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The Resting Place
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The Resting Place
Prayer Is Not About Getting God's Attention, It's About You Becoming Aware of His
What if everything you thought about prayer was backward? What if prayer isn't about getting God's attention, but about waking up to His constant presence?
In this episode of The Resting Place podcast, we uncover the fundamental misconception that creates friction in our prayer lives: the illusion of separation. Many believers approach prayer as if they need to close a gap between themselves and God, when in reality, the revolutionary truth of the gospel is that in Christ, separation has been abolished.
Prayer transforms when we understand we're already seated with Christ in heavenly places. It's not a striving activity but a relational reality—less about getting God's attention and more about awakening our awareness to His never-ending presence. As Jesus taught, we are branches connected to the vine, not disconnected entities trying to establish connection.
Brother Lawrence exemplifies this understanding of prayer as practiced presence. His union with God while performing mundane tasks was so profound that people would make pilgrimages just to watch him wash dishes. His life demonstrates that prayer isn't confined to designated petition times but expands into continual communion that transforms ordinary moments into sacred encounters.
The paradox of prayer is that while it requires our participation, it isn't powered by our performance. We participate in what grace has already made available. This distinction shifts prayer from religious obligation to relational opportunity. We don't pray to earn God's favor; we pray from a position of already having it in Christ.
Are you ready to experience prayer not as another spiritual checkbox, but as the joyful awareness of your unbroken communion with the Father? Join us as we discover how to pray from union rather than separation, and watch as your everyday life becomes infused with divine presence.
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Hi everyone. I'm Ben and I'm Logan and we're the Robins. Welcome to the Resting Place Podcast, coming off of our last gathering where we looked at encouraging ourselves in the Lord and the practical application of encouraging ourselves in the Lord and really the need for the encouragement. So we looked at David's story at Ziklag where he was, his families, his men's families and his family and wives and children and everything they owned were stolen and the city was burned, and we looked at kind of some practical application and some scriptures that would help reinforce the encouragement. I want to look at today and I've wrestled with this a little bit as we've gotten ready for it I want to look at today, we're going to look at first. We're going to look at first, luke 18. We're going to start there and we're going to go into some teaching. But Jesus and I don't even have guys, I have more scriptures than that. So Jesus gives us in John 14, 15, and 16 some instructions on prayer and I would say that these are probably if you want to hear Jesus teaching on prayer, and I would say that these are probably if you want to hear Jesus teaching on prayer. You can obviously look. There are several spaces in the gospels you can look. But he gives us instruction on how prayer ought to work in John 14, 15, 16, and then into 17. So that passage there is kind of all underpinned. There's so many things going on there, but it's Jesus' final address. John 14 through 16 is his final address to his apostles before he goes to the cross. John 17 is his final prayer before his being arrested. And the way that I kind of look at that is the last thing you say to people that you have been teaching is something that you want to stay with them. It's the culmination, really, the sum of your teaching, right, and we're going to look at a few of the things he has to say on prayer in John 14 and then 15 and 16. But first I want to underpin it with a couple of things and I want to look at Luke 18 first, and this really is coming off of encouraging ourselves in the Lord. This is really coming off of that because I believe what this will do is this will under, this will undergird, this will be undergirded by the encouragement, but it's unto unto a purpose. So I'm going to just get started here. So Luke 18, one and we'll go one through six.
Speaker 1:One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show them they should always pray and never give up. There was a judge in a certain city, he said. There was a judge in a certain city, he said, who neither feared God nor cared about people. This is Luke 18, 1 through, and we're going to go 1 through 6. And we're in verse 3 now. There was a judge in a certain city, he said, who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him reportedly saying give me justice in this dispute with my enemy. The judge ignored her for a while, but finally when he said to himself I don't fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I'm going to see that she gets justice, because she will be wearing me out with her constant request. Then the Lord said learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered justice, rendered a just decision in the end.
Speaker 1:So don't you think? So, don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly. But when the Son of man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith? God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night. Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly. But when the Son of man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?
Speaker 1:I love how Jesus underpins his teachings on prayer with faith, but I think the deeper question here is how then should faith operate inside of prayer? Right? The logic of the incarnation is that the Father, son and Spirit wanted to share their life with us. Is that the Father, son and Spirit wanted to share their life with us? So in framing our theology on prayer around union and shared life with the Father, son and Spirit, prayer becomes something much different than something we check off our to-do list or the dead boring dry. I-can't-keep-my-eyes-open. Few minutes we spend talking to God, who is disinterested in our prayers because our scorecard wasn't good enough to catch his attention this week. Framing our theology in prayer around union and shared life with the Father, son and Spirit causes prayer to become something much different than something we check off our to-do list.
Speaker 1:You ought always to pray right. We hear the Apostle Paul teaching, I think when I'm beginning to think about prayer and beginning to, I'm not sure that I've taught on prayer since we started. I'm not sure that I have, and that's probably a failing on my part. It's something I probably should be reinforcing more frequently. But one of the things that we've all been a part of have been the try harder, do more. You're not doing enough. You have to have a good scorecard in order for your prayers to be effective kind of teaching on prayer. And in trying to find a healthy teaching on prayer or a healthy theology on prayer, I've been searching a little bit for the appropriate way to teach that, because there is an inseparable fact that comes along with prayer is you have to do it in order for it to be prayer. You can't separate prayer from praying. That's kind of funny to me, because how do you teach that without teaching that it is your effort that makes prayer effective?
Speaker 1:I would rather call that participation in the divine dance than I would giving effort towards something that I then must work to maintain. There's grace made available to us in the shared dance of perichoresis, with the Father, son and Spirit, who wanted nothing more than to share their life with us. So there's a grace made available for that and all we're doing is participating in the grace made available, as opposed to having to work ourselves into a frenzy where we're frothing at the mouth and screaming at the top of our lungs in prayer, which is the prayer culture that I came up in in the school that I was a part of in Alabama. You were, you were not praying unless you were going horse. I promise. Our prayer meetings were loud. They were frothing at the mouth is a nice way to say that. They were loud and there's a there.
Speaker 1:Listen, there's a place for that sort of prayer. There's a place for that sort of prayer, but there's there's not more of a place for that sort of prayer than there is the quiet contemplative prayer, and I would contest that the quiet contemplative prayer does more for the individual than the screaming prayer does for the individual. I would just contest that there's places for both. Each has their place. Each has their place when you get caught up in intercession sometimes it's good and right to raise the volume of your prayers. It's good and right to raise the volume of your prayers when you get caught up in intercession. However, that does not discount the value of the quiet, contemplative style of prayer that focuses our interior world on Jesus and causes Jesus to be the main point of our meditation. In fact, you can learn to be contemplative while you're going about your day and stay in an attitude of prayer while you're going about your day if you learn to be contemplative.
Speaker 1:Brother Lawrence wrote the Practice of the Presence of God and he wrote that in the 1600s. This man was a monk who worked in the kitchens at his monastery and became so close to God by practicing his presence that people would travel to watch him wash dishes. It's true, people would come out of their way, they'd go on pilgrimage to watch Brother Lawrence of the Ascension wash dishes, because he was so enlightened by his lifestyle of practicing the presence of God that he almost no, not almost became the Lord, glorified that man. He was transfigured. He became a transfigured life inside of his everyday doings. And in doing his everyday doings that man got so close to God that people would stop what they were doing and go travel to watch him do his day. It wasn't like he's not praying, he's not raising the dead, he's not healing the sick, he's not preaching dead. He's not healing the sick, he's not preaching, he's doing dishes, doing dishes, doing everyday tasks, and was so at one, and so in union with the Lord that people came to watch a man do his everyday tasks while remaining in union. So there's a place where you can become I don't even want to say become. I said there's a place available in union and the contemplative life that can transfigure you in the middle of your everyday doings. And it doesn't have to be that you're sharing a message or winning the lost or doing those things. You can maintain close relationship with the Lord through your everyday life. I believe this is the will of God.
Speaker 1:The book of Acts. I once heard someone say you could count about a year between each chapter. So we get the highlights. Not everything was recorded in Acts, but it wasn't. I'll say it this way it wasn't that the apostles were out every day performing these miracles. They weren't out every day. Now they were performing a lot of miracles, but they're not doing it every day. They're eating more meals than they're performing miracles. They're breaking bread with their neighbors more than they're performing miracles. They're sharing fire pits. They're sharing meals. They're sharing fellowship with one another more than they're teaching the gospel.
Speaker 1:Baxter Kruger wrote in one of his books that Jesus shared more meals than he did miracles. He shared more meals than he did miracles, and one was not more supernatural than the other. One was not more supernatural than the other. So what is the correct way? So, when I start to think about prayer, what is the correct way then to think about prayer? Because I think there are a couple of obstacles to entry into a healthy prayer life, and Lou and Lucy, I'm sure, could teach circles around me in this, but I'm going to give it a hack. I'm going to hack at it and see what I can't do here.
Speaker 1:One of the mistakes that we make in beginning to think about prayer and beginning to approach our prayer lives is that we're starting at a distance and trying to bring ourselves close by praying. The idea of separation is, I think, the chief obstacle in our prayer life. I'll steal from Baxter Kruger again, because I'm just going to quote him a lot today, I guess. In his book, his book Patmos, he's framing this story and in this story it's the, the apostle john, speaking to this burnt out preacher and he's teaching him this lesson and he's telling him son, you're going to burn yourself out trying to get somewhere that you're already at. You cannot get somewhere that you're already at. You're there and what you'll do, no matter how hard you try, you can't make yourself get there. You're already there. You have to realize that you're there. You have to be enlightened that's probably the appropriate way to say that. You have to be enlightened to the fact that there's now no longer any separation between you and the Father. There's now no longer any separation between you and the Father. There's now.
