.
It became clear to me when I first came to Holland that God wanted me to learn to use my time differently. I'm a very undisciplined person and not very orderly. I handle routines well but when I have lots of time on my hands I seem to get lost, not quite knowing how to spend that time. This problem was highlighted when I came to Holland as my days of shopping and walking the streets were over and I knew that that had been standing in the way of me using my time better. In fact, I realised in Israel that this was an addiction. I knew firstly that it was God's will for me to learn to spend time with Him. I had never found it easy to spend a long time in prayer, had never persevered much and I sensed that it was now God's will for me to get into that. I knew that this would be a challenge but being in a new house with strange surroundings made it even harder. Aside from being put off by the big, clear windows in the lounge I was also not a morning person. Someone once said that there are two kinds of people in the world-- cats and birds. Birds are the people who wake up early and go to bed early. Cats are the opposite--up all night and sleep during the day. I was a cat. I felt fresh as a daisy at night and most of my life had had severe problems falling asleep. In the morning, I struggled to wake up and had a problem staying awake unless I was out and about. But now it seemed best to me to have my quiet time in the morning when no-one was home.
Due to boredom and feeling lost, I started eating throughout the day even though this robbed me of energy and made me feel even more tired. I felt unable to adjust and rise above my circumstances. I went through a chocolate phase and too much sugar especially from chocolate makes me sick. One of the symptoms I get is a tickle in my throat, often in the middle of the night which wakes me up as I need to start coughing. In the past when this would happen, I would know that it was time to get off the junk and I would start getting better but this time due to the pressure of circumstances and no vision or hope for the future, I had no motivation to stop and as expected my throat got worse but still, I didn't stop. My bad throat turned into a cold, then a cough and eventually spread to my lungs. Still having no motivation to stop, I went to the doctor who gave me codeine which didn't help as I continued on with the chocolate, knowing full well that this was the cause of my ill health. Never before had I let something like this get so out of hand and because I refused to stop diving into the chocolate, a new symptom appeared which I had never experienced before. I started waking up in the middle of the night with a bad tickle in my throat but unable to cough because my airway totally closed as the tickle came. I would wake up and shoot up in bed, shocked because I was unable to breathe in or out and as I sat up in bed and tried to relax, the passageway would gradually open. I would gulp for air and then charge downstairs where I would have a ten minute coughing fit, hoping that I hadn't woken anyone up. This must have gone on for a week or two while I still continued on with the chocolate. I was getting vey sick.
During this period, I was also having recurring dreams every few weeks or months. The scene in the dreams was always different but the main theme was always the same. I would be packing suitcases and getting organised to prepare for a flight. There was always incredible pressure to get everything done on time, packing clothes and toiletries, having to deal with delays, airport scenes, going through all kinds of checks, making sure that passports were ready in my hand, and usually I would make it just in time with the doors of the plane magically closing behind me as I stepped inside. I always woke up greatly agitated due to the time pressure and making it by the skin of my teeth. What did it mean? I gradually came to understand that God was giving me these dreams as a warning, urging me to prepare for my future, and I was aware of the possibility of a real need to flee during the years of tribulation. My being ready on time was crucial and I understood that it was God's will that I learn to abide in Him and that to be ready was to be filled to overflowing with His Holy Spirit. I knew that He was calling me to spend time with Him in the mornings. But I felt stuck by the hurdles in my way--the big lounge windows which bothered me, my morning sleepiness and now I was also sick, making it even harder. The children would go to school and as I had always done, I would fall back to sleep again on the couch for several hours. Of course, being such an undisciplined person also played a big part in the problem. I had never learnt the practical meaning of the word 'discipline'. The issue of spending time with the Lord in the morning may sound like a ridiculous problem for many people but for me it was a real dilemma and I was unable to meet the challenge. God was so important to me but I couldn't overcome my circumstances. He was in my heart but stayed there, buried!
