Experiencing God’s Power Through Meditative Prayer

 I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection!

 Can you imagine such a statement? Here Paul is sharing with us the secret of his tremendous walk with God. He said it was because he desired more than anything else to know Christ. But he wasn’t just talking about an intellectual knowledge. He wasn’t talking about simply recognizing that Jesus lived and claimed to be the Son of God. In fact, in James 2:19, one of Paul’s contemporaries, cautions against mere head knowledge in James 2:19:

 You believe that there is a God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shutter.

 There is more to claiming God’s power than knowing about Christ. Paul wanted to know and experience the power of God in his life. The great news is that He wants the same for you and me! That means it is possible for you and me to have the same experience as Paul. We can pray the same prayer. Paul prayed it for us in Ephesians 1:18-20:

 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know…his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

In this passage Paul uses four words for the power.
1. The first word for power is “power”. In the Greek the word is dunamis. This is used 119 times in the New Testament. 23 times it is used for the word miracles or workers of miracles. Over 87 times it is used for  power, strength and might. The actual meaning is “a natural power that is inherent in the object.” This is the same Greek word we get our word “dynamite” from. Paul wants us to know that we can have his incomparably great power for us who believe.

2. The second word for power is “working” which is the Greek word energeia. It is used 8 times referring to power, energy, working, work and powerful. This is the word we get “energy” from. This is more than inherent power, it is operative power. It is the “bang” as a result of setting off the dynamite! The power isn’t inherent any longer. It is the active result of the power. Here Paul wants us to experience God’s power which is the working of his mighty strength.

3. The third word for power is “mighty”. This is from the Greek word kratos, which means manifested strength. This word is used 12 times in the New Testament. It is used as power, might, strength and mighty deeds. The word actually means the overwhelming evidence as a result of the “working of His strength.” It is the experience of the “dynamite” blowing near you! It is what the dynamite “does” when it blows up. It is a “mighty overwhelming” explosion. Here Paul want us to experience God’s power that is his mighty strength.

4. The fourth word for power is “strength” which is the Greek word ischuos. This refers to a power that is inherent, part of its natural capacity. Paul is saying that he wants us to know and understand that this power is God’s strength, it is His natural inherent attribute. God is all powerful. He is stronger than any other force! Paul wants us to know God’s strength.

Put it all together and we see that God’s power is inherent in His nature. As a result of that, His power is stronger that any other power and is manifested in the awesome energy poured out through His mighty deeds. Best of all, Paul wants us to really know, believe and experience this power.

How do we begin to pray with power? By partnering with God even before we pray. Ask Him for wisdom and discernment. Ask Him to reveal His will to you. What does the Word say? What is the inner voice of the Holy Spirit saying to you? All of these together can give you the confidence, faith and hope you need in praying. Then praying is agreeing with God. It is joining God in His work in this world. It is working for God in this life while receiving our orders and directions from our headquarters in Heaven. We conference at headquarters first, then we go work in the field. This results in us possessing the full authority and power of God.

How do we begin to pray with power? By partnering with God even before we pray. Ask Him for wisdom and discernment. Ask Him to reveal His will to you. What does the Word say? What is the inner voice of the Holy Spirit saying to you? All of these together can give you the confidence, faith and hope you need in praying. Then praying is agreeing with God. It is joining God in His work in this world. It is working for God in this life while receiving our orders and directions from our headquarters in Heaven. We conference at headquarters first, then we go work in the field. This results in us possessing the full authority and power of God.
 Praying for and with the power of God is foreign to much of what we have learned. We are accustomed to others praying for us, or to praying simply for our needs and for the general blessing of God in our lives. Most of our prayers are emergency prayers. Partnering with God brings us to a whole new level of prayer. It requires the discipline of spending time with God in meditation and prayer until we learn to be in a constant communion with Him. This is what Paul talks about when he uses the phrases: “praying in the Spirit” and “pray without ceasing”. It requires living in the constant awareness of Christ in our life and having a continual relationship with Him. One way to have this relationship is through meditative prayer. This is not an eastern mediation where we are asked to “empty” our minds. Actually, this is the very opposite. We come to God in meditation in order to fill ourselves up with the presence of Christ. We are not trying to empty ourselves in order to reach some unconscious state but rather to develop a more heightened awareness of God.  This opens us up to the living presence of the triune God. The goal of meditation for the Christian is to sense His presence and hear His voice. The result is a more intimate and meaningful worship experience.
Most of us have been exposed to prayer all our lives. However, at times we take those things that are close to us for granted. Praying is similar to a marriage. You can love someone with all your heart and live with them every day and yet be distant, cold and even unkind. Why is that? We find the same thing in our relationship with God. It can become mechanical, motivated out of guilt and legalism and be the furthest thing from a love relationship. It’s like the song says, “Where is the love?” Another way to say it is ,“Where is the romance?” Meditative prayer will introduce you to a deeper, quieter love relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a form of adoration and worship and yet God can use this time with Him to give you great insight and direction. We come to God desiring to give Him our adoration, but we come away from this time of worship receiving much more from Him that we could ever bring to Him!

