Lecture 3 Christian Living II

Lecture 3 Christian Living II

Thursday, January 16th

As we talked about last class period, the purpose of this class is to try to add some structure to prayer time.

The fact is that sometimes we have no structure in our prayer time and often approach God with a “scattergun” approach.

For that reason, we accomplish little in prayer due to the fact that we do not come to God with any objectives.

We just talk to God about anything that comes to mind and the end result, is often daydreaming or distraction and we find ourselves discouraged when we are through, because we don’t feel like we accomplished.

Harold Lindsell cautions, “prayer does not come naturally to men. It must be learned. Learning to pray…includes knowledge of the laws governing prayer as well as experience gained in the practice of prayer. Prayer must be nourished and cultivated if it is to grow.” Page 22

Eastman “Especially be careful not to become a slave to any ‘prayer system’. Indeed, prayer is not a system at all, but the development of a relationship between God and man.” ~ Page 22

WHY PRAY?

First, Jesus calls us to prayer.

Secondly, because prayer works.

J.C. Ryle, “Prayer has obtained things that seemed impossible and out of reach. It has won victories over fire, air, earth and water. Prayer opened the Red Sea. Prayer brought water from the rock and bread from Heaven. Prayer made the sun stand still. Prayer brought fire from the sky on Elijah’s sacrifice. Prayer overthrew the army of Sennacherib. Prayer has healed the sick. Prayer has raised the dead. Prayer has procured the conversion of countless souls.” Page 24

Following this “prayer wheel”, will help you to develop some structure in your prayer life!

Now, the purpose of this prayer wheel is not so you will be bound to it, but so you will be able to separate different aspects of prayer into definite sections in order to give yourself a healthier prayer life.

It will help you to mentally categorize the different aspects of prayer.

If you don’t do this, you will find yourself spending your entire time in prayer on one or two of the different aspects of prayer, thus depriving yourself of greater blessing.

I hope that there will be times in your prayer time when the Holy Ghost completely takes over and you lose all track of time, however, it is good for you to have a specific set amount of time each day that you set aside to spend with the Lord.

It’s good to be “led by the Holy Ghost” in your prayer time, but with human nature being what it is, if you have that mentality, then you will probably pray less than what God expects of you.

Assignment

Create your own “prayer wheel”. (Page 27)

Number it 1 through 12 on your paper and write what you would pray for that block of time.

2. “Waiting,” 5. “Watching,” and 11. “Listening” you can leave blank, or write what God has been speaking to you.

Prayer and Desire-E.M. Bounds

Bounds “Desire is an absolute essential of prayer!”

The hard truth is that if you have no desire to pray, then you have no desire to have a relationship with God.

“If your desire and focus is upon the right things, then you will want to pray. You will want to communicate with God.” Bro. Greg Adkins

The reason many times that we lack the desire to spend significant time in prayer, is because our heart is not where it needs to be.

“Desire is not merely a simple wish; it is a deep-seated craving; an intense longing for attainment.” ~Bounds

The deeper the desire, the stronger the prayer.

Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of words.

Without desire, there is no need to pray!

“The greatest danger to prayer is our attempt to be ornate, and to pray according to formal rules.” ~Watchman Nee

Too often, our closet time is dead and dry due to the fact that there is little or nor desire to be there!

Now, we need to be careful with desire, cause sometimes our desires are affected by emotions, and emotions can rarely be trusted.

Example: Youth Camp, Fire Conference, Decision Days- we have a great desire to pray. We are on a spiritual mountaintop and it’s easy to want to pray.

Believe it or not, there will be times when you have absolutely no desire to pray. Then what will you do? Example: Dorm Devotions @ 6:45am

In those times when desire is absent, it is an absolute “must” that you have a daily commitment with God that you are going to pray anyway.

When you are in this place of “no desire”, you need to pray for the desire to pray.

“Anybody can pray when the feelings of spiritual ecstasy are high, but all of hell fears men and women who pray even when they feel nothing.” ~Unknown

Consider these statements from E.M. Bounds:

Lack of spiritual desire should grieve us, and lead us to lament its absence.

A lack of ardor (enthusiasm; passion) in prayer, is the sure sign of a lack of depth and of intensity of desire; and the absence of intense desire is a sure sign of God’s absence from the heart!”

True prayer must be aflame.

Without desire, there is no burden of soul, no sense of need, no ardency, no vision, no strength, no glow of faith.

“Prayer is an indispensable phase of the spiritual habit, but it ceases to be prayer when carried on by habit alone.”~Bounds

Now, these statements ought to convict us for we have all been in the place where our desire burned low.

“Prayer and Character and Conduct”-E.M. Bounds

Does prayer have anything to do with character and conduct?

When you don’t pray like you should, can you see a difference in yourself? Can others see a difference in you?

Is your behavior a little more obnoxious?

Conduct = what we do(the outward life, external, seen from without)

Character = what we are (the life unseen, hidden within, internal, operating within)

Conduct is the offspring of character.

Character is the root of the tree; conduct is the fruit it bears.

Your prayer life has a direct impact on your on your character and, eventually, your conduct.

If you are honest, you will admit that praying like you should has a positive impact upon your character, while not praying has a negative impact on your character.

Example: When you’re praying like you should, you won’t lie about the amount of social time that you’ve had this week or how much study time you write down on your little piece of paper.

Praying helps to establish character and fashion conduct.

So, if you don’t have any character and your conduct stinks, then it may be time to check your prayer life.

It doesn’t matter how animated you get when you’re preaching, or how well you may sing, or how popular you are in your youth group back home, if you don’t have a prayer life, then you have nothing!

Whether you realize it or not, your character (that which isn’t seen) is evidenced by your conduct (that which is seen).

If you’re in Bro. Shelton’s or Bro. Presley’s office all the time, or you can’t come to class, or you can’t do a homework assignment without using copy and paste for all of it, or you can’t take a test without cheating, then you are not praying like you should!

Make no mistake about it, if you are not praying, it will be evidenced by your actions!

Be careful, for your conduct will speak much louder than any song you sing, lesson you teach, or message you preach!

More statements by E.M. Bounds:

Prayer produces cleanliness of heart and purity of life.

Prayer and sinning cannot keep company with each other.

Bad living means bad praying and, in the end, no praying at all. We pray feebly because we live feebly. The stream of prayer cannot rise higher than the fountain of living.”

Example preaches a far more effect sermon than precept. The best preaching, even in the pulpit, is that which is fortified by godly living in the preacher himself. ~Bro. Danny Taylor

We deceive ourselves if we believe that God will overlook unrepented bad conduct and accept our “flowery” prayers.

Your generation, as a whole, want to live according to their desires and expect God to answer their every need.

You cannot live in contradiction to the Word of God with your lifestyle and expect Him to accept your prayers!

When a person really gets prayed thru, he or she’s life will be conformed to the image of Christ and their conduct will befit that of what is known as a “Christian”!

So, if you’re having trouble with your conduct, or with your character, or if you’re having trouble doing what’s right time after time, then it’s time to get back in the prayer closet and get your relationship with God back to what it should be.

We have time to talk to everybody else!

We’ve got time to have a relationship with family, friends, significant others.

Why? Because it’s important top us.

Why, then, is it so hard for us to have and maintain a relationship with the Almighty God of heaven?

Above all else, WE MUST PRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!