Productive Groaning

In our Family of Faith right now Jesus is doing many things in many different realms of our ministry. There is a God Atmosphere right now in small groups for adults, student(youth and college), and children that I have not experienced since I have been called here almost three years ago! The Lord has placed a sense of urgency in my heart to assist in bringing an age appropriated dynamic to all of our small groups so that true Spiritual and numerical growth can become reality through a solid and sound platform of relevance from God’s Holy Word that  can be dispersed to all of our age groups. 

People of all these categories inside our body are stepping up and serving where the Lord is instructing them to, and people from the outside of our church who have been in an environment of faith that they feel was going against what God’s Word teaches, or have been washed up on the banks of Spiritual hurricane through church split or dissension, or from just scars that sometimes come from serving the Lord even in His Church! I know that’s hard to believe right?

 With that being said I have often been advised by several of my Spiritual mentors that when prayer should be the most intense within the Body of  Believers, for the Body,  is when You as a Body are having mountain top experiences! When I was told that for the first time I looked at the Man of God that Christ had given to me to help shape and mold and nurture me in the Faith and almost laughed out loud! I was like, WHAT? Ha ha! Yeah right? After about five years since that “Gold Nugget” of advice, I have come to know that he was right!

With all that Christ is doing in and through us right now we are prayerfully seeking another staff position to come along side of me and under-shepherd our student ministry. Since June of 2009, when our student pastor was led to another church field,  we have been following the leadership of the Holy Spirit as He leads us and guides us in this process! You can only imagine, especially if you are reading this post and are a pastor or you are married to a pastor; that we have experienced several ups and downs in this search because of this position being unfilled!

However, one of the most amazing things that I have seen has taken place in this spiritually tiresome and rigorous process! Christ has assembled a team of student small group leaders in our youth department that have been phenomenal! A sold-out,humble, faithful, and very excited group of Spirit led men and women who have been called to service by the Lord to assist(by teaching them the Word of God) and serve our youth even after the Lord provides us with a point leader in our youth department! Now that ’s awesome! Usually it’s like pulling teeth to get anyone to volunteer to  follow Christ by being obedient to Him in the calling He has for them! So that’s another  awesome “God”  thing to add to our Spiritual mountain top experiences.

To get to the point of this post though, I must say that it has been hard to know what to pray? As followers of Christ we know that we have been called to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him; right?(Luke 9:23)  That comes without saying! Duh! We are followers of Christ! This(Truly Following Christ) can only be done though by allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us in mind, heart, and spirit, and in body! Alot of times instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to burden us with what we should be praying for, we take it upon ourselves and pray what we would like to see happen! I cannot find anywhere in the Word of God where we are instructed to pray that way.

Jesus always prayed that the will of Father God would be done, so that He may be glorified through the Son because that was the intentions of the Spirit of God in Him!(John 13:31)  In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ prayed, “Father not My will but your will be done!”- (Luke 22:42)- right before the Roman guards were about to seize Him and He was to  fulfill the perfect will of the Father that would completely and wholly bring about Redemption and Salvation to all who would believe and follow Him with their lives-The Cross!  So, with all of that said, we as Christians know that we should allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what prayer concerns should be made priority, and how we should pray!

 But sometimes, just sometimes we don’t know what to pray or say(which is what prayer is by the way! just talking to God through Christ the Great High Priest, our Mediator) to Him! The  Apostle Paul instructed us on this topic or in our case a real life dilemma in our spirit! He said, 26 “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with GROANS  that words cannot express. 27 And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”- (Romans 8:26-27)

As we continue to live on this side of  Heaven and await our future Hope, Christ Jesus our Lords return, we can only hope for what we have not seen, and that is the basis of our undying faith in God. We are looking for Him to come and glorify His creation, and for all eternity wholly transform them into the “Sons of God!”  As we serve and wait for Him to return for His Church and His children, it is our Hope that sees us through all the trials and temptations and weak moments that arise! Hope, keeps our focus on the things of Heaven and the Lord Jesus until that great Day! Previously in the passages before this one the Apostle Paul said just as we wait on our glorification, on the future Hope that is coming for all who believe , the Holy Spirit helps us in our weak moments when we don’ t know what to pray! He intercedes on our behalf when we just can’t get the words out  to our Lord and God, audibly or just from our hearts cry! Finally he says that He- (God) who is always searching our hearts, also knows the mind of the Holy Spirit, and He knows that His allegiance is totally pledged to fulfilling His complete and perfect will!

 Wow! that’s a  comforting Truth! When we don’t know exactly what to say God in prayer on any topic or situation the Spirit of God in us GROANS or utters the very words that need to go up to Him, and it will be according to His will because the Holy Spirit only has one agenda! To bring Glory, Honor, Praise, and Pleasure to God our Father! Groaning has never been a personality trait that could ever be expressed in a positive light the way we as human flesh moan, groan, and complain, but the  petition that He (The Holy Spirit)  makes to the Father will always be productive,where alot of times ours will be counter productive! Something to entertain and ponder from God’s Love Letter to us- The Holy Bible!

In the Name of The Resurrected Christ,

Pastor Anthony Potts