Speaker 1:There's not more of a close relationship with God available to Heidi Baker than there is to me. There's not more of a close relationship with God available to Lou or Lucy than there is to me. There's not more of a close relationship available to anyone than another person. And one of the things that we have done incorrectly inside of the American church is that we have created a hierarchical model to propel ministries and to create Christian celebrity and to do those things, and what we have done is put people on a pedestal. They really shouldn't be on, because there's not more available to Benny Hinn than there is to me. There is not more available Now. They may be deeper in the reality of that union, but that doesn't mean that there's more available.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that we, one of the mistakes that we make in approaching our prayer life is that we start by assuming there's a distance or separation between me and the Father, or me and Holy Spirit, or me and Jesus, and that I then must do something in order to draw close to them, for them to hear me and grant my request. There is now, therefore, no separation. There is now, therefore, no separation. Separation has been done away with Willow, separation has been done away with, been put at an end, and all things have been reconciled. We're seated at the right hand of the Father in Christ currently. That's our reality. Currently Seated far above all principality, power, might and dominion. That's our current reality.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that we then must do is begin to think rightly about our position with the Father, or our relationship to the Father. And our relationship to the Father is that he sees us with the same love that he sees with Jesus. He does not see us differently, and I'm going to say something that's controversial but Jesus isn't closer to the father than we are. Jesus isn't closer to the father than we are because we're in him. So, as close as Jesus is to the father, we are to the father. So prayer is not, then, something that I do to get the father's attention or draw myself closer. Prayer is a lifestyle of waking my body and waking my mind and my heart up to the reality that this is where I am, and this is the truth about my relationship to the father. This is where we are. I'm not at a distance, I'm he's as close as my breath. So what that the so? What that then does is that changes the dynamic of prayer to something that causes me to be more aware of him, and less about causing him to become more aware of me.
Speaker 1:I think that might be the hinge point that begins to shift your thoughts on prayer is that prayer is not an exercise that we do to cause the father to be more aware of us. It's an exercise that we bring ourselves into to cause our flesh to become more aware of him. We become more aware of him by practicing his presence and by spending time with him than we do any other way, and prayerlessness will cause us to feed more deeply into the lie of separation, will also cause us to be unaware of the presence of the Father, of the voice of the Father, of the nudging of Holy Spirit and causes us to become I want to say it correctly, I want to say it the right way, but it causes us to become like deaf to his whispers, causes our ears to be deaf. Prayerlessness causes us to feed into the lie of separation, and what it will do is it'll. I think numb is the right word. Prayerlessness causes us to live a lifestyle of being numb to the voice of God and the presence of God.
Speaker 1:I was reading Brother Lawrence on practicing the presence last night. Actually, I was reading it and he said there's a stage in practicing the presence of God where your spirit becomes aware of him and you begin to learn. It teaches us how to remain aware of the presence of Holy Spirit, the things that we feel his presence closely on. That's an activity, okay, that's something that brings joy to his heart, and if we start to do things that cause us to slip away okay, maybe we examine that or maybe we just need to sharpen our awareness we can begin to go through that activity internally, and what that will then do is not force us into more effort. What it does is allow us to. It allows us to come into the knowledge of what pleases him, and there's a challenge in. There's a challenge in this gospel of no more striving right, we're doing away with striving and we're doing away with self-effort and we're doing away with those things, which is good and right and true. However, you still have to do things. There is still very much the reality of there are things that please God and things that don't please God. There are things that grieve him and things that he's pleased with, and we have to begin to be able to talk about those things without the connotation of well, that brother, that's just striving. Well, is it striving? Go ahead, luke. I think that's perfect. It's practice. It's putting into practice and making yourself more aware.
Speaker 1:Paul uses the analogy of training his body like an athlete. He uses that analogy. I believe it's in first Corinthians. He uses that analogy. It's in one of the letters to the Corinthians. He uses that analogy where he says in the in the King James it says I'd buffet my body. That's an old way of saying uh would be like a term for training for an athletic endeavor. So when I played football I would say buffeting my body or beating myself up in training is probably about what we did. There's a lot of really rigorous physical training that goes into that. And Paul's using the analogy as an Olympian training himself for the Olympic Games.
