PRAYER ACCESS: Showers Of Blessings

Greetings Prayer Warriors...how's your prayer life?

Years ago...at Second Touch Coffee House in Columbia Tennessee...the Mule Day Parade was over...and people were streaming by the Coffee House and one of the guys working there was asking people... "Parade over?" The phrase had a double meaning...as he asked would you like to be..."Prayed over?" He actually had a few takers of the prayer.

Prayer is either the psychological gymnastics of a desperate people who have invented a Deity to invoke prayers to...to ease their guilty conscience and confusion about life...OR...it is a direct connection to the Creator of the universe...whose heart is moved by his creation coming to him.

I love the first picture of my son Phillip...saying a prayer...practicing what Jesus wanted the disciples to do...to WATCH...and PRAY. As you check out the photo...let us have a collective..."Awwwwwwwww."

Many people approach the Creator of the universe many different ways. The other day...I went into my shower...standing there with the hot water cascading on my head...and I began to prayer..."Father...I come to you...in the name of Jesus..."

It dawned on me that this is the standard formula that I use whenever I pray my prayers.

Of course...God can hear you if your back is against the wall in the face of another impossibility in your life... and all you can do to enter His presence is open your mouth and scream out:

HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He can also hear you when you are at your weakest moments...with no strength to barely get out of bed...and eek out a weak...heeelllp. I am always encouraged when I read the incident of the children of Israel...who were in bondage in Egypt...under the hand of the tasks masters...via the rule of the Pharaoh...as they "sighed/groaned because of the bondage...and they cried out; and their cry for HELP because of their bondage ROSE UP TO GOD...SO God HEARD their GROANING...and GOD REMEMBERED His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, ad Jacob. And God SAW the sons of Israel...and God TOOK NOTICE of them." (Exodus 2:23-25)


Prayers can be prayers of blessings...like Bruce Coble prayers over the people of Kenya...or prayers of practical needs...or prayers of desperation...or just intimate conversation with God...not asking for anything.

Now...back to me...praying in my shower. I love my Prayer Shower...kinda like a Prayer Closet with running water. "Father...I come to you...in the name of Jesus..." I began to think in terms of teaching...and breaking down this beginning to my prayers.

1. Father: Jesus taught His disciples to pray that way in what has become known as "The Lord's Prayer." Jesus said...pray this way..."OUR FATHER...who art in heaven..."I began to think how my Dad...passed away...but I still have a Father. I have a Father who cares for me....who has interest in what is going on in my life...and wants me to come to Him. I recently was working with a patient who happened to be of the Jewish faith. I noticed that his child would talk to him...by calling him "ABBA." I asked her about the name Abba...and she told me it was a term of endearment...and at the same time a term of respect. Whenever she would call him Abba...he would give her his attention...and respond appropriately to her. So does our ABBA FATHER.

2. I: Not only is the Creator of the universe...OUR ABBA FATHER...He is MY ABBA FATHER.
When Jesus was quizzing the boys about who other people were saying that He was...they responded by saying...some say you are John the Baptist, others, Jeremiah/Isaiah or one of the prophets. Jesus said...Who do YOU say I am? Peter responds...You are the Christ...the living Son of God. We are all...individually faced with that question...WHO DO YOU SAY I AM. I am the one coming in...via my prayers into His presence.

3. COME TO YOU: I may want Him to come down to my level...but really...before He comes down...I come to Him. He has already come down in the form of Jesus..."In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...and we beheld His glory as that of the only begotten Son of God." (John 1:1; 14) Now because Jesus came down...and experienced the D.B.R. (Death, Burial, Resurrection...nothing more.. nothing less)...we have access...the right to enter into His presence. As we choose to enter in...this PLEASES God...because we are entering by FAITH...and "Without faith...it is impossible to PLEASE Him... for he who COMES TO GOD...must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who DILIGENTLY SEEK Him (not those who passively inquire)." (Hebrews 11:6). So...I alert Him that I am coming in...Father...I COME to you....

4. IN THE NAME: A NAME...is a point of IDENTIFICATION. The identification is what you know about the one who is named what they are named. Jabez...whose name meant pain... called upon the GOD OF ISRAEL..because he knew that that name...the God of Israel...represented what he needed...ANSWERED PRAYER. He could have called on many polytheistic gods...who could do nothing for him...but he called on the GOD OF ISRAEL...the ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD...who had MANY NAMES to identify His character and dynamic ability. Just the compound names alone...like Jehovah-Shalom (I Am your peace)...
Jehovah-Raphe (I Am your healer)...Jehovah-Jireh (I Am your provider)...all speaks of the nature and character of the God...who is OUR...and MY Father...and who I can come into his presence. The access...is by the NAME of someone.

5. JESUS: Jesus...God is Salvation...Emmanuel...God with us...is the KEY of access into the presence of God...because that name...the name above all names...the only name by which all men may be saved...the name that represents the way, the truth, the life...and the fact that no man COMES to the Father except by Him...is the name that I speak forth to start my prayers. (Philippians 2:9-11; John 14:6; Acts 4:12)

This access into the Father's presence...is by the blood of Jesus. "Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS, b a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through THE VEIL...that is...HIS FLESH (D.B.R.)." (Hebrews 10:19-20)

Once I am into His presence...I can have conversation with my Father...with expectancy that He will speak to me...give me insight and wisdom...answer my prayers...etc.

NOTE: Don't be like Jimmy Stewart...in the movie...It's A Wonderful Life...as George Bailey... (see the last photo) and wait until your back is against the wall...before you pray. The opening of the movie...is a wonderful scene of people praying for George Bailey...as you see the prayers leaving planet earth up into the heavenlies...with the cause and effect of things set into motion for the answer.
Just like when the children of Israel prayed...and their deliverer and deliverance was already set into motion...so was in the movie. The answer was on its way...when George could not see an answer...and it even got worse before it got better (but that's for another time...another Rambling).

FINAL THOUGHT FINALLY...NO REALLY...FINALLY...

I am getting ready to get in the shower...and on purpose....to pray. Father...I come to you...in the name of Jesus.

Love and Showers of Blessings Kisses
Rodney "Talking To Abba Father" Boyd