June 7, 2006

The trials of life lead to a trail towards God

Joel Akin

If you had asked me a few years ago what today's gas situation would be like I would say it should be worse. I presently live in Calgary, Alberta which is considered a gas center of North America. At present Calgary is breaking at the seams with housing and labor shortages. Prices on housing is going through the roof with month by month increases, in the thousands, on the value of homes. I see the ability for the average family to buy a house is also dropping. Recent statistics indicate the entire yearly earnings have to be $69,000 per family to afford the average house. And those statistics were last month which indicates its probably $75,000 a month. By next month the price per house, averagely speaking, will have hit a full $400,000 which means those of us who earn a measly $10,000 a year are considered poor and under the poverty line.

And even though the value of gas in Calgary has been raging steadily upward at present it seems to have stabilized at around $1.00 per liter. The price per barrel of oil is around $75 and if a recent dream interpretation is correct that price will not go any or much higher.

This is a difficult time for our family overall. Sometimes you ask yourself "What could I do or what could I have done to make a difference. Mom still suffers intense pain and its been this way for years now. A kind lady answered moms letter and called us from the Benny Hinn ministry. She was curious to know why all three of us born again, spirit filled Christians were going through years of suffering without any relent. She gave us some nice advice such as listen to good praise music, good preachers, keep close to the Lord and so on. We have been doing those things on a daily basis. But despite those things we have suffered.

We have struggled with things breaking apart. Small things that added up. This week for example my battery back up system for my computer Tripp Lite, broke down and stopped working so I had to go out and get a new one. Moms brand new fridge which she and dad purchased from Sears continued to give mom problems. The repairman who was here a couple weeks ago was supposed to order a motor for the ice grinder, a specialty feature she had purchased because of me. As it turned out it made ice, after she paid the plumber $150 for hook up, but the crusher didn't work. Then the second guy from Sears told her he would have to hacksaw off the grinder as it was toast and it wasn't worth the trouble.

 And speaking of toast the toaster dad had put a crumpet in went on the fritz and starting burning the crumpet til mom smelled something burning. The toaster had refused to pop up almost starting a fire in the kitchen. So that toaster goes in the garbage.

Lets not forget insurance issues. Dad turned 75 last October and his life insurance ran out and he can no longer be covered. They gave him a grace period til June 15th but his big concern is "What if I die and who will support the family..." Even this morning when he and I went for breakfast at McDonalds there was talks of "What if" one of us dies. After all we three are all sick enough to die. No one likes to talk about it and I am one who pushes for life talk. But I wonder.

So why would you be interested in this story? I guess because you're reading it and its my story. There are those of you who read and have your own but time is not my friend as yet and I have stories to tell before I quit. And if God taries and if His grace is sufficient, which it is, then I believe I will write many more stories. But I find myself thinking "What if." And what ifs are the bane of our existence which we are buffeted on every side by Satan and death. So how do you win? How do you conquer what seems to be a battle over every circumstance of your life?

 I have found only one answer. Prayer. Prayer is a battle power beyond human ken or comprehension. When I speak of prayer I may sound a little arrogant to some but prayer is bigger then a nuclear bomb. Its bigger than the power of our sun and even bigger then the universe with all the galaxies and all the suns of those galaxies exploding even in the power of one second were they to give you all that power at once. Prayer is the key to success but few have ever learned the power of prayer. Or its secrets. I can say, by grace, I have. Perhaps not all, for as God has shown me, it will take a couple trillion years to teach me just the basics of love. But prayer is a power line to heaven and I learned that no force of Satan, Time, Death, devils, demons, assassins, failures, pain, suffering, loneliness or any other thing you can imagine is stronger than prayer. Now when I say this I add an addendum which I am cautiously aware of. Prayer power is based on the continuation of prayer, without ceasing, as Paul referred to. Now there are two ways to accept without ceasing. One is to pray 24 hours a day. That is impossible for man simply put. We sleep, we eat, we talk to people, we travel, we work, we think of other things. All these things are true. But the prayer without ceasing is this, "That we continue to pray to God, based on a relationship, day by day by day by day by day. It is like being in a chosen contract. We chose to pray and once that relationship is built God helps us realize the reason we could not pray before on a regular basis is because we were fighting all the hindrances of the enemy. And ceaseless prayer is relationship prayer, usually at a regular time, consistently everyday. That is ceaseless prayer that takes us into the secret of prayer.

The secret of prayer is best described as the key to Wisdom and door to truth. Each one of us has a door that leads to our spirit man. That spirit man is accessed by choice. Choice is truth and truth is our conscience and our conscience is the portal that leads us to deeper things in God. We grow because that portal is the door that knocks at our Spirit-man saying "Awake" and once awake fully there is a transfer as we kill the flesh and put on the spiritual nature. That putting on of the spiritual nature happens first in our spirit and then in our natural flesh. That transformation I speak of seems to be what happened to Christ.

Now the transformation process comes about by a process of ceaseless prayer. Some think it comes by works as in reading the Bible, listening to sermons, going to church, active in ministry and so on. Those are works and those things are important for people but they are not the key to transforming people. God does that and we often forget. But the sad part is there are few on earth who understand the ramifications of this in its fullness. You'll find a 1,000 people who claim to pray but few, if any, who understand the importance of ceaseless prayer based on a one to one relationship to God. That relationship isn't based on your calling to him day and night for things, nor day after day crying for souls, nor day after day crying for increase in membership. No, that growth will come but only after you develop a friendship with God. It doesn't come easy nor does it happen over night. But when you understand the ramifications of change there is something to be said about prayer that gives us insight into things to come.

Now some might still be confused so lets put this relationship into a different perspective.

The President of the United States gets thousands of requests a day. He has to decide which are the most important. But if his daughter or son comes and says "I need help" and their need is legitimate the President will drop everything to help his child.

For God his desire is to help us grow, to mature, to understand. But we are like countless voices crying out "God help us". God cares but often its a caring based on "I don't really know you..." He wants to know you as a friend and he wants to have you as His child. He wants to teach, to guide, to just converse. As in something God said to me one day "When is the last time you just asked "How are you doing today?" " It sounds like a strange thing for God to ask but he said that to me to help me understand that he wasn't just interested in being a father who teaches but a friend who has feelings. And God wanted me to ask "God, how was your day." And so I try to remember that when I speak with Him.

So the next time you start off a conversation with God ask him "God, how is your day going?" and then listen. You might be surprised when God starts to tell you something that will blow you away.