Speaker 1:He says I'm going to train my body to practice the things that I have been teaching so that I'm not disqualified after I have taught the gospel, so that after having taught this gospel, I'm not then disqualified by my own actions. So that's not condemnation, that's not a message of try harder, do more. That's a message of hey, we've got to bring ourselves into the practice of the reality of these things in order that we become people of the Word, in order that we become people that bring the promises of God into incarnation. They become incarnational in us. Otherwise we're hearers and not doers. You've got to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. So there's the challenge in that is, we have been teaching. We have been teaching on you know the truth of. There's no more striving the truth of. You know religion has one message and that's try harder. And all of those things. That's very true and that is not what we're. That is not what we're driving towards. However, however I'm, I feel like I'm spending too much time qualifying what I'm saying, but, however, there is the reality that we have to at some point become a doer of of the word, in order that these things become incarnational in us, that we might be able to manifest something, that we might be able to bring into reality the things that are there to be brought into reality, the spiritual realities of the new covenant that are there, available for the believer. We have got to become those that can manifest that into the earth.
Speaker 1:And I was speaking with some. We had dinner with some pastor friends earlier, uh, earlier this week, and it was a really a good time. I'd been feeling a bit lonely and being around people that were, uh, like-minded was good for me, um, and I got coffee with Lou this week too. So I really I got two really great times of fellowship this week. That was good for me, good for me mentally, and we were having this conversation and they're talking about, you know, rethinking the way that they're doing church and things like that and considering starting home churches outside of their church and some things that they're talking about. And they're talking about the gospel and I just shared, guys, you know, the gospel is power.
Speaker 1:We break the gospel down into, you know, revelation, a message, um, something that we hear or something that we share In the first century. You can examine Acts and you can examine the different epistles and this thing really comes down to. Jesus was born of a woman. He lived a sinless life. The Romans and Jews crucified him. Three days later he rose again Mystically. We were joined with him in crucifixion, burial and resurrection and ascension, ascension. Mystically. We're joined with him in crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating on the throne. As a result, that blind man is no longer blind. As a result that crippled man is no longer crippled. As a result, we have access to union with the Father, son and Spirit. And because we have access to union with the Father, son and Spirit, what's broken in your world doesn't have to remain broken. What's dark in your world doesn't have to remain dark. What's holding you back are the pain or fill in the blank does not have to remain that way because of the life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ. These things make the gospel power available to each of us, and the gospel is power.
Speaker 1:Jesus said this if they had heard, if they had heard, they would bear no blame. If they had heard only, they would bear no blame. But because they have both heard and seen the miracles, that I have done, the blame is on the. They share the blame. Talking about the Jews that crucified him, that were about to crucify him. Had they heard only, their blame would not be theirs, had they heard only. But since they have both heard and seen the miracles that I have done, they share the blame.
Speaker 1:The apostle Paul said I did not fail to teach you the whole gospel. You know what he called the whole gospel. The apostle Paul called the whole gospel the message he taught and the miracles God did. This is the full gospel. The full gospel is the message of Christ, the supremacy of Christ and then the outworking of the power of the Holy Spirit. You can't have one without the other because you'll be getting half a message. You can't have one without the other because you'll be getting half a message. You can't have one without the other because you'll be getting half a message. And we're getting the result that we're getting because we're not teaching the full message. But in order to teach the full message, we have to become people of the message, not people who know the message. Not people who know the message. Yeah, I know that. I've heard that a thousand times. Yes, you have, and what have you done with it, not people who know the message, people who are of the message.
Speaker 1:I was having a conversation with a friend from georgia yesterday, actually, um, and he was talking with me about the book of Acts and whether I believe the apostles ever failed in prayer. Did they ever fail when they went to pray for the sick? Because we don't have a recording in scripture of Jesus or the apostles failing when they go to pray for the sick. The only time that we have a halfway failure is when the man who brings his son, who cast himself into water and fire, says that his disciples couldn't deliver the boy from the demon, and Jesus does it and says we know the story. The man says I believe, help my. Jesus says all things are possible if you believe. Do you believe? And the man says I believe, help my unbelief. And Jesus heals the boy's son. That's the only halfway failure we have in scripture boy son. That's the only halfway failure we have in scripture.
