What a full and fruitful week! I've just arrived back in Malaga after a busy week with the Spanish language coach trainees in the FOCOS (foundational coaching skills) programme. This intensive onsite coaching workshop was the middle part of a one-year training course that equips Christians to disciple or support others in their personal growth by using the skills of "life coaching" - a conversational model that involves learning to listen well and to use great questions to help the client or coachee make measurable progress in different areas of their life or work.
Until now, the onsite workshop has been held every February at the leadership retreat centre in Alhaurín. With the closing of the retreat centre last summer, we needed to find a new location and that's how we ended up this year at a pleasant campsite in the holiday town of Santa Susanna, on the Costa Brava some 60 kilometres north of Barcelona. The sixteen trainees had been receiving personal coaching since last October, and now they arrived from Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil and many regions of Spain to learn and practise the skills needed to offer coaching to others.
The daily schedule was very busy. We were up before sunrise (beautiful sunrises over the Mediterranean - see photo below) and the schedule of teaching, coaching demonstrations and practice times extended throughout the day and into the evening - of course, with the typical long Spanish lunch break (when some of the participants went out to walk on the beach, relax a bit and reflect on what they'd been learning.) The weather was cold in the mornings and evenings, but pleasantly sunny and breezy during the lunch break.
We were two trainers (Patti and myself) throughout the week, but we also had some "volunteers"(three trainees who completed last year's FOCOS and who have been coaching for a full year now.) They helped us observe the new trainees in action, as well as giving morning devotionals and leading the evening communion times. At the end of each evening, we debriefed the day with these volunteers, and sometimes had time to join the trainees for after-dark board games, before all heading to bed to get some rest before the next day began.
Midweek, we took the group on an excursion to Barcelona (a 90 minute trip in train and metro/ underground.) Some opted to visit Camp Nou football ground, home of the world famous Barcelona team, while most of the group opted to visit the iconic Sagrada Familia church in the centre of Barcelona. Dinner in a nearby restaurant allowed all the South Americans to sample a traditional Spanish menu of salad and paella with a glass of sangría. The outing allowed the participants to relax and renew their strength for the second half of the training week.
As we wrapped up the onsite on Friday afternoon, we took a short time to evaluate the week and to make video recordings of testimonies from the trainees. The testimonies were mind-blowing for me. This had been a quieter group with more introverts than in previous years. Suddenly, as we asked for feedback, people who hadn't so obviously been showing great excitement and enthusiasm throughout the week began to give incredible testimonies about how the coaching and the onsite workshop had changed their lives. Many shed tears as they explained how the week - as they were coached by their peers - had helped them find solutions and hope for situations that had seemed impossible to them. They also spoke of how encouraged they were to see that their own skills and understanding had developed throughout those intensive five days. When we concluded with a time of thank-yous, the trainees were falling over each other to affirm the trainers and the volunteers for all we had invested to make the week a success.
Spanish FOCOS is the only time in the year that I have to teach in Spanish for a whole week, and I sometimes feel a bit ambivalent about that. Hearing such moving testimonies of changed lives and excitement for the future makes it all worthwhile, and we could only conclude by giving all the thanks and all the credit to the Lord.
I'm up in the very north of Spain, not far from the border with France. The intensive workshop in foundational coaching skills (FOCOS) will be held next week in a little coastal town about 60 km north of Barcelona. A coaching organisation that we partner with was also planning to run a short training seminar this week, but then they cancelled it due to the low number of applications. As I had already booked my Malaga-Barcelona flights, I decided to use the unexpected extra days to work a bit more on my teaching preparation and to "play tourist" for a couple of days, taking advantage of the opportunity to visit some beauty spots in the province of Cataluña. Montserrat and Girona were the two places that I hoped to see.
Unfortunately, my plans were sabotaged by a huge general strike that disrupted all bus, train and metro transport across the region yesterday. Big political demonstrations were also held in Barcelona, Girona and several other cities. (Something to do with Cataluña's ongoing quest for independence.)
