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On Eagle Wings text

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from The Prayerline Newsletter by Darrell C. Porter

 

"Fire & Sword"

January - March, 2010

It is something you cannot see, cannot feel and cannot hold. Yet it governs everything. You are born and are given only so much of it, to do what is right and good or evil and wrong. When spent it is all gone. You cannot turn it back. You can never start at the beginning. You can only proceed from where you are. Time does not repeats itself. Once past it cannot be regained. It is the most rare of all rare things in the universe. Unlike precious metals, when time is lost it cannot be found; or like money, once spent or wasted, it can never be regained. Much time invested into a thing bears much fruit. A little time bears little fruit. No time no fruit.

Laid upon this most rare commodity is the hand of the God Who bids us give a portion to Him. Such investment bears fruit. Time with God is wisely spent and never a waste.

What can lift up a burdened soul plunged deep into despair and darkness? So far down is he that none can find him. Yet God can. He alone is able to restore our soul by His very presence; and fill us with the breath of life and hope and renewed energy. The air of Christ restores our soul. The breath of life enters the one who receives it.

A car cannot run without fuel; nor a saint without prayer.

Prayer is fuel for the soul. It delivers you into the presence of Christ. True prayer, from the heart, takes time. It cannot be rushed. For we know that "He that believeth shall not make haste." (Isa.28:16) Prayer… private…personal is important to God. It brings us into the personal meeting place with the LORD, where we can take all the time we need to interact and commune and experience and be with Him.

A true connoisseur of the finest wine will never chug down a $24,000 bottle of Montrachet 1978, as though it were a mere glass of Kool-aid. Nor will the connoisseur of God.

The LORD is of most succulence to the discriminating heart. He Spirit must be savored. His Word valued, and His presence esteemed. Such a one will gladly offer Him to another and say, "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good." (Ps.34:8)

Blessed is the one who receives such an invite. To embrace it or even to ask Him yourself; to welcome Him as a favored guest, a friend or dearly beloved family member, is to dwell with Him. Mere knowledge alone will not deeply move you to God. One can know all things about God yet be empty of the intimate knowledge of Who He is and what He is like. This true knowledge comes only by way of personal experience. Prayer lifts you into this experience, where your spirit can feel and know Him. Ah! Who can describe what it is like to touch, even more to embrace, God; or to be embraced by Him? In this place the world simply vanishes – all cares and concerns run off like a whiff of smoke.

Words alone cannot describeit. Communion with heaven's Creator goes beyond mere words. Who can tell what it is like to be touched by God? A blind man whose sight is restored or a mother whose daughter is brought back to life or a soldier whose servant is healed. When nothing like this ever happened to them before, and there is nothing they have ever done to deserve it – what can they say? When desperation, fear and trouble digs down deep and, at the same time, rises higher than your very life, how can you speak? What words are there? And should any be found or borrowed, then like mere crumbs on the ground, they are unable to satisfy the needs of a hungry soul.

Words alone do not make prayer. Heartfelt prayer pierces through walls that words cannot go. Words are simply a vehicle of prayer. It is the spirit of the one who prays that is the driver of prayer. At times the spirit of desperation and desire may leave the vehicle of limitation to penetrate directly into the throne of God. (cf. Heb. 4:16; Mat.9:20-22)

True prayer is full of purpose, feeling and intent. Words carry these. Words without purpose, without intent are like dried up, empty shells on a barren sea shore.
If you don't feel what you say to God then how can God feel it? If you have no idea why you are speaking to Him then why should He turn and listen? Prayer without purpose is like a vehicle without wheels. The engine may run, and even run strong, yet the car doesn't move. It can't . It has no wheels. Prayer without purpose goes nowhere.

For words alone do not make prayer. Heart makes prayer. One may pray without words and still enter the very throne room of heaven. How so? By his heart. Yet he who prays with all colorful words, and has no heart in his prayer, is as one who talks to himself, where even he is not listening.

Prayer is a provided so we can enter the presence of God. In Him is every perfect answer and all mighty power. The world may throng you with problems and persecutions and distresses. Yet prayer takes you beyond this world into God's own presence. Here there is help. Here there is encouragement. Here you are made ready to enter back in with courage and strength to continue to fight the good fight of faith. (1Tim.6:12)

Much time in prayer brings much power and strength. Little time in prayer brings little power and little strength. No time, brings none. "Draw night to God, and he will draw night to you." (Jam.4:8) How sad the implication if one will not draw near unto God. Time given in prayer brings you nearer to God. It uplifts you and gives you increase and growth. Daniel prayed three times a day; and the Bible says in him was found an excellent spirit. (Dan.6:10) The Scriptures admonish us to pray, and to pray always. (Lu.21:36) The LORD knows that in so doing you are growing in Him. Like all excellent things, growing in the goodness and knowledge of God takes time. (2Pet.3:18) The more time you spend with God the closer you come to Him. The more personally acquainted you become. The more you embrace the Desire of all nations. (Hag.2:7) Those who trust Him come to Him often only want to come back again and again.

