One of my Greatest Frustrations, Part 1

One of my greatest frustrations is caused by knowing there are Christians who don't realize the fullness of their Christianity. Years ago I began wrestling with the powerless Christianity I saw all around me. Certainly not powerless to save people from their sins, but powerless in the sense of people experiencing the miraculous in their daily lives. Quite frankly, any Gospel that leaves out the kind of power evidenced routinely in the early church is nothing less than a panacea!

One day I came upon these words of Jesus:

The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. - John 14:12

As I looked around me, I had no experience with anything like this! Where in the church (of my experience) was this "greater works" stuff? Little did I know God was sending me on the wild ride called "paradigm shift" (paradigm: an example that serves as pattern or model). My model of what church and Christianity was, was about to be shaken (not stirred)!

The first thing God did was teach me how to pray. Now I'm not talking about those "cookie cutter" prayers that sound all churchy (with lots of big words and punctuated with plenty of Thees and Thous- I don't really speaketh King Jameth). I'm talking about prayer that empties all of you out and let's God fill you with what HE wants prayed. For years I literally spent hours in prayer every day while God refined my ear for his voice and taught me how to sit still in his presence and just listen. Or just worship. Or just melt before him with a yearning to express the ache that was deep within, yet with no outlet I was familiar with- except leaving that ache with him and trusting he could actually do something with it. To this day, I don't believe ANYone can move deeper into the power of God in their lives without first spending the time with God to let HIM teach them how to pray.

Then one day God actually told me to stop praying. Yeah, you heard me right! I couldn't believe it either! In fact, I didn't believe it. The next day I went into prayer and hit the proberbial "brass heavens." I heard nothing. The time was all but wasted. But I persevered because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. For days I hit the same ceiling and felt utterly stressed that God had "disappeared."

A couple of weeks later in conversation with a friend, she happened to mention that God had told her to stop praying and she didn't know what to do with that. I was floored! So we agreed to do what God had told us. Stop that daily prayer time (that had become legalistic). It was then that God began to teach me what Paul meant by "pray without ceasing." Instead of a set daily time of prayer that ended and I went on with my day, I got connected with God first thing in the morning and never "hung up the phone." It was awesome! I continue this practice to this day and I never feel like I have to "warm up" to get through to God.

Believe me my paradigms were shifting.