Sometimes prayer is used as a last resort, as a spare wheel, but it’s meant to be the steering wheel. God’s Word is ours to be wielded in prayer. How do we live a life of prayer, seeking God earnestly, patiently, and faithfully? In this series, Joel Virgo reflects on Nehemiah and the utmost importance of prayer.

Posts in this series:

1. Prevailing Prayer
2. Prayer Is the Priority
3. Prayer Is Rigorous
4. Pray With Knowledge
5. Pray With Perspective
6. Aggressive and Progressive Faith

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Matthew 10:27—"What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops."

We must not run till we are prepared. This verse describes, and by implication promises, the needful preparation of heart. Our Lord will speak in our ear: he will commune with us in solitude.

Prepare to proclaim Jesus' message

What Jesus has told us alone in the dark we are to tell out openly in the light.

Courting publicity, we are to preach "on the housetops."

What is this message which we have heard whispered?

We bear our willing witness that:

1. There is peace in the blood of Jesus.
2. There is sanctifying power in his Holy Spirit.
3. There is rest in faith in our Lord and God.
4. There is safety in conformity to our great Exemplar.
5. There is joy in nearness to Jesus our Lord.

As we hear more we will tell more.

Oh, that men would receive our earnest testimony!

Will not you receive it, who hear us at this present hour?

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

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Matthew 10:27—"What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops."

We must not run till we are prepared. This verse describes, and by implication promises, the needful preparation of heart. Our Lord will speak in our ear: he will commune with us in solitude.

Prepare by spending time with Jesus

We do not rightly perceive what we have to make known till Jesus personally imparts his holy teaching to our inmost hearts.

We see by reason of personal contact with our Lord:

1. Truth in its personality; living, acting, feeling; for he is "the way, the truth, and the life." Truth is no theory or phantom in Christ. Substantial truth is spoken by him.
2. Truth in its purity is found in him, in his written teaching, and in that which he speaks to the heart. Truth from man is mixed and adulterated; from Jesus it is unalloyed.
3. Truth in its proportions; he teaches all truth, in its true relations. Christ is no caricaturist, partisan, or politician.
4. Truth in its power. It comes strikingly, persuasively, convincingly, omnipotently from him. It quickens, and sustains.
5. Truth in its spirit. His words are spirit, life, love.
6. Truth in its certainty. "Truly truly," is his motto.
7. Truth in its joyfulness. He speaks delight unto the soul. The truth in Jesus is glad tidings.

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Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

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Matthew 10:27—"What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops."

Usefulness is the great desire of our souls if we are disciples of Jesus. We believe that it will most surely be attained by our making known the gospel. We have full faith in "the foolishness of preaching."

We feel that we have need to receive that gospel personally from the Lord himself, or we shall not know it so as to use it correctly.

We must not run till we are prepared. This verse describes, and by implication promises, the needful preparation of heart. Our Lord will speak in our ear: he will commune with us in solitude.

Time alone with God is an honor

The disciple is associated very nearly with his Lord, and received into closest fellowship with him.

We see before us three important matters:

1. We are permitted to realize our Lord's presence with us personally.

He is still on speaking terms with us: still is he our Companion in the night, our Friend in solitude.

2. We are enabled to feel his word as spoken to us.

Immediately: "I tell you." Personal contact.
Forcefully: "in the ear." Not as thundered from Sinai, but as whispered by "a still, small voice." Still, very effectually.

3. We are privileged to receive such communications again and again: "I tell you . . . you hear."
• We need precept upon precept, line upon line.
• Our Lord is willing to manifest himself to his own day by day.
• We shall be wise to make occasions for hearing his voice in solitude, meditation, prayer, communion, etc.
• We shall do well to use occasions of the Lord's own making, such as the Sabbath, sickness, the night-watches, etc.
• We need for a thousand reasons this private tuition, this personal communication with our Commander-in-chief.

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

This is a series on 11 Leadership Lessons from 12 Disciples, based on the recent sermon Jesus Calls the Twelve, on Luke 6:12-16.

Lesson #1: Pray humbly then proceed boldly

Before choosing the twelve, what does Jesus do? Luke 6 tells us, he spent a whole night in prayer (Luke 6:12). Silence and solitude: today this would be shut off the phone, shut down the computer, stop Twittering, Facebooking, blogging. Shut it all down. Don't ask everybody, "What do you think I should do?" Don't post it on your wall, "Everybody, give me your advice."

