PUSH: Persevere Until Success Happens Through Prayer (7 page)

T
hroughout my life I have undertaken a variety of ambitious goals. My quest to know more about God carried me along twisting and winding turns within spiritual realms I never knew existed. At times I imagined what Christopher Columbus might have felt as he journeyed into the unknown attempting to discover a new world which he could only speculate existed beyond the horizon.

My journey into the unfathomable mind of God unfolded with unexpected yet tantalizing mysteries of the Spirit. It was fraught with as much intrigue and excitement as frustration and uncertainty because the horizon continued to expand. As question after question flooded my mind, it created a paradoxical tension summed up in the following question: “How does one with finite intelligence explain the infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful God—let alone His mind?”

My own mind began down a familiar path of reasoning. “If there is a created thing, then certainly there must be a creator of that thing. Accordingly, if there is a creator, then the intents and purposes of that creator will be hidden within the mind of that creator.” I reasoned that if words are thoughts clothed in language, then the words spoken by God would hold the encrypted keys to unlocking the door of His mind.

In the first chapter of Genesis we are told that God created humankind in His image and after His likeness (Genesis 1:26). God created humans to be thinking beings capable of anticipating and altering events to suit a desired outcome—because that is the kind of being God is. If everything that exists in the world emanated from the mind and imagination of God, then we can surmise that the personal world we each experience must therefore emanate from our own minds and imaginations as well.

Additionally, if God created this world with purpose and meaning, we can be confident He created us with purpose and meaning as well. Moreover, God has given each of us the means by which we can tap into His mind in order to discover that purpose—that means is called prayer.

Prayer is simply communicating with God and allowing Him to communicate with you. Through prayer we are given the opportunity to know the mind of God. Prayer is somewhat like hacking into the mainframe of a master computer. A hacker knows which keys to hit and commands to give in order to extract information that the average person has no idea how to access.

The great innovator George Washington Carver put it this way: “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
³²
He added this observation about his own ability to create: “I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed at the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.”
³³
David said it like this in Psalm 19,
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard”
(Psalm 19:1-3 ESV).

The great patriarch Abraham used prayer to tap into the mind of God. In Genesis 18, we read about God’s anger against the prevailing sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah. Learning of God’s forthcoming wrath, Abraham gets into God’s head, asking if He would destroy the good people along with the sinners:
“Then Abraham drew near and said, ‘Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will You then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?’”
(Genesis 18:23-24 ESV). Abraham was getting into the mind of God when he reasoned,
“Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
(Genesis 18:25 ESV). And the Lord conceded,
“I will spare the whole place for their sake
….
For the sake of ten I will not destroy it”
(Genesis 18:26,32 ESV).

From this text we understand that God had a plan in mind. Abraham was able to tap into God’s mind through prayer. Prayer is the vehicle that allows you to access the mind of God so you can determine His will for any given situation, but most especially for your life. He has a plan and a future in mind for you, an expected end that is for your good and never a surprise to Him. He begins every story with the end in mind!

A favorite illustration of mine was told to me by one of my staff members. It goes something like this:

A man was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and God appeared. The Lord told the man He had work for him to do and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. So this the man did, day after day.

For many years the man toiled from sunup to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man’s weary mind: “You’ve been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn’t budged. Why kill yourself over this? You’re never going to move it”—thus, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

“Why kill myself over this?” he thought. “I’ll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that’ll be good enough.” And that’s just what he planned to do—until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. “Lord,” he said, “I’ve labored long and hard in Your service, putting all my strength to do that which You’ve asked. Yet, after all this time, I haven’t even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What’s wrong? Why am I failing?”

The Lord responded compassionately: “My friend, when I asked you to serve Me—you accepted. I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength— which you’ve done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you’ve failed. But is that really so?

“Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscular. Your back sinew is mighty. Your hands are callused from the constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you’ve grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven’t moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you’ve done. I, My friend, will now move the rock.”
³⁴

God did not move the rock until the man had pushed long and hard enough over the course of time and sought Him through prayer. He had to build “prayer muscles” before he was able to move the hand of God—and even then it was God who answered and moved on his behalf. Sometimes when we attempt to discern the purpose, plans, and will of God, it may feel as if we are attempting to do the impossible. But keep on pushing in prayer and God will answer.

