I’ve shared journal entries before that I wrote during my “Spirit Life Circle” online listening prayer small group. But this weekend I just completed training to start leading my own circle! (If you would like to find out more about joining my group, you can email me at elizabethellynshaw@gmail.com).
This is the question we asked during my practice training session, and the incredible answer I received from Him. It touched and encouraged me so much that I wanted to share it with you! (Feel free to ask Him this journal question yourself–you could even ask Him about all three of the “postures”!)
Lord, thank You for the “three postures” the Bible often uses to describe Your relationship with me: that I am “in Christ,” that Christ is “in me” and that You are “with me.” Which posture do You want to say more to me about and how would You say it in “my language”?
You are inside of Me the way a baby is in the womb. Where I go, you go. What I do, you do. Before you understand anything at all, you go everywhere I go inside of Me. The baby doesn’t understand yet that it is going to church or school or home or work inside of its mother–it won’t actually see those places for many years–but it does go to all those places inside of her.
In the same way, everywhere that I went, you went. When I lived a perfect, righteous, law-fulfilling life, you lived it too, inside of Me. When I passed the temptation and went to the cross, so did you, inside of Me. When I made the right choice in the garden of Gethsemane, you did it too, inside of Me. Just like it counted that you were “in Adam” when he made the wrong choice in the paradise garden of Eden, so it counted that you were in Me when I made the right choice in the dark anguish garden of Gethsemane. That is how I saved you, because “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). And so when I died for your sin, you died to sin as well. And when I rose again, you were raised to life in Me. And when I ascended back up to My Father, I took you with Me.
But the most exciting thing that I did in all of that, as the writer of Hebrews says, is that I sent up to heaven and I sat down (Hebrews 10:11-14). I was the first priest to ever get to sit down, my sacrifice enough forever, no more jumping up to offer sacrifices again. I sat down in victory, in authority, sat down to reign, to judge, to make decrees, to partner with My Father in heaven, and to rest in having accomplished and finished my perfect work. And so did you in Me. That is what it means that you are seated with me in heavenly places. One of the most amazing things about Me is that I did all of that and I am in heaven sitting down, and you are sitting there inside of Me right now, even though you don’t yet see it or hear it the way you will after you are ‘Born.’
But sometimes, a baby in the womb hears mother’s voice through the skin and flesh, or feels her movements, and gets a glimpse or understanding of where it is in her, of the place where it already is and yet can’t yet see. And that is what is happening to you when you pray and I show you the throne room where I am sitting down. As you “fix your eyes on things above” (Col 3:2) and imagine entering My throne room when you pray, you are getting glimpses of the places where you already are. It is real. So real. Realer than where you are now. And I LOVE to share it with you. Teaching you to pray with Me, as I have been doing, is literally My favorite thing I have ever done with you in your earthly life!
Because I love praying. I love to partner with My Father to bring heaven to earth by moving His heart in intimate communication with Him. That’s how I define intercessory prayer. And you know, I spent 33 years living on earth, three years ministering, 9 hours dying, and forty days appearing after My resurrection, but I’ve spent almost 2000 years and counting siting at My Father’s right hand praying for you. It’s my favorite part. It really, really is. It isn’t just better for you that you know Me this way, it’s better for both of us. I get to be up here and so you get to be up here in Me and so I get to start sharing it with you by My Spirit. And if you pray the ratio of prayer to service I did, it’ll be 2000 years of prayer for every three years of work, so don’t feel guilty when we pray!
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