Here are four ways to practice Meditative Prayer

1.Praying the Scriptures

 There are two ways that you can pray the Scriptures. One is by affirming God’s truth. You pray when you are afraid, “Dear Lord, I come to you who said, ‘Nothing can separate me from the Love of Christ.’”  By recalling a promise from God you are affirming His truth.  This is a wonderful way to pray, but this is NOT MEDITATIVE praying.  I want to introduce you to a second way of praying the Scriptures. It has been taught by many believers throughout the centuries. Perhaps one of the best known is Madame Guyon. Guyon was a famous French Christian writer in the early 1700’s. Her book, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, is one of the best read classics in Christian history. It has been read and recommended by Hudson Taylor, Watchman Nee, Fenelon and Count Zinzendorf, among others. I personally count it as one of the most influential books I have read on prayer. Madame Guyon’s writing also appears in the new book, The Contemporaries Meet the Classics On Prayer.
 Meditative scripture reading is simply coming to the Word as a way to meditate on the Lord. Imagine David in the field as he was singing to the Lord. He didn’t have the Psalms to read, he wrote them! In a way you are not reading the verses. It is more like you are writing them. Meditative prayer is a creative praying more than a devotional reading. You are reading to give to God not to get from God. You are pondering the verses.  This is hard for Americans. We are used to productivity and results. We are goal driven. Here the goal is not quantity, you are not trying to read a whole chapter. This is not academic or even searching for direction. It is more of a worship experience. Let’s use Psalms 23.

 Picture yourself like David when he wrote this Psalm. You are out in the field. It is quiet and you have turned your heart to God. Are you comfortable sitting in the field yet? Go ahead, I’ll wait.
 Okay, now turn your heart to the first part of the first verse. This is as far as we will get today:

The Lord is my shepherd…
 
 Read this very slowly until your mind lands on something and then wait there. For example, there are at least three places you could have landed.

The Lord…
 This partial phrase could be enough to spend a half an hour on. You could slowly whisper to God… “Lord, you are my Lord”, then pause …wait.  Then you could say… “thank you, God, for being my Lord.”  Pause and wait. Picture yourself before God. Let your thoughts continue, 
“You are Lord of the entire universe! I praise you, God!”
 You would continue to meditate on the word “Lord”  until no other thoughts come. There is no need to  force anything. This is a slow rhythm, there is no hurry here. When you have exhausted the reflection, read to the next point that strikes you. It could be…

The Lord is my…
 The word “my” could hit you like a lightening bolt and set off another meditation. For example, “Thank you Lord that you are MY shepherd!” Pause and wait as you picture yourself like a lamb before the shepherd, thankful and full of adoration. “My shepherd,” you softly whisper as tears fill your eyes. “Oh Jesus, thank you for being my savior. I love you Lord.” Slow down. No rush. This is slow motion.  Chew on every word, savoring each one like a morsel of food with a taste you are trying to distinguish. This is a deliberate focus. Focus on the Lord and what you really mean when you talk to Him. Pray only a few words, with pauses between. This meditation of the heart comes from the Holy Spirit and goes back to God.
 When this is exhausted, you could turn to…

The Lord is my shepherd…
 You could start all over with something like, “Shepherd, you are my Good Shepherd. Thank you, Lord, for holding me like a precious lamb.” Pause and wait.  Emote for a moment with the Lord. This is not analysis; it is emoting, thinking with your emotion, not your intellect. By now you probably understand what I am talking about so I will leave you to practice more meditative, contemplative form of prayer for the next two weeks.
 Reserve a few moments daily to come to Christ and tell Him your intentions. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you when you meditate on a small portion of His Word.  Continue to use Psalms 23. Follow this pattern but make it your own. There is no right or wrong here; it is your expression from God going back to God. Meditative prayer  is a partnership between you and the Lord.
2. Beholding The Lord

 This type of meditative prayer is best described by Paul in Ephesians 3:16-21:

 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

 This describes how we grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is. We want to “behold Him and His love.” We approach the word of God expecting to be filled with His presence. We are not merely reading it or even meditating on it. Rather, we will allow God’s word to be our escort. The word will bring us into the presence of God and there we will meditate on God without going back to the verse. Phrases from the scripture help us link with God in a meditative way and now we don’t want to be confined to the verse. We lay our Bible down and meditate more “free-style” . Enjoy the Lord, praise Him, ponder who He is. Be silent and wonder about God. This is what Paul suggests when he expresses his desire for us to “grasp” the love of God. Once reading the Bible brings us into a thoughtful, worshipful state, we want to reach out and “grasp” the Lord.