Jesus told His disciples that persistence in prayer pays off. He shared with them a parable of a man coming to a friend’s house late at night to ask for a loaf of bread. The friend would not answer the door because he had already gone to bed,
“yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs”
(Luke 11:8). The lesson, Jesus went on to explain, is this:
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened”
(Luke 11:9-10).

God wants nothing but your good. He wants you to be exercised and strengthened spiritually. He wants you to learn to trust Him and for your faith to continually grow, like a mustard seed that
“grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade”
(Mark 4:32). God wants to take you from glory to glory as you increasingly lean on and trust in His goodness. The Lord told Jeremiah,
“For I know the plans I have for you…plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope…. When you pray, I will listen. If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me”
(Jeremiah 29:11-13 NLT).

At times when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him. By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God who moves the mountains.

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
—M
ATTHEW
21:22

We faintly hear, we dimly see, In differing phrase we pray; But dim or clear, we own in Him The life, the truth, the way.
—J
OHN
G
REENLEAF
W
HITTIER

“W
hat mist hath dimmed that glorious face! / What seas of grief my sun doth toss! / The golden rays of heavenly grace / Lies now eclipsed upon the cross,”
³⁵
wrote an English priest named Robert Southwell before being martyred in 1595. Indeed, as Jesus hung on the cross breathing His last mortal breaths, the world experienced a total eclipse of the sun:
“The whole earth became dark, the darkness lasting three hours—a total blackout”
(Luke 23:44 MSG). The ground shook, the earth grew dark, and the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:45.)
“Jesus groaned out of the depths”
(Mark 15:33 MSG) as He cried out. Something momentous was happening in both the heavens and the earth. A new entity was being brought forth from the spiritual realm into the temporal realm—a literal earth-shattering event.

As Mary travailed to birth the “Word made flesh” (John 1) into the earth, now Jesus travailed as He brought forth what would become His Body in the earth—the Church. For three hours the earth was dark before the Lord commended His Spirit to God. Afterward, His side was pierced
“so that the scripture would be fulfilled…‘They will look on the One they have pierced’”
(John 19:36-37 NIV). And as there is both blood and water involved in the birth of a child, there was both blood and water that came forth from Jesus, birthing the Church:
“One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out”
(John 19:34). Jesus birthed the Church there on the cross. The Bride of Christ was taken from His side even as Eve was taken from the rib of Adam.

Christ brought the Church forth from His own being—He created it in His likeness to function as He functioned in the earth. As He was the Word made flesh when He walked among us two thousand years ago, so is the Church God’s Word made flesh in the world today. At the same time, as a husband and wife are
“one flesh—no longer two bodies but one”
(Matthew 19:4 MSG), so are Christ and the Church now one body. In comparing the relationship of Christ and the Church to that of a marriage, Paul explained it in this way to the Ephesians:

Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything He does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor— since they’re already “one” in marriage.

No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of His body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh”
(Ephesians 5:26-31 MSG).

Jesus prayed to His Father in heaven,
“The same glory You gave Me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as We are—I in them and You in Me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that You’ve sent Me and loved them in the same way You’ve loved Me”
(John 17:22-23 MSG). We, who are born of God, are one with Christ. We have come forth from His body to be His Body—we are
“the assembly of God’s firstborn children”
(Hebrews 12:23 NLT).

Near, so very near to God, Nearer I cannot be; For in the person of His Son I am as near as He. So dear, so very dear to God, More dear I cannot be; The love wherewith He loves the Son— Such is His love to me.
—C
ATESBY
P
AGET

We, “the Church of the firstborn,” are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. We are made in His image to reflect His glory (1 Corinthians 11:7). As the Body of Christ, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of Life
, the genesis of all. Christ breathed that Spirit into the Church giving it life just as God breathed life into the first man He formed from the dust of the ground so that he
“became a living being”
(Genesis 2:7 AMP). Paul wrote to the Romans,
“A new power is in operation.”
He explained that the
“Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death”
(Romans 8:2 MSG).