Acts 3 : 6-7 - Then Peter said, Silver and gold I do not have;
but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and
walk.
And he took him by the right hand, and lifted [him] up: and immediately his feet and
anklebones received strength.
Revelation 5 : 8 - And when he had taken the book, the four beasts
and twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and
golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Revelation 8 : 4 - And the smoke of the incense, [which came] with
the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
hen I was at school (in the
old old days) they
taught us in science about two different types of pump that you can use to pump water. If
I remember correctly they were the lift pump and the force pump. Don't ask me to remember
what each did or what the difference is between them - I don't think I even understood it
then. But I recently found a plastic water pump to use in our large bottles of purified
water and I was curious to see how it worked. I think it is probably a lift pump, because
it lifts the water up out of the bottle. I imagine the pumps that they use to draw water
up from boreholes are similar.
There is just one thing about the pump that is quite frustrating at times. When it has
been standing without use, the water that is in the column of the pump seeps back out into
the bottle, leaving it full of air. This means that if you want to pump water out you have
to first fill the column of the pump by pumping out the air and filling it with water.
Once the column is full of water, the water gushes out with each pumping action.
I began to realize that this is exactly the way it works with our spiritual underground
stream. We have sunk our pipe down into the underground stream, but the water is deep in
the earth. The column of our pump reaches down to the water, but when we try to pump no
water comes out. The reason for this is that we have to cause the column to fill with
water first before it begins to pump out. This is the same concept we looked at last time
concerning 'priming' your pump. You see if the column is full, then it takes very
little action to cause the water to gush forth. But if it is empty there will be a lot of
pumping without any action.
Have you ever gone to the Lord in prayer and found that it feels like He is a thousand
miles away? Well we know that He is not a thousand miles away, because He is in our
hearts. But you see the evidence of His presence that is communicated by the Holy Spirit
is in your underground stream. The presence of God is as far as your pump is from the
water. If your pump is filled then you will see results the moment you start to pump. How
do pump? Well what is the only gate you have through which data can be sent out from
within your spirit to the world? Of course, it is your mouth.
You see there are five gates through which information may be received into your heart,
but it is only via your words and your bodily actions that anything that comes out of your
heart can be sent out into the world. So if you are going to draw water from your
underground stream, you are going to have to 'pump' it out with speech. This is a complete
subject in itself and we will be covering it in tomorrow's Word.
What I would like to see today is how we can come to the place where our pump is
continually 'primed' and the column continually full of water, so that when we need to
draw out it is available immediately. Then I would like to consider how we could also
build up a reservoir that would give a large supply and also increase the pressure. Have
you noticed a windmill as you have driven through a country area? What has happened is
that someone has sunk a pipe deep into the earth to an underground stream. They have set
up a pump on it and they have attached this pump to a windmill.
Now when the wind blows, the windmill turns and it begins to pump water. This would be
a problem if the wind were blowing all the time, because you would keep pumping out water
even if you didn't need it and it would be wasted. So the way to do it is to get the pump
to fill a water reservoir, and when the water level reaches a certain point, the pump
disengages from the windmill. (I think that's how it works). Now you have an immediate
water supply, and when it runs low, the pump starts pumping again with the wind.
What we have here is a beautiful picture of how we should set things up in our
spiritual lives. You start by tapping into your underground stream with the Word. Then you
attach a pump by learning to pray the kind of prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. In what
has become known as the Lord's pray, Jesus taught us to pray by starting out with two
important processes. We start with praise and worship to the Lord - "Our Father who
is in heaven, hallowed be your Name." This causes the water to start pumping up from
within.
If you want to consider the idea of producing a river from a source, you can see a
similar principle here. Our prayers and worship we are told are like vapors rising up to
the Lord. If you think of these as the mists that rise up in evaporation to form clouds,
then the more you do it the more you create 'clouds of blessing' which start to come down
in rain, forming streams that collect to create a river.
The second thing Jesus taught us to pray was, "Your Kingdom Come, Your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven." This statement is not a request but a command. It
should say, "Come Your Kingdom. I command your will to be done on earth." In
other words it is a prayer that takes the water that has been drawn up through praise and
pours it forth into the world, causing God's power to bear upon someone in need or a
situation in this world. It is the release in ministry of that which you have drawn from
within the well of your spirit, from the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Many believers have failed to realize this and think that prayer involves us crying out
to the Lord and then standing back to watch Him rain down from heaven. You need to
realize that what God does in the earth He does through human vessels. You are His instrument in
the earth. You are His hand extended. It is through you that He wants to pour forth His
blessing. And if you expect to be an instrument for His glory, then you will need to
recognize that this can only happen when you have learned to tap the power that is within
your own spirit through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
So what you need to do is set up your windmill and get 'prayed up.' You need to fill
your reservoir by spending time in the presence of the Lord, not crying out to Him, but
drawing out of His resources in you through praise and worship. Instead of coming to Him
with your request, come to Him in adoration. Soak up His glory like someone walking
through a rain forest. Fill up your reservoir until it is so full you cannot take any
more. Now go with that power and give it out to a world that is in need.
When Jesus heard that Lazarus was dying He prayed to the Father to find out what He
should do. At that point He knew that His prayer was answered and He did nothing more than
continue in the presence of His Father daily as He had always done - filling up His
reservoir. When He came to the graveside of Lazarus, he did not cry out to the Father to
raise Lazarus. The prayer He prayed was not for His benefit, but for the people to hear.
But then He took from the resources He had gathered in the presence of His Father, and He
spoke to the dead body Himself. And when He did, that power went out and raised him from
the dead.
Perhaps you are feeling too 'humble' to do something like that. You would rather cry
out to the Lord to help someone when you pray for him or her. But Jesus and the disciples
did not operate that way. Jesus had told them 'freely you have received, freely give.' So
they took what they had received and gave it away. Peter said to the man at the beautiful
gate, "I don't have silver or gold, but what I do have I am giving you." And
that is exactly what he did. He obviously had his windmill in place and had filled his
reservoir. He was already prayed up and could tap that power whenever it was needed.
It's quite simple really. You don't have to make any effort. All you need to do is 'get
in the wind.' The Bible uses wind also as a type of the Holy Spirit. So you learn to let
the Lord move on you by being available to Him at all times. You know then that when you
come into His presence on a daily basis, the wind will blow, and your windmill will turn,
and you will be filled and overflow until you have built up a resource that is available
to meet the needs of others. If you cannot find the time to do this, then not only will
there be no water in your reservoir, but also the column that goes down to the water will
have drained. Then you will pray and nothing will seem to happen, and God will seem a
million miles away.
The decision is yours. The river is there. The Word is there. The pump is there. All
you need to do is put them together and get into the wind. As you do, your life will
change and you will enter into a spiritual dimension that you did not know existed.
