Category: Living in the Presence of the Divine

special guidance, Holy Spirit, power, motivation, faith, spiritual discernment, prayer

24/7 Prayer closet

Beth - blogger, coach, consultantLeave a comment

I need prayer for God’s special guidance and for a special dose of the Holy Spirit’s power: motivation, faith and spiritual discernment. I have been studying prayer, and was lead to look at Zinzendorf’s 24/7 X 100 year prayer room.
See: http://www.openheaven.com/library/history/zinzendorf.htm (thanks Maire). This catapulted the Methodist revival, among other things.

And i have been so touched by this that I really feel I am being lead to organise a “prayer closet” as a real physical space, where I organise people to pray 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until Jesus comes again. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea… I don’t know right now where to do it, how to do it, and all the technical/admninistrative details of how it will work.

But I am very confident that God wants us to pray.
I would like special enlightenment that this is God’s will and not me just trying to do something in the flesh… and that being God’s Will, that I will allow HIM to take the credit, that I will give Him the glory, that I will allow Him to use the poeple that He would have involved in it, even if it ends up being taken over by other people to be done; especially if I am only supposed to broadcast the idea and not run with it. That whatever the role is that I am supposed to play in this, that I will humbly bow to God’s will…

This would be an ecumenical prayer room – for all denominations (and I want to get volunteers from ALL of the churches in town, irrespective of denomination), so that we can have true unity in the Spirit.

I have felt really pressed to make 1 Corinthians 12: 12-13 come true in this place: “For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

I need your prayers to bring glory to God; to bring unity to our community, to impress upon all of our churches the importance of prayer and the outpouring of his Holy Spirit upon ALL of the churches due to this dedication to prayer.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays
spiritual growth, reading, studying, prayer, holy spirit, the fear of the Lord, the power of prayer, women, the role of women, point of power, divine presence, presence of the divine, practising the presence of the Divine, the power of the tongue, the words of your mouth

Spiritual growth for a decade

Beth - blogger, coach, consultant2 Comments

There’s nothing like having high expectations of yourself and raising the bar.  And one of the areas in my life that I have started to refocus on is spiritual growth.

Admittedly, it all started in 2008 when Dr. Taylor challenged me to become a “Virtuous Woman”, according to Proverbs 31.  Now THAT is a woman I am very happy to imitate.  Following on from that, she challenged me to become “wise”, so I started reading a chapter of Proverbs each day, to increase in wisdom.  I was reading a lot of John Maxwell, on leadership, and each of the other books I read seemed to take me back to the Bible.  (Why is it that the good authors on leadership are all from churches?).

Eventually, that lead me to reading other books of the Bible and then to start reading Bible study books.  I got hooked, somewhere along the line, on Elizabeth George and her book “A Woman after God’s own heart”, referring to David being a man after God’s own heart.

In her book, which I finished some time last year, she challenges each woman to choose 5 topics and over the next decade become “an expert” in those 5 areas.

So, I’ve chosen 5 topics that caught my attention, principally because of Proverbs and also in part because they are areas that I simply feel I don’t understand.

  1. The fear of the Lord (which is the beginning of wisdom, according to Proverbs).  Who is God?  What does it mean (in this day & age) to fear him?  What is “fear”?
  2. An intimate relationship with God: which is really 2 topics – Prayer and speaking to God; and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
  3. The tongue – blessings and curses, the control of the tongue, the power of the tongue for good and for bad.  What we build up and what we tear down.
  4. Women – how do I reconcile the Virtuous Woman in Proverbs 31 with what Paul says about women in 1 Timothy 1: 11-12.  Throughout most of what is written by Paul, he makes mention over and over to the fact that women “caused” the fall of man and were lead astray, and lead man astray.  (Unfortunately, Eve wasn’t the only woman to do this – Sara did so with Abraham, giving him Hagar to have a child, as well as other examples in the Bible).  But, how do I reconcile this model to follow in Proverbs with other parts of the Bible.  What about Deborah?

Anyway, by 2020 I want to be an expert in these 5 areas of the Bible. So, when reading my Chronological Bible I am paying special attention to everything about these topics, and I am accumulating a library of books that study these topics.  And trying to get a little further ahead each week in reading and studying about them and how they fit into daily life.

One of the other things I’ve learned about is tithing, and since for me “time is money”, I am tithing not only my money, but also my time to study.  So, setting aside about 2 1/2 hours each day for prayer (practicing prayer) and study.  And all sorts of different study aids and guides to keep me motivated and moving.

Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.
Believe in your infinite potential. Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself.