From Mentor to Soul Friend

I felt particularly blessed recently! I had the opportunity to catch up with someone who I had seen grow from childhood through youth to now being a young adult. We covered typical ground of hearing how their studies are progressing, involvement at a local church, outreach initiatives on campus etc., all of which made for a mutually encouraging conversation.

Into the conversation I asked the question: 'So what do you feel God has been on your case about recently?'. That got them thinking, but without too much of a pause they were able to discuss a passage of Scripture that had grabbed their attention and had led to some internal wrestling. Their ability to engage in the question was a positive fruit of the mentoring relationship that we had over the years. I offer the question as a 'Soul Friend' question - one that we can use one-to-one or in a triplet to touch base on where we are at in our discipleship. The mentoring relationship wasn't simply to produce a nice person, but to contribute to someone's discipleship journey such that they continue in active following of Jesus in their own right into their future.

Then came a wonderful surprise switch-around! The person then asked me: 'So what do you feel God has been on our case about recently?'. In asking me the very same question, it was my turn to be honest about my discipleship, whether I was being attentive to the voice of the Spirit, trying to wrestle, learn and develop. I talked about a scripture passage that had caused me to think again on a key faith concept, and we discussed that briefly.

I was mega-chuffed, because in asking the question back to me we now had equality and reciprocal exchange! The relationship had matured from the senior/junior mentoring dynamic to two people being Soul Friends able to prompt one another to think about their faith and walk with Jesus as equals. This is surely the outcome we desire of faith-mentoring relationships, providing the safe yet stimulating environment where a person rises to be our equal and journeys beyond the orbit of ourselves into the calling that God has for them.

To be able to see the fruit of that process is a wonderful blessing.

Quiet Confidence in Sovereignty

If we are wrestling in the spiritual realms, praying for significant shifts in how things are, do you feel the need to make lots of noise or pray lots of words? When you hear others doing this, do you ever wonder if there is some kind of meter measuring the volume or quantity of prayer - as if hitting some special total will be what it takes to unlock victory. Or do you think it requires some kind of show of strength, as if you and your peers can fix things if you get your efforts strong and directed enough?

Joshua was shown a different way when it came to overcoming Jericho - a fortress city with reinforced walls. God's instructions to Joshua are instructive: for six days have the army simply march around the city. Do it with the ark in the procession, with seven priests carrying trumpets. The trumpets sound, but compared to typical war-cries of an army it is to be a relatively quiet six days

On the seventh day they are to repeat, though this time make seven circuits. Only after this 7th iteration on the seventh day is everyone to shout. The walls will collapse - then you go in!

It seems to me that Joshua was being taught to be quietly confident in God's sovereignty. They were to loop round for 6 days with ark plus some announcing priests to proclaim relatively quietly and yet actively: 'we are here - God is sovereign'. All they had to do was be confident in God - it didn't require big noise or extraordinary fanfare to prove it, for God is sovereign regardless. The circuits on the seventh day repeated this, still with a relatively quiet yet clear confidence. Then they could go into full volume mode, but the walls will simply crumble before their eyes anyway - for God is sovereign and He has determined for them to come down.

As we prayer walk our neighbourhoods, or pray in other ways wrestling in the spiritual realms for the shift that is needed, let is learn a quiet confidence. May we know that the outcome is not factored on the noise we can make, or the quantity of our prayers, but that it all rests on His sovereignty. We can walk round, relatively quietly yet actively knowing His sovereignty, and look for that sovereignty to be brought to bear on the area/situation in our prayer focus.

We don't have to make a great noise until the moment that God finally tells us too - and by then the walls of opposition are crumbling away anyway.

Death has not held her

Recently I have been blessed to get to know a remarkable lady. This week she will celebrate her 90th birthday, and though using a 'walker' still gets out and about from her own home.

Yet what makes her more remarkable is her story. For some time ago (I think nearly 30 years back ... when she was a mere 60 years old), she became seriously unwell and in hospital. Other patients on the ward have told her that one day the monitors ceased to give any reading. Her memory is of being in a tunnel with a bright light at the end, with voices calling her forward - but also the voice of a relative calling her back. Medically she was revived, but deep down she knew that she had 'more to do' back here in this life.

Extraordinarily she recalls how her father had a similar experience. He had told her of how he apparently died, had a vision, and a sense of being called back. Such things seem to run in her family!

Her story, however, traces back even further to baby-hood tragedy. Her mother's first pregnancy resulted in the still-birth of a brother. She was conceived and born, but within six months her mother became seriously ill and passed away, leaving a distraught father with a baby girl. The grandfather took them in, but sadly she was unwell too - at just 6 months old. The doctors told the grandfather that they did not expect her to live: tragedy was about to compound. Yet relatives have since told her that the grandfather did not accept the doctor's prognosis, and proclaimed: "She will live!". Of course she survived, and is now hitting the age of 90!

This lady has some kind of clear faith: believing in God and she prays every night, thankful for her life. Yet Christologically it is not orthodox - her recounting of both her and her father's death-bed visions do not assert Jesus as Lord. Interestingly both her grandfather and her father originally claimed to be atheists, but the grandfather changed his tune after the survival of his baby granddaughter, and apparently the father was seen by other relatives to be praying.

Whatever the exact theological standpoint declared through her telling of her story, it is clear that death has crouched near on more than one occasion but has not held her! It also seems to me that the Spirit of God has been curiously at work in this family through multiple generations, albeit without explicit profession of Christ from them (so far, at least!).

It is my privilege to get to know this lady, and freely talk about the resurrected Jesus with her. I can talk with her about faith in Christ, and I have much to learn from her incredible still-unfolding story.

The Emphasis of Ask

As said earlier: Prayer is the Job - allocating focussed and our best time to seeking God and 'doing business in the spiritual realm' for the area or work that you are involved in. Within that prayer work Jesus gives the clear invitation to 'Ask':

• John 14:13 - I will do whatever you ask in my name ...
• John 14:14 - You may ask me for anything in my name ...
• John 15:7 - If you remain in me ... ask whatever you wish ...
• John 15:16 - ... I chose & appointed you ... so that whatever you ask in my name ...
• John 16:23 - ... my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
• John 16:24 - Ask and you will receive ...
• John 16:26 - In that day you will ask in my name.
  

This seven-fold repeated (there is a clue in itself!) invitation comes in the context of Jesus sending the Spirit (chapters 14 & 16) and abiding in Him (chapter 15). Perhaps we can say that 'abiding in Him' (chapter 15) is cocooned in the promise of sending the Spirit (14 & 16).

Note that it is all 'in my name': even the 15:7 and 16:24 phrases that don't have the 'in my name' words that all the others have, are still clearly in the context of being in Him and therefore asking in His name. As we sit or walk in prayer, seeking the face of God, the mind of Christ, and the manifest presence of the Spirit - on behalf of the area or work we are involved in - we can ask for whatever is needed (that is, what Jesus Himself would desire) for that area or work.

So let us allocate proper time and energy to prayer - with our area of work in mind. And within that, seeking the mind of Christ, not be afraid TO ASK! Ask extraordinarily, ask boldly! Go on ... Jesus invited us to do this. He declared it as an operational practice for us. He marked it out as a promise for us. He even chose and appointed us to do this.

So ... ASK ... in His name ...