Prayer focus

Be Thou My Vision (Oh Lord of my heart)

When it comes to building, there are elements in the heart of a disciple that are at work. The first chapter of Nehemiah has these attributes:

1. Have love for one another (love what God loves)

2. Don’t be selfish or conceited

3. Be humble

4. Value others above yourselves

5. Be a peacemaker

6. Be a servant

7. Obey at all cost

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.

Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” – Nehemiah 1:1-3 ESV

It is here that I find the need for prayer and for making it my focus. I can praise God for what He has already done and for His promises about what He will do again. I can confess my sin and I can ask God to show me how to rebuild my part of the wall. I definitely want to pray with the same confident faith of Nehemiah.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. – Nehemiah 1:6-7 ESV

Next year I want my theme to be on prayer. Through the power of the Holy Spirit I want to strengthen my prayer life and be more grounded in it. Prayer is a foundational spiritual practice and a cornerstone to building a life as a disciple of Jesus. Prayer has the power to transform people and communities.

Alan Redpath in his commentary on the book of Nehemiah has brought out that the place where every ministry ought to begin is first in “mourning” for the current state of things. A person sees that there is a tremendous spiritual need amongst a group of people, and he/she mourns for how the people need the Lord in their life, how the lives of people have been destroyed by their life of sin, and how that the Lord needs to raise up a work that will meet that need and draw people to salvation through Christ, and make disciples to be sent out to do the work of ministry.

I want to ask the Holy Spirit to help me become a disciple-making disciple and I want to invite the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to make us a disciple-making Church.

As I journey in discipleship, I want to be practical and specific in my ask and keep in mind whose authority and protection I am under when I ask for what I need.

Definition of success

The definition of success as a follower of Jesus is one of the most important parts of learning how to live in the easy yoke with Him. I think that I need to think about what I take as a mark of success for my walk with Him. I need to understand how that always involves the transformation of character. Jesus talks about this twice.

He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” – Luke 13:22-30 ESV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ – Matthew 7:21-23 ESV

Jesus has shifted the picture from the level of action to the level of character. Who am I? That is the question I want to have before me as I attempt to minister in the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The core of my being

Holy Spirit

So grateful to read today how Ezra directed the core of his being constantly toward the task of studying and pouring over the Scriptures.

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. – Ezra 7:10 ESV

I would say that if we wanted to cop out and say that he did this because of his “ministry,” I would say we are missing the emphasis. It was his life – his all-consuming passion. Little else commanded his attention. He gave his best in study, practice and teaching. I try to do a personal inventory and ask myself if I truly give God my best efforts in this area. If I plug up the source of life that is found in His living and active word, I short circuit the Spirit’s power in both my life and my ministry. How can I, an “anemic,” find the power or passion to pass on to those I am called to disciple.

As a disciple, I start my life as a “student.” As I study, I teach from a place where I have served. I mean that study leads to doing, and as I progress in studying and doing, I gain the ability to teach.

If my discipleship suffers, it comes with a lack of studying or even believing that study is foundational to me becoming a disciple.

That is why I love what Ezra had to say. He was not content to deal with the law from an academic matter. He devoted himself to the study of the law so he could observe it, and only then teach it to others.

Remember when Jesus said this —

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;^[a] believe also in me. – John 14:1 ESV

In my study of His word I am actually practicing trusting in God. In the trusting of Him I receive a radical promise that doing so would bring comfort and peace to a troubled heart.

“What signalizes Him, and separates Him from all other religious teachers, is not the clearness or the tenderness with which He reiterated the truths about the Father’s love, or about morality, and justice, and truth, and goodness; but the peculiarity of His call to the world is, ‘Believe in Me.’” – Maclaren

I think Jesus is making a clear request here. If I follow Jesus, I must worship God – through Jesus, because He is my Mediator.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6 ESV

Fight and serve

Disciple Foot Washing

Esther brings out an element of how to fight with honour and skill and John reveals the power of servant leadership.

I normally would not try to extrapolate a story from the Old Testament and make it meaningful in the New, but will make an exception here because it involves spiritual warfare.

In Esther’s story the enemy were those who hated the Jews and their weapons were physical. The king’s decree gave them four things.

Saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, and to plunder their goods. – Esther 8:11 ESV

Those four things were the right to assemble, the right to defend themselves, the right to use deadly force and the right to take possessions from their enemies.

When I consider that my war is a spiritual one and not physical, I try and bring meaning of this passage to my life today. My enemy is Satan and his demonic forces, my weapons are spiritual, Jesus’ decree give me three things – His authority, His power and Himself.

So John explains what kind of leadership model Jesus used to guide us through this warfare. Jesus taught servant leadership and His dialogue on that matter is found in John 13:1-20. In this case, disciple means servant.

The picture of Jesus washing the disciples feet describes how disciples serve disciples. Is this not in line with the new commandment.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. – John 13:34 ESV

I am challenged in my desire to be a disciple today because it means that I need to serve like Him. It is about going low to serve other disciples even when it is inconvenient to myself or even when it is contrary to what any one is expecting. Therefore, in my disciple making mode I am making servants who love one another.

To be an intimate disciple

116 Clique – Tedashii – Carry Mine

Esther challenges me to prepare myself to be the intimate disciple that God has asked me to be in order that I may carry out His plan and His will.

She has become an example of how to live the obedient life. She did the right thing, made the right decisions, and said the right words. She moved in faith.

It almost feels that we were able to watch Esther grow up spiritually. I would say that when introduced to her she had a weaker character and by the end of her story she definitely had a heroic moral stature.

I would like to believe that she modelled a disciple’s life by listening to her mentor.

Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. And every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her. – Esther 2:10-11 ESV

I get two things out of this – Esther, I am sure, had no way of knowing why her mentor left her these instructions, but she followed them anyway and did not question the intent. The other is the amount of time and energy her mentor put into her life. He was available to her every day. He invested into her life.

Esther had not made known her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther obeyed Mordeci just as when she was brought up by him. – Esther 2:20 ESV

They ended up working together as a great team accomplishing God’s plan for their day and time. Each had to do their part.

Another model is the disciple Thomas – who does not get much respect – but he laid down his life for Jesus. He was discipled by Jesus and knew what it meant to follow Him.

So Thomas, called the Twin,^[b] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” – John 11:16 ESV

Thomas statement here led him to a place where he could lay down his life at anytime for Jesus. He eventually did as he preached the gospel in Persia and India.

Imagine, if we found ourselves in a worship service filled with unrestrained praise to the tune of Psalm 150. Is that not unrelated to Thomas’ move from restrained disciple toward a proclamation of unrestrained praise —

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” – John 20:28 ESV