Heart Tracks - The Prayer

2 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:
Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. 3 With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. Deuteronomy 29:2-4...."Truth long heard and not acted upon means awful self-deception." Vance Havner

In over 35 years of ministry, I've come to believe that one of the greatest lacks within the Church is that of spiritual discernment and wisdom. We see, but don't see, hear but don't hear. Our understanding is clouded. We know much about Him, but like the Pharisees and Jesus Christ, we don't recognize Him or His ways even when He is before us. We have grown so used to depending upon our natural abilities that we are blind and deaf to a supernatural God who is everywhere around us. Is He truly also within us? If so, how have He and His ways become so alien and strange to us? The Israelites wanted Moses to be the one who lived face to face with Him. They would be content to receive His words from him. There was no longing to know and experience God in such intimacy. How like them has the average church-goer become, depending on their preachers and teachers to tell them what it is they hear the Father saying?

I want to share with you another prayer that I lift up for all that He's given me to minister to in some way. It comes from the above Scripture. It comes from Moses words to the people, a people who had observed the things of God yet were not experiencing Him at all. Moses declared what they did not have. My prayer simply asks that we would. That you would. I ask Him that in His mercy, He would give us minds that understand, eyes that see, and hearts that hear. The reality is that for all who have truly entered into life in Christ, these things have already been given. So why do so many not experience their reality? Could it be that we have fallen into the trap that Havner speaks of? Have we so long heard His voice yet not acted upon His Words that our spiritual eyes and ears no longer see, hear, or understand?

I heard Francis Chan speaking on what the life of a believer should be as opposed to what it too often is. He spoke of how every week, preachers plead with their people to dig more deeply into His Word, spend more time in intimate prayer, live lives that naturally yield true spiritual fruit. He said that all should be the natural outflow of a life lived in Him. That such life should never be begged for in the people, but flows from a deep, ever growing hunger for Him. The people of Moses day didn't live that way. Neither do far too many in ours. Do you and I?

I keep praying the prayer I shared above. Is it being answered in your life? In mine? We pray for so many things. For our loved ones, ourselves, our churches. Could there be anything greater to be asked for then eyes that see, hearts that hear, and minds that understand...Him? As a pastor, teacher, parent or friend, do you pray it? Will you now?

Blessings,
Pastor O