Spring 1996
Principles of Spiritual Preparation
Nancy Warner

At this present time, an intense work of preparation is taking place in those who are fully committed to the Lord; but when the purpose for this inner working is not immediately apparent, we react in various ways.

We must, by faith, implicitly trust the Lord in all His dealings with us and determine to follow after Him. As we do, there will result not only a greater release of blessing, but a growing awareness of the intention of the Lord to prepare us for a higher purpose.

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for He who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek Him" Heb 11:6.

A coin has two diverse sides, and it is one coin. So also, there are two aspects to our relationship to the Lord. The first is our devotional life in which we, as a bride, are being drawn into personal intimate communion with our Lord, wherein our spiritual sensitivity and capacity are being enlarged. All else will flow out from these times of personal communion with our Lord.

The second is that we, as a son, are being brought into a functioning, cooperative relationship with Him, wherein we are being prepared for a future purpose.

All true ministry, which involves the development of each of these aspects of our relationship with the Lord, begins in our prayer closet. Prayer is the law by which God works. It is also the source from which the strength of our new creation life is derived. As we wait upon Him, an exchange takes place. We give Him our weakness and receive from Him His very life, the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer also involves ministry towards others. When we are in communion with the Lord, He will often share with us a burden that is upon His heart and guide us in its outworking.

Abraham was sitting in his tent door during the heat of the day when three men approached him (a Theophany, or manifestation of the Godhead). Abraham ran to greet them and invited them to stay for refreshment saying, "For this is why you have come to your servant" Gen 18:5b.

Abraham had been promised an heir, and he had asked the Lord if this heir would come through his servant; but the Lord said, "This one shall not be your heir, but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir" Gen 15:4.

In spite of this, Sarah brought to Abraham her handmaid, Hagar, who conceived and bare a son. Therefore, Abraham prayed, "O that Ishmael might live before You" Gen 17:18. "And God said, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son indeed. And you shall call his name Isaac ... and as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him ... but I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time in the next year" Gen 17:19-21.

Now, at the very time when the promise was to be fulfilled, in this set time, in the heat of the day, or in the heat of these promises, the Lord visited Abraham while he sat in his tent door. Yet Abraham perceived the visit as an opportunity not to receive, but to minister to the Lord. Water was brought to wash His feet, bread was baked, a kid was prepared, that the Lord might be refreshed.

As a result, as Abraham ministered to the Lord, the Lord not only fulfilled His promises to Abraham (for at the "set time" Sarah did conceive, and Isaac was born), but the Lord also used Abraham to rescue Lot.

This principle is the very foundation of ministry, of the Lord using us. It is the springboard to answered prayer and the fulfillment of promises. All this results from those times of personal communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.

My husband, who has a burden for Africa, was able to go to Mozambique for eight weeks. On two particular days, during my regular time of communion and fellowship with the Lord, the Lord shared with me a heavy burden for David.

Later, I learned that on the second day of this burden, David had almost been shot by a robber, who, standing about five feet from him, pointed a rifle directly at the center of David's chest and fired; but the bullet missed. This is the power of answered prayer.

I could not have brought forth the right prayer at the right time through my own knowledge or ability. But as I faithfully came before the Lord in my times of communion with Him, the Lord shared with me His burden concerning my husband. This robbery happened at the exact time I had received this burden of intercession.

Our capacity for spiritual hearing develops during our times of waiting upon the Lord. Recently, while waiting on the Lord with my Bible open, I was feeling discouraged because I was not hearing anything. Then I remembered a message I had heard in the Chapel at Pinecrest, in which the speaker said, "It is to your credit that you are not hearing anything, when the Lord has not spoken."

As I continued to wait, I suddenly felt that an important phone call was about to come. I had shut off the ringer on my phone, so I turned it on and set the phone by my side. Before long, the phone rang. When I answered, it was a missionary calling from Russia. It was very important that I received this call at that time. This experience tremendously encouraged me.

When I am preparing a message and feel that I should be hearing from the Lord, but hear nothing, I become very concerned. But I have learned that there is an exercise of faith taking place in which I must simply trust Him. Then at the appointed time, He will speak. Thus, we must first learn how to wait and then, how to move with Him when He does speak.

We need to experience these two aspects of His presence in the right balance, that we might come into the cooperative relationship with Him that He desires. We all love talking to our children, but there are times when we need adult conversation. In the Lord, there is a Deep that calls to the deep within us, in which important things are to be shared in a two way experience.

Abraham was called a friend of God. The Lord was able to share his intention with Abraham, who in turn was able to commune with the Lord, that the intercession and purpose of the Lord might be fulfilled.

When we are first saved, the Word of the Lord that we receive is to us as that to a new-born babe. We are to desire the sincere milk of the Word, that we might grow. But this is to develop into a deeper communication, as we have been birthed and are now growing into a new dimension of life and experience.

A spiritual maturing takes place within us, that we will be able to enter into the place of fellowship with the Lord that He desires. This is a place of identification with Him, that we might be birthed into that which He intends to do in the days that are before us, even though we presently may not understand.

There is a special satisfaction which we find, when we are with someone who can identify with us in what we are trying to do, perhaps even without any words being spoken. May the Lord also experience this satisfaction, because we are able to identify with Him in what He is saying and doing.