QUESTION 16
What
Part Have Posture And Attitude In Prayer?
Scripture gives examples,
concerning posture in prayer, of people kneeling (by far the most
common), prostrating themselves, standing, lifting
up their hands, etc. This shows that posture, in itself, is not an issue.
These positions may be indicative of our spiritual attitudes. But,
it will be realised, of course, that anyone may assume these external postures,
perhaps even for the benefit of people around, with their minds far away,
not acknowledging and appreciating the fact of their own utter unworthiness
in the face of the absolute righteousness, authority and ability of God.
People may be taken in by
outward forms and lip-service, but God is not! He knows our mind,
how
we think and what we think. He reads the heart, looking into motives
and intentions. This is what really matters. Jesus often spoke of this
principle, which applies through to this day, during His ministry among
the people of Israel.
Lk.11:43,44
Woe to you, Pharisees!
seeing that you are loving
the front seat in the synagogues
and the salutations in the
markets.
Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are as the obscure tombs,
and the men who are walking
upon them are not aware of it
Mt.23:27,28
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for you are resembling the
whitewashed sepulchers
which outside, indeed, are
appearing
beautiful,
yet inside they are crammed
with the bones of the dead and all uncleanness.
Thus you, also, outside,
indeed, are appearing to men to be just,
yet inside you are distended
with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Lk.18:10-14
"Two men went up into the sanctuary to pray,
the one a Pharisee, and
the other a tribute collector.
The Pharisee, standing,
prayed this to himself:
`God, I am thanking you
that I am not even as the rest of men,
rapacious, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this tribute collector.
I am fasting twice of a
sabbath. I am taking tithes from all whatever I am acquiring.'
Now the tribute collector,
standing afar off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,
but beat his chest, saying,
`God, make a propitiatory shelter for me, the sinner!'
I am saying to you, this
man descended to his home justified, rather than that one,
for everyone who is exalting
himself shall be humbled,
yet he who is humbling himself
shall be exalted."
Mt.6:5,6 And
whenever you may be praying, you shall not be as the hypocrites,
for they are fond of standing
in the synagogues
and at the corners of the
squares to be praying,
so that they may appear
to men.
Verily, I am saying to you,
They are collecting their wages!
Mt.15:6-9 And
you invalidate the word of God because of your tradition.
Hypocrites! Ideally Isaiah
prophesies concerning you, saying,
This people with their
lips is honoring Me,
Yet their heart is
away at a distance from Me.
Yet in vain are they revering
Me, Teaching for teachings the directions of men."
2Cor.5:12
those
who are boasting in personal appearance and not in heart.
Rom.6:17
Now thanks be to God that you were slaves of Sin,
yet you obey from the
heart the type of teaching to which you were given over.
1Pet.3:3,4
whose adornment, let it not be the outside,
but the hidden human
of the heart,
in the incorruptibility
of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in God's sight, is costly.
Rom.10:8-10
Near you is the declaration, In your mouth and in your heart--
that is, the declaration
of faith which we are heralding that,
if ever you should be avowing
with your mouth the declaration that Jesus is Lord,
and should be believing
in your heart that God rouses Him from among the dead,
you shall be saved. For
with
the heart it is believed for righteousness,
yet with the mouth it is
avowed for salvation.
2Tim.2:22
yet pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace,
with all who are invoking
the Lord out of a clean heart.
1Tim.1:5-7 Now
the consummation of the charge is love out of a clean heart
and a good conscience and
unfeigned faith,
from which some, swerving,
were turned aside into vain prating,
wanting to be teachers of
the law, not apprehending either what they are saying,
or that concerning which
they are insisting.
Rom.8:27
Now He Who is searching the hearts
is aware what is the
disposition of the spirit,
Eph.1:17-19
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may be giving you a spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the realization of Him,
the eyes of your heart
having been enlightened,
for you to perceive
what is the expectation of His calling,
and what the riches of the
glory of the enjoyment of His allotment among the saints
and what the transcendent
greatness of His power for us who are believing,
1Cor.14:15 Should
I be praying in the spirit, yet I will be praying with the mind also.
Eph.3:16-19
that He may be giving you, in accord with the riches of His glory,
to be made staunch with
power, through His spirit, in the man within,
Christ to dwell in your
hearts through faith,
that you, having been rooted
and grounded in love,
should be strong to grasp,
together with all the saints,
what is the breadth and
length and depth and height--
to know the love of Christ
as well which transcends knowledge--
that you may be completed
for the entire complement of God.
Rom.10:2-4
they have a zeal of God, but not in accord with recognition.
For they, being ignorant
of the righteousness of God,
and seeking to establish
their
own righteousness,
were not subjected to the
righteousness of God.
For Christ is the consummation
of law for righteousness to everyone who is believing.
Rom.3:21-23
Yet now, apart from law, a righteousness of God is manifest
(being attested by the law
and the prophets),
yet a righteousness of God
through Jesus Christ's faith,
for all, and on all who
are believing, for there is no distinction,
for all sinned and
are wanting of the glory of God
Phil.3:8,9
But, to be sure, I am also deeming all to be a forfeit
because of the superiority
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord,
because of Whom I forfeited
all, and am deeming it to be refuse,
that I should be gaining
Christ, and may be found in Him,
not having my righteousness,
which is of law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which
is from God for faith:
It is common to imagine we are
heroes for God, initiating and actively participating in various programs
to 'further the kingdom' and to 'win souls for God'. We tell
Him of our plans and aspirations concerning these. We tell Him we want
to work these out so that we may present these, as our own sincere and
magnanimous gift to God, to enhance His glory. Commendable, is it not?