So, after being forced to stay home yesterday, today I decided to take a trip to Montserrat. The name means "Saw Mountain" because of its jagged peaks of sedimentary rock, and it's also the site of a famous monastery and basilica. Although I spent most of the time walking on the mountain top and admiring the stunning scenery that God had created, I also went to a lunchtime church service to hear the world famous Montserrat choir boys singing.
Montserrat is about an hour's train journey from Barcelona. Once you're almost there, a cable car or a rack railway takes you from the river valley up towards the mountain peaks that surround the monastery and basilica. I went up in the cable car, and came down in the rack railway at the end of the day. There's also a steep little funicular railway that takes you even further up the mountain until you are almost literally touching the clouds. Not today, though, as it was a beautiful sunny day with a deep blue, almost cloudless sky.
From the top of the funicular, you can climb even higher on foot, to little chapels where ancient monks spent time in God's presence, and to craggy peaks that afford stunning views for miles around. Then I decided to take the long, winding walk back down the mountain to the monastery/basilica level again. The weather was lovely and there were some great lookout spots along the way, where metal crosses erected by long ago saints were a reminder that the Creator of such natural beauty is also the Saviour who died to bring us into relationship with Himself.
After my long walk down (more than 9 km - nearly 6 miles) the day was drawing to a close, the evening clouds were gathering and the sun was setting. It was time to catch the rack railway back down to the foot of the mountain, and then the regional trains all the way back to Barcelona and onward to the little town where my friends live. It was not long after seven, but was already dark by the time I arrived home. It had been both energetic and restful, a very enjoyable day.
Tomorrow, we'll be busy with the final preparations for the FOCOS workshop and then on Sunday we'll welcome the trainees arriving from all over Spain and South America. Thanks for your prayers as we work with the group over the coming week.
I mentioned in a previous post that Daniel and his three friends were just young teenage boys when they were carried off as prisoners of war. That's what makes their response in Daniel chapter three all the more striking and challenging.
The story is well known: the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, wasn't emotionally stable, and a time came when he set up a huge golden idol, requiring everyone in the land to bow down and worship it. Three teenage boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refused to worship the image, and so the king told them that they would be thrown into a blazing furnace and burned to death.
Young as they were, those three boys spoke out their faith in God (vs 17): "If we are thrown into the furnace, your Majesty, the God we serve is able to rescue us from it." They were convinced that God was powerful enough to do a miracle for them.
However, it's what they say in vs 18 that is even more striking to me: "But even if He doesn't save us, He is still worthy of our worship. We will not bow down to your idol."
Wow! What unconditional allegiance from those teenage boys. They knew beyond a doubt that their God was able to save them, but they were committed to keep following Him, even if He didn't. No strings attached!
How often we hear the opposite nowadays:
"God, if you'll just prove yourself to me, then I'll follow you."
"Jesus, if you get me out of this terrible situation, I promise I'll serve you."
"Lord, if you answer this prayer, I'll believe that you're real."
How presumptuous of us, to think that we can bargain with God and lay down conditions that suit us! We can learn so much from the radical allegiance of those young boys, who were willing to follow God, no strings attached, quite simply because He is God and He deserves our wholehearted allegiance.
Of course, we know the end of the story. God did do an amazing miracle for them.... which led Nebuchadnezzar to recognise and proclaim that, "There is no other god who can rescue like this."
We consider them heroes because of their courage and the miracle they experienced. But I think the real courage was shown in the fact that they loved God unconditionally and were willing even to die for Him.
Yesterday I was reflecting on the place and power of proclamation when we are praying for a person, town or nation. In today's post, I want to consider a second important aspect: the place of identification and confession.
We're still in Daniel chapter nine, where the old man is taking time to pray for the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. Daniel wasn't much more than a child when Jerusalem fell because of Israel's rebellion against God. If he didn't already know that the exile was a consequence of the nation's idolatry and disloyalty to God, he definitely knows it now, after reading about it in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah.
