Prayer for Friday, May 6

Prayers for Wisdom for Ourselves


God of Wisdom, we praise you and we ask you to grant us a full measure of discernment through your Spirit. Let us not despair when we encounter chaos, for we walk in confidence at your side. We offer you our doubts, insecurities, fears and confusion, and we pray that you sanctify these offerings and return to us a spirit of power and self-confidence. We pray for wisdom in order that we may experience continued transformation into the likeness of Christ. We know that this transformation is not for ourselves alone; we know that you bless us and expect us to bless others in return. Create in us clean hearts of discernment, O Lord, so that we may be equipped to bless others in your will. We thank you, Father, because we know that our sincere requests for wisdom will not go unheeded. We confess the presence of our false and impure motives and ask that you purify our intentions. Thank you, O God of Wisdom.

Look back on the issues you identified on Sunday. Have you received any clarity? If so, rejoice and thank God! Take the opportunity to share these stories with others. Post them on facebook, twitter, at missionalmonks.com or on my blog, where these prayers are posted daily (www.ancientjourney.blogspot.com). Those who are part of Christ Journey will have an opportunity to talk about them in our gathering Sunday - if you are part of another congregation, seek out ways to share with your worshiping community.

If you don't feel any closer to the response to this issue, consider bringing it to your community for continued prayer seeking wisdom and discernment.

Prayer for Monday, May 2

Wisdom for the Church
God of Wisdom, we ask that you continue to pour out your wisdom on your Church. Raise up, from among the harvest, wise workers who are able to discern your ways and share their insight with others. We ask, God, that you will remove from us the virus of that pseudo-wisdom heralded by the present systems of power and coercion. We pray that your Church will be known as a people who possess discernment that leads to reconciliation. We continue to pray, as Jesus taught us, for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Grant us the wisdom to not only discern your will, but also to know how to join with you in bringing it to pass in this place. may your Kingdom come in fullness, O God of Wisdom.

Take a few minutes today and look through the list of congregations in your community (you can search for "churches" on google maps, or I've also heard that there are these printed books with yellow pages that also list such things). Lift up the names of these congregations to God, asking for wisdom on their behalf as they discern how to incarnate Christ in this place.

The Power of Discernment

I’ve learned a lot about discernment over the last few years. Being a wise, discerning person is something to which I’ve always aspired. When I was very young I was taught the story of King Solomon asking God for wisdom. I was told then that this is a gift that we can ask for and God will always give it. Perhaps my motives were less than saintly (as most of my motives tend to be) but that seemed like a pretty sweet deal...I wasn’t going to pass up on asking for something that I would definitely receive.

Over the years I’ve continued to ask God for wisdom and discernment, and to be honest, I struggle with how to have humble confidence - see my last post - on whether or not this prayer has been answered. I feel that God is teaching me to see what’s going on around me, but I’m always a little nervous having confidence in myself. One of my greatest insecurities is the fear that I lack self-awareness - that I’m actually like Michael Scott in The Office and have no idea how people really see me.

A few years back, a friend commented on the value of communities of discernment - which was a new term to me at the time. He went on to explain that wise people take matters of discernment to their community and do not get overly confident in an answer before it has been subjected to prayer with others. This seemed wise.

Since that time, I’ve had several opportunities to engage in discernment processes with others - sometimes it is formally structured, sometimes less so - but each time the goal is to seek God’s guidance together.

This is going to be somewhat vague as I’m not ready to put specifics on the interweb just yet... but recently there was an issue that I’d been wrestling over for months, seemingly to no avail. I simply could not find any peace. The whole thing was causing me to feel disconnected - spiritually, emotionally, relationally - as if I was just floating along with little purpose or meaningful interactions in my life. I tried to approach the issue in prayer, with study, with logic, with imagination...but solutions continued to evade my grasp.

Finally, it seemed that I was discerning a response from God. It wasn’t as though God were sitting on the couch telling me what to do. But there was a response that kept coming back in my mind over and over and I felt like I understood that to which it was calling.

Typically this type of realization brings a sense of peace, even if the answer itself isn’t what I expected or thought I wanted. But this time I just wasn’t feeling it. I want to be faithful to the Spirit’s guidance, and this seemed to be just that...so why couldn’t I feel at peace with it?

I began making plans to take this issue to my community.

In the meantime, I continued to pray. I talked the matter over with Rachel, and she prayed.

Then, as I worked an over-night security shift, I spent time reading through the book of Acts and had some things stand out in very confrontational ways - ways which seemed to conflict with what I thought I was hearing. It wasn’t that what I thought I was hearing was in conflict with Scripture per se, but what I felt it was calling me to seemed counter to how this passage called out to my heart.

First thing in the morning I received an email from Rachel, with a text she’d read that morning and the comment, “I think this was actually meant for you.” Though it was a completely different context, the message was very much the same as what I’d gleaned from Acts the night before.

That afternoon I had a brief conversation with a professor friend of mine who made some seemingly random comments which once again connected with the previous night’s reading.

