“Pastor, my prayer list is becoming so long that I’m tired of making request after request for this and that. What should I do?” a young zealous Christian asked me.
“Throw away your prayer list and start communing with God’s Spirit,” I responded.
With a look of astonishment my friend blurted out, “You can’t be serious! Without a list, what would I pray about?”
“Bill, prayer isn’t only about asking God for things. Prayer is fellowshipping with God, being with him and enjoying his presence. You’re tired of asking God for stuff, because your endless asking blocks you from communing with God’s Spirit.”
Redefining the Word Prayer
Asking God for things is the extent of most people’s prayers. Many who truly love Jesus know they should spend private time with him. However, they limit prayer to making requests. Consequently, lots of Jesus’ followers never establish a consistent and enjoyable private time with the Lord they love. Why?
Mainly, because we misdefine the word prayer. Prayer is communion between a human spirit and God’s Spirit. Part of our prayer time naturally includes asking God for help, but asking God for help must not comprise the major reason for meeting with him. This intimate communion allows a human and God to embrace one another. Through communion God’s Spirit enters into familiar fellowship with our human spirits. Intimacy marks communion—an intimacy that allows the human spirit and the Spirit of God to share sentiments, feelings, and emotions.
God, who is Spirit, wants to pour his thoughts and emotions into our human spirit. He designed prayer as a vehicle that brings us into his presence. Communion takes us beyond prayer. Communion is the interaction of two spirits: the human spirit and the Holy Spirit.
Communion attaches us to God and God to us in a way that thrills both. This relationship floods us with a yearning for more of him. Consequently, private time with him becomes so appealing that we spend more and more time in his presence in what is ordinarily called prayer.
This book is all about the Jesus who wants to draw closer and closer to us. Don’t we want the same? Don’t our hearts yearn for him and long for his presence? Through communion God’s desire for us and our desire for him become satisfied.
In Leaving Prayer, Entering Communion I share ideas and insights that:
- Make spending time with Jesus’ Spirit a joy, not an obligation
- Provide practical suggestions for making appointments for visits with God
- Free us from merely making requests of God so we can fellowship with him
- Help us become experts at loving Jesus
The title Leaving Prayer, Entering Communion doesn’t diminish the importance of the word prayer. No, we elevate prayer to its full meaning. The word communion enlarges the meaning of prayer. Prayer is communion and communion is prayer. In chapter 5 of this book we show how communing with God’s Spirit increases the effectiveness of making requests of him.
A Word about Feeling God’s Presence
Throughout this book I mention feeling God’s presence. It is true that the human spirit can sense his nearness. However, not everyone feels the Spirit of God in the same way or with the same intensity.
God designed all of us similar, yet different. Out of the billions of people on earth, we can identify each individual by their fingerprints, voice, or DNA molecule. The God who made us physically dissimilar also made our spirits different. Therefore, it’s perfectly normal for Christians to sense God’s presence in various ways. Our relationship with God is based on faith, not feeling.
At the end of each chapter, I list several points under “You Can Do It”. Please use these lists to enliven your private time with the Lord.
May we all enter into deeper communion with the Spirit of Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Be greatly encouraged!
Pastor James Fields
Click here to order your copy of Leaving Prayer, Entering Communion