Speaker 1:We don't see them fail again after that and he asked me a really pointed. He asked me a really pointed question. He said do you think we only got the highlights or do you think that they just never failed? And my response was something that even surprised me. I said I don't think they ever learned how to fail in prayer, so they didn't fail. I don't think that they ever learned how to fail in prayer and I don't think we just got the highlights. I think, because they never learned how to fail in prayer, they couldn't put their faith toward failure to fail in prayer, they couldn't put their faith toward failure.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that becomes very important in the life of prayer is the idea of imputed righteousness Righteousness that we didn't earn, righteousness that is not ours, righteousness that is not our track record, that is not our scorecard, that is not any of those things. Jesus gave us his righteousness and, in the place of prayer, that gives us the ability to be bold and confident before the Father, because we don't approach him with our own righteousness, we approach him with the righteousness of Jesus. This becomes the hinge point of our approach in prayer is that I'm not praying from my broken track record. I'm praying from Christ's perfect track record. The man who never sinned, the man who, as a man, stayed in perfect union with the Father and the Spirit through his whole life, never lost union with the Father and the Spirit, and when he was on the cross and descended to the bottom of Adam's delusion, to the place of my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He refused to believe the lie of separation and in that place he brought all things back into right relationship with the Father. He reconciled all things back to God, right. That's whose righteousness we have in prayer. So I'm not approaching him as the man who, when traffic is even just a little bit bad, man who, when traffic is even just a little bit bad, has an issue with the traffic being just a little bit.
Speaker 1:I moved from the outskirts of Atlanta to the middle of nowhere, iowa, and I still can't turn left on my flipping road out here and it drives me nuts. My wife can tell you, lou, I know you don't ever have an issue with the traffic on the main roads here in town because you have patience and you're a man of the spirit and you just sit there and pray in the spirit while people are taking their time and not turning left when they should, and then it makes you wait 10 more minutes. I know that's not a problem for you, it is for me. And you make gestures that you wish you wouldn't have made at people sometimes. I'm not saying I do, I'm just saying generally. I'm saying generally people may do that. It's a thing that people may do. It may have been earned. That's a great option.
Speaker 1:Had some Egyptian come out. That's really funny. Go ahead, lucy, I think there's some of that. Come out, that's really funny. Go ahead, lucy. I think that I think there's some of that, and I I think another one of the reasons that I think that we don't see failed prayer in the new Testament is that we were never supposed to create a theology around failed prayer, and I think that we were never, we were never designed to create um in our hearts or even in our minds, a theology that would make room for, the end result being that I don't think that's a thing. You're right, and the Word has a lot to say about praying in the Spirit, and I'm going to highlight that in just a second.
Speaker 1:I want to show us just a few things. I have talked around the mountain and that's what happens when I don't write a lot. So if I don't write a lot, I'm going to talk around the mountain, guys. So, just, you probably should be thankful when I write a lot, because because then at least I'm not talking around the mountain, like I have already covered 17 things today. Um, john 14,. We're going to look at verses 12 through 14. All right, john 14, 12,. I tell you the truth Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I'm going to be with the Father.
Speaker 1:You can ask anything. Here we go. You can ask anything in my name and I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. Okay, that's one time. You can ask for anything. You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. This is John 15, verse 7. Okay, and then john 15, verse 16. You didn't choose me, I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so the father will give you whatever you ask for using my name. This is my commandment love each other. All right, so that's I'm.
Speaker 1:I've given you three examples in two chapters of Jesus, giving us what we would call a blank check in prayer. You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it. But many of us can sit here and say there are a lot of things I've asked for in his name and he has not done them. So there's a tension in that in my name and do anything that you ask me in my name. And I want to contend that in my name is a way of being rather than it is a prepositional phrase we add to the end of a sentence.
Speaker 1:In the name of Christ or in me is a way of living and being rather than it is a way of praying. There's a difference between saying in Jesus' name, which we always do when we're praying, we're in Jesus' mighty name. Please, god, just one time, throw up a Hail Mary and we start to ask God for the things that we need, and that's good and right. When we're in a moment of like extreme need, that's good and right to pray that way. There's nothing wrong with praying that way. That's good and right. But I want to say that in my name, what Jesus is talking about is a life of union with Yeshua and the Father and the Spirit, so that when we begin to lift our voice in prayer, what begins to happen is we're praying. We're not so much asking for things to be done as we're causing things to be done. Does that make sense? We're causing things to be brought into reality in the earth.
Speaker 1:So I have this revelation hit me and I'm going to teach on this, and then I'm going to. This revelation hit me, I'm going to teach on this and then I'm going to quit bothering y'all for the week. But it says this, and I almost could read all of this. I'm tempted to do it. Oh, I'm tempted to do this to you. I don't know if I should. I've already. I've already talked, for I don't know how long I've talked, for at least 45 minutes. All right, we're doing the whole thing. John 15, 1,.
Speaker 1:I'm the true grapevine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit and he prunes the branches that bear fruit so they will produce even more. That is just a terrible reality. That is the worst reality in all, maybe the worst reality in all of scripture, in all of scripture. The fruitful branch, the one who's actually giving his life to becoming a person, of becoming a person of union, becoming a person of prayer, becoming a person of the realities of the new covenant You're doing well, let me cut you. It's so loving and so awesome. I love it because pruning does revolve around. It does include being cut.
