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The moment you pray you find that the heavens are opened. If you have to wait for the heavens to be opened something is wrong. – Smith Wigglesworth
Ever pray and not hear God? Have you ever asked for something and it didn’t happen? I have.
It is impossible to ask God for something with confidence until there is a perfect union between You and God.
I am provoked tonight.
Today I prayed very earnestly. Today the heavens opened. Today I stand committed to be perfectly united with God. Want to know how? Identify and confess every sin in your life, then desire only Him. I confessed sin, and stand united with God. We go without the power because we live with the sin. I am done with it.
Watch me
Andy
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Then with all my faith I began to penetrate the heavens, and I was soon out of that house, I will tell you, for I never saw a man get anything from God who prayed on the earth. If you get anything from God, you will have to pray into the heaven; for it is all there. If you are living in the earth realm and expect things from heaven, they will never come. -Smith Wigglesworth
I began a month long project yesterday. Investigate everything that I can from the life of Smith Wigglesworth. This man has more crazy stories than normal stories. Infact, I haven’t read anything usual about this man. For starters, he learned to read from the Bible and never read another book. He spent eight hours a day reading the bible, a journalist once reported.
What was special about this man? He believed the Bible.
Today reading this quote I began to bend my mind (at least try to) around the subject of “prayer offered in faith.” Now I know for sure that I have seen every production piece, glamorous, loud charismatic/ pentecostal prayer. (A loud “In Je-SUS name” add a little throat, end on a high note, and crescendo).
But this man isn’t speaking of prayer in that fashion. This man prayed his prayer with a contrite spirit. A humble spirit. He wanted Jesus. Only! There are no formulas for prayer only honesty, time, and belief that what the Bible says is true. Rational thinking competes with my ability to believe the unbelievable sometimes. Even as I type I reveal myself as a logician, which many are. But in reality the only thing unbelievable is a Christian life wasted because of faithlessness, which comes from prayerlessness. This can also be prayer that is not in line with the truth of scripture. James 1. Philippians 4. 1 Thess 5:17.
So what in the world I am going to do about this. Knowledge is responsibility. I want to pray. REALLY PRAY.
It’s not enough to just blog it. journal it. say “that’s good.”
Answer? Anyone who reads this, watch me.
Andy
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Living in the either/or is the daring adventure calling me out. Calling you out. I once heard it said,
Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.
Jesus gives us the ability to live beyond the average way of live that is stifling to so much vision, dream, perspective. Media creates such a buzz that most cannot fully escape the pull that it has on their bodies. Consumers consume. This is a Venti world. “The world is my latte!” they shout. We keep consuming everything that we can find. But it seems that intelligence, hard work, discipline is hard to come by. Real wisdom (God’s Kind) even less. Knowledge at the fingertips makes arrogant any who assume they know anything. The more I learn, the less I am finding I really know. I know that Christ has radically changed my entire world. Jesus breathed purpose into my life and forever set me apart from the world of sin, forever set me apart from the world of religion. My greatest fear is remnant of something Paul said,
I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself. 1 corinthians 9.27
This is the either/or. If I am to keep living then there must be decisions made in my life everyday moving me away from sin and closer to God. Average is a suffocating force that is so potently toxic that years can pass by and one may not know any different. The same good that was good yesterday is the rotten mana that the Israelites couldn’t eat. Old good in my life is just spoiled, moldy, furry, leftovers. I need fresh food from God. I need to fast, call out, reach for Him. He waits for us to want Him. He chooses to involve himself with us! How arrogrant a sinner I am if I can spend a day relying on myself. The longer someone can go living average, the sleepier they truly become. We must have smelling salts from God. WAKE UP SOUL! To my knees! God is speaking! Let all that is stagnant in my life be filleted right off of me and thrown into the garbage, nothing is lasting except the Spirit. All is for you. If you don’t choose, average chooses you.
I choose
Andy
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Postmodern thought – at once the most dangerous attack on Biblical truth and values – yet creates some surprising opportunities. Play a game where there are no rules (or keep changing them) and after a while there is no game. People without rules come under the rule of thse strong enough or scary enough to make up their own. Dictatorial political and religious systems have a heyday in a culture where anything goes. When the rot sets in, the rulers of fear and force step in from the sidelines to take over the sheep.
Arguments go largely away when everything is deemed alright.
Testimony must be listened to – lest you risk the tag of bigotry.
Hunger comes for love, wisdom, and reality; three elements always missing in sin.
Perfect love casts out all fear.
No bitterness and heat of Spirit.
Give yourself wholly to the Real.
Be child-like in the knowledge of evil.
Become a heart listener .
Demonstrate conviction and passion.
Be always utterly real and honest.
-Winkie Pratney
Winkie did a study of the Luther’s 95 thesis and came up with a 21st century reformation based upon these 95 thoughts. This is from number 6.
I am reminded today we are chosen for this moment. God wired us for this time period. No other hero, character, person in all of history could have done what we see before us to do. It is clear then, that we must “man-up.” It’s got to be this way. We have no more time to put these things off. Maybe it’s because we don’t realize the ways that we can really use this world, culture, language to the advantage of Christ. our testimony sets us apart and will be listened to. Formulas, angles, preplanned comments, forget it! Let God speak to you. I want God to continue giving me instructions in the middle of His instructions. Jesus forgive me for every time I have made it hard for you to speak to me. I am listening.
Andy
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forteen unknowns begin in the same direction.
a clock turns and it starts.
it’s almost as if they knew they could never return.
dreams will carry if weight is removed.
bones will break and character will eclipse.
memory to recall but wont hold.
a dismal picture save pressing on.
victory is forseen yet hidden from view.
a true artist paints with his life.
if they only could make it together.
they have strength to carry.
each give dreams.
Andy
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I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. -thoreau
Last night I watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Dead Poets Society. This quote is found in the beginning of a poetry book and to be read at all meetings of the “Deat Poets Society.” How I have found this quote to belong among my favorites since the very first time I read it. How raw and daring this life is. The author, as I, am willing to compromise anything so that it will not compromise me. I have got to dig deep, to get out the last drop of life. Not just life in it’s fleeting passing moments, or even it’s magnificent nature and sheer being, sorry Henry. Life lived on God’s terms. Open, Expansive, Adventurous, Risky, God-Life. I want to open every cabinent in this life and take every turn God has for me. In order for this to be possible, I must fiercely pursue God. Today I am reminded of those who sought after God. Israel, who once found God wouldn’t let go until God blessed him. David who ran after God in every situation. Paul who once knocked off his high horse wouldn’t let anything step in between He and God. What about Augustine, St. Francis, Luther, and Bonhoeffer? They were uniquely set apart in the fact that following God made them a mockery to some, but an example to others? What about me? What about you? I must pursue him, He waits to be wanted.
Andy
