NEW SEASON – NEW SPIRITUAL WARFARE LEVEL© - 3

by Dr. S.E.Williams

Prayer-Life 1 David’s

More Study of Prayer Life © 2002

David is shown to have a relationship with God that was so real that it brought him victory in the face of defeat and transformed his life.  In fact from his choice to be IN relationship with God, we get a clear example of what the Prayer-Life (as I call it) is.  Communing 24/7 with our Abba/Daddy/God is possible ONLY in your new life in Him and He in you. 

Outside of this intimate communing, there is only the IF place.  You know, IF it be your will, can you do this or that, please?  It’s like talking to a stone wall and wishing your answer would appear, somehow.

Now, Prayer-Life is what God has always purposed for us, it is our new life in Him, taken to the next level of relationship, after new birth and milk time.  Like when you are ready to really learn and grow.  God is always with us and never leaves us. 

He does give us the choice, each and every day 24/7, to commune with Him, as in talk with, shout with, laugh, with, cry with, sing with, stomp with, jump with, leap with, holler with, and just be still with, breathing in, breathing out. 

Prayer is more than what we do at any specific time.  Prayer is more than the words we use during this time, or the thoughts we think or the feelings we feel.  Prayer is the life we now live in these earthen vessels; it is our spiritual breathing, our spiritual speaking, our spiritual laughing, crying, shouting, our spiritual being. 

While we do pray, that is one of the parts of our New Prayer-Life.  As we learn of the liberty we now have in Christ, and the ability to walk in God, with God, and through God, we begin to see the fullness of Prayer-Life, the connectedness of Prayer-Life to who we are and whose we are.

David may not have recognized that his psalms/songs were to be God’s example of both relationship and prayer.  Then again, maybe he did, and that is why he had them written down.

Read Psalms 1 – 41 and be prayerfully submitted to receiving all that your Abba/ Daddy, God has for you, through your Abba/ Mommie Holy Spirit, by your Abba/ Brother Jesus Christ. 

David also was honest about where he was. He prayed always in the humbling of his soul, his heart before God, the Lord His Shepherd.   Let’s look at the Psalm he wrote after the whole scenario with Bathsheba and the loss of their son.  After The Prophet Nathan came to him prophetically presenting David’s sinful state of being.

Psalms 51 KJV

¹ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. ² Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. ³ For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.   ⁴ Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. ⁵ Behold, I was shapened in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

⁶ Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. ⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ⁸ Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.   ⁹ Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. ¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. ¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.  ¹³ Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

¹⁴ Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. ¹⁵ O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. ¹⁶ For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

¹⁸ Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

 
Let’s read this in another version: Psalm 51 The Message Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

^{1 -3}Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out   

    my bad record.
    Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry.
    I know how bad I've been; my sins are staring me down.

^{4 -6} You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of   

      my evil.  You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.
      I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born.

What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive A new, true life. 

^{7 -15} Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.  Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.  Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.  God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.  Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile,  put a fresh wind in my sails! Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home.  Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise.

^{16 -17}Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is

      nothing to you.  I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered.    

      Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's  notice.

^{18 -19}Make Zion the place you delight in, repair Jerusalem's broken-down

      walls. Then you'll get real worship from us, acts of worship small and

      large, Including all the bulls they can heave onto your altar!

-----------------------

David did not play any games with God, although he sometimes acted out according to the fleshly and heart desires.  He didn’t ‘perform’ for God, trying to be good.  No.  David was honest especially when faced with what he had done, and this Psalm shows us how real his relationship with God was. In spite of what he had done, David acknowledged God in all of his ways, Good, bad, ugly, and cried out of his fallen place for God’s help.

David didn’t ask for special treatment because he was a king, he didn’t try to excuse his actions or blame someone else for what he had chosen to do.  He faced all the good, the bad and the very ugly, and was brought to his knees as he realized that it all was about more than his ‘mis-deeds’ or sins – it was about being able to go to the One who was and is Merciful, full of grace, forgiveness – God, our Abba/Daddy.

With this in mind about David’s relationship with God, let’s look at some of the other Psalms that David wrote.

Psalms 31 KJV

¹ In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. ² Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.  ³ For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.

Psalms 31 KJV (continued)

⁴ Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength. ⁵ Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.

⁶ I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD. ⁷ I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities; ⁸ And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room. ⁹ Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.

¹⁰ For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. ¹¹ I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me. ¹² I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. ¹³ For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

¹⁴ But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.  ¹⁵ My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. ¹⁶ Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake. ¹⁷ Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

¹⁸ Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.  

¹⁹ Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! ²⁰ Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.  ²¹ Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.

²² For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. ²³ O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. ²⁴ Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.

  Psalms 54

¹ Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. ² Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. ³ For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah.

 ⁴ Behold, God is mine helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul. ⁵ He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth. ⁶ I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good. ⁷ For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies

The following scriptures clearly show our place through the Spirit as far as prayer life goes.

Romans 8:15 - For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Galatians 4:6 - And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father

Remember Jesus said in John 15:4-13:

⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. ⁶ If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. ⁸ Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.  ⁹ As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.  ¹⁰ If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's  commandments, and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. ¹² This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.{Emphasis from writer Dr.S.E.Williams)

Continuing on with more Key Scriptures:

John 14:16 - And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
John 14:26 - But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you

John 15:26 - But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
John 16:7 - Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you

The Key to abiding in Jesus and living the ‘prayer-life’ is receiving the Comforter, the Spirit of truth who always comes From the Father. 

Remember the scripture John 14:14-17

¹⁴ If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

¹⁵ If ye love me, keep my commandments.

¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

¹⁷ Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

And this scripture:

Romans 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

God has covered us with His Word, both the Living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word, and the third witness is the Spirit within us who comforts us, and leads us into all truth, and prays/makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be spoken.

These scriptures are not just word pictures, or ‘nice’ things to read.  These scriptures present our new life reality and invite us to choose life and enter in – through the door. The Way, the Truth, the Life is ours now, by our choice 24/7.  We feed our souls based on the Way.

Finally let’s look at the key Word for this part of our new life journey: 

Proverbs 3:5-6

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

⁶  IN ALL thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

⁷  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

(Emphasis Dr. S.E.W.)

Notice verse 6 did not say in all your good ways, it says ALL YOUR WAYS – good, bad, ugly – God knows all so why do you think you need to separate the bad or ugly ways and hide them?  David in Psalm 51, states it simply ‘ against you and you only’  hmmm.  Meditate on this, in Jesus.