prayer | Craig T. Owens

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Links & Quotes

February 3, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

These are links to articles and quotes I found interesting today.

Some thoughts on creativity: 8 Creativity Lessons From A Pixar Animator

Tim Elmore on how to connect with others: Who Do You Connect With When You Teach?

“Thy poor prayer would have no force with Omnipotence if force were needed; but His love, like a spring, rises of itself and overflows for the supply of all thy needs.” —Charles Spurgeon

[VIDEO] Comedy from Ken Davis: Why I Don’t Have A Cat

Insight from Mark Driscoll: 5 Things To Look For In A Good Bible Teacher

“Don’t pray for sermons, let sermons come from your prayers. So, as long as I’m meeting with God, I will always have something to say.” —Chilly Chilton

Michael Hyatt’s excellent advice to leaders: 5 Reasons You Should Smile More As A Leader

Encouragement from Max Lucado: A Passion For The Forgotten

John Stonestreet on the dangers of pornography: The Root Of Sexual Exploitation

Only a little time left to download a free song from U2 and help end AIDS: Fight AIDS With (Red)

“The fundamental issue for any of us is to feel loved. If we feel loved by the significant people in our lives, we are more likely to reach out potential for God and good in the world.” —Dr. Gary Chapman

An interesting study on missionaries and societal success: The Truth About Missionaries

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: AIDS, Bible, Charles Spurgeon, Chilly Chilton, comedy, creativity, democracy, Dr. Tim Elmore, encouragement, Gary Chapman, John Stonestreet, Ken Davis, leadership, love language, Mark Driscoll, Max Lucado, Michael Hyatt, missionaries, music, pastors, Pixar, pornography, prayer, quotes, sermon, students, teaching, U2, video. Leave a Comment »

Praying ‘Round & ‘Round

February 3, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

There are lot of different ways to look at the function of prayer, but please allow me to share one more with you. Perhaps this prayer cycle will help you see the value of each aspect of prayer.

(To download a PDF of this file, click here → Prayer cycle)

Each step in this cycle helps facilitate the next step. If any step breaks down, the whole cycle of prayer can grind to a halt. But as any part of the cycle is strengthened, the whole cycle expands and grows in potency!

We need to be be assured that God’s Word is true when it says to come to Him in prayer.
Once we are assured that God’s Word is true, then the Holy Spirit will illuminate His Word to our present circumstance, giving us the mind of Our Lord. This is called discernment.
Having discernment will bring us the peace that knows God hears us, and that God is working on our behalf and for His glory.
All of these steps flowing together allow us to pray and live in greater boldness, which fuels the whole cycle again.
At the heart of this cycle is the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, who helps us at each step along