July 21, 2003
Special Summit '90 Issue
FSM 173 (FN 282) DO
Copyright: June 1990 by Family Services, Zurich, Switzerland
—Luke 11:1.
(Part Two of a Two-Part Series)
1. This part of the "Lord, Teach Us to Pray!" series will cover some of the common NWOs & pitfalls that hinder us from being as prayerful as we should be. The following lessons were brought out in the first session of Summit '90 when several of Josiah's major weaknesses were confronted.
2. The lessons Josiah learned during the first session of the Summit had a remarkable effect on his life & we pray that in sharing them we can each take heed & apply the lessons & principles herein to our own life, relationship with the Lord & interaction with others. The following points have been taken from the original talk that Peter & Paul had with Josiah & the follow-up talk when the important lessons Josiah (& the rest of us) needed to learn were discussed in the second session of Summit '90.
3. (Note: We had many open discussions around these subjects. Because of the large amount of material that was covered, we have condensed the main points, which is why some of them are listed in point form rather than in lengthy paragraphs. We hope this will make it even easier for you to study, absorb & put into practice these tips & principles.)
More Lessons on Prayerfulness, Communion with God & Letting the Lord Work Through You!
By Peter A.
4. It might be quite eye-opening for you to see that PRAYERFULNESS is one of the most important attributes of a good leader or Family Member. As we discuss this, you could quite possibly conclude that you've missed some important points in understanding what GOOD LEADERSHIP QUALITIES are. You might even look at the "strong & talented" leaders that you've greatly respected & patterned yourselves after in the past & see that those who pushed so hard & accomplished so much & who seemed to know all the answers are now themselves realising that they've actually been operating in the arm of the flesh a great deal of the time.
5. One such "strong & talented" leader is Josiah, who recently went through quite a radical change in his life! He needed a spiritual revolution in his life, a complete rewiring of his circuits in order to make him into the kind of leader the Lord wanted him to be—a PRAYERFUl, TRUSTING, PEACEFUl leader. TTL, Josiah got the point when these things were pointed out to him & had a major turn-around in his walk with the Lord. As you will read in an upcoming FSM, Josiah has learned these vital lessons & now is a shining example of true Godly leadership! PTL!
We All Learned from Josiah's Lessons in the First Summit Meetings!
6. Let me explain this situation further: Near the end of the first session of Summit '90, Paul & I were asking the Lord if there was anything else that needed to be covered with the leaders who attended. Then the Lord allowed a few incidents to occur that seemed to indicate that Josiah was very wrapped up in trying hard to ACCOMPLISH things. It became apparent that he wasn't resting in the Lord, but was largely relying on the arm of the flesh. He was definitely accomplishing a lot, but he lacked the peaceful spirit that comes from communing with the Lord & letting Him work through you.
7. As we discussed this shortcoming with Josiah, it became evident that this lack of prayerfulness & resting in the Lord was a MAJOR INGREDIENT that was missing in his leadership. Josiah's tendency to lean on the arm of the flesh & self-effort was not only detrimental to his work for the Lord, but it had also been a very bad sample to the many people who have worked with him over the years.
8. Josiah realised that his basic outlook on leadership—his quick decision-making, his striving for accomplishments & striving so hard to be so super-efficient & constantly trying to keep everyone busy—was WRONG. He's had to have a complete revolution in his life, a PRAYER REVOLUTION! In order to counteract his strong natural tendency to lean to the arm of the flesh & be constantly busy, he's had to go to the OPPOSITE extreme of going slow, constantly praying, seeking the Lord, counselling & praying with others & getting ahold of the Lord. He's now realised his past methods & modes of operation were NOT in alignment with how the Lord does things, & that because of this, his personal sample portrayed the wrong message to those who worked with or under him.
9. When you live your life at a hurried pace & under the constant pressure of work, work, work like Josiah was accustomed to doing, then OTHERS pick up on it & feel like THEY should be doing that too. During the month that we were together for our first Summit meetings, Jo was constantly on the move, working, dictating, reading, but seldom resting or going slow. One Saturday night our movie started 20 minutes late because we were all waiting for Jo to finish dictating. Then as soon as the movie was over, he went BACK to his dictating, & he ended up staying up quite late on what was actually our free night in order to finish his work.
10. Paul & I started to feel bad that WE weren't working as late as Jo. Our consequent reaction was to think, "WE should spend more time working!" But we realised this was the wrong reaction. The problem was not with US, there was nothing wrong with the fact that Paul & I were taking time off to relax & enjoy our weekend movie. The problem was that JO was addicted to stress! This goes to show what MESSAGE his over-work portrayed to others. If Jo were to continue with these work habits, the people who work under him would probably come to the conclusion that THEY'D better start accomplishing more too, & then they'd probably try to work harder & put in more hours like Jo does. We all need to realise that our sample communicates to others. If we're walking in a peaceful spirit, others will too; if not, they won't either.
"Lord, Please Rewire Us & Help Us See Things as You See Them!"
11. We need to ask the Lord to rewire us, to help us see things as HE does, to REPROGRAM us, to help us to go slower, to rest more & to take the time to pray & to counsel before we act. If we can learn to be prayerful & to operate more in the Spirit, more like Dad & Mama operate, then we'll be the kind of leaders & disciples that Jesus wants us to be. Some people just naturally click into the "efficient mode" & they want to get things done NOW! But we all need to wear some new grooves into our minds so that our natural reaction becomes, "Let's PRAY, let's ask the LORD what to do & how to do it," instead of making quick, unprayerful, uncounselled decisions.
12. Since we're beginning to see that our concept of what a good leader is & how a leader should operate has been a bit off-center, perhaps we should try to set it straight.
13. (DUST:) This talk is quite a bomb for me! I can see that I really need to be rewired in many many areas. I think in my leadership I tried to be a "Jo Junior". Jo has really been my hero. I can see how in my life I've really patterned things after Jo, & I often put Dawn under pressure by having the attitude that we need to get things done RIGHT NOW!—Whereas she usually moves slower & more cautiously. I really admired the way Jo accomplished so much & how he always attacks, so I tried to emulate it. This is an idol-smasher for me now to hear these things! One of the other things I've admired about him is that he can TAKE it, so I have to take it now too.
We Can't Earn Love by "Producing"!
14. Many of us equate good leadership with "DELIVERING the GOODS". We figure if we have ACCOMPLISHMENTS to show, then our Shepherds, & ultimately the Folks, will think, "Wow! He's really a good leader!" We often feel that by CONTRIBUTING, PRODUCING & showing good WORKS we can EARN the Folks' love. This tendency to think, "If I produce the goods, then I'm worthy of the Lord & the Folks' love," is WRONG.
15. A couple of years ago after several very strenuous rounds of visitations & holding meetings, Paul had a nervous breakdown, at which time he visited the Folks. Also he could hardly walk then because of a serious back problem. Because he was so weakened at that time, he had absolutely nothing that he could contribute in the physical, & even very little in the spiritual, because he was quite exhausted & "spent" spiritually & was in great need of recharging.
16. Before, he had always been "Mr. Efficiency", so when this happened he was tempted to think, "I have nothing to present to the Folks, I'm useless, I have zero to contribute." But Mama said, "WE don't love you any LESS, & the LORD doesn't love you any LESS just because you need to recuperate & you can't `contribute' right now. We love you just because you are YOU." Paul realised that at that moment he was partaking of the Lord's GRACE, & that his WORKS were not even touching the scales that were measuring out God's Love so abundantly. He was living the words of the hymn: "NOTHING in my hands I bring, ONLY to Thy cross I cling!"
17. This business of saying that your accomplishments are what the Lord measures you by is not right. He measures you a lot more by your LOVE for Him & your OBEDIENCE in following, than by the works you do—especially when those works are done hastily without His counsel, guidance & direction.
Prayerful Progress, the Most Fruitful Mode of Operation!
18. * We all need to realise that PROCEEDING PRAYERFULLY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN QUICK PRODUCTION.
19. * It's easy to trust in & lean on people who produce the goods, but if THEY'RE operating in the energy of the flesh, then by trusting in them, WE TOO are TRUSTING IN THE ARM OF THE FLESH, which is very dangerous. It's much safer to trust those people who are prayerful, even though they may seem to be slower.—Remember, "Speed Kills!"
20. * If you are spending QUALITY TIME with the Lord you will bear more fruit, because the Lord will produce THROUGH you. He'll be showing you what to do & He'll be working behind the scenes to help everything work out. (See Jn.15:4 & 5)
21. * If you're taking the time to find out WHAT the Lord wants done & HOW He wants it done, your job of trying to GET it done will be much easier. You'll make fewer mistakes.
