One of the great things about life is that you can always change your mind. "Great idea, lousy implementation."

Elsewhere in this section had attempted an idea to include thoughts on praying alongside the petitions as a means to help us all better pray one for another, more so along the lines of [i]"Lord, teach us to pray"[/i]. But it dawned on me the real possibility was that the requests could end up getting smothered, defeating the purpose. Thought better of it all to isolate this 'near-by', under the same heading.

Do feel free to add whatever pertains to all aspects of prayer, from great men and women of the past to your own personal out-workings, thought's and so forth. That prayer would become less of something we "do" but something we are;

[i][b]pray without ceasing[/b][/i] 1Th 5:17

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[b]The Secret of the Sacred Simplicity of Prayer[/b]

[i]Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41[/i]

These words were spoken in the supreme moment of our Lord’s agony; we are immensely flippant if we forget that. No words our Lord ever spoke ought to weigh with us more than these words. We are dealing with the sacred simplicity of prayer. If prayer is not easy, we are wrong; if prayer is an effort, we are out of it. There is only one kind of person who can really pray, and that is the childlike saint, the simple, stupid, supernatural child of God; I do mean “stupid.” Immediately you try to explain why God answers prayer on the ground of reason, it is nonsense; God answers prayer on the ground of Redemption and on no other ground. Let us never forget that our prayers are heard, not because we are in earnest, not because we suffer, but because Jesus suffered. It is because our Lord Jesus Christ went through the depths of agony to the last ebb in the Garden of Gethsemane, because He went through Calvary, that we have “boldness to enter into the holy place.”

Let us take ourselves across Kedron to the Garden of Gethsemane. We can never fathom the agony in Gethsemane, but at least we need not mis-understand. This is not the agony of a man: this is the distress of God in Man, or rather the distress of God as Man. It is not human in any phase, it is fathomless to a human mind, but we have got several lines to go on so as not to mis-understand. Always beware of the tendency to think of our Lord as an extraordinary human being; He was not, He was God Incarnate.

Oswald Chambers
[i]If ye shall ask[/i]

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Mike Balog

Worth repeating and with thanks to Ron (Philologos) and Lahry, who submitted elsewhere;


The great A.W. Tozer wrote the following:

"To be articulate at times, we are compelled to fall back upon 'Oh' or 'O' - a primitive exclamatory sound that is hardly a word at all, and that scarcely admits of a definition....

In theology, there is no "Oh!", and this is a significant, if not omnious thing. Theology seeks to reduce what may be known of God to intellectual terms, and as long as the intellect can comprehend, it can find words to express itself. When God Himself appears before the mind, awesome, vast, and incomprehensible, then the mind sinks into silence and the heart cries out "Oh Lord God". There is the difference between theological knowledge and spiritual experience, the difference between knowing God by hearsay and knowing God by acquaintance. And the difference is not verbal merely; it is real, and serious, and vital.

We Christians should watch lest we lose the "Oh" from our hearts. When we become too glib in prayer, we are most surely talking to ourselves. When the calm listing of requests and the courteous giving of the proper thanks take the place of the burdened prayer that finds utterance difficult, we should beware the next step, for our direction is surely down, whether we know it or not."

In response Philologos;

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Mike Balog

Must need dictates to fall silent of opinion and just get back to pure intercessory praying. Have need of prayer for my wife Lisa today as she is to go and see someone about rehab...Please, if the Lord leads that He might invade her heart once again as at the first. There are a few posts here in just the last couple of days that are crying out for the same, Medki's husband Aregay is closer than ever before... that we might beseech the Lord until it's completion to begin everything anew, a new creation in Christ Jesus.

Steve (tup), who is hungering and thirsting after the Lord more so than he knows, surely it is the Lord Himself that has brought this to bear, the Holy Spirit bearing down within. So many saints here, all that congregate and share and express their hearts. Pray for this place, pray for Greg, pray for each other and please pray for me as the Lord leads. I am and have been grieving the Holy Spirit by not doing what I know to do and that is to pray... without ceasing. I believe it is in the halting of that which has caused much unnesecary.... reliance on the flesh, reliance on other props, learning, 'knowledge'... distractions. No wonder the exhortation to cast down evil imaginations, they come from all directions, including ones that are generating by our own thinking. Time has come again to clean house and to throw these off the mountain where God reigns, no longer giving them place or heed.
All this has brought this fool to a humiliating and humbling place, certainly there is prayer and despite the folly that the Lord may grant His will be done for the intercession that has gone out. But that He may continue to smite the wrong spirited, wrong motivated mindset that has brought this shame, [i]that I haven't prayed as I ought[/i]. Privately I had bemoaned my condition and circumstances in that confusing and muddy way, yes it is grief and no I do not care what is required of me, I am nothing, have nothing, care for nothing of this world, it is crucified unto me and I unto it. And I know that He loves me still and died for me, that He might bring glory to Himself. But there was and has been some pitiful and pitying self pity, a sinister and sickening self interest that began to creep in unaware and if I were to keep going on here it just gets more and more evident with each punch of the keyboard.

