Building a Culture of Prayer Part 4

Here's where building a culture of prayer gets sticky. Controversial. Theological break down.

We can all agree on the power, purpose and need of prayer. It is a cornerstone of our faith.

Maintaining consistent prayer is difficult. Why? Because it's a labor. Jesus said in Matthew 11:12, "The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force."

What kind of violence is the peaceful Jesus advocating? Violence against our flesh. Violence against sin, lies and deception of the enemy. Violence against those who lead us astray.

Prayer and fasting are God's violent measures against the way and will of the world.

And we must be violent about taking our time, thoughts, emotions and will captive to prayer and fasting. To the truth of the Word.

Even so, why? How can a church or city maintain a culture of prayer? Vision. We must have a vision of why and how and for what we are praying day in and day out without seeing results or answers.

The vision comes from two paradigms. The love of Jesus for the church and individual believer as detailed in Song of Solomon. And a correct End of the Age view. Understanding Revelation and the 150 chapters in the Word that talk about Jesus return to the earth for His Bride.

See, I told you it was touchy. You cannot maintain a culture of prayer if you do not know, understand and somewhere along the line encounter the love of Jesus. The kind He talks about in Song of Solomon 4:9. If hearing "you're His favorite one" makes you uncomfortable, then you're falling short of His love and His favor and your place before Him.

How intimate and close can we be with someone we believes looks at us with sadness, disgust or anger? He's not the mad, sad God waiting to punish you. Yet so many of us carry that view. Hard to pray to a God like that.

And how can we maintain a prayer culture if we believe we have no purpose and plan to partner with Jesus for His triumphant return to earth? We do. We are not "out of here" before it all goes down. You have to read all the 150 end time chapters to get some kind of picture.

Yes, Jesus said "we can't know the day or the hour" but we CAN know the season. Too many of us cling to that one verse about "not knowing" and burying our head in the sand. There are also plenty of verses where Jesus admonishes us to be like the sons of Issachar and recognize the times and seasons.

Here's one. Matthew 24 Jesus is telling us how to recognize the end of the age. "Wars and rumors of war. Earthquakes." We've had what, seven or eight earthquakes and a major volcanic eruption this year? Wars and rumors of war. Yep.

We are called to partner with Jesus for His kingdom to come on earth at it is in heaven. Beloved, He's coming here. We're not going "there." He's coming to establish His kingdom. The one He bought and paid for on the Cross.

He's only coming "a second time" once. And that's to judge the quick and the dead, to judge the nations and their kings.

If you think Christianity isn't about politics, read Isaiah. Jesus is King! That's political.

Revelation 22:17 says, "The Spirit and the Bride say come, Lord Jesus." That's our job. To pray with the Spirit, "Lord come."

Are are His ground troops, interceding for the earth like Noah, like Moses, like Joseph for God to come and be with us in our darkest hour.

The end of the age will be brutal and dark.God's people praying, having a culture of prayer, rooted and ground in that amazing love we read about in Song of Solomon, will keep the earth from imploding until He comes at the prescribed time.

Ephesians 3 tells us to pray to be in the love of Jesus which "surpasses" knowledge.

Knowing who you are and where you're going is key to life. It is double key to maintaining and fueling a culture of prayer both in our hearts and in our churches.

Do some reading and researching, studying, get a good study on Song of Solomon and the end times. I recommend resources from IHOP-KC.

Check out what we're doing in my community at MyHOP.

Be blessed!

And it's raining on Sunday

My dog hates storms, rolling thunder, cracks of lightning. Theses phenomenons are the unknown to her. She lifts her head, perks her ears and trembles. Then she sits as close to me as possible.

While natural storms don't frightening, political and economic ones put me in the frame of mind as my mini Schnauzer. I lift my head, perk my ears, tremble a bit inside. What's going on? Where's it coming from, where's it going? How bad will it get? Who can stop it?

And like my dog, I must move as close to my Master as I can. I'm sure He reaches down to stroke my head like I do hers, reassuring her everything is going to be all right. I'm sure He speaks peace to my heart and mind like I do to hers. I'm sure He's praying for me like I pray for her.

But unlike my dog, I know I will endure hard times. The Bible guarantees us of it. Our home church as been studying Revelation and End Times to prepare our hearts for both the good and the bad ahead.

Did you know there are over a hundred chapters in the Bible dealing with the End of the Age. That's more than the entire New Testament.

We can't ignore what God is doing in the earth. The days of "it'll all pan out" are fading away. The mind set of "Well, I don't know but I'm trusting God," is foolishness. We can know, we should know, we must know. (No, not the day and hour, but the times and seasons!)

Understanding what is to come changes the way I live my life now. Beyond the signs of tribulation, beyond the horrors of an anti-Christ government, it's amazing to understand how God will care for His people. He'll pour out His Glory. Even more, how we live NOW ushers us into our millennial kingdom "reign."

This life is an internship to the next. Let's live well. Humbly with forgiveness in our hearts, esteeming others higher than ourselves. Our reward, our beauty, our fame will come. Better in the next life when Jesus reigns on the earth than now.

Pray. Seek wisdom. Run with endurance.

Every Nation Under Heaven?

Tony and I were talking today about some interesting Bible verses.

Here's one that nabbed my attention a while ago:

Acts 2: 5 "Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven."

What do you make of the statement, "devout men from every nation under heaven?"

Gives me the impression there were Jews in every nation and on this day, they were in Jerusalem.

Um...

Then Tony read this to me this morinng:

Colossians 1: 23 "if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister."

Paul is saying the Gospel WAS proclaimed in a creation. The New King James says "to every creature."

Fascinating, uh? We don't proclaim to have answers to this, but it draws us deeper to ask God, what is it you are wanting from us 2000 years since Acts and Colossians were written?

If the Gospel was preached, then why didn't Jesus return?

Maybe it's about something even greater, something deeper, maybe about establishing God's Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

I don't know. Do we continue to preach the Gospel? Absolutely! But is also about raising the dead, seeing blind eyes open, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, and demons fleeing?

Yeah, I think so. Am I walking in those things? Sadly, no, though I pray for healing and freedom.

Paul writes in Ephesians 1 that God has a plan. He has kind intentions with a view to administration. Here, read this:

verse 9 "... according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him."

verse 10 "...with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth."

There is a fullness of time coming. He's in complete control. Not like a control freak, but like one who knows what He's doing. "Got it under control."

I can't wait to see what He has planned for us. Though, the End of the Age may not be a fun ride . . . the Glory to be revealed will blow us away.

Look, we're not leaving earth, (sorry Left Behind books) He's coming! To establish His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Be ready. Watchful and waiting. Be in prayer. We don't want to be offended when God draws in the prodigals or judgement comes. Some judgements are good, now. Like healing is the judgement against sickness. Right? V. cool.

Righteousness is the judgement against lawlessness and sin.

Be advised, He will judge the earth. Scriputre is clear. Rain will fall on the just and the unjust alike.

But we know Him. We are safe with Him. We will reign with Him. Don't grow weary.