How To Increase Intimacy, 2of2

~ The Answer Might Surprise You! ~

In part one we looked at what George Mueller—a man famous for living a life of faith. In this post we look at the life of Daniel—a man renowned for his prayer life. We could learn a lot from Daniel. “The prayer of the upright is God’s delight” (Proverbs 15:8b).

Pray the Word of God  ~  We should pray in light of the Word of God and about the Word of God as we read. “In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem”

(Daniel 9:2).

Pray in Humility and with Seriousness  ~  The Word of God causes an attitude of humility and seriousness in prayer. “Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3, also see 2 Chronicles 7:14).

Pray with the Right Foundation  ~  The Word of God has provided a foundation to prepare us for supplication. This preparation occurs through confession. “And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, ‘O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day — to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You’” (Daniel 9:4-8). 

Pray with Compassion and Forgiveness  ~  The Word of God causes us to see God in His compassion and forgiveness. “To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets” (Daniel 9:9-10, see also Lamentations 3:22-23).

See the Work of God the Father as You Pray  ~  The Word of God causes us to see the loving discipline of God as our Father. “Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him” (Daniel 9:11). 

Marvel at the Character of God as You Pray  ~  The Word of God causes us to marvel at the attributes of God (i.e., righteous and immutable). “And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day — we have sinned, we have done wickedly!” (Daniel 9:12-15). 

Prepare Yourself before Petitioning God in Prayer  ~  The Word of God prepares us to petition our God and Father (Daniel 9:16-19). Notice four things in this passage.

(1) Daniel calls upon God to remove His wrath from Jerusalem. “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us” (verse 16). Daniel does this on the basis of God's Righteousness.

(2) Daniel implores God to listen favorably to his request that the the Jerusalem temple no longer lie desolate. “Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate” (verse 17). Daniel does this on the basis of the Lord's sake! Daniel was more concerned about the Lord than about Israel or himself.

(3) Daniel commands God to hear and see how bad the destruction of Jerusalem was and the desolations of the Israelites. “O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies” (verse18). Daniel’s basis for this action is God's Compassion.

(4) Daniel calls upon God to hear, forgive, act, and not delay! “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name’ (verse19). This time the basis for Daniel’s action is based upon God's person (it is for His sake) and upon the fact that Israel and Jerusalem are called by His name. Today “Christians” are called by His name.

Summary  ~  The challenge from Daniel is seems clear. The Word of God is foundational for any prayer. God delights in those who pray according to His character and His revelation in the Word of God. The prayer of the upright is God's delight.

(The concepts above are largely taken from the book Celebrating The Word; Earl D. Radmacher and the staff at Western Seminary, Chapter 12 by Dr. Ralph H. Alexander)

The Overall Conclusions  ~  (1) The most foundational way to increase intimacy with God is to spend more time in the Word of God. (2) If we pray on the basis of God’s character and the Word of God He will answer. (3) The Living Word and the written Word of God go hand in hand. I like to say that while the Word of God is of equal importance with Prayer and Obedience the Word of God is the “first among equals” or if you prefer “more equal” when it comes to increasing intimacy with your heavenly Father. 

Interestingly we find that George Mueller—a man famous for living a life of faith and the Biblical character Daniel—a man renowned for his prayer life both found that their source of intimacy was time with God in the Word of God.   

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

How To Increase Intimacy, 1of2

~ The Answer Might Surprise You! ~          

A number of years ago I wondered about the best way for a Christian to increase their intimacy with God. Should they spend a lot of time in prayer? Or would much time reading the Bible be better. What about more time fellowshipping with other Christians? Should they work hard on obedience? Eventually I found several  answers—all from sources I greatly respect. They ALL pointed to getting into the Word of God—which the Spirit of God then uses to convict and grow.

(1) Many Christians are familiar with George Muller (many pronounce it Mueller, but it is pronounced similar to Miller) who lived from 1805 to 1898 and is renowned for his great faith that God would provide (and He did) for the orphanages which he ran.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).   

“The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. 

“For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended in a right spirit.

“Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed;  and thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.  I began therefore, to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning.

“The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. 

“The result I have found to be almost invariably this, after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.

“When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. 

“The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. 

“Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

“The difference between my former practice and my present one is this.  Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time.  At all events I almost invariable began with prayer.  ... 

“But what was the result?  I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray.

“I scarcely ever suffer now in this way.  For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

“It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man.

“As the outward man is not fit for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man.  We should take food for that, as everyone must allow.

“Now what is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God: and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts. ...

“I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. 

“By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it. 

“How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials and the temptations of the day come upon one!” 

(from the Autobiography of George Mueller; compiled by Fred Bergen; London: J. Nisbet Co.; 1906; excerpts from pages 152-154)

In part two we will look at others conclusions on this subject.

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

How To Increase Faith

~ The Answer Might Surprise You! ~

A number of years ago I wondered about the best way for a Christian to stoke the fires of their faith. Should they spend a lot of time in prayer? Or would much time reading the Bible be better. What about more time fellowshipping with other Christians? Should they work hard on obedience? Eventually I found several  answers—all from sources I greatly respect. They ALL pointed to getting into the Word of God—which the Spirit of God then uses to convict and grow. But that is a topic for another post.

Today the related question is, How can I increase my faith? This blog will be short and simple. I simply quote Dwight L. Moody:

“I prayed for faith, and thought that someday faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One day I read the tenth chapter of Romans, ‘Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ I had closed my Bible, and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible, and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.” 

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“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:16-17).

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Do you want to increase your faith? Spend more time in the Word of God.

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW