I was sitting in an airport waiting for my flight. I had been reading the familiar verse in John 14 , “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you.” John 14:27)
“Can I leave peace with someone?” I asked Him. And suddenly my heart was overwhelmed with His peace and joy. Yes! I could leave, impart, release His peace into the atmosphere of wherever I go.
When the gate attendent announced it was time to board, I stood up and looked down at my chair. I silently prayed, “I leave Your peace on this chair. Lord, I ask that whoever sits in this chair next will be overcome by Your peace and love. ” As I joied the queue at the gate, I contiinued to silently pray for the next person who would sit where I had been.
This is powerful! We can leave His peace in restaurants, busses, trains, shops, everywhere we go that someone else will be there after we leave. Imagine if we all did this all the time. “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me” (from the Prayer of St. Francis)
Using the word FELLOWSHIP as an acronym, this is a prayer of the heart to know Holy Spirit more intimately. The format is based on a prayer by Mike Bickle. The bible quotes are taken from The Passion Translation.
F– FEAR OF GOD
Holy Spirit of Truth, teach me more about You; how You work and how You move, so that I can walk around and walk onward in Your truth, until everything within me brings honor to Your name, and I become true and love the truth. (Ps. 86:11 TPT) Let me continue to gaze upon Your face until I see You for who You really are. As I discover what pleases You, “Then I will awaken with Your form and be fully satisfied.” (Ps. 17:15 TPT)
Grant me the angelic activity that accompanies all who fear You – that those ministering spirits would encircle me, empower me, and show me how to escape. (Ps. 34:7 TPT) Let me explore the grandeur of Your great love for all those who fear You. (103:11 TPT) your endless love that stretches from one eternity to the other, Unbroken and unrelenting toward those who fear You And those who bow face down in awe before You, O Lord! (Ps.103:17)
E – ENDURANCE
Holy Spirit, grant me endurance, especially in prayer. That I would be energized with all Your explosive power from the realm of Your magnificent glory. (Col. 1:11 TPT) Fill me with Your great hope and joy, that I may run the race, that I may not grow weary, and that I may finish well. Let me endure hardships and persecution by the power of divine love.
Let my weakness lean fully on Your strength so I will not lose heart. When I am tempted to give up, carry me through with Your encouragement. Grant me Your vision of my life, so I will not fall short of the prize of the high calling. Be my stamina, be my endurance, be my resolve to never give up and never give in to the enemies of the cross.
L- LIGHT OF GLORY
Holy Spirit, let me see the light of Your glory and encounter the glory realm. Let me encounter You in dreams, visions, angelic visitations, manifestations of light, fire, wind as You gave to Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and John.
Let the light of Your glory illuminate my life and cause me to dream with You. Let me be a carrier of Your glory, and send me into the dark places of this world, so blind eyes can see and prisoners can be set free.
Flood me with the expectation of glory (Col. 1:27 TPT) in the earthly realms as Your kingdom advances in and through my life.
So illuminate my soul, that the outshining of Your glory from me, will heal the sick as it did through Peter. (Acts. 5:15)
Teach me how to function in the glory realm with You, to overcome darkness with light, to overcome evil with good, and to overcome fear with love.
L – LOVE
Holy Spirit, release Your influence over me to give me a profound revelation of Your love. Let me come to know You fully, as you impart to me the deepest spiritual understanding of Your ways. ( Phil. 1:9 TPT) Let Your love in me overcome all fear. Let Your love in me activate faith and bring it to perfection. (Gal. 5:6. TPT) Let Your love in me empower discernment, so that I see others through Your eyes of perfect love.
Fill me with Your love more and more until it overflows, in love back to Jesus and to others.
Let the same love that You have for Your Son be in me. (John 17: 26) Show me how to love the one You put in front of me every day.
O- ONE THING LIFE FOCUS
Holy Spirit, I choose to spend quality time with You and to cultivate and inward gaze toward You. Alert me when I lose this focus.
Call my heart to attend to You, listen to You and learn from You. Show me how to make all other demands for my attention wait their turn, as I put You ahead of everything. Teach me how to order my life this way.
Show me how to steward the hours You give me each day with You as my highest priority. Help me schedule prolonged times alone with You, as well as carve out minutes of every hour just to briefly gaze at You.
Help me, O Helper, align my life circumstances so I can walk this out. Anoint my times with You, that I may feel Your love and feel desire for You and for Your Word.
W- COUNT ME WORTHY
(Faithfulness unto fullness) Strengthen me, Divine Strengthener, to walk in such faithfulness that You consider me worthy to walk in my highest calling in this age and in the age to come.
I need Your help to see and gain victory over the blind spots in my life. Help me in every area to acknowledge that I only see in part. And grant me the grace of humility to admit when I am wrong.
S- SPEECH
Holy Spirit, be the Guard over my mouth. (Ps. 141:3) Free me from defensive, angry and foolish speech. Heal the wounds in my heart, so that from it flows life and blessing. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You. (Ps. 19:14) Let my words become beautiful gifts that encourage others by speaking words of grace to them. (Eph. 4:29 TPT)
Let Your word gifts of wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 12:6-10) be full in my life for Your glory, for the advancing of Your kingdom and for the common good.
H – HUMILITY
Holy Spirit, I want to learn from You how to walk in lowliness. I take Your easy yoke of humility and lowliness of heart (Matt. 11:29) on my life in my attitudes, speech and actions. Draw me always into Your attitudes, Your words and Your actions.
May I qualify for the grace You give the humble, by humbling myself. And may I enjoy the companionship of being yoked with You.
Help me to have tender humility and quiet patience , always demonstrating gentleness and generous love toward others, especially toward those who may try my patience. (Eph. 4:2)
I – INSIGHT INTO INTIMACY
Holy Spirit, You are the intimacy of the Godhead. Lead me into deep intimacy with You and with the Word of God. Let me enjoy companionship with Your ways and Your will.
Give me wisdom that I may intimately follow Your creative leadership. Let me partner together with You in every issue in my life, including finances, schedules, emotions, work, circumstances, health, and relationships. Give me new ideas flowing from Your unlimited creativity so that my life reflects Your presence within me.
Lead me daily to the private place reserved for the lovers of God, where they sit near You and receive The revelation-secrets of Your promises. (Ps. 25:14 TPT)
P- PEACE AND JOY
Holy Spirit, strengthen my heart with supernatural peace and joy that overpowers fears, anxiety, phobias and addictions. Let Your wonderful peace that transcends human understanding be the answer to all my questions. Guide my heart with Your peace.
Stillness is not simply the quieting of sound or action, or even thought. It is a yielding to love. Words become inadequate and movement becomes unnecessary.
Stillness is not a mere momentary setting aside what occupies and distracts us. Although that is a good beginning. It is a humble bow to the beauty of the Trinity, an inner gaze of love that human language cannot express. Perhaps the deepest stillness begins with a gasp of awe.
Silence is external. It is ceasing of sound. Stillness is not a ceasing, but a welcoming of mystery, like the earth welcomes the night.
Be still and know that I am God.
True stillness, is an unearned gift of God; a tender grace where our souls submerge into the ocean of His love. Like a mother soothing her infant with her heartbeat, we rest our souls into the One who created us, and are quieted by His faithfulness. Striving, restlessness, the sense of urgency and duty – these all become muted and muffled. The external noises are the clamor of human need all around us and the urgency of worldly crisis and chaos.
But even a moment of stillness can reorient our soul like a compass. Shoulders lower, hands open. Eyes close. Breath deepens. And we shift from what we can do to who we are. This is the eternal calm that nourishes our innermost being. This is the place of union with the Holy Spirit. Fear does not speak here, shame cannot enter. Guilt has no influence. Anger has no fuel. Only love saturates this atmosphere of stillness.
Stillness is the inner chamber of encounter, of intimate friendship with God. He waits for us to enter in.
I used to think that my prayer time consisted of the hour or two spent alone in my room, sometimes in stillness and silence, or reading the Word, or worshipping with music, or intereceding for others. Then the clock would remind me that my family needed my attention, and I would go on about my day.
But I always felt I was leaving something precious behind. That intimate place of communion with Jesus. Until one day, as I was leaving my room, I heard the Lord say, “Now come pray in a different way.”
It was the beginning of learning that changing diapers, doing laundry, helping with homework, holding hands, and a list too long of things I did all the time – that these were prayers of actions, works of mercy, touches of grace. If Christ truly does live in me, then what I touch He is touching. Where I go, He is going with me. What I do, He is doing with me. He always wants partnership with me. He is always attentive to my quietest prayer.
This is how my life has become worship. And all I do has become prayer.
When you create, paint, write, play music, invite Wisdom to live with you. Fall in love with her and let your romance spill out onto the canvas, the notebook, the guitar strings, the piano keys.
The discovery of your authentic self is worth the cost of the journey. You begin with the instruction of others. Copy them. Then proceed to mastery of your craft. This may take years of faithful, even daily practice. Do it all as worship to the Creator of all.
Fail as much as you need to. Make a mess. Wander deserts where you become convinced you have nothing to offer. Forget perfection. Just create.
And then the day will come – almost taking you by surprise – when you write some words and you realize, “Wow, I didn’t know that was in me” Or you write a melody that makes you weep. Or you paint a picture that makes your heart soar.
That’s the moment you realize that you are no longer an echo. but a clear unique voice. That is the moment you value all those frustrating hours you tried to create what your spirit knew, but your mind couldn’t quite reach, and your hands couldn’t craft.
This is convergence. This is authenticity. This is the real you.
He travelled with a group. He wasn’t out on his own trying to take a village with the gospel. He entered an area with 10 or 12 trusted brothers and sisters. Some were priests, some students, some just lovers of Jesus. Their corporate mission was to manifest the life of Jesus to everyone they met.
Patrick would meet with the tribal king (there were many kings in Ireland in those days. We might call them chiefs or leaders today) He then would ask for permission for him and his team to camp adjacent to the tribe. With this close proximity, they always held a hope that they would convert many to Christ.
They would meet the local people, engage in conversation, pray for the sick and possessed, as well as councel and mediate conflicts. They would pray over the land, especially over the water. There is a story about a beautiful beach near where I live in the west of Ireland that Pattick is reported to have blessed and declared over it that no one would ever drown there. To this day, some 1500 years later, no one ever has!
Patrick and his team would preach openly using parables, stories, poetry, songs, visual symbols, art and drama. The well known Irish symbol of a shamrock is said to have been used by Patrick to teach the people about the Trinity.
The team would then welcome those who seemed receptibe to join them for a feast. They would invite the locals to break bread with them, then worship and pray together. They would spend weeks or even months in this simple welcoming ministry.
As converts were joined to them, they would sometimes build a small chapel, baptisizng the converts. There are still today, ruins of chapels reportedly built by Patrick and his teams. Also, there is a small stone lined pool near me that is named “Patrick’s Vat”and said to be a place where he baptised new believers. To add to the authenticity of this claim, the church there has been in continual operation since Patrick’s time.
When it was time to move to a new location, Patrick would ordain a priest to lead the newly formed congregation. He would also add a few young converts to his team as they ventured to the next camp and started the process again.
Recently I attended a local sheep fair. In my small farming town in the west of Ireland, livestock are a vital part of life here.
A group of sheep had been corralled into a pen. The poor dears trotted back and forth, most bleating in confusion and fear. The seemed to be shouting, “Where should we go? What is happening? I don’t like this!!“ This continued for about 10 minutes.
Then, it was time for the judging to determine the best sheep. All the farmers whose sheep were in the pen entered the area and immediately went to their own animal. They all looked the same to me, but they all knew their own.
As they each found their sheep, they knelt on one knee beside the frightened animal. Instantly the sheep quieted. Some of the farmers put an arm over their sheep’s back. Some stroked under the sheep’s chin, settling it even more. One farmer spoke softly into his sheep’s ear. The pen was now quiet.
My first thought, when the sheep were all running around crazily was “Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matt. 9:36 NASB.
Normally sheep are quite docile, but it doesn’t take much for them to become frightened and frenzied. But it was a beautiful sight when the farmers came to their sheep, when they held them close, and gently stroked them or whispered to them. Then every sheep was calm.
You probably don’t need me to draw the analogy. We can be just like the frightened sheep at times. But what a good Shepherd we have! He makes His presence known, and holds us close. He whispers His. Word to us, bringing us peace.
Three fine sheep won ribbons that sunny morning. But I got the best prize. I was reminded that Jesus holds me, comforts me, and whispers His word to me, just when I need it.
