Prayer--Petitioning and Receiving

by David Hobbs

I have the privilege of praying with different groups of people. Even though all are anointed, there is a big difference in styles and giftings. One group in particular is very anointed, very zealous. Nobody waits on anything. As soon as one person stops praying, another jumps in. Since I’m more of the “quick to hear and slow to speak” school, I generally listen to the other people pray without being able to get a word in edgewise, unless I feel an incredible unction; then I just jump in with both feet and battle it out with the rest!
I can’t fault people who pray like this. They're zealous, they're hearing from God; they’re more anointed than most people; God loves to hear their prayers. Just because it’s not my style, doesn’t make it wrong. God is ver-r-r-r-y big and has room for all kinds of expressions. He might even get bored if everyone prayed the same. (Can God get bored? I’m sure the answer is “yes.” I imagine He gets bored almost to tears by many of our church meetings.)
When we come before God in an intercessory mode, we approach Him as petitioners before the bench (legal term). We bring our petitions before the “Judge of all the Earth” (Gen. 18:25), and ask Him to do whatever it is we’re asking for. This is a great honor--to be able to come before the throne of God through the blood of Christ--and a great responsibility! But it’s not the only relationship we’re privileged to have with God. He also calls us “friends” and Himself our Father, and we His children—far more intimate relationships than as plantiffs in a courtroom pleading before the Judge.
On numerous occasions we have been in this non-stop petitioning mode for an extended period when there will be a pause. I sense God wanting a change in the agenda. He wants to take off His robes, step down from the bench and welcome us with open arms and love all over us. I stretch out my arms to receive Him as His child, and feel the Holy Spirit’s presence rise dramatically… when all of a sudden someone leads out in petitioning prayer again. Instantly God is back on His throne in His judicial robes to receive this next petition. And we won’t let Him off His throne! We keep demanding it of Him by lifting up our non-stop petitions. Though His heart is to come down and love us, we’re having none of it—more prayers, more prayers, more prayers! (Even though there is probably not one He hasn’t heard before, and the Bible says He knows what we need before we even ask Him.) When the time is finally up, we break up the prayer meeting and disperse, never giving the Father the time He craves with His children.

Partnering With the Anointing, Part 2

by David Hobbs

[Please read the previous blog (Part 1) first]

There are three ways to know the mind of the Holy Spirit so we can pray His will and not our own. The first is to come to the prayer meeting with something He has already put on our heart. And I don’t mean something we need. We are self-centered. We have needs all the time. We have to separate our needs and wants from the Lord’s. What’s on His heart? (It’s not wrong to pray for our needs at times. God wants that. But we have to move beyond that. That’s baby Christianity.) God promises to meet our needs, even to go beyond what we can ask or think, so we shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time praying over them.
* * * * *
My business was going belly-up earlier this year—no work coming in and expenses were eating up the cash on hand. I watched the bank account dwindle every week. In a few more weeks we would be broke. But I knew that God was faithful and that I was in the center of His will, so I didn’t spend a lot of time praying for the business. I trusted Him and waited, meantime doing what I always do: praying for whatever He put on my heart, seeking just to spend time with Him not for what I could get out of Him, and working on my writing. Sure enough, a week or two before going broke, business started coming in until we had a comfortable cushion again. Praise to His name!
* * * * *
He doesn’t want us to be consumed with seeking things the world runs after—food, clothes, cars, houses, bills…. There are higher things to be energized for—the moral state of the church/state/nation/world, oppression of the weak and helpless, marriages and other relationships…. But even here, though it's good we've broken free of self-interest and are praying for others, there is still a higher realm.
When Jesus commended Mary for having chosen the “better part” in Luke 10, what was He referring to? Well, she had chosen to sit at His feet and listen to Him, while Martha was busy with the serving. So Mary was commended for sitting at Jesus’ feet instead of running around even in a good cause, but what was Mary doing while she was sitting there?—was she praying? Was she asking for things? Was she asking Jesus to save the world, or deal with sin, or even make her a better person? No! She was listening to Him. She was allowing Jesus to set the agenda, to talk about whatever was on His heart; and she was taking it all in like a sponge—that was the better part!
So if we, like Mary, are tuned in on a regular basis—listening to Him—sometimes He will give us something to pray for when we all come together.
But what if we come with nothing? What then? The second way to know and pray the mind of the Spirit is to begin the prayer meeting by waiting on the Holy Spirit instead of just praying our own best ideas. Start with worship and praise, giving God glory and honor, and then invite the Holy Spirit to come and quicken anyone He chooses to pray what’s on His heart. Then continue worshipping and wait for Him. Now each person is waiting for a quickening in their spirit rather than a thought in their mind. But it’s not going to work unless the members of the group know how to wait on God and hear His voice for themselves.
You say, “Well how do I do that?” Beloved, that is your life’s calling as a Christian—learning to hear God’s voice. If you can’t do that, you will never fulfill your calling in the Kingdom. Drop everything else, take your Bible to your prayer closet and don’t come out until you know God’s voice. But if you’re saved, you’ve already heard His voice calling you to salvation. You’ve probably heard His voice many other times too, so don’t sell yourself short. But it’s like learning a foreign language—it’s an ongoing process that never ends. You have to keep applying yourself, getting better and better at it.
So as the group waits on the Holy Spirit, people will feel quickened to lead out in prayer. This brings us to the third way. Listen and agree as people pray. As your spirit is tuned into their requests, it will leap up at certain times in their prayer. This is the Holy Spirit confirming that prayer is from Him and you’ve just hit an area that He cares a lot about. Others might sense the same thing and all of a sudden the whole group will come alive in loud agreement. This is when prayer gets exciting. You will sense the whole atmosphere of the prayer meeting changing—the energy level increasing. If you’re sitting, you may feel an urge to stand. You know you’ve hit one of God’s “hot buttons.” Beloved, that’s what it’s all about! Now you’re moving with God. You may want to pray along the same lines, coming at it from a different angle, or adding some detail. Or you may be quickened to a scripture verse and want to read it out loud and claim it for the situation. All kinds of things can happen, until the issue has been covered and the level dies down again and you’re waiting for the next quickening.
You will notice that some people seem to carry more of an anointing than others, or perhaps be better in tune with the Spirit, as almost every time they pray they will draw the group into their prayer and the anointing level will rise. Now is the time for self-examination. What happens when you pray? Are people stirred and quickened? Does the anointing level rise? Or is everyone silent?
I know people who when they pray actually kill the anointing. It’s usually people who like to pray, and like to hear themselves pray. They tend to go on and on. But it’s the opposite of the ones mentioned above who increase the anointing as they pray. The longer these people pray, the deader the meeting gets. I feel my energy draining away. If I’m standing, I start looking for a place to sit. It’s hard to keep tracking with them and my mind starts to wander. When they’re finally finished the anointing’s gone like water out of the bottom of the bathtub.
I’m sure these people will be looking for a great reward in heaven based on the number of prayer meetings they’ve attended, the hours they’ve spent in prayer, and how much they “loved to pray.” They are going to be shocked when the Lord plays back the tapes and they see themselves killing off the anointing time after time without even being aware of it. They spend their whole lives serving God out of their minds instead of their spirits! Rather than furthering the Kingdom of God, they are constant stumbling blocks: discouraging others from prayer meetings because they make them so boring, killing off the anointing that others have to pray back in, all the time blithely unaware, even proud of themselves because of their high level of involvement. They explain away the lack of response to their prayers compared to other’s as being a difference in personalities—“I’m just a quiet person, not loud and emotional like brother Bob.”
WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT when we pray!

