Sacred Mundane: The Blog

Others May, You Cannot

G.D. Watson, 1845-1924

If God has called you to be really like Jesus, He will draw you to a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants you to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small.  He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit of it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own.

He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. But if you absolutely sell yourself to be His…slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others.  Now when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

If you drove by the Oregon City splash pool any day last week you probably saw a woman perched on the side wearing an army-green hat, hunched over, completely engrossed in a worn paperback while offering an occasional glance up to make sure her children were alive.

That was me.

This book, Rees Howells, Intercessor is just crazy. This simple man’s radical faith in, obedience to, and intimacy with God makes me want to pursue Christ like never before. If ever there were a story that pierces through the lukewarm, apathetic, consumeristic religion of our day, this is it.

Though God gave Howells many challenges and principles to follow in pursuing effective intercessory prayer, two of them have stood out to me:

1. Only ask God to do through another what you are willing for the Lord to do through you. 

“This is the law of intercession on every level of life: that only so far as we have been tested and proved willing to do a thing ourselves can we intercede for others. Christ is our Intercessor because He took the place of each one prayed for.”  (93)

Howells makes it very clear that we are never to intercede for someone’s sin. That was done, once and for all, on the cross. And Jesus is the ultimate intercessor, as He lives to make intercession for us. But the gist of this is that we cannot pray, “Father, please provide groceries and gas money for my friend who is in need,” unless you yourself are willing to be that answer to prayer. That doesn’t mean God will ask you to do it, necessarily, but unless we ourselves are willing to be the answer to that prayer, it doesn’t make sense to pray that someone else would.

2. In order to truly intercede for someone we must identify with them.

For Howells, this meant that during a season when he was called by God to intercede for widows in India who were destitute, the Lord called him eat as they ate–one meal every two days. He had to give up all other food, living on the same sustenance of those he was praying for.

Now, we read that and think it’s crazy. Why? We ask. Why would we do that? God is God and He is able to do His work whether or not we suffer. But being an intercessor means we are allowed to be part of God’s work, and part of that work is working empathy in us, so that we are allowed to feel the suffering of others. Can you imagine how much passionately Howells prayed for their relief since he actually felt their pain and hunger as well?

Why on earth would we do this? Why would we be willing to suffer so much just so that we can identify with others?

Because of love: “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

Because that’s what Jesus did for us. 

Not ready to live on one meal every two days or go without running water? Relax. God will make it clear how you can identify with who you are praying for. It might be so simple as going to your friends’ house and caring for her children for a day. You will better understand her needs and challenges (and she’ll have a blessed break!). Or living on a food-stamp budget and pray who are struggling to keep food on the table. Or going without water for a day and pray for those who live that way.

Start by asking God for a prayer burden (Father, what do you want me to pray for?) and then

• Ask God to make you willing to be the answer to that prayer
• Look for ways to identify with their situation

• Harvesting one precious ripe tomato!
• The window air-conditioner in our bedroom…one cool room is such a gift!
• Friends who let us enjoy their cool home and their sweet friendship.
• Next weekend’s weather report–SO grateful for cooler weather during HTC!
• Nana.
• Afton Field Farm steak on the grill.
• Zucchini.
• Neighbors who share their summer’s bounty.
• Plums, figs, blackberries galore!
• Rees Howells, Intercessor. Life-changing!
• Picking berries with Heidi.
• OC splash pool every day this week.
• Swim lessons SO fun–victories all around for both kids!
• Kids loving Nana so, so much.
• Learning to let go.
• A free date. A really fun one too.
• Movie theater popcorn.
• Local food.
• God’s miraculous protection.
• Lake run.
• Wanting to change.
• Psalm 91.
• Struggles. Challenges. Growth.
• Sleep. Sweet, sweet, sleep. 

{Sharing some fun stories and ideas from our Frugal Family Roadtrip over at FrugalLivingNW.}

Efficiency is one of my core values. Chances are, if you read this blog, it’s one of yours as well. We plan our errands to hit as many stores as possible in one trip. We organize our coupons by expiration date so we don’t waste a single one. We read FrugalLivingNW so we can discover all the local deals with just one click. I do it too.

So when I found out my cousin was getting married in Las Vegas, I immediately started planning how many other stops we could make along the way, and how we could make the trip double as a family vacation.

Hence the rather ambitious mileage.

Because, if you’re already in Clackamas, you might as well hit Costco, Winco and Target, right? Right. If we’re going to Nevada we might as well visit California, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho too, right?

Right.

So began our roadtrip plans. All in all we had a blast—although the 12-hour drives were a stretch for our Littles (age 3 and 5). We’d definitely do it all over again … but not tomorrow. Here are a few ideas for surviving your own budget roadtrip during these last few beautiful weeks of summer:

• Plan a theme for the journey, not just the destination. {Read the rest over at FLNW, thanks so much!}