Articles

Pray is so serious we need to know the value of play and experimentation to learn it well.

---

00:00:02.350]
We’re talking this month about upgrading our prayer life. And as part of that, we’re also looking at the importance of curiosity and childlike exploration, like together with the Holy Ghost, not getting so hung up on ourselves or so big for our boots that we fail to understand that there is room for play in what we do in prayer. It really is that powerful if we will allow the Holy Spirit to lead us and teach us through experimentation and exploration. And I do believe that is very much a part not just of the early years, but God always wants to lead us forward, always wants to take us further. And really the only way to learn to pray is to pray. Not boring prayers, not same old, same old prayers, not just repeating the same mantras like day after day after day, add infinite but heartfelt fervent, whole being prayers that really grip your inner man. Engaging with the Holy Spirit will lead you to express your inner man in ways that sometimes maybe feels unnatural or unfamiliar to you. Your flesh will kick against God’s ways because they don’t always fit with what’s usually comfortable or familiar.

00:01:35.630]
And that’s why it’s important, I think, to learn the importance of play, to experiment and to joyfully explore fresh expressions of Grace that will arise from your heart, naturally or supernaturally, if you like. As you work with the Holy Spirit, instead of getting hung up on the rights and wrongs, we just jump into the sandbox and have some fun. We go places that we wouldn’t normally go, secure in the knowledge that the Holy Ghost is there to train us. God has given the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, and really growing and expanding our palate of prayer is something that he wants to do. The more tools we can have in our hand, the more effective we can be when we engage in those real needs that sometimes present themselves. The problem is sometimes we come to those needs, and we’ve never actually learned to shoot our arrows, if you like. We’ve never been down on the firing range, like learning how to work in prayer. And that’s why I stress this idea of play, stress this idea of kind of joyful discovery, because we can do and grow and become much better prayers that way.

00:03:06.280]
So when the real deal lands on the table, we’re not kind of scrambling for what to do or how to work with the Holy Spirit to resolve those things. And it’s actually sometimes the most uncomfortable and unfamiliar expressions of devotion that crack open the most fresh revelations and breakthroughs for us. And so in that if you’re a naturally noisy person, maybe you need to learn and intentionally come in and explore the beauty of silence. And then, of course, the naturally quiet people often need to let that inner lion roar. They need to break out of that self consciousness or that kind of nervous quietness that sometimes may invade the prayer closet and just let rip. Each expression becomes another tool that we can use when the time is right, times when it really matters. And becoming familiar with the tools and technologies that God has equipped us with in prayer through intentional experimentation is how we grow comfortable and gain insight and skill. So we are ready when the time comes for actual spiritual engagement. And so I’m just going to talk about a couple of playful experiments today, and we’ll continue this as we go forward.

00:04:36.410]
There are all sorts of different experiments and playful explorations that we can make, but these are two very, very obvious ones, and yet they are ones that sometimes we shy away from into our comfort zone. Number one, get loud if you are generally very quiet, if you’re a reserved prayer, I urge you to find somewhere appropriate and get loud. And when I say loud, I mean really loud. Shout, cry, bellow, do whatever is necessary to break off that exterior and really tear open that inner man and just Lee that lion roar. Scripture even says of Jesus that he often prayed with strong crying. These aren’t polite, politically correct prayers designed to upset no one and cause no ripples. They were a storm of passionate faith unleashed from his heart. Hebrews 5:7 reads, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him who was able to save him from death, was heard in that he feared. Now, the picture here is not of like something polite. It’s not of something that feels safe necessarily. It is very much the tearing open of the inner man in the presence of God and human flesh by nature is by nature really quite timid and fearful.

00:06:23.100]
Often it whoops and hollers at a sports game, but simmers to an icy chill in the prayer meeting. I mean, how often does that happen? Strong men, like wild women, somehow get into the prayer meeting and turn into these kind of very reserved, nice, quiet people. What is going on there? Crush that tendency to polite, praying and wholeheartedly engaged in this thunderous experiment. Exodus 15:3 says, The Lord is a man of war. And then again in Isaiah we read, The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He will stir up jealousy like a man of war. He will cry, yes, raw, and he will prevail against his enemies. Sometimes there will come circumstances. The devil will unleash something in your life that requires you to cry and roar in order to prevail. And it’s good if we’ve experimented, if we’ve gone into the sandbox, played with the Holy Ghost, enjoyed his presence and allowed him to teach and train us in this. It’s important, you know, and, you know, there is a time for this ferocious nature to be expressed. And then secondly, so we’ve looked at get loud. And there’s a lot more I could say about that and the benefits of it, really.

