Like the deer in a dry land, panting for streams of living water, we are thirsting for you. You have invited us to come and drink. And so, we have come to meet with you — in your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Forgive us Lord, for we have confused our thirst for you with a thirst for power, for recognition, for ease, and for entertainment. Even now Lord, reset our souls to you. Awaken us to the majesty of your sovereign love and wisdom.
We have feared the mocker’s question — Where is your God? And so we kept silent; we retreated into our own doubt, and we made skepticism our fortress. We imagined a justice that did not include you. Oh Lord, break these walls down with the glorious image of Jesus pouring Himself out as a servant, taking up the towel and serving, taking up the cross and suffering that we might know You in your fullness.
Oh Spirit of God, blow through these walls that the fragrance of your life would be a delight to many. Cause hope to arise in us and praise to flow from our hearts in the day and the night. You are our comforter and healer. You restore us to the image of Christ Jesus our Lord. Stir us out of our passivity and activate attention to your love for us and attentive love for our neighbours at home, across the campus, and in the classroom.
Oh Lord, those living in the shadow of domination and desolation are crying out — Hear their cry Lord. Their cries are coming to you from Chile, from Venezuela, from Haiti, from Hong Kong, and from Iraq and even from here in Canada. Oh Lord direct your love to them, may your song be within them even in the night — a prayer to the God of their lives. Establish people of Jesus as vibrant communities whose praises arise as a beacon of hope in every dark corner or our globe.
Oh Lord in the name of Jesus we are pleading — may your Kingdom come!
(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer)
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one; for yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Heavenly Father, we come to you just as a thirsty deer comes to a stream of water. We thirst for you and know that you can satisfy.
We rejoice in the truth and those who tell it. So Jesus your Son has become our Saviour. He has set us free. He is the Saviour of all who believe. His Word is life to us.
We are grateful for the gift of your Holy Spirit who has made us alive to you. We are a new creation, brought into your communion; you are making all things new and beautiful on your schedule.
We praise you for this grace in which we live!
Our prayer though echos the ancient question, “How long?” How long Lord will we groan for the revealing of who we are in Christ? How long will people groan under the oppression of the evil one? How long will you be patient?
We yearn for you. Your Spirit from the beginning has hovered over the deep, bringing order to chaos. Bring order to our hearts.
We yearn for you to be revealed in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi; we ask Father that you would let the waters recede and that your agents of mercy could provide help to many who are stranded in the remnants of Cyclone Idai.
We yearn for you to be revealed in the many villages and communities in Canada that lack clean water. Please grant your provisions and your wisdom to those working to create new water systems.
We yearn for you to be revealed on our campus in the hearts of people stirred up with anxiety, weighed down by lonely ambitions, and darkened by unbelief. You have promised your satisfying presence in the life of all who believe you — a stream of living water that flows from within. May you bring salvation.
Thank you Father for hearing our prayer in the name and grace of Jesus Christ our Lord, so we pray as He taught us…
Jesus makes it clear that our Heavenly Father knows how to give good gifts. So, He teaches his disciples to pray persistently. He wants us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. Then Jesus shows His followers that their Heavenly Father is more extravagant, glorious, and rich in His giving than they can imagine.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you re evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:8-13
Do see how extravagant God is? “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
That’s generous! God will give to us the His Spirit who has been present when God is creating: In the beginning. Genesis 1:1-3 In the incarnation of Jesus. Luke 1:35 In the baptism of Jesus. Matthew 3:16 In the extraordinary life and ministry of Jesus. Acts 10:36-38 In the birth of the Church. Acts 2 In the ministry of each local congregation. Ephesians 2:22
Paul urges his readers in Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit. Get filled with the Spirit. Keep on being filled with the Spirit. Paul has in mind the creating work of God. Where there is darkness, chaos, and formlessness in our lives and in the world the Spirit of God is present for a God-shaping struggle. And into this darkness God can speak, “Let there be light.”
Jesus promised that His very life, ministry, death on the cross, and resurrection is to make the in-dwelling gift of the Spirit possible. His words of comfort to the Disciples gathered in the upper room the night before His crucifixion made no sense and they seemed to have felt only confusion and grief. He says to them,
“Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go I will send Him to you.” John 16:6-7
Later they understood Jesus. The way of the cross, the passion of Jesus, had opened the way of the Spirit for the creation of a new humanity. Peter would say in his exhortations to the people of Jerusalem gathered at Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)
Having received “the gift” we can ask for this gift to occupy our hearts, mind, soul, and strength over and over. Be filled with the Spirit. Having received Jesus as Lord, having received the forgiveness of the Heavenly Father, having received your adoption as children of God, are you open again, today for the filling of His Spirit?
Are you asking? To be filled with Holy Spirit. Are you seeking? To be filled with the Holy Spirit. Are you knocking? To be filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Scot McKnight’s recent book, Open to the Spirit, he suggests a prayer of openness toward our Heavenly Father:
Lord, I am open to the Holy Spirit. Come to me, dwell in me, speak to me so that I may become more like Christ. Lord, give me the courage to be open. Lord, I am open to the Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Amen.
You have been created and born again in Christ Jesus for a dynamic living relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The whole movement and struggle of history is for people to be in this communion with God. So ask, seek, and knock.
If you are not sure that the narrative of Scripture is for our communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit consider this vision and exhortation from the Apostle Paul to the Galatian church:
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” Galatians 3:13-14
“…we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his son, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4:3-7)
This is God’s intention for you: communion with Him, not isolation from Him.
So by humble and sincere faith in the name and promise of Jesus Christ our Lord — ask again, “Fill me with your Holy Spirit.”
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Jesus, Matthew 6:5-6
We have a prayer room. Its a grand experiment in carving out space for students who would like to carve out space in their lives to enter into the communion of God. If you don’t have experience stepping into a prayer room or in carving out space in your own home in order to persistently pursue communion with God, let me encourage you to designate a chair, a corner, and even a room for conversation with God. Entering into the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the prayer room is not meant to be a communion that you leave. Rather you are to live as a walking prayer room, for in Christ, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The prayer room is an admission that we require daily realignment with Jesus and the Father’s heart in order to be fully occupied with Him.
Prayer rooms are places of direct encounter with God. So much of our faith, if we are not very careful, can merely amount to a succession of second-hand spiritual experiences. We listen to talks that tell us what to think. We outsource our prayer requests to others. We even read books like this one that inspire us with other people’s encounters and adventures. But alone in a prayer room we may sometimes encounter God face-to-face without a middleman. Often the Holy Spirit speaks directly to us in ways that no ministry session ever could.
Pete Greig/Dave Roberts , Red Moon Rising: Rediscover the Power of Prayer, p. 166
Those who live loved are learning to listen to Jesus Christ our Lord.
My friend, you are not too much trouble for God. When unbelief is a rising tide drowning out any ethical thinking and action your voice may seem small, your determination may seem wasted, and your resolve may seem weak. You may ask, “How long, Lord, how long?” But God hears. God sees. And the Psalmist declares, “The LORD knows all human plans: he know that they are futile.” (Psalm 94:11)
In the bone-crunching, blood-pounding, gut-wrenching struggle we may not see the help present for us. But one day we may declare with joy:
Unless the LORD had give me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD supported me. when anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.” (Psalm 94:17-19
You are not too much trouble for God. He loves you. Jesus says,
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
