Culturally Irrelevant

Nehemiah 3:5 says that the nobles of Tekoa were unwilling to put their shoulders to the task of rebuilding the wall. They were important people and manual labor was beneath them…technically. However, the “men” of Tekoa went straight to work on the wall. In fact, these same men went the extra mile and worked on another section of the wall in verse 27.

Katy and I are beginning to see the “wall” of prayer. Like a wall, prayer protects, creates spiritual boundaries, stages both offensive and defensive maneuvers, supports watchmen and acts as a filter for what comes in and goes out. I’ve heard it taught that only some are called to a life of prayer. I used to accept that, but not anymore. I believe we tend to see the hard labor of prayer as someone else’s job in the body. That’s convenient, but not true. Every single one of us has been called to the secret place to pull on and discern the Father’s heart, to cry out for unity in the body, to ask for more laborers and lost souls, to be filled with the Spirit on a regular basis.

The Bible is full of examples of unceasing prayer (e.g., Joshua in the tent of meeting) and teaches us to pray constantly. In the Spirit, in the understanding, with songs, with instruments, in the morning and evening, alone and with others, during good times and bad. I’ve struggled with this for years, trying my best to “practice the presence of God” like Brother Lawrence teaches. But it becomes a difficult exercise of always trying to get back into a place that I feel I’ve lost. 

The good news is that it’s not up to our own discipline, emotional energy, force of will or mental capacity to grasp the things before us. God graciously empowers us to do the very things he requires of us. In “The Release of the Spirit” Watchman Nee explains that our spirits long to have constant fellowship with God, but the trouble is with the hardened shell of the soul. When unbroken, my thoughts, criticism, planning, emotional swings, and willfulness all act independently to hinder what the Spirit is trying to work out through me. In essense, because of the Spirit’s presence and work in me, my spirit is ready to fellowship with God, to touch other people, to pour out from the anointing that’s available. But because my thoughts, the way I feel about things and my will to have things a certain way, are so powerful and insistent , I’m having to use my soul to sit at the wall of prayer. Instead of my spirit being the free vessel, my soul becomes the constricting filter by which I experience God, receive revelation, minister to others, etc.

So, I’m at the wall, reading Watchman Nee and hanging out around John 15 right now. I’m asking God to search my heart and shine his spotlight of truth into my deepest motives and the things I say in my mind when I’m not paying attention. In the meantime, we’re beginning to see bits and pieces of God’s heart more and more. For the lost, for the body of Christ all over the world, for this new generation of young people, for kids and baby Christians. And we’re just taking it to the wall.