Day 21 - PURSUIT - Dangerous Prayers

Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting - this time of PURSUIT.  I've enjoyed sharing each day, and I intend to continue in this format, although I don't think I will do it everyday :-)  

In this final day of our journey I wanted to encourage you to keep pursuing God - to keep seeking after His will and direction for your life, and I want to encourage you to keep connecting to God daily, and to begin to pray some Dangerous Prayers.  A few years ago I taught a series of lessons called “Dangerous Prayers” - a series in which we were challenged to change our lives through prayer.  I'd like to share a little from that series today as a challenge to each of us to pursue God is a deeper way.

It's easy sometimes to get in a rut of praying extremely safe prayers. God bless me!  God keep me safe.  God bless my family.  Keep my children safe.  God bless my finances.  God bless my food.  All good prayers to pray – but all extremely safe. . . But I wonder what would happen if we began to pray some dangerous prayers.

By dangerous prayers – I don’t mean harmful – but I mean dangerous in that they make us uncomfortable – they push us from our comfort zone – they provoke us to change or to begin a process of growth in which we move our positioning – we grow closer to God, or closer to accomplishing His will or plan for our life.  These are not easy prayers.  They are uncomfortable.   The reason they are uncomfortable is because we are asking God to move from dealing with things on the periphery of our lives, into some very internal, some very personal actions, that cause us to consider the real us in light of the Holy God that we serve.  Very dangerous prayers. . .

I'd like to share with you three very dangerous prayers today that I would encourage you to begin including in your prayer life:

1.  SEARCH ME

The first very dangerous prayer can be found in Psalm 139.  David prayed this after his enemies were on the attack and they were accusing David of having wrong motives.  Instead of saying, "No, no, no," and defending himself, instead he actually prayed a very dangerous prayer before God, when he asked God to search his heart.

 Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV2011)  Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

 A very dangerous prayer.  

The first thing that David prays is this:  "Search my heart."  He says it very directly in verse twenty-three, "Search me, God, and know my heart."  For some of you, you may look at that and go, "Now, why would we ask God to search our heart. He knows it, and I've got a good heart anyway."

You've got a good heart, and I've got a good heart. We got a good heart, right?

Actually, we need to understand that without Christ, we do not have a good heart. It's a very common saying. "Well, she's got a good heart."  Actually, she's got a wicked heart, if you want to be completely accurate.

Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV)  "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

 We need to understand that without Christ, our heart is not a good heart, that we deceive others and we deceive ourselves.  In fact, we're all liars.  Just go ahead and say it, "Liar, liar, pants on fire." We're all liars. We lie. We lie.  Now even though many of us have forsaken lying – we don’t tell lies to each other - I'm going to argue that often the most common lie that we tell is the ones we tell ourselves.  We lie to ourselves.  The heart is deceitful above all things, and we need a really dangerous prayer when we go before God and say, "Search my heart, God. Show me what is in there. Search my heart, oh God."

This prayer really became real to me a few years ago.  I had been a Christian for a long time – serving Jesus in ministry – preaching and assisting in the church.  And then I had this major crisis in my life – everything that I thought I knew, and everything that I thought I could count on was suddenly ripped out from under me.  I started blaming everyone else, looking for the reason why, searching for all the reasons why someone else was at fault. . .

And then one night I was praying – probably giving God a play-by-play of how the whole world had conspired against me, how everything on the earth was against me just like I had for the previous few weeks.  And then I remember clearly – because I really wanted to know why all these things were going wrong in my life – so probably with a sense of spiritual superiority I prayed an extremely dangerous prayer.   I was like – "You go ahead God – you search me – see if there’s any wicked way in me. . ."

When suddenly I heard God say to me – it wasn’t audible – but it felt that way – I felt God say “Rodney – you have some major issues with pride.”   

Me – "I’m not proud.  I have nothing left – How could I be proud?"

And then God put it in terms that I best understand – he said – “You’ve become a proud, arrogant jerk.  You are more concerned about what everyone else thinks of you than what I think of you.  You let everyone see you and you make them think you have everything together, but what I see is someone who’s hurting, and broken, and has gotten so good at faking it, you don’t even realize that’s what you’re doing.”

Well – when God gets that plain with you, it’s hard to argue anymore – so I remember like it was yesterday this monumental day in my relationship with God where God did some major heart surgery on me – and after about 2 hours of weeping and crying before the Lord, and God blessing me with an amazing real experience with Him – I left a very different person than the prideful jerk I’d become.

You see When you pray, "Search my heart," it's a dangerous prayer, because God is going to show you things in your heart that are not pure.  He doesn’t do it to be cruel, rather he does it to bring you into deeper intimacy with Him as his Holy Spirit transforms you to be conformed to the image of Christ.  So we are gonna pray – “Search me O God” – reveal to me the inner workings of my heart – show me the areas that I need to work on – show me the sin that I need to confess –  reveal to me my hidden fears, the things cause me anxiety – show me what displeases you – and lead me in the direction I should go to repair the damages that I’ve caused . . . help me to be more like you. ..