22. * When you seek Him for solutions & you obey what He shows you, then HE gets the credit for the victorious outcome.
23. * If we think we're being judged by our personal accomplishments or our area's accomplishments, then we tend to push others too hard to the point that they burn out.
24. (DUST:) Efficiency & accomplishments can become like a god, but it's so contrary to a lot of what Dad has written. It's so easy to get addicted to accomplishment & to thinking that that's what makes you a successful leader. This attitude is similar to Saul's. He went ahead & did what he THOUGHT was good & right, but he didn't WAIT on the LORD. He went ahead in the arm of the flesh thinking that he was doing the right thing because He was ACCOMPLISHING something. He said, "I have PERFORMED the commandment of the Lord!"—1Sam.15:13. But the Lord was displeased. He wasn't interested in Saul's accomplishment, He wanted Saul's OBEDIENCE & LOVE. He eventually gave the Kingdom to David, a man after God's Own heart, someone who loved & communed with Him.
25. I can't really blame my lack of prayerfulness & going off & doing my own thing on the sample that I saw from leaders that I worked with in the past, because the problem has always been with ME! But I can see now that it's just a WORKS trip. I've been trying to measure my success as a leader by efficiency or accomplishment & not by my closeness to the Lord.
It Doesn't Pay to Cram!
"Deliver us, Lord, from this spirit of `busyness'—too busy for You, & too busy for Your Word!"—ML#253:32.
26. * There have been times in WS when we put too much pressure on our helpers. We used to have regular big pushes to get various pubs projects completed. We'd call these pushes "Red Alerts". But eventually what happened was that when we were already in a Red Alert & we wanted to get even MORE done, we tried to go faster! This faster pace was dubbed "Scarlet Fever!" These were very STRESSFUL times, & although we accomplished a lot, the people working on those projects were overworked & under constant daily stress. Because there was so much to do, we didn't have time to take care of people's NWOs as they came up, so they developed a lot of personal problems.
27. NOW we only have a Red Alert if there's a genuine EMERGENCY, which is very rare, TTL! We have learned the benefit of NOT cramming & avoiding that last-minute rush. We now schedule ourselves & our work, & try our best to AVOID any unnecessary stress or strain. A few of us have had nervous breakdowns from stressful times in the past, & we know that we just can't push like that any longer.
28. * Very efficient people like Josiah, who get a lot done, often want to get a lot MORE done & they get addicted to stress! For example, Jo said he couldn't stand to see people "not doing something". But if this is your attitude, you can get locked into a never-ending vicious cycle of work, work, work!
29. Jo operated this way with his personnel in the Video Ministry. They started out just filming the Kiddie Viddies. It was a lot of hard work & there were a lot of people involved. Because of the way things operated, sometimes one department, such as the editors, would have to wait for the other department, the camera men, to get finished. So Jo's thinking on it was, "The editors shouldn't just be sitting there doing nothing, so I should create something for them to do!"
30. The solution in Josiah's eyes was to begin MORE projects & bring in more camera men so the editors would be kept busy. But since there were then more camera men producing more film footage, the editors soon had to work at breakneck speed to keep up. Thank the Lord a lot did get done & the Family now has the blessing of the wonderful GAP Videos as a result of Josiah & Sara D.'s initiative & vision & the hard work & dedication of the Video crew. But, a BETTER solution may have been to slow things down a little & allow the Video staff more time for the Word & prayer, in order to give them the spiritual strength needed for their tasks. Because as it so happened, the Video crew developed some serious spiritual problems that later had to be dealt with. Had they had more time with the Lord, perhaps this could have been avoided.
31. * If you move too fast, you don't have time to TRAIN OTHERS. If your staff is so busy keeping up with you & you never slow down, then they won't have time to listen to the Lord or pray or learn how to make decisions themselves. Because of this, you'll have to keep going back to handle the problems & emergencies that arise.
32. If you have a more prayerful, peaceful approach, & you allow your fellow workers & helpers time to pray, & you teach them to make prayerful decisions, you might not accomplish as much in the SHORT TERM as far as deadlines & production go, but in the LONG RUN you will train others to become much stronger in the Lord, pillars that you can lean on. Eventually your staff & helpers will be able to carry more of the load, which will leave you free to spend more time with the Lord & do the things that only you can do.
33. * When you push yourself & others, it might look like you can get a lot done, but it's like being on a constant treadmill. You get so busy it makes you tired, then because you're so tired, you don't pray; & if you're not praying, then you have to work HARDER, which makes you even MORE tired! This continues until you collapse both physically & spiritually!
34. * As Dad said, "What I'm trying to say is, `Stop cramming! Take it easy!' God doesn't expect you to do more than you can do. He said of one woman, `She hath done what she could' (Mark 14:8), that's all she could do. But for God's sake, do what you CAN. Nobody is supposed to be overworked, overloaded or overburdened or feel the yoke is too hard, or the burden too heavy!" (DB2 pg. 478)
35. (BILL:) I always felt that as a Shepherd I needed to work more than any other members in the Home, that that was the sample I needed to set. The result has been that over the past year I've been working nearly to the breaking point, & it's only the Lord's mercy that I didn't crash. My private prayer life has been so neglected because I always felt that I needed to be at my work & a sample of a real "doer", so that I almost felt like it was a sin every time I took time to relax or sit down.
36. There has always been so very much to do that I've put off reading the Word & getting close to the Lord the way I know I should, due to feeling, "I just need to get these few things done first, then I'll take some time off." But something new ALWAYS comes up—a new "emergency" or a new project which I feel I need to finish first, & of course it NEVER ENDS if that is your attitude.
37. This has been very detrimental to my spiritual walk with the Lord, & as I see now, it's been an extremely bad sample to the Home, as it gives the impression of a chicken running around with its head cut off, rather than the sample of the peaceful, trusting Shepherd playing his pipe to the Lord.
38. If we as leaders can change our habits to a much more prayerful attitude & much more dependence on the Lord, it will cause a revolution for the whole Family, as this change is transferred down through the ranks.
How to Have Lifelines, Not Unnecessary Deadlines!
39. * Many of the deadlines that we place on ourselves & others may be quite unrealistic. In fact, often the word that best describes it is not "unrealistic", but "UNNECESSARY". It has been very seldom that our leaders have gotten a phone message from the FOLKS saying, "Here's a deadline, get it done by this time." The Folks are usually not even aware that a leader is preparing some material to send to them, but the leaders make up their OWN deadlines & pressure their secretaries or helpers to meet their self-made deadlines. You push yourself & others to rush, when it's just not necessary. Many of us THRIVE on pressure & we think that this "Go, go, go!" attitude is the right way to be.—But it's not! We need to slow it down!
40. * As a leader it's easy to give people a deadline for a project, but if you haven't done the job yourself, then you may easily misjudge the amount of time they will need to do the job. Your quick decision in assigning the deadline may cause tremendous pressure on others. They may miss their Word time, sleep time etc.
41. So, if you are going to assign a deadline, you should ask the person how long he thinks the job will take, & then extend the time that he proposes. If he says three days, give him four. If he says two hours, give him three. Unless it's an absolute emergency, or the person is very lazy & you're trying to teach him to press in, you can usually allow a little extra time when deciding on deadlines.
42. * Some of our dedicated office workers, leaders & others have gotten to the point where they really THRIVE on the stress factor & on being very busy, so that it becomes an actual ADDICTION for them. The sad part about this is that they start neglecting the Word more & more, & even the time that they do take in the Word becomes less meaningful, as it becomes increasingly more difficult to unwind & tune out the business in order to get something out of the Word.
43. * Neglecting prayer & the Word & real communion with the Lord because of a fast pace of service can be disastrous & can result in spiritual backsliding. When we see this happening, a real change in work habits is needed in order to put more of the emphasis on our spiritual walk with the Lord, so that HE will accomplish the work through us.
44. (BILL:) As an office worker, I sometimes used to get "ASAP" (as soon as possible) messages from my overseer. To comply with this ASAP request I would drop everything I was doing, disrupt the whole schedule of the office & run to town to do one little thing that could have just as easily waited until the next day when there was a scheduled town trip already planned. I would stop everyone's regularly scheduled work in order to please the leader by doing what he asked, but this put a lot of pressure on our office staff, as it made them get behind in their regular work & caused them to have to cram.
45. The leader's request wasn't always portrayed as a real emergency, but I was trying to impress him with how fast I could get things done. But I can really see that if we slow down the whole flow of the machinery, we would probably get at least as much done, if not more, without all that pressure.
Slow it Down!—And Avoid Unfruitful Stress & Pressure!
