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Archive for the ‘General Discipleship’ Category

Billy Graham’s Thoughts on Prayer and Worship

Posted in Devotional Prayer, General Discipleship, quotes, tagged , , , on January 16, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Ever since I became a Christian in 1990 I have been a huge admirer of Billy Graham. I would record his crusades on TV and eventually developed quite a collection of broadcasts. (a number of them are actually on Beta tapes rather than VHS, so that tells you something!)

In 1997, the year I got married, I read Billy Graham’s amazing autobiography, Just As I Am. I still consider it one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read.

As age has caught up with him, Billy has made very few public appearances in recent years. A couple of months ago however, he granted an interview on Fox News. At age 92 you can see why he has made very few public events, however he is still very much of sound mind and thought. (you can watch part of the actual interview here)

One of the questions that he was asked was “If you could do it all over again, would you do anything differently?”

Billy’s response was remarkable:

I would study more, pray more, travel less, take less speaking engagements. If I had it to do over again, I’d spend more time in meditation and prayer and telling the Lord how much I love him and adore him and looking forward to the time we are going to spend together for eternity.  -Billy Graham

There simply has never been another person who has proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people around the world than Billy Graham. A strong case could be made that more people have come to faith in Christ through Billy Graham’s ministry than any other human being in history. And yet, in the final years of his life, as he reflects back, he wishes that he had spent more time in prayer and worship.

The significance of this statement simply cannot be overstated. Our time in this life is a non-renewable resource. Once it is gone, we can never get it back. Money is renewable; friendships and relationships are renewable. Time is not. King David had a revelation of this vital fact:

Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.  -Ps. 39:4

Many people in the Body of Christ place their primary emphasis on doing things for God, to minister and advance the Kingdom of God. I think we need to give serious consideration and reflection to what Billy Graham is saying: the longing of his heart, as he moves through his final years of this life, is to spend time in ‘meditation and prayer and telling the Lord how much I love him and adore him…”. His desire is that he had a life that was spent that was filled with extended times of prayer and worship!

Take a few moments and give that some thought and let it sink in.

In my next post I am going to spend more time talking about this topic and the implications for us today, so stay tuned!

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Growing in Intimacy with God

Posted in Devotional Prayer, General Discipleship, tagged , , , , , on January 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

In my last post I wrote that growing in the knowledge of God ought to be a top priority for us in 2011. One of the critical reasons why this is true is that our knowledge of God is dynamically connected to our intimacy with God. The subject of intimacy with God is often confused in the minds of many Christians; for others it is an issue that makes them nervous and uncomfortable.

I have come to greatly appreciate the following definition:

When speaking of intimacy with God we are simply speaking of a close personal relationship that results from knowledge and is fueled by love.  -Matt Candler

One of the central ways that we grow in intimacy with God is through growing in the knowledge of who God is and what he is like. Despite the lyrics of the famous song ‘Hello, I Love You’ by the Doors, we do not instantly fall in love with somebody, nor do we instantly experience genuine intimacy with people. Instead, we grow in our affection and intimacy as we grow in knowing who a person is and what they are like.

Too often Christians think about intimacy with God solely in emotional terms. They want to experience greater, more intense emotions of love and affection towards God, however they do not realize that the primary pathway to that experience is through increasingly knowing more about who God is. This is different from knowledge about the history of things that God has done. It can include knowledge of what God has done, but it must be more than simply a mental checklist of historical trivia. We need to approach our knowledge in a relational manner, meaning that we are doing it in dialogue with a person Jesus Christ. The cornerstone of Christianity is that we can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That relationship with Jesus must be central to our knowledge about God.

So why is the knowledge of God so important to intimacy? The answer is that everything about God is absolute perfection. I like to speak about God as ‘the God of infinite perfection’. Every attribute and character, every dimension and activity of God is utterly perfect and glorious. As we encounter his attributes and the dimensions of who he is, we simply cannot help but be moved to love.

The greatest source of the knowledge of God is found in the Scriptures. God has chosen to reveal his character and glory through the pages of the Scripture. While it is not the only way God speaks, he has made it to be the plumb-line of truth about who God is.

As we launch forward into 2011, I challenge you to consider the glorious ocean of the knowledge of God that is found in the pages of the Bible. I challenge you to recognize that you can grow in the knowledge of God and it will have dynamic impact on the level of intimacy with God that you experience in your life!

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Priority 1: The Knowledge of God

Posted in Devotional Prayer, General Discipleship, tagged , , , , , on January 1, 2011 | 3 Comments »

At the beginning of every year it is very natural for us to look back at what happened in the previous year and look ahead and think about what we would like to do in the upcoming year. Whether we call them ‘goals’ or ‘resolutions’ or something different, we have been designed to want to improve and grow as human beings.

When it comes to the area of our spiritual lives and specifically the area of prayer (or our ‘devotional life’) there is no shortage of reading plans, devotional aids and other things to assist us in our new goals and aspirations. As we begin 2001 what is stirring in me is not so much an approach as much as a topic. That topic is the knowledge of what God is like.

I believe that the area of growing in the our understanding of who God is and what God is like must be at the top of our priority list for 2011 (and every year for that matter!). Here’s a look at why I believe this:

This topic was a major priority of Jesus. A quick look at Jesus’ prayer in John 17 makes this very clear:

Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you , and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. (Jn. 17:25-26)

Jesus chose to sum up his prayer by stating that our great need is have God revealed to our spirit. Not only in an introductory way when we first come to faith in Christ, but rather an ongoing revelation of the infinite, glorious God of the universe.

