Prayer is the doorway to experiencing God. Prayer is the place where this knowing blossoms and flourishes into friendship.
TRANSCRIPT
Please note: this transcript is auto-generated so forgive any (or many) errors 😲 – click the timestamps to play that section directly in the audio.
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Prayer is a doorway to experience God. Of course, we can know his presence in corporate worship. We can enjoy the anointing and the move of the spirit through the preaching of the word when we sat in a congregation. But personal experience comes as we grow to know him for ourselves. Many people are believers live in a kind of a shadow spiritual life. They stand in the half-light of being saved, but they lack that vital engagement and daily communion, daily communication and connection with the God that they claim to serve.
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And they they have been invited to come and to know. And for many people, that the greatest, deepest encounters and experiences that they have are ones that they have had in a corporate setting. And I don’t want to discount that. I don’t want to downplay that. I don’t want to say that it’s either more or less important. But if there’s not that same kind of engagement privately, then really there is something something missing. You know, if we have to come in like soul, when he came into the vicinity of the Minstrel’s and the prophets and began to prophesy because he came under an umbrella of the anointing, I mean, that’s one thing.
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But we want to be a David. He can sit out in the lonely fields by themselves and usher in the presence of God in the absence of anything else to prop us up. It has, of course, been saved and assured of the destination is a really incredibly marvellous thing, but God wants to enjoy the journey on the way there together with you. You know, his hand is extended, his face is turned in your direction. And he is calling you today to know him in a personal and a very beautiful close way.
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And prayer is the place where this knowing blossoms and flourishes into friendship. The scriptures say that Abraham was a friend of God. And I believe that we as the children of Abraham, one of the things that one of the kind of identifying features of believers that we are called in the scriptures, if we as the children of Abraham, I believe that we can enter in to that same place of just wonder in being a friend of the almighty. And there is this broad, magnificent spectrum of experience waiting for you.
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There are so many colours and hues that make up this palette we call praying. I spoke just yesterday about a just about how broad the spectrum of communication is. But it’s not just the expressions that come from us to him, but his warm expressions of love and confidence and boldness and acceptance and embrace that come back. Even correction correction from the Almighty is something that we save as something that we invite, something that we embrace, something that we love.
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And so this this thing that we call praying is so much more than saying our prayers or repeating dutiful Thanksgivings, it is an ever deepening, always surprising, endlessly delightful road of discovery. We find out who he is. We find out who we are. We open our heart in unfailing trust and find that God knows us better than we know ourselves. He ministers, if you like, to the person behind the person and draws the real you to the surface so you can begin to fully explore what life really means.
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You know, words like, come inside, follow me, come up here. Look at this. Did you know conversation with the king? And you’re not barred from entry, you’re not pinned on the periphery somewhere looking through the window, you like trying to peer inside to see if you can catch a glimpse. You’ve been invited to, like, just bust down the doors and run in and leap into your father’s lap. Your place is said, dear friend, your name is is inscribed on the hands that so long to touch you and draw you close.
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Prayer is the doorway. Prayer is the road. Prayer is the avenue that’s going to lead you into this encounter and into this experience. And will it happen overnight? Is it a click of the fingers and suddenly everything changes? It’s certainly possible, but maybe not. You know, the problem is we’ve been trained for most of our lives to live on the surface and to deny the genuine, genuine nature and to focus so often on the outward things.
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Digging deep, digging into the deep and plumbing, the depths of who we are really demands change and often takes time. And, you know, people might say, well, is it easy? It’s simple. It’s in that aspect of being. Yes, it’s simple. Is it easy? No, no, it’s not easy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. You know, the prayer the prayer palette has so many comforts, but it also carries an arsenal of weapons that you will need to utilise to fight unknown enemies, invisible enemies, enemies both within and without.
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Before you obtain the prise, you know, if you’re coming into this world of prayer, expect some resistance, expect to have to stand against some things, expect to have to stand up to some things and really push through so you can obtain so you can take hold. And that’s part of the joy of it, is that, you know, it’s it’s not just handed on a plate, it’s something that’s just so that we we win the prise, we discover the gold, we take a hold of something and accomplish there’s an accomplishment, a sense of breakthrough, a sense of victory that comes when we pray to the point where we really pray.
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And there is no greater joy, there’s no greater sense of satisfaction than stepping in to the that the wonder of God’s presence. Can I be assured of what I’m looking for? Absolutely, you know, but the interesting thing is we come in sometimes thinking that we’re looking for something in particular, only to find that that is not the thing that we were looking for after all. We think that we want X, Y, Z, and then the closer we come to the presence, you know, in the light and the perspective that prayer gives us, we find that the father has something far better prepared for us.
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All of the tools, all of the weaponry, everything that’s necessary has been placed in your hand to win, to overcome, to receive and to contribute at a level that you presently think impossible. You know, the word of God is in our hands, this treasure chest of keys that open like this multitude of spiritual doors, each one leading to a fresh experience of the father’s power and love. You know, if we were to pull the keys out, we could look at them and they’ll all have tags on faith, experience, faith, hope, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, power, righteousness, holiness, revelation, eternity.
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All of these want to become more than words. We want to experience them. We want to taste and see that the Lord is good, not just read and see. We want to imbibe of his reality with every with all of the senses at our disposal. There are more than words, more than concepts, more than theology. These are invitations, my dear friends, invitations to know him, to experience his presence and his reality. And we want to step from just mere assent and nodding our head in agreement with a concept to actually experiencing it for ourself.
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I think that Jesus said it best when if we if we if we were to ask the question, how do I step from merely assenting to the idea of holiness or merely assenting to the idea of eternity or hope or love or joy or peace or goodness, how do I move from mere assent to actual experience for myself? And I think Jesus put it best in Matthew five six. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. The word righteousness can be translated broadly.
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God’s way of being and God’s way of doing. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after God’s way of being and doing for they shall be filled. Your hunger, your thirst for the real thing will lead. You follow that hunger and thirst for God into the prayer closet, away from all of the other things that vie for your affections and your attention and focus your hard on the priceless reward of prayer, knowing God in an ever deepening, ever more delightful communion and connexion.
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Well, thanks for listening, hopefully. It’s been an encouragement to you today, if you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.
