“I despaired at the thought that might life might slip by without seeing God show Himself mightily on our behalf.”
-Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire

God is watching. He is looking.

His eyes are roaming the earth looking for loyalty. Obedience. Honor. Passion. Boldness.

He is looking so He can show Himself strong on the behalf in the lives of those that are faithful.

The question is:

Will He find it?

And will He find it in you?

Will He find it in me?

And if He does, how will He show Himself strong on our behalf?

My Prayer:

“Lord, give us the passion and the desire to live for You. Get us hearts that are loyal to you. May we honor you with integrity and purity in good times and bad times. Let us love You with all of our hearts, all of our minds, with all of our souls. And after You witness our faithfulness and our allegiance to You, show Yourself strong on our behalf. Use us to reach our generation. Use us to change our communties. Use us to heal the broken. To restore the hope of those that are in despair. Be strong in us God. We have nothing with You.”

‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
- Zechariah 4:6

I have a problem.

You might have it too.

This problem is so subtle it’s easy to miss.

My problem is that I have a tendency to pray and believe only to the degree that I have the resources to meet (or come close to meeting) the prayer request myself.

I ask of God according to my own pocket.

Instead of thinking about His pocket, I limit things to my pocket.

And I have a very small pocket.

This week I have felt challenged by God to pray differently.

To pray BIG prayers.

To ask for supernatural encounters, divine appointments, and other things far beyond human ability.

Because God has a BIG pocket, and He wants to come through for His children in a BIG way.

“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”
1 Thess. 5:16-18

We had an awesome Baptism Service at Folsom Lake a few weeks ago (to see the video, click here). The only thing that wasn’t awesome about it was the fact that I left my Iphone in my pocket while in the water . And yes, that was ‘all she wrote’. I tried to dry it out, put it in a bag of rice (one of the recommended remedies for a wet Iphone!), and synced it with my Mac to see if somehow it could be jumpstarted.

None of it worked.

Rather than get the same model that I had (3G), I decided to wait for the new edition (4G).

So I have been without a mobile phone for over 3 WEEKS!

It has been a huge adjustment (it is amazing how accustomed we can become to these little devices!). I feel totally disconnected. Can’t call when I am out and about, no text messages, no e-mail, no Twitter, no Facebook, No TED, no internet, no Google Maps…nothing.

I am a disconnected man.

While thinking of my plight of disconnectedness, this thought struck me: “Why aren’t we as concerned about our connection to God?”

How many times have you heard someone say, “I am so disconnected from God right now. I really need to spend some time disconnecting from everything else so I can get serious about RE-connecting to God..”?

How many times have you heard that said?

How many times have you said it?

How many times have I said it?

The time has come for us to put a new urgency and priority on being God seekers. We need to stop making excuses, stop blaming our schedule, stop pointing fingers at everything/everyone else.

Seek God.

Get connected again.

He is waiting for us.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
-Jeremiah 29:13

“If you pray very little it’s probably because you believe that prayer accomplishes little. Actually, action without prayer is arrogance…”
-Reverend Run

Practical Tips to deepen our Prayer Life:

1. Make Room For it: Put it on your schedule. Stick to it. If you get off track, jump back on.

2. Use a Script: Make a prayer-list. Write down things to pray for in a prayer journal.

3. Mix a in a Fast: Fasting (abstaining from something for the sake of seeking God) shapes our appetites. It brings focus to your walk with Jesus. It trims back the rule of your flesh (flesh is our own human will) over your life and allows us to submit ourselves to the leadership of Jesus.

4. Listen: In the book, “Secrets of the Secret Place” author Bob Sorge speaks about listening to God. After spending time pouring our heart to God (our frustrations, our bitterness, our anger, our pain, and our hurt), get still before God. Just listen. Take time to write down what comes to you.

5. Get Right with God: James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous persons availeth much.”
That means that a righteous person prays with great power. It doesn’t just say the prayer of a “person”, but a person right with God. It also gives us the means. Repentance, Confession, Healing, Forgiveness.

It is our job to ask for rain, it’s God’s job to send it.

“You must pray with all your might. That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel with eyes wide open while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God…This kind of prayer be sure the devil and the world and your own indolent, unbelieving nature will oppose. They will pour water on this flame.” - William Booth

This week in our ‘Going Deep’ series we talked about the prayer life of Elijah (to listen, click here).

There are 5 things that stand out (from 1 Kings Chapter 18):

1. Purpose of God-Elijah prays the will of God. He doesn’t Pray his “own thing”, but prays according to the revealed will of God. We discover the purpose of God’s is according by on consulting the word of God.

2. Pattern of God-Not only does Elijah pray according to God’s purpose, he prays according to God pattern. As the old saying goes, “God works in mysterious ways”. This requires us to pay close attention to where God is leading.

