Don't Worry About "The Box"

This posting relates to the shared reading of Pastor Fred Hartley's book "Prayer On Fire", chapter 6, entitled "Out of the Box". You can post comments on this site, or address questions to Pastor Rich Marshall of Faith Center Aloha by email at rich5244@aol.com. Now, here are a few comments based on chapter 6.

As you begin this chapter, please take to heart the quote on page 81 from the great Evangelical missionary, Hudson Taylor. "The power given is not a gift from the Holy Spirit. He, Himself, is the power. Today He is as truly available and as mighty in power as He was on the day of Pentecost." (Other standard Christian leaders are quoted saying similar things to this. No less than Wesley and Whitefield, D.L.Moody and Billy Graham - not exactly the wild-eyed, big-haired types.)

Let this pearl of wisdom and scriptural understanding from Hudson Taylor guide your thinking and discussion. Whatever you do, let this be a foundational understanding about the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and Spirit-filled prayer. God's spiritual gift to you is .... His Personal presence entering into you. Prayer and power then become the simple, joyful functioning of your Person-in-person relationship to God the Holy Spirit, who is guiding you within. Seek to be full with His presence day by day. Seek to listen to His guidance, and then test what you receive by comparing it to Scripture. The Holy Spirit coordinates both inspiration and Scripture to help you, comfort you and correct you. (Search the Scriptures yourself to discover support for these statements.)

Pages 82 and 83 introduce you to "the box" - what Hartley sets as the conflict between "naturalism" and Christian spirituality. Hartley points out that because of the type of education that most of us have received, we are inclined to be skeptical of the possibility of things that the Bible introduces as spiritual and physical reality. The Bible assumes the existence and personality of God, God's creation of the universe and all life, human interaction with God, miracles, prophecies, spiritual relationship between people and God, the literal resurrection of Christ, the second coming of Christ, the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the reality of prayer, just to name a few that come to mind. In conflict with this, the naturalistic mindset of our western civilization approaches all these Biblical assumptions as unprovable and implausible; in other words, the "world" natually thinks that what Christians believe is ridiculous. No big surprise there. Just keep in mind that as a Christian your mind gets to be transformed from the mind of the world, and grow toward the mind of Christ. (see Philippians 2 for some insight).

Page 84 briefly brushes by the subject of dispensational cessasionism regarding the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and the function of spiritual gifts in today's Christian Church. This belief, made popular in the late 19th century by a Princeton theologian, Dr. Warfield, makes the assertion that the power of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts ceased in the Church with the death of the Apostles, or with the completion of the New Testament scriptures (depending upon which dispensationalist is speaking). The Bible itself doesn't do a very good job of supporting this assertion. You don't have to look any farther than Acts 2:38, 39 to learn that "the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." In the Foursquare Church, we believe in the Baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and in functioning with mature balance in all things. There is always a need to take care that you walk in balance. The dangers we encounter are in the extremes of immaturity. And by that I mean the over-hyped expectation that the miraculous must take place at our command; or the over-skeptical fear that only imbalanced people seek spiritual gifts and power, and will divide the church. A full reading of the Bible will show that while the Apostles walked daily under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they apparently did not by any stretch of the imagination experience the miraculous every day - though they did experience the miraculous along the way, and so shall we.

A key to the Spirit-filled prayer life - this "prayer on fire" that we are reading about - is praying according to the will of God. Look to Jesus' words regarding effective prayer that gets answered. If prayer is to be according to God's will, then how can you discover His will? John 15:7-8 and Romans 12:2 are foundational passages to consider. (Please refer to those passages). Your mind and my mind need to be being renewed. The best way to renew your mind is to fill it with God's Word. When you have His Word in your mind, you increase your knowledge of His will. With that kind of knowledge you can pray bold prayers based upon His Word, confident that you are conforming to His will. And you can grow in your faith to function in spiritual gifts as the Holy Spirit guides you. Read on in Romans 12:3-21. The entire chapter is about using your faith and spiritual gift to serve others, to live humbly with maturity in relationships, and to absorb the harsh realities of this evil world by letting the love and mercy of God rule in your life. All of that flows out of your renewed mind growing in the ability to discern God's good and perfect will. In John 15:7 Jesus gives us a conditional promise for a powerful prayer life: "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you." Notice the parts of this verse that are your responsibility --> Abiding in Him; choosing to have His words abide in you; and, asking for what you desire. You can't take those out of sequence because they are conditions, not options. These conditions will guide and shape your desires and your requests to God in prayer according to His guidance and His will. This verse is based upon the transformation that a Christian experiences by "abiding" in Jesus Christ spiritually, relationally, mentally, and practically. As we are being transformed, then the requests we desire to make of God in prayer are also being transformed. Knowing Jesus and knowing His Word brings your prayers into the area of what He wants to accomplish. There are general areas of His will that you can have confidence to pray about: For instance, the salvation of souls (John 3:16); the building of a victorious body of believers (Matthew 16:18-19); doing the "greater-works" that Jesus promised (John 14:12-14); the love of God in your life (John 15:12-13; Romans 5:1-5; 1 Corinthians 13; Jude 20,21); and many, many more that the Word and the Spirit will reveal to you.

The Word of God and the Spirit of God reveal to our minds what is important to God. If you gain confidence in these things, then prayer becomes an exercise in simply coordinating your will with God's will in any matter. You also gain mature patience when you find that you need to take your time to discover what His will or direction is for some situations. As the Psalms say: Wait on the Lord.

I hope that these comments help, especially because I know that the subject matter of chapter 6 of "Prayer On Fire" has raised some challenging questions for some of us participating in the reading. Trust the Lord Jesus for your growth. He will provide you with genuine Spirit-filled experience and guidance.

Love and blessings.
Believing for your growth in His fullness,



Pastor Rich Marshall