46. * Slow it down! We usually don't have to be in that big of a hurry. If you don't get that phone call made right this minute or you don't get that report off right now, it usually doesn't matter. You don't need to push your secretary to the point where her nerves are frazzled & she has no Word time, she misses sleep & has no time to spend with her mate & kids—just because she's trying to get your work done, which can probably wait until a little later! Often the reason the secretary has to work late is because you didn't get your work to her on time. If that's the case, you shouldn't make her suffer.
47. * We need to slow things down a bit, we need to pray more & operate in a calmer spirit. Spending time in prayer & the Word will give you that peaceful spirit & atmosphere. It will make you happier & will have the same effect on those around you. (See "Morning Prayer", ML#98.)
48. * If you sit back & analyse it, actual emergencies that you really need to push on are very rare. They are often self-imposed or they happen because of poor planning. Things can usually wait another day without dire consequences. It's often just our impatience or our addiction to stress that makes us push our-selves & others.
49. * This feeling of stress & pressure can be passed on to a whole FIELD if the leadership tries to push in too many new directions at once. Of course, it's necessary to make pushes & to rally the brethren around a challenge & goal to press in & improve, but by putting the Lord first, trusting Him, praying together & taking one thing at a time, progress can be made without applying too much pressure to field Shepherds & Home Members.
50. * Being under pressure can cause a big change in the personality & character of some people as it definitely tends to bring weaknesses such as nervousness or negative-thinking to the fore. Once the pressure is lifted & people have more time for the Lord & the Word, you may find they are more relaxed, outgoing, communicative, honest, loving & positive.
51. * Others will benefit from you going at a slower pace. If you as the leader slow down & let your foot off the gas a little, then others can let their foot off the gas too. If you slow down & go at a more relaxed pace, the ones you work with can go at a better pace, & pretty soon everyone will be moving in tune.
52. * If you're being PRAYERFUL, then you're probably moving at a peaceful, Godly pace. If you're going fast & pushing people too hard, then you're probably NOT being prayerful!
53. (CHRIS:) Addressing our lack of prayerfulness & the need to pray more over every little thing, is in itself a key factor to helping us maintain the proper speed in our actions so that we don't move too fast. Many of us have a real weakness & tendency to do things at high speed, because we want to get where we're going as QUICKLY as we can.
54. I know that in training, reorganising & pouring into a field, there are so many areas that you need to address, & consequently you want to do as much as you possibly can as quickly as you can in order to help the Family. That's all well & good, because it's the Love of Christ motivating us. But there's also this very important aspect: TO NOT GET AHEAD OF THE LORD!
55. The Lord shows us where we need to go, the mountain peak that we need to reach, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the QUICKEST way to the top—which is what many of us choose—is the BEST way. It may prove to be the most DANGEROUS or the least BENEFICIAL or EDUCATIONAL in the long run. There may be another route to the top of that same mountain that takes you through a series of other lessons & experiences so that when you do get to the top you're much more prepared for the NEXT mountain peak & you've accomplished the most on the way in the long run. Slowing down in order to get the Lord's directions is the only way to ensure that we're really going the way HE wants us to go.
We Need a Proper Balance!—Prov. 11:1
56. * Of course there is a balance to all of this. There are times when Dad is totally immersed in an emergency project & he knows it needs to get done right away, so he "steps on the gas" & gets us all moving on it & pushing to get it done. But as soon as it's done, the pace returns back to the normal putt-putt routine & schedule.
57. * So there IS a time for PUSHING, but it SHOULDN'T be ALL the time. That constant pushing of yourself & others on a regular basis is ungodly. There is a time for war, a time for peace, a time to build etc. (See Ecc.3:1-8) Although there is a time to push, it should be RARE, as it's too hard on people both physically & spiritually.
58. * We don't want everyone to go to the opposite extreme & get the impression that now nobody is supposed to do ANYTHING!—Or that everyone can just be "laid back" & lethargic & relaxed all the time & just take things as they come & not be concerned about whether things get done or whether everyone is doing their best. Please understand that the reason we are using Josiah as an example is because he had ALREADY learned the lessons about pressing in & redeeming the time.—And he had gone way BEYOND that to where he was literally a workaholic who found it almost impossible to relax!—And he liked everyone he worked with to keep the same fast pace.
59. But chances are that some Homes or Shepherds may not have such a problem with over-working. In fact, you might need to UP your productivity! So please look at these examples in CONTEXT & apply these lessons & suggestions to your situation prayerfully.—You could also counsel or discuss any questions you may have about yourself & your situation with your Shepherds or overseers to see if you have found the proper balance. "A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is His delight."—Prov.11:1.
60. * We do need to find the balance. The fact is we have lots to do & it's important to get it done; but if we, as leaders, are walking close to the Lord & are in prayer & we're making sure that others are too, then we will accomplish the job, but we'll do so with a real spirit of PEACE & CALMNESS.
61. It's like the anecdote about the old Scotsman with the rowboat who had carved on one oar the word "Faith" & the other oar the word "Works". When asked about it by a passenger, he demonstrated that by using only ONE of the oars, the boat just went around in circles, but when using both oars together the boat sped swiftly over the water. (See Good Thots, pg. 1035, #1) So we need to have both, FAITH & WORKS, Temple Time & the service in the wings, but we need to have a just balance. PTL!
Let's be More Like Jesus —By Spending More Time With Him!
"It is not great talents that God blesses, so much as great likeness to Jesus." (Good Thots, pg.525, #127)
62. * Being prayerful, going slow & not having such a rushed spirit means being more like Jesus. But how do we accomplish that? How can we be more like Him? As the sweet-smelling piece of clay answered when he was asked from whence came his wondrous sweetness, "Friend, if the secret I disclose, I have been LIVING with the Rose!" (Good Thots, "Communion with God: Prayer", pg. 625, #178) To be like Jesus, you have to live close to Him, the Rose, & really SPEND SWEET time communing with Him.
63. Of course, each of us now spends time with the Lord, but how much QUALITY time do we spend communing with Him, where we close out the business of the day & become one with Him, communing & fellowshipping & praying, getting fed & spending time getting to know Him in order to become more like Him? If you don't, no matter how dynamic you are or how much drive you have or how much of a vision you have for your job or what good qualities you possess, no matter how good you are with people or what a terrific speaker you are, no matter how handsome or beautiful you are, if you're missing your communion with God, all the rest is ashes.
64. * If we're going to be the leaders & disciples we need to be, we have to spend QUALITY TIME with Jesus. Like Dad said, "I don't care how many gifts you have, if you don't keep in touch with the Lord all the time, you are in trouble."
65. * A disciple, & especially a leader, must be someone who really KNOWS the Lord & WALKS with Him & COMMUNES with Him, someone who loves & communicates with Jesus. If you look up "Communion with God" in the Good Thots, you'll find that it contains several subtopics: "Praise & Thankfulness", "Prayer" & "The Word".
66. The dictionary defines "communion" as "FELLOWSHIP". So COMMUNION with God means FELLOWSHIP with God, & all of these things—praise, thankfulness, prayer & the Word—are part of our fellowshipping together & becoming one with the Lord. It's the life-blood of our spiritual existence, the most vital ingredient in our walk with the Lord: COMMUNION WITH GOD, prayer, praise & the Word.
Leaders Must Get Their Directions from the Lord!
67. * If you're on the Teamwork of an area, a country or even a Home, you have got to stop & pray & ask the Lord, "Lord, WHERE are we supposed to be going from here?" SOMEBODY has got to be seeking the Lord for direction & guidance. This quiet time is a prime requisite for ANY leader, but especially the TOP leader of a Home or area.
68. If you are the senior member of a Teamwork, that is YOUR job. And you're not going to get those kinds of answers from the Lord through your little day-to-day routine prayers. Real directions from the Lord are like jewels, & you've got to MINE those. You've got to desperately seek the Lord & really get in touch with Him so He can speak to you. You need to be LISTENING to get THAT kind of guidance. If you don't, your field or area or Home is not going to PROGRESS the way it should & you won't be able to lead it in the direction the Lord knows is best.
69. * Taking time to hear from the Lord about your direction is like using a map in order to find the easiest, safest & smoothest route to your destination. But you can't look at the map while you go speeding down the road. You've got to STOP & STUDY the map, just like you have to stop & get quiet & listen in order to have close communion with the Lord & to get your directions from Him.
70. * As a LEADER, it's oftentimes more important to be doing "nothing" except praying & communing with the Lord. If YOU'RE not taking that time to hear from Him, WHO is? If you're not getting that kind of direction from the Lord, who is?
