Not By Might...

So my brother and I were talking about our prayers the other day. He gets bogged down in "lists"; I'm not a "prayer lister" at all. Here are some of our thoughts on how prayer plays a part in following God.

Greg: I was wondering after I talked to you if I really pray enough about my church, ministry, people, etc, etc. I'm sure really I don't pray enough at all. But that doesn't have to do with the question...I don't think...

You know Paul talks about working with "all His power" (that is GOD's & not his own - and that is paraphrased). And I sure don't want to be just "doing ministry" by MY power and getting results that I can get on my own. We preach that God should be involved in ministry. There's the old "joke" - "If the Holy Spirit left your congregation would anyone even notice.

My question is HOW do we make sure we are "ministering" "working" "striving" - however you want to say it - with HIS power.

I think that I always assumed - for some reason - that means that you have to "pray God's power into stituations/guidance, etc.". And that may well be true - or at LEAST a part of it....However... is there more to it?

Is prayer a part of it at all? If so, how much? Like 75% of it - 25% of it?

Could it be that just HAVING the Spirit "makes" us operate in it?

If not, what do we "feed" that direction if the Spirit does not operate in us "by default"?

Could it be that, as you said, just KNOWING God by relationship - spending time with him as our father - sharing concerns and ideas and thoughts with Him (and He with us thru the Word) - rather than praying down a "list" of "needs" is what is necessary to walk in the Spririt and operate by His power. Which then, of course, IS prayer... yet not what we usually believe "moves" God to "work for us" (like we are going to goad God into moving).

Chris: You bring up a good point.

If the Holy Spirit is with in us, which I believe He is, then I think we would work with him or he work in us by just some sort of default. But obviously we can work against the Holy Spirit. If we couldn't, then we would never sin or see people walk away from God. So I think that is part of it.

I think it is a "all of the above" answer. It is the Holy Spirit, it is praying, it is building the relationship with God. When we pray out of relationship instead of laundry list of things I want/need, then I begin to do things with Him in mind.

My laundry list prayer, while prayer, is all about me.

Its been said that prayer has more to do with changing me than it does God. It reminds me that I am not the most important person in the universe. It reminds me that The Church is His not mine. I can plan and try to grow it and maybe it will because, with good intentions, we are still preaching the gospel, still praising the Lord, still helping people. But when we come to it with a mindset of working with the Spirit and seeing what he is already doing in the lives of people, I think it makes our plans more effective because it builds off God's plan.

For instance, looking around, I see a lot of people in our church that have lost their job. So I might think about preaching on faith, eternal security, instead of preaching a sermon about holiness. Not that the holiness series would be bad or ineffective but maybe looking up for minute I can see needs that my church has. That is probably an over simplistic illustration.

Greg: I think...you're right!

Chris: That may be a first!

What do you think? (I mean about the subject - not Chris finally being right!)