Daniel has been faithful to God throughout his whole lifetime, yet here he takes his place as a Hebrew and prays, "We have sinned and done wrong..... We have not obeyed the Lord our God." Daniel wasn't the one involved in idolatry and injustice, but he humbly confesses on behalf of his ancestors and his countrymen. This is the principle of identificational repentance.
As we look around us, we see nations in turmoil: the disUnited Kingdom, divided by the ongoing Brexit debate, and the disUnited States at war with each other over questions relating to immigration, abortion and infanticide. It could be easy to point the figure and pass judgement, even when we want to turn to prayer. How much more powerful it is if we stand in the gap and make confession on behalf of our town or country. While anyone might pray, "Lord, please forgive America for the recent change in abortion laws," it's much more powerful when an American prays, "Lord, we have sinned by killing millions of babies. Please have mercy and hold back your judgement.
Yes, it's God's job to judge. When we identify and confess, instead of judging, we are putting ourselves in a place of humility on behalf of our nation. It's also a recognition that we do probably share part of the guilt. Perhaps those laws about same-sex marriage would not have been passed in a number of nations if so many in the churches of those nations hadn't failed to speak up or even to pray.
It may seem strange to identify with wrongdoers and confess something that we feel we didn't actually do - especially for those of us in the individualistic western world where the idea of collective responsibility is not a particularly strong part of our culture. We probably struggle with the idea that one man's sin can affect a whole nation's progress (as in the story of Achan in Joshua chapter 7) and it might feel equally foreign to us that one representative of a group of people can stand for the entire group when confessing sin and asking for forgiveness - as Daniel does in this account.
But Jesus set an example for us in the way He showed us that one man, identifying with the entire human race, could take on the sins of the world and bring salvation for those of us who were the true wrongdoers.
This principle is true in human interaction, as well as in prayer to God - for example, if a white, Afrkaaner president were to publicly acknowledge the evils of apartheid, or an Australian politician were to ask forgiveness for the way the Aborigines had been treated in the past. I remember speaking with a young woman who had been badly shamed and abused by school teachers; as a schoolteacher myself (by training) I was able to acknowledge how wrongly she'd been treated, and to ask her to forgive and release those who had hurt her.
But, as Daniel models for us here in chapter 9, it's also a principle of prayer - such as when a native of Las Vegas confesses to God the sins of gambling and greed in their city. It may not feel the most natural aspect of prayer, especially when the principle is still new to us, but we should never underestimate the power of identification and representation when we're confessing and praying for our town, our country or our people group.
As we know, God accepted Daniel's prayers and fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy. He heard the voice of one man (and perhaps there were others) on behalf of a whole nation, and it changed the course of history.
Over the past couple of days, while reading in Daniel chapters 9 and 10, I've been reflecting on different insights about prayer, as demonstrated for us in the life of Daniel. Today and tomorrow, I'll be looking at further lessons to be learned from Daniel's prayer in chapter nine: principles that have particular relevance to how we can pray for our own challenging situations.
As you may remember from Friday's post, Daniel had been reading in the book of Jeremiah and came across the part where it was foretold that the city of Jerusalem would be desolate for seventy years. Daniel immediately turned to the Lord in prayer, and if we look at how he prayed, we discover a lot about how we can pray more effectively for our own town or our nation.
The bottom line was, Jerusalem was in a mess. A post-war disaster zone, it had lain broken down and almost empty for many decades. Daniel himself was one of the casualties of the fall of Jerusalem: as a young teenager, he had been carried off to Babylon as a prisoner of war and had spent his whole life working there as a servant. Daniel could very easily have begun his prayer by moaning, "Why God? Why did you allow such things to happen to innocent children?"
Instead, he begins his prayer by proclaiming the character of God: God is great, just and faithful, always fulfilling His covenant and keeping His promises to those who love and obey Him. (vs 4) He is always in the right. (vs 7) He is merciful and forgiving. (vs 9)
Why is this important? What's the point of taking time for proclamation, instead of simply launching into intercessory prayer? God already knows that He is faithful and just, so why is it important for us to tell Him so?
