In the last newsletter we looked at the need for local churches to see the Great Commission as more than just evangelism. In fact, if evangelism is done apart from the whole idea of the Great Commission it is simply disobedience to God as a whole. A partial obedience is not true obedience. It is just easier on self to give people information about Jesus than to deal with their hearts and be concerned about what Jesus really said in the Great Commission. It is easier to talk people into an external prayer of words and then into the baptismal tank so we can add a number to the tally than it is to deal with the hearts or people in reality. Jesus told His disciples that unless they were turned and became like a little child they would not enter the kingdom. He did not tell them to pray a prayer and be baptized. He told Nicodemus that he must be born again (from above) or he would not enter the kingdom. He told the rich young ruler that he must sell all that he had and give it to the poor. In other words, Jesus did not look for people to follow Him by giving them easy things to do. Instead He told people to do things that they could not do so that they would have to trust in God alone rather than themselves. Jesus was hard on His followers and made great demands on them because He loved them and wanted them to be truly holy. When the professing church makes things easy, it is not being like Christ at all but has invented its own form of love.
The path of true Christianity is not one that is practiced much in our day and the reason is that it is not easy. The path of true Christianity is not found in the path of great music and of popular preaching, but it will only be found by those with broken hearts who spend time seeking the Lord in prayer. We must not make a mistake about this at this point but rather realize that true Christianity is not what is popular in our day. We use the Bible to fulfill our own ways and lusts of ease and comfort rather than to deny self and seek the Lord. We use the Bible to support a God that is man-centered. We use the Bible to support all sorts of morality and church projects while we ignore what Christ has really commanded us in the Great Commission. He commanded us to make disciples of Christ who actually do and observe all that He commands. Instead we settle for a form of Christianity where the most mature are at best lukewarm and the lost are said to be in grace regardless. The Bible knows nothing of a grace that does not change the hearts, desires, loves, and therefore the lives of human beings.
Part of being a disciple of Christ is to pray as Christ prayed. The professing Church will not actually be seeking Christ as long as it does not pray as Christ prayed. While we ordinarily do not think of the Great Commission as commanding us to pray, Matthew 28:20 teaches this: “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Jesus taught His disciples how to pray and He commanded them to pray. If we are going to be in obedience to the Great Commission, we must teach people to pray and then provoke them to pray. After all, the command is to get them to do or observe all that He commanded and not just learn information about what He commanded. If people are not praying at all, then they are not disciples of Christ and we should not consider them as disciples of Christ. That means we should not consider ourselves as fulfilling the Great Commission in their regard. People must be taught to pray and then they must become prayers for them and ourselves to fulfill the Great Commission as Christ commanded.
In reality prayer is hard work and even something that is beyond the power of the natural man. Prayer is not just someone leaning back or getting on their knees and asking God for a few things for themselves. We cannot imagine that when Jesus prayed all night He simply had a longer list of things to ask God to do than those who have shorter prayers. Instead, what we must understand about prayer is that prayer changes us rather than God. It is entirely wicked to think that we inform God or can get God to change His mind and do our will in prayer. Our very prayers are wickedness if have such a little god to pray to. Our prayers are wickedness if we think we are praying when we just go to God with a list of things that He should do for us if He wants our respect or service. Prayer is seeking the face of God Himself (His presence) and tasting of His beauty and glory. Prayer is how a soul that desires to be like God seeks God. Prayer is the soul desiring to behold His glory so that it will be transformed into His glory from one degree of glory to another. Prayer is when the soul that is broken from its pride and emptied of self beseeches the Lord Almighty to change its heart to be like Him and to change its love to where the glory of love for God will shine through it. Prayer is when the soul leaves itself and enters into communion with the living God and shares in the love that God has for Himself. Prayer is the soul delighting in the beauty and glory of God so much that it forgets itself and is lost in Him. Prayer is the soul that is simply lost in God and desires His glory rather than its own selfish desires. If these things are true, then the professing Church is virtually prayerless.
Many weeks were taken to show that the professing Church is under the judgment of God. While the outward things may appear good, the spiritual state of the professing Church is at a very low degree. When one thinks that things cannot get worse, they do anyway. The face of God is turned from us and His hand is turned against us. If the professing Church will not turn from seeking itself in numbers, offerings, programs, and all sorts of activities to seeking the Lord in prayer, the downward fall into the pit will continue. The professing Church will never find God in its busyness and excitement, but only in lowly and repentant hearts as it seeks God for Himself. God does not dwell with any heart or group of hearts unless it is broken and contrite (Isaiah 57:15). God will not dwell with a group of people that do not have broken and contrite hearts. He will not dwell with a group of people no matter how busy they are and how much they are growing if they do not really have broken and contrite hearts. Until the hearts of the people are broken and contrite His face will remain turned. It is not until they get bigger or until they get more things going that His face will turn, but their hearts must be broken before He will dwell in their souls.
The book of Daniel gives us a picture of what the hearts of ministers and the people should be like if they are going to seek the face of the Lord in reality rather than just give lip service to prayer. The verses that I will give below are verses that show us what our hearts are to be like if we are to seek the Lord for Himself in truth and love.
Daniel 9:3-6 – “So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, ‘Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.'”
Leonard Ravenhill told his son late in life that many young men were coming to him wanting him to pray for them and to receive his mantle. He told his son that while many wanted his mantle, none wanted his sackcloth and ashes. Many want to be known as prayer warriors and many want to have the name or perhaps some power, but how many want to truly seek the Lord? It is costly to seek God Himself. To seek God Himself we must deny self and take up our cross and follow Christ. While many are trying to make some perversion of Christianity easier and easier to attract large numbers, the Word of God knows of no such thing. The Word of God tells us that it will cost us our very selves if we are going to seek the Lord. Our Lord taught us that we can only have one master at a time and we will only seek one highest love. We cannot seek the Lord for ourselves and seek Him for His own sake at the same time. Self must be denied if we are going to truly pray and seek the Lord. There are no shortcuts to true prayer. It will cost us much inward pain and the denial of self as the center of our lives, loves, desires, and as our goal. How can we say we are praying to God in a way that is seeking Him when self is our true love and our real goal is our own honor? Jesus told us with great and frightening clarity that this cannot be: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God” (John 5:44). How can we believe if we seek glory from others in prayer and at church and are not seeking the very glory of God? We cannot truly believe if we seek our own glory rather than God Himself. True prayer is not obtained by easiness and a focus on programs and things. It is only obtained by broken hearts and the work of God in them.
We must look at this passage of Daniel with a desire to have our hearts instructed rather than just trying to find a few tips on how to do things a little better. Daniel says that he gave his attention to the Lord God. Nice words, but these are words of great impact if we will look at them. Daniel’s attention was to the Lord God. It was not on how he felt and on how things were going about this and that, he gave his attention to the Lord. His focus was on God Himself. True prayer will only happen if we are focused on the Lord Himself. True prayer will not happen if we are focused on ourselves and on other human beings. We must see what Daniel’s heart when he prayed and then we will learn a lot about true prayer. His attention was on God and this was seen in the fact that he fasted with sackcloth and ashes. He sought God in discomfort rather than in comfort. He sought God for Himself rather than seeking God for self. He understood that true prayer is costly to self and set out to deny self in order to seek God. The professing Church will not truly pray until these things are done. True prayer costs the esteem of the world, of religious people, and persecution because it demands a heart that does not seek those things. Until our hearts are broken like Daniel’s to desire God at all costs, we will not pray and we will not be seeking the true God.
God Loves... Himself 
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