71. * "If we are weak in communion with God, we are weak everywhere!" (Good Thots, pg.661, #387)
Delegate!—And Spend More Time With Jesus!
72. * As a leader, you should do the things that only you CAN do & the things that only you SHOULD do. If you train others, then they can carry a lot of the load for you. But WHAT do you do once you have trained others & as a result you have more time? It's not enough to just stop your rushing around.—You have to do the RIGHT thing with the time you gain.
73. Let's use Josiah as an example again. In his case, after he trained others, he used a lot of the time he gained to think up MORE projects to keep himself & everyone else increasingly busier.—But that's NOT how the time should be used. Instead, it should be used to seek the Lord & to pray about what direction you're heading & where He wants you to go from there.
74. Through our discussions at the Summit Meetings, Jo realised that he needed to take more time off & stop rushing around so much. He said, "I think I need to take more free time, so maybe I'll take up painting." But THAT was NOT the point. That would just be taking on a free-time activity that would take time AWAY from the Lord. That would be adding on something new to fill up the time that the Lord wants you to take with HIM. It's so easy for us to fill up our time with more "busyness" & activities instead of with the Lord.
75. Hobbies can be relaxing, but they should not take time away from the Lord & prayer. A hobby like gardening or yard work is fun, but it's best if it can double as your Get-Out, so you can be accomplishing a hobby & having Get-Out at the same time. But painting or some other hobby that doesn't double as a Get-Out can just fill up your time with more "busyness".
76. * Ask yourself: "How do I use the extra time that I make for myself? Do I fellowship with others? Do I clean up my room? Do I do lots of these "other things" instead of what I SHOULD be doing?—Praying & seeking the Lord & communing with Him?"
77. * Remember, the requirement for bearing fruit is, "ABIDE in Me, & I in you".—Jn.15:4. "Abiding in" means communing with, being one with, really speaking with the Lord & taking time to read & pray & listen to Him above everything else.
78. * Having more time ALONE is no guarantee that you're going to get closer to the Lord; it's what you DO with that time that counts. It's like the story Dad tells in "Stop, Look, Listen!" of the brother at TSC who went out into the woods to pray & get alone with the Lord, & then when he got out there he was screaming in tongues so loud that it totally defeated the purpose. We need to sit still & let the Lord fill our quiet time.
79. * If the leaders are delegating some of their responsibilities so that they can have quiet time & then they DON'T take advantage of that time to seek the Lord, but rather fill it with other things & have more busy time, then they'll be passing that busy spirit on to everybody else, as it's contagious. We need to work on reversing the trend.
80. * To fill your free time with the Lord takes a real forsaking all, a forsaking of the things that YOU want to do, to put the Lord & His Word in first place. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."—Exo.20:3.
Sex & Fellowship With Others Can Squeeze Out the Lord!
81. * We all know that there's nothing wrong with sex, but sexual sharing does take time & if it takes TOO MUCH of our time, then it can squeeze out our time with the Lord. It's like we knock the Lord off our sharing schedule, so to speak.
82. * With sex, oftentimes the more you HAVE, the more you WANT, so you have to check yourself & find the balance. If you have a tendency to go overboard along these lines, you'll have to put certain restrictions on yourself or ask OTHERS to put restrictions on you. It's more important for you to be spending time with the Lord than it is for you to be having love-up every night. Sometimes you do need sex & others need it as well, but if you're having it almost every night, then it may be detracting you from your time with Jesus. Remember, "You can't do the Master's work without the Master's power!"
83. * In Josiah's case, he was used to sleeping with someone every night. In fact, the month he spent at our meetings was the longest he'd EVER gone without a bed mate. He realised that he had been putting too much emphasis on sex & fellowship with others, so he decided to change his personal schedule when he returned to his Home, & now he has one or two nights each week when he sleeps alone, to ensure that he can have more time with the Lord.
84. * Even though as leaders it is important to sometimes share with others for fellowship & for their encouragement, we must remember that overall, the MOST IMPORTANT thing is our need for the LORD'S fellowship.
85. * Taking time with others at night does not usually take time away from your WORK time, but it often takes away from the time you have with the LORD. This does not ONLY mean sexual sharing, it also includes fellowship. Often we can spend a lot of time just chatting with someone instead of taking time with the Lord. In some cases, that time at night could be better spent getting into the Word, praying, fellowshipping & communing with the Lord.
86. * What's more important?—Your relationship with a brother or sister, or your relationship with the Lord? We all have to come to the realisation that we need to be closer to the Lord.
Keeping the Lord on Your Sharing Schedule!
87. * "He longs for that sweet communion, that union of heart with heart!" Our communion time with the Lord should be a very cherished time. We should LOVE to spend time with Him.
88. * We need His Love & His strength, & the only way we can get it is by spending time with Him.
89. * Our prayer life can easily become a formality, but one thing that can help you not be overly formal is to think of the Lord as a Lover or Counsellor or Friend that you really need. It seems like the Lord is just waiting to see how much we are willing to forsake all other distractions in order to put Him first. If we have HIM in first place in our lives then we will see & feel His power beyond what we ever imagined.
90. * "The more anyone loves Jesus, the more he delights to be with Jesus alone. Lovers love to be alone!" (Good Thots, pg. 525, #132)
91. * "Help us not to get so wrapped up in our work that we don't realise that we need to be CLOSE to You, be INTIMATE with You, be LOVERS with You, & that that is very very important, Lord! All this other is good & necessary, but we should not leave the other undone, our relationship with You. We need to maintain that close communication with You & that intimacy, that love relationship with You that we can't go wrong in, Lord. We can be assured that everything else will fall into the proper place as long as we keep close to YOU." (ML #2343:10)
"Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? And there is none upon Earth that I desire beside Thee. My heart & my flesh faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, & my portion forever." (Psa.73:25,26)
"They that partake of these things have strength that ye know not of. They that follow Me & hear My voice & they that savour My fragrance & see those things which I show unto them, they are the Children of David." (DB5, 191:6)
"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow & fatness; & my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips: When I remember Thee upon my bed, & meditate on Thee in the night watches." (Psa.63:5,6)
How the Shepherd's Sample Affects Others!
"When the Shepherd just quit trying to run everything else in his own spirit & sat down & relaxed & got in communication with his own Creator—when he shut his eyes & began to play such sweet music on his pipe—the sheep knew everything was all right & they just calmed down & went quietly about their business." ("Morning Prayer", ML#98)
92. * Like Dad says in "Morning Prayer", our spirits are contagious & the sheep pick up on them. What is YOUR spirit communicating?—Prayerfulness & peace?—Or hurry, rush, stress? You may preach a lot of sermons about being prayerful & going slow, & that's good, but more important than these sermons is what your SPIRIT & your sample are communicating. If the peace of "Morning Prayer" doesn't communicate from us, what does?—Rush? Stress? Pressure? Deadlines? If that's what's communicated, then THAT'S what others are going to follow & you will have led them astray. You need to set YOUR standard for where you want them to go. The only way you will communicate that kind of faith & calmness of spirit is if you are trusting the Lord & taking time to commune with Jesus.
93. * We generally mimic the leaders who are above us. If you're with someone who has a higher position or who you feel is superior to you, then you tend to imitate him or her. This is only natural, especially if you're imitating a top leader, as you undoubtedly feel that this person wouldn't BE a top leader unless he was doing things the right way. This is why it is imperative that we, as leaders, are setting the right sample, not only in prayerfulness but in EVERYTHING!
94. * We have found that the degree that someone follows a leader's sample depends on whether it's a good or bad sample. If the leader is a good sample in an area like prayerfulness, then his flock will imitate this good quality, but it seems they won't usually go as far as the leader in it. However, the leader's BAD sample in a negative area will often be MULTIPLIED in his followers. For example, if you AREN'T prayerful, but instead are constantly in a rushed, hurried spirit, others will imitate that bad sample & will probably be even MORE rushed & hurried than you! Good samples are usually diminished by those following the sample because they take more of an effort to put into practice & the Enemy fights it.—But people often go BEYOND the original BAD sample that they may imitate. So we have to go OVERBOARD on this sample of prayerfulness in order to help people to get the point.
95. * A secretary who worked for Josiah wondered how he could get up early & start working right away. It seemed to her to be so contrary to the Letters which teach that you CAN'T do the Master's work without the Master's power. Her conclusion was, "Yes, you CAN, if you work HARD enough." How sad! But it certainly proves the point that your sample speaks to others, & if it's the WRONG SAMPLE it speaks the WRONG MESSAGE!
