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When the Answer to Prayer is Bigger than our Brains [Excerpt by Mark Batterson]

 

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(Excerpt from The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson.)

One day, I was praying for God's provision when I felt a prompting to pray for a $2 million miracle. The first thing I had to do was decipher whether this prompting was just my own desire to be debt free or whether it was the Holy Spirit who dropped that promise into my heart. It's tough to discern between natural desires and holy desires, but I was about 90 percent sure it was the Holy Spirit who put that promise in my heart. I had no idea how God would do it, but I knew I needed to circle that promise in prayer.

I love the ending of the book of Daniel… In his final vision of the book, he asks the question that all of us want the answer to: "My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?"

Well, God always answers, but it's not always a straight answer. This certainly doesn't mean it's not an honest answer; it just means it's far too complicated, with infinite twists and turns, for our logical left brains to comprehend. …

 "Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end." [See Daniel 12:1-13]

 

He's never early. He's never late. When the time comes … the prayer will be unsealed and the answer revealed.

I realize this specifically references the prophecies given to Daniel by the Holy Spirit, but I also believe there is a universal principle in this passage. Our prayers are prophecies, and God Almighty seals them until their designated time. He's never early. He's never late. When the time comes … the prayer will be unsealed and the answer revealed.

 

Natural World vs. Supernatural Prayers

At some point, our spoken words cease to exist because they are subject to the law of entropy. Our spoken words, aka sound waves, run into friction and run out of energy. 

PSM_V13_D058_Sound_waves_1

Our words fade from hearing, but God keeps our prayers.

Our prayers, however, are sealed forever. Our prayers never cease to exist because … the supernatural laws of prayer defy the natural laws of time and space [including the law of entropy].

 

What God Can Do with Four Words

While it's impossible to trace the pinball path of a single prayer, our prayers somehow exit our four dimensions of space-time in order to get to the God who exists outside of the four space-time dimensions He created when He said, "Let there be light." Our prayers don't dissipate over time; our prayers accumulate through eternity.

 

According to the Doppler Effect, our universe is still expanding. The significance is this: The four words that God spoke at the beginning of time, "Let there be light," are still creating galaxies at the edge of the universe. If God can do that with four words, what are you worried about? There is nothing He cannot do. After all, He created everything out of nothing.

 

His words never return void. Neither do your prayers when you pray the word of God and the will of God. The same God who hovered over the chaos at the beginning of time is hovering over your life, and you never know when His answer will reenter the atmosphere of your life. But you can know this: The Lord is watching over His word to perform it…

- Mark Batterson


A thought for the road: The final verse in the book of Daniel reads, "As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance." (Daniel 12:13)

What's one way you can choose to 'go your way till the end'?

 

 

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 -Adam Forrest, Zondervan

 

(Images & some styling above are web-exclusive features not included in the text of The Circle Maker… Image attribution: Sound waves | Date = 1878 |Author = Unknown, Scientific American Monthly |Permission = {{PD-old}}, via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

 

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Failure’s Not Fatal: The Latest Chapter in God’s Good News [Excerpt by David Garland]

 

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(Excerpt from NIV Application Commentary: Mark [eBook] by David E. Garland.)

 

God is a God of beginnings. The good news of Mark is that God begins again with the chosen people by sending his Son.

At the end of the Gospel … things look far more gloomy. The women slink away from the empty tomb and are mute from fear [See Mark 16].

 

The empty tomb

They thought the story was over. Instead they found an empty tomb, and a new part to play. See Mark 16.

Failure, denial, and fear are not the end of the story, however. When things seem to end, there is a new beginning. The gospel is good news because one can begin again.

 

God is the one who consistently makes something out of nothing.

One may wonder how these discredited disciples could ever emerge as leaders of a growing church and fulfill their mission, but we know that their failure was not fatal. Neither is ours. God is the one who consistently makes something out of nothing. What seems like the end, and a pathetic one at that, is only a new beginning. God will continue to work with and revive the people.

 

Mark makes it clear that "the church exists because of what God has done in Christ, not because of any outstanding abilities in its first members." The gospel proclaims that the one "who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6)…

 

How will we continue the story?

Christianity is not a closed book, and Christian readers are the latest chapter in a continuing story of God's good news. The question for us is … the same as it was for those early disciples, "Where do we go from here?" The next stage is up to us. How will we continue the story? Will we cower in fear or boldly proclaim the glad tidings of Jesus to the world?

 

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Question for Discussion: Did the first disciples have any advantages over us in sharing the gospel? Do we have any advantages over them? Leave your comments on this post.

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan


(Images & some styling above are web-exclusive features not included in the text of NIVAC Mark eBook. Image attribution: From "An Illustrated Commentary on the Gospel of Mark" by Phillip Medhurst. Section Z. the empty tomb. Mark 16:1-8. By Philip Devere [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

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The Legend of the Circle Maker & History-making Prayer [Excerpt by Mark Batterson]

 

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(Excerpt from The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson.)

It was the first century BC, and a devastating drought threatened to destroy a generation — the generation before Jesus. The last of the Jewish prophets had died off nearly four centuries before. Miracles were such a distant memory that they seemed like a false memory. And God was nowhere to be heard. But there was one man, an eccentric sage who lived outside the walls of Jerusalem, who dared to pray anyway. His name was Honi. And even if the people could no longer hear God, he believed that God could still hear them…

With a six-foot staff in his hand, Honi began to turn like a math compass. His circular movement was rhythmical and methodical. Ninety degrees. One hundred eighty degrees. Two hundred seventy degrees. Three hundred sixty degrees. He never looked up as the crowd looked on. After what seemed like hours but had only been seconds, Honi stood inside the circle he had drawn. Then he dropped to his knees and raised his hands to heaven. With the authority of the prophet Elijah, who called down fire from heaven, Honi called down rain:

“Lord of the universe, I swear before Your great name that I will not move from this circle until You have shown mercy upon Your children.”

