Man of Prayer

(In his upper room [Daniel] had windows open toward Jerusalem) and three times daily he knelt on his knees and prayed and gave thanks before God, because he had always done so previously. Dan. 6:10

This morning in my corporate morning revival and personal time with the Lord, the life of Daniel challenged me deeply. A man in captivity among the Babylonians, amidst godlessness and idolatry, buffeted his body, timed his body clock and disciplined to pray three times daily! Moreover, he had always done so previously! A man of prayer indeed he was, a wonderful pattern for me to follow. 

This is no mere outward enthusiasm or zeal of a young blood. But the burden within me is real, to be a man of prayer. To be such, humanly, I need to set time and discipline myself, and divinely, God will grace me to execute the burden He implanted. Andrew Murray made such a statement, "He who does not set time to pray also do  not pray at all." This is true experientially. So there is a need to set time to pray!

To be such a man of prayer is to give God the highest cooperation and coordination to co-work with Christ in His heavenly ministry on this earth. Such a man is single-hearted towards God and absolute to Him. To such, God has a free way to reveal, to speak His mind and dispense Himself into him. As such, such a man fully depended on the Lord for everything and could do what generally and normally others cannot do, and understand what is mystery to all. And such was Daniel. And such can also be you and me. For, today, we have more than what Daniel did then--the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph.1:17.)

Day by day, I am experiencing the leading of the Lord for every matter, when I come before His presence in prayer. To me, this is the best and most healthy exercise a Christian should daily and moment by moment have. And this, not for outward boasting of being "a man of prayer" but for the daily health and growth in our Christian life, to be of value to God for His move on this earth. And also, this is not a mere practice but a living, a being, a person of prayer.

Lord, make me a man of prayer. Fill me with Your Spirit everyday that I may in turn correspond it in prayer.

Set My Face

So I set my face toward the Lord God to seek Him in prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. Dan. 9:3

This morning the Lord touched me deeply as I pray-read this verse:

1. Set my face: A turning in position, to be rightly angled.

2. Toward the Lord God: Setting face is toward God, turning away from anything other than God to God. This is the real repentance, the basic requirement for salvation from negative things and salvation to the positive things of God.

3. To seek Him: Setting face toward the Lord God is to seek Him; being poor in spirit, longing for more of God, to gain God and be filled, saturated and permeated with God Himself.

4. In prayer and supplication: Doing all the above in prayer and supplication, earnestly and desperately longing for God.

5. With fasting and sackcloth and ashes: Proving the seriousness and diligence in our seeking for God, paying any price to gain the priceless treasure, the Lord Jesus Christ!

It is indeed not enough to diligently and regularly read the word, much more there must be the joining to the word that was read, to the extend of paying any price, even if it is deemed martyrdom. This is where I need the Lord's grace more. I have been lover of the word, or at the least, reader of the word. But how much of what I read do I really understand with spiritual insights and revelations and visions, and how much of what I understood are truly lived out, practically and experiencially? Honestly, not so much. But thank the Lord for the revelation of the word, a testimony of Daniel!

Lord, I set my face toward You; to seek You, to gain You and to be one with You in every matter great and small. Lord, grant me the grace to be Your ardent and genuine seeker.

Matching

"..with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." 2 Tim. 2:22b

The principle in the Body of Christ is "matching." Members of the Body matched to members of the same Body. This matching is nothing of man's choice but of God's arrangement. Best case is our partners, spouse for those who are married, and companions in our Christian life in the church life. 

Moses was matched with Aaron, Paul with Barnabas or Silas or Timothy. So are we matched with any saint in our church life? Are we "..with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart?" One in spirit and one in soul? Do we have spiritual companions? Do we blend and be built up with one another? These sounds enigma to the natural worldly man, but to the saints, it is vital and simple as breathing. Otherwise, the life-supply is cut and there will never be any vitality in our Christian life in the church life.

Today, I thank the Lord for my wife, who matched me so very well, beyond expectation and yet without an iota of doubt. Praise the Match-Maker! And I thank the Lord for the brothers surrounding me in the church and in my service. Often I wondered, how the Lord so cared for me! What am I and who am I? A descendant of vipers, wretched to the core, yet the Lord so cared for me. 

Still I feel, deep within me, I need more matching; inwardly and deeply, as one with my vital companion. An independent self need more breaking and be more blended with my spiritual companion. My inner cry is that the Lord may fully break through in me and gain me to the uttermost until He obtain His heart's desire in me and through me, with the saints.

Lord, match me with my vital companion perfectly.

Set My Heart

But Daniel set his heart not defile himself with the king's choice provision and with the wine that the king drank... Dan. 1:8

In my time with the Lord, the Lord spoke to me from the life of Daniel; in his absoluteness towards God and His word. Daniel surely knew the word of God and joined himself to it. When the Babylonian king offered him food offered to idols, disguising it under the banner "training" for future elite core group, he outrightly refused as it was not in line with the word of Jehovah. He was so absolute and stood to his word, come what may. Meanwhile, he also voluntarily consecrated Himself for the cause he believed was according to the word of God. As such, he was weighty and worth "man of preciousness."

We find another faithful saint named, "Antipas," which in Greek means "against all."  In Revelation 2:13, Antipas was titled, "My witness, My faithful one," by the Lord Himself. As such, he was a martyr, a true and faithful witness even unto death.

These are the rhema words to me. I don't know how faithful, absolute and consecrated I am to the Lord. But as the Lord graced me, I willingly consecrate myself to the Lord. Though I may in no way come near the rank and file of Daniel, Antipas and the likes, but in spite of  all my weaknesses, I would sincerely and faithfully consecrate myself, if perhaps, the Lord may work in me and gain me. My humble prayer is, "Lord, I set my heart not to be defiled with the things of the world. Grant me the grace to be so."

Misunderstanding

One of the techniques frequently used by Satan to attack the believers is "misunderstanding." These days I have been experiencing this a lot, either of myself or  of other brothers and sisters.

For years, problems have been going on between couples. Whatever the wife does is with the best intention, yet whatever the husband understood of what his wife does to him is exactly opposite. Goodwill from one end has become enmity in the other end and vice versa.  By the Lord's mercy, though I am still a novice in matters concerning life, the Lord has given me opportunities to learn from real life cases of couples, including mine own.

One such case is what I have been caring for. The duo often got into troubles and when it almost hit their rock bottom, I got involved, mostly by invitation. On dealing each individual personally and hearing whatever they have to say or opined of their partners, each of them are absolutely right in their own sight. Yet, put together, none of them are right and resulted in verbal fights, if not, physical. Where and how and when did the relationship went wrong? On prayer and discernment with sober mind, and considering over the matter and praying it over and over again, the Lord's light dawned on me. It's a mere "misunderstanding" between and among themselves! But who caused the misunderstanding?

When believers neglect their basic exercise of contacting the Lord in prayer, eating the Lord in the Word and  fellowshipping with the members of the Body in the local church in their locality, there is a huge gap of spiritual dryness due to divine malnutrition which gives ground for Satan to creep in stealthily to tamper with the communication between the saints and brings in misunderstanding, leading to soulish exercises on the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and finally bringing in spiritual dead among all, resulting even in avoidance of any attempt for revival again. On the one hand it is Satan behind the scene, yet on the other hand, it is the believers' immaturity in neglecting the basic and normal healthy-balanced-spiritual-diet.

The only solution to misunderstanding is the exercise of our human spirit to touch the Lord as life and life-supply, eating the tree of life, enjoying and experiencing Him everyday and never giving ground to the enemy in any way. 

Lord, preserve me to live and walk according to the spirit and to eat the tree of life daily.

Pray Toward the City!

"..pray to You toward their land that You have given to their fathers, the city that You have chosen, and the house that I have built for Your name;" 1 Kings 8:48b

When Solomon dedicated the  temple of God, which was God's heart's desire throughout the ages that pleased both God and men, his prayer has specific phrase repeated a couple of times in I Kings 8:29,30,35,44,48. This phrase is "pray toward this place or city." To paraphrase it, whatever happens with the Israelite for whatever reason, as long as they pray to Jehovah toward the city of God, Jerusalem, where the temple of God is, God would forgive their sins and recover them back to the chosen city. This is the reason why Daniel, while in captivity, prayed three times a day opening his windows towards Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10). This is very significant in our Christian life today.

Our prayer must have a goal with a means and a source. Our prayer is not for ourselves, but for the Lord and His interest on the earth. His heart's desire is :

Firstly, Christ, typified by the land, the good land Canaan, the alloted portion to all the genuine believers in the new testament  as a type in the old testament signified by  "pray toward their land";

Secondly, the kingdom of God in Christ, typified by "the city" Jerusalem, the city God has chosen and;

Thirdly, the holy temple, signifying God's house, the church, on the earth, to put His Name and be His dwelling place and charged His children to come and offer worship at least thrice a year.

Therefore, to pray toward the city is to pray to God  toward Christ, the kingdom  of God, and the house of God. When our prayers are tuned according to this, God will listen to our prayers, as this kind of prayers are according to His will. Whomever or whatever we are praying for, our prayers must be one with God's interest, directed towards Christ, the kingdom of God and the church, then we are praying the genuine Lord's prayer, and these prayers will always be answered. Pray to Jehovah toward the city!

The Beasts

We need Christ to receive the kingdom from God and come to crush all the beasts and then to become a great mountain that comprises us and that fills the whole earth to be the kingdom of God. By terminating and terminating us and by crushing all the beasts in us, Christ is wrought into our being to become our centrality and universality.  

Life-Study of Daniel Message 12

The vision in Daniel concerning the beasts are the human governments of different ages and different nature but essentially the same in essence. The aggregate of all those beasts is the present system of government, inclusive of all human culture, social, economic and politic. These beasts will be crushed and terminated at the second coming of Christ. In fact, the process of this crushing is beginning to take place.

The outward crushing by a stone cut without hands would take place soon, and meanwhile the crushing of the beasts in us, the believers, must also take place as a part of our growth and transformation in life. Within our beings there are many hidden beasts. Any matter, person or things whose source is not Christ, whose means is not Christ and whose goal is not the glory of God is a beast. As a man with flesh and blood and fallen in sin, there are many yet to be terminated beasts. And daily we must open to the Lord to deal with all these beasts within our being, that gradually we may be replaced with Christ until Christ has the first place and be the preeminent one in our personal life, church life, family life and service life.

I personally was touched by this message and looked to the Lord for mercy that the Lord may, in His mercy, kill all the beasts within me. And my prayer is, "Lord, have the first place in me, make Your home in my heart."