Burden of the Lord

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:22-27, NASB)


REFLECTIONS:
In this passage, the Apostle Paul is giving us an example of the earth, our bodies, and our eventual salvation from this life into eternal life, and all that Jesus has promised us of paradise, is not yet complete.  You can almost feel the struggle to reach for what is yet to be.  The knowing that “it” is out there just beyond our reach.  Faith has secured it for us through Jesus.   We wait with perseverance that it will surely come because Jesus has promised it.  It feels heavy… like a burden, questions arise, yet you believe it is doable by the Spirit of God.  It is almost like seeing a horse or donkey straining beneath a heavy load to move forward.  As faith grows, the burden becomes lighter.  Until through faith you have struggled through to the place where you know it is in your hands, yet you can’t see it.   It is unexplainable but you know something is different.  You have come to full faith in believing that salvation and eternal life is a certainty.  Your faith is complete, no more struggle; you know it exists “inside”.  You can feel it and no more questions arise about it.  You have it… forever.

From verse 26 on, we see that all the things given as an example in the above passages is driving home a truth in verses 26-27.  In this same way the Spirit carries our weaknesses and prayer deficiencies for us while we try to put into words and feelings what we should pray for.  Have you ever felt “heavy” over something happening in your life or someone else’s life and you just don’t know what or how to pray for it because it is so BIG.   That is called a prayer burden.  God has given something to you for a time to enter into what the Spirit of God is saying and feeling about a matter.  Jesus is determined to have us enter into the work of the Kingdom WITH Him.  Even praying for things we really do not know much about.  How do we do that?  First we have to quiet ourselves long enough to hear what God is saying about something or just go with the heaviness and pray with words or tears or groans or whatever you feel deep “inside.”  For myself, I have the gift of speaking in tongues, so sometimes I just spend some time praying in tongues by myself and I will get a “word” from the Lord, or as some of the old time holy rollers call it, I will go into “travail” prayer.    Tears come, and no amount of trying to stop them will help.  You have just been “plugged” into the Spirit of God to “carry a burden” for a short time about something you may know about or not.  Once I had understood what this was, the Lord would have me carry “burdens” for short times.  Sometimes he would let me know what it was and sometimes it would pass and I would not know what it was about.

An example to illustrate what I mean… One day I was mopping in my kitchen, alone.  All of a sudden I just had a sense that something was terribly wrong.  I sat down for a minute and weeping and almost a punch in the gut feeling ensued.  I knew it was from the Lord, as I had done this before, but not quite as intense.  After about 30 minutes I was OK again.  About an hour later, my husband Barry called me and he was in a car wreck and it totaled the car, but he came out without a scratch.  Wow!!  What if I hadn’t prayed?  What would have happened if I had just brushed the feeling off?  It was a miracle he wasn’t hurt.  A woman had not stopped at a red light going full speed and hit a car in the intersection and then hit Barry’s car head-on in the left turn lane… nowhere to go to get out of her way.  I really believe God spared him from being seriously hurt or even killed.

I had another intense example of this in 2001.  Some of you remember Rocky and Janice Ivy, as Rocky was Worship Leader here at PRF for a while.  The three of us went to a conference in Colorado and did some site-seeing along the way there.  When we got to the cabin we would be in for the next few days I noticed that it was at the base of a huge mountain.  As soon as I got out of the car, I heard the Lord say “you will go to the top of that mountain this weekend.”   So, with all of us out of shape to say the least, this became the joke of the weekend as well.  The conference went well and a local woman we met there told us that if you go around the backside of that mountain, there is a road that will get you almost to the top, so that was enough incentive to get us to at least explore the idea of going up there.   So on Sunday, the day before we were to leave we went to the top of that mountain.  You could see many mountain ranges from there… it was beautiful.  Rocky brought his guitar and we began to just worship and thank God for the trip and his loving care for us.  All of a sudden I was gripped with FEAR, just terrifying FEAR.  I began to cry and ache on the inside.  I knew this was God and he was up to something.  Rocky and Janice began to pray as well.  I have never ever or since been in such a state.  All I could do was cry out for MERCY, MERCY.  I had the sense that the enormity of the thing was incredible.  Uncomprehendable… This went on for about an hour.  It began to subside and we all were pretty shaken by it, but we went back to the cabins that night to prepare to go home the next day.   We even talked about staying another day because of it and that we might get some more revelation about it.  But I felt that we needed to get back home.  We got back into Austin at 11:30 pm, and woke up the next morning to two planes plowing into the World Trade center towers… we knew what the prayer was all about then.  We had cried out to God for Mercy over this situation.  While many needless lives were lost, it was a miracle that the building was not yet full.  That building usually held many thousands of people.  I am still humbled, by this and I still get a little shaky thinking about it.  I now know that there were many who were praying, not just us.  Since that time… I have never tried to shake off anything that I thought the Lord wanted to do through me.  The same goes for you… he is no respecter of persons… he can use you just as powerfully… you just need to make yourself aware of his movement in you… groans, tears or whatever or however the Spirit moves you… just go with it.  It may change the course of History.


POINT OF ACTION:
Right now there are so many changes and dangers in our world going on that we are in a time where we need to be available to the Lord as much as possible… for that person who needs something… for the Holy Spirit to pray through you for countries and political situations… for someone’s words of salvation… you are what he saved to spread the Kingdom message. You are his partner… LISTEN.


PRAYER:
Lord, SLOW MY LIFE DOWN to hear your voice, see what you see, feel what you feel, pray what you want to pray, do what you want me to do, go where you want me to go.  Lord I am so humbled that you would use a nobody like me to do your Kingdom’s work.  I know you care about EVERYTHING that happens in this world.  I pray you make me aware of what is important to you that I might be your servant that expresses your heart every minute.  Thank you God for your Great Love for us and your minute by minute care.


WHO AM I?
I am June Criner, and a couple of winters ago we had some palm trees that froze and have since removed them.  We are replacing them with some new trees.   Here is one of them.  I just love spring… new everything.  I pray that God will do some new things for you this season!  Some incredible Holy Spirit surprises!!!