the scarlet worm

The first prayer principle we learned from Adam in the garden of God was, “We must know the voice of God!” How? We must become accustomed to the sound of it. How? By immersing ourselves in His word; being still as a stone; Be silent and listen! The second principle is so simple and so obvious you might not see it. Gen. 3:8, It was in the ‘Garden of Eden.’ “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the cool of the day, ‘In The Garden!’ The Hebrew word for garden (gan) is an ‘Enclosed Garden.’ One with a hedge, a fence or a wall around it and a gate. The word ‘Gan’ can be translated enclosure; v.24 the LORD posted Cherubim and a flaming sword at the east of the garden of Eden, at the gate, to guard the way to the tree of life. The tabernacle had a gate, the temple had a gate, all facing east, but they knew the place, a special enclosed place, God’s place. How? Listen, they were accustomed to meeting God there! But God is everywhere you say, He is omnipresent! Amen! But listen, He meets us IN a specific, secret place, at a specific time.

In Matthew 6:6 the Greek word for closet is ‘storage chamber’ a pantry, a storehouse of supplies and nourishment. How beautiful is that? But there is more, the phrase ‘in secret’ in Greek is (en to krypto) In THE hidden, unseen, secret place. We have a definite article in the Greek. Keep it simple class, the absence of the article qualifies, the presence of the article identifies. So, it is ‘THE’ specific, identifiable, definite place. And when you have gone into the secret storage chamber, the closet, the room used to keep nourishment, the pantry, to gather your supplies – ‘Do What?’  “DO WHAT?” “SHUT THE DOOR!” Or ‘Close The Gate!’ Why? To keep out the snake! The intruder, the adversary, the enemy, who will invade your prayer time, Satan! Oh, yes he will! (Adam forgot and left the gate open and Satan slithered in and did his dirty work) And your heavenly Father, is already there, in the secret place waiting for you, to nourish you and reward you openly! Churches have missed out on one of the greatest of all blessings by not having a ‘Prayer Chamber, Prayer Room, Prayer Garden, Prayer Closet.’ Where their members could go and seek the face of God before and after the services and pray alone or with someone, an ‘Upper-Room Ministry.’ WOW! Adam knew the sound of His voice and Adam knew the secret place because he was accustomed to both, but are you? But there is more, a third vital principle to a dynamic prayer life;

Adam had a special time to meet God, “In the cool of the day.” How did he know this? Listen, he was accustomed to meeting God at a particular time. David had a particular time, Psalm 5:3 says, “My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O LORD, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.” When I think of the cool of the day, I think of early morning before the heat of the day, before the cock crows, before the pressures of life crash in on you, before the telephone rings. Yeshua met His Father in the early morning, Mark 1:35. Things are quiet and still in the early morning. Birds sing loudest in the early morning, before the sun burns up the dew. But this phrase in Hebrew is more generally translated as ‘an evening wind or breeze’ off of the Mediterranean Sea. So it does not matter to God whether you are a morning person an evening person, a night person, or a noon person as long as you are a, ‘Praying Person.’ AMEN?

Before I get to the fourth and probably the most important principle of all for an ‘Effective Fervent Prayer Life’ I was struck by the fact that God went seeking Adam, after Adam sinned, Gen. 3:9, “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Called (qara) a specific message, to a specific recipient, to elicit a specific response, for a specific purpose, and God spoke first! Amazing, God seeks Adam, He goes looking for him and calls out to him, “Adam, where are you?” The word Adam in Hebrew simply means a human being, and can be an individual or mankind. And I believe God is still searching, still seeking, still calling out to us, to mankind, to Adams all over the earth, to worship Him, to have fellowship with Him, to pray to Him, Ezk. 22:30; 2 Chron. 16:9; John 4:23: “God is seeking those to worship Him in spirit and in truth.” What a paradox, God Who created man has to search for him to worship Him, God created man for fellowship with Himself! God is calling out to us today, “Where are you?” The Place; The Time; The Voice! “Where Are You?” What will we answer today? “Here I am, let’s fellowship!” or “I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and ashamed and I hid myself?” Which will it be for you my friend? Which will it be?

