Nancy Taylor Tate
“Becoming a New Bottle,” by Wade Taylor carries truths close to my heart. In salvation, I have Jesus. But in the kingdom, Jesus has me! There is a big difference between simply knowing Jesus as my Savior, and Him being Lord of my life!
A salvation message is needful and good. It’s our foundation, the beginning of our walk with the Lord. Yet there are people already saved, who are hungry for truths to grow by. These are the folks God has put on my heart.
There is an old Nigerian saying I used to share in my prayer class, “You can’t put a load on a running donkey!” How important it is that we find time to get quiet, that we might reflect on truths being shared, praying into them, that they might become a part of our spiritual experience and who we are.
In his book, Remarkable Miracles, G. C. Bevington tells how someone asked why he would take three days to go out into the woods to pray. They wondered if it took God that long to speak. Bevington’s answer was, no, but it took that long for him to get quiet enough to hear!
Even if it is just one piece of truth the Holy Spirit quickens to you, my prayer is that you find the time to really hear it and let it settle into your spirit, that it becomes a building block from which you can continue to move forward in your walk with the Lord.
Below are a few of the scriptures I’ve prayed into through the years, expressing my desire for more of the Lord and for the spiritual understanding that comes from spending quality time with Him in His presence:
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” Psalm 42:1.
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:12.
And His promise to us, as we “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:14!
“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” Hosea 6:3.
My prayer is that you be blessed and refreshed in the presence of the Lord, as you make a personal decision to spend quality times in communion with Him.
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling…” Ephesians 1:17-18.