96. * Dad said, "The biggest problem with sincere Christians is that they make a god out of God's service." The question to ask yourself is, "Have I only taught people to PRODUCE, or have I also taught them to SEEK the LORD? How much of my sample to others has imitated the Lord's sample?" Jesus said, "Come unto Me all ye that labour & are heavy laden, & I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, & learn of Me; for I am meek & lowly in heart: & ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy & My burden is light."—Mat.11:28-30.
97. * If a Shepherd has real communion with the Lord, then he'll carry a peace of heart & mind & spirit that others will pick up & imitate. His prayerful, peaceful attitude will be manifest in the lives of those he leads. If we are PRAYING more, we'll be receiving the Lord's direction & answers to problems that arise. He'll be showing us WHAT to do & WHEN to do it, which will eliminate the need to push others so hard & result in a more peaceful, Godly existence for everyone.
98. * That's the way the Folks operate because they have such a strong link with the Lord, & that's what we, as top leaders, need to imitate. If we will follow the Folks' sample, then that's the sample those who work with us will follow, & it will continue on down the line.
Prayer: A Vital Ingredient in Making Decisions!
99. * "One of the main principles involved in reaching a decision is: Don't start talking—Pray!"—ML#74:1.
100. * If you don't make PRAYERFUL decisions, you're not going to be much of a disciple, let alone a leader!
101. * Prayerfulness in decision-making takes longer. In the natural you may feel like you are not accomplishing as much, but by praying more you will be hearing from the Lord & you'll be making the RIGHT decisions.
102. * If we DESPERATELY pray for solutions, ideas & guidance, then the Lord will give us QUALITY answers.—Answers that make the mountains melt away.
103. * Decisions that are made & acted on in haste can take a lot more time in the long run, because often they are the WRONG decision & you have to go back & pick up the pieces, so that your so-called efficiency has become INEFFICIENCY. If you spend more time getting your directions from the Master, you'll reach your destination faster, even if you FEEL like you are going slower.
104. * Making snap decisions with the attitude of "let's hurry up & get things done" can whip up a hurried spirit in others. We can use the example of a whip. Leaders in a sense hold the HANDLE of the whip in their decision-making. They can make a decision in minutes that doesn't take much effort.—Like flicking a whip, the handle moves only a few inches, but the other end of the whip moves much MORE & much FASTER. So likewise, a quick decision isn't felt as much at the end where it originates, but the consequences for the people at the OTHER end who are affected by the decision are much greater. The people who have to carry out quick decisions are the ones who feel the burden the most; because a decision may start with the "flick of the whip" at 10 km/hr. at the handle, but by the time it reaches the end (the people who have to carry that decision out), the speed may have increased to 100 km/hr.
105. * Besides coming up with the wrong ANSWERS much of the time, it's a very bad sample to make snap decisions, because it looks like YOU have all the answers. This not only draws attention to yourself & makes other people think you're so smart, but it also makes others feel quite intimidated & robs the Lord of the credit He would receive if you had taken time to pray. On top of it all, your followers will imitate your poor sample & will also make quick unprayerful decisions.
106. * As a leader, if you are asked a question, you may sometimes feel pressured to come up with a quick solution or answer. But it's best to just admit, "I don't know," & to pray about it together.—Even when you THINK you might have a quick answer to give, you should still pray & ask the Lord.
107. * If you aren't praying & counselling with others about your decisions, then you're as good as saying that you know all the answers. Operating without prayer & counsel is doing it in the energy of the flesh, in your OWN power. We need to operate in the LORD'S power to portray the Lord's strength in all our dealings with others.
108. * If we would learn the habit of desperately PRAYING for solutions, instead of trying to FIGURE OUT answers to the problems, then the solutions would come much more EASILY & we would save ourselves a lot of time. If we would PRAY FIRST, there would probably be a lot less discussion, instead of just discussing, discussing, discussing & THEN praying AFTERWARDS.
109. * There have been times in meetings when others are talking that I've gotten an idea, but instead of blurting it out, I've found that it really helped to wait & talk to the Lord about it first. Since someone else was talking at the time, I had time to think & pray, "Lord, what do YOU want me to say?" I would hold back & take time to let the Lord develop the idea more, & this gave me a chance to consider if what I was wanting to say was of the Lord & not just something off the top of my head.
110. * Making decisions based only on past experiences or past lessons learned is like operating in the arm of the flesh. If you're praying for today's answers for today's problems, & you open your heart & ears to Him, He'll fill it with what HE knows is best. The Lord can give you more than you've ever had before, NEW THINGS that you've NEVER thought of, if you are desperately asking Him. "CALL unto Me, and I WILL answer thee, & show thee GREAT & MIGHTY things, which thou knowest not."—Jer.33:3.
111. * The reason we have a Family today is because Dad has constantly sought the Lord for TODAY'S answers! He hears from the Lord fresh every day. Because he prays, he knows where the Chief Shepherd is going & he can lead us accordingly. We should be doing the same. We should be praying together, digging into the Word & spending time with the Lord so that we'll be doing the right thing at the right time, in the right place, in the right way!
112. * Minor decisions require less prayer, & major ones require a lot more time & counsel & seeking of the Lord. In the first Summit '90 session, Josiah was surprised to see how much prayer & counselling went into the decision about whether or not to proceed with the production of a new children's Video series. But it was a MAJOR decision & we needed to have the Lord's mind on it. We had four or five meetings & prayer sessions before deciding what to do.
113. So you have to find a balance. You shouldn't spend days on minor decisions that you should make in minutes, but God forbid that you should ever make decisions in MINUTES that should be made over DAYS with much prayer & counsel.
"Out of Weakness Were Made Strong!" (Heb.11:34)
114. * Generally speaking, women tend to feel much more incapable than men do, which in some cases makes them STRONGER in the SPIRIT. They often feel as if they don't KNOW what to do, therefore they PRAY more. On the other hand, because men generally feel stronger & are more confident & perhaps have more of the strengths that we associate with being a leader, they often FEEL more capable, but that sometimes results in them not PRAYING enough. It can be dangerous if you feel CAPABLE of doing the job which the Lord has given you, because it may cause you to do it without real PRAYER & DESPERATION, & you may be working in the arm of the flesh.
115. * You girls at this meeting don't have the problem of being pushy like some of the men here do, but you ALL have the same problem of DESPISING your weaknesses. You look down on the way the Lord made you. You've all commented about how bad you feel because you're not eloquent, you don't feel like you know what you're doing, & you feel so weak & incapable. You need to stop complaining about being weak.
116. The fact is, your WEAKNESS may just be what makes you good leaders. If you are weak & slow & you feel incapable & don't know what to do, you may be a lot better off, because you're more apt to be desperate in PRAYER than those who feel so CONFIDENT in themselves. But instead of being thankful, you've murmured & complained about it. It's something that you need to ask the Lord to forgive you for, because that's how God MADE you! (Rom.9:20!) You should be THANKFUL that you're not so strong in the flesh, because it means you have less of that to overcome.
117. * Now don't go to the other extreme & everybody think you're now supposed to be wimps or do-nothings. Just be the way He made you. And if you are being prayerful & communing with the Lord, He will use you the way He wants to.
118. (LISA:) One of the reasons that I fell into this trap of despising my weakness is because I admire others who have gifts & talents that I don't have, & I wish I could be different. It begins with COMPARING myself with others & results in negative thinking. I got the verse, "My GRACE is SUFFICIENT for thee, for MY STRENGTH is made perfect in WEAKNESS. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather GLORY in my infirmities (instead of despising it, I need to glory in it), that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2Cor.12:9)
119. (SILAS:) We have lived with Marianne in the past & she is VERY unsure of herself & goes real slow. She is very prayerful & she usually ends up doing the RIGHT thing. She really is slow, but look how much good she accomplishes, which I'm sure is due to prayer.
120. (ENDURETH:) I know for a fact that I'm not very talented or capable, so it does make me want to depend more on the Lord in order to get things done. However, although I do naturally tend to acknowledge the Lord more or make sure that we pray before meetings or take the time to counsel with others, I feel that in some ways it's become more of a religious ritual for me. In other words, knowing that I need to do that & that it's the right thing to do, I do take the time to stop & make sure we pray together & acknowledge the Lord. But I feel I've been GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS of doing the right thing but have felt very dry spiritually & haven't really felt the Lord's Spirit & power alive in my life like I know it needs to be in order to bear the right fruit. So although I'm not a dynamic type of leader, or like some of our men who are real pushy with their ideas & have a hard time depending on the Lord because of their many talents & capabilities, nevertheless I still need to learn not to do things in the arm of the flesh without relying on the real power of the Lord.