It boils down to [i]manner[/i] of, perhaps 'quality' if it may be put that way, that is what is amiss and I know it and repent of it, the Lord knows and I apologize before you all, for I have missed it still. But if you are led, pray for the praying fool, it is what I believe the Lord would have from me, a broken vessel to pour out His will through. There is so much untapped power in prayer and by sheer neglect it saps us of the Lords presence, the Lords thoughts and that which He would cause to change in us all, to curb the bents in us and suppress His desires. I resolve to take up this cross once again and get back to doing that which I know He beckons me unto... without ceasing.

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Mike Balog

Mike,

so, you're a praying fool :-P

Thank you for being humble and honest. I too know self-pity all to well. Even now after I posted some about my marriage situation, it tends to try to creep back in on me. Sometimes things are better left in the past, yet i want people to be able to see that there may be others whose lives/marriages aren't perfect- that there is a way- His way :)

Praying for His Kingdom to come in you, your wife, Medki's husband and in me and in everyone here on SI. Praying that His will be done in you, your wife,Medki's husband and in me and in everyone here on SI.

When you said "clean house' it reminded me of a song by Watermark "Invade"

Come, come in
Invade all You see of us
Any man, who'd walk Your road is welcomed here
And You're the only One

Chorus:
Jesus, come and walk the halls of this house
Tread this place and turn it inside out
With Your mercy...
Jesus, teach us the prayers that open these doors
Until Your light floods in and illuminates these floors
And let Your truth be on our steps and in these rooms
Jesus invade...

Reach, reach in
With the hand that heals all our suffering
[b]Conquer all that is not of You[/b]
Bring Your spirit throught
As we fill these walls with Your praise

Chorus

Bridge:
I call for angels
I call for mercy
I call for freedom
In the name of Jesus
In the name of Jesus

You can go to this page to hear it: http://www.moreofhim.net/recommendedresources.html

ysiC-Chanin

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Chanin

Mike, how well you said this,

"Privately I had bemoaned my condition and circumstances in that confusing and muddy way, yes it is grief and no I do not care what is required of me, I am nothing, have nothing, care for nothing of this world, it is crucified unto me and I unto it. And I know that He loves me still and died for me, that He might bring glory to Himself."

No matter what you do and no matter who you are still hoping for mercy from the very one you pierced and bleed! Isn't this the very essence of Christianity! Your disposition implies that His love is greater than your sins and you justify Him by this! Recently I had been blown up by a specific sin I had committed. I was ashamed to see His face but when I knelt down to pray, the phrase " Pressing on into the Kingdom" got hold of me in a new light and the Holy Spirit applied it to my situation! Pressing on no matter what, just like Ruth-when the other daughter-in-law of Nohami returned Ruth pressed on.

Everything thing that comes on our life is a test, whether specific or general. The Lord watches how we handle things. Do we handle them by bringing them to our God with a hand of faith believing that God intervenes or do we just try to find our way out!

Let me tell you what God did yesterday. Things are beginning to happen in my so far unbeliever husband's life and he told me this coming Sunday he will go to church and will continue to do so for the rest of his life. Then yesterday I don't know from where it comes (maybe the enemy is trying to harass him for his decision), he simply started to say words against me, against his life, against God! Immediately the question rang in me how do you handle this? God gave me a chance to pray in my office and He gave me a spirit of faith and I PRAYED. Then the Spirit of God went directly to my husband and my husband came back to himself and he too begun to pray! God answered his prayer and when the day was over and we met he witnessed to me that God led him to pray and gave him a peaceful spirit! Ofcourse he was a different person than he was in the morning! This is not about me and this is not about my husband but this is ABOUT GOD! See what kind of God He is! See how He hears! See How He answers prayers! Aren't we encouraged by the encouragement that emanates directly from Him to press on to Him no matter what?!

Mike, I know how things are going in your life and the Lord will give us victory over Lisa and your life! He will come and glorify Himself in you, in Lisa and in all who need Him sincerely! How I thank my God for the saints on SI! Those whom I can share as if they are a distant away!

Love you all

Your Sis. Mek

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Mekdes Tsige