Persistence

This is a little cheap. Okay, just so you know before you continue with the blog, I want you to know that there is the slightest bit of me that is being lazy in what I’m about to talk about. The Lord has been teaching me something over the last little while and I’ve turned it into a sermon. I delivered that sermon at Pastor Unity’s church on Sunday. I then used the same material in a short devotional at TOA on Wednesday morning. I’ll be preaching on it at a my church tomorrow. A couple hours ago, I didn’t know what to write on so I went with this. I’ll be a little like Rob Bell. Not like having hip haircuts and sprinkling a little heresy and weird analogies in my teaching, but rather if you’ve heard me teach, then my writing is pretty much the same stuff, just like his Noomas and sermons are the same as his books. If this repetition in anyway makes you feel cheap, I’m sorry. Please feel free to not read any further. My feelings won’t be hurt. I imagine most people that “read” my blog don’t make it past the first paragraph anyway.

Disclaimer aside, there is this passage in Luke 11 that seems a little odd to me. Sometimes, I hear a story that Jesus tells and I’m just like “huh?” This is one such passage. One night, a guy comes to his friend and asks for some bread. The friend tells him to take a hike, because him and the fam are already in bed (I’m paraphrasing of course, that’s okay though, Eugene Peterson paraphrased the whole Bible and everyone loves that). The dude doesn’t leave, but keeps asking. Jesus explains that it is because of his persistence that the friend will get up and hook him up with the bread. And what do we learn? If you bug your friends enough, you’ll ware them out and get what you want. Right?

Jesus goes on to teach the famous “ask, seek, knock” passage, to which everyone that wants a new car says “amen!” Not quite. This passage always seems to befuddle me a little. I remember thinking about this passage and continually asking the Lord for a particular thing that was very important and very big. It never happened and barring a miracle that is way overdue, it won’t ever happen. I’m okay with that, but it makes the passage a little confusing.

I think that Jesus gives us a big clue into what He’s talking about when He says “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Wait, what happened to the fish and the bread? I didn’t ask for the Holy Spirit, I asked to be married by the age of 23, I asked to be out of debt by May 2009, I asked for a promotion at work, I asked for ________. Is this a trick?

The Lord knows what we need and yes He wants to give good things to His children. Here’s a little insight, He has a better idea of what good is then we do. We say, it’d be good to have a new car. He is instead in the business of giving the good things that we need and what we will ultimately find most satisfaction in, which is the Lord Himself. He wants to give us those things that will spiritually benefit us (remember the whole Holy Spirit part?) So maybe, He knows that if He gives you that new car that you don’t need, you’ll say a quick “asante” then worship the car more and Him less. Is that a good gift then? I’ll just wait for my new car in Heaven.

The take-away from my sermon was this, “keep praying, there are things going on that we can’t see.”

You probably already know this, but the person that I pray for more than anyone else is Awadhi. If you have a son, who has a life threatening illness and deafness, would you pray for his health pretty regularly? Like believing in an almighty God and praying for his complete healing? Well, I do and I do. I have spent hours upon hours praying, days fasting and petitioned others to do the same. In accordance with the goodness of the Lord, His omnipotence, the ministry of Jesus during His time on earth and the ministry of the Holy Spirit here and now, I have full faith that Awadhi will become HIV- and he’ll be able to hear music before Heaven. And yet that hasn’t happened yet. There must be something else going on.

I’ll say that I don’t know a lot about what I’m about to mention, I don’t know it because its not really my experience. I have friends that really subscribe to the “healing right now” type of doctrine. I believe the Lord heals, I believe He wants to heal, I believe He uses His Spirit empowered saints to perform healings, but its hard for me to speak out of someone else’s experience. I appreciate the writings of guys like Bill Johnson, but I can’t easily reconcile some of the teachings with my own life. The Lord spoke something to me a couple weeks ago that did make sense to me. In John 11, Jesus was being beckoned by Mary and Martha to come and heal His homeboy Lazarus (my paraphrase again). Jesus said instead He would be going to Judea where previously guys wanted to stone Him. What He told the gals is the same thing that I’m taking for myself “this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.”

Awadhi is my beloved son, because of that I want him to be healed of all his infirmities. Far more than that, I want his life to glorify God. Its not easy right now, but I believe the Lord has appointed a time for Awadhi where he will be healed and that exact moment is the exact moment that the Lord could possibly be most glorified. I certainly hope it comes soon, but the time of his sickness has not yet been fulfilled. After I gave the message, Pastor Unity and his congregation prayed for me and Awadhi. After they finished he told Awadhi to say “amen.” Awadhi just smiled and I took his hand and waved it in agreement. The congregation prayed like so many others have for Awadhi’s healing and he wasn’t healed on the spot. Nonetheless, the Lord heard their prayers and will answer them at the perfect time in accordance with His glory. I’ll keep praying in faith that its soon and God will receive glory.

Awadhi’s life, including his salvation and his healing, is my biggest thing that I have to persistently continue to pray for. I’m sure that you have something in mind as well. Let this be an encouragement to you, that you don’t give up on praying for that. The Lord has a wonderful plan and will be at work in both you and the thing you’re praying for through your prayers. It will be hard to pray for it and discouraging when we don’t see changes, but don’t give up, as the writer of Hebrews says “we are not of those who shrink back.” Thank the Lord for giving His Spirit that we can be such people, for this we give praise.

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The Rundown: A good week. Preaching last week was really nice. Pastor Unity and Grace are wonderful people and I thank God for our friendship. The work detail the last week has focused on the preschool, I was able to catch up on a couple things with that now that the older kids are back in school. Tuesday night, I was able to make a video just for my Costa Mesa life group who sent some wonderful birthday greetings for me. It was nice and encourages me to start sending out more of those kind of videos to my church supporters as well. My home group got back together on Wednesday after a few weeks off. I actually led the group (found out a couple hours before we started) and I used, you guessed it, a Nooma video. Haha. We’re doing a series on those. Rob Bell has some good stuff, but some of his stuff I totally disagree with. This video was pretty good though. Worship Thursday was quaint, just me, Ryan, Stacy and Alice. The kids are all well. Thanks for all your prayers everyone!