 We will again use Psalm 23 for this exercise.

 “The Lord is my shepherd…”

 This time you approach the phrase differently. Repeat the phrase as you allow the words to pull you into the presence of God. Our purpose it to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God.
 Use the following visualization as an example:

 Imagine yourself in Arizona making a visit to the Grand Canyon. As you approach the famous landmark you begin to observe the surroundings. You look around and see the green grasses, native plants, Pine trees, colorful rock formations and a path leading to a small rise ahead of you. As you look toward the top of the hill you can see that it is a viewing area. Curious about the view you begin to walk up the path leading to the viewing area on the top of the hill. As you get to the top you see a railing at the edge of the cliff. You walk across the viewing deck toward the railing. You want to see the entire view. As you approach the rail you notice the vast horizon in the distance. There is a beautiful purple, red and orange sunset. As you work your way closer to the top of the viewing area you discover a breath-taking view. You are impacted by the enormity as you stand at the top of the Grand Canyon! You move slowly, gazing in every direction.
 
 Stand quietly at the railing. Really try to focus and imagine the view…

Look at the wide expanse … (pause)

Smell the fresh air… (pause)

Feel the warmth of the sun… (pause)

See how high the sky is above, how blue is its color… (pause)

Hear the trickling sounds of the river below, the rustling of the leaves, the chatter of the birds…(pause)

Notice an eagle soaring overhead… (pause)

Gaze into the depth of the canyon far below… (pause)

Capture the reds and  browns of the canyon walls against the sunset… (pause)

Quiet your mind and picture, smell, hear and see the canyon in every direction.
 This is how Paul desires for us to “grasp” the power and largeness of our God.  He wants us to see “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”  He wants  us to grasp God’s largeness to the point that we may be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” This is not simply an intellectual knowledge. Paul said that this grasping will “surpasses all knowledge”. Paul wrote that Christ would give us the POWER, together with ALL the saints, to “grasp”. This is the power of meditative prayer. This kind of prayer helps us to grasp his love that surpasses knowledge.

 Let’s use the same canyon illustration and combine it with God’s word.
 We will use the same phrase that we did in our last exercise “the Lord is my shepherd.” This time, instead of approaching a canyon, you approach the Word of God. The reading of the Word will take you into a place of worship, your inner sanctuary. You approach the scripture as you did in the first meditation exercise, quiet, and expectant.

 You want to be in wonder just as if you are seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. You are beholding the Lord. This is a worshipful, peaceful exercise. When you feel yourself starting to be distracted go back to the phrase again. “The Lord…is my…Shepherd” As the phrase brings you back into your inner sanctuary, worship the Lord again. The goal of this quiet, visual exercise is to sense the Lord. Bask in His glory and power.

 Are you relaxed and ready to go?  

(Begin with a broad, general impression of God. Who is this Lord shepherd? What is he like)

Begin by saying…
“The Lord” …As you close your eyes behold the Almighty God! Sense His vastness… (pause)… 
Do it again… “The Lord”… think of His power… His majesty… Most Holy God… (pause) 
Behold Him…
 
(When you feel the you exhausted “The Lord” move into who is the shepherd to you, personally. What does God mean to you. How does His existence impact your life? Get more specific as you contemplate who God is.)

Continue by saying,…
“is my” … let it sink in…  behold He is mine… (pause)… breathe deep and whisper, “He is my”…  feel the acceptance… the love… the closeness… (pause) 
Behold Him…

(When you have exhausted “is my” move into who the shepherd is. Now you begin to see His vastness. You begin to contemplate the almighty-ness of the shepherd. You are awed by Him.)
Continue by saying…
“shepherd” … He is my shepherd… behold the loving shepherd (pause) …

slowly, very slowly “grasp” how wide His love is…  (pause) … 
The lord… is my… shepherd… close your eyes and ask God to help you feel how wide is His love…
Sense how vast and how long is His love for you… (pause)
Slowly, barely whisper… “the Lord”…(pause)… “is my”…(pause)… “shepherd”…
“grasp” how high His love is… (pause) … how deep is God’s love for you—Praise Him for that love
In praying the scriptures you come to God from many different verses, letting Him guide you through the inferences of His word. In beholding the Lord you can use a verse or phrase to quiet you so you can meet with the Lord and behold Him. Next we will continue this theme of  simply being still before the Lord and listening to Him.

