A Metaphor of the Reality of Prayer

So, the first thing I am going to do to help you to count upon the reality of prayer is to give you a metaphor for the body and the spirit that should help you see clearer how they relate in modern terms, and how your own spirit is related to the Holy Spirit of God. This metaphor is taken from my online document Twenty-Seven Metaphors to a Grasp of Happiness. It is Metaphor 6: http://twentysevenmetaphors-graspofhappiness.blogspot.com/2005/01/metaphor-6-robot-named-pierre.html


Now, having given you a better feeling for how communication in prayer can happen, am I saying it happens like that? Am I saying that when you start praying, you will become a schizophrenic who starts hearing voices in his or her head?


Well, in the early church that seems to in fact have happened:


Acts 13:1-3
1 Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
(KJV)

But that was the early church.

[ I stand corrected. I have since learned that Amy Carmichael, sometime before 1892, experienced a brief visual and auditory event that caused her entry into missionary work. She was in the middle of an embarrassing good deed - helping her siblings lug a raggedy old woman home in front of a crowd of “respectable people” who were on their way to church. The old woman had been carrying a very heavy bundle home and had just collapsed in front of all these respectably dressed church people. Amy and her siblings swallowed their embarrassment and picked up the old woman and saw her and her bundle home But in the middle of this, Amy says that she suddenly heard a voice that seem to light up the overcast day. She said the voice said “Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide ...” -- and then she turned and saw no one speaking. She said that after this audition, she scale of values was permanently changed for the better. “Gold Cord” (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1932). ]



Our Lord today has to deal with a modern church whose members believe more in Isaac Newton (physical science - the body) and Sigmund Freud (mental science - the mind) then they do in Him. He has to work carefully through the unbelief of those of His who are modern and scientifically minded, lest there be more harm then good come of His dealings with them.


Consider this. The apostle Paul had direct revelations from Christ. Christ spoke to him directly.

Acts 9:1-6
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest
2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusale m.
3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
5 "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.
6 "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
(NIV)


Gal 1:11-2:2
11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.
12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased
16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.
19 I saw none of the other apostles-- only James, the Lord's brother.
20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.
21 Later I went to Syria and Cilicia.
22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
23 They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."
24 And they praised God because of me.

Gal 2: 1-2

1 Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also.
2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
(NIV)

Eph 3:1-9
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--
2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you,
3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.
4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.
6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power.
8 Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
(NIV)

But what was the consequence of that for Paul?

2 Cor 12:6-10
6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(NIV)


The consequence for Paul of receiving revelations directly from Christ is that he had to be given compensating liabilities lest his human nature begin to lead him astray. He was given revelations that lifted him up to heaven. He had to be given some weights to keep him grounded on the earth. He was given profound knowledge. He had to be given profound handicaps to prevent him from getting a swelled head.

These are the consequences for anyone who receives direct revelations from God.

Luke 13:33-34
... for it cannot be that a prophet perish out[side] of Jerusalem.
34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
(KJV)