Then came my wake up call. I went to sleep on the couch one morning, knowing that I was ignoring the call of God. And then I had another one of those dreams! I saw myself trying to get organised, husband in an armchair, head buried in a newspaper (he never does that but my father would). I had two hours to get ready. I thought it was about 3 pm. and we needed to be ready to leave for the airport by 5 pm. But I wanted to know the exact time at that moment so I asked Kees. 1 pm, he said. Oh great, I have four hours to get ready and not two. No, he said, you only have two hours because we need to be ready by 3pm and not 5pm. Let down!! It seemed as though we were living on some kind of campus because I had to walk across enormous fields to get to the bathroom to pick up our toothbushes and toiletries. When I finally got there, there were people inside and I had to wait a long time. Delayed! Finally, after a long wait, I got in, collected all our toiletries and walked back across the fields to our little house. But on the way, in the middle of one of the fields was a cart and I saw one of Matanya's sweaters in it with a couple of other things. I started picking the things up when out of the distance appeared these beautiful big dogs, happily running and bounding towards me. One grabbed onto Matanya's sweater, wanting to play. Time was ticking away. This was impossible! I didn't have time for that!! I frantically tried to tear it out of his mouth and we ended up having a tug of war, the dog playing happily while I was getting more and more worked up as time continued to slip by. Then suddenly the dream finished. My time was up! I woke up with a jolt, choking for air and needing desperately to cough while furiously battling with a dog who refused to let go. For the first time I hadn't made it on time! I hadn't even gotten to the airport! Panic and horror set in as I struggled for breath. In a split second it was all over and I felt doomed as my world collapsed. I was shocked and knew that this was GOD. I was thrown into a turmoil of panic and fear-- fear of death, fear of God, fear of the future and fear of going to hell. From sheer panic, I ran to the kitchen where I had a coughing fit while trying to get my thoughts back together. The impression this experience made on me was as strong as someone who has unexpectedly been killed, come face to face with God and come back to life again. You don't forget that ever and it changes your life around. I was petrified and had a very real Fear of the Lord!
The thought occurred to me that it was too late, no hope for me now, no point in trying anymore, God was angry and finished with me and now I was doomed forever. But after a few minutes I realised that that couldn't be true. If there was no more hope for me then God wouldn't have let me experience this. He would have just left me alone. He let me experience this because He did love me and there was hope but NOW was the time, before it really would be too late. There was not a moment to lose! I was scared, sick and exhausted but I was too afraid now not to spend time with God. Fear and terror spurred me on! After five or ten minutes of coughing and feeling dazed, I walked back to the lounge and began to croak my praises to the Lord, knowing without a doubt that my life was now hanging in the balance. I felt that I needed to spend hours before the Lord daily to make up for lost time and for several weeks at least, I tried to be with Him for at least two or three hours in the morning, knowing that it was crucial for me to be filled to overflowing with His Holy Spirit at all times. At first, I was too afraid to fall asleep on the couch ever again and I never dared to lay down in the mornings but after a year or two, I realised that it would be okay to lie down on the couch providing that I had first had my time with the Lord. I realised that then it is safe to sleep for He is watching over me and loves me and there is nothing to fear if I am in His will and abiding in Him. But I dare not lie down without first ministering to Him and giving Him the worship that He rightfully deserves.
Prior to this experience, I had also been having a struggle, wanting to know and understand if it was God's will for me to play the guitar as I sing my praises to Him. I had wanted to play but was unable to play well. I found it frustrating and arduous to practise as I was barely improving. I found it painful to listen to the same mistakes again and again and it became important for me to know if God specifically wanted me to play as well as sing. I had never received a clear answer to that but this frightening experience put it in perspective for me. Even while I was coughing and recovering in the kitchen, I suddenly just knew that singing praises to God was a must, but that playing the guitar while singing was my own choice. And as suddenly as I understood that, I knew what I wanted. I walked back to the lounge and picked up the guitar. Seeing that my singing wasn't that good, I would rather sing with an instrument than without. Since that day, my frustration of not being able to play well has disappeared and I learnt to overlook my mistakes and inabilities with both playing and singing.
This is how my mornings began with the Lord, with fear and terror spurring me on. But what was once a difficult duty has now become a great pleasure and I look forward to my morning times with the Lord because coming into His presence and communing with Him is where I can find the fullness of joy.
Over the years, I also changed from being a cat to more of a bird and now I can't fall asleep on the couch even if I were to try which is also a great help for me. But I thank God that even if I do have the odd day of being tired, He trained me to push through as best as I can and worship Him no matter how I feel.
