Rice Cake Prayer and Skirt Steak Hearts

I don't know if you have every taken a bite out of a piece of rice cake before but it's about as pleasant of an experience as eating card-board. No flavor, hard crusty texture, difficult to chew and mostly uninviting. Truth be told, I think some born-again Christians feel this way about praying. To them it's an uninviting process that yields little or no results. I know. I once very much felt this way about spending time with the Lord. Yes, I loved God and even feared him. But I needed to experience Him, learn His voice, become familiar with the manifestation of HIS presence and all of the blessings that flow from it. And all of this really begins for us in our time with him.....In Spiritual Prayer.

Their is a saying in the business world when it comes to "Salesmanship": Facts Tell but Stories Sell. Let's tell some Stories.

In the late spring of 1996 I was renting a room from a friend of mine who owned a home in Frisco, TX. One day before going to work I sat down on the edge of my bed to pray for about 30 minutes. When I started to pray, I began to speak and pray in a foreign language that was unfamiliar to me. It seemed of Slavic origin like Russian or Polish, possibly some type of Easter European language. This lasted for about 2 minutes. I was literally praying in a foreign language.

"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages (tongues) as the Spirit enabled them." Acts 2:4

When the words stopped coming out of my mouth I just sat their in awe wondering what was going on. I finished my prayer time, went to work and slowly but surely, throughout the day, I began to get very sick. I got so sick that I had to miss work for 2 weeks. I was completely bed-ridden from that day forward for about 10 days. I could barely stand up and move around more than 15 minutes at a time. I was very sick.

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin." 1 Peter 4:1

Something interesting was happening to me through that whole experience. Over those 2 weeks I began to posses an insatiable hunger to read scripture. You see, I was still young in the Lord and really had no desire to read my Bible very much. The Lord saw this deficiency in me and addressed it, both through a time of intense spiritual prayer and through the subsequent sickness and transformation of my heart that I experienced through it. While I was on my back for those 10 days, I was in effect actually laying on an operating table of sorts.

God was cutting a measure of the flesh out of my heart. It was a measure of flesh that was keeping me from getting closer to the Lord. Have you ever prepared and cooked Skirt Steak (Fajita Meat)? This cut of meat comes from the belly of the cow. It is a tough cut of meat and has its share of fat and a silver skin attached to it. This skin is an unchewable plastic like membrane that must be removed before cooking and eating.

This was what was happening in my heart through all of this. The Lord was circumcising an unyielded, fleshly, unusable portion of my heart through this infirmity. And in the process I began to have an insatiable appetite for both scriptures and more time in prayer. You don't believe that? Judge it by the fruit. Nothing but righteousness came out of that whole experience. And who was I praying for or what was I praying for in that unknown spiritual tongue? I am not really sure. But I do know that things changed from that day forward with my relationship with the Lord. I was experiencing Spiritual Prayer....in one if its many facets.

During the entire year of 2003 and part of 2004 my family and I attended a church in Richardson, TX. Because our oldest son Kevin was 15 at the time we were subsequently involved in the youth program. This church did not have a youth pastor for most of 03' so we were graciously invited by the senior pastor to help out at times until they brought someone in. When they finally did hire a youth pastor my wife and I were asked by the new YP to continue in the roll we had been playing. We agreed and formed a good relationship with the man that took the job. Sometime around November of that year, on a Sunday morning, I had been in prayer before the Sunday service and during my time of prayer the Lord spoke to me and told me to tell the youth and the youth leadership to fast one day a week through December. He told me he wanted us to devote that month praying that the Lord would move on this group of kids.

So on this Sunday, I went to the YP (youth pastor) and told him what the Lord had spoken to me while praying that morning. He looked at me and said, "Jay, the Lord told me the same thing." So we held a meeting with about 30 or 40,the seminary interns from Christ for the Nations Seminary, and some of the parents that were active in helping and ministering with the youth. During this meeting I stood up and shared with everyone, about 50 people in all, what the Lord had spoken to me and asked everyone to fast one day a week and pray throughout the entire month of December for the youth program. Many people made a commitment on some level for the entire month and we subsequenty went about doing what God had told us to do. We dismissed everyone and stopped holding meetings for the month of December because of the holidays.

We re-convened in January, 2004. All of the adult leadership, the YP, the seminary interns from CFNI and some (not all) of the youth came back together for a leadership meeting around the first week of the new year. When we did it was amazing to see what God had been doing in response to our obedience to pray and fast. The meeting in and of itself took on a level of power and anointing. Prophecy began to flow, people were being convicted of their sins and one lady was baptized in the Holy Spirit. While I was standing in the front of the room I looked at the back row where three of our youth were standing and the Lord spoke to me and gave me an individual prophetic word for all three of them. The Lord spoke to me by the word of knowledge (1 Cor 12:8) and told me what primary spiritual gifts he had put in each one of them. Things just started to move in God.

Two more key things happened because of all of our fasting and praying. One, the Lord began to expose some hidden sins and heart issues in our young adult interns from CFNI. We ended up having to take all of them aside and minister to them one night a week in seperate meetings designed just for them. And through all of that you could see real growth and foundation emerging in them because God was dealing with their hearts. The second thing the Lord did was to change the spiritual and physical atmosphere in our youth meetings. When we officially re-convened in January,  on our first Wednesday night meeting with ALL of the youth, as soon as we walked into the sanctuary, you could literally sense a change in the atmosphere of the entire building. My wife and I weren't the only ones that sensed it. You could literally feel the peace of God in the sanctuary. The air felt lighter, cleaner, brighter, holier. It had a heavenly feel to it. It was more peaceful and orderly. The Lord had literally changed the atmosphere of the room.....and it was in response to our prayer and fasting. God was responding to Spiritual Prayer.