The next day I talked with my friend Anthony and asked him to comment on the initial issue of discernment. I didn’t go into the events of the previous couple days. He has been a trusted friend, coach and counselor for the past three years and knows my situation as well as just about anyone. His response, after hearing what I’d felt God was saying in the initial piece of discernment was basically, “I think you’re on to something, but maybe you’re interpreting it wrong.”

As soon as he said that, all the pieces fell into place. The scripture passages, the conversations with Rachel and Elaine, my own lack of peace...it all made more sense. Through this continued process and struggle with communal discernment it became apparent that the Spirit was leading me in a certain direction and I’d misinterpreted what that meant on a practical level.

And here’s where the whole process seems to get confirmation. Since those conversations, I haven’t really changed much of what I’m doing day-to-day, but suddenly doors for connection and conversation have been swinging open left and right. In the past couple weeks friendships have deepened - often at the other’s instigation - and people I barely know have sought me out for one reason or another. I’ve been given the honor of being asked to walk through confusing, painful and even frightening situations with people who have not known me long enough to trust me...or maybe they haven’t known me long enough NOT to trust me! ;)

My schedule is still just as hectic and stressful, an issue that needs to be addressed, but I’m not feeling so disconnected and lacking peace.

I’d love to know whether this experience resonates with your own. Have you had similar times of struggle and discernment? What was it that helped you find peace? How did you go about listening to the Spirit?

Listening

First, a coded message for my friend who is just waiting to see if I will blog about this:

“Hmmm...I do not think that Word means what you think it means...”

And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

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On a completely unrelated note (sorta), we had a great conversation at our DFW Church Planter’s forum today. For those that don’t know, once a month, there is a gathering of church planters who are connected to (or friends with) Mission Alive and our growing network of churches in the DFW metroplex.

Today, as usual, we had some really good laughs - the kind that left my face nearly purple with tears streaming down my cheeks. It was great. It is good to be with a group which has that kind of synergy and friendship so that the jokes compound on one another, reproducing until they have completely rabbified and take over. I think I may have burned as many calories as I would have had we been playing racquetball!

We also had some great (semi-legitimate) conversations. One which sticks out in my mind was in regards to cultivating communities of discernment. The conversation began with the comment that the type of leader we hope to cultivate and see develop in our churches is not solely (or perhaps even primarily) defined by skills or abilities in regards to some ministry. Rather, we are praying for individuals who listen to the voice of God. Folks who practice a lifestyle of spiritual discernment and following Jesus in such a way that others desire to follow in their footsteps.

As we unpacked what this may look like, how we encourage this type of growth, etc., it came out that the need is for our churches to operate this way communally. We need to cultivate communities of discernment for several reasons. For one, the community should model corporately the same things which we hope to see played out individually. 

But even more than that, there is a need for the members of the community to serve one another in this process. There is great danger in individuals engaging in an isolated “spiritual discernment.” It is easy to use the phrase, “the Spirit told me,” to simply rubber stamp what you want to do. A community can help us engage in the process honestly and fully.

Several years ago, when I was first introduced to the concept of listening to the voice of God in a real way, I was blessed to have a friend guide me away from an isolated approach. I said to him, “I really think that the Spirit is speaking to me about this. In fact, I feel that in a way I’ve never experienced before, I’ve heard the Voice of God.”

His response has stuck with me: “Wow. What did your community say when you brought this to them?” 

I had no idea what he meant - first of all, my faith community didn’t really do “listening to the voice of God” so I was pretty uneasy saying anything to anyone. He told me, “You should be very hesitant to declare that you’ve heard the voice of God without first approaching a community of discernment. Does this word line up with Word of scripture? How does this word resonate with their hearts and the Spirit which resides in them?” 

These types of questions are not meant to shoot down or squelch the Spirit - but they do take seriously the need to test the spirits and discern whether the voice being heard is of God, of the person or of something else entirely.

So how do we go about forming that type of community?

Well, I’m sure there are lots of ways to go about this process. It seems to me that one extremely valuable precursor to cultivating a community of discernment is to nurture and develop a confessional community. When our gatherings and conversations - formal and informal - are marked by a willingness to openly and authentically confess our sins and struggles with one another we create an environment where posturing and creating a polished version of ourselves is neither needed nor even accepted.

I’m not sure all the ways in which this type of culture was encouraged at Christ Journey but it is definitely present. I think that Chris has modeled this type of behavior - both in his preaching and in one-on-one interactions. I really believe that Marvelous Light has been instrumental in this as well - since confession is an integral part of that experience. Beyond that, I believe that those who participate in this community have seen the value and are intentional about continuing to journey (cha-ching) deeper in this practice.

A community which is confessional is poised, I believe, to practice discernment. When we engage in something like Lectio Divina (which we have done in our house churches as well as our Sunday gathering) we experience a process of communal discernment. Together we listen to the Word of Scripture and we share the fruit of that listening with the community. Because of the experiences with confession, this doesn’t come across as contrived and there’s little need to shroud the practice with pretense. 

As we continue to engage in discernment at this level, as we continue to be people who live in this fashion, I believe that we’ll find ourselves more and more in a context where communal discernment is the norm. And this is something which gives me great hope and excitement.