September - October 2004

Word of Prophecy

Fellowship

THE

GOOD

NEWS - LETTER

A Christian's Greatest Difficulty

A true Christian's greatest difficulty is in truly seeking God's face and favor, in other words, PRAYER! That is the hardest part of a Christian's life: real prayer. Getting down on one knee and quoting some little `memory verse' to the Lord is not praying—that's only recitation. Back when you were in grammar school, you were expected to recite things to the teacher; but God doesn't want you reciting something to Him! He's not interested in your recitations, counting your Rosary, or `Hailing Mary!' Those things are NOT prayer. Pouring out your heart to God is prayer!

OUR PERSONAL QUEST

In Psalm 9:10, David exclaimed, "Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee." Seeking is a quest! It is the pursuit of a particular desire to obtain something in life that will bring success, or victory, or a sense of attainment to a person. Consequently that act of seeking presents a difficult problem for us in any area of life, whether we are seeking success in business, or seeking an education, or seeking fame and fortune, as many do. Even the act of seeking a wife or a husband is many times a very difficult problem, and strenuous, because it entails and encounters much thought and wisdom, and the application of time and effort. But seeking God presents us with an entirely different kind of problem.

When we seek God, we are a physical person seeking to find someone who is altogether spiritual...Material to Spiritual. Now, that is a problem! If we could come before God, and see Him, and He would be standing right there in front of us, or if God would suddenly materialize every time somebody prayed, then seeking Him wouldn't be difficult. But when you come before the unseen God—that invisible God—and through faith you have to be able to captivate His attention to you, it is a much more personal thing: for God is not an impersonal God, or an impersonal Creator, or an impersonal Benefactor of the human family. He is a personal God! Therefore, if you don't find Him in a personal sense, you haven't really found Him.

A GOD OF THE

INDIVIDUAL

There is a great lesson the New Testament teaches us about the life of Jesus: He could be surrounded by a crowd, yet nobody would receive a thing from Him—except maybe a little thrill from having been in a crowd. But there were a few that would come along and press through to the middle of that crowd until they were able to touch Jesus, or get His attention. And they were the ones who received a miracle or obtained deliverance, while the

crowd went home empty! God is not found by following along in a crowd. You have to captivate His attention personally, and not merely as part of a group. He is a God of the individual!

WHO DOES GOD FILL?

When Mary prophesied in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, she proclaimed that "God hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away." Luke 1:53. You see, a person has to have an emptiness for God to fill. He fills a heart that is lonely, and a heart that is emptied out. He fills a life, or a body, that has become sanctified and clean, with His Spirit, His very presence—so He can use that body as His temple. But He doesn't come in easily! He comes in through a great quest that we, ourselves, make—through a drive, a desire, something that motivates us—a quest for God that we must accept the personal responsibility to undertake. And that seeking God, and finding God for the need of our life, is a true Christian's greatest difficulty! Many people back away from it, because they sometimes seem not to be able to comprehend it, nor to attain it.

WE MUST BE DRIVEN

Real prayer is not very formal: in fact, it is very informal. That's why you cannot teach someone to seek God: a person has to be DRIVEN to seek God! There has to be something that motivates you to pour out your heart to God—there has to be a pain, or a loss, or a hungering, or a thirsting! There must be some burning desire that draws you down to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ and drives you upon your knees—otherwise, you aren't going to stay there very long.

When the average Christian starts to feel like he's getting along real good, he'll get down on one knee and say, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are, Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky! Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take," and off to bed he'll go with some little jingle for a prayer. But God doesn't delight in jingles! It might be alright to teach one to a 3 or 4-year old child, but it's not alright for a grown Christian—and I tell you, God does not accept it.

DESIRE

In the book of Psalms, I think the Psalmist David is one of the greatest writers about the subject of seeking God. He not only sought the Lord, but he also found Him. In Psalm 27:4 he reveals: "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after." In other words, what you DESIRE is what you SEEK! There has to be a drive and a motivation present in a Christian's life that compels them to seek God: and that drive and motivation of a Christian is what God and Christ call, DESIRE.

In Proverbs 10:24, God promises us that "the desire of the righteous shall be granted." Why? Because that desire drives you to pursue or seek after God! Jesus said, in Mark 11:24, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." That desire is what makes a quest out of your searching and seeking for God, for His help in your life. It takes DESIRE to be driven and motivated into the quest of seeking God with all your heart. In Jeremiah 29:13-14, the great prophet of God writes, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD…" Here God says, The only way you are going to seek me, and find me, is to search for me with all your heart: and you will find me, when you put your heart into that act, and into that quest. Unless you seek the Lord with all your heart, you will suffer disappointment!

PRAYING FROM THE HEART

In Psalm 27:7-8, David prayed, "Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek." You see, it wasn't David's mouth that answered God: it was his heart. And when you put your heart into that quest of receiving something from the Lord, it will cause you to seek, and not just to ask, or to offer up some formal petition.

In Psalm 10:17, David exclaimed, "LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear." God heard the desire of their heart because it was their heart that first answered when He said to them, "I want you to seek my face." From their hearts they replied, "I will seek your face, Lord!" Your heart has to talk to God! Your heart has to first answer God when there is a need in your life, and not your mouth.