Well, for starters, it's just the normal way to show appreciation to those we're in relationship with. A parent might know that they're a good cook, but it still means a lot when the family says, "That was a delicious meal; you're a great cook. Thank you very much." A friend might be fully aware that they've gone the extra mile to support us in a crisis, but it still touches their heart when we say, "You have been such a good friend to me. Your help and encouragement have made all the difference." If we naturally express our appreciation to the people around us, why on earth would we hold back from doing the same thing with God?
Does that mean we proclaim God's character so that He can "feel good" about Himself? No, of course not. God is completely secure in who He is; He doesn't need us to reassure Him about it. No, there are two other reasons why it is vitally important for us to speak out who God is.
Reason one: Proclamation has a big effect on ourselves.
Jesus told us that we ask for something in faith, it will be done for us. Yet so often, as we start to pray, we realise that we don't really have the faith for what we want to ask for - especially if it's something that feels impossible to us. Proclaiming God's nature and character will build our faith, reminding us that He is strong and powerful - that nothing is impossible for Him. Declaring that God is merciful and forgiving, and that He wants everyone to be saved, will give us hope for that wayward family member we're praying for. Speaking out the justice of God prepares our hearts to pray to Him about that difficult or unjust situation we're facing.
And, in addition to building our faith, proclaiming the character of God also builds our own character, making us more godly. As a parent, you might rightly accept that it's your "job" to care for your kids and provide for them. You probably enjoy the feeling of being generous to them. And yet we still teach our kids to say thank you for what they receive. Why? Because we want them to grow up to be thankful, appreciative people. Because we're human, we might even feel a little hurt or disappointed if they don't express appreciation for who we are to them, what we give them or do for them. If we expect this from our kids, why would we think that it's okay for us not to do the same thing with God?!
So the first reason why proclamation is important is because it has a huge effect on ourselves:
a) it builds our faith
b) it builds our character.
But there's a second reason why it's vitally important for us to declare out loud the character of God.
Reason two: Proclaiming God's character is a key to defeating our enemy, the devil.
The Bible tells us that when Christians praise and proclaim who God is, the enemy is silenced and has to flee from us (even if those Christians are tiny children - see Psalm 8 verse 2.) This is especially important when it comes to intercession where we want to pray for a situation where the devil seems to have had the upper hand - like when Daniel wanted to pray for Jerusalem, or when we want to pray about the devastation we see in the life of a person, a city or a nation. Praise and proclamation put the enemy in his place, because they put God in His place. This is crucial in the times when the enemy is lying to us, telling us that things will never change or that there's no hope.
So those are just two reasons why it's important for us to speak out the character of God when we come to prayer:
1) it has a big effect on ourselves
2) it has a big effect on the enemy
A plan of action:
So what are we going to do about it? It all very well to see this principle of proclamation at work in the life of Daniel, and other people whose prayers we can read about in the Bible. But how do we really make it a part of our own lives in an ongoing way?
Well, like anything else in life - from playing a sport to playing the piano - we'll never become really good at it unless we set aside time to practise it.
You and I probably want to have more faith, and we probably also want to have more victory over the devil's tactics in our life. Proclamation is a key to growth in both of those areas, so let's be intentional about building it into our daily lives.
For example, you could take just a few moments while you're having your shower in the morning to speak out loud* the things you know to be true about who God is. You might choose to proclaim an attribute of God that you've really experienced in your own life. (You are a faithful God; you have never abandoned me or let me down.) Or you might choose to speak out a characteristic that you're not so confident about, so that your faith can be built in that area. (You are Jehovah Jireh, the God who heals.) You could proclaim different qualities of God every day, or you could choose four or five specific characteristics and proclaim them over and over for a whole week.
