on Prayer and Faith

Reading Adrienne von Speyr's World of Prayer, I realize that I cannot add anything to her insights on prayer and faith:

No one can believe without being in constant contact with God...Prayer reconstitutes the interrupted contact of faith with God.  Indeed, faith is not merely an objective, conceptual content to be accepted and applied to life:  The content of faith lives in* the believer as genuine divine life and makes possible* in him the act and state of faith.  Faith is what man has grasped of God, for in faith God reveals himself and allows himself to be grasped by man.

...faith continually is at work on him and presents new challenges to his intelligence and awareness.  So he must continually come to terms with this faith, or rather with the God who communicates himself to him in faith.  This contact with God that is the sign of an alert faith is called prayer.  It is the exchange, the give and take, between God and man in faith.  It is man's Yes to God in response to God's constant readiness with regard to man....

Man can refuse prayer as he can refuse nourishment.  But as the body dies without food, so the soul perishes without prayer, which brings God's bread to it.  Prayer is....fellowship with God [and God never shuts the door against the one who knocks....God is there at all times to welcome his child.]

* emphasis mine. 

Adrienne von Speyr, who died in 1967, was a mystic, medical doctor, wife, and author of some 70 books on spirituality and theology.  As a mystic, she was privileged to enter into the experience of people who prayed, from the apostles to the current time.  She remarks on the humility of these people who allowed themselves to be seen at prayer.  Her Book of All Saints is the record of those she saw, including great artists like Shakespeare, Hayden, Beethoven, etc., whose work was the fruit of their prayer.

Turning our expectations upside down

The Greeks suspected that the gods lived on the earth to bless those who welcomed them and to curse those who rebuffed them.  The Romans were more superstitious:  they built endless temples for fear of offending one of the gods that may have been overlooked.  The Chinese have thousands of Buddhas, all of whom need to be given due recognition.

In all the history of religions, no one except Jesus has ever portrayed the great and transcendent God as a father running toward His prodigal son with open arms.  No burning candles or incense here to placate an offended godhead; no human sacrifice to plead for favor or food for the next season---a "daddy" who is missing his son and who watches on the roof every day for signs that the son is coming home.  Now, it is not the son who must offer gifts to the offended father in order to be accepted.  It is the father putting a ring on the hand of the sinning son and wrapping a robe around his shoulders.  It is the father sacrificing an animal in celebration of his son's return.  It is the father who is "prodigal"/ wasteful in giving.

Jesus said He came to seek and to save what was lost.  One cannot come to Him without being brought to the Father, Who had been grieving over His lost sons and daughters.  Those who think that candles and incense, or human sacrifice, or animal sacrifice is what God is looking for are sadly mistaken.  He just wants us to come home and live with Him again.

Pentecost--it really did happen!

When a person overnight goes from no interest in reading the Bible to a devouring, all-consuming, can't-get-enough greediness, there must be some explanation.  In my own case, I entered the hospital for a surgery the next morning in June of 1977.  My roommate was a 20-year-old former drug addict who had just had a baby and whose bleeding was uncontrolled.  Hooked up to a lot of machines, she sat with a bible on her lap telling me how good God was.  I compared my own worry and concern over much smaller issues to hers and thought, "There's something wrong with this picture." 

That night, she told me her story, ending with how she and her druggie husband had both been "baptized with the Holy Spirit," and how it had changed both of them almost overnight. Hmm.  The next morning, we both awoke early, and she offered to read some Psalms to me.  As she read, I heard myself saying, "Dinette, I want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit too."  I didn't know where that came from, because I had not thought about it before I heard myself saying it, but when I heard it, my heart jumped---I did want what she had, despite all my previous years of church-going. 

I got out of bed and knelt by her bed.  She put her hand on my head and began to pray---what, I don't know; it wasn't important.  What I experienced was something like liquid love pouring from the top of my head throughout my whole body, and a total peace "that passes all understanding," relaxing every cell of my mind and body. 

Shortly afterwards, the anesthesiologists arrived, announcing the first of many miracles---they would try an epidural for the first time with major surgery, since I historically had reacted to general anesthesia.  I was awake for the whole surgery, able to consult with my doctor about what he was finding, and gently praying the whole time --- for someone I had heard about but who I didn't know.  This was a new experience for me, who had lived in fear and worry up to this time. 

After surgery, I didn't need or want pain medication.  Since I had not had a general anesthesia, I was up and walking around within a day or so, and meeting other patients, telling them about the love of God, as my young roommate had done with me.  "Who is this person?" I wondered, not recognizing my intensely private and fearful self any more.  I reached over to the bedside stand and pulled out the Gideon bible.  Opening to the Acts of the Apostles for some unknown reason, I began reading about Pentecost.  "Eureka! This explains what happened!  I had asked for and received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit!"    Wow!   I could not stop reading the Book of Acts.  This was no longer "The Bible;"  Now it was my story--I wanted to find out what happened next.