It may sound as if I was being rebellious before this wake up call but I rather think of it as if I was lost in the snow, wandering around, confused and overcome by circumstances. I fell down sleepily, knowing the danger of falling asleep in the snow but unable to rouse myself. Then the Lord came along and started slapping me in the face which roused me in a big way so I got going and fast!! I praise God that He never left me to fall asleep in the snow but woke me up and put the Fear of Him in my heart!! Some people may think that God doesn't discipline, chastise or punish us. I know from my own experience which is confirmed by what the bible teaches that God does discipline and punish us when necessary and I'm immensely grateful for that! As frightening and horrible as that experience was, He loved me too much to allow me to be overcome by circumstances and perish without Him! I know that I have the most wonderful, merciful, trustworthy and loving heavenly Father.
Some years later I felt that the Lord was leading me further into this discipline of worshiping Him. It became noticeable to me that I would be filled with His Spirit from spending time with Him in the morning but towards late afternoon or early evening I was running on empty again and functioning in my own strength. The Lord started impressing on me the importance of being filled with His Holy Spirit at all times. Because I was already having my times with Him in the morning, He had begun leading me into various responsibilities such as leading a bible study or singing at church. He made it clear to me through the same kind of dreams that not only was it a privilege to be filled with His Spirit but it was also a responsibility to permeate His presence wherever I was, whether I was alone at home, with my family, or with whomever He brought across my path and so to spread the fragrance of Christ. He also made it clear to me that I needed to be filled with His Spirit even to stick to my diet successfully and this has all been a growing process. But more recently He spoke to me about being filled with His Spirit in the evenings and before I go to bed, but again I was a slow learner. Because I was always feeling tired and not used to this change, I felt at a loss to know how to go about this so nothing much happened at first and I continued to go to bed empty.
Now the Lord can speak to people in so many ways. Did you know that He can speak to us in numbers? I was aware of that although I was also suspicious of it because you can end up seeing numbers and their meanings everywhere and possibly start reading things that are not of the Lord, like looking at every car number plate in front of you etc. But I never discounted that God could reach me through numbers if He wanted to. Whenever I woke up at night I had a habit of looking at the digital clock, curious to see how late it was. But the times on the clock had never made an impression on me up till this moment in time when I went to bed one night, yet again empty. I woke up sooner than ever, after only one hour of having fallen asleep which has never happened before. I looked at the clock and it said precisely 00.00. Midnight! Coincidence? I think not. In all of the years of waking up at night I'd never woken up then! I lay there thinking about what that could mean and it came to me quickly--here I was sleeping and not filled with His Holy Spirit and it was exactly midnight. What if the Lord were to come now to fetch His bride??!! I was horrified as I considered the parable of the ten maidens and I realised that I was one of those who would be left behind!!!
Those five foolish maidens also belonged to the Lord and I knew that at that moment I was one of them. Because of that revelation we began to praise the Lord as a family every evening after supper. We had already gotten into the habit of reading the bible and praying together after supper but I felt that we needed to sing to the Lord too and this has now become a wonderful addition to our evening devotions as God dwells in the praises of His people.
God is in our midst and brings us life. Through praising Him with song He fills us with the love and joy of His Holy Spirit. We are privileged to be able to commune with Him and I thank God for His mercy that for the second time He literally woke me up again!
But aside from our evening devotions, I knew that I still needed to spend more time with my Lord in the evenings and I struggled to get into that. One evening I decided to listen to a sermon on the net and have that as my quiet time with the Lord. Once again, for the second time I woke up at exactly midnight--empty. I knew that the Lord was telling me that listening to a sermon was not good enough. We are God's temple (1Cor.3: 16) and His house shall be called a house of prayer, (Matt.21) not a house of sermons! It's so easy, at least for me, to read or listen to something which may be excellent but it is still not communing with our Lord and worshiping Him. As the saying goes-good is the enemy of best. We need to nurture our relationship with God and not just listen or read about Him. Wouldn't it be nice if the bridegroom would come to fetch His bride after her morning prayer or after a church service when we may be inspired and on fire for Him? But He says that He will come at a time when no-one expects Him so we need to be ready at all times, even at midnight!