Speaker 1:You either laugh or cry, one of the two. He prunes the branches that bear fruit so they will produce even more. Eventually, you're going to produce more fruit, thank you. I was already doing pretty good and then you did that and that hurt real bad. So, thank you, I love it. It's just wonderful.
Speaker 1:Either you laugh or cry. I'm kind of being facetious, I'm not kind of being. That's right. You're still attached. That's exactly right, lou, you're still attached. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given. You Remain in me and I will remain in you, for a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I am them, you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I am them will produce much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.
Speaker 1:Now the Passion has a different translation here and I kind of like the way the pans the passion translates that. But he talks about uh, he talks about the branches that are not bearing fruit being thrown away. The actual translation is that he bears them up closer to himself so that they become fruitful, as opposed to throwing them away. So the translation there is not that the father throws away the branches that are having a hard time bearing fruit. What he actually does in order to bring them into maturity is bring them closer to himself. When my son, who I love dearly, is having an issue of immaturity, the answer for my son is not that I remove myself from my son. The answer for my son is that he get closer to me, spend more time with dad, get closer to dad in order that dad can bring him into maturity, so that he can bear the kind of fruit that I'm asking him to bear. In a moment when it becomes time to make the decision to do right or wrong, he chooses right because of maturity. The only way that he gets to that decision point and choosing right rather than wrong is that he becomes mature, and the way to become mature is to spend more time with dad, not less.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, a lot of people do the opposite. Exactly right, because they think that's how God treats them. Yeah, and just people that have no knowledge of God. Even Exactly right. The answer is to Grow them up by, like, toughening them up. Yeah, grow them up, toughen them up, put them out, and then you know you've got to do it yourself and it produces a cycle of brokenness. Psychologically it's incredibly damaging. That's why there cycle of brokenness. It's psychological, it's extraordinarily damaging. And if we apply that to the life of the Spirit and if the Father really did remove himself from us, which many of us still subconsciously believe that he does when we make wrong decisions, if he really did that, how would we then become mature? We'd have to. It feeds into the works-based gospel, where you have to work your own way into maturity, rather than the father bringing you closer to himself and absorbing more of his heart by proximity. Absorbing more of his heart by proximity.
Speaker 1:She is hollering up there. She's squawking, squawking like a bird. She's hearing me teach. She's like my God, he's doing it. My God, he's down there, he's doing it. I know he is, he's doing it. She can't climb out of there. No, you can leave her, she's fine, fine, I'm gonna be done in 10 minutes. I'm gonna be done in 10 minutes. 10 minutes, put on the timer, 10 minutes, it's 4 10. I'm telling you I don't have a lot to share today. Um, it's already been a lot. What do you mean? You don't have a lot.
Speaker 1:The way he brings us into maturity is by more proximity, not less. More proximity, not less. How do you? This is going to be interesting. How do you bear someone's image you don't spend time with? Or how could you bear someone's image if they remove themselves from you every time you make a wrong choice? You can't effectively be an image bearer that way. Effectively, you can't do it. It becomes impossible. Effectively, you can't do it. It becomes impossible.
Speaker 1:But this is the gospel that I was taught. I have to earn my way back in, and I know some of us were not taught that way. Be thankful that is not the way you were taught, because subconsciously that plays havoc. It's more of a subconscious thing than it is even spoken. Apostle Aaron says it this way time serves us, we don't serve time. That's a very good way to say that. I agree with what you're saying there. All right, I said I was going to be done in 10 minutes and y'all started talking. So I'm not held to that 10-minute timeline. I'm not held to that 10-minute timeline. I am not held to that 10-minute timeline now. I just want y'all to know the gloves are off. It's not my fault. Read the fine print, guys. Read the fine print.
Speaker 1:Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. That is the Passion. Translation translates that the Father bears them up closer to himself as opposed to throwing them away. Ask for whatever you want and it will be granted when you produce much fruit. You are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. I have loved you. Now watch this right here. This to me, I believe, is the key to the entire realm of prayer being unlocked.
Speaker 1:This piece right here John 15, verse 9. I have loved you, even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love when you obey my commandments. You remain in my love, just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with joy. Yes, your joy will overflow things. So that you will be filled with joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. So the man of prayer is a man of joy. This is what we're talking about right here. We're we're talking about staying in communion with the father, son and spirit. We're talking about union. This is Jesus is really talking about. Perichoresis and John 15 is what he's talking about union with the Father, son and Spirit. And he says this I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow.