Partnering With the Anointing

by David Hobbs

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. (1 Peter 4:11--NIV)

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 5:31--NIV)

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:21—KJV)

If you study the Scriptures, you will find a constant working together of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. This was true from the very beginning, where the Spirit of God brooded over the waters, and then the word of God came forth: “Let there be light!” The word by itself brings death, but when it’s partnered with the Spirit it brings life (“...for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” [2 Cor. 3:6--NIV])
In the Church, we’ve been slow to pick up on this instruction. Many preachers at least realize that they need the anointing to preach the word of God from the pulpit. But when it comes to prayer, the rule of thumb seems to be “any prayer will do.” Whole prayer meetings come and go without once being visited by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Instead of “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” we have “modern men of the world spake as they were moved by their own reasonings.”
When we pray out of our own thoughts and “good ideas,” we end up working against the purposes of God, which the Bible tells us are higher than our own. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord (Isaiah 55:8). If our thoughts are not His, then why do we insist on praying them as though they were? Why are we sending up prayers that God has to consciously block from His ears because to do what we’re asking would be at cross purposes to His will? The letter kills, only the Spirit brings life.
Want an example of how this works? Let’s say a believer stands up in the church prayer meeting and says, “I want us to pray for Aunt Alma—she’s sick.”
“OK sister Bea, lead out and we’ll agree with you.”
“Dear Lord I want to lift up my Aunt Alma to you. Lord I just pray that you would heal her of this (fill in the blank).”
“Amen. We agree Lord.”
This scenario is repeated over and over in prayer meetings every week. But what if the truth of the matter is that Aunt Alma’s allotted days on earth are almost over and God sent the sickness to do a work in her to prepare her for eternity? God’s eyes are on healing her soul of some things (pride, self-sufficient spirit) for eternity, while our eyes are on healing her body for the short time she has left on earth. That’s why the scripture says that His ways are higher than our ways. So what is God supposed to do when we pray these prayers—do what we ask of Him even though Aunt Alma will suffer the consequences for all eternity? Or block out our prayers and do what He knows is best?
“Oh but I meant well,” we say self-righteously, “how was I to know…? Exactly the point! There is no way we could know. Only the Holy Spirit knows. Hence we desperately need the Holy Spirit in our prayer meetings.
Some hope the Spirit shows up to anoint their prayers. But the Bible is clear, the anointing oil (representing the Holy Spirit) is never to be poured out on the flesh of man (Ex. 30:32—KJV). Beloved, we need to get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit have the floor, let Him do what He wants to do.
“But He has to work through us.”
Again exactly the point. We have to learn what it is to tap into His anointing and get it flowing through us. “Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).” “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me (Gal.2:20—KJV)”
“Lord, what is your agenda? What do you want to pray? I open myself up for you to use! Not my will but yours be done!”
Then how can we learn the difference between us praying our own thoughts, and Him praying through us His thoughts???
Now that is a good question! More next time.