Years later, after being diagnosed with cancer, I suddenly understood that the dreams of the plane flights symbolised my going to be with the Lord. God had actually been preparing me years ahead of time for my death, long before I was struck down with cancer! Today, many years later, I look back with extreme gratitude at how the Lord first disciplined me. Even though I was scared to bits, I know that it was His heart of great love and mercy towards me that caused Him push me into these quiet times with Him because otherwise I would not have been able to survive the onslaught with His joy in my heart and nor would I be ready to meet Him when my life on earth is over. Instead, I would be in despair, frightened and totally defeated. My loving Father knew what lay ahead of me many years in the future and He prepared me well ahead of time so that this valley of Baca (weeping) would become a place of Springs and I am now able to rejoice and glorify His name in the midst of this trial. To Him be all the praise and Glory!!!
====================================================== ======================================================
Some people believe that God is so loving, far too loving to discipline us, because discipline is punishment and it's not right to punish innocent and vulnerable children. But the opposite is true. God is so loving that He will discipline us and that is scriptural too. How many parents, if seeing their child playing in the middle of a busy road would not run out and grab them and do what is essential to teach them that they cannot do that and get away with it because it is dangerous. Will God not do the same for us and should we not be doing the same for our children??!! Pain is the best teacher!
What is discipline? It is a way of teaching through punishment. The pain is what makes the lesson sink in. Some lessons can only be taught this way as the lesson will not sink in in any other way. And truly, though discipline hurts I am most grateful that God has disciplined me because I know and clearly see the good fruit that it has brought forth in my life and I know that it is a sign of God's great love for me. Had God not disciplined me, where would I be today? I hate to think, but it would not be in a good place before Him. We also need to consider that just as God disciplines us, we ought to discipline our children and several verses from the bible speak about discipline, in the Old Testament as well as the new. Some people have a problem with the thought of discipline or punishment because to them it is the same as abuse. There is a big difference between the two! If someone has a problem with this matter then I would suggest that you read books on discipline by James Dobson which clearly outlines the difference. Regarding the discipline of children, I think it is important to take the childs character into consideration. Each child is so different and not every child is stubborn or rebellious and will need a hiding. Some clearly do need to have a heavy hand but other children may be sensitive and may have a natural tendency to be obedient and obviously they cannot be treated in the same way but that doesn't mean that discipline in general is out of place. Here are some verses about discipline from the bible:
======================================================
.
It may be difficult for some of us to come to the Lord and spend time with Him and because of that we may take the easy way out, not getting into it the way we should. This grieves our Lord and hurts us. I was most fortunate that my Father didn't let me get away with it! Words cannot express how grateful I am and I now treasure my times with God. I know too that I would not be able to emotionally survive what I am going through (cancer) if I were not spending time with my Lord. I regularly come across people who are discouraged for one reason or another and the Lord has shown me that at least in my case, and I believe that often enough this applies to others, discouragement comes from not spending enough time with God, or perhaps no time with Him at all and because of that we will get overwhelmed by difficulties. We may prefer to run to other people to pour our hearts out to them instead of God but we need to learn to get alone with our Father. Only He can help us and strengthen our spirits. It is only natural that if we are not filled to overflowing with God's Holy Spirit then like Peter, we will have our eyes on the wind and the waves instead of on Jesus. We need to meditate on the words of Jesus from John 15, about abiding in God. The Word of God and our faith is all about relationships. Firstly our relationship to God and secondly our relationship to one another. But we first need to take care of our relationship with God. Then we will find ourselves abiding in Him and all other things in our lives will fall into place.