Speaker 1:The man of prayer is a man of joy, and trying to remove joy from the life of prayer is a man of joy, and trying to remove joy from the life of prayer or the one who is of prayer causes you to miss part of the part of the reward of prayer. Removing the reality of the joy of jesus being imparted to you in the life of prayer causes you to miss part of the reward of prayer, part of the reward of the life of prayer, not the life of praying, the life of prayer. There's a difference. There's a difference in the life of prayer and the life of praying. I hope I'm saying that right Someone who is of a lifestyle of prayer, rather than someone who ticks praying daily or weekly or monthly, whatever it be off the box and it becomes a dead discipline, someone who incorporates their entire life like you were talking about, lou, and remaining in the state of awareness of the Father. That man then receives the joy of Jesus as part of his reward in staying in union.
Speaker 1:The life of union in prayer and that's really what we're talking about the life of union in prayer becomes the life of joy. It says right here, you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. This is my commandment. Watch right here. This is my commandment Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay one's life down for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn't choose me. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name. This is my commandment Love each other.
Speaker 1:Sandwiched in between the promises of answered prayer and receiving whatever we ask for in the place of prayer, jesus commands a couple of things Love one another and love God. And I have loved you. So this is how he says it. I have loved you in the same way the Father has loved me. Therefore, love one another in the same way that I have loved you. He's giving us the context of the life of prayer, or the one who's given himself to the life of prayer, and that's practicing the love of the Father, receiving the love of the Father and then practicing the love of the Father. So it's this vertical and horizontal alignment that we talk about right In the life of the kingdom. There's a vertical alignment with the Father and there's a horizontal alignment with one another, vertically receiving the love of the Father and then horizontally practicing the love of the Father among one another. I hope that makes sense. I hope that makes sense because that's the whole context of whatever you ask in my name. I'll do it for you in John 15.
Speaker 1:The whole context of the whole thing is remain in me and let my words remain in you. Love one another just as I have loved you. If you obey my commandments, you love me. Those who love me obey my commandments. That's what he says he. It's this interesting thing where there's, because it's this interesting thing, where there's this obeying thing that we have to then do. The fine print of that is hey, don't go act like a jackass. I said that word because it was on Bad Guys 2. I took my kids to Bad Guys 2 last night and they say that word. So just a word to the wise if you're going to take your kids to bad guys too, they say they say a jackass. So, um, I said it twice. They may or may not say well, the first thing he did when he got home was at the top of his lungs, he was repeating it. But he says this but if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask anything you want. It will be granted. He goes down. This brings great joy to the Father. It brings great joy to the Father to give us the things that we ask for in prayer. I don't think that we catch that part very frequently in the life of prayer. The life of prayer. It brings the Father great joy to give us the things that we're asking for. But we use language like bombard the gates of heaven, like we got to fight him for it.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask what do you think about desperation prayer? Desperation prayer, I think there's. I think there's a. No, I think there's a place for it. I think I think you can. I think you can absolutely find a place for it, because you see the psalmist pray out of desperation. Is that just us emotionally? No, I think that's a reality For once. No, no, god, I think that's a reality. You're not a real psalmist. No, I think that's a reality. There's moments of desperation in physical or circumstantial instances that become very real very quickly and that's a very valid way to pray.
Speaker 1:But we use language surrounding prayer like bombard the gates of heaven with our prayers, and I think it's a misconception of what prayer is, because we don't have to fight God to get answers and it almost becomes a self-defeating circle of we have to beg him to answer us and beg him to answer us and beg him to. There's persistence in prayer and he enjoys persistence in prayer because persistence produces maturity. Persistence produces maturity, patience produces maturity, long-suffering produces maturity. Those are things that are valuable to the Father because they bring maturity to the believer and he wants us to become mature in order that we may become fully mature image bearers. And if we got so it's a really interesting thing. So whatever you ask for in prayer, I will do, but also the lesson that we started with was the woman who was persistent with the judge. So can the two realities coexist? Can they coexist? And I think the answer is yes, yes. This is a way that I would say that I think.
Speaker 1:Pray the things that move your heart, because the things that move your heart move his heart, and we don't have to, then we can. And interjecting this should be the lifestyle of worship too. So I'm eventually going to have to say something about worship. I have to be a pastor and teach about worship at some point, which I've got one message and I'm trying to do everything else. So the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So if you'll do those things for Lucy and Lou, he's going to begin to do those things for the rest of us. I have very little left to say, but everything we receive from God comes by faith, comes by grace through faith. Everything we receive from God comes by grace through faith. That includes answered prayer, and I said that the whole of the key to unlocking the realm of prayer was remain in my love and let my love remain in you and share my love with one another, because faith works by love and it becomes impossible to be a man of faith without being a man of love. So when I'm saying being a man of prayer, I'm actually talking about being a man of faith and being a man of love. I want to share just a couple of keys very quickly, and then we'll take communion and we'll be done.
Speaker 1:Jude 1.20 says this but you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. So building yourself up in your faith, so praying in the Spirit causes us to come into the awareness of God. So if we're wanting to build our awareness of the Father, what we do is we begin to pray in the heavenly language that he's given us. The baptism of the Spirit is a gift that we're all thankful for and that, if you have not received that, is something that we need to go ahead and help you receive, because praying in the Spirit becomes the great generator of the awareness of the Spirit at times in my life when I don't know what the Spirit is doing. I just begin to pray in the Spirit and that begins to bring me into the realm of being aware of the Spirit, being aware of the Father and beginning to hear things from the Father and from the Spirit.
Speaker 1:Now I said we've been talking about you know, whatever you ask in my name, I will do. I think the question that I have when I'm talking about when I when I begin to study this and when I begin to wrestle with this, because I have a lot of things I've asked him that he did not do, or at least that I perceive that he did not do, right, so what do I do with that? Well, this is what scripture says. I'm just going to read a couple of things that scripture says to me about the promises of God. Okay, the things that the Lord says to us. Titus 1-2. This is the truth. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God does not lie, which God, who does not lie, promised them before the world began. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised them before the world began. God does not lie and promised before the world began. Talking about eternal life there. Look at Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6.18 says this. I'm actually going to back up Now.
Speaker 1:When people take an oath Hebrews 6, 15, then Abraham waited patiently and received what God had promised. Now, when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it and without any question, that oath is binding. God also bound himself with an oath so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable, because it is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible for God to lie. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence, as we hold to the hope that lies before us. It is impossible for God to lie. And then Psalm 138.2 says that he's exalted his word even above his own name. We looked at that last time. We gathered. He's exalted his name, his word, even above his own name. It's impossible for him to lie in Hebrews 6.18. And then he does not lie in Titus 1 and 2.
Speaker 1:So when he goes to teach the disciples to pray and you can find that in Luke, but the translation that I prefer of that prayer is in Matthew 6, 5 through 15, and I'm not going to look at it, but it's the Apostles' Prayer, or what we call the Lord's Prayer. It's not actually the Lord's Prayer. It should be labeled the Apostle's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is John 17. The Apostle's Prayer is where he goes to teach the apostles to pray and the thing that he says for them he gives them an outrageous command. Someone who's asking him to pray this would be considered a novice in prayer. And to a novice in prayer he says pray this way, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And then he goes on through the rest of the Gospels and gives them examples in prayer and then the final time he addresses them yes, baby, I'm almost done. In John 14 through 17,. Or John 14 through 16, he gives them this command. He says anything you ask in my name, I will do. And we've established that he can't lie, that he doesn't lie, that his word is exalted even above his own name and that we're to pray outrageous prayers like your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and we're to expect that on earth as it is in heaven becomes our reality. So either the Father has set us up for disappointment or he has set us up to receive outrageous answers to outrageous prayers.
Speaker 1:And we've talked about several keys. There are several keys in what Y'all. Take what Lou and Lucy have said to heart, because they've given some great wisdom in the life of prayer. Said to heart because they've given some, very, some great wisdom in the life of prayer. Bill Johnson always said it's an official message. Since I've quoted Bill Johnson now and Baxter Kruger, I haven't quoted Damon yet, but if I keep talking long enough, I will. I've forgotten what I was going to say about Bill Johnson. Good Lord, yeah.
Speaker 1:So Bill Johnson says it this way the lack is never on his end. The lack is in our understanding and how to partner with him. And we can do one of two things we can become depressed and quit because we don't yet fully understand how to partner with heaven, or we can continue in the journey of learning how to partner with heaven and bringing the Jesus, bringing the will of the Father to the earth as it is in heaven. So the way to look at this is not that because I have not received everything that I have asked for in prayer that I'm a failure in prayer and ought to quit because I'm not doing it correctly. The way to look at this is I'm on a journey. We've discovered the path to getting to the place that everything we ask in his name we can receive. Everything we ask in his name he'll do. We've gotten to that, we can get to that place and we're on a journey there. So the the key I think I want everyone to take away from this week, from my ramblings We'll just label this this one should just be ramblings, we'll just call it rambling no, no title, just been rambling Um. The key I think I want everyone to take away from this.
Speaker 1:There are a couple of keys. One it is impossible for god to lie, and god does not lie. Two, he asks us to pray. Things like your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and gives us, then gives us promises that whatever we ask in his name, he'll do so. The expectation then on our end is that the earth begins to look more like heaven, because he's going to give us the things that we're asking for in prayer and that the life of prayer is more than just a life of praying. It's a life of prayer Rather than a life of praying. It's a life of prayer rather than a life of praying. It's a life of prayer. It's the lifestyle of prayer, as opposed to checking it off the, checking it off the the to do list, and moving forward in our day. It's in. It's bringing our whole reality into the awareness of the presence of the father. Thank you.