Alternatively, whenever you read something in your Bible that describes what God is like, you could stop right there and then and declare it to Him in a prayer of proclamation.
Another time to practise could be when you are busy with a household task - for example, doing the hoovering. Above the sound of the vacuum cleaner, you could raise your voice* and declare different things about what God is like.
There are lots of different ways to do it. The key is simply to have a plan of action and to start right away. It will build our faith and it will put the enemy firmly in his place. And before too long, you'll discover that it has become a natural part of your lifestyle.
* Finally, why do I say, raise your voice and speak out loud ? Can't we just proclaim God's character silently?
Well, yes we can. God is omniscient, after all, and He knows even our secret thoughts. But I'm not so sure that the devil has the ability to know what we're thinking. He's not all-knowing in the way that God is. So if we really want to silence him and scare him off, it could be pretty important to raise our voices and praise/proclaim God's character out loud. I recently saw this photo of a rather unfortunate sign that had been put up outside a church building. Of course, they wanted it to say, "Jesus cares" and not "Jesus scares." But when it comes to silencing the enemy, it really is true that Jesus scares.
A second reason why it could be important to speak out loud, instead of praising God silently is because the Bible tells us that faith comes from hearing the truth about God. (Romans 10: 17) As we declare His character with our own lips, we will begin to see our faith stretch and grow in 2019.
Perhaps one of the things that discourages people from praying in a consistent and effective way is the feeling that their prayers are going unheard... which raises the question: Is there such a thing as unanswered prayer?
The insights in these two episodes from the life of Daniel would seem to suggest that sometimes we think a prayer is going unanswered, when in fact the answer is already on the way.
In Daniel chapter 10, for example, we read that Daniel has been fasting and praying about something for three whole weeks. Then, one day he sees an angel who tells him that God heard his prayer and sent an answer on the very first day that he began to pray. But there was a spiritual battle going on, and the angel who was bringing the answer (see verses 12 - 13) was delayed for 21 days by a spiritual principality that he calls the Prince of Persia. Because Daniel continued to pray, another angel was dispatched to continue the fight, and the first angel was finally able to get through to Daniel with the answer to his prayer.
Wow! Sometimes we are so clueless about what is going on in the spiritual realm! We blame God for the delay, instead of partnering with God in the spiritual warfare that is needed to see victory assured. I often think, what if Daniel had only prayed for a week and then given up? Or what if he had even prayed for 20 days and then thought, "What's the point? This prayer isn't being answered." He would never have known that God had sent an answer on the very first day and that the breakthrough was just around the corner.
I wonder if many of our "unanswered prayers" are simply prayers where we gave up too soon, before the battle was won and the answer had time to happen. We're sometimes so unaware of the spiritual warfare going on around us, and we don't persevere enough. That's why, in the New Testament, Jesus told the parable about the persistent widow.
Similarly, in Daniel 9: 22 - 23, when Daniel has been praying for Jerusalem, he sees a vision where the angel Gabriel comes to give him insight and understanding about why things are taking so long. Gabriel tells him, "The moment you began praying, a command was given...." On this occasion, even though God is already at work, the angel actually explains to Daniel why he won't see the answer immediately.
God is not slow to hear and answer our prayers. Sometimes we don't see the answer because of spiritual warfare, and sometimes it's a question of waiting for the right timing. If we don't have understanding of why things are slow to change, the key is to keep on praying and not give up too soon.
That's not to say that there aren't other factors which affect the outcome of our prayers. The Bible teaches, for example, that sometimes our prayers are not answered because of unconfessed sin or unbelief in our own lives. Or perhaps we're praying for another person, but we don't take into account the fact that God will never force that person or override their free will. So we end up praying for things that God in His wisdom and justice, and in His love for that person, would not do.
But the insights in these two chapters would seem to suggest that sometimes we think a prayer is going unanswered, when in fact the answer is already on the way. I don't want to be the person who throws in the towel on day 20, because I don't know and don't have faith that the answer will arrive on day 21. Let's be people of prayerful persistence, with hearts and minds that are sensitive to the spiritual realities of the world around us.