Do you remember the story of Mary? There are actually two stories of the same Mary, the sister of Martha that I want to mention. One of the stories is recorded in all four gospels but only in the book of John chapter 11, does he tell us that this anonymous sinner was the sister of Martha and Lazarus. The story that I am talking about here is how she poured expensive ointment on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. It is said that this ointment was worth a year's wages. If you didn't know that Jesus was Lord and was concerned about money, would you complain, at least in your heart, about the waste? The second story is where Martha complained that Mary was not helping her because she was sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him. Martha thought she was being lazy and should be helping her. But Jesus defended Mary on both occasions. Wasting her time and her own ointment was clearly a source of great irritation and totally irrational in the eyes of others, yet it was clearly precious in God's eyes and from the second story, listening to Jesus was clearly more important to him than doing things for him, even serving him and being hospitable. Obviously, God is not as interested in our good works as he is in having us spend time with him! That's because the good works need to be the result of spending time with Him. Meditate on those stories from Matt.26: 7 and Luke.10: 38. You will see just how precious it is to God when we waste our time on him and pour ourselves out on him. Remember, I'm not talking about good works done in God's name or being a servant. I'm talking here about you and God spending time together. Pour yourselves out on God and you will be richly rewarded. Come to God as a friend and just talk to Him and express what is on your hearts. That is what a relationship is all about. Being yourself and communicating in love. Someone wrote some beautiful words once about friendship:
The blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort � the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person � having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. Dinah Craik
Is that what we feel when we come to God? Can we be so open and honest with our Lord and Father and just express what is on our hearts as though He is our best friend? And do we want God to have that same freedom with us? Would you like to be someone whom God considers to be a good friend to Him? I would consider that quite an honour!
What a great honour for God to say that about Moses! Do you want to be like Moses? I know that I do. I would love to be so humble that God would consider me to be His friend, would want to come and be with me and pour His heart out to me. Are you willing to allow God to crush you and convict you so that He can make you more humble? He crushed Jesus and He crushes those whom He loves in order to perfect them and make them more humble. Moses was the most humble man on earth because God severely crushed him. But there is another thing. Are you willing to waste yourself on God without being in a hurry. When did you last spend time with God without looking at the clock? Today, more often than not, people try to fit God into a slot as if they are going to a business appoinment, rather than going to relax and enjoy company with a good friend. For many people, it does not come naturally to spend time with God so it may take a great effort. It is hard work to discipline ourselves so we may naturally take the easy way out and allow things to get in the way but this is the one and only issue that will make a difference as to whether or not our lives will be a failure or a success. Our faith is not an ideology. It is a relationship and we must get rid of all things that takes us away from God. Let us pour ourselves out on our Lord, relax in His presence and be His friend. This will ensure that whatever we go through in life, He will be our joy and our peace and as it is written--His joy will be our strength. His love and His life will flow through us and all that comes forth from us will come forth from the Spirit of God. That is what it is to abide in God. When that happens, we don't need to think about being useful to God. He will use us however He chooses and even if we have no contact with people and cannot be used for any reason, our friendship is nevertheless enormously precious to Him and He will become most precious to us and that is all that is important. In addition to that, we can trust that God will solve any problem we have. He will turn the world upside down for us if we put Him first in our lives. No problem is too big for our Father and as we spend time with Him, He will fill us to overflowing with His Holy Spirit and enable us to endure all things. He will solve all of our problems in His way and time and we can have absolute peace knowing that He hears our cry.
Soon the Great Tribulation will be upon us and unless we are abiding in God we will not be able to endure. In my opinion, there is no more important message that needs to be heard today than spending unhurried time with the Lord, morning and evening, without time pressure. This is the only way that we can prepare for our future! Knowledge of future events will not help us, only being close to God and being filled with His Holy Spirit. This message needs to be proclaimed loud and clear because many people have a tendency to waste themselves on an idol--the T.V. or perhaps the computer, and if not, then something else, prophecy or perhaps even Christian ministry. People who don't commune with the Lord may find excuses to continue on not doing so. They may be too busy, even with ministry but the excuse does not solve the problem. What is more urgent? It is up to us to find the time, either by sleeping less, throwing out the T.V., working less, changing jobs, even laying down our ministry or ministering part time etc. Our ministries, even if bearing fruit, will not have God's seal of approval on them if we are not taking the time to abide in Him. We are the ones who need to change, not God. He will not force us to come to Him. It is up to us to get our lives in order and if we refuse, then He loses out on our friendship which is precious in His eyes. And we? Not only do we lose out on a precious relationship and strength for our trials but we may even lose treasures and rewards in heaven. We could even lose our lives!
From the last two above verses, I understand that we had better be ruthless with ourselves.
