Prayer Beacon value: PRAYING

It is obvious that a church should be about Jesus. Pill Corps believes it can be place where people can meet with Jesus and be changed by him. Prayer is not just about adding effectiveness to what we do but is about friendship with Jesus. In any relationships intimacy grows from time spent with the one we love. As a Prayer Beacon we practise a rhythm of prayer, through which people may encounter Jesus.

Bible Notes from 24th September

The writer of Psalm 84 writes with intensity about his desire to be in the presence of God, to be with Him.

Meeting with the living Jesus through the Spirit, who takes us into the presence of God, is at the heart of what we are about. If the divine presence is missing then we are missing the whole point of our existence as a church. Experiencing the presence of God is not an empty hope. In fact we can even expect more than a once in a life-time spiritual experience. We can live with him.

1. We want to dwell with him
Some relationships between boys and girls never get beyond the disastrous first date but for others there is a progression in the relationship. They don’t just want to go on dates they want to share an intimate life together for the rest of their lives.
Psalm 84 was used when pilgrims made their way to the Temple, where they believed that God’s presence rested in a special way. But David recognised that the real blessing was not a yearly visit.
v 4 says; “Blessed are those who dwell in your house they are ever praising you.”
The word dwell means linger, hang out implies that you want to stay there!

We don’t want to have appointments with Him from time to time, like a client with therapist. We don’t want to go on dates like a boy and girl starting a romance. We want to go on more than a legal arrangement of parental access to our Father God, we want to be able to live with Him, know Him, turn to Him not just for the rest of our lives here on earth but forever.

2. We want to pay any price.
And for that opportunity to be near God we are prepared to pay any price, take any position.

Psalm 84:10 “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”
Athough we are willing to be doorkeepers it is not what God actually offers. In His story of the prodigal son, Jesus tells us that as the son made his way home he rehearsed his speech that he would say to his father. He would beg his father to let him be a hired servant, even a slave if he could just be allowed back into his father’s household. But when the son arrived expecting that he would be a servant he was welcomed as a son and given the privileges of a son.

Paul says in Galatians, “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 a son and since you are a son God has also made you an heir.”
We deserve to be treated as servants, to sit at the back as onlookers to the glories of heaven instead we are invited in and treated as sons and daughters of the King of Kings.

3. We need to know who is in charge
We are called to dwell with God. He lives with us, we live with Him. And that sets up a question of authority. If we are living with the Lord, we need to know who is in charge.
Jesus said; "If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.
This means that when we ask Jesus what he thinks about something he is very unlikely to say, "I don't mind, whatever." When we welcome Jesus into our lives and make room for Him to live, it is not as a silent guest with no opinions or commands, but as an authoritative head of the household whose opinions matter more to us than anyone else's and whose commands are the law of our life.

4. We sometimes feel like moving
What He offers us now is His presence but the accommodation we share with Him may sometimes be hard and difficult for a time although he promises that our permanent heavenly dwelling with Him will be perfect.

The Hebrew people during their 40 years in the desert often got mixed up. They looked back on Egypt which was their prison as a paradise. They then made the mistake of looking upon their present position as a permanent one, when God was actually moving towards the fulfilment of His promise. What they needed to do was rest in the presence of a God who was leading them to a Promised Land.

Your accommodation might be other than you would wish it. You may have unresolved problems, feel misunderstood, be in the midst of change or a million other things. The only promise Jesus gave us was; “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

God is not an acquaintance or even a friendly neighbour. He’s not just a relative we spend every Christmas with and communicate with on facebook. He is our home address and in a miraculous way, we are His.

Cell questions
1. What is your most recent experience of being aware of God’s presence in your life?

2. What description of a Christian’s relationship with God do you find best describes your own relationship with him? (e.g friendship, father and a child, shepherd and sheep, Master and servant, King and citizen etc)

3. What is the most comforting thing and the most uncomfortable thing about having Jesus living with you?

4. Jesus is not a silent guest in our lives, what has he been saying to you lately?

5. We sometimes have to live with Jesus through difficult circumstances, which at times feel permanent. Pray for anyone in the group or for people who we know are going through difficult times that they may be aware of the promise of Jesus to never leave them or forsake them.


God bless

Carol