00:07:54.860]
I’ve discovered so much in this place of really not caring what anyone else would think and just giving vent to that inner well, letting those Rivers flow. But what we want to do next is get quiet. Maybe that you are naturally quite loud, and the idea of just shouting and hollering is not so frightening to you is surprisingly, the most frightening thing might be for you to simmer down and get quiet. And in the same way that scripture encourages loudness, it also leads us by still waters of solitude and silence. The spectrum of expression in prayer that we are encouraged to engage in is so broad and so beautiful. We’re all familiar with the scripture, be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46 Ten Taking time in the flurry of daily life to dissimilar down and for the inner life to settle into quietness will carry you to places that really no amount of activity can take you. It’s easy to fall into the nervous trap of always thinking something has to be said. In our modern times more than ever, I believe it’s like those moments, those in between moments make us feel very uncomfortable.

00:09:34.110]
We’re always reaching for a device. We’ve always got some noise that our ears are being subjected to or our eyes have been subjected to, and our flesh can crawl at the thought of solitude. But silence, silence forces introspection, and a natural man prefers to keep things on the surface. And so in this experiment, I encourage you to set time aside, significant enough time to get through the discomfort you might feel and simply be before God. For me, a real key here has been not to wrestle my mind, but just to let thoughts come and go. Sometimes we can try and harness our mind and make it calm down, make it, in a sense, stop thinking about a multitude of different things. And this is where having significant time to stop and to simmer down and to quiet yourself before God is important. Because we live in such tumultuous times and we’re often engaged in so much activity, it takes time for all of that sediment to drift to the bottom, if you like, and for the waters to be still again within our heart. So just don’t wrestle. Just let the thoughts come and go.

00:11:15.770]
The key to silent delight is not to fight, not to strain. Effort often disturbs the waters up and makes the murky again. But as time passes, the kicking and screaming of your fleshly mind will subside, and a peace that passes understanding will take its place. And in this place of silence, in this place of stillness, God can speak to your heart really clearly.

00:11:45.430]
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Hopefully it was a blessing to you. If it was do please consider leaving a rating in a review on whatever platform you are listening on.

00:11:56.560]
I also would love to encourage you.

00:11:58.620]
To check out my new book faithful creative we’ve got a package of resources designed specifically to encourage you in your Christian creative call. You can check that out @ faithfulcreativebook.com and if you choose to pick it up, use the Promo code podcast for 50% off so you’ll get it for half price. Have a great rest of your day and God bless Jesus first everything else follows.

Is there a place for “play” in prayer? I think so…

---

00:00:02.530]
Over the next few days, I’m going to continue exploring this idea of the importance of childlike curiosity in prayer and particularly our now, over the next couple of days, I want to stress, highlight, bring to our attention, consider, discuss, enjoy the importance of play. As I say, we’re just going to be picking up again on this idea of childlike curiosity and just want to point out that growing up does not mean that we should stop playing educationalist. Sir Peter Grey and I don’t know the man, so I can’t comment on anything outside of this quote that I found. But it really sums up some of the thoughts that are behind this idea of allowing the prayer closet to also be a playroom. He says perhaps play would be more respected if we called it something like selfmotivated practise of life skills, but that would remove the light heartedness from it and thereby reduce its effectiveness. So we are stuck with this paradox. We must accept play’s triviality and may I add, seeming triviality in order to realise its profundity. Now sometimes we have a tendency when I say we what I’m talking actually talking about, I guess the Royal we, the man in the mirror.

00:01:51.060]
Sometimes we can get a little big for our boots in the prayer closet and think that we have to approach the whole affair of prayer with this mock seriousness. And it doesn’t mean that there are not times for deep solemnity, deep seriousness. I mean, it is a work that we are involved in as much as play. Do not misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m simply swinging the spotlight round to highlight a particular facet of this wonderful diamond that we call prayer. So don’t misunderstand me. I’m not talking here about overtly, disrespectful or irreverent behaviour, although I do like let’s just parenthesize that with the statement. I think God’s idea of irreverence is sometimes very different to ours, but it’s really just a recognition that we are not quite the warriors of heaven that we sometimes make ourselves out to be. I mean, I think if we had a more realistic perspective up on ourselves, that in some ways we viewed ourselves less seriously in the right sense. As I say, we’re highlighting and emphasising and amplifying one aspect here. So this is not the entire picture. I realise that 100%. Let’s be honest. Sometimes we do take ourselves a little seriously.