The most important thing when coming to God is simply to worship Him as our Father, Creator and God of the Universe and to praise Him and thank Him for who He is and all of His wonderful deeds. In addition to that, we need to come to Him through the blood of Jesus. I believe that we ought to remember Jesus' life, suffering, death, blood and resurrection daily. It is His blood that cleanses us from all sin and we need to be cleansed daily in order to come into the presence of God. In my opinion, it is not wrong to take the Lord's supper daily or even more often if we so choose. Boring? I cannot pray to God without remembering what Jesus has done for me and that goes hand in hand with the Lord's supper so I find it strange when people say that it is boring or perhaps it becomes too 'common'. Personally I can't relate to that because I am so appreciative of what Jesus has done for me and I know that if it weren't for His blood I would not be able to stand before God for one moment. But I'm not making a law here about how often we need to take the Lord's supper. Seek God's leading for you in this. Another issue about the Lord's supper is that we make it a very serious ceremony. Now, I'm now saying that it shouldn't be taken seriously but I often think of Jesus taking the Lord's supper with his disciples or the first believers after the death of Jesus. It was part of a meal and though it was serious I think it is fitting to have it as part of a meal with a good, wholesome, communal atmosphere. But again, seek God's leading in this for He leads each of His children differently.
I also find it important to remember how much Jesus suffered and endured for my sake. His death was far more than physical pain. Many saints have suffered physical pain but Jesus endured far more than that. When I come into the presence of God I am deeply aware of the fact that Jesus took my foul sin upon himself and became a curse in place. His crucifixion would be meaningless if it were just a physical death. Without the covering of his blood, I am a disgusting, foul sinner, deserving the depths of hell. My sin is more foul than the most foul thing that we can think of and my Saviour was willing to take that upon himself and become a curse in my place so that I would not have to go to hell. My sin was so disgusting that my heavenly Father could not bear to look upon His son and had to turn His eyes away from him and reject him. In Jesus's worst hour he was totally alone, rejected by all people, as well as his Father. Perhaps you have never committed any terrible sins but in Isaiah it says that our righteousness is as filthy rags so no-one is better than anyone else. We are all filthy in God's eyes and we all need the covering of the blood of Jesus.
Do we realise our sinfulness when we daily come before the throne of Almighty God? Perhaps if we are aware of this and the fact that we can never come before our Lord without the covering and cleansing of Jesus' blood, then we will realise that it is not unfitting to take the Lord's supper daily. In addition to remembering that we are wretches saved by grace, I also give thanks to God that through the blood of Christ He looks upon me as being perfect, holy, clean, righteous, beautiful and precious, without spot or blemish.. He loves us more than what we can imagine and he doesn't just receive us into His presence. He welcomes us wholeheartedly, longing for us to come and spend time with Him. As a lover, He loves to see our faces and hear our voices. What a privilege it is to walk our lives out with the Creator of the Universe who loves us so dearly. Let's acknowledge this to Him gratefully. Let's also be aware of how much we need our Lord. As Jesus said in John 15, the chapter about abiding, without him we cannot do a thing. Let us seek to cleave to God in love.
In an earlier and later chapter, I have mentioned the issue of praising God through music so I won't get into it in much detail here except to say that personally I find this area very important. There may be the rare occasion where I do not come before God firstly in worship and praise but rather, either pouring a burden out to Him, a request or intercession or just verbal expressions of gratitude for my salvation. I find that I am still able to get right before the throne without any problem but these times are an exception.
If we are burdened about anything then it is fitting to spill our troubled hearts out to our Father. It is possible that we are so burdened that we cannot sing or worship Him but simply come to our Father as a child who is crying out for help and our Father who loves us will receive us. I think it depends on how weighed down we are. If we can wait with a light burden in order to worship God first then that is best. Sometimes I have heard it said that giving our burden to the Lord is like delivering a letter and once we get up we can trust that God has heard us and we can forget about it. I believe that that is true but I also believe that there are times that we need to plead and continue on with our prayers. Just as in the parables in Luke 11: 6, and also Luke 18, there may times that we need to continue on knocking. The most important thing though is to come to God in faith that He hears us and answers us. Even if there is no sign of God, we must at all times cling to Him in faith. There may be dry periods in our lives when there is no sign of God. It may well be God's will to test our faith by having us go through times like that but we also need to make sure that there is no sin our lives blocking out His presence. We need to check our hearts for unforgiveness or any other thing that we may need to repent of.
