the car, and I would be gone for two hours. You know what I mean? Have you ever?
There was that strain, that not wanting to really come face to face. Is something like that going on in your life with your Father, so that you just do not want to meet Him face to face?
I know that when those things have gone on in my life, there are symptoms. One symptom is that I do not want to open this Book. All of a sudden, I find myself not opening the Book, because when I open the Book, it is like looking in the mirror. Or when I open the Book, all of a sudden I see the Father’s face in the Book, saying, “Hey, hey, I want to talk to you.”
And I say, “Ah, I do not think I can do that right now.” Do you see what I am saying? We avoid really having this interaction with the Father.
It is not necessarily sinful things. It may simply be things the Lord is calling us to, encouraging us to do, but we are too busy for them.
Then we have to look and ask: Is there any sin in our lives? Is there something that we are covering up? Is there hidden sin that nobody else knows about?
If any of those things are in our lives, you will not have a prayer life. It hinders your prayer life. You will not have a life of prayer. That is the truth, and I know we can all testify to that.
If something is going on in your relationship with the Father, it has to be straightened out today. Today. So that we can experience fullness of life, joy, and peace. It has to be dealt with today. Before you leave here, deal with it.
If you are not dealing with it, you are believing a lie. Deal with it, because the Father loves you. You are His child, and He wants good for you and me.
It is interesting that when the Lord gave this example, He said, “Our Father.” It is not just Lenny’s Father or Jesus’ Father; it is our Father. What does that imply, my dear brothers and sisters? It implies that you are my brothers and sisters.
This opens up a whole new thing for us. If your relationship is not right with your brothers and sisters, your prayer life is hindered, and you will not have a life of prayer. That is the bottom line.
If your relationship is not right with brothers and sisters, your life of prayer will be hindered. Those things always have to be dealt with. They always have to be taken care of. If there is an offense you are holding in your heart, you have to get it straightened out. If there is bitterness in your heart toward any brother or sister, that has to be straightened out, or you will not have a life of prayer.
You know what it is like? It is like two siblings. The father walks into the room, and the two kids are wrestling on the ground, whipping on one another. The father breaks them up, and all of a sudden you hear one say, “Yeah, but it was him,” while the other says, “No, he started it first.” Everybody is pointing fingers at everybody else.
The father says, “Straighten it out, and then come and see me.” That is something of what the Lord says to us: “Straighten this thing out, and then come and see Me.”
Nobody else may know about it, but if there is something in your heart, it is going to hinder your relationship with your Father in heaven. It is not that He does not love you, but it is as though He is saying, “Straighten it out, and then come and see Me.”
If there is anything like that in your heart today, take care of it today. Otherwise, you are not experiencing fullness of life. You are not experiencing the Lord’s peace and joy. That is what He has for you and me.
Examine your heart. If there is something between you and the Father, or something between you and one of your brothers and sisters, it needs to be taken care of today.
In 1 Peter 3, verse 7, speaking of husbands and wives—but applicable generally—we read:
Ye husbands, in like manner, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the woman, as unto the weaker vessel, as being also joint-heirs of the grace of life; to the end that your prayers be not hindered.
—1 Peter 3:7
We could say, “You likewise, dwell with one another with understanding, honoring one another as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.” Is it not applicable in the same way?
There are many Scriptures that speak of these things: bitterness of heart, being judgmental, critical, argumentative, divisive, and having a party spirit. All of those things have to be dealt with, or else we cannot go on with the Lord.
It is a very serious issue. If we want to experience fullness of life, if we want to be used as instruments in the hands of God, then these things have to be dealt with—and they have to be dealt with today.
In 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, when it speaks of us being purchased with the blood of the Lamb, it says that our lives are not our own. If my life is not my own, then whose is it? In one sense, it belongs to all of you. It belongs to Him and to all of you. This is the life of relationship, this abiding life with the Father.
Our Father Who is in heaven. When we look at “Who is in heaven,” it speaks of position. He is the Sovereign One. He is the God of all creation.
Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.
—Isaiah 66:1
Do you realize that our Father sits on the throne of heaven, and beside Him is the Lord Jesus? My Father and my elder Brother are seated on a throne in heaven. This is Who we belong to. This is the family to which we belong.
But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
—Ephesians 2:4–7
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.
—Ephesians 2:10
My dear brothers and sisters, you and I have been invited into the very throne room of God.
When we are invited there, I think some of us picture it like this: we are invited into the throne room of God, but we come in apprehensively, with fear, thinking, “I know how I am. I know who I am.”
But that is not the way we are invited. We are invited as children. This is what we need to understand: we are invited into the throne room of God as children, as sons, and as heirs along with Christ.