00:03:24.790]
Sometimes we do over inflate our own importance and a sense of self importance. We want to diminish that and instead have the focus on God himself, on Jesus. And developing in prayer in reality is as much an act of imagination and creative exploration as it is learning techniques and principles and processes. In reality, discipline and delight coexist in the same closet. Some of the most profound times of learning, breakthrough and growth will come when we let go of self consciousness and embark on an emotionally wholehearted experiment with the Holy Ghost. I think we need to understand that the secret place of prayer can safely become a secret place of play. God, I believe, is a father who loves to play with his children and that the Holy Spirit is a joyful companion to walk with and to learn from, not some miserable schoolmaster waiting to whack you around the head if you get something wrong. In this regard, I encourage you to shake off the dust and start a little dancing. Lift up your voice and sing. Roll out the red carpet and invite the Holy Ghost to lift you spin you, change you, challenge you, delight and discipline you.

00:05:12.000]
Do not be fearful to be free. It’s for freedom that Christ has set you free. So let’s not be bound again with a yoke of bondage that tells us that we must follow an endless list of rules and regulations in order to please God and to operate effectively in the prayer closet. In prayer, you are invited into the fullness of relationship with God and fullness okay, does include a lot of fun, the wonder of private prayer as well. In all of this, there’s public prayer and there’s private prayer. There’s corporate prayer and there’s that individual come into the secret place, close your door prayer. I think that secret prayer, that private prayer is the foundation of everything else in our life. In God. It is the very root and ground of our call in Christ. It’s where the relationship is built and where we can most freely be ourselves and allow God to be himself in relation to us. In private Prayer and this is where I encourage you to be more experimental, more imaginative, more curious, more free, dare I say, more wild, maybe a little wacky sometimes because only God can Lee you.

00:06:54.450]
Only he is hearing you and he knows you inside out anyways. That religious face that you put on, that way of being, that very serious way of approaching everything, he’s not fooled by that. He knows that inside that Manly or womanly exterior is still a little kid crying to get out and have some fun and take some time with their parents, take some time with their friends and explore new avenues. I believe that we need to unleash that inner child, if you like, inside the prayer closet as much as we need to harness all of that Manly strength and that womanly strength in serious intercession, so it’s both and not either or. You may look awesome and be revered by other people, but here in the prayer closet, you are ultimately just a kid in his father’s embrace. I guess in some ways it’s very difficult to impress God if we’re trying to impress Him in our own natural ways with all of our, like, natural accolades. I think that God is more impressed by things that may be looked down upon by the world and by the natural man. He’s impressed by humility. He’s impressed by childlikeness.

00:08:43.440]
He’s impressed by simplicity of heart and sure there are absolutely times to be serious but not all the time. And just in closing, I’m going to continue this probably over the next few days with some concrete examples of some playful experiments and exploration you may want to do in prayer but let’s remember that we never begin any endeavour as an expert. We become skilled and accurate by practise and we often practise through play. I encourage you in your desire to upgrade your prayer life that you would add play exploration, curiosity childlike discovery to the mix. Put that right there in the recipe and dollop it in good amounts because through it you’re going to find yourself invited into experiences that you would otherwise never have enjoyed and never have explored.

00:10:06.830]
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Hopefully it was a blessing to you. If it was do please consider leaving a rating in a review on whatever platform you are listening on.

00:10:17.960]
I also would love to encourage you.

00:10:20.020]
To check out my new book faithful creative we’ve got a package of resources designed specifically to encourage you in your Christian creative call. You can check that out @ faithfulcreativebook.com and if you choose to pick it up, use the promo code podcast for 50% off so you’ll get it for half price. Have a great rest of your day and God bless Jesus first everything else follows.

Sonship is a whole realm of deep revelation. As with each of the ‘upgrades’ we’re covering every one of them would take a lifetime of study to comprehend and an eternity to experience. Knowing the Father is revolutionary.

Consider the prayer path Jesus laid out to His early disciples.

What profoundly simple words do we begin with?

“Our Father…”

---

00:00:01.930]
So this month we’re talking about prayer and specifically about the idea of upgrading your prayer life. A number of years ago, the Holy Ghost spoke to me and basically said that prayer is like a spiritual technology, and then proceeded to tell me that I needed an upgrade. Maybe it was time for me to trade in some of my old ways of approaching and understanding prayer and embrace something new or something more advanced. Yeah, God wants us to advance. He wants us to move forward.

00:00:44.360]
There is always room for us to grow and to understand him more and to be more effective. The Bible talks about effective fervent prayer. We want to see, we want to be effectual in the way that we operate in the realm of the Spirit and of course, in our relationship with the Saviour, with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. It’s like a relationship that is not growing and deepening, especially one as close as your connection with God, is kind of weird. It says something not quite right with that, just in the same way as a marriage should grow richer and deeper and more full as the years go on.