121. Also, because I do feel quite weak & incapable, I have a tendency to lean on OTHERS instead of placing my dependency on the Lord. When my male teamworkers are with me, it's easy for me to lean on them just because they're there & it's the easy way out, instead of having to lean on Jesus. But when they're NOT there & I'm in a situation where I'm alone, I have a special closeness to the Lord & those are the times that I've been the happiest & the most fulfilled, although perhaps a little lonely. It's always much EASIER to lean on some PERSON, & it takes an effort to get desperate with the Lord & draw close to Him, but THAT'S where REAL strength comes from.
122. (CHRIS:) I'm now seeing how many things I do without praying. I haven't made constant prayer a habit in my life & I realise now how much it's hindered my effectiveness, my sample & what I've been able to accomplish. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why in years past I've had to work so hard in the flesh to accomplish anything for the Lord, & why, as I look back over the years & the way I've operated & the projects that I've pushed & the work that I've been involved with, I feel that so much of it has been such an energy of the flesh. I don't feel that it's been as bad as former years, nevertheless I can see that I've been quite lacking in prayer & close communion with the Lord & desire to stay closer to the Lord.
123. I really feel desperate for the Lord to help me to progress & find the balance between getting the job done, but not being so addicted to the stress & desire to accomplish more & faster & better & quicker than either I was able to before or than someone else is able to. When I first took more of the responsibility for the workload in the East, Josiah was a pretty hard act to follow & my greatest fear was that I wasn't going to be able to produce like HE did or keep the field moving or keep things as exciting & challenged as HE had.
124. The only way I was able to keep up with the pace that he had set was to really push it physically, getting up real early in the morning, like 4:30 & 5:00, having a little devotions all by myself & getting in a few hours of work before other people's day even began. Our secretary told me at one point, "You don't need to worry about whether or not you're able to produce like Jo. We used to worry about JO coming to the office because things would move so fast when he was here, but not any more, NOW we worry about YOU with all your feverish activity!" In striving to produce like Jo did, I overcompensated & put even MORE pressure on people than he had!
125. The field of Japan is known as a field where the pace is quite fast & this seems to be true right on down the ranks through our major Combo Schools & right into the smaller field Homes. It seems quite likely that it's a case of our UNDERSHEPHERDS imitating OUR fast pace & equating accomplishments & production & "busyness" with success or a fruitful service for the Lord.
126. (ENDURETH:) At a recent Delegates' Meeting that we held, we saw the desperate state that some of our undershepherds are in spiritually. I could really see that we have not emphasised the spiritual enough!
127. It seems that what HAS filtered down to our field Shepherds is the need to raise our standard in different areas—the outreach pushes, childcare, teens, finances, taking care of the Nationals etc.—which isn't bad in itself. But what HASN'T seemed to reach them is the emphasis on the spiritual, the Word, their walk with the Lord & training their Homes & their sheep in these areas as well.
128. At this Delegates' Meeting, as they started sharing their hearts & they took time to pray before beginning the meeting, some of them just fell apart, they were so burdened. I felt so guilty because I realised that it is easier for us, the top leaders, to arrange our schedules so we can get away to take time with the Lord, but THEY can't.
129. We have somehow missed pushing the whole vision of quiet time. They were very tired & weary & it seemed like they had been giving out from empty shells for quite awhile, really lacking in a good healthy spiritual feeding. I know that we're to blame for this ultimately, & although we can't go around personally spoon-feeding everyone, if we had only been pushing the spiritual as much or even more as we had pushed in all the other areas, I don't believe that our Shepherds would have been as weary as they were. The Lord would have given them the strength, power & wisdom to do the job & they wouldn't be so burned out & overburdened.
130. (DAWN:) It seems like the Lord's emphasising the need for a greater prayerfulness & connection & link with Him so that we will be closer to Him in the days to come when it's going to be so much more needed, even just for our bare survival & safekeeping as things wax worse & worse. We won't just be able to go on "business as usual" & assume that just because we've always done something a certain way we can continue to do it that way. That is sort of a "peace & safety" attitude toward things.
131. This beginning of making prayer more of a habit in each of our lives will put each of us more in the position of receptivity with the Lord so that if He does want to get through to us about things or warn us or direct us in a certain way, we will have more of a receptive & listening attitude than we might otherwise if this prayerfulness revolution had not come about.
132. (ISAAC:) Realising that it's okay to go slow has been very liberating for me. I found it very difficult to keep pace with some of the other leaders in the past, & I really wasn't able to put in the hours that they did or to jump into a meeting late at night after being in other meetings throughout the day. I would just want to go slow or go for a walk or get some Word time or sleep, as I felt that after a full day's work, by evening time I had usually given it my best & I didn't really have that much more to offer. But as I watched others keep going, I went through trials feeling that, "Well, maybe I'm just lazy or not dedicated enough or just not loyal."
133. Of course, I know I can always be more hardworking & more loyal & more dedicated, & I'm not saying that I've arrived in those areas, but seeing the effect that going at such a breakneck speed has on others has made me feel a lot less worried about going slow now, & now I would really like to keep a good balanced schedule & a good regimented routine.
134. Funny as it may sound, one area that I think some of us can go slower in is in taking time off. With Jo, he would be faithful to take time off & we would decide to do some activity together, but while planning it out he would say, "Let's go between 12:00 & 2:00 p.m. & we can count it as lunch, nap & Get-Out, & therefore we really won't have wasted any time!"
135. I saw that he had a good point, but I thought, "I'm really not very dedicated. I just want to take some time off & I don't think I have to squeeze all three into it. I'd still like to have lunch when I get back & take a nap AS WELL."
136. TTL, I don't feel pressured like that any more. I feel that if the Lord wants me to just take time off, that I can do so without having to count it as so many hours credit towards any other activities, such as nap or mealtime or Word time. And that itself is a real liberation.
137. I know one area I want to develop more is my prayer life, along the lines of LISTENING time when I pray. I bring plenty of petitions to the Lord in desperate prayer & I have a time of praise & thanksgiving, but that time of just being able to listen intently for His still small voice is the area that I want to work on developing the most.
138. (OSHEA:) It seems to me this idea that a good leader is someone who is constantly on the go, always producing & making others produce & that the Lord judges us solely by how much we produce is quite ingrained in the Family. But we know that Dad has said so many times that the MOST IMPORTANT thing is to be in tune with the Lord, to COMMUNE with Jesus, to hear from Him & get our directions from Him. When it comes right down to it, that's the ONLY thing that makes a good leader: Being in touch with the Lord in order to know which way HE wants us to go.
139. Of course, bearing fruit & producing is ALSO a very important part of the Family. We've accomplished a lot, & it hasn't been from just sitting around & doing nothing. But maybe now we'll be a little more balanced. Surely this new "Prayer Revolution" will take the pressure off so that we don't feel like we have to prove ourselves by our accomplishments, instead we'll be able to produce in a more relaxed & enjoyable way for everyone involved. PTL!
140. (CHRIS:) I think this is a wonderful "Prayerfulness Revolution"! It's a wonderful thing to emphasise to the Family, because you know if you get the Family praying more, the Lord will be answering more, everyone will be hearing from the Lord more & we'll all accomplish that much more, be more healthy, better protected, make fewer mistakes & everything will operate much more smoothly.
—"You Can Pioneer Something New Every Day if (When!) You Pray!" (Ml#316b:69)
141. At the Summit '90 we had a chance to pioneer a number of new methods of group prayer that Mama had suggested. Rather than having just one or two people pray long prayers at the beginning or end of every meeting, we experimented with new, shorter & more varied ways of praying.
142. For those of us who have been serving the Lord for many years & for whom prayer is a daily event, the thought of PIONEERING PRAYER might seem rather odd.—Don't we already KNOW how to pray? But we found that experimenting with new prayer ideas made our united prayer times much more fulfilling, inspired, lively & meaningful. Perhaps you'll like to try some of these in YOUR next meetings or even right now in your Home!—Try it, you might like it! You don't have to be limited to doing everything exactly the same way it's mentioned here. If you can make improvements, fine!
143. We received a message from Mama that said: "Maybe we can get the Family turned on to using more WORD in their prayer meetings & having SHORTER prayers. We can have just as long a prayer meeting, but if we use shorter prayers, more people can pray more times.
144. "I'D LIKE TO SUGGEST THAT WE TRY TO TEACH THE FAMILY TO PRAY SHORTER PRAYERS IN OUR MEETINGS & FELLOWSHIP TIMES. When we go around in a circle praying, we should try to limit individuals from praying too long. If some people get too long, you just need to gently remind them & say, `OK, let's try to keep each person's prayer nice & short, keep it to no more than one specific topic each if possible.'