Within the next few days in the hospital and then recovering at home, I finished the Acts of the Apostles, went on to read all the letters of Paul and of the Apostles, read Revelation, and than went back to Genesis, and continued reading the bible until I reached the Acts of the Apostles---some think it should have been called The Acts of the Holy Spirit.

I couldn't stop reading; the Book was coming to life for me for the first time in my life.  I was understanding what I read, and I wanted to know more.  "Send someone to teach me," I prayed.  I wanted to learn all I could.  I wanted to go to ministry school.  "I have you in the school of the Holy Spirit," God said to me. 

This, too, was a new thing---God talking to me.  At first, I thought it was my imagination, that I was making it all up.  But He spoke again:  "Did you used to imagine these things?"  I had to admit that my imagination was formerly occupied with fearful possibilities and dangers---things that might happen that weren't so good.  Now, the fear was gone and replaced by peace and joy. 

God did send someone to teach me and a community where I could test and try out all the things I was learning.  Before I knew it, I was involved in and even leading a Charismatic Prayer Group that was meeting weekly at church.  But that's another story.  There was only one explanation for the sudden and completely radical change in my life:  that the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" was a real event and that it still happens today. 

The Woman at the Well.

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water (Jn.4:10).

Jesus, "tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well."  We don't usually think of Jesus being tired.  But every now and again, we see glimpses---he is sleeping in the boat; he tells his disciples he has "nowhere to lay his head;" and now we see him resting at the noon hour.  He is homeless for a reason---so many people are also without a home and have nowhere to lay their heads, spiritually.  He thirsts because they are thirsty. 

The woman who comes at noon to fetch water for her household is alone.  The respectable women of the village do not want to be seen talking to the slut; the men cannot afford to speak to her.  She is with a man who is not her husband, but she does not have friends with whom to laugh, relax, be herself.  She knows that God has rejected her, by the laws she has been taught.  In her isolation, she too is thirsty for human companionship, for recognition of her worth, for community.  She needs to be able to extend a hand to those in need without being rebuffed, and she needs neighbors who will knock on her door once in awhile.  She is as tired from her journey as is Jesus from his.

In His weakness and need, He opens a door to all that she needs and wants, even though she is guarded at first---why are you speaking with me?  "Give me a drink," He asks.  He, the Living Water, thirsts for what she can give Him; she thirsts for what only God can give her---a restoration of her life.  In his need, He opens the door for what she needs. 

It is strange that in all of Galilee and in Jerusalem, this woman should be the first to suspect that she is talking with the Messiah.  And "when he comes," she said, "he will explain everything to us."  The laws and rules had shut her out as unworthy; his explanation has re-drawn the boundaries to include her---true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth.  If she had not been seeking, she, like so many others of the time, would have failed to recognize him.  She was thirsting for everything He came to give, much more than the Scribes and Pharisees were.  And He gave her what she was longing for, spiritually.  She went into the village and told them about her encounter.  They all came out to see the One she had met at the well, "and they believed in him because of the woman's testimony."  They said to her, "...we know that this man really is the Savior of the World."

They are talking to her, forgetting that she was "a fallen woman."  They are sharing their own experiences with her, the outcast, the one who had to come at noon to draw water so that she would not be an embarrassment to the respectable women who came early in the day.  And all because He was tired from the journey and desperately needed a drink of water. 

In His need, in His weakness, He gave us a way to approach the living God, who makes all things new again.  No one could be afraid of a tired man who asks for a cup of water. 

The Master Gardener

...for you are God's workmanship, the field he has planted (I Cor. 3:9)

One reason I bought the home in Mississippi was the beautiful landscape, which had been lovingly designed, planted, and cared for so many years.  After Katrina, however, multiple trees were uprooted, the native ferns underneath disappeared, great hollows were left in the ground, and in the two years before I could get to the garden, weeds higher than my head grew up.  The once-beautiful yard was a tangled mess, with snakes and mice beginning to use the weeds as habitat.  I looked with discouragement on what seemed an impossible and costly challenge to repair.  However, the yard was mine, and I needed to begin somewhere. 

I selected one spot near the fence and began clearing weeds whose roots had grown as strong as tree roots.  A shovel was practically useless; I needed an axe to attack the weeds which had reclaimed their native territory.  As I finally manged to clear a thirty-foot bed close to the fence, I began to think of the cost of re-planting the entire property and once again grew discouraged.  At that point, a neighbor appeared with four huge African Iris plants that she had taken out of her yard.  They could not have been more perfect to fill in the newly-cleared spot along the fence.  They immediately gave me one beautiful vista in a messy yard and lifted my spirits, providing encouragement to tackle the next area.

When Paul tells us that we are God's workmanship, the field He has planted, I think of the discouragement God must feel as He sees the wreckage we bring to His once-beautiful work.   He must weep as He views strongly-rooted weeds, snakes, and mice taking over His property.  In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us that he and Apollos are "God's fellow-workers;"  one plants, and the other waters, but it is God who makes things grow. 

First, with His own Son, He had to buy back / redeem the field that had been ravaged by sin and was being destroyed by the Prince of this World.  Then, through the work of the Holy Spirit, He set to work rooting out weeds and restoring the garden to the order and harmony of His original design.  Now, He watches carefully, through His Spirit, for anything that threatens to harm or destroy His work.  And, at just the right moment, He sends workers into the field, like the neighbor who suddenly appeared with the perfect plants, offering them without cost to me. 

Each morning now, I stroll through the garden I have planted from scratch.  I look at each plant to see whether it looks healthy and happy, or whether it needs attention.  If it droops, I give water; if it needs more sun, I move it; if it is being choked by weeds, I give it space and then add mulch to protect it.  I know each plant by name and characteristics.  I selected each one for the spot it occupies, for my own purposes---and I love the individual and distinct beauty that each one offers.  I mourn each one I fail to save and delight in the health of those that prosper.  Can God, the Master Gardener, do less?

"The Seed is the Word of God" (Lk. 8:11)

Yesterday, I wrote about the Word of God being the Plan of God, the Promise of God, the Power of God, the Provision of God, the Purpose of God, and the Pronouncement, or Judgment of God.

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus explains to the disciples that "the seed is the Word of God."  The farmer sows his seed, but not every seed finds a place of nourishment: some fall along the path; some fall on rock; some wither for lack of moisture; and some are choked out by thorns. 

This morning, I read in God Calling:

I love to pour My blessings down in rich, in choicest measure.  But like the seed-sowing---the ground must be prepared before the seed is dropped in.  Yours to prepare the soil---Mine to drop the seed-blessing into the prepared soil.  Together we share in, and joy in, the harvest.  Spend more time in soil-preparing.  Prayer fertilizes soil.  There is much to do in preparation.

And I think to myself what a wonderful metaphor of the seed:  it contains within its tiny, almost microscopic, body the plan, the promise, the power, the provision, the purpose, and the pronouncement of what it will become when it falls into good soil and is given sufficient moisture.  Somewhere in Scripture (I cannot remember where), there is a passage about a man planting his field and then the rains come, and the field produces a crop without the man knowing how.  And Proverbs 20: 4 tells us that the sluggard does not plow in season, so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.

So our job is not to produce the crop---the seed contains everything within itself needed to produce the harvest.  And the seed is the Word of God.  Our job is to plow the soil and to water it with prayer.  The harvest will take care of itself.  Again, the quotation from Sirach 24 is appropriate:

I sought to water my own little garden, and this stream of mine became a rivulet, and the rivulet, a river,

then this stream of mine, a sea.

Thus do I send my teachings forth shining like the dawn,

to become known far off.

God's Plan for us

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

"Do not be afraid, Abram.

I am your shield,

your very great reward."

But Abram said, "O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"...

The the word of the Lord came to him:  "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir" (Gen. 15).

When the Word of the Lord comes to us, it reveals to us the Plan of God, the Promise of God, the Power of God, the Provision of God, the Purpose of God, and the Pronouncement / Judgment of God.

Isaiah writes that God's ways, His thoughts, and His plans are not our ways, our thoughts, and our plans.  When we first begin the hear the Word of the Lord, it frightens us, because we cannot imagine how such a plan could possibly be carried out.  Mary's first question to the angel when the word of the Lord came to her was, "How shall this be, since I know not man?"  What was beyond the comprehension of both Mary and Abraham was the power and the provision of God to act in our lives.  In the book of Hebrews, Paul tells us that Abraham believed God because he figured God was able to do what He promised. 

Abraham had to learn this lesson by trusting God with his life, his possessions, his family---all that he was and had.  He literally "walked" with God and learned as he went along that God was able to do all that He promised to Abraham. It seemed when Sarah was taken into Pharoah's harem that God was not paying attention or that He was powerless with the Egyptians.  But from this situation, Abraham was able to leave Egypt a man rich in faith as well as in material possessions.  He was able to arrive in the Promised Land not as a "nobody," but as a man of significance.  He was able to purchase property and to dig wells therein for his livestock.  But he also knew as he entered the land of Philistine warriors the Power and the Provision of God to deliver him from danger and to carry out the Plan and the Purpose of God for his life. 

Once we trust God with all that we have and are and set out on the journey, we too will see the power and provision of God to carry out his plans for us.  And His plans for us are good plans:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11).