In and Within 35 Praying With Assurance

[HKHaugan]

“Prayer is the lubricant for the spiritual life, the lubricant for our relationships and the lubricant that brings the spiritual dimension to bear on the world we see. Choosing to live by faith and not by sight is living as His priest in the glory of God.”

This is the carryover from my previous thoughts on the last seven verses of John 17. Since we are priests in a ‘royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9),’ prayer is the oil that anoints our personal faith to function where our part of the Body fits together with our brothers and sisters. Separately, our hearts harden and grind to a halt. Oiled, they reduce the ego friction of sin enabling the Lord’s ongoing purpose of building spiritual unity among believers, a unity that has always existed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So just how do we exercise this anointing oil of prayer that lubricates the Body? This will become apparent as we begin by praying for each believer to be in harmony with those with whom we come in contact in the Body. It starts right where we are within.

There are three areas of inner contact, the mind, heart and spirit, where sin can cause us to waver.

First, the mind wavers.

When our minds begin to become self-justifying and rationalizing it’s time to pray. It’s so easy to compromise our thinking with circumstance or to excuse ourselves and to blame others. We need to pray for a continued strengthening of belief for the mind. We need to do that together. Some parts of the Body of Christ have creedal statements they say together in worship. They are repetitious statements of principles of belief. That can be helpful but only as helpful as the individual heart willing to receive them. From time to time people will stray and question the principles of belief because of some disturbance their mind can’t comprehend. This is why we come together to study His Word, share and reinforce one another’s minds. Death, sickness, emotional upset and interpersonal conflict can bring a spirit of doubt to attack us where we are most intellectually weak.

Second, the heart wavers.

When leaders, others we admire disappoint us or a general wave of economic and social events appears overwhelming, our trust in God’s presence seems to loosen from its moorings. Immediate prayer is called for. Trust is the heart extending itself on the basis of the mind’s belief. It is the center of our being an individual, a feeling image of God within, a soul moving because that’s how personal God is. When Jesus tells the disciples “Trust in God, trust also in me (Jn.14:1),” He is aiming for the heart of the listeners because the heart is where we process the unseen, the intangibles, the qualities we can’t articulate but know. The heart is what makes us persons.

Third, the spirit wavers.

Our spirit is vulnerable to inaction. When our mind buckles through compromise, our heart yields to stress; our spirit loses the faith to act. It’s right there we rebuke the devil because we know He is the source of the temptation not to extend our faith. He sends the spirit of fear to attack our spirit; our pride comes into play and we retreat into our shell. It is so easy to take control and withdraw. The devil sends another spirit, the spirit of control, to rationalize and remove us from action.

No one wants to admit fear is present but words like anxiety, trepidation, reluctance, hesitation, excuses and blame are euphemistic self-serving synonyms we use to avoid admitting fear. This is why Paul’s confronting words brace us when he says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom.8:15-16).”

Given these tendencies to waver, prayer is Jesus’ remedy in John 17 to strengthen our belief, trust and faith. He prays for mind unity, heart unity and spirit unity. A unity of the three as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One in Three and Three in One.

For our mind He prays that all who follow Him may believe the Father sent Him (vs.21). Through His Word we stretch the self-limiting boundaries we have set for our conversation when what we believe is challenged.

For our heart He prays a heart word, ‘know,’ which is a biblical word describing something beyond head knowledge. It is to ‘know’ within (vs.25).

For our spirit He prays that we as believers “...may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you (vs.21)…I in them and you in me (vs.23)“... Our oneness is possible because God is already at one with us in the humanity of the crucified Son whose sacrifice made us one with Him. All of this is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

With this kind of a support system we have everything going for us. Jesus and His Word is our personal support system. To know that every part of us is lifted up in His prayer sets the pattern for how we are to pray for the local part of the Body of Christ to which we belong. We pray for ourselves to reveal His glory by bringing oneness in Jesus our Savior and Lord. We pray for deepening of our understanding of the beliefs we share and the application of the Word in our own lives and in the lives of our brothers and sisters. We pray that they may have the heart knowledge as well as belief to ‘know Him’ within as they go about their daily lives. We pray that their spirits may be invigorated to act in the ‘knowing’ they have been given.

Practically it means we pray,
That all the spiritual gifts be studied, practiced, shared and energized in the life of the Body. Again, as we have already said, this is ‘where the rubber hits the road.”

That inspiration to seek counsel in Scripture will be expanded by increased study and sharing.

That worship be filled with the Spirit’s fullness.

That prayer groups will be encouraged and multiplied and will exercise ministries beyond their borders.

That every relational contact we have during each day will be soaked with a consciousness of God’s having initiated that contact for His purpose just as Jesus prayed, “…that the world may believe you have sent me (vs.21).”

This is only the beginning of how we can be more effective in the prayer life we have the privilege to exercise. It’s right there in Scripture and finds it fulfillment in Jesus. “Ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be opened (Mt.7:7-8 NIV).”