Category: Communication

In my Feelings…

So, I manage two blogs and got talking to someone about it a while back. I said that one was a Christian blog, and the other did not necessarily have a religious angle or was centered on christian beliefs. I can’t remember exactly the words he used, maybe it was ‘naughty’, but before i could explain he said something  that implied that I had another blog that was a little more loose, a little less holy and a little less christian. I obviously quickly shut down the notion, but at the back of my mind I’ve been playing with the ideas and the underlining concerns that I felt throughout the conversation.

When It comes to faith I’m all in and so are most of the Christians I know. I think that most people won’t sacrifice faith on the alter of secularism, but we may toy with secular ideas and themes, especially when it comes to creative art. As the conversation grew someone else remarked that they would definitely still write and release non christian songs and content. The reason they gave was because they felt that emotions are part of life and and are meant to be expressed. The implication obviously being that christian music is too restrictive for the expression of certain emotions. Interesting!

My believe that we worship God and love him with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths. In other words, all we are consumed and aware of His presence in our lives that He is all we feel. God can and will overwhelm our emotions if we allow Him. But aside from this I honestly think that we are free to express all our emotions to Him in worship and praise. Like a parent wants their child to come to them with their emotions in the same way God wants us to come to Him with or deepest feelings.

I guess some people will struggle with this idea, as there are some feelings we would much rather our parents did not know. But God already knows what we feel and desire. Even the secret feelings. When we bring them into the light we gain perspective and learn to bring our emotions under the authority of God.

Elijah went to God with feelings of sadness, weariness, weakness, suicidal thoughts and depression and he heard from God, gained perspective and became re-energized (1 Kings 19). The woman with the Alabaster box (Mary Magdalene) came with guilt, sin and shame before God and poured it all out in worship before God and she was forgiven (Luke 7: 37-39)

Good things happen when we bring our honest and sincere feelings to the alter of worship. He might scold us and chastise us, but we can feel His love and acceptance. He will never leave us without His blessing. He won’t let us go naked.

King David wrote songs reflecting his distress, and His feelings of God forsaking him, but his psalm ended in praise. Solomon wrote songs and poems of love, marriage and intimacy.

We are immersed all the way, death, resurrection and ascension, in Christ Jesus and totally grafted in Him. We need to remember this when we create. God will inspire us with the right words when we let Him all the way into our feelings.

 

Prayer and Hearing God

In my last post I touched on the process of practicalising our worship through thanksgiving, using my stuck in traffic scenario.

Firstly, I’d like to add that worship is a deliberate act expressed through behaviours and gestures and not a spontaneous moment lead by feelings and emotions. It is a [practical] lifestyle not an occasion or event or a segment within a church service. Importantly, it is a form of prayer to God, which Jesus highlights in Luke 11:2. (Our father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.)

The beautiful thing about prayer is not only that God hears us but he also speaks to us. It is a conversation between you and God and not a monologue directed at God or soliloquy spoken out into the atmosphere. Hearing from God is the most exciting thing and also one of the main things that keep you coming back to the place of prayer. Unfortunately, people don’t wait to experience that part.

I have found that as I have grown in my Faith and continued in prayer I hear God better and much quicker and I get answers through the most unexpected mediums, sometimes almost instantly. It was not always like this. I sometimes still find that I have to seek and wait for my answers, but more often than not I enjoy a well paced flowing conversation with God  more regularly that I used to. So what changed and how did I get here?

I’ll use my experience of today as an example. So, I’ve been mulling over some information I got at work and I was wondering if I should pursue the idea. I muttered a few prayers while eating my yogurt and left it knowing that I would get directions about what to do next. On my way back to my desk I looked through my Instagram feed (praise God for Instagram) and the first post I saw said this “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for”, in bold black colours. In the caption it had Matthew 7:7. This was the answer I needed. To confirm this (out of the mouth of one or more witnesses will God confirm his word – 2 Corinthians 13:1), I saw another scripture based post taken from Romans 8:31, which says if God be for us who can be against us. This was a clear direction as to what I needed to do. I knew it was God because it spoke directly to my situation and what wasn’t sure I was meant to do and it was also confirmed. I instantly felt the courage and the opportunity for me to ask opened up.