00:01:34.760]
So we want to see this incredible relationship we have with God through prayer flourish week by week, month by month, year by year, moment by moment, even. We’ve spoken a little about our dual citizenship, that we are both citizens of Earth, but also we’ve been brought into a citizenship of heaven through the blood of Christ. But God’s invitation actually goes far beyond just citizenship of the heavenly Commonwealth, which in itself is remarkable. But our Daddy has gone even further than that, bringing us into his very own family. Scripture reads, now, therefore, you are no more strangers or foreigners but fellow citizens.

00:02:29.930]
There’s that word again with the Saints and of the household of God. Ephesians 2:19 and perhaps even more astounding those verses continue in him. And I’m reading from the Amplified now and in fellowship with one another, you yourselves are also being built up into this structure with the rest to form a fixed abode, a dwelling place of God in, by and through the Spirit, an abode and a dwelling place of God that we are being built together as a habitation for him to reside and abide in. He has sent the Holy Spirit, my dear brothers and sisters, to live in us, in, by and through his Spirit. He has made this possible.

00:03:25.150]
How amazing is that? Understand this in prayer. There are so many different levels that we can stand upon. We exercise our identity and we see results. But as with myself and I’m sure with you wear different hats.

00:03:46.650]
Our identity is not just a narrow this is it. I’m a father, I’m a husband. I’m a friend, I’m an acquaintance. I’m a businessman, et cetera, et cetera. There are lots of different ways in which I turn up in order to function and accomplish what I am called to do.

00:04:11.670]
And I believe it’s the same in prayer. It’s the same in the Spirit. Sometimes God will call us to embody his authority and his word and our identity in Him in one way. And then other times he’ll come and call us out in a different way. So sometimes he may call you to stand up in your divine authority in Christ and really in your role as a soldier in the army of God, declaring truth, routing the devil, plundering the stolen goods that Satan has torn from people’s lives.

00:04:52.200]
At other times, the Holy Spirit will woo you into the bridled intimacy that we see in books like the Song of Solomon and elsewhere. Just so naked and open. Yeah, your whole being feels just ravished and refreshed to the core by his love. And again, sometimes you may step into the closet and he’ll shine a light on your sonship. And of course, that goes for you daughters, too.

00:05:22.340]
The Holy Spirit will powerfully speak to you as an heir of God, chosen and appointed together with Christ. When I think about this and think about sonship, I’ve experienced some things in prayer that really drove this home to my heart. But it made me ask the question, could you ever imagine Jesus himself coming to the Father with a request and then being turned away? Now, I suspect that your answer is probably no. You can’t imagine the Father just turning Jesus away, ignoring Jesus like not hearing Him, not responding to him.

00:06:05.590]
Yet we also come as a son and a daughter every time we pray. So why is it that sometimes, maybe often? I hope not. But why do we sometimes feel that God might be reluctant to hear and answer our supplications? This whole realm of Sunshine and the revelation of Sunshine is a realm in itself that we could explore for a lifetime, and indeed we will, and far beyond that.

00:06:37.110]
But as with all of the different upgrades that we’re covering every one of them, we’re going to have an eternity to experience each one of them. And knowing our Father, knowing God as our Father, leaning in and comprehending our sonship or our Daughterhood is revolutionary. Mark these words. Knowing the Father is what is important, not just knowing about him. God is not some distant deity.

00:07:16.170]
God is up close and very, very personal. Many Christians, unfortunately, operate more like strangers and foreigners when it comes to prayer. Born again brothers and sisters really acting like orphans. Consider the prayer path that Jesus laid out through his early disciples and the prayer path that is so powerfully present for us to follow today. It begins with what words?

00:07:46.290]
Our Father, the Holy Ghost himself, we’re told, lives within us and stirs our hearts to passionately cry Abba, Father, Daddy, God Romans 815 You’ve not received the spirit of bondage against fear. You’ve received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, Daddy, God. And again the same is said in Galatians Four, verse S, Romans 8:15. Galatians 4:6 says the same thing. And because you are sons and daughters, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father, what an amazing place to begin.

00:08:36.850]
As children, this is how we pray. I’ve rarely seen a child who is confident of their parents love, who is shy to boldly ask for what they want. Even I, such a starkly, imperfect dad, seek every way I possibly can to bless and build my kids. Now my highest delight as a dad is to meet their needs and answer their requests with sometimes unreasonable generosity. Are they deserving of it always?