All too often are we Pharisaic
in our attitude. We compare ourselves with others around us and the preponderance
is that we come out smelling like 'a bed of roses in bloom' to ourselves!
And we dare to come to God with this false self-appraisal as if it enhances
the worthiness of our prayers! We imagine we have some earned credit
that qualifies us for special 'priority banking facilities' in our
account with God!
The evangel for this present
administration, however, speaks differently! It speaks very clearly of
God's
initiatives, God's power, God's working all things according
to His intentions, God's demonstrating His wisdom through the ecclesia,
and for His glory. We do not present Him with anything of
our own doing. We are not, in any way, being 'gracious' about making
a contribution towards His exaltation. The glory is of His Own doing.
It belongs to Him. And when we recognise and ascribe to Him that
glory, we pray in spirit and in truth! This is
the worship the Father
seeks.
Jn.4:23,24
But coming is the hour, and now is,
when the true worshipers
will be worshiping the Father in spirit and truth,
for the Father also is seeking
such
to be worshiping Him.
God is spirit, and those
who are worshiping Him must be worshiping in spirit and truth.
1Cor.15:10
Yet, in the grace of God I am what I am,
and His grace, which is
in me, did not come to be for naught,
but more exceedingly than
all of them toil I--
yet not I, but the
grace of God which is with me.
2Cor.1:9
we have the rescript of death in ourselves,
that we may be having no
confidence in ourselves, but in God,
2Cor.3:5
not that we are competent of ourselves, to reckon anything as of
ourselves,
but our competency is of
God
2Cor.4:7
Now we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the transcendence of
the power may be of God and not of us.
2Cor.10:12
For we are not daring to judge ourselves by,
or compare ourselves with,
some who are commending themselves.
But they, measuring
themselves by themselves,
and comparing themselves
with themselves, do not understand.
2Cor.10:17,18
Now he who is boasting, in the Lord let him be boasting.
For not he who is commending
himself is qualified, but whom the Lord is commending.
Col.1:12,13
at the same time giving thanks to the Father,
Who makes you competent
for a part of the allotment of the saints, in light,
Who rescues us out of the
jurisdiction of Darkness,
and transports us into the
kingdom of the Son of His love,
Phil.2:13
for it is God Who is operating in you
to will as well as
to
work for the sake of His delight.
Only with this understanding
which generates an attitude of true humility are we on safe ground,
enabled
to deal with God-declared truth for today, and not prone to entertaining
the rigmarole arising from mere conjecture and the acceptance of spurious
teachings. Outside of this there is bound to be pride of self - self-achievement,
self-confidence, and self-glory, traits that are in accord
with human wisdom and, therefore, so admired and so encouraged by the world.
Rom.11:35,36
.. who gives to Him first, and it will be repaid him? seeing that
out of Him and through
Him
and for Him is all:
to Him be the glory
for the eons! Amen!
It is sad to see that most of
us, who claim to be Christian, are unable to recognise, and then to counter,
our debilitating penchant for recognition and acceptance by people who
are not being called under our evangel, by people Scripture says
are not spiritual! Such people work under different principles and
operate according to different criteria and are, therefore, fundamentally
at odds with Scripture.
Eph.2:2
in accord with the eon of this world,
in accord with the
chief of the jurisdiction of the air,
the spirit now operating
in the sons of stubbornness
2Cor.3:3,4
Now, if our evangel is covered, also, it is covered in those who are perishing,
in whom the god of this
eon blinds the apprehensions of the unbelieving
so that the illumination
of the evangel of the glory of Christ,
Who is the Image of the
invisible God, does not irradiate them.
But, there is this tendency
in us to settle for the here and now, for the temporary and ephemeral
applause of our fellow-men, rather than to endeavour and strive for what
is yet to come, for the commendation of God and the glory that is
to be.
Jn.2:15-17
Be not loving the world, neither that which is in the world.
If ever anyone is loving
the world, the love of the Father is not in him,
for everything that
is in the world,
the desire of the flesh,
and the desire of the eyes, and the ostentation of living,
is not of the Father, but
is of the world.
And the world is
passing by, and its desire,
yet he who is doing the
will of God is remaining for the eon.
Lk.16:15
And He said to them,
"You are those who are justifying
yourselves in the sight of men,
yet God knows your
hearts,
for what is high among men
is an abomination in the sight of God.
1Cor.3:18-20
Let no one be deluding himself.
If anyone among you is presuming
to be wise in this eon,
let him become stupid, that
he may be becoming wise,
for the wisdom of this world
is stupidity with God.
For it is written, "He is
clutching the wise in their craftiness."
And again, The Lord knows
the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.
1Cor.2:12,13
Now we obtained, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of
God,
that we may be perceiving
that which is being graciously given to us by God,
which we are speaking also,
not with words taught by human wisdom,
but with those taught by
the spirit, matching spiritual blessings with spiritual words.
1Cor.2:14 Now
the soulish man
is not receiving
those things which are of the spirit of God,
for they are stupidity to
him,
and he is not able
to know them, seeing that they are spiritually examined.
This, of course, must affect
our prayer-life in a very fundamental way. How can we worship Him, and
ascribe to Him His attributes, in spirit and in truth without first accepting
and acknowledging that we are utterly unable, at any time, to move
in His direction through our own determination?
September 2001
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