3. Palms Down – Palms Up

 By now you can see that we are advocating something different than coming to God with a shopping list of requests. In the first two types of meditative prayer there was a worship aspect to the meditation. Our goal was to clear a space in our “inner sanctuary”, become aware of God and reflect on Him. We did this by using the Word of God as a catalyst, triggering a thought about God that would allow us to focus on Him. Today we want to try to “be still and know that He is God.” This is being silent before the Lord. The spiritual discipline is called “solitude.” This is harder than it seems. That is why we spent the first four weeks practicing the other two exercises. Our goal was to stop the mind from fluttering from one thought to another and settle on thinking about God. Today we want to try to quiet the mind and let God speak to our heart.
 Now I love “praying the scriptures” and “beholding the Lord.” It is so deeply rewarding to come to the Lord and give Him my deep utterances of worship. But what we will practice today is just as rewarding. We are going to come by faith and approach God to see what He wants to do in our life. Because we come by faith we can trust this exercise. We are coming to our Heavenly Father and asking Him, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to commune, to fellowship with us.
 Solitude and silence before God is often confused with being alone. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As I pointed out in the first exercise, we are not emptying the mind in some new age sort of manner, but filling our mind with God. We are not detaching ourselves from life but attaching ourselves to God. We are not seeking solitude to be alone but we are coming to God in silence in order to listen to Him and be in fellowship or communion with Him.
 Jesus practiced this discipline many times. He went into the desert for forty days. He often went away from his disciples to be alone and pray. The good news about solitude of the mind and heart is that you do not have to be in a desert to practice it. Throughout the day I can snatch little moments of time and go away into my inner sanctuary to experience quietness before the Lord. With practice you will find that you can get to that place of rest before the Lord more easily. It becomes a familiar and trusted place and your mind will begin to cooperate.
 The hardest part of this exercise is to shut the mind down. A technique that really helps is called “palms down, palms up.” It is amazing how our body movements are tied into our cognitive processes. Have you ever tried to remember something and looked up to the ceiling for the answer? I had a teacher who once said, “Quit looking up, you won’t find the answers up on the ceiling.” What the teacher did not know was that looking up can indeed be a trigger for certain types of recall. In order to quiet ourselves we can use the palms.
 Let’s try a ten minute exercise. Set a timer so you won’t have to watch a clock. Find a comfortable chair and sit in it. Place your palms down. The palms down is a symbolic trigger mechanism to your mind to settle into the chair, to let go of any distracting thoughts. Your shoulders slump down and you start to relax. As you put your palms down it will be natural to let out a cleansing breath. When you do, what worries or concerns come to your mind? Give them to God. Often this will become the inward work that God will want to work on in the background of your thinking. Often at the end of the exercise, when you put your palms back up, you will have a solution to the worries and concerns that you will talk to God about. For example:

  Once you are comfortable start with prayer… “Lord I want to spend the next ten minutes quiet before you. Help me surrender for these few moments all those thoughts that would hinder me from meeting with you.”  Then wait…Turn your Palms Down – As your concerns come to mind, give them to God… “Lord, I am worried about John who I offended yesterday. I give this situation to You and trust You will help me work toward  a good resolution.” (Release it to God. Say, “Lord I give it to You”). You may continue, “ Lord, I am worried about my son’s test in school today. I give him to You. (Release it. Give it to the Lord.) Or, you may say, “ Lord, I am upset about our money situation and I give this problem to You.”
 I know you are thinking, “Who could meditate with all that on their mind”? That is the point! We often don’t meditate. Instead all we ever do is bring a list of concerns to God. This is good but it doesn’t take us into that deeper relationship with God that our soul longs for. This exercise allows you to begin by bringing your list to the Lord, but then you switch to …
 
