Exploring the Power of Prayer: Echoing God's Word and the Art of Christian Meditation

Prayer - it's our lifeline, our fortress, and the most potent weapon in our spiritual arsenal. This episode of Fire Dove with your host, Logan Castle, takes you on a transformative journey into the depths of prayer, exploring its power and significance in our Christian lives. Anchored in Psalm 23 of the Christian Standard Bible, we uncover the art of incorporating God's Word into our prayers. Picture the potency of echoing back to God lines like 'The Lord is my shepherd', as a heartfelt acknowledgment of His providence and protection. Remember, His pillar of fire, His Spirit, and His calling are there to guide you through even the darkest of valleys.

Are you curious about meditation from a Christian perspective? We've got you covered. In the second part of the show, we delve into contemplative prayer and the art of discerning God-sent thoughts and impressions during this intimate communion with the divine. This isn't about emptying your mind but filling it with the presence and words of God. We also peek behind the heavenly curtain to explore the role of angels, God's messengers. Tune in, and let's together strengthen our faith, invigorate our spiritual journey, and foster a deeper relationship with God.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Well, alright, welcome to the show. My name is Logan Castle and this is Firedove. Basically, the entire point of the show is to add to your spiritual formation, and what I mean by that is to build on the foundation of all Christians for what they understand in Scripture, to help them see how the Holy Spirit is continuing to work and, most importantly, helping you hear that still small voice so that you have an opportunity to serve God in the best way possible. And by doing this show, the intent is that you will grow in your confidence, your faith and the great hope that we have in Jesus Christ. In today's episode, what I want to talk about specifically is prayer, because prayer is absolutely the most powerful weapon that a Christian has at their disposal. Why is that? It's because we don't do anything through our strength, but through God, who lives in us. Right, if we're the temple of God, then that means that it's important for us to understand that when we are weak, he is strong, and you've probably heard that before. In today's episode, i wanted to teach you a way to pray that maybe you haven't heard before, and it's a very powerful way to pray as you continue to grow in your relationship with God. For a reference, i tend to use the Christian Standard Bible, the CSB, and I'm going to be looking at Psalm 23.

Speaker 1: 1:23

Psalm 23 is well known. I memorized it in the King James when I was much younger. But for today's reading I wanted to look at this and kind of show you an example of how you can use God's word in your own prayer life while you're spending time with Him and building a new relationship. So Psalm 23 in the CSB says The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. So I'm going to stop right there and this is kind of what I would suggest you consider doing, and maybe some of your personal time as you spend time with God.

Speaker 1: 1:56

So when it says The Lord is my shepherd, you can repeat that back Lord, thank you for being my shepherd. Thank you for calling me your own, pulling me outside of the world and bringing me into your flock. I have what I need, lord, help me not envy anything in this life. Don't let me be distracted with worldly things because, god, i know that you provide everything I possibly need. He lets me lie down in green pastures, lord, thank you for a restful place that you have placed me at this point in my life, that you've brought me to a place where there is an abundance of rain, that there's healthy things going around me, and no matter what season you're in in your life, whatever challenge you're experiencing, just remember that you're surrounded by God's creation and blessing. He leads me beside quiet waters Well, the water typically represents the Holy Spirit in many cases and quiet waters, peace, right.

Speaker 1: 2:45

Thank you for a peaceful place, lord, to have joy beyond understanding, to have an opportunity to just come into your presence, because there I can find rest. He renews my life. He leads me along the right path. Lord, i pray that you renew my life each and every day. God, i ask that you would continue to reveal yourself, your will, everything that you would have, and for me to be on the right path, because, god, that is all I ask. I surrender my entire life to you right now, so that I can be on the narrow path and not the wide path that leads to destruction. It's just for his namesake, so we know that we want our life to point to God and so it's for him, and we're doing this for him and because of our love and forever being thankful for the things that God has done through the cross.