Just like a treasure hunter combing the sandy beach with his metal detector, and happily discovers a rare and precious object. He holds it up for a better look. Awesome! He then looks out before him to see an endless golden shore bordering the blue ocean waters. He knows instantly there is much more hidden underneath. So too is it with God. There is much more to the God of heaven and earth than can be gained in a mere moment of prayer. To possess this treasure one must take the time to pursue it through earnest prayer.

Such time with God leaves a stamp on your soul. The world may never notice. Yet heaven sees it plainly. It reveals the preference of your heart. That above family, friends, money and education, recreation or TV, even ministry itself, God is of more value. (Matt.22:37; Lu.14:36; Php.3:7-8)

True prayer requires heart. In a fast paced world true prayer also requires discipline. We cannot pray as we want if we make no time for it, if we do not commit to it. Prayer is not beautiful and lustrous. It's a work-out of faith and desire and tears. You don't look pretty after you've earnestly prayed. You look worn out. To stand before God in the midst of a hail of arrows and opposition against you takes courage. It takes temerity. It takes humbling yourself under His mighty hand () for help and strength and power.

"Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us." (Ps 62:8)

" Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. " (Ps 102:1)

"I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble." (Ps 142:2)

"Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street." (La 2:19)

"Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." (Php 4:6)

God gives grace to the humble. (1Pet.5:5) Yet the proud and vain and self-seeking will not turn to God, nor bow their knee to Him in prayer. Their vanity drives them ever to seek other solutions.

Eagerly do we attend to the things of the world; and are happily acquainted with its many ways and wickedness. Looking over our shoulder we'd see that much time has been placed into gaining all worldly acquaintance. Yet all its abundance ends up being little more than a single vapor of smoke that rises and quickly disappears. Stunned, we stand gazing at how much time and strength it took from us, and left us with nothing in return. The older folks used to say, "With nothing you came into the world; and with nothing you'll leave." In the end all worldly gain stays behind. You can take none of it with you. It is all unappealing to the highly discriminating tastes of heaven. Even hell can't have it. Yet hell can possess those who have not put their trust in heaven, whose time has not been spent in laying up their life in the Kingdom of God.

Very limited are the days we possess in this earth. There is never time to put off the precious time required for God. We can't afford it. For nothing equals the knowledge and personal gain of Him. It is this gain alone that is most worth having. To die without Christ is to have wasted all your time in this world. For everything in this world will be destroyed, perish, pass away. Everything! And you, without Christ, without belonging to Him, will pass away, perish, be destroyed right along with everything else. It is foolish, when you have the time now to save yourself from the judgment of this wicked world by receiving heaven's perfect and only Way of Salvation. (Acts 2:40)

Consider how the world spends time in abundance to give you every make, size and shape of delusion, disappointment and sin. It does it so freely because it is perishing, and has little more to offer than that which has no eternal benefit. Moreover, time has no moral or spiritual value to the world. The precious gift of time is often like a rare pearl cast into the pig pen of the world. (Mat.7:6) The world has rejected God (Rom.3:11) and therefore cares nothing about giving time to Him. Its only desire is for the short-term, meaningless wastrels of life.

Consider the wise person who values time at its highest. Time with the Maker of time; time with the perfect Answer; time with eternal Truth; time with the perfect Healer; time with the Counselor of their soul; time with their heavenly Defender and Protector; time with the Savior of their soul.

Time with our dearest friends and loved ones or our most favored hobbies and interests are cherishing; and we should enjoy these times. We need them. Yet of far greater benefit is time with God. (cf. Mat.10:37-38)

A poor man is made rich who spends much time with God. A rich man is made poor who spends little or no time with God.

What we have is what we have put time into. Time into nothing gives us nothing. Time into God gives us God. We reap what we sow. (Gal.6:7)

Nothing of this world is meant to last forever. The world of culture, crime, comedy, childhood… rise and take their forms and shapes like multi-colored flowers spread out across a wide open field. They fill their moment of time with their glory. Then they die. All things die - all worlds. "Heaven and earth will pass away." (Matt.24:35) Only one world remains forever. That is the eternal world of the Creator. His alone will remain forever. His own will live with Him in glory forever. (John 8:35) This is Truth!

The world of flesh, of gender and race, of politics and power, of lawlessness and rebellion… will all end. For all had a beginning; and all things with a beginning have an end. Only the eternal God – and that which is found in Him – will last and remain forever. Therefore the constant pull of the world and its demands that we turn from Christ to things worldly, of such we truly have no time.

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The PRAYERLINE Newsletter is a quarterly publication of Darrell C. Porter Evangelistic Assoc., Inc.

www.oneaglewings.com

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