The Goal of Prayer is NOT Manifestations

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience...For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Rom 8:25; 2 Cor 1:20

P.U.S.H. is a popular bumper sticker slogan among believers.

Pray Until Something Happens can motivate us to a deeper level of prayer but it can also put us into bondage if we are looking at prayer as a formula to get SOMETHING in the physical realm.

God is so ready to answer prayer, but often the answer is not SOMETHING that HAPPENS.

When there is no immediate manifested "answer,"  it is easy to become snared in one of two traps. On one side, one can get caught up in a kind of hyper-faith, trying to force God's hand with souped up prayers or scriptural confessions.

The other mistake is to resign that God must be saying "no."

I'm not saying that God can never say no, but don't assume that because you didn't get the job, or the healing, etc. that the answer was no. Did you actually hear Him say "No"? No.

Getting things from God is not the goal. Not getting a request is not automatically a cue to "pray harder," nor is it the equivalent of a "no." People sometimes get annoyed with me because I am slow to respond when asked a question, but I am honestly considering the request, so that my yes can be yes, etc. It would be offensive to me if someone equated a slow response with a "no, " or if they kept babbling in my face.

Not that God needs time to weigh it, but remember that we are developing our relationship with Him, learning to discern His voice. The Holy Spirit so often needs to equip me with more information so that my prayers can become more precise. 

Most of the time, the "answer to prayer" is direction on exactly HOW to pray. 

Jesus experienced immediate manifestations (SOMETHING HAPPENED) when He prayed because He always only prayed exactly how the Father told Him to pray.

Often, my prayer is the first line in a dialogue between God and me. Jesus might respond with a question for me. Sometimes, the Father will remind me of something He has already said to me, a verse on which I've been meditating. He may gently point out an area of disobedience, or an area in which I've been slow to act. He sometimes takes me to a particular verse that I've read before but never understood the application in the current context. 

God speaks so many times in pictures or parables from everyday life to draw my attention in a particular direction.

Don't let prayer become a way to manipulate things. The goal of prayer is not manifestation. It is first a door into the presence of God through our fellowship with the beautiful, wise, all-powerful, loving Person of Jesus Christ our Savior!

Watch For One Hour

Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Matthew 26:40

It is my contention that if we are not spending an hour with the Lord every day, we will waste that hour doing other things. To think about spending an hour in prayer seems daunting if we try to do it as a religious obligation. But the Lord did not sa y"Pray one hour," he said, "Watch with Me."

Watching involves standing guard, being alert., staying focused When I was standing watch in the middle of the night as a sailor, it got a little difficult sometimes.

But Jesus does not command us to watch alone. He says, “Stay here and watch with me (Matt 26.38).” Being with Him makes all the difference.

Now we are not just babbling for one hour, nor are we praying silently, nodding off to sleep! We are enjoying the fellowship of Jesus. That means we are talking and He is listening, and He is talking and we are listening. Often, He is the one praying and we are agreeing, and adding our emphatic witness.

We follow His lead, because the impeccable timing and perfect precision of His prayers are most effective. I will watch what He is doing as the Great High Priest and Lead Intercessor (Rom 8:34; Heb 4:14, 7:24-25)

There are prayers of declarations and proclamations to be said today. There are supplications to be made. There is much intercession to be done for those in my circle, those close to me and those who I will never meet. I will let Jesus direct the prayer. There may be days when I spend the entire hour in worship.

We might sing a song; “I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding…(1 Cor 14.15).”

I will bring my Bible into the secret place. I will bring my journal. Some days I pray more; some days I read more; some days I write, but I always “watch” for one hour, lest I fritter away my divine appointment and miss an opportunity to save the day. “Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation (Matt 26.41).” “… redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Eph 5.16).”

Like Shammah, David’s mighty man, I station myself in the center of my lentil field ( my assigned area) with Jesus and our partnership creates a Presence that truly frustrates those satanic forces that are assigned to destroy me and my associates.

Today, may our priorities align with the burden of our Savior’s heart. His great love for us all compelled Him to literally laid down His life. In light of this, His request for each of us to yield one hour of our busy lives to watch with Him does not not seem burdensome.

Question: What adjustments do I need to make in my daily schedule to spend a quality hour watching with Jesus?

Fun with Pronouns

 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.   For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Mark 11:22-23.

Reading the Bible with RC glasses removes all the power from the Scriptures. Our religiously correct friends see that Jesus here is demonstrating to His disciples that He is the Son of God in a show of great power. It is obvious that Jesus is the Son of God when He performs such miracles, but He undoubtedly is trying to jar our thinking so we will release our pitiful limitations and step into our destiny as the ruling class.

If He only was trying to show that He is the Son of God, He could have responded to Peter's "“Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away” by saying, "Have faith in Me. For assuredly I say to you, if I say to this mountain 'be removed and be cast into the sea', I will have whatever I say." 

If Jesus had said this, we would all be okay with that. These words coming out of anyone else's mouth would sound like an outrageous claim, so arrogant and boastful. But, He actually didn't say that. He looked each of them in the eyes and said, paraphrased, "SURELY, if you have faith in God, any of you who says to this mountain, 'Be removed and cast into the sea....'

Now if I accept what Jesus says at face value and refuse to fall into the ranks of unbelieving RCs, I risk persecution. I will undoubtedly sound prideful and arrogant, almost blasphemous. If I am not used to talking this way, then it will even make me uncomfortable hearing the words come out of my mouth.

But all I'm doing is changing a few pronouns to make what Jesus said about me a personal confession, which is the logical application of this lesson.

Once you have done it a few times, it doesn't sound unnatural anymore. It actually builds your faith and causes the Spiritual Man in you to rise up!

Go ahead and try it. Say it over and over until faith comes! Say, "I have faith in God. Assuredly, Jesus said to me, if I say to this (any) mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and do not doubt in my heart, but believe that those things I say will be done, I will have whatever I say!"