Five Excellent Soul Friendship Questions

 At the end of the month we will be going to Westminster Abbey in Mission, B.C. for our third and final retreat of the academic year. Each retreat has a focus. The first one, “My Soul Within Me,” concentrated on the Breath Prayer and praying lectio  over a Signature Scripture. The second one, “Praying Our Challenges and Triumphs” used the tools to let God do his formation work on us by processing key moments in our lives. This final retreat is designed to give us time and space to develop the Art of Soul Friendship. We introduced Soul Friendship from the first seminar so that by the time of the retreat you would have the comfort of familiarity. You have experienced Soul Friendship now in a variety of settings covering many topics related to your spiritual wellness. At the Abbey we will practice our skills in a monastic setting rich in beauty and tradition.  

I’m excited to share with you what I found in my reading this week. On pages 252-3 of Prayer, Finding the Heart’s True Home, Richard Foster writes about both spiritual friendship and the value of small groups.  On spiritual friendship, he says:               

Some, in their ongoing life in the way of Christ, have found it helpful to seek out individuals who could mentor them in the things of the Spirit. Spiritual Director is the old term for this; others use the term spiritual friend. Personally, I prefer to speak of a spiritual mentor. Spiritual mentors are people gifted in discernment, wisdom and knowledge. Their task is to help people see the footprints of God in their lives and, now and again, to urge them to move in directions they might not go otherwise.   

On small group spiritual  formation:               

One model of Christian community that shows tremendous potential for the future is small group spiritual formation. This is an approach that seeks to provide both nurture and accountability. I… meet weekly with a small group of four whose goal is to help each other become better disciples of Jesus. We do this by means of five questions: …What experiences of prayer and meditation have you had this week? What temptations did you face this week? What movements of the Holy Spirit did you experience this week? What opportunities to serve others have you had this week? In what ways have you encountered Christ in your study of the Bible this week? (Emphasis added). 

What would it be like to have that kind of ongoing spiritual mentorship? Either one on one or in a small group, I love those five questions. Can you see yourself using them in your Soul Friendship visits?

More on Foster's "Authoritative Prayer"

 Last week my notes were from Chapter 21, “Authoritative Prayer” from Richard Foster’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. Foster had more to say than I wanted to share in one posting. This week I want to continue on the theme of “Authoritative Prayer.” For one thing, we will be doing this kind of prayer on Friday of this week from 7:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. at Bethel. Another reason I wanted to include this material now is that it leads beautifully into next month’s seminar topic: healing from the destructive power of inner vows. This will be  presented by Kathy Troll on April 5^th at both sessions. Listen to what Foster says about inner vows:

 “Spiritual warfare is not something we talk about; it is something we do. How do we do it? We do it by breaking all the destructive vows – both conscious and unconscious – that lie over the lives of people. Many have condemned themselves with inner vows of sickness and failure and death. Seeing these things and knowing that it is not good for people to be in such bondage, we speak the word of authority that breaks the curse. Some have curses lying over them from the generations that have gone before: the curse of alcoholism, the curse of mental illness, and more. Whether the curse is physical, emotional, or spiritual, we break it in the name and by the authority of Jesus.

“How do we do it? We do it by taking authority over the sickness of mind and body and spirit. Sickness is an enemy, and we are to fight against it. We speak balance into the phobic and neurotic…We rebuke fevers and choke off the blood supply to cancer cells…

“How do we do it? We do it by coming against every “mountain” that hinders our progress in God. We command fears of all kinds to leave and never return. We stand against evil thoughts and suspicions and distortions of every kind. We bind the spirits of anger, jealousy and gossip and release the spirit of forgiveness and love and faith.


“How do we do it? We do it by demon expulsion. Wherever we find forces of evil at work, we firmly demand that they leave. We are in charge not they.” Emphasis mine.

And with humility we pray all these things and more in the name and in the power of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Join us this Friday as we marshal our forces to go against the powers and principalities. If you are unable to join us at Bethel, will you pray with us and for us in spirit?

Until next week, Trusting Him - Theresa

A Call to Arms!

A Call to Arms! An adventure in Authoritative Prayer 

Next week we are going to spend an evening waging spiritual warfare so I am preparing my heart and mind for the battle. Foster’s material on Authoritative Prayer from chapter 20 of Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home is helping in that preparation. Let me share with you some of what I am learning. This is the kind of prayer where we “use the authority of God to command something done… [the kind that] God uses to invade enemy territory and establish his kingdom” (page 229). I must admit that I approach authoritative prayer with trepidation. Who am I to command anything? When I think of spiritual warfare I mostly think in terms of defense; I put on all this protective gear – this full armor of God. The only offensive weapon is the Scripture – the Sword of Truth. But, Foster reminds us that Jesus gave his authority away, and not just to the twelve or to the seventy. “’Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father’ (John 14:12)” (page 235).  

But! “This is one area that has been horribly abused and misused today…This way of prayer can be extremely dangerous,” Foster warns (page 230). One of the ways to handle this authority with caution is to balance it with compassion. “Authority needs compassion to keep it from becoming destructive. Compassion provides the environment in which authority can function” (page 231).