Spiritual Prayer has facets. It has more than one characteristic, phase or aspect to it. In my understanding, real Spiritual Prayer has roughly about 8 or 9 aspects. They are very simple, easy to understand and easy to walk in. It's not hard , not complicated and it GETS RESULTS. Let's talk about the first four.

First, we need to step towards the Lord. Just move towards Him. Reach for the hem of his Robe.

"Come near to God..." James 4:8
"Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Come close to me.'" Genesis 45:4

Move towards the Lord. Just talk. Sit down and talk. Open up. Move towards the Lord. He's not going to bite. Just move towards him. He's going to respond to our movement. Move towards him.

Step #2. Examine your self.

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you- unless, of course, you fail the test?" 2 Corinthians 13:5

Romans 12:3, 1 Corinthians 11:28-32 and 1 Timothy 4:16 all refer to our need to regularly take a good, long and hard look in the mirror. Why?.......

Step #3. Respond to Conviction. I hope this doesn't quickly come across as me being negative. But the bottom line is that sin gets in the way of our moving on to other things with God. Remember my analogy of the flank steak? The Lord wants to cut on us on a regular basis to release us into freedom and peace. Some people say God doesn't see our sin anymore. That's hogwash. Yes, we may approach God with freedom and confidence in Christ (Hebrews 4) but that doesn't mean when we do that he won't point out things to us that need changing. Consider the following verse:

"Your iniquities have separated you from God." Isaiah 59:2

Sin separates us from God. The more we sin the farther we move away from him and the more faint his voice gets. Repentance is the process of moving towards the Lord, responding to his conviction by confessing our sins, experiencing his forgiveness and moving on towards better things with our Father.

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." 1 John 1:8-10

The apostle John wrote this too believers. The circumcision of our hearts is a process. And we deceive ourselves if we ignore that fact. If the Lord shows me something that is not right about my heart (i.e. sin) then I just need to confess it to the Lord and ask him to bring me into the purification process and circumcise my heart. He brings us into the fire and takes the dross out. Read the previous post on Seasons of Fire. This isn't complicated. Man-made theology has brought confusion to so many in our time. It's time to get clear on what amounts to a very simple process.

Move towards the Lord. Just talk to him. Open your heart to him. That is step #1. Step #2, Exam yourself. Ask the Lord to give you revelation about your heart. Talk to the Lord and ask him to help you self-examine. Step #3, Respond to conviction "if" he brings it."

"This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear Friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." 1 John 3:19-22

If and when we get before him, if your heart is condemning/convicting you, then set your heart to rest by confessing your sin. Look, God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything. If your heart condemns you, confess your sin. If the Lord shows you that you need to carry out some action to make things right then go do the thing God is telling you to do. Make things right with God and with men. And if your heart is right at the moment, if their is no condemnation, then let us enjoy the presence of our Father. Have confidence before him and receive from him in your stance and position of obedience.

Step #4, Prayer is continuous. It is something we "learn" to do continually.

"Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:16

Read Luke 5:16, Romans 12:12, Ephesians 1:17, Eph 6:18, Colossians 1:9, Col 4:2,12, 1 Thessalonians 3:10, 1 Thess 5:17. The scriptures are replete with passages that admonishes us to be continuous in prayer. Be consistent. Prayer is continuous. Before the day is over, hopefully we will have moved towards the Lord several times. The process we are describing is a repetetive one. It's normal. I correct my kids all the time. But I also praise, hug, kiss and encourage them all the time. Enjoy the process.

This stuff is so simple and fundamental yet the nature of man, the sinful nature, the Adamic nature causes us to drift from fundamental truth. Then we want to know why the Peace of God is no longer there in our lives. It's because we have moved away from simple things that make us powerful and peaceful in Christ. Be fundamentally strong. Be foundationally strong. Put your Fundare to use and be close to God, peaceful in God, powerful in God. This game we play is fundamental. The Kingdom of God, our relationship with the Father, is about fundamentals.

Get some results!!!! You have to be foundationally, fundamentally strong in prayer if you want to hear God's voice. I heard someone say one time that "If you want to hear God talk, just ask him about money." That's semi-ridiculous. That statement may be true on some levels. God does talk to us about money. But if you want to hear God talk to you, ask him if there is any area of your life where he has given you the capacity to walk in HOLINESS and instead you are resisting him. Look, God is trying to get as much of his peace into us as he can. But if we resist him by refusing to acknowledge his voice in conviction when he is trying to trim the fat off of our SKIRT STEAK HEARTS then we will never posses that measure of inheritance.

Posses your inheritance. God has good plans for all of us. He just wants to get the nonsense out of the way so we can move onto more peaceful and joyful things in HIM. Move towards the Lord. He's not going to cook you and eat you. As long as we are sincere, He's going to put his arm around us and remind us of what is not right. We are going to confess it. He is going to forgive, he is going to light a fire and start purifying.....and we are all going to move on with HIM.

We do this everyday. This is an everyday process that ultimately, hopefully, culminates in hearts that are fully dealt with in the fullness of time. The Lord teaches us how to engage with him in real Spiritual Prayer and through the process he trims off the fat and unusable portions of our hearts so we can get on to bigger and better things in HIM. Amen?

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/
jayblackshear@yahoo.com