We are to come into that throne room, approach the throne, and be greeted by the Father with a hug and a kiss on the neck. Then we go to our elder Brother and love on Him, so that He can love on us. Do you understand that?
We are not invited into the throne room as second-class citizens or slaves. We are invited as children and sons—those to whom the Lord wants to give responsibility, those whom God wants to include and have working with Him for His purpose.
This is who we are. This is what God has done for us in His Son, the Lord Jesus.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Before I was even put together in my mother’s womb, God had a plan for my life and for your life. He had already ordained good works for us to walk in.
Now we are invited, because of the work of Christ, into the very throne room of God. He says to us, “My son, My daughter, come over here. I want to show you something.”
Too often, when we go into the throne room of God, it is more like this: “Okay, Father, I hate to bother You, but this is what I need. I am looking for a little more holiness in my life, so if You could possibly work that out. I need a little more holiness, and patience would be good along with that. I need some patience. Not to mention my job—I have been looking for another job. My car is about to go…”
“I, I, I, I, I.” That is our prayer: “I, I, me. I need, I want, I…”
But the Father invites us into the throne room and says, “Carol, come here, My daughter. My son, daughter, come here. Look at this. Do you see this?”
“This is what I want. This is what I want done. This is what I want established. What you see here, I need to have done there. This is what I want you involved in. This is the good work I have for you.”
“Do you see that?” Carol says, “Yeah, I see that.” He says, “Okay, now be about it.”
He takes us up there and says, “William, see this? This is the finished product. This is what I want it to be like. This is what I want you involved in.”
“You see that one over there? The one who sits in the corner all the time? The one who does not get much attention? The one who has all kinds of scars and wounds that nobody knows about? The one who walks around, and everybody can shake their hand and slap their back and think everything is okay, but inside they are suffering?”
“You need to befriend that one. You need to bring salvation to that one.”
That is a marvelous work. That is kingdom work. This is what we are to be involved in.
When we are invited up into the throne room of God, it is to be involved in the things of God. He wants to take us out of these piddly requests that we make and get us involved in the things important to Him.
He wants the desire of God’s heart to become the desire of my heart. He wants the things pleasing to Him to become the things pleasing to me—the important things in which He wants you and me involved.
Do we understand that? Do we have any inkling of that? That is what God is saying to us. Why are we seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus if it is not for the purpose of God to be fulfilled?
God desires wondrous, monumental things to be involved in our lives, just like I described. This is what God is calling you and me to. This is the life of prayer. This is a life that is a prayer. It is that life of relationship.
Without it, we do not have a life of prayer.
We know His position. The question is: Do we really know our position? A brother I met many years ago had a little one-liner. You would ask him, “How are you doing?” and he would say, “I am looking down.”
At first, I thought, “Oh, what a shame.” But he said, “No, no, I am looking down from heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” I said, “Okay, I got it now.” I hope that was the truth in his life, but that is what he used to say.
The Lord wants that to be the case for us: that we would look down from an ascended place; that we would understand who we are in Christ; that we would pray from that ascended position; that we would be able to take authority and stand in the midst of conflict with assurance that the outcome will be good.
We can see the outcome. When it says of our Lord that He knows the end from the beginning, He wants to do something of that in your life and mine. It only happens in a life that is a prayer.
He brings us into situations, whatever they may be—difficult times, times that look so dark—but in the midst of it, He shows you the end. It is an end that comes by faith. It is an end that comes because we have hope in Him and in His ability.
He gives us a glimpse of the end, and that glimpse brings hope into us. We are then able to pray from this ascended place and say, “Yes, Lord, I am with You on this. I do not see it right now. I have been praying for months, and I do not see this thing. But I have hope because You have shown me something of the end product of what You are going to do, though I do not see the evidence of it now.”
That is what God wants to do in each of our lives, so that we can pray from this ascended place, this place of authority. When we pray, we can say, “Amen, and thank You, Lord.” That is the life of prayer.
Prayer is not so much a thing you do, but prayer is the result of a relationship.
The Lord willing, I think I will share some more on this next week. Otherwise, we would be having lunch at two o’clock today.
But again, the burden on my heart is that we come into this understanding that God is calling us to prayer. It is more than merely allotting Him some time in our week. He is calling us to lives that are a prayer, lives that come out of relationship.
So may the Lord be merciful.
Father, we only need to look at Your Son, meditate upon Him, and see how His life was just that: this wonderful relationship of love and obedience, in which He translated Your will and made it reality.
He could say, “See,” and they saw; “Stand,” and they walked; “Come,” and they were made alive.
I pray that it would be so in each of our lives. We ask this in the precious name of the Lord Jesus, Your Son, our elder Brother. We thank You. Amen.