The Thames Water Barrier

The Thames Water Barrier is a massive flood defence system erected at enormous cost to prevent the city of London from flooding. Prayer raises a spiritual barrier system that prevents a tide of evil from overflowing, be that personally, in our family, community or even nation.

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Additionally barriers can hinder the overflowing work of the Holy Spirit in us. These barriers need to come down. Then the flood of God's Spirit can break through.

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I believe the Lord has been saying that breakthrough is most certainly coming.

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But "breakthrough" means "prayed-through".

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In praying through with perseverance we will see some barriers come down and others raised. And the breakthrough we are looking for is sure to come.

The Holy Grail?

It's official - the quest for happiness has begun. The BBC has been running a series of programmes called the Happiness Formula.
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In the 19th Century a philosophy was formed called hedonism from the Greek word, hedone. It is the theory that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life. Of course the BBC is not wanting to promote a hedonistic philosophy; Hedonism ultimately ended in the pursuit of sexual and liberal licence which is probably not the BBC's intention.

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You can catch some of the findings of the programme at the BBC's website at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/. But the survey results have thrown up one or two interesting findings.
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The science of happiness suggests marriage is so good for your well-being that it adds an average seven years to the life of a man and something like four for a woman. To maximise happiness, it is argued that government should certainly do nothing to discourage marriage, perhaps even that it should promote it.
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The other vital ingredient to emerge as necessary for a strong sense of well being is having religious belief. Those who attend church regularly find greater significance, sense of purpose and community in a shared and personal faith in God. So God, it seems, is good for you after all.

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Thanks BBC.

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But should we be focussing on this not-so-modern day holy grail of personal happiness? Is that the chief end of humanity? We certainly do place high value on it in this consumer-driven culture. The pursuit of happiness is even enshrined as an inalienable right of humanity in the US Constitution. "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

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In the midst of culture's search for meaning, Tom Wright has written an excellent book on the Christian faith. Wright is one of the most significant evangelical thinkers in the world today.

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The book is called Simply Christian and is published by SPCK. Using simple acccessible language, Wright brilliantly exposes humanity's search for something better and explains the Christian message. If you have a brain you want to engage then get yourself into the Mustard Seed and buy the book. I commend it to you.

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It will make you happy.

The Seven Prayer Habits of Highly Effective People

At a recent cell group meeting I spoke on the seven prayer habits of highly effective people. Several folk have asked for the notes and so I have reproduced them in shortened version below.

The seven prayer habits of highly effective people

The #1 issue facing the church today is the need for consistent and passionate prayer both corporately and personally.

Pray in right relationship to God

• The starting point of prayer is a right relationship with God (Is 1:15)
• It’s also living right before God (Is 1:16ff; Jn 14:6; Ps 6:9; Heb 4:16; Ps 34:15)
• The Disciple’s Prayer (Matt 6:9) helps us to understand this
• Our Father in the heavens
• Ecc 5:1-2
• Hallowed be your name
• Knowing God’s name means being able to pray into and out of who God is
• Jehovah Jireh – The Lord my Provider, my vision, the One I see, Gen 22:14
• Jehovah Rophe – I am who heals thee. Ex 15:26
• Jehovah Nissi – The Lord is my banner. Ex 17:15

Pray in the Spirit

• The Spirit brings us into right relationship to God (Rom 8:15)
• Praying in the Spirit is a conference in perfect agreement with the Father. Nothing can go wrong with these kinds of prayers. Nothing will be prayed that is in disagreement, disharmony, disunity or disconcordant with the will of the Father (Rom 8:26f)
• You will strike all the right chords when you speak the language of heaven. It will dovetail beautifully with the Father’s heart. He will consider your prayer, nod his head in agreement, smile and be delighted to answer your heart cries.
• When all is said and done, I want to pray prayers that God would want to answer!
• Praying in the Spirit is more than just speaking in tongues (Eph 6:18)
• Spirit searches even the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:9)
• Call unto me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not (Jer 33:3)
  

Pray in the will of God

• These are guaranteed to be answered (1 John 5:14,15)
• We tune ourselves into the will of God in time spent in prayer (Mk 1:35; Lk 6:12)
• We tune ourselves into the will of God in time spent in the Word (Heb 5:12)

Pray in faith

• Everything that we receive from God, we receive by faith (Heb 11:6; Mk 11:24; Mk 9:23)
  

Pray in secret simplicity

• Beware the babbling prayers of unbelief (Mt 6:7)
• “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.” – Martin Luther
• Pray secretly to receive your reward openly (Mt 6:5)
• It’s relational. “For the Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:8)
• Pray for your needs (Jas 5:14)
• Give us this day our daily bread (Mt 6:11)
• What you need for life for today.
  

Pray with fervency

• The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available – dynamic in its working (Jas 5:16)
• Tremendous things happen when we pray fervently
• The whole building was shaken (Ac 4:23)
• Elijah prayed under a spirit of intercession (1 Ki 18:41-46)
• “O God, you are my God, Earnestly I seek you” (Ps 63:1)
  

Pray without ceasing

• Jesus presents this spiritual principle in the story of the Persistent Widow (Lk 18:1ff)
• And the need for prevailing prayer in the Friend at Midnight (Lk 11:5)