Just shut it all down, go get with God, silence and solitude. Bring a pen, paper, a Bible, get some time with God, and talk to him. "All right, Lord, I've got an important decision to make. I'm here humbly requesting you help me. Speak to me through Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, conscience. Help me know what to do." This is exceedingly important, because we live in a world where hurry, worry, and busy dominate. No time for solitude, no time for silence. And so rather than going to God, we sometimes even go to technology to ask everybody else, "What should I do? Give me advice. Give me feedback." And that's not always evil or bad, but Jesus' example is: start with prayer. Life, ministry, and major decisions have to be bathed and birthed in prayer. That's the way it works.

And it says previously in Luke that Jesus has done this before, so this is a fairly common occurrence for him. He's got to choose twelve apostles, that's a big deal, so he's going to spend a whole night in prayer, looking across all those who are following him, and coming to hear him preach and teach. "Father, what about this one? What about that guy? What about this person? What about that one? Judas, you sure? We need to talk about that guy, not so sure I want him on the team."

So when you declare, "I'm going to be a member of this church. I want to serve in this ministry, paid or unpaid. I want to marry this person. I want go want to this college. I want to get this degree. I want to do this career. I want to live in this house. I want to take on this responsibility. We're going to birth these children." Before you make those big decisions, "We're going to deploy these leaders," pray, because what happens is most people pray after they've made the decision. Like, "Oh no, Lord, help, fix it. Whoops." God is a gracious God, and he can and does often show up and help, but it's so much better to seek God before making the decision, and the resulting devastation.

Proceed boldly

And once you pray humbly, and you get time with God, okay, "God, this is who I am. This is what you want me to do. This is the decision I need to make," then you could proceed boldly. "No, this is what I need to do. The Bible says, I got time with the Lord, and then I double-checked with spiritual authority and godly people to make sure that I actually heard the Lord, not the voice in my head. And yeah, I have conviction here. I have a sense of calling, and I know what I'm supposed to do, so I'm going to do it."

Those who pray humbly can proceed boldly. Those who do not pray humbly have a hard time proceeding boldly. It gets hard. There's opposition, life, ministry gets difficult. And all of a sudden you're like, "Am I doing the right thing? Should I have even started this? Should I have volunteered for this ministry? Should I be pursuing this life course? I don't know, maybe I made a mistake." Crisis ensues.

Grace and I, before we launched Mars Hill, and before we even announced that we officially would, we felt called to it. God had called us both to it, but we took some time, a week in fasting and prayer just to double-check. "Okay Lord, double-checking, is this it? You want us to start Mars Hill or not? Yes, okay, cool. We're in this together, and we're going to do it." And there's been some hard seasons, tough seasons, but we know this is what God asked us to do. Also, I prayed a lot before I married Grace, and God convicted me, revealed to me, "Yeah, marry that girl." Okay. Every marriage hits hard spots, every life hits hard spots, every career hits hard spots, every ministry, paid or unpaid, hits hard spots, and when you've prayed humbly, you can proceed boldly saying, "I'm going to hang in there, I'm going to keep going because I know this is what I'm supposed to do, and I trust God to get me through it."

To be continued.

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Darrin Patrick is the Vice President of Acts 29 and lead pastor of The Journey. His Re:Lit book, coming in August, is called Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission.

You were made to preach.

But before that, before preparation and delivery, you were made to relate to God.

You don't have to be a monkish mystic and you don't have to be a stodgy scholar. You can be one who experiences God in his heart and loves God with his mind.

Make Your Soul Happy in the Lord

I have always struggled with prayer as a Christian. I was sharing my frustration one day with my seminary professor and spiritual disciplines guru Don Whitney. Dr. Whitney shared with me a quote for George Müller, a godly giant of the faith who also struggled with prayer. This is from an entry in George Müller's diary, dated May 7, 1841.

I saw more clearly than ever that the first great primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord . . . not how much I might serve the Lord, . . . but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers . . . and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been . . . to give myself to prayer after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.

Whitney pointed out that Müller excelled in prayer only after he meditated on Scripture, that “getting his soul happy” was accomplished through meditation, which enabled communion with God through prayer. I became utterly convinced of this method and have sought to practice it ever since.

What Does It Mean to Meditate on Scripture?

The Greek word for meditate means “to attend.” To meditate is to read with attention to what the verse is saying and then seeking to understand the verse its context. The Hebrew words for meditate are hagah, which means to ponder or imagine (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2), and siyach, which means to converse with oneself, to pray (Psalm 119:15).

So meditation is when we pay attention to God’s Word, understanding it in relation to its context. It involves pondering God’s Word, asking questions about the application of its truth, speaking that truth to oneself, and using God’s Word in prayer to God himself. Below is a sample meditation following these guidelines.

Sample meditation

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

• What does it mean that God is my Lord? What is he Lord of?
• What does he want to shepherd me through right now?
• What is my want?
• God, in what ways are you providing for me that I am not even aware of?

“It is in meditation that the heart holds and appropriates the Word. . . . The intellect gathers and prepares the food upon which we are to feed. In meditation the heart takes it in and feeds on it” (Andrew Murray).

Meditation is not just praying, nor is it merely reading Scripture. Meditation is prayerfully reading Scripture, taking God’s Word and turning it into a prayer to God.

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Arguing and Inquiring are OK

One of the things we notice in the Bible, perhaps to our surprise, is that God doesn’t mind us arguing with him. In fact, he seems to welcome it if we do it humbly and on the basis of his revelation. God’s Word is ours to be wielded in prayer. This should be a further incentive to read, memorise, meditate upon, and study Scripture. Ransack the Bible for promises and take them to him in prayer. He invites us to do so.

Besides this, there may be things that God has spoken prophetically about your life, the church, your family, and the city. Such things are not simply to occupy journals from yesteryear. Don’t treat them like museum spectacles behind glass. Seek God with them. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” God does not reward passive fatalism, but aggressive faith. If this seems an overstatement, you need to read the Gospels again. Not to mention the prayers of Moses, Samuel, Elijah, and the apostles in Acts.

Strategic Petition

Nehemiah does not waste time being ‘spiritual.’ He expects things to get done. We need to be persuaded of this principle since there is no end of nonsense talked, and written, by people who seem to see prayer as an exercise in piety. This can especially be so when prayer is discussed in a purely devotional context.

“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man” (Neh. 1:11).

There is a scatter-gun approach to praying which betrays a lack of any expectation. We talk but we give the impression that God is probably not listening and definitely not very interested. Such praying is close to what Jesus describes in Matthew 6:7, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” It’s clear that certain praying gets nowhere near the ears of God since it is a mere religious exercise and is offered up to no one in particular.

Faith Grows With Exercise

Besides mere piety, the other thing Nehemiah avoids in his prayer found in Nehemiah 1 is vain unreality. It seems that true faith grows as it is exercised, like a muscle. We learn to ask for things from God as we learn his ways and get to know him. This is described in John 15, but also illustrated in Genesis 18 when Abraham’s prayers for Sodom and Gomorrah become progressively bolder. Additionally, P. T. Forsyth says, “Lose the importunity of prayer . . . lose the real conflict of will and will, lose the habit of wrestling and the hope of prevailing with God, make it mere walking with God in friendly talk; and precious as that is, yet you tend to lose the reality of prayer at last.”

Modest Prayers

Some will be dissatisfied with modest praying that is based on genuine faith and instead offer grand requests based on phony ‘faith.’ God calls us to consistent partnership with himself, so it is more likely that we will be called upon to pray for incremental, but consistent, growth in kingdom advance rather than the entire salvation of the city by this afternoon. The striking thing here is that Nehemiah does offer up prayer for 5 months, but the only request we know he makes is this one: “Lord give me favour with the King.” Nehemiah, where’s your faith!? Ask God for more! But Nehemiah is wiser. He knows he has a life calling. He is going to have to pray every victory in at a time. Each one is still a miracle.

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“And I said, ‘O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments…’” (Nehemiah 1:5).

Get Your Eyes Off Yourself

Some teaching on prayer suggests that we begin by confession of our sins to get it all out of the way. It is striking that Jesus’ teaching on prayer does the reverse: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matt. 6:9). He gets to confession of sin pretty late in the prayer. He would be frowned upon by some, but Jesus is right (oddly).

Jesus knows our frame. He knows we generally don’t need to see our sin as the first item on the agenda at every meeting with God. Better in fact to get our eyes altogether off of ourselves. That way we gain perspective and hope. D. Kidner says, “There is more than [flowery language] in this… opening. It deliberately postpones the cry for help, which could otherwise be faithless and self-pitying. It mounts immediately to heaven, where the perspective will be right, and it reflects on the character of God—not only for its loyalty and love, but first of all for the majesty which puts man, whether friend or foe, in his place.”

The great prayers of Scripture resound with this heavenly perspective. I love the way Peter and John (with their backs bleeding and the threat of execution over their heads) pray with the others, saying “Sovereign God… Now Lord…” (Acts 4). Start with God and his mission. Look to him. That way you get know him better too, and “the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action” (Dan. 11:32). Practically this means we shouldn’t complain too much if prayer meetings are occasionally overrun with worship! It also means that, like Nehemiah, we should plead our relationship.

Pray According To Scripture

Nehemiah prays, “Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your dispersed be under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there’” (Neh. 1:8-9). Nehemiah knows his God and knows the story his God is telling. He knows the way it should be going and the plan God has in getting it there. He knows about Israel’s heritage, Israel’s astounding calling, and Zion’s destiny as God’s great city—and this makes him persistent.