“Oh LORD, may I never hide myself from You, naked or not, sinful though I am; LORD, may I worship You today, in spirit and in truth, naked and unashamed, may I be your gap-man/gap-woman today; May Your eyes not have to go to and fro searching over the whole earth looking for a man or woman; if You are looking for a place to start a fire start one here in my heart and my it never go out; Lord, Thank You for saving me, Thank You for dying for me, Thank You for loving me.”   “Baruch ha Shem”     ‘Between The Lines’

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis”  (Adam – Part #5)

In Genesis 3:8-9 Adam gives us three principles or elements for an effective or effectual fervent prayer life, an ‘E.F.P.’ The first principle is that, ‘They heard the sound,’ ‘The voice of the LORD God.’ They heard (shema) to hearken, hear and obey, God’s voice. Deuteronomy 6:4 is what the Jewish people call ‘The Shema,’ Their first prayer in the morning and their last prayer at night and its prayed several times during the day, declaring their belief in the one and only true God. “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” To hear and to do something about it. I love Mal. 3:16, “Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another and the LORD hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them, that feared the LORD and that thought upon His name.” Sometimes people ask me, “Don’t you ever talk about anything except Jesus?” My response is, “Well sometimes I talk about Christ!” What else is there to talk about, the weather? Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot, whether the weather be good or whether the weather be not, we’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather whether we like it or not. Amen? So talk about something that has chutzpah, like Yeshua, He has chutzpah. The Hebrew word for voice or sound is (kole-to call aloud) He talks and we listen or at least we should listen. Amen? Now there is a lost art today, especially in prayer, Amen? Listening! We come with our grocery lists, regurgitate them before God get up and leave and never give God a chance to speak. How insulting and demeaning to the Creator.

They knew His voice, why? They were accustomed to its sound that’s why! Question, are you accustomed to the sound of His voice? Are you? I Samuel 3:19-21, “And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD. And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh, for the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.” And He does the same thing today, He reveals Himself to His people in His word. You will never be more filled with the Spirit then you are filled with the Word! They knew His voice! Like my children Adam, Sarah, Rebekah I have slipped into chapel and during the service said Amen and they said, “My dad is here!” Why, they knew my voice! Our dog Lexi would get out and no body could get her back, I would step on the porch call her one time and she would fly to me, why? She knew my voice! WHY? They were accustomed to the sound of it and there my friend lies the key, accustomed to the sound of it!

John 10:4 says, And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice!” How? They listen to the sound of it, they are used to hearing it. John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Voice (phone`) sound, tone (telephone, phonograph) How? They are in His WORD! Col. 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom…” Eph. 5:18-21. Let me say it again, you will never be more filled with the Holy Spirit than you are with the Word of God. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly and the Spirit of God will be at home in you also.

What is the first thing you do when your telephone rings after you say, ‘HELLO!’  You, Listen!’ The lost art in the ministry of prayer which needs to be cultivated again is, ‘Listening.’ And the words listen and silent have exactly the same letters. You can’t listen unless you are silent and still. I love Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know ‘YADA’ God.” The words ‘I Am’ are in italics which means they are not in the Hebrew text. So, Be still and YADA God, have spiritual intimacy with God! So the first principle of prayer we see in Gen. 3:8-9 is to hear and know His voice. How? Get in His Word, and let His Word get in you! meditate on it, memorize it, chew on it, soak it in, peel it back like an onion, taste and see that the LORD is good, don’t read a verse, ruminate on it until it becomes marrow in your bones and honey in your mouth.

Adam was a man just like us but he had personal, intimate, fellowship with his God before the fall, pure sweet, intercourse with his Sovereign Creator. Interesting Adam knew the place, (The garden) the time (The cool of the day) early morning, and he knew the voice (The sound) of God. It’s no different for us today, to communicate with God on an intimate regular basis. We just need a secret place, alone and quiet, a specific time, early morning before the cock crows or late night after every one is down, and we need to hear and know His voice. How precious that is; for those of us that have heard it, chills run up and down your back, your palms get sweaty. His sheep follow Him and know His voice, “Oh, LORD, may I know Your voice once again, may I hear it daily, all day long, may I listen for it, LORD may I have that special place just to get alone with you and commune, a secret garden, a pantry of nourishment, and LORD get me up in the cool of the day, before the cock crows, before the sun burns up the manna and drys up the dew, before the rush of the day destroys the hush of the night.”  Baruch ha Shem!          “Between The Lines”