 

History belongs to the intercessors. -Walter Wink

The words sent a shudder down the spines of all who were within earshot that day. It wasn’t just the volume of his voice; it was the authority of his tone. Not a hint of doubt. This prayer didn’t originate in the vocal chords. Like water from an artesian well, the words flowed from the depth of his soul. His prayer was resolute yet humble, confident yet meek, expectant yet unassuming.

Then it happened.

As his prayer ascended to the heavens, raindrops descended to the earth. An audible gasp swept across the thousands of congregants who had encircled Honi…

 

It began to rain calmly, peacefully. Each raindrop was a tangible token of God’s grace. And they didn’t just soak the skin; they soaked the spirit with faith. It had been difficult to believe the day before the day. The day after the day, it was impossible not to believe.

Eventually, the dirt turned into mud and back into dirt again. After quenching their thirst, the crowd dispersed. And the rainmaker returned to his humble hovel on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Life returned to normal, but the legend of the circle maker had been born…

 

The legend of the circle maker had been born...

Image by Chris Sampson (051111-050 CPS Uploaded by Ultra7) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

 

[History-making Prayer]

[Honi] knelt down in the circle he had drawn. And that’s all it takes to change the course of His-story. In the words of theologian Walter Wink, “History belongs to the intercessors.” …

 

Never underestimate the power of one prayer circle… When you draw a circle and drop to your knees [it] changes the forecast of your life. It’s always cloudy with a chance of quail.

 

You can’t fell a fifty-foot wall, but you can march around Jericho… You can’t make it rain, but you can draw a circle in the sand.

 

When you draw a circle and drop to your knees… it’s always cloudy with a chance of quail.

Don’t let what you cannot do keep you from doing what you can. Draw the circle. Don’t let who you are not keep you from being who you are. You are a circle maker.

 

Don’t attempt this by yourself. Israel had an army. You need to invite others into your prayer circle. Together you will form a prayer circle. And when two or three agree in prayer, double circling their God-ordained dreams, all bets are off.

 

 

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(*Images above are web-exclusive features and are not included in the text of The Circle Maker… This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer’s personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

 

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Winter of the Soul: 5 Insights for Traversing Tough Seasons

 

On the dark seasons of our hearts:

1. Winter shames those in it. It feels like personal failure, something we've caused, or missed, or faltered in. We chide ourselves for being there. We're sure it’s our fault. We wonder if we're crazy, lazy, stupid.

 

2. And then God gave me insight: this was winter. It would end, in time, but not by my own doing. My responsibility was simply to know the season, and match my actions and inactions to it.

 

3.  [My responsibility in winter] was to learn the slow hard discipline of waiting. It was my season to believe in spite of—to believe in the absence of evidence or emotion, when there's nothing, no bud, no color, no light, no birdsong, to validate belief. It was my time to walk without sight.

 

4. Winter grows pure faith. It grows almost nothing, but it grows biblical faith like no other season can. It combines the unique conditions that nurture the certainty of things hoped for and the assurance of things unseen.

 

5. Do not forget in the night what God has shown you in the day.

 

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These quotes are from Spiritual Rhythm: Being with Jesus Every Season of Your Soul by Mark Buchanan (markbuchanan.net).

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- Adam Forrest, Zondervan

 

(This post does not represent the official view of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's opinions are their own, and are shared for information purposes only. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 


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Plan B: My Secret Terra Cotta Army [Excerpt by Mark Hall]

 

 

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Mark Hall, leader of the band Casting Crowns, tells the peculiar-but-true story of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and his plot to cheat death, in this excerpt from Hall's recent book The Well: Why Are So Many Still Thirsty?

 

Our Terra Cotta Army: From The Well by Mark Hall

Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of China, but he came to power as king of his province at age thirteen because his father died on the throne…

Qin was more than precocious. He is credited with unifying China into the massive empire it is today and was the force behind weaponry, architecture, and construction inventions and expertise still in use.

As profound a life as Qin lived during eleven short years as emperor, he remains most intriguing because of his death — or how he prepared for it. [In 1974] local farmers near Xi'an unearthed three gargantuan pits now housed in an underground building the size of an airport hangar.

In these pits are more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, and 670 horses. They're not the remains of his real army; they're the six-foot-tall sculpted figures in his make-believe army.

image from zondervan.typepad.com

Image by Maros Mraz, via Wikimedia Commons.

China's first emperor went to his death and was buried with his terra cotta army. Terra cotta, as in the clay pots we use as planters for flowers…

Some say he was a good person; others say he wasn't the best guy in the world. But for history's sake, he at least unified China and created a central government that had never existed. He morphed six languages into one. He created a universal currency
that China used even into the twentieth century. We're not talking about a brawny, mindless beast; we're talking about a brilliant, talented man… Qin [even] began work on [the Great Wall of China!]

I share all of this to pose a question. How did such a genius reach the point of making something as useless as a terra cotta army — a veritable sea of carved statues?

We should know. We do it all the time.

 

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