Even before I prayed whilst eating my cherry yogurt I sensed God telling me not to be afraid, to take the plunge and not allow fear to get in the way of my progress. My prayer was only a continuation of the conversation that was already taken place in the spirit (the heavenly realms) and I was apart of.

About ten years ago I didn’t have this experience and if I did, I was too unaware to have noticed it. The more your spirit engages in the conversations of the Spirit, the more you learn to assimilate the conversations of heaven and pick up the signals that are being transmitted to you.

I can hear God better and quicker now because for a long time I deliberately listened out for God, trying to distinguish his voice from the many other voices I was exposed to.

Psalm 118 and Prayer: Thanking, Asking, Declaring

God in his word commands that in all things we must give thanks (Ephesians 5:20). This can be really challenging when we are faced with problems for which we need solutions, and needs we desperately want met. The Psalmist, I think, is brilliant in how he combines thanksgiving with petitioning and declaration. He combines praise with his petition and declarations, based on his confidence in God, with thanksgiving to God. The Psalmist shows a God-awareness and a God-consciousness, that sets God’s will and omnipotence at the center of his prayer and the situation he finds himself in.

God’s place is always meant to be at the center of our lives, problems, hopes and aspirations. This God consciousness should influence our perspective causing us to defer back to God. After many points of thanksgiving and declarations he adds a sacrificial offering to his prayer, which he binds with cords to the horns of the alter.

The horn of the alter is the might, strength and power of the alter. Every alter has a horn. By tying his sacrifice to the horn, he makes God his source of strength and power.

He secures the backing of God when he proclaims that he will destroy the nations  against him (his adversaries) in the name of the Lord. He makes the name of the Lord work for him through this act of binding.

This sacrifice is a living sacrifice, because he does not ask for it to be burnt or pierced in the manner in which sacrifices were made. Implicitly, the psalmist himself is the sacrifice. This is a prophetic act as the concept of presenting our bodies as living sacrifices is not totally established until after Christ. Our ability to be a living sacrifice is based on the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ. The psalmist prophetically speaks in anticipation of what will be possible through Christ Jesus, the stone the builders rejected.

When we tie ourselves, our bodies and our souls to the alter we make God the source of our strength and power and because he can never run dry he must supply us with the strength we need.

For he will supply all your needs according to his riches in Glory. (Philippians 4:19)

What great news that our power supply is connected to the omnipotence of our God! The more we demand the more He supplies. Just like this Psalmist let us resolve to build on our demand daily, so he can supply to us daily, according to our need.

So, when we Pray,

  1. we pray with awareness and confidence that God is holding our lives and is listening to us.
  2. we pray with hearts filled with thanksgiving and appreciation on our lips.
  3. we pray making declarations based on his words and promises to us – in sync with God’s heart.
  4. we pray with the earnest fervency of all our faith, knowing that we are willing to make the sacrifice for what we are asking.
  5. we pray for the Holy Spirit because he is our supply
  6. and when we pray we pray daily.

Psalms 118    

(Praying in Thanksgiving, in praise, declaration and prophecy asking but always thanking God.)

1Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

2Let Israel now say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

3Let the house of Aaron now say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

4Let those who fear the Lord now say,

“His mercy endures forever. “

 

5I called on the Lord in distress;

The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.

6The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

7The Lord is for me among those who help me;

Therefore I shall see my desires on those who hate me.

 

8It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

9It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

 

10All nations surrounded me,

But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

11They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me:

But in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

12They surrounded me like bees; they were quenched like a fire of thorns;

For in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

13You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the Lord helped me.

14The Lord is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation.

15The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous;

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

16The right hand of the Lord is exalted;

The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

 

17I shall not die, but live, And the declare the works of the Lord.

18The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

19Open to me the gates of righteousness;

I will go through them, and I will praise the Lord.

20This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter.

21I will praise you,

for you have answered me, and have become my salvation.

22The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

23This was the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.

24This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

 

25Save now I pray, O Lord;

O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.

26Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.

27God is the Lord, And he has given us light;

Bind the sacrifice with Cords to the Horns of the alter. 

28 You are my God, and I will praise you.

You are my God, I will exalt you.

29Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

 

New King James Version   © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.