• Are we doing this?
• The Lord has told us to “be” about a number of things that are for our spiritual and physical benefit. In some cases ignoring them will be to the detriment of our lives
• Possibly the greatest threat to today’s Church is the laxity with which we treat the Word. For example, how many of us are habitually watching and praying to escape the things that are coming? (Luke 21: 36). Are we serious about this?
• “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers“. (1 Peter 4:7)
• Here we are quite specifically told to do something: be watchful, be at prayer, be serious about it. Are we?

PAYING ATTENTION

• There are a number of scriptures that urge us to be alert. Each one of these texts insists that we pay attention to what the Spirit is saying through the text. Meditate on these verses.
• “Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13)
• “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (2 Peter 3:12-14)
• “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13 )
• “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2 )
• “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philipians 3:20 )
• “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do‘.” (Luke 17:10)
• Are we doing these things?

ACTING ON OUR BELIEF

• The Word is given for our edification (= building up). If we don’t act out what it clearly says, we will not grow to our full stature (Ephesians 4: 13).
• For instance, we might fully believe in a literal, personal and physical return of Jesus to earth. But if we’re not “looking for it” and “eagerly awaiting” His return, then we are NOT fully believing the Word! To “believe” in Greek means more than to give mental assent; it also means to “act on“.
• In fact 2 Peter 3: 12 says that we should be looking for the return of Jesus and in doing so we actually hasten His coming. Now that’s challenging theology! But that’s what the Bible says.
• If we’re actively looking for the Lord’s return, eagerly desiring it, and looking forward to it happening, then we’re helping it to come about. I don’t understand all the meaning behind it but that’s what the Word of God says – we hasten His return.
• So on this level alone we can see that we’re being commanded by God to do something. So there must be other verses that are “directive texts” that we’ve probably overlooked as well.
• Paul encourages us to keep a right focus, on heavenly issues not on earthly concerns. Even on this level, if we did this and acted on the Word we’d be a whole lot better off. How many times a day do we lose our focus and let the world redirect our gaze? The Word is giving us the antidote – set your mind on things above (Colossians 3: 2).

NEXT STEP

• Most of the difficulties we face revolve around not bridging the gap between “doctrine” and “application”.
• We believe alright but often find it hard to act out that belief and apply it to our daily walk.
• This is one of the most glaring omissions in training and equipping today’s saints. We know an awful lot about doctrines and teachings, but not so much on how to apply them so that they bring us to maturity.
• The Jewish (and therefore Biblical) concept of equipping was to teach “on the job” – hence Jesus’ statement “Come follow me” and see what I do. There are plenty out there who will teach you, but not so many who will show you how to apply that teaching.
• I believe that this will be rectified in the coming release of the Five Fold ministry.But even if we didn’t have the Biblical concept of leadership (ie. local Elders and trans-local Five Fold ministry), we still have the Word to instruct us.

As seen earlier, there are a number of texts that insist that we “perform” them. Doing what they say. I encourage and challenge you to re-read those Scriptures and begin to do what they say. The rewards come only when we do what the Word says should be done.

The Issachar Ministry

Teaching by
Peter McArthur

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For centuries there has been an approach to prayer, which involves “praying Scripture”. It’s
known by the Latin phrase Lectio Divina. It’s basically a way of allowing Scriptural texts to
“speak back to you” as you meditate on them. This communing with the Author of the Word
gradually brings about an intimacy opening the heart to a deep encounter with the Lord.

Increased trust, love and obedience are some of the fruit of this deeper relationship with Him.
In Lectio Divina as we read and meditate on the Word we begin to converse with the Lord,
treating the text as a topic of conversation with Him. Instead of just reflecting on what we re
reading, we treat the Word as something personal between the Lord and ourselves. It s like
actually speaking to Him as we read the Word, allowing the Word and its Author to speak
back to us.

This has also been termed Mental Prayer and was a classic form of devotional life for a major
part of Christian history. However because it was cradled within Roman Catholicism, most
Evangelicals and Pentecostals have rejected it. Yet despite its origin there is something real
and blessed in its approach. It can even be argued that Lectio Divina is similar in approach to
a particular form of Jewish prayer known as Kavvanat ha-lev.

In this article we re going to be faced with a challenge to move out of our familiarity in prayer
and consider something new.

The challenge is to be open to a fresh blowing of the Holy Spirit as He inspires us in the “art”
of prayer . While this phrase may sound strange to some, there is definitely an art in
knowing what Biblically-orientated prayer is. So often what passes for prayer is like a
shopping list of expectations and self-serving petitions.

Prayer that’s founded firmly on Scripture (and here I do’ t simply mean adding Biblical texts)
will re-address the woeful lack of balance in ignoring the grandeur and awesomeness of God
Almighty. Much prayer still suffers from the want of realising He is transcendent, all sufficient,
totally perfect in all His doings, glorious in His attributes, and magnificent in His un-surpassing
glory!