The powers and principalities are stronger than we are. But not as strong as our God. “For greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).  This comforting thought was also spoken by Elisha, 800 years before John wrote his letter. Elisha assured his servant looking over a vast enemy camp, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16).  

“Ole Hallesby writes, ‘the secret prayer chamber is a bloody battle-ground. Here violent and decisive battles are fought out’ But remember, we are told that the gates of hell cannot withstand the onslaughts of the church (Matt 16:18). The kingdom of darkness goes into full retreat when we take up the full weapons of our warfare” (page 240). We do not go unarmed into this war. 

Stay tuned for Part II on Authoritative Prayer. Meanwhile, make plans to join us as we take up arms against great enemies.  

See you next Friday, March 14^th, from 7:00 p.m.  – 11:00 p.m. in the Fireside Room at

Bethel Baptist Church 2625 Hoyt Ave, Everett, WA 98201

 

Another jewel from page 147 of Richard Foster's Sanctuary of the Soul: "The journey into meditative prayer is a long one. We may be hesitant and unsure that we even want to take the journey. But, in time, something marvelous begins occurring within. … The good rises up. He evil loses its grip. … This transforming work does not happen all at once and not completely perhaps. But it does happen. The old games of manipulation and control begin losing their appeal to us. Guile becomes less and less a pattern of our daily life. A new compassion rises up within us for the bruised and broken and the dispossessed. … We are becoming friends of Jesus."

 

Doesn’t that just motivate you to take a lectio break -  to turn down the noise and be still with God? Just for a while. Just forever.  Pray and be blessed.

An Intense Retreat

Though tired, I am still savoring the sweet taste of our Challenges and Triumphs retreat. What a privilege to sit with you and walk with you (and climb with you, Margaret) sharing each other’s low point burdens. Cedar Springs is beautiful any time of year. Last weekend there was ice on the ponds but the promise of Spring was there in budding rhodies and greening willow whips.

     Not wanting to lose the wonder of the weekend too fast, I took my journal and Foster’s Sanctuary of the Soul to Silver Cup Coffee. To my left, a young woman was reading a Bible and pausing from every now and then to write in a notebook. To my right a young man was describing to a friend his experience of a crucifixion painting that captured him for two and half hours in a London gallery. Across the room, Pastor Dean, from a nearby church, was deep in conversation with an older man. It felt like I was still on retreat, surrounded by people who loved the Lord, and took him with them to coffee.

     I settled in to Sanctuary. Chapter 4 is titled, “Being Present Where We Are.” On page 60, Foster nails why what we do at Awakenings Prayer is so unique. He says,   “The tradition of meditation is long and profound all through the life of the church. But today serious teaching and practice from a Christian perspective is minuscule, if present at all.” Quoting Evelyn Underwood, he describes succinctly what we do: “Christian contemplatives set before their minds one of the names or attributes of God, a fragment of Scripture, an incident in the life of Christ and allow – indeed encourage – this consideration and the ideas and feeling that flow from it to occupy the whole mental field.” He goes on to encourage us that we won’t be alone when we find this difficult. “Most of us live such fractured and fragmented lives that collectedness is a foreign world to us. The moment we genuinely try to be collected we become painfully aware of how distracted we really are” (pages 60-61).

     My prayer for all of you this week is that you would let Christ occupy your whole mental field a little every day and that you always take Him with you to coffee (or tea J).

     Pray and notice the Presence of Christ.

Praying Our Triumphs and Challenges

This weekend at Cedar Springs in Sumas, WA.  the Awakenings Prayer Institute will be enjoying the second retreat of the academic year.  On this retreat we will be inviting our Creator to journey back with us in time to significant moments that shaped our lives.

"...being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6).

Past retreatants have said about this retreat, "bathing hard times in Scripture and prayer is like an antidote to poison.  Contemplating the truth that God has always been there and never left is a healing experience."  Another participant noted that "an amazing transformation takes place during low point processing when the agony of crucifixion turns into the triumph of resurrection."

There is still room for a few more to attend this retreat.  If interested call Theresa at (425) 422-0645.    

Awakenings Prayer Lament & Grief with Michael Card & Celtic Daily Prayer

At the Awakenings Prayer Institute, we have been reading Michael Card's book Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament.  Card says that learning this lost language gives us freedom.  We don't have to be afraid of offending God - He knows about anger, fear, sorrow, despair, loss of hope.  Being granted permission to experience lament, we can move onto healing, "Asking him to place his finger on those scars that need to be offered up to lament" (pg. 151).     

Walking With Grief

Do not hurry

as you walk with grief;

it does not help the journey.

Walk slowly pausing often:

do not hurry

as you walk with grief.

Be not disturbed

by memories that come unbidden

Swiftly forgive;

and let Christ speak for you

unspoken words.

Unfinished conversation

will be resolved in Him. 

Be not disturbed. 

Be gentle with the one

who walks with grief. 

If it is you,

be gentle with yourself.

Swiftly forgive;

walk slowly,

pausing often.

Take time, be gentle

as you walk with grief.

 - Celtic Daily Prayer Reading

from the Northumbrian Community