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis”  (Adam – Part #4)

“B’resheit bara Elohim et shamyim vaet ha aretz” – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Gen. 1:1 Genesis is the book of beginnings – The beginning of the universe – The beginning of the earth – The beginning of mankind and womankind – The beginning of marriage – The beginning of marital problems – The beginning of people, nations, etc – The beginning of the Jewish People! But one thing we never think of in Genesis is, ‘The Beginning of Prayer.’ Why is that? Men and women for centuries have walked and talked with God. Elijah, David, Solomon, Daniel, Hannah, Ruth, Esther, Mary, Dorcas, Peter, James, John, etc. But in the first five chapters of Genesis, you meet a few men who walked and talked with God face to face (paneh-6440). Men who set the course of spiritual intimacy for ages to come, men who knew God personally and intimately. But even more important, men who were personally and intimately known by God Himself and there is a big difference between those two! Between knowing God intimately and personally and being known by God intimately and personally! Men whom I believe were, ‘Men of Prayer!’

Why is it that, Prayer; “Is the believer’s greatest resource and the one least used?” “His greatest obligation and the one most neglected?” “The most common form of devotion, yet the one least understood?” “The gateway to the presence of God, that so few ever enter?”        “The channel to God’s grace that for most of us remains clogged?” Why is that? The only man whom I believe enjoyed perfect, unhindered, sweet communion with His Creator was Adam. I believe Adam walked and talked and had personal, intimate fellowship with God. In fact Adam was created by God in His own image (selem-sculptured image, statue, shadow, phantom) in His own likeness or similitude. Read Gen. 1:26-27 sometime; Why did God create Adam anyway? To multiply, to subdue the earth, to dominate the earth, to till the garden, to name the animals, to have a bunch of children? Yes, all that and much, much more! But primarily God created Adam to love Him, to obey Him, and to have perfect, intimate fellowship with Him. Excuse me, ‘Intimate intercourse with the Creator of the universe! Or Spiritual YADA! Hos. 6:3, “Then you will know the LORD when you follow on to know the LORD.”

Webster says, “Intercourse is the exchange of feelings and thoughts, marked by very close association and warm fellowship. Psalm 16:11. Adam walked in the garden (Gan an enclosed place with a gate) in the cool of the day, and listened to the voice of God his Creator. Gen. 3:8-9 gives us a hint of this fellowship, this intercourse, this intimacy, this YADA between two Beings alone on earth, “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” Notice God speaks first and God seeks Adam, the same is true today, John 4:23. Yet it is after the fall, after sin, after Satan’s rebellion, and after the creation of hell. But we see from this text four vital principles or elements for an effective or effectual prayer life. You do want an, ‘Effectual Fervent Prayer Life’ such as James talks about in James 5:16 don’t you? Good!

Before we examine these four vital elements in the garden, back up with me to Gen. 2:23, “And Adam said,” Who was he talking to, the animals, to himself? No, I believe he was talking to Elohim, God his Creator. The same One he had been conversing with since he became a living soul in Gen. 1:28ff. God is communing with Adam giving him His commands, so conversation with God was very natural, very open, very naked, to use a phrase. Form, philosophy, posture were unknown at this time, just simply the outpouring of one’s heart to the God of Creation. Bare-naked before God, physically and spiritually; Oh, to be like that today, keep your philosophy, your theology, your pet phrases, your stained glass language, just stand or kneel before the Almighty God bare-naked and commune with Him; Innocence, Fellowship, Communion, Obedience, Sweet Intercourse with the Sovereign Designer; Oh, to hear the sound of His voice, walking in your garden, in the cool of the day. That should be our goal in life, after all, that’s what He desires from us, ‘Communion and Fellowship’ with Him, pure bare-naked worship. Christ told us in John 4:23-24 that His Father is seeking for those to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  The word seeking can be translated desire #2212.