The Spirit of God can read a man's heart, and He knows exactly what's there, even before we speak. In I Samuel 1:13, the Bible tells us the story of Hannah, who prayed earnestly for God to give her a son, but she "spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard." Yet God heard the desire of her heart! That's why it is your heart that must first commune with God, and not your mouth. Then, once you truly possess the desire to seek God's face, He will prepare your heart, and give you the grace to come to grips with that time when you are going to have to wrestle.

THE WRESTLING PEN

Prayer is a struggle! The very minute you say "prayer" (and you don't have to say it out loud—you just decide, in your heart, to head to that place where you pray), do you know what's going to happen? You're going to get into a wrestling pen! And there is a fellow who is going to get in there with you, who is stronger than you and I by far. He can out-wrestle you anytime—unless the Holy Ghost comes and gives you the victory. Have you ever wondered why you have such a hard time praying?

It's because that fellow who is stronger than you climbs into the pen with you: and if you try to whip him, you aren't going to do it! He's going to whip the daylights out of you! Then you are going to leave that place of prayer with no peace, no joy, no strength, no inspiration, and no anointing. You'll feel like the devil stripped you and stole the whole works—all nine fruit of the Spirit—and off to work you'll go, mumbling, grumbling, irritable and grouchy—and that's one sign that the other fellow in that wrestling pen has won the skirmish! He may not have won the war, and you may decide to climb back into that pen with him again—but you'll get another knot on your head, too, if you don't stay there until the Holy Ghost comes and helps you! That is the most difficult part of a Christian's life: staying on our knees until the Holy Ghost comes and gives us the victory over the second strongest power in the universe, the devil.

Whenever you pray, the devil always has a little imp ready to get in there and wrestle with you. Sometimes that wrestling match lasts for thirty minutes, and you will be thinking, "Lord, I get tired of this!" Yes—but just remember Jesus, Paul, Peter…all those fellows got tired of it too. Yes, they did! But they stayed in there until they had won the victory. "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke 22:44.

I get tired of wrestling with him, but there's no choice—it's either wrestle, or be defeated. Sometimes, God will jump into that wrestling pen with us right from the start— and that is wonderful. But then there are other days when God is off watching you, and you begin to wonder, "Lord, when in the world are you going to come help

me?" And when you, in disgust, get up before God comes and gives you the victory, that is defeat. That's why you have got to wait.

WAIT ON THE LORD!

"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD" (Psalms 27:14). When you wait on the Lord, that's the best way to get strong, to get filled with the joy of the Lord, to get your faith operating in the offensive, and to get your mind vibrant and pulsating with the power of the Spirit of God. Get down on those knees and stay there until God strengthens your heart! Let your heart cry out to Him, "Lord, I'm not satisfied with my experience; I'm not satisfied with my lifestyle; I'm not satisfied with these fruit in my life: they don't seem giant-size! My joy seems like it's still green and immature. My peace is too easily disturbed—it's too mini-size! My love seems small and withered up, and it doesn't manifest itself: it's waxed cold, and hard, and I don't like the kind of `jay-bird' Christian that I am!" I tell you, there are a lot of Pentecostal and Holiness people who ought to say that to God from their hearts. A lot of professing Christians ought to hate themselves!

Beloved, don't hate the preacher that `wises you up!' Don't hate the Spirit that convicts you! Don't hate the Bible that condemns you! Hate that old, miserable "self" that needs to be re-created, and made over in the likeness of the Creator! "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:24.

SEEKING GOD DAILY

You may not be able to pray like that every morning—you may only have time for a quick prayer if you have to be at work really early. If I had to get up at 5 or 6 o'clock every morning, I think I'd pray a quick prayer, too! Then I'd wait till night, after I had gotten off from work, and maybe after I had eaten supper, and put my bedroom slippers on, and rested a little bit. And then I'd sneak off somewhere, and I'd pour out my heart to God! But you have to do it at least daily, or you will have NO victory. You have to do it daily.

The Bible teaches us to do just about everything on a daily basis. Take up your cross daily! Exhort one another daily! They searched the scriptures daily! And when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He said, "give us this day our daily bread." That means praying daily, doesn't it?

Brethren, God does not reward laziness, and He does not reward procrastination! Putting things off till tomorrow doesn't count with God. Behold, now is the day of salvation. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation! Better do what you have to do today—for tomorrow may never come.

The End.

MORE QUOTES FROM BRO. PRINGLE ON PRAYER

The devil trembles when he sees the least of God's saints upon his knees!

The more you pray, and the closer you live to God, the less effect temptation will have upon you.

If you go for a single day without praying and reading your Bible, you've backslid! You are not the same person you were the day before.

The only way to pray effectively, and to have an "effectual, fervent prayer," is for the Holy Ghost to anoint you to pray in the Spirit.

God often afflicts us to humble us, to bring us back to our knees in prayer.

Remember to pray for one another! Praying for yourself is not the basic supply route. God has a lot more respect for you, and gives you more help, when you pray for others.

The Holy Ghost won't remain with a Christian who ignores His direction, and who is not a praying person.

Word of Prophecy Newsletter Published by: Word of Prophecy Fellowship, P O Box 10200, Jacksonville, FL 32247, WWW.WordOfProphecy.org, Editor Bro. Ray Pringle, Jr., an ordained minister of the Calvary Chapel Church of God, Inc., Associate Editor ... June Carpenter, Copyrighted - All rights reserved