Just Want To Get Away

Today I got away. Left the house, and went to a place that I would not be interrupted. A place where I have history with God. A place that is only three miles away.

Pasadena A/G church is the church of my upbringing, and today I crashed their to pray, fast, and get centered. It was a great day, and the plastic table I sat in front of did everything I needed it to do. After a day of breakthroughs I headed home, and grabbed dinner with the family.

I hadn't prayed to the end in a while. Let me explain what I mean. I think that our prayer life is made up of parts. There's the beginning part, the middle part, and the end part. I know that might be overly theological for you, but deal with it. Here's the thing... "In Jesus' Name, Amen." can be placed at the end of any one of those parts. So I believe most of us, most of the time, pray only the beginning part and say Amen. When we are particularly in need or struck by the voice of God speaking to us we pray past the beginning part, and we get to the middle. That's the part that really stops talking and starts listening. It presses us to think of new words to use that we don't usually use in prayer. It is beyond our mind, it starts to become a soul prayer. And there are times that we pray the middle part and say Amen. When we pray to the end we go even further, and it appears to me that it is tied to time spent with God in prayer. I've never gotten there quickly. After we've prayed what we knew to pray and then came up with more stuff on a deeper level we come to a place where our spirit engages and the power of our spirit connecting with God's Spirit overflows us and the lid is lifted. Suddenly there is no question that things you hadn't even thought about begin to come to your heart to pray. You're praying about stuff that God cares about, you've gotten to the conversation He wanted to have. And when you say Amen it's only because you know He has said Amen. I got to enjoy that kind of prayer today.

--Ben