So we should come to God in prayer not only because He deserves it but because He desires it as well. To talk with Him and walk with Him because you love Him, need Him and want to please Him. “And Adam said,” To Elohim, his Creator, his Master, his Maker, his God; Prayer is, simple, naked, sweet, innocent, fellowship with our Creator. How do we take something so simple, so beautiful, so natural and make it so difficult! It was never intended to be like that, never! “Oh God, help us to keep prayer simple and beautiful in our lives the way You intended it to be; May we hear You voice every day walking in our gardens, our secret places, in the cool of the day, in the quiet of the night. Oh LORD, breathe into our nostrils the very breath of life once again, in the form of prayer, the life breath of a child of Yours, help us to stand before You stripped of ourselves.” In Jesus Name.  ‘Between The Lines’    “Portraits of Prayer in Genesis” (Adam – Part #3)

“And God (Elohim-plural of El) blessed them saying, ‘Blessed’ (barak-a primary root to kneel, by implication to bless God as an act of adoration, and vice versa, man as a benefit.) But in this case it was all the living things that moved in the air like birds, etc and all the living things that moved in the water like fish, etc. But in Gen. 1:28 God/Elohim Blesses-Barak man and tells him to, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue and have dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth.” What a beautiful blessing, and what a precious privilege has been granted to us by our Creator. Now if a Blessing (Barak) is a prayer and to Pray (Tefillah) is a blessing, then God not man was the first to pray. Gen. 1:22 God blessed the birds and the fish; Gen 1:28 God blessed man; Gen. 2:3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, set it apart; Gen. 9:1 God blessed Noah and his sons; Gen. 12:1-3 God blessed Abraham.

Eph. 1:3 speaks of believers today, the Church, the Bride of Christ, which has been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. Not only has God blessed us but He has given us the privilege to bless Him and our fellow man and His creation by means of prayer. “Blessed art Thou, Oh Lord, our God, Creator of heaven and earth and all that in them is. Hallowed and Holy be Thy name above every name that has ever been named.”

What more can mortal man want, ask for or expect, than to be ‘Blessed” by the God of creation; the God of the universe? We have been blessed by God, what a shame we live the life we are living in light of this eternal truth, and God wishes for us to be blessed more now than we desire to be blessed. The half brother of Jesus sums up our dilemma with these words, “You have not because you ask not!” I wonder how many more blessings await the child of God who fails to ASK! Didn’t Jesus Himself say, “Ask and you shall receive!” Matt. 7:7-8 But we need to Ask with a beggars humility; Seek with a servants carefulness; And Knock with a friends confidence, and still those three words form the acrostic for the word ASK!

“O, LORD, Bless me, fill me with Your Holy Spirit, draw me to your bosom, quench my thirst for You, O Lord, fill the void in my life, the emptiness I feel, the vacuum that still exists in the recesses of my soul. I want to bless You, Oh LORD, with king David of old; Bless the LORD O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. God I love You, fill me now with Your Holy Spirit and Lord, teach us to pray.”

The power of the ‘Blessing’ instituted by God, WOW! He blessed the fish, the birds, the animals and man and said, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.” Who thought up birth control? Where did that come in? I bet that pleased God. To bless God is an act of adoration, to bless man is an act of benevolence. Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek because he knew he had the power to invoke a blessing on him, Gen. 14:19-20. Eliezer of Damascus invokes a blessing on God in Gen. 24:27 but it is never mentioned that Abraham blessed anything or anyone but his servant did and his son Isaac did, but where did they learn it? God’s blessing was put on Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3 then reconfirmed in 13:14-18 after Lot left; then again on Mt. Moriah in 22:15-19; then given to Isaac in 26:24; then to Jacob in 28:13; and to Jacob again in 35:11.

The ‘Blessing of The Blessing.’ The Orthodox Jews are aware of its power and benefit and invoke its benevolence, especially on the Sabbath on their children, as I am sure the early church did as they incorporated most all of their early traditions and customs from Orthodox Judaism. But as time has evolved so has Biblical customs, some to our spiritual benefit and some to our spiritual detriment. I for one do not believe the loss of the ‘Blessing’ was to our benefit. Just about every one of their prayers begins with, “Blessed art Thou O, L-rd our G-d king of the universe…” How beautiful it would be for the fathers to go around the dinner table every Sunday before or after dinner, lay their hands on each child and pray a blessing over each one individually. Do you think they would remember that, when they grow up? Would you? I was 37 when my father told me he loved me for the one and only time, it was Thanksgiving morning, I was standing in the basement of our home in Guilford, CT my cousin Carol was making him a drink, its like it happened yesterday, it was 30 years ago. It would change their lives forever!        ‘Between The Lines’  “Portraits of Prayer in Genesis”  (Adam – Part #2)