00:09:12.300]
No. But then, nor am I. How much more? Our Father in Heaven the following verses. Most of us would be familiar with these, but they are worth citing and reading in full right now.

00:09:27.850]
In prayer we ask, we seek, we knock, and our sonship does so, and gives us grounds to do so with utmost expectation. Cheque this out. Matthew seven seven to eleven. Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you will find.

00:09:45.780]
Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives. He that seeks finds, and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. That’s a good place to just stop and do a little happy dance. Or what man is there of you?

00:10:05.030]
Whom, if his Son asks bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil by comparison to God, the Perfect One, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good gifts to them who ask Him? We need to act like sons and daughters, not like orphans.

00:10:31.250]
I think that the orphan spirit may well be the root most responsible for the endless contention and confusion experienced in the body of Christ. Insecure foundations in the hearts of God’s children really make the Devil’s job pretty easy. Now he doesn’t need even to lift a finger. As long as we are spending all of our energies comparing, competing and coveting sibling rivalries in the house of God are enough to splinter and dilute our power. Unity of heart under the Fatherhood of God as sons and daughters releases incredible power.

00:11:18.490]
These roots of Relationship Sonship roots you in security. The revelation of Sunshine is the cure to confusion. It’s a fearless foundation from which you can confidently then pray. Now, these roots of relationship, as I say, are something that you must search out and cultivate in the same way. As a strong, healthy tree has strong, healthy roots, I guess we could consider Sunship and the revelation of Sunshine as our essential root system.

00:11:55.240]
Your love for God, and even more importantly, his love for you is the root and ground of every fruit that you will ever bear in your Christian life. So I encourage you in your seeking to upgrade your prayer life, press hard into the heart of God to grasp this reality with both hands. The Bible tells us that we are able to draw near with full assurance. And this moving in to the reality and experience of sonship can honestly, sometimes be painful. It’s a journey that requires a healing of our heart, letting go of hurts forgiving taking hold of truths that sometimes seem too good to be true.

00:12:45.550]
A natural man can push away and seek to take hold of certain truths. They come too close to home. It’s easier to live in our pain than it is to allow the Father to come in and make us whole and say, this is not an easy journey for us all to take. It’s going to pose different challenges for each of us as we go through some of those with many tears. Sunships digs deep into your identity.

00:13:22.910]
But as you allow God to excavate your heart, something amazing takes place. So don’t be in a rush and don’t fall into the trap of turning prayer into something just merely transactional. You’re not coming into a corporate boardroom to convince the Trinity to acquiesce to your proposal. You’re coming to a loving Father who is eager to answer. There’s a wonderful verse in Ephesians chapter two.

00:13:56.950]
I’ll read verses 2:12 to 13. At one time you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope. And without God in the world. Now there’s an orphan spirit, if ever there is one described. But now, but now, but the butts of Scripture are some of the greatest you will ever find.

00:14:26.390]
Look for that little word B UT and you will see such transformation. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are brought near by the blood of Christ in Hebrews 1022. Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, and I give time and prayer to this. Let God’s love carry you from law to Grace come near. Let every resistance to this remarkable reality of your invitation into the very heart and family of God.

00:15:09.550]
Let every resistance be dissolved as you spend time in the presence of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It will take prayer, much prayer and it will take time, much time. These are the costly components of a powerful prayer life. Now, don’t believe for a minute that prayer is cheap. Your entrance into Grace is, of course, paid in full.

00:15:39.690]
You can add nothing to it because Jesus life was laid down for you. But really, now we are in the process of learning to lay our lives down. There is a death of the old man that needs to take place for the new man to be realised.

00:16:03.190]
This is not cheap, this is not easy. This is not just a kind of I’m going to just throw out a few haphazard prayers for a few minutes a day. You have to get into this. You have to move in, close the door on the world and really bear your heart in the presence of God. We need to lay our life down in order to taste the full benefit of a life raised from the dead.

00:16:35.710]
What is true in theory and just kind of mere bare theology must become true in our naked experience. We need to experience these truths for ourselves but let me encourage you the cost even though we’re talking about costly components of a powerful prayer life let me encourage you the cost is so little compared to the prize. Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Hopefully it was a blessing to you if it was do please consider leaving a rating in a review on whatever platform you are listening on. I also would love to encourage you to check out my new book faithful creative we’ve got a package of resources designed specifically to encourage you in your Christian creative call.

00:17:32.630]
You can check that out @ faithfulcreativebook.com and if you choose to pick it up use the promo code podcast for 50% off so you’ll get it for half price. Have a great rest of your day and God bless Jesus first everything else follows.