3. Passionate Persistence in Prayer-Elijah doggedly persists in prayer, when there was zero evidence that God’s will would be realized. When in similar situations we must cling to God’s word in spite of what he see.

4. Provision of God- Elijah knows what the nation needs to move forward and for the curse to be broken over the land. But having the right knowledge, and doing the right thing isn’t enough. We must do our part. But we cannot produce the super-natural. When we are faithful to our part, God adds His part, and something truly special happens.

5. Power of God-After Elijah pressed through he was launched into another dimension. His body was super-naturally empowered to run faster than a chariot down to the city. When we trust God, believe God, pray to God, we receive the grace from God that gives us the ability to perform, respond, and react beyond our naturally ability.

It is our job to ask for rain, it’s God’s job to send it.

“But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.”
-1 Kings 3:7

I love this line.

It comes from the prayer of Solomon, when he was asking God to give him the gift of wisdom. Faced with the overwhelming challenge of succeeding his father as king over the nation, Solomon cried out to God for help.

God heard, and granted the young king his request.

One of the many reasons that I love this sentence so much is because I have used it so often myself.

In fact, I used it today.

The task that God has before us is much too big for us. Like a little boy in his father’s clothes, we can become swallowed up in the largeness of God’s vision for our life.

But we must remember, that to effectively do God’s work, we desperately need God’s help.

So as the little children of God that we are, we humbly ask for His help.

Because God always hears.

And God always helps.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
-1 James 3:15

Do not say to your neighbor,
“Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow”—
when you now have it with you.
-Proverbs 3:28

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
-Acts 20:35

Most of us pray. Many of us pray earnestly. But though we often pray, we most often pray on only one side. We forget the other side.

You see, there are two sides of prayer.

One side represents asking prayer.

The other side represents answering prayer.

On one side, we pray to get blessed.

On the other side, we pray to be a blessing.

Today let’s pray from both “sides”.

That God would bless us.

And that He would bless us with the chance to be a blessing to others.

Give thanks today. Thanks for what you have. Thanks for what you don’t have.

Thanks for what you’ve done. Thanks for what you haven’t done.

Thanks for who you are. Thanks for who you aren’t.

Thanks for what you know. Thanks for what you don’t know.

Thanks for another day, another chance, another moment to say yes to God.

Give thanks today.

And tomorrow too.

What if we lived as if God was in the room with us all the time?

How would that awareness shape our choices? Our actions? Our speech? Our investments? Our perspectives?

What if we lived as if God was in the room with us all the time?

Would it change the way we serve? Change the way we prayed? Change the way we loved? Changed the way we forgave? How we worship?

What if we lived as if God was in the room with us all the time?

The good news is we can find out now.

Because God IS in the room with us.

And in every room with us.

All the time.

Every time.

He is here.

In the room.

With me.

And you.

Right now.

Psalm 139:7-9 (The Message)

God’s name is a place of protection—
good people can run there and be safe.

“Only Jesus can save us.”
-Kanye West in ‘Jesus Walks’

There is only one Saviour.

There is only one Saviour.

There is only one Saviour.

Jesus is the only One that has the ability to rescue humanity.

He is our Saviour.

He is the only One.

It is an important truth to remember.

Because we so easily forget.

All too often we look to our bank account, our property and assets, our career, popularity, clothes, gadgets, entertainment, and other people to save us (and a host of other things!).

But substitute saviours are dangerous, leading us into addiction, dysfunction, and pain.

There is but One that can truly rescue.

And He is only a call away.

All we have to say is, “Jesus, Rescue Me!”

And He will.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
-Mark 1:35

Yesterday morning I followed my usual Sunday routine. I got up before 5 am, got dressed and jumped in the car to get to the office to pray and make final preparations to speak and lead God’s people. There is something about driving in the dark and being the 1st person on the Renaissance campus that I love.

I listen to a talk by another leader/pastor/influencer on my iPod while sailing through empty streets.

The quiet darkness is beautiful.

But this dawn was different.

30 seconds into my drive through the darkness I noticed that was not the only one awake before sunrise. Compared to them, I probably was up desperately late. Who you ask, was active and moving before the dreak of day?

Rabbits.

They were in the park, in the field, in the road. I actually put the car in park and let the window down to watch. I even thought about getting out to get a closer look. But a rabbit is a very quick creature (much quicker than me!).

So I waited. I watched. And the rabbit that I gazed upon stopped too.

Motionless. Frozen in time.

It was a very cool moment.

As I resumed my drive I thought, “the only way to see rabbits running about like this is to be here when they do.”

And rabbits run best long before the sun shows his face.

There are special things that we can never see unless we make a special investment.

God interacts with us in a similar fashion. If we don’t make room in our life to meet with Him, then there are many things that we won’t see, won’t know, won’t experience, and won’t understand.

He is waiting for us.

If we get there (the place where God is), He will be there.

But we have to get there.

Because God is awake when even the rabbits are sleeping.