The apostle Paul grasped this when he prayed:

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that they eyes of your heart may be enlightened…  (Eph. 1:17-18)

Here’s my point: our great need is to feed ourselves on, and drink deeply of the ocean of the knowledge of God. To live overwhelmed at who God is.

Let me ask you a question: why did Paul describe God as ‘the glorious Father’? Is that how we think of God? Is there a stirring in our spirit that moves us to worship and pursue the infinite, eternal God of all creation who is glorious and beautiful and full of wonder and splendor? The only way that we will be stirred as the apostle Paul was stirred is to have our hearts touched by what Paul called the ‘spirit of wisdom and revelation’ concerning what God is really and truly like.

This was the main priority of Jesus in his earthly ministry and he promised that he will continue forever to reveal God the Father to us. This was the main priority of Paul in his apostolic ministry. This must be our main priority as we move forward in prayer in 2011.

The greatest think that can be said of Jesus’ knowledge is that he knows God perfectly. No one but Jesus knows the Father immediately, completely, and perfectly. Our knowledge of the Father depends wholly on Jesus’ gracious revelation.  – John Piper

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Growing in the Attitude of Christ

Posted in Devotional Prayer, General Discipleship on June 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

This past week I have been spending quite a bit of time focusing on Philippians 2:5-13. This is a well known passage in which Paul exhorts us to have the same attitude as Jesus Christ. It then describes some of the major pillars of that attitude, such as humility, obedience, and a servant heart.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:                                                                                                                                     Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

These verses have become so familiar to most Christians that that staggering impact of what Paul is saying can often be lost on us.

To have the same attitude as Jesus Christ? Talk about a lofty goal! When you slow down to look at each phrase of this passage the full weight of the words and the height of the glory of who Christ is becomes more clear. What also becomes clear is the critical role of prayer in order to grow in the same attitude of Jesus Christ.

I have been taking the different words and phrases that describe the attitude of Christ and praying over them, asking God to grow and develop these aspects of the glory of Christ’s attitude in my attitude.

The other aspect of this passage that has really encouraged me has been verse 13: “for it is God who works in your to will and to act according to his good purpose.” This is another familiar passage that we apply in many circumstances, however Paul is writing it in the context of growing in the attitude of Christ. Paul understood how massive a concept he was unfolding in telling the believers to have the same attitude as the eternal, perfect, sinless Son of God, Christ Jesus. He grasped the challenge of growing in this attitude and becoming conformed to it.

He reminds us that it is God who works in us! It takes the work of God the Holy Spirit to work in us to accomplish this stunning work in our hearts. We have not been left to figure it out on our own. There is a promise of God’s enabling power (what the Bible calls grace) to see this transformation of our fallen attitudes become reality. There is the promise that it is God’s idea (his ‘good purpose’) that weak, fallen human beings like us who have said yes to Jesus Christ, should grow more and more to have the same attitude towards life and daily circumstances as Jesus did.

This has created in me a boldness in prayer and a faith to ask God to fulfill his good purpose in me, that my attitude should be transformed this week increasingly into the attitude of Jesus Christ.

I want to encourage you to look at this passage this week and begin to include these verses into your personal prayer life.

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Daily Prayers to Strengthen the Heart

Posted in Devotional Prayer, General Discipleship, tagged , on April 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Well, it’s been an extremely long time since my last post. I am very sorry about that. I have been rather overwhelmed by a large number of activities lately and thus my writing time has really suffered.

I recently read an article by Justin Rizzo who is a worship leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. He wrote about a series of five short prayers that can aid in our communion with the Lord. I was in the midst of preparing to do some teaching at House of Prayer Edmonton on the topic of growing in intimacy with God and decided to adapt the ’5 prayers’ that Justin wrote about.

So today I want to offer these five short prayers (phrases really) that you can include in your daily life, that will dynamically strengthen your sense of connectedness to God:

‘Thank you God that you are my Father in Heaven’ – We agree and acknowledge God as our Father. We express with our words the desire to be children of God and to receive the love that the Father lavishes on his children (1 Jn. 3:1)

‘I set my mind and my heart toward you Jesus’ - There is power in our choice to set our thoughts and emotions on God (Col. 3:1-2)

‘Thank you that you are with me today Jesus. Help me to know your Presence.’ – Our great need to to become more aware of Jesus’ presence with us. In seeking this we are ‘abiding in the vine’ on a daily basis. (Jn. 15:4-5)

‘Jesus help me know that you love me today’ – Jesus drew strength from hearing of the Father’s love for him. We need to experience and sense the love of God for us on a regular basis.

‘Strengthen me today Holy Spirit’ - We gain strength from God. He supplies it and it comes through spending time with him. (Isa. 40:29-31)

These prayer statements are designed to be included into your regular routines of life. You can pray them in the car, on a walk, at work, mopping the floor or even cleaning the bathroom! The point is to have a practical way to intentionally connect with God while doing normal life.

I would suggest taking at least one of these prayers and choosing to pray it quietly for a minute or two at least twice a day (more if possible). It takes a short amount of time but if you will do it consistently you will be surprised how it will strengthen your heart and make you feel more of the Presence of God in your daily life.

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