To be continued.

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Bible reading and prayer are the two most basic spiritual disciplines of Christian faith. Prayer in the simplest way is talking to God. It is sharing with your loving father your heart, thoughts, emotions, requests, needs, cares, anxieties, worries, praises, thanksgivings, hopes, and desires. The list could go on for days.  God speaks to you through his Word and you speak to him through prayer. 

Here are some simple tips for developing a discipline of prayer:

1. Set up “triggers” in your life.

Take things that you do every day and make them triggers for you to pray. Here are some ideas to help you get started: taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do every day and use them as a trigger to pray.

2. Have a plan.

If you don’t have a plan, you can easily become a random prayer. Whatever comes to your head at the time is what you will pray for. You will constantly be praying for the same things over and over. This isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot more things/people in your life that you could be praying for.  So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.

3. Talk to God.

This might sound dumb to some, but for others this will be an epiphany. I don’t know if you have noticed this or not, but some people like to use what could be called “prayer talk.”  This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of a TV evangelist and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the person’s favorite) in a prayer.  

It comes as a surprise to most that you can actually just talk to God. You don’t have to use his name as the punctuation to every sentence. You don’t have to speak in old English. You can just talk to him. Just like you talk to your friends about your troubles and your successes, you can talk to him. You can tell him your struggles and failures. You can tell him jokes. You can even be angry and cry out to him (read a few Psalms and you’ll get the idea). Prayer is you simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.

4. Write it down.

When you develop a habit of constantly praying, it becomes easy to forget what you’ve prayed about.  Therefore, you can lose track of whether or not God has answered your prayers. This is so you can look back and see how God has answered your prayers over time.  Keep it simple though.  Don’t set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days you will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, “God help me.” The idea is to simply write it out.

5. Keep it simple.

During the time of Jesus, Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine, and even going to the bathroom (see Marvin R. Wilson’s book). The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don’t have to be five minutes long for God to hear us. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn’t keeping a tally on how much you pray. He just wants to hear from you.

6. Keep it sweet.

Remember whom you are talking to. While God is the king of the universe, he is also the lover of your soul. One of the reasons that David was a man after God’s own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. The worst prayer isn’t a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren’t praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying?  The reality is that this is the core of all prayer—to seek the face of God and to seek after his heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.

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"Some have exalted religious fasting beyond all Scripture and reason; and others have utterly disregarded it." John Wesley

What Jesus Said About Fasting

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught a lesson about how and how not to fast:

"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matthew 6:16-18).

We see that it is important to not brag or boast to others about fasting. The Jews of Jesus' day used fasting and giving to make everyone think that they were more spiritual than others. But Jesus tells us that fasting should be done in secret, so that it can't be used as a way of bringing glory to ourselves. Fasting should make us humble instead of proud. In the end, it is not our works but our hearts that matter to God. God promises to reward openly those who fast and pray in secret.

6 Practical Steps for Fasting

There are several useful steps that you should follow before you begin fasting.

1. Decide which fast is best for you. Due to health reasons, not everyone can do a total fast. Also, sometimes work schedules and other duties may prevent an individual from a certain type of fast. You may want to begin with a partial fast and work your way to a total fast. Ultimately, you should pray and ask God what his will would be for your fast.
2. Decide how long you want to fast. People in the Bible often chose to fast for a certain time period. To prepare their hearts for the seasons, the early church would fast for a number of days before Christmas or Easter. John Wesley chose Friday as a day of the week to fast. This was a day that he set aside for fasting and prayer to the Lord.
3. Consult a physician before you go on an extended fast. If you have any physical problems, then you will certainly want to follow this advice. Fasting can be healthy to the body when it is done right, but it can also be dangerous if you don't exercise wisdom.
4. Make sure that you have time to pray. Although some people fast for health reasons, it will not do you any spiritual good if don't allow yourself time to pray. Be sure to get the most out of your fast and spend plenty of time in prayer. Consider setting aside a few days for a retreat to do so. When was the last time you can remember spending an entire day with the Lord?
5. Slowly introduce soft food when your fast is over. If you have been on an extended fast from solid foods, it is a good idea to slowly reintroduce your system to solid food again. For instance, you may want to eat soup or salad for your first meal. Bananas or other soft fruit are also a great way to break a long fast.
6. Just do it! Many people never fast because they are afraid to or because they have never done it before. Don't let fear or inexperience stop you from experiencing one of God's greatest blessings. Possibly all the great heroes of the faith spent hours fasting and praying to the Lord.

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