145. "WHEN IN A GROUP, WE ALL NEED TO LEARN TO PRAY SHORTER PRAYERS! So let's spread the prayer requests out more in our meetings, & just assign everyone one topic to pray a little bitty prayer for. You can have just as much prayer that way as if one person was praying one long prayer, but the advantage is EVERYBODY gets to participate. We can ALL pray more for things & everybody can share their heart with the Lord in our meetings. I know it's not easy to break that old long prayer habit, but I think it's well WORTH it!
146. "INSTEAD OF JUST ONE PERSON PRAYING A LONG PRAYER, LET'S HAVE LOTS OF PEOPLE PRAYING SHORT PRAYERS. They're just as good as the long prayers, & what you don't have time to say publicly, you can say to the Lord later privately. Or maybe one of the next people to pray will say it. We need to try to break that long prayer habit, & have MORE people praying SHORTER prayers. Then EVERYONE'S going to be CONCENTRATING more & everyone will CONTRIBUTE more & feel more a part. PTL!"
147. The following are some of the new prayer methods that Mama suggested we try during the Summit '90 meetings. As you'll see from the reactions, these new prayer tips were a real hit!
148. We took turns praying in a circle, limiting each person's prayer to no more than one minute. And sometimes we would have even shorter time limits, such as 30 seconds or even 15 seconds. The time limit kept us from going on & on in our prayers, which can be very boring for others to have to listen to.
149. When we first started pioneering this method, we realised how accustomed we'd become to praying LONG prayers, because at first each of us had difficulty keeping our prayers to under one minute. But, the more we prayed in this manner, the more concise & meaningful our prayers became.
150. If you have many different topics to pray for, you might want to try limiting each person's prayer to less than one minute & going around the prayer circle until all the different topics have been covered. If, after going around the circle once, all the various subjects or aspects of a problem have not been prayed for, you can go around the circle a second or even a third time.
151. For us, this method of prayer proved to be much more interesting than having only one or two people pray for all the prayer requests. This way people only have to wait a few minutes before they get a turn to pray, so naturally everyone was participating more & felt more involved & more tuned in. It made our prayer time come alive, & it was something we all looked forward to.
152. A very new & different method of prayer that we also tried was one-word prayers. For example, we took turns expressing the things that we were thankful for in one-word praise prayers. (Or you can use a short PHRASE of two or three words). You could express your thankfulness by saying one-word or phrase praise prayers such as: "Health", "good weather", "fellowship", "victories", "correction" etc. Likewise, you can make one-word prayer REQUESTS such as: "Strength", "wisdom", "guidance", "inspiration", "protection" etc. It's actually quite amazing how much you can communicate to others & to the Lord in one key word! (Make sure you leave enough time between the one-word prayers to reflect on what each word means so everyone can have a brief moment to meditate on it & praise the Lord together on it. Also, it helps to give everyone a few moments of quiet time BEFORE you start, in order to allow everyone some time to pray about their one-word prayer or thanksgiving. If someone else says the same one-word prayer or praise that you had wanted to say, it seems to work best, rather than quickly trying to think of an alternative, to simply REPEAT the prayer request or word of praise. This seems to help everyone tune in & keep their hearts & minds focused on the prayer or praise session rather than thinking, "Oh, HE said what I was going to say! NOW what should I say?!")
153. As the title suggests, we would pray around in a circle, each person praying a one-sentence prayer.
154. A CONVERSATION is NOT a monologue where only one person speaks, a conversation is where two or more people contribute their thoughts & ideas to the subject being discussed. Well, conversational prayer works the same way. It is a prayer that you build upon.—One person starts the prayer & then someone else adds another sentence or thought on the same subject, as does the next person & the next person etc. You don't have to go around in a circle with conversational prayer; everyone can just contribute as he feels LED, as in a regular conversation.
155. It is very helpful in this method of prayer to have a person who is the "leader" of the prayer. This leader would start the prayer session by a short introductory prayer & then one or two sentences on whatever specific subject he wishes to pray about. If he prays for our children, different people could then follow suit praying SHORT prayers for the children. The leader of the prayer session is the person who determines when the subject has been prayed for sufficiently, at which time he can then change the prayer subject by starting to pray for something else!
156. In conversational prayer you can pray in whatever order the Lord leads. To keep everyone's attention, it's important to keep things moving along at good pace, without too much of a time lapse between each person's prayers. It is not necessary to have a big round of praise between each little prayer. If you wish, you can praise the Lord between each MAIN SUBJECT that is being prayed for.
157. In order to more clearly explain how conversational prayer works, we can use the example of when someone is going on a trip: One person might pray for safekeeping on the way to the airport, the next for a safe flight, the next for the luggage, the next for immigrations, the next against that person catching any disease on the trip etc. And the prayer continues with different people contributing short prayers at random until all aspects of the trip have been covered. Spontaneity is one of the keys to making conversational prayer fun & lively.
158. If you have a situation or a problem that needs to be discussed, or when a decision needs to be made, you might want to try conference prayer. Instead of having a lengthy discussion with each other, with conference prayer you share your thoughts & discuss it with the Lord. To do this, each person takes a turn expressing his feelings, opinions & thoughts on the subject as he prays out loud.—This is like talking to the Lord or having a conference with the Lord, & everyone else who's present also benefits by being able to listen to your thoughts as you express them in prayer.
159. When having a conference prayer session, it is often beneficial to get quiet at the end of the prayer session & ask the Lord to speak through prophecy & confirming verses.
160. When we had prayer for deliverance from our various NWOs, we took turns reading the prayer in the compilation, "The Lord Is My Deliverer". We each read three or four paragraphs & continued reading in a circle until we had finished the entire prayer, READING the prayer as though we were PRAYING it our-selves.
161. There are many prayers throughout the Letters & in Psalms that can be read (& prayed) this way. DV, some compiled prayers on various subjects will be published soon, which will be a great benefit to all of us!
162. Each person takes a turn praying a short prayer of PRAISE & THANKS, thanking the Lord for whatever they choose, however they feel led. During our praise prayers, we even thanked the Lord by faith for things that we needed or prayer requests that had been made that had not yet been answered. This all-praise prayer session had a very uplifting effect & caused us to really count our blessings.
163. These praise prayers can be conducted in two ways:
(1) Everyone can praise & thank the Lord for whatever blessings they feel thankful for, &
(2) Similar to conversational prayer, you can choose a subject & then praise & thank the Lord for the different aspects of that subject. For example, if you're having a conversational praise prayer & one of the topics is the children, those participating might thank the Lord for things like the following: Johnny's new teeth, Mary's victory over talking back, OCs learning the local language, progress in Superworkbooks, good health, supply of new outfits for the show troupe etc.
164. Then when one subject is finished, you can move on to another. In conversational prayers, it usually works best if it is left up to the Shepherd or leader of the prayer session to decide when to change the subject & move on to the next one.
165. Rather than praying in words, we would pray, praise or sing in TONGUES. This was especially fun when we went around the circle & each person prayed in tongues INDIVIDUALLY. (Of course, you would want to avoid putting people on the spot, if they don't feel comfortable about praying individually like this.)
166. "The Spirit Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."—Rom.8:26b.
167. Another interesting method of prayer is to have a minute or so of SILENT prayer. These silent prayers can either be on a particular topic or prayer request that you want people to meditate on, or they can be personal prayers for deliverance in a group. You can also have silent prayer at the beginning or ending of a meeting, or perhaps in the MIDDLE of a meeting when you need time to reflect on what's being discussed. A minute of silent prayer is also helpful if you come to an impasse in a meeting, & you need to all just get quiet together & ask the Lord for His answers.
168. At our meetings, we had two sets of verses that were photocopied on little slips of paper: One set was the "Precious Promises" & the other set was the "Deliverance Verses". (The "Precious Promises" were selected verses from previously pubbed FSMs. A copy of these "Precious Promises" accompany this FSM, & the Deliverance Verses will be printed soon, DV.) We put each set into a small bowl.
169. Often when we prayed we used the "Promise Bowls" so each person could pick a verse to claim in prayer. Some people read the verse first & then prayed, others incorporated their verse into their prayer, & others read the verse at the end of their prayer.
170. There are several different ways to pick your verse: One option is to pass the bowl around before you start to pray so everyone can pick their verse or verses, according to the size of your group. This way everyone has a chance to look at their verse ahead of time. Another option is to get the bowl passed to you right before it is your turn to pray, & then pull a verse & pray spontaneously. You can hold the bowl until you've finished praying & then pass it on to the next person. That way no one is tempted to read their verse while the other person is praying. If you pull a verse that doesn't seem to fit what you're praying for, don't worry about it, just say something like, "Thank You Lord for this verse, I don't know how it applies, but You do." Then go on & pray your prayer.