Speaker 1: 3:35

Even when I go through the darkest valley, i fear no danger. Lord, i'm in a very dark place right now, and so, even as I'm speaking in this podcast, i'm in a unique situation where I am in a dark place, and so this part speaks to me. And so, lord, thank you for being there even in the darkest place. Lord, i know that in your Word, when your people were out in the wilderness and they were wandering, god, during the day that they would have the cloud, but at night they would have the pillar of fire. God, thank you for your pillar of fire. Thank you for your spirit, for your calling, for your lead and being the light that I can look forward to, even when I'm surrounded by darkness, when I don't know where to go next. Lord, i know that going to you is always going to be where I need to be.

Speaker 1: 4:19

I fear no danger. God, thank you for not giving me a spirit of fear, but giving me a spirit of peace. Thank you for giving me a spirit of, ah, just calmness, joy, your rod and your staff. They comfort me, and so for a long time I used to wonder about this because it sounded like it was repeating the same thing over and over again the rod and the staff. Well, one of them is the, the hook that you normally see with a shepherd, and it's used for for putting around the neck of a sheep and and either pulling them in a direction they need to go or leading them in the direction they should go, while the staff so that's the staff, and I believe I could be getting this mixed up but then the rod is used for offence, it's for defending the flock, so that the shepherd would have both, because now you know that God is both leading you and you know that God is defending you and you're in camp right.

Speaker 1: 5:10

The spiritual warfare that we experience in our own lives, that God is for us and he is good and says they comfort me because, god, i've surrendered my life to you. I thank you that you've given your word, thank you for the opportunity to share it with other people. It says you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, and what is that So? in the Jewish culture, one of the most intimate things that you could do, and even in our culture today, is if you really want to get to know somebody, what do you do? You bring them over and you have them share a meal with you, and that's where you really get to know people in a more intimate, personal way, and that's exactly what's being captured here by David in this Psalm. He's talking about how you prepare a table for me. That means that I am with God and he has invited me to his table and to his place. So thank you, lord, for bringing me to your table. Thank you for what your provision is and just the blessings all around me.

Speaker 1: 6:06

In the presence of my enemies, i mean clearly, lord, we know that there are people that are against me and against you. More importantly, in this world and, lord, i pray for the blessing of my enemies, that they would see the truth, that they would see life and they would see that the best place they could possibly be would be to not be an enemy but to be at your table sharing in communion. You anoint my head with oil and my cup overflows. Thank you for your anointing upon me. Thank you for just giving me words of wisdom, for speaking prophetically through me, lord. Thank you for the people in my life, the situations you led me through. Thank you for filling me, lord.

Speaker 1: 6:43

I empty my desires and I surrender all of them and I give them to you, god. I give all my desires to you and, lord, i ask that you would fill me, that your spirit would fill me and be upon me in power and might, and that I would not be distracted with anything else of this world. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life. That's prophesying over yourself. So only goodness and faithful love will pursue me. Lord. Only let good things continue to happen to me. Thank you for your blessings and thank you for your love, god, thank you for your perfect, agape love that just beyond my understanding as a human being. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live, and so remember that living is an important. It also has the eternal application to it, because when you look at life, eternal life is what we are versus. Whenever you see death, especially in the Old Testament, it's speaking of being damned and going to hell. So we see the difference of I will live with the Lord as long as I live, for all eternity. So in this life and in eternity future, we know that God has us, that we belong to him and we thank you for his provision in this life as he leads us, so that maybe that gives you an idea.

Speaker 1: 7:59

One of the principles that you need to do is it doesn't have to be a psalm. While a psalm might be an easier application, it doesn't matter where you're reading in the Bible. You can use God's words, and they tend to be better than our words when it comes to praying them back to God, because they have so much power, because they're inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so you know you might read something as is crazy. And then they slaughtered them all, because I remember this one time, when I was a camp counselor, i did the thing that I think a lot of us have done before and I was like all right, god, if you're going to speak to us, we're gonna, we're gonna play Bible roulette. And so I just flipped to a random page and put my finger down and I asked one of the students to read what was on it and it literally said and then they slaughtered them all and I'm like, oh, you have such a humor, god, such a sense of humor, because I was like that that might be the worst sentence I could have possibly ever imagined to come out of a young person's mouth while I'm trying to minister to a group of campers.