Daniel chapters 9 and 10 have long been favourites of mine because they give us such rich insights into the process and purpose of prayer. Over the next few days, I plan to reflect on some of the principles we learn from Daniel's experiences in those chapters.
The setting is Babylon, around 550 BC. Several decades have passed since we first met Daniel as a teenage boy in chapter one of the book. In his "quiet time" one day, Daniel was reading in the Word of God, in the prophecies that had been revealed to Jeremiah, and he came across the part which foretold that Jerusalem would be desolate for seventy years. (In fact, he and others had already been in exile in Babylon for more than sixty of those years.)
So what did Daniel do on reading this? He didn't start crossing off the days on his calendar while doing nothing else about it. He didn't sit back and think, "I'm getting on in years now: I hope I'm still alive when the exile comes to an end." No, it says that he immediately turned to the Lord and committed himself to prayer and fasting. He knew that just because something is God's will doesn't mean that we can afford to be lazy or passive and not partner with God to see that prophecy or promise come about. Daniel began to pray fervently for the exile to come to an end and for Jerusalem to be rebuilt and resettled again.
If Daniel did this in a situation where a rough idea of God's timeframe was already known, how much more important is it for us to partner with God in the things where a timeframe hasn't been specified and we can do our part in making it come about more quickly.
For example, the Bible tells us that Jesus will one day come again to take us to be with Himself, and to wrap up world history once and for all. But Jesus Himself said that the end would only come once the gospel had been preached to every nation on earth. (Matthew 24:14 - the Greek word "ethnos" actually means every people group on earth.)
So what do we do about that? We can keep looking on the internet to find out how many unreached people groups still exist this year. Or we can start to pray: praying for workers to go out to the tribes who have never heard the gospel; praying for the Bible to be translated into the hundreds of languages that still don't have any portion of scripture; praying for people's hearts to be softened and their eyes to be opened to the truth of the gospel...
Perhaps we can even go: going to a people group on the other side of the world, or sharing with someone right in our own town who might later be the one to go to the ends of the earth.
The bottom line is: when we know a bit about what God's will is, we'd be foolish and negligent not to put at least some time into praying for those things to happen.
The same is true of any promises or prophecies that we might have received personally. If God has promised that He's going to use us in a particular way, that He's going to provide financially for something, that we're going to be healed of an illness, that He's going to give us that new job, or that a family member is going to be saved... it would be a pity just to wait around and not do anything about it.
The problem perhaps lies in the fact that we sometimes treat God more like an acquaintance than like a Dad who really cares for us. If we're in conversation with an acquaintance and they say, "I'd love you to come over and see our new house. I'll have you round for a meal sometime," we usually leave the ball in their court. We don't go rushing up to them every time we see them, asking, "When can I come for that meal you mentioned? Please, can I come this week?" No, we wait politely, hoping that they really meant it and that they won't forget what they said.
But it's a completely different scenario if a Mum or Dad tells their kid, "I'm going to take you to the beach (or the circus, the football match, the ice cream shop...) sometime." There's no way that child is going to wait around in silence; they're going to keep going to that parent, pleading, "You said you'd take me for an ice cream. Can we go today?" or, "You promised I could get an iPad when I'm older. Can I have it for my next birthday?"
Unless they're in a difficult or abusive situation, children don't hesitate or feel embarrassed to keep asking their parent for the thing that was promised. They don't get tongue tied and hold back because they don't know what to say. They simply keep on asking for the thing they're waiting for... until they finally see it happen.
We need to learn to "plead the promises of God" in that same way. That's what Daniel did after reading in the book of Jeremiah. That's what we need to do if God has spoken something personally or if our Bible reading brings us across something that is God's will for our life or for our world today.
It's not complicated; we just need to do it in the same way that child keeps on asking for an ice cream. That's what it means to partner with God and, like Daniel, to be a world changer in our own generation.