Praying from the heart, with the Word firmly entrenched within, causes our minds to conform
to Biblical patterns of thought which can help us discern the snares of a worldly mindset. It is
from having a mind that’s more persuaded by the world than Scripture, that causes so much
unease in us. Some of the signs of this are; doubting prayer will actually work, giving up when
we should persevere, and talking more about prayer than actually doing it!

We need rescuing from this mindset. To put it simply, having a Biblical prayer pattern can readdress
many of our common ailments in the practice of prayer. The art of prayer is not so
much a method, but an attitude, an understanding based on the character of God Himself.
This will move us from self-centeredness in our prayer life to a unique view of the majesty of
our God. It will be of great eternal worth to all who act on it!

As Spirit-filled believers we are used to “praying in the Spirit” and acknowledge that such
prayer somehow by-passes our logic and thought patterns.

When I was baptised in the Holy Spirit I found this new form of prayer liberating and
exhilarating. It displaced all my formal ways of praying and released me into greater
dimensions of prayer and intimacy with the Lord. I really enjoyed it.

However, like some before me, I disregarded what I had learnt about “formalised” prayer,
sometimes referred to as Mental or Contemplative Prayer. This was a mistake. The old adage
is still true; we often throw out the baby with the bath water.

Just because something was used by traditional denominations or dressed up in a “religious”
garment doesn’t mean it s entirely invalid. We need to remember to look at the heart of the
issue and not how it’s presented.

Jesus warned us about wrong judgments. Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can criticise the
Pharisees for not seeing into the heart of a matter, but not apply that same test to ourselves?

The Lord will challenge our thinking to reveal the condition of our spirit:
He offends the mind to expose the heart.

It s only now that I’ve arrived at a place where I can entertain once more some of the truths I
once naïvely put aside. Of course I m not talking about major doctrines here, but rather
issues like prayer and Biblical meditation.

Recently I had a short but powerful dream. I was watching a man holding a large and
important book. I realised the “man” was in fact an angel. He opened the book and flicked
through the pages until he came to a chapter with the heading “Truth Re-visited ”.

As I gazed upon the chapter I knew the Lord was saying to me there were things He had once
tried to show me that I had either turned away from or neglected to finish. I needed to revisit
these things again.

A few days later a prophetic sister in our Fellowship had a dream and word from the Lord for
me. She saw me as a much younger man with longer hair, and said that God wanted me to
know there were things I had not finished from my earlier years.

I immediately knew this was so; my own dream confirmed this. When I was in my late
twenties (and my hair was longer!) I had a hunger for experiencing a deeper interior spiritual
life. Before I was baptised in the Holy Spirit the only form of prayer I knew that could help this
way was Contemplative Prayer, and it was to this that I had turned.

Despite some of the rigidity and religious baggage attached to such prayer, there was a
reality in it that opened me up to a deeper intimacy with the Lord.

After my baptism in the Spirit I had shifted track dramatically and put away almost all other
concepts of prayer, reacting against anything non-Charismatic.

Now I was at a place where I had to stop and reflect on what I had tasted before. Instinctively
I knew the Lord wanted me to look again at my earlier spiritual practices. However, this time
He wanted me to experience prayer as a relationship with Him rather than just ‘ doing ‘ the
prayer.

As part of the revival of my prayer life I saw the need to use Scripture more directly
as Prayer. This is when I began to recall such forms of prayer as Lectio Divina.

Having used this type of prayer once, then rejecting it totally in favour of
speaking in Tongues, I was now back at the beginning again. But now the formalism of my
earlier prayer life was gone. It had been purged from its religiosity by my experience of
Tongues and I was free to see some liberating truths I had overlooked.

It’s as if I had tasted some truth, discovered a purer truth in Tongues, then had to be taken
back to re-capture what I had unthinkingly thrown away. Nevertheless, this time my new
prayer language in Tongues had helped to mature me and develop my discernment.
I felt I could now safely review such practices as Lectio Divina without being trapped by
religion and formalism.

As I began to study the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith, I saw how Jewish prayer used
such methods as “conversation” in their style. We see this in the Psalms for example.
Even as Christians we use the Psalms this way. When we need encouragement or comfort,
we readily turn to them. Most of us who use the Psalms in this way “personalise” them to suit
our particular need at the time.

Well, that ‘s nothing more than using the Word of God as a kind of prayer. In other words, it’s
very close to the centuries-old practice of Lectio Divina. The Book of Ecclesiastes says:

That which has been, is what will be,
that which is done, is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which it may be said,
” See, this is new ” ?
It has already been in ancient times before us.
Eccles 1: 9-10

So I’ve returned to revisit Truth, and especially to see what Scripture says about prayer.
Along the way I saw that the prayers of Paul as found in his Epistles, are superbly appropriate
for revival praying today.

..
.Blessings and the Lord’s favour upon you,
Peter McArthur

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