Speaker 1: 8:53

But you can take the stories that you see and the events and the historical parts of scripture and it says and then they slaughtered them all. And then you can say well, thank you for not slaughtering me, thank you for sparing me for your judgment being poured out upon your son and not upon me. Thank you for your provision, for your peace and for being a daughter or son of God. Thank you for your adoption into the kingdom of God. Thank you for your presence, so you can take things that you would normally look at and say, oh, i don't know how to do that. Always consider the opposite. If it's a curse, then look at the opposite instead of not sitting with the wicked Lord. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to stand with the righteous, and you truly don't have to speak in the way that I do Use your own words, and it's a condition of the heart, but when you're pouring out to God and you're focusing on him and you're just wanting nothing more than his presence to fill your room and for the Spirit to lead you in this time and for him to speak to you.

Speaker 1: 9:53

This is a great way to do this, for part of your time is to just simply focus on the word, and you know, as Christians, we are called to meditate on the word. What's important is to remember to meditate in the Christian sense when we're defining our terms. Meditating means to be focused and intentional and thoughtful about what we are doing. You know, in a more Eastern Hindu type tradition, meditation is emptying your mind, right, and we don't want to do that as Christians, because if we're doing that, then we're being susceptible to things outside of us, and we'll get into that more in future episodes.

Speaker 1: 10:30

It may not be God talking to you. It could either be the flesh or it could be, you know, an evil spirit of some kind. It's unlikely that it's an angel, because angels are messengers That's what the word angel means. And so they come, they share the message and they leave, and that's exactly what we see them do in scripture. So angels, don't just wander around and put thoughts in your head. That's not really what God is Design them for.

Speaker 1: 10:51

And so, as you're meditating on scripture from today and going forward, take this technique and find ways that God can use it and develop you, because your spiritual formation, as in becoming sanctifications, is another big word for it. Basically, what does that mean? Becoming more like Christ, because you're already with God and attorney, you are made in a trinity just like God. If you're an image barrier of God, and because of that, that means there's a part of you that's already in heaven, your mind is being restored each and every day to be more like Christ as you press into your relationship with God and then ultimately, your body will be restored in the second coming or when it's glorified at some point in the future. So your body, if you're being honest, is probably not getting better each day. After you get past your peak years, your body starts to deteriorate and it starts to have more problems and hurtens. There's a lot of things that go into that, but from a spiritual sense, our body is slowly failing us.

Speaker 1: 11:53

So part of us is with God, part of us is in the process of becoming more like his mind and our bodies will ultimately be glorified so that they can be with the Father in eternity future. So we have eternity past, we have the present and we have the future, and when you keep an eternity mindset all the time. It's really helpful because when you look at the challenges that are happening maybe in your own life right now, it's a lot easier to just be like man. These things are just, they're not going to matter in the future, and I know that's hard if you've lost somebody or if you've lost your job or there's challenges in this world for sure. But just know, a thousand years from now, if you belong to Jesus and you belong to God, then you're probably not going to even worry about what's going on today And having that mindset can be helpful. There's more that goes to it than that, of course, but this is just an introduction, a taste of what FireDove is going to have as far as content.

Speaker 1: 12:54

I'm looking forward to spending time in the word with you, encouraging you, teaching you some big words. Maybe you can impress your friends. It's not really that important, but the concepts and the heart and how to truly pursue God and walk in holiness and how important that is for each of us. Because everyone around you is watching. Non-christians are watching you and what is the biggest hindrance that most of them tend to have when it comes to wanting to ever go to church in the first place, they're like oh well, it's full of hypocrites. Yeah, every single Christian is a hypocrite because we have a standard that is unachievable, but it doesn't mean that we don't try each and every day to live more and more close to our father in heaven. So I hope you have a blessed day. Thanks for listening and I will see you soon.