Prayer and Meditation

Sermon By: Jared Thompson (these are Jared’s concepts and phrases, but a lot of it is paraphrased and not written word for word.)

Written By: Amy Adams

“Going on a journey with God is like using GPS. Sometimes when we’re in the valley, we lose the signal. God tells us what to do step by step, not mile by mile,” said Jared. John 3:30 says: “He must increase, I must decrease.” If someone is not actively contributing to your well-being, they don’t love you. God is actively committed to our well-being. Submission is not a negative thing. It means to put one’s desires below someone else. He determines well-being much more differently than we do. Jared informed us that, “God reminded me and showed me something that I forgot. Prayer people are dedicated to helping out and being in agreement with us. We’re here to serve you if you want to agree in something” Prayer of thanks, agreement, declaration, intercession for one another. “Did you know that God can speak without a microphone?” said Thompson. We want to get to the face of God. He may use anything to help speak to us: singing, others talking, praying, reading, and other things.

It’s all about what God’s going to say today. The norm should be whatever the Spirit says. Can we let God be God? Ask someone or yourself: Are you the antichrist? Ask yourself this throughout the week. Read 1 John 3:24-4:6 and know that “ghost” is not what spirit means. Numa is Greek which is where we get spirit and that means breathe, life, etc. God is the Spirit of Truth.

Then there is the spirit of error, which means wandering or to stray away from and that is the spirit of the antichrist. You see the end but avoid the end result. You are in error because you don’t know the scripture and you don’t know the power of God. Because of these things, you are constantly wandering and do not know the end result. I heard it but I forgot it. Dunamis is a Greek word that means power, or the ability to cause something. You don’t know all of the abilities God has to use and see you through to the end. It may not happen exactly when we want it to, but when God says something, it’s going to happen. “Wonder in your mind but ultimately trust in God. You wonder why, spirit of error, you are the antichrist, which means against anointing; you are actively adding burdens and concerns to yourself and others,” said Thompson. We seek after the ability and forget the scripture. If you know Him then you’ll know His character. “Don’t try to start building when you don’t have your foundation finished. I didn’t think about it, then I got it. That’s not how spirituality works.”

5 things you have to do:

1. Look at Christ’s view, not yours, i.e. prayer
2. Look at purpose the way Christ looked at purpose
3. View the process the way Christ viewed the process of life
4. View people the way Christ looked at people
5. View possessions the way Christ viewed possessions
6. Kids, relationships, thoughts are possessions

Hot off the presses: You will start to believe that your purpose in life is to gain possessions in life for your process of life with the people in your life, but that is the worldly view of life. If you search your mind, you will probably realize that way of thinking is more useless than you would like to admit. In Matthew 6, it talks about praying, fasting and giving. Don’t do it because you should do it, don’t do it because it seems like the right thing to do, but do it in private. Prayer is a much more intimate thing than we believe it is. It also has the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6. We have to open up our view of prayer. “Right now, if I said, “let’s pray,” it’s usually one-way, one person doing it, and no two-way conversation. How would I categorize the context, content, mannerisms, and character moments of having conversations with a spouse? There’s all kinds of different mannerisms, content, context, and styles when you talk with God. What makes you think we can have just a one-sided conversation with God. You thought He didn’t reply but He was trying to talk to you,” said Jared. We don’t understand how to have a conversation with an unnatural being. We can understand how to have a conversation a lot better with a natural being.

There are different kinds of prayer. There is the Hang-Out prayer, which is having a good time hanging out with God; He’s like a friend who is the last one to leave. There is the Intimate prayer, which is like ways of communication between you and another person. Then there is the Sacred prayer, which is usually more formal in nature. Start letting God talk back and let Him begin to speak.

Meditation is a mannerism of prayer and it’s the most important prayer. Meditate means to be set on, established; instant replay is meditation on scripture and the things of God. Isaiah 26:3 says: “You will keep perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” Your mind is not your spirit; our state of being is not dependent on the heart. The mind controls the heart and your emotions will show us what’s there. We have an emotion that completely controls our state of being and our mind is in chaos from it; On Sunday, we are set on God, but Monday comes and you freak out and go back to the same thing you did before. Jehovah is everlasting. Peace is eternal and only from God. You have to take your mind into control first so emotions don’t drive you and are more reactions than state of mind; depression and anxiety are the opposite of peace, the mind is not set on God.

God tells you to do things step by step. He tells you to do something that you deem as important at the time and then you stop because other things seem to take precedence. When you stop meditating, stop talking and stop listening, it’s hard to set your mind on anything. It doesn’t change until God says something else. Do the first thing God told you and then He will give you the rest. Let the Spirit lead and set your mind on the things of God. Sin means to miss the mark and you’re going to miss the whole purpose when you set your mind on other things. We don’t know what you’re set on but God does. Store up spiritual things, the word of God (spoken and written.) Don’t just read the Bible, study it. Prayer is predominant and is the most important thing. God is where peace comes from and when we are led astray, that’s what causes stress and anxiety. That does not mean storms do not and will not happen. “When Daddy says something is going to happen, it will happen. It may not happen in the time we want it to, but it WILL happen,” reported Jared.

1 Day Challenge: Meditate for 1 day. Every time you’re not actively working, meditate on the word of God, in between tasks. Until something else comes up, this is what you do: meditate. Don’t let your mind wander past the present day. Next day, reflect on that. This begins our prayer conversation. When you spend time in that sacred time, you swell up with the Spirit and have better things to say when you pray for someone.

Meditate: think about thinking of God. Go back to the thing He already told you. Remember what He told you.