I found myself reading Paul E Miller’s book, “A Praying Church: Becoming a People of Hope in a Discouraging World“, with a foreword by Dane C Ortlund (Crossway/Greenhouse, 2023), as my entry this morning into fellowship with the LORD.

On Oct 19th-just two weeks ago-I had attended A Praying Church seminar led by Jon Hori of SeeJesus Ministries, founded by Paul Miller. This seminar was organized by Gospel City Network (GCN) Malaysia, and hosted by City Discipleship Presbyterian Church, Subang Jaya.

The essence of the seminar which was superbly facilitated by Jon is that corporate prayer is the contact point of the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus and His gospel power to bear in our lives, especially for the gospel to bear witness in and through the church to the lost sheep outside.

As I enjoyed the Lord’s ministry this morning through Miller’s book, I was led to go deeper into Luke’s gospel, chapter 11 where you find the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray.

It occurred to me that Luke chapter 10 ends with the story of busy Martha and adoring Mary with Jesus’s words ending that passage with, “…ONE THING is Needed, and Mary has chosen that GOOD PART, which Will Not be taken away from her” (emphases all mine).

Then we move into Luke chapter 11, and I wonder if Jesus shows and explains what that Good Part that will not be taken away from Mary is? I wonder if that Good Part is prayer. Communion with Jesus? Could there be anything greater than communing with the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords? The One who created us with our deepest longings and desires for security, satisfaction and safety for loving relationships. And the only One who can fulfill them.

Jesus teaches His disciples that the first truth of prayer is that we go to “Our Father in heaven”. What an honor! It does however beg the question, doesn’t it? How does one become a child of God? Who gives us the right to call God, Father?

And Jesus gives us the answer in Himself. Jesus is the only One who can through His grace, bring us before the throne of His Father’s grace. Jesus said in John’s gospel, chapter 6, verse 44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him”. Jesus also said in John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.“

And in John chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus directly that only through the Spirit regenerating a soul (“born-again”, John 3:3-7), is one able to call God, “Father”.

As I study and meditate on the words and teachings of Christ being the “true Bread from heaven”, I come to chapter 7 of John’s gospel, and Jesus’s awesome invitation on the last day of the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles in the temple at Jerusalem, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who BELIEVES in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart-another translation says, “belly”, or “innermost being“-will flow rivers of living water”. And the Spirit of God, the Author and Inspirer of Scripture, moves, and carries along the apostle John to comment in the following verse that the “Rivers of Living Water” refers to the “the Spirit”. “The Spirit” would be given to “those Believing in Him” once Jesus was resurrected and glorified in His ascension to the Father’s right hand.

In terms of application for the believer of Christ today, what does it mean to “believe“? Isn’t it to “have faith“? In this case, gospel-based faith is to believe in Jesus Christ, and to “have faith” in Him, and His word. It would be to believe and have faith in everything Jesus says. All that He has done for us in His death on the cross, His burial, His resurrection the third day, and His ascension to the Father’s right hand, and duly pouring out the Promise and Gift of the Spirit from the Father to the Son (Acts 2:33). What Timothy Keller would categorize as “gospel indicatives“.

And the story must go on for those who believe and have faith in Jesus Christ. Faith “gums” to Christ by the Spirit. We are saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit calls us through the gospel. In that call, there is faith. That faith leads us to repentance at the kindness of God in Christ. As we are saved by faith through His grace, we call out to Him, and He gives us the Promise and Gift of the Holy Spirit. What Paul would term, “justified by faith”. Being filled with the Spirit is to experience our justification in union with Christ.

As John Calvin would write in Book 3 of his Institutes, it is necessary for Christ to be in us, and we in Him to receive all the benefits of His salvation. And it is noteworthy that for Calvin, Book 3 is his attempt to explicate the Person and Role of the Holy Spirit in salvation.

To have Christ, and to be in union with Him, and all the benefits of His salvific union means that we “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). The contemporary church, alas, is so busy and occupied keeping the world the right side up it seems! Instead, the world turns our lives upside down, in spite of having Christ in us, the “hope of glory“! (Col 1:27)

How would a Christ-follower demonstrate having faith and believing in Christ amidst a world gone mad? I think the Spirit Himself gives us the powerful gospel imperative in 1 Thess 5:16-18;

Rejoice at all times. 

Pray without ceasing. 

Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is first and foremost the good news that God is totally and completely 100% sovereign over the affairs of the world, of governments (read: US Elections 2024!), of men, and of our own lives. And His sovereignty is one of grace. Pure, unmerited grace. Based on the grace of the LORD Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us. How can we not adore Him, worship Him, and gladly lay down our lives, every single minute of every single moment, to His Lordship and Authority? How can we not experience the peace that passes all understanding when we are united by faith, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to the very Prince of Peace, the King Himself. We are in the Fellowship of the Ring, the Triune God who calls us to Himself, through Christ!