Prayer and Solutions

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray in Matthew 6, His opening words drew attention to the fact that there is another KIngdom where the will of God is done all the time. His words were.... "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your Name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."

Recently as I was praying this prayer, it came to me that what we keep wanting God to do is already being done in Heaven.
The fact that it is not being done on earth is not because He is unwilling. It is because the conditions are not right on earth. Mankind does not want to do what He wants to do. What should be happening here is because man will not cooperate with God's will.

Often I hear people really get frustrated at God's seeming lack of willingness. I, too, have been frustrated with God's seeming lack of interest or willingness to act. Jesus' prayer sets the record straight. There is a place where His will is done and we should pray that this world would become such a place.

My cooperation with God's will as revealed in Jesus' words is a start. Imagine the world if for one day everyone did the will of God. What kind of day would that be? How many things would immediately change? Imagine your private world with you doing the will of God moment by moment.

I believe that knowing there is a place where His will is being done is the best place to start our prayers. It focuses us on the fact that the same kind of kingdom is coming to this world. We need to become personally engaged with this new kingdom right now. It is just a start, but it is certainly a taste of greater things to come.

The Abiding Experience retreat

This past weekend we were able to enjoy our first retreat for 2007. We have six planned for this year in cooperation with the First Baptist Church of Sao Jose dos Campos. Twenty three people spent two nights at the camp in the mountains and we spent over 10 hours together learning more about the experience of Abiding moment by moment satisfied in Christ.

The camp setting and absence of distractiions made this a wonderful time in the lives of all who paticipated. This concentrated dialog about the perfect sufficiency of Jesus in our lives is an effective way to focus, inform and inspire. It was a very, very good time indeed.

Discipleship

Every now and then I read something that is so well said that I just want everyone I know and love to read it. Today I read just such a statement. Author Mike Wells in his new book HEAVENLY DISCIPLESHIP, makes the following statement on the back cover of the book:

"Generally the concept of discipleship follows a consistent model. First the determination is made about what is lacking in the disciple, and then attempts begin to try to fill that insufficiency. In short, dicipleship has deteriorated to the effort of putting something into a person. Heavenly discipleship begins from a different paradigm. First, it believes that the fulness of Christ exists in every believer, and second, the task of every disciple-maker is to reveal that great truth. Discipleship is not putting Christ or His characteristics into a person but rather revealing the Christ that dwells in a person. It is not working for but from. When a disicple works for what he already has, he will lose that which he has."

This new book by Mike Wells is available through the website Abidinglife.com

If you are ready for a paradigm of abundance and life, read the book. If you want to learn to disciple people in this way, come to Brazil in August and we will learn together.