Summer 2008
Dear Friends

THE BANNER IN--EXILE. Issue -2

Prayer and knowing God in one’s daily walk are essential if one is at all to enter into regeneration (Being Converted). Prayer and knowing God on a daily basis is relational in nature, as is salvation and regeneration.  All of these are spiritually derived and as such, only grow or gain strength through one’s relational connectivity as they daily pray, wait upon and seek the Lord.  No amount of listening to Christian radio, no amount of listening to worship tapes, no amount of listening to teaching tapes, and no amount of attending meetings devoted to these topics can replace prayer and waiting upon the Lord. Even if one goes to them every day of the week – These practices can in no way replace one’s personal time with the Lord. Nor will any or all of these activities truly enhance one’s personal relationship with the Jesus Christ one iota. (These will undoubtedly give you head knowledge, or a vocabulary of spiritual sounding words and phrases – [Helping you to appear spiritual to your peers] but they can not and will not cause you to gain spiritual substance where it counts; in your soul and spirit.)

How long should one pray and wait upon the Lord?  Some would say it is not quantity but quality and they will then espouse their great spirituality by telling us they only pray or wait on God for 5 minutes or 15 minutes and then brag about the great depths and how much they receive in those few moments.  These are not speaking the truth, as they are speaking high-sounding words to receive the smile and praise of men.

In the Gospels, we find references of Christ staying up and praying all night. We also find reference to Peter and John worshipping well into the night while in prison – It is safe to say that Christ Himself knew nothing of this quality over quantity teaching. He supped with the Father. Supping in the Greek was the evening meal where the parties would linger to fellowship and speak of the things of the day.

To begin with, one should think of their time of prayer as a church service.  How long does it take to have a good church service -15 minutes, 45 minutes, 90 minutes, two hours? Most believers I have known would overwhelmingly state that a good church service lasts about two hours so as to give time for good worship, good prayer and a good time of teaching.  These also seek a good time of fellowship afterwards. In our personal prayer time, we should also divide it up into worship, to bring our heart soul and spirit in tune with God, and then move into waiting upon the Lord.  Waiting upon the Lord is sitting in silence in His presence, and/or just before Him in silent obedience and availability for Him to impart, speak, bless, reveal, rebuke correct, convict or do whatsoever He sees fit. (This waiting upon the Lord is so important; it is inestimable in value to our spiritual growth.) Many times during this waiting I find that God reveals His will to me in spiritual matters – and by praying on earth, as Jesus prays in heaven (Lord’s Prayer) astonishing results occur that defy the wisdom and knowledge of men.

After this, I begin making my prayer requests known, seeking to sup in the spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer and waiting upon the Lord is the greatest part of our relationship, our fellowship - our supping - He with US and We with Him. Those who espouse themselves to be evangelicals, fundamentalists, Pentecostals and Charismatics, prayer and waiting upon the Lord are all but completely forsaken. 

Surprisingly the Lord brought me personally into this long before I ever heard of Pinecrest. When I was about 16 I was praying and waiting upon the Lord - supping with Him before I ever knew what the meaning of any of these things were. (In other words I was blindly led to these very things as a young lamb by the Spirit of God.) On Sundays I used to stay in church praying and waiting upon the Lord (Unseen by men) between the morning and evening services (This would be for about a five hour span). 

Sometime after I arrived at Pinecrest, I nightly took over the first year classroom from 7 pm until 1-2- and 3 in the morning. Sadly with all the students that were in the school at that time, from 1976-1981, there was no competition for finding places to pray. (Now this was not always true, as some have testified that when they were students, there were a number of students that nightly sought to pray, wait, and intercede unto the Lord for hours at a time, [Those students that did were markedly different, as they were met by the Lord, and received impartation in their souls and spirits.]) After a time, I began to have great spiritual manifestations of the Lord in that classroom - with only my being there and the Lord. This anointing and presence built to the place that waves and billows could be physically felt rolling through this classroom at night.  Eventually, I got two students of like heart and like spirit to come and share this personal and private visitation that I had received so graciously of the Lord. God manifested Himself to us nightly as they joined me for several hours each night.  We worshipped, we prayed, we cried out - we rode these waves and billows together until they graduated and moved on in the Lord.

For one to assume that they can only meet God in church, or in a prayer meeting, or in a fellowship – is wrong and against the Commandments of Jesus Christ in how we are to pray and seek God.

Matthew 6:5-6 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray (Sing and worship) standing in the synagogues (In their church meetings) and in the corners of the streets, (And their being bent over their pews and curled up in the corners and aisles) that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (They have all that they will receive of the Lord for doing so.) But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, (Greek Bedchamber – either by yourself or with your spouse) and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

To not pray and worship and wait upon the Lord in secret as the primary source of your personal relationship with Him is to utterly defraud yourself and rob yourself – of the immeasurable benefits of entering into the most important, most sacred, most vital, and most personal part of your relationship with Jesus Christ that has been afforded you.

Luke 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

Mark 1:35 And in the morning, (Jesus) rising up (alone) a great while before day, He went out, (From among His disciples) and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Luke 5:16 And He (Jesus) withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

Matthew 14:23 And when He (Jesus) had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there (Praying worshipping, and waiting upon the Father) alone.

Luke 9:18 And it came to pass, as He (Jesus) was alone praying, his disciples were with him: (Acting as spectators and not praying) and He asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?

Matthew 26:36-38 (spiritually most of us can find ourselves in our own ineffective and empty prayer lives if we can open our eyes to see.) Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, (James and John) and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, (Stay here with Me as long as it takes) and watch (Wait and Pray to the Father) with me. (The simple fact in this passage is that the three apostles that had the most intimate personal relationship with Jesus – after all they had seen and heard, had not, on their own, developed anything near the kind of prayer relationship with the Father so that in the hour of need, they could not even intercede along with Christ.)

I pray that you would earnestly take heed to these words. Meditate on these things, and begin to so make this a part of your life.

As the Editor of the Banner in Exile
I will endeavor to communicate all that I have seen, all that I have heard and all that my hands have handled concerning the Word of Life.

 

May the Lord Bless You Richly,

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