Palms Up – This is symbolic of receiving from God. Don’t be surprised if, after a moment, you have a sense of peace and might say, “Lord, I receive from You the power to love John and make peace with him. (Pause) Lord, I receive peace from You about my money situation. I receive the courage to go and ask for help with my finances.” (Pause)
 The beauty of this exercise is this…If another problem pops into your to mind, you simply  turn you hands over and pray palms down. Release the problem back to God, relax and be still. After a moment turn your palms back up. Don’t force anything. Your hands are simply open to receive. Receive God’s peace, breathe it in… receive His calming presence, breathe it in… When you feel comfortable, lift your hands up with the palms still turned upward. Now your raised palms represent an offering to God. Offer yourself to Him … “Here I am Lord… I love You Lord… I worship You…  I now quiet myself before You simply to enjoy Your fellowship and presence. I want to be still and know You.” When you are quiet and enjoying His presence, put your hands down next to you and enjoy the silence. Allow the Lord to commune with you. Impressions or thoughts may come, they may not.  It doesn’t matter. You only want to enjoy the solitude and experience God’s peace.
 The alarm will go off way before you want it to. When it does, turn it off and then come back and thank God for this quiet time. Tell Him that you love Him. Take some paper and write down what happened. What did you feel? What did your mind see? Where were you?  What were your impressions? What were your thoughts? Next time, add 5 more minutes to the timer and see how it goes. See if by the next session you can put 30 minutes or more on the timer. When you start to get that much time, you may want to combine the first exercise into this. Your meditation on God’s word could last a few minutes and then you could enter into solitude for the remainder of the worship time. I trust that you will enjoy the peace of God that passes all our understanding during these exercises.

4. Practicing the Presence of Christ

As you begin to experience becoming quiet before the Lord in your inner sanctuary you learn to get to that quiet place more easily. You are more in touch with your inner life. This will help you begin to help you understand how to be more in tune with your  inner relationship with God while living your normal active outward life. It is the practice of being conscious of and interacting with God all the time. God is in the person of the Holy Spirit to guide, comfort, convict, instruct and encourage you. Practicing the presence of God is being sensitive to your inner dialog and then use mental whispers to talk to God at all times. Have you ever had to do something when your supervisor, teacher, parent or other judging official was watching? What was it like? Were you conscious of them being there? Wasn’t an inner dialog going on? If you couldn’t do something, didn’t you communicate with them to resolve your situation? The principle of “peer pressure” works this way. It is the awareness of an inner voice that says everyone is judging you, they will laugh at you or reject you unless you conform to their standards. We all have an inner dialog going on. What we are encouraging is to become more involved with an inner dialog with God.
 In Praying the Scriptures, Beholding the Lord and Palms Down-Palms Up we learned to develop a better inner relationship with God; to  encourage the use of your inner faculties to help you know God better and better. As you fall more and more in love with Jesus and visit with Him in prayer and meditation, the more real your inner relationship with Him will become. All we are doing now isa suggesting is that you use that inner relationship and be conscious of it throughout the day.
 There are many opportunities to partner with God throughout the day. You can commit various activities to the Lord. You can ask for wisdom on many occasions. Giving thanks for many blessings is another natural occasion to address the Lord during your day.  This is exemplified in I Thessalonians 5:16-19. Paul wrote:

 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the  Spirit’s fire.

 Notice Paul’s insistence on taking our relationship with Christ into every second of our life. He used the words always, continually, all circumstances. Paul is leading us to understand that we should be conscious of God through every situation. God is the cause of our joy no matter what the circumstances. That is why Paul could say for us to be joyful always. God is the one we pray to continually. God is the one that we give thanks to in all circumstances. The Holy Spirit’s fire is to be burning continually, we are not to put it out.   
 Paul knew of this inward dialog when he wrote:

 We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  II Corinthians 10:6

 Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers…
 Ephesians 6: 18 LBT

 We get a picture of Paul very much in touch with his feelings, thoughts and even day-dreams. He disciplines himself to make sure that He doesn’t allow negative self-talk to ruin his walk with the Lord.
But, practicing the presence of Christ is more than being aware of your thoughts and correcting them. It is more than making requests or even stopping to give thanks throughout the day. These are part of it but there is more. The emphasis is on the word “presence.” It is practicing the “beholding the Lord” exercise until you are able to “behold the Lord” quietly anywhere at any time. When that happens, you will be equipped to enter in and out of His court all day long. 
 By being able to “behold the Lord” in a moments’ notice you can ask God to then give you assistance, impressions, guidance. You can visualize God helping others as you whisper prayers of blessing upon them. There is no limit to what you and God can do together as you become more and more aware of His presence 24/7. In the passage we looked at earlier, how do you think Elisha’s servant felt after he saw the army of angels?

 And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw  the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. II Kings 6:15-17

 As we ask the Lord to open our eyes to the reality of His presence all around us, we will do more than gaze at the army of God, we will experience His power in our life.

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