MessianicMusings.com

Oh, if only problems in one’s 40s were as simple as they were in the teenage years, when solutions to the most pressing problems lay in a jar or two of acne cream.

I know of a person who is dealing with a debilitating illness and is in deep pain; the only thing that helps is narcotic-level prescription drugs. And yet, such drugs are highly addictive.

What a terrible position to be in; either attempt to endure an incredible amount of pain, or risk addiction for some temporary relief! All I know about a situation like that is, this is not how life in this world was meant to be.

Some problems can be solved with something practical, like a new HDMI wall plate; other problems are less oriented to the material world.

Take for example an anonymous friend of mine (not anonymous to me, but I’m maintaining confidentiality here). Like me, this friend is going through a time of grief. It’s amazing how, once you are grieving yourself, you begin to find out how many around you are also part of that club.

Anyway, while this person’s grief is not centered around a parent, it is centered around loss. The thing this person requested was simple: prayer. I can relate to that. Words fail to be of much use at times of great loss. All the cliches in the world, meant to comfort, are actually of little use or real comfort.

That’s why prayer is so effective; we don’t need to know what to pray about specifically to be effective or for Adonai to know how to respond. All we need to do is direct our prayers toward Adonai and ask Him to intervene, comfort and be Himself.

What could be more effective than that?

In the years ahead, I think one of the most important qualities any spiritual leader can ask for from Adonai is discernment. Primarily this is because I believe deception within all sorts of Christian, messianic, and even Jewish movements is at an all-time high.

Rabbi Stan recently said this in one of his sermons: “A person - or a demon - does not need to be with you to control you. All they need to do is teach you something that sinks in and that you conform your life around, and from that moment on, whoever taught you that is in control of your life, even if you never meet them again.”

Too much of this is increasingly evident within the Judeo-Christian movement. We have exchanged, each in different ways, the truth of God for lies, and we will not go unpunished if we do not repent of it, cast off the deception, and re-embrace truth.

Unfortuantely, I believe that in too many congregations, the lies are so embedded, so sunk-in, that most of the people who attend these churches would not know the genuine experience of fellowship with the Almighty from the counterfeit, because they’ve never experience the genuine.

Controversial thought, I know… but for most believers and even church and synagogue leaders, our spiritual discernment is on diet pills, and we’re in danger of becoming spritually anorexic. The time to pray for discernment and the repentence it will bring as Adonai cleanses his bride is now.

Today, my wife and I went to meet with a couple friends for prayer. Though we all (except my wife and I, of course) go to different Twin Cities-based churches, we all are feeling equally convicted that the church as a whole is pretty messed up, with a lot of false teaching in it that needs to be cleaned up soon.

Our outlooks and approaches are different, of course.

Tim (I’ll share first names only) is a solid balanced-view guy. He is an evangelical who is not highly partisan and can see the way Adonai uses each church movement, but is concerned about the amount of deception many in the church have embraced.

Jim (who wasn’t able to make it this time) is from a more mainline church, and his emphasis is to pray for mercy from Adonai.

My wife and I, as messianics, place a lot more concern on repentence than anything else, because we are convinced that God will not hesitate to judge those who embrace deception over the truth. Especially those in leadership positions.

It can become an ugly treadmill when church leaders embrace deception, and today I felt moved to pray for discernment on behalf of all Twin Cities church and synagogue leaders. But that’s a topic for another post…

Slowly… sometimes lethargically, I’ll admit… my prayer time is increasing.

I’m great at studying the Torah and related materials; studying is a strength for me. But that’s not enough if one wants to be a messianic rabbi. One must also have an active prayer life and be sure of God’s call on their life to such an undertaking. It’s certainly not a job one wants to take on without Adonai’s blessing on their ministry.

I’m still not where I need to be, quite honestly. If my prayer life were essential to breathing, I’d still need an IQAir or something to help out. But I am further along than I’ve been.

One thing that’s helping is now being part of a prayer squad. It’s a group that consists of two long-time friends and my wife, so far, and may grow beyond that. We’re all from different denominations, but we’re all brought together by the conviction that there’s too much false teaching out there in the church, be it Christian, Jewish or messianic. We all feel compelled that God wants to clean up the mess of all this false teaching, to prepare his bride and make her hold again.

It’s a help to be part of a group like that; it lends extra purpose to devoting more time to my prayer time with Adonai.

One can take matters of the spiritual world to two extremes; overspiritualizing - the habit of seeing a demon under every rock, tree and cereal commercial, and underspiritualizing - the habit of seeing the world only in the scientific, observable spectrum of reality.

There is a middle-ground, though. The prophet Elijah once, through the power of Adonai, opened the eyes of a disciple to the reality of the spiritual world, and what he say was that there is more of a struggle against the spiritual than there is against flesh and blood in much of life.

Often, a simple argument with a spouse “over nothing” can be inspired by the spirit world, looking to disrupt a marriage and lead one or both spouses into unbelief or error. It’s a way of keeping our marriages from being the powerful tools for the kingdom of heaven God had in mind when he brought couples together.