2.  BREAK ME

My first experience with this whole idea of brokenness, was back in Bible college – which was like 27 years ago.  Whew! I feel old.  Any way – I went in one day to meet with my advisor – Rev. James Littles – and I had been in a place where I was really struggling.  I had been praying, "God – what’s my future supposed to look like."  Because of this sense of uncertainty that I felt, I felt cold in my Spirit and I didn’t feel like I was really connecting with God.  I was really struggling

I’ll never forget.  Rev. Littles said, "Rodney – you need to be broken – you’re not connecting with God because you aren’t broken."  I was like – “Huh?  What do you mean?”

He asked me to turn to Jeremiah 18.

 Jeremiah 18:1-4 (NKJV)   The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words."  Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

Rev. Littles began to tell me that the vessel that I had become was marred with fallacies – not because I was a bad person but because life has a way of scarring us.  He said , "Rodney – God was showing Israel through the words of Jeremiah, that they needed to be placed back on the wheel, and allow God to remake their vessel."  In order to remake a vessel, God had to break down that which was created already, and began to reshape a vessel that God found to be good.  He said,  "Rodney  you have to allow God to place you back on the wheel – you have to allow God to point out those things in your vessel that displease Him – and you then have to allow Him to Break you down – so that He can remake you.  You have to begin to pray – God – Break me – whatever it takes to remake me in your image – Break Me."

Truthfully to be broken is a painful process.  But strength is always born out of pain and struggle.  If you want to truly change – you have to be broken.  It’s a Dangerous Prayer, God break me.  We prayed for God to search us – but now having searched us – we recognize our need for change – we pray God BREAK US.  Break us of our pride.  Break us of our sin.  Break us of our selfishness.  Break us of our ego – our self-righteousness – our arrogance.  Break us O God of our prejudices. 

Do whatever it takes to break me of those things that separate me from God – break me Lord.

It’s a dangerous prayer. . .

3.  SEND ME

This is probably my favorite of the three prayers.  This is really a prayer of availability – God use me – God send me – whatever you have for me to do, I’ll do.  I've heard it said that many times we pray for God to use us, and then when he does we complain that we feel used.  That’s why this is such a dangerous prayer – when you pray God use me – God send me – He will, and when He does, you can’t respond looking for accolades, or promotions, or popularity, or pats-on-the-back.

You are laying up treasure in heaven – and you may never feel noticed here on the earth, but God keeps perfect score -and what you do for him has eternal value – an eternal reward.

When you pray this prayer, God could direct you in a lot of different ways.  He may lead you into an area of ministry that you never dreamed possible.  He may reveal a calling in your life that you never ever expected before.  He may lead you to stay somewhere when you just knew you were supposed to go somewhere else.  If you are dating, he may move you to break up with somebody because they just aren't the person that will help to fulfill His plan for your life.  He might lead you to a different job.  He might call you to serve in your local church.

When we pray this kind of prayer, it’s really a two-part prayer.  We pray God send me, but then we have to respond.  Throughout the Bible there were men who prayed and responded:

• There was Jonah – and His response was Here am I, But I’m not going!
• There was Moses – and His response was Here am I, Send someone else!
• Then there was Isaiah – and I think he is someone we need to emulate: 

Isaiah 6:8 (NIV2011)  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

I want you to notice what he did not say.  Notice he didn't say, "Where are you sending me? Is the climate nice? What's the cost of living there? What is the pay range? Are there benefits? How much vacation do I get?"  He didn't ask for any of that.  What he simply did, essentially, is signed a contract that was blank and said to God, "Here I am, send me. Here I am God. Send me."   This is, I don't need to tell you, a really dangerous prayer.

I want to encourage you this week, and this may become a daily part of your prayer life, when you wake up, you should pray your own version of this prayer every day:

"God, I give you my mind. I give you my eyes. I give you my mouth. May I speak what you want me to say. May I hear only your truth today and have the wisdom to reject that which is not true. Here are my hands. May they used to be to build your kingdom. Here are my feet God. Lead me to where you want me to go. Help me to do what you want me to do."

Essentially "God, here I am. Send me."  I want to challenge you, dare you, motivate you to pray a similar prayer.  "Here I am God. I'm available. Here I am God. You have permission to interrupt me. God, if you want me to go somewhere, I'll go.  If you want me to stay, I'll stay.  If you want me to say something to somebody, I'll speak.  If you want me simply to be quiet and pray, I will pray.  If you want me to give something away, or if you want me to use my time, whatever you need me to do, wherever it is God, here I am.  I am completely available to you God. I am your servant. Here I am God. Send me."

This is an incredibly dangerous prayer, because when you start praying this I guarantee you God's going to interrupt you, God will prompt you, God will move upon you, and suddenly you'll recognize God has a lot for you to do when you pray, "Here I am. Send me."

MEMORY VERSE - Psalm 139:23 (NKJV)   Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;

PRAYER DIRECTIVE - I want to encourage you to not stop.  Continue pursuing God.  Just because the 21 Days is over, does not mean you have to stop making this a priority in your life.  And don't go back to praying tame prayers - pray dangerous prayers.  Pray prayers that challenge you to live at a higher level.  Pray prayers that challenge the status quo, the comfort zone that we get into.  Pray Dangerous Prayers that allow us to be everything God calls us to be.  Pray that God will SEARCH YOU.  Pray that God will BREAK YOU.  Pray that God will SEND YOU!  See if God will not do amazing things in your life!