And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
We may also have various requests of God and He gladly wants us to talk to Him about all things. It may also be fitting to have a time of silence before God and ask Him if wants to share anything with us.
Intercession is the most selfless thing we can do and because of that it may be one of the hardest things to do. It is not easy to take our eyes off ourselves but it is good for us to pour God's love into other people's lives through prayer. We are by nature selfish creatures and we need to learn to detach ourselves from self and no better way to do this than by interceding for others which will bear wonderful fruit in their lives, as well as our own. It is also the most encouraging thing to see how God answers our prayers for other people.
I have never learnt a theory about coming into God's presence. This is what I have learnt through God teaching me. It is possible that one section overlaps with another but I always make a point of beginning with praise and worship and ending with intercession but throughout it all I allow the Holy Spirit to lead me. I believe that it is helpful to have guidelines in all things but we always need to have flexibility so that we can be led by the Holy Spirit. As I spend my time with God, He fills me to overflowing with His Holy Spirit. I receive His joy and peace and am ready to face the world with Him. Even if I go about my day doing things that prevent me from concentrating on Him, I know that through the presence of His Holy Spirit that I am abiding in Him and He is abiding in me and I am in His will. Then whatever comes forth from me will come forth from His Spirit. I need not worry if He loves me or is using me or is solving my problems. It is enough to know that I am abiding in Him and He is in me and I have all the peace and security that I need. I am grateful to God that He trained me to come to Him daily. Because of that, I can go through the trial of cancer and physical death with total peace and joy in my heart, knowing that God loves me and that this is His best will for me, as well as my family. I continually surprise people because they would expect me to be devastated but because I am abiding in God it is not so. Instead, I greatly rejoice! I do not take any credit for this. It is all God's doing! May God's name be praised, blessed and worshiped throughout the whole earth.
Here is a sermon well worth listening to or watching:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=7807201024
=====================================
.
I believe that it is so important for families to worship the Lord together. I can understand that many people have not grown up in believing homes so they have to take the initiative to form new habits and I know that this can be so difficult. But this issue is so important.
I don't mean to imply that our prayers are meaningless if we have no family or if we can only pray alone. God always honours the prayers of a righteous person and we are all made righteous through the blood of Jesus, unless we are willfully walking in sin.
But I want to emphasize the great value of praying with others, if only with family or a prayer partner. As verse 19 from Matt 18 above suggests, there is power in our prayers when we are praying together with others in the Spirit of Christ and if we do not have family to pray with then it is good to seek God regarding a prayer partner. For most of my believing life I have had a prayer partner. At times, for one reason or another, it had to stop and then after an interval, God would bring someone else across my path to pray with. I always greatly valued our times together which were wonderfully blessed and I highly recommend it. When I had no prayer partner or where my heart issues were too personal to share, God still answered my prayers but it was certainly His blessing that I could pray regularly with a prayer partner. Let's not neglect this important issue. Our families are a mini congregation or church and if it's important to gather for our weekly meetings with other believers then it doesn't make sense to neglect our daily meetings.
We need each other and we need the Lord. He must become more and more real to us. As Paul says we must press on to come closer and closer to God and get our lives in order.
What we do in church or our congregation, we can also do at home. We ought to sing together to praise the Lord, as well as pray and read the word out loud. In this day and age, there is a tendency for church splits. I believe that this is grievous to the Lord, not less so than a divorce. I wonder how many people involved in church splits are worshiping the Lord together with their families in their homes. If this was being done, I wonder how much dissatisfaction there would be regarding the situation in churches. As a wife, I have made it a point in my life to submit to my husband no matter what the cost and through humility and submission, problems have always been solved without having to strive in the flesh. Because of my experiences, I wonder if the same wouldn't happen in church conflicts, if people would only walk in humble submission to one another, daily worship the Lord at home and intercede. As the Lord spoke to Solomon:
I believe too that there is a place for spending time with the Lord alone. Our relationship with the Lord should not be dependent on other people. Let us seek to get our homes in order, as well as our private relationship with the Lord. Both are equally important.