Angels and demons are not toys; they are real beings and while they are not behind everything the way some folks believe, they are behind more than most of us suspect.

Health concerns are always a faith-tester and again my mother is at the top of my prayer list. It seems like crisis like these are a supercharger for one’s prayer life, although we’d be much better off if we all prayed regularly with passion and zeal, and not just in times of crisis.

The latest is that my mother, whom God has brought safely through a stroke and pacemaker surgery in the past year, is now suffering from … well, we’re not quite sure, but the options aren’t exactly great. One possibility is that it’s pnuemonia, which would be bad enough. The other possibility is that it’s a tumor, either cancerous or non-cancerous.

The next 24-48 hours will reveal a lot; I know my mother is no spring chicken, though. She’s in her 70s and has been a lifelong smoker. My greatest comfort is that, when her time does run out and she’s called home, I know that she knows Yeshua.

That said, I am still praying that Adonai will choose, once again, to extend her days. Yet only He knows what is best.

Prayer is one of the most essential pieces of tactical gear a spiritual warrior can equip. And even if you see yourself merely as cannon fodder, that’s no reason not to pray.

Case in point: just as I was making plans to get together with a couple friends for some essential prayer time in a couple weeks, I got a call from the guy who suggested it and found out his wife was in the ER and needed prayer for her health, like, right now.

While things turned out OK, I have seen too many occasions where, due to lack of prayer, things haven’t always turned out quite as well. I’m glad we all started to plan a prayer get-together; if we hadn’t already been talking about it, who knows if he’d have called with the immediate prayer need? I suspect he might have… but making those plans certainly kept it at the forefront of his mind.

Without prayer, we eventually feel powerless because we’re cut off from the source of all power: Adonai. Prayer is essential in the life of any believer.

Well, I guess my rabbi told me!

Of course, it’s something I needed to hear, something my wife’s been telling me for a while, and certainly it is an absolute necessity. It’s time for me to get serious about seeking the L-RD if I’m serious about becoming a messianic rabbi.

Truth is, while I’m great at study time, my prayer life just isn’t what it needs to be; and if the L-RD isn’t with me, becoming a messianic rabbi would be pointless. No one should enter ministry without first making sure of the L-RD’s call, and having that call confirmed, re-confirmed and triple-confirmed, at least.

Without Adonai at the center of it, I’d be better off selling time-shares at Hilton Head rentals than I’d be pursuing a messianic ministry. And I’m no salesman.

The New Covenant writings advise us to pray constantly. That’s a high calling, especially considering most pastors and rabbis spend less than a couple hours per week in prayer.

Prayer is nothing more than communicating with Adonai, so why is it so hard to acheive? While I wouldn’t wager the cash value of any term insurance on the idea, I think it’s probably for the very same reason the Israelites asked Moshe to be their mediator between Adonai and them, rather than speaking directly to G-d themselves.

Although G-d wants to speak to us directly, and Yeshua provides a way for us to do so, it is our own shame and human frailty that makes us hesitant to seek Him out and meet Him regularly, as He wants us to.

Holiness is a high calling, and few of us live up to it, even when we have the power of the Ruach haKodesh. Although we can never live up to Adonai’s perfect standard and therefore need messiah Yeshua, the truth is we can live well above the minimum standard set forth in the Torah. Therefore, we should have no fear of G-d, and ought to be more eager in approaching him in prayer to talk out the events of the day.

Did you know most pastors and rabbis spend an average of only two hours a week in prayer?

That was a wake-up call when my rabbi shared that during Erev Shabbat a few months ago, during a series of messages on prayer. It’s certainly far less then the efforts of Johnathan Edwards, that sparked a revival in America, prior to delivering his classic sermon, Sinners In the Hands of an Angry G-d. As history tells it, Edwards, no dynamic speaker of any particular note, prayed for weeks leading up to that one sermon, and his prayer was simple: “L-rd, give me New England.”

Several hours a day for several weeks led to a revival. If most pastors and rabbis put in less than two hours a week, is it any wonder that it’s been over 150 years since America has seen a revival like that which Edwards initiated?

Of course, non-clergy are even worse on average; usually, aside from blessing their meals, even most church and synagogue attendees spend less than an hour in deep prayer each week. Many less than that.

In times of tragedy, such as floods, hurricanes or even personal tragedies like finding out you have cancer or mesothelioma, many folks wonder why G-d isn’t listening. I’m suggesting that perhaps it’s the other way around; perhaps it is us who have turned a deaf ear to Adonai.

Sometime today, if preliminary testing goes well, my mom will be getting her pacemaker put in. As much as I’d like to drive down to Rochester, walk up to the reception desk, and be directed to the nearest waiting room to see her through this, it’s not quite possible; both my wife and I are currently out of work and have been for almost a week.

But prayer is effective. I found out today that I’m in line for a job that could start as early as next Tuesday, if all goes well. The offer isn’t formally made just yet, though. And my wife received a call about a job offer today, too, so she may be back to work as well, laying our rent concerns to rest.

Adonai never gives us more than we can handle; but he knows a lot better than we do where those limits are.