2 posts tagged “prayer”

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted...until I saw the title for my last one. Sorry about that.  Anyway, Happy Lent! :)
What is Lent, anyway?  Well, it's a Christian thing that begins on Ash Wednesday, and goes 40 days until Easter.  Ash Wednesday is always on Wednesday, is 40 days before Easter Sunday, and the ashes used, which are smeared onto our foreheads, are from the burning of the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday.  (Still with me?)

Miriam Webster defines "Lent", if I understand correctly, as "Spring" or "Springtime", which "includes a time of penitence & fasting, and is dated back to the 13th Century".  So no, it's not something that was practiced by the early church, nor is it in the Bible, nor something that Jesus told His followers to do, so you're not doomed to Hell if you don't fast from something for these 40 days.  Yet, it is a good spiritual discipline.

So what is this fasting time about, and from what are we to fast?  Many choose something like chocolate or pop (soda). But they don't replace it with a spiritual discipline...they just diet from the certain food for 40 days and tell everybody it's for Lent.  Some choose to fast from Television, and replace it with reading a book, or for youth, doing their homework instead. And though reading is a nice habit to replace TV with, unless it's the Bible they're reading, I don't see how it becomes a spiritual discipline.

Fasting is mentioned all throughout the Bible, and though it's most often associated with fasting from food, there are other things to fast from. Numbers 6, for instance, tells us about the voluntary vow of the Nazarite, which included fasting from anything off the vine (grapes, wine, grape juice, etc.), no shaving or hair cuts, and staying away from dead bodies (I'm sure the last one would be the easiest). But the whole point was “to separate themselves unto the LORD” for a determined amount of time, and during these days of separation, the person is to be "holy unto the LORD”.  So refraining from junk food for the body is good, but if there's no health food for the spirit, then how is one "holy unto the Lord"?

A few years back, I discovered more on this when I decided to fast from lunch, and replace my lunch breaks with prayer. Such was great for my spiritual journey, for my prayer time was more constant, as well as longer, but it also took a toll on my health, for I lost a lot of weight, which also lowered my immune system, and also caused some migraines. So this year, I thought I'd try something new...I'm fasting from worrying and stress. I got the idea because, for a few weeks before Lent, I was stressed out and worrying so much about something that it gave me chest pains, and it wasn't until the migraine that I realized something needs to change. Jesus even said that, medically speaking, worrying and stress can actually kill you.  Then He tells us to stop worrying, and give it up to the Father who knows our needs before we ask for them.  I think the hardest part of this though is that, well, you know like when you pray for patience, instead of giving you patience, the Lord puts you into situations where you'll have to train in patience? Or when you pray to be a better driver, and the Lord allows you to get into, or come close to getting into, accidents so that you'll learn quickly what not to do?  I'm finding more things to be worried and stressed about. 

But hey, nobody said fasting was easy.  And if it was, then it wouldn't be a very good spiritual discipline, would it?

While driving today, I'd mentioned to the Lord that I really don't know what to pray to Him lately...I'd prayed for a ministry, and He gave me one, sort of, so that's good.  But I've also been praying for a long time for a means of income...enough to live on.  But still, nothing.  And people continue to pray for me, and tell me not to worry because the Lord has a plan (and I know all this), but yet I still don't see anything happening.  Then mentioned that I'm not "mad" at Him, just...I don't know...I just don't know what to pray for anymore concerning our situation.

Then tonight, as I was waiting for my wife to get off work, the next fellow for the shift walked in.  The first words out of his mouth after "hello" were what my thoughts are on prophesy.  I probed the question some, then answered "well, almost all my dreams come true," then explained the Apostle Paul's take on prophesy, which is basically that if you have something to say, then you should say it, for such is in order to build up and for the benefit of the Body of Christ (the Church).  When I asked him why he asks, he said that I'd said something yesterday that sounded prophetic to him, but doesn't remember today what it was I said.
 
  I later brought it up again, and he said that basically, I said it in passing, possibly as one who just hasn't learned to develop the gift yet.  Now, I'm 36...and I'd mentioned that my dreams have been coming true since Kindergarten.  He nodded his head as if not surprised.  When I asked how to develop it, he said that when I'm ready to, the Lord will send a teacher to help me develop it.
 
  So now I'm thinking..."Thank you Lord, for something to pray about."  For the longest time, I've been trying to figure out how to develop several gifts, but never thought to ask for somebody to teach me.  I mean, I've got gifts of:

• Prophesy: a huge percentage of my dreams come true.  Plus, the Lord often speaks to me, and "tells" or shows me something to say to others when needed.
• Healing: The Lord's healed people through me several times (not always, though), but it's freaked me out, and I've often pushed it away because:
• Sometimes the illness will jump to me.  People have often said that's not supposed to happen, and that I may need to rebuke something to keep that from happening.  But sometimes, I've seen it as a sign to let me know that the Lord has taken it from them.
  
• Other times, the Lord had healed people without my knowledge of doing so, only for me to learn of it later.  For example, once while serving as a hospital chaplain, I prayed with 2 women for their mother who was expected to die that coming night.  The next morning, I'd learned that same woman had gotten up and walked out on her own...she'd been healed!
  
• Sometimes my palms will become hot, a symptom that I'd heard "healers" get.  
• Controlling the weather: Rain
  
• The Lord has often used rain to show His presence...some examples:
• When in Chicago, it rained. I flew to Japan, that same week, and it rained for 3 days straight. I prayed about it for understanding and guidance. Then flew to Las Vegas, and within an hour of my arrival, Las Vegas received the most rain it has ever received in over 100 years.
• The Lord has kept it from raining when we needed Him to:
  
• While hosting youth rallies, whenever we saw rain, we'd pray that it wouldn't rain, and it wouldn't.  One time, I promised a Christian band that it wouldn't rain.  I didn't...around the area where we were.  Everywhere else, in every surrounding state and throughout the state we were in, people said it was raining like a hurricane. Some people turned around and never arrived because the weather was so bad...but not where we were.  The band, "The ApologetiX", still to this day call me "the Rain-stopper".
• The Lord has stopped the rain in the middle of violent weather when I asked Him to:
  
• Twice, when raining hard, I'd raised my hands and said "Peace, be still!", and it stopped raining...one time was even in partial-joking.
• Friendship:  This one, I believe, I've developed, and learning to better communicate came from watching (and learning from) one of my friends.

So my prayer request now? "Lord, please send somebody to teach me how to develop these gifts you've given me."

At the same time though, I've heard in the past that the whole point is sharing the Gospel.  If the gifts are needed for the ministry, then the Lord will provide them for the sake of the ministry.  Nowhere have I ever heard anything about having to develop them.  So I'm back to confusion on this.  Maybe I should continue instead with the question, "Lord, how do you want me to use these gifts you've given me?"  I'm also up for suggestions.