171. There was no set way of choosing verses from the Prayer Bowls. Some people like to look at the verses & pick out one that they feel is applicable, whereas others like to just close their eyes & take the first verse they pick up. The main goal is just to be able to claim a promise in prayer.
172. It was often quite amazing & inspiring to see how the Lord led & helped us to choose verses that were very applicable to the particular topic we were discussing or praying about. When first pioneering the "Promise Bowls" at Home, Mama said, "We were not only claiming these verses in prayer, but the Lord was also SPEAKING to us & giving us answers through these verses." ("Don't Fear the System", ML#2572:4) At the meetings we had a rather large prayer list to pray for daily so we would often let the verse we chose dictate what we prayed for. We'd pick a verse & the Lord would quicken a subject from the prayer list that was applicable to the verse.
173. When choosing verses, it's a good idea to hold on to your verse until the prayer is over; otherwise, if you put your verse back in the bowl, someone else might end up choosing the same verse again.
174. We kept the two different types of verses separated in different bowls—the "Precious Promises" in one bowl & the "Deliverance Verses" in another bowl—so those praying could pull a verse from the appropriate bowl, depending on the subject they were praying for.
175. In your Home, if you compile verses on more categories, you might want to keep each of the different categories of verses in a different bowl. Or you might want to copy the different categories using different coloured paper, so that it would be easy to distinguish them, & thereby you would only need to use one bowl.
176. Another alternative which is similar to using "Promise Bowls" is for the person chairing the meeting to use a compiled list of verses on a particular topic—such as from the "Word Basics" (coming soon!) or some other such list. He can read a verse & then someone can pray & claim the verse that was read. After each prayer is finished, the leader then reads another verse & the next person prays & claims that verse.
177. After several weeks of trying all these new & different forms of praying, one night we tried having each of our twelve people pray a LONGER prayer, just for "variety". But we were almost sorry we did! With each person praying three to five minutes, it took a LONG time! And after having used the new prayer methods, these long prayers seemed a bit boring. If there were only three or four of us, it would have been okay; but with a larger group, we all agreed that the SHORTER prayers are BETTER!
178. You can try pioneering your own forms of prayer. Don't be limited to the ones discussed above!
179. (LISA:) These different prayer experiments keep us stirred up & out of our ruts. It's exciting! It helps keep prayer alive & meaningful & not so formal!
180. (ISAAC:) These new ideas & techniques for group prayer are really stimulating & make it fresh! I want to convey this freshness & excitement about prayer to all those I meet in my travels.
181. (PHILLIP:) One of the reasons why I haven't been spending enough time in prayer recently is because I feel that I lost that spontaneity in my prayer life. Being here & experimenting with all of these different types of prayer has changed my life as far as prayer goes. They have awakened me & excited me! It's helped me to see what my prayer life should be like: A LIVING relationship instead of just going through formal modes & methods of praying. I need to be open to change & constantly looking for new exciting ways to have a vibrant living communication with Jesus!
182. (CHRIS:) This Prayer Revolution that we're having is one of the most exciting & invigorating changes that we've had in a long time. TYL! It's really helping me personally to perk up my prayer life & I feel like it's breathing new life & meaning into our united prayer sessions. I feel that most of us have gotten into quite some ruts in our prayer lives, especially our united prayer lives. But in experimenting with these many different ways to pray, it's made it fun & fresh.
183. There are so many different ways to pray that you never know what's going to happen from meeting to meeting. The most inspiring thing is that you don't have to be bound by the ways that we've experimented with so far. Every day it seems we're thinking about some new way to pray, something new to try.
184. Unfortunately, I think that we had begun to feel that we were heard for our MUCH speaking. But when Jesus' Disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, the prayer He prayed, the "Our Father", is well under 30 seconds in length. So I guess Jesus was helping them experiment with shorter prayers too! PTL! Of course, we understand that in our personal prayer time we should be having a lengthier conversation & communion with the Lord, but in GROUP prayer, the shorter individual prayers are great! These shorter prayers don't in any way mean less of a connection or less of a communion, instead it seems to make it so much more meaningful, inspiring & uplifting! TTL! I'm really thrilled with this exciting Prayer Revolution! TYJ!
185. (DUST:) I like these new methods of prayer, as it gave new life & a bit of excitement to my personal prayer life, & especially to my public praying. I'm not so very fluent in my public praying, so it's been a real help to me to apply these different techniques.
186. I especially like the idea of passing the Scripture promises around in a bowl for each person to take & then claim that particular Scripture in their prayer. Selecting the verses & having short prayers of a minute or even less seems to be more powerful & effective than some of the longer prayers that we've been used to praying, which often seems to contain a lot of fluff & eloquence. In using this particular method of claiming one Scripture & praying a very short & to-the-point prayer, it seems that more attention is drawn to that one Scripture & that one promise is very powerfully & desperately claimed in those few moments.
187. I thought our time last night when we went around & prayed only a 30-second prayer in tongues was quite precious & really quite beautiful. When it came my turn to pray in tongues, I found that I wasn't speaking in my usual tongues. I found that I wasn't really controlling the tongues that I was speaking & I found in that brief 30-second prayer in tongues that the Spirit was actually really moving me.
188. It reminded me a bit of the time when I first received the gift of tongues & started speaking in tongues & it was so new & exciting & thrilling to have my tongue yielded to the Holy Spirit & to have God's Spirit take over in that way. I thought some of the prayers in tongues that were prayed by others were quite moving & very beautiful.
189. (BILL:) Something that's also been a great help is using the verses that we claim while praying, as it really helps & strengthens the prayer to claim the Word like that. It's also amazing how much one can get out of just one-word or one-phrase prayers, & how much territory it covers. Contrary to what my first impression was, it's NOT SUPERFICIAL, but it's actually quite deep & very meaningful. The LORD understands what we mean when we just have a short prayer like: "Dad", or, "Mama's eyes". It covers a lot & it means a lot to us. By using this short one-word prayer we can go around the circle several times & cover a whole LOT of territory, as opposed to one person praying a long long prayer that covers comparatively little territory.
190. One of the basic things that makes this new way of praying so fun is that it's different every time, you don't get stuck in a rut. It keeps us awake & growing & alive & inspired & not just all hum-drum. I'm really turned on about this Prayer Revolution & I just pray I can continue to keep it up & continue to change & pray constantly.
191. (SILAS:) I'm really thankful for the lessons I'm learning of taking time to allow the Lord to speak almost every single time we get together, & not just on an occasional basis. The way we have been used to praying is sincere, but not with the CONSISTENCY that I've seen here. I pray I can make these prayer principles a part of my life & leadership sample.
192. (DAWN:) My first reaction on hearing that Mama is emphasising short prayers when praying in a group was one of real relief. I'm not much of a talker, & although the Lord has given me real victory in making it easier for me to pray in public over the past years, I believe I've carried the false impression that much speaking in prayer in meetings etc. is equated with spirituality. It goes back to the NWO area of my life of comparing myself with others & feeling a need to match up to the speaking ability of others. Comparing is a dead-end street in any area, but perhaps even more so in prayer.
193. The LORD looks on the HEART, & we've seen together that even in one-word prayers or short phrase prayers such as "health" or "European NASs", the whole need is presented. Not only does the Lord understand our whole request, but everyone listening does as well, since we're all well aware of the needs that we are praying for together.
194. So the emphasis, in fact the restriction, to short prayers of no more than a minute was a real relief & set me free from the self-consciousness & pride of worrying how my prayer appeared to others, so that it's easier to simply tell Him the need, even if it's in very few words.
195. The variety of prayer methods was also renewing & refreshing. It makes prayer time much more exciting & brings it to life more & makes it much more spontaneous as we get out of our ruts.
196. I think many of us have a set repertoire of verses & quotes that we claim in prayer, those that we've memorised from the Set Card or Memory Book, & perhaps a few extras that some of us have memorised of our own volition. So choosing verses to claim out of a bowl has really widened the variety of Word that we bring before the Lord & inspired our faith in all that He has said.
197. It's amazing how many times when passing the bowl around, every verse that was chosen was just right on the mark of the specific prayer request or the need of the individual that was being prayed for. It also cuts down on the credit that any of us may take to ourselves in thinking up a real far-out verse to quote & claim in prayer before everyone, as choosing it out of the bowl leaves it completely up to the Lord, & the only thing we ooh & aah about are the wonders of His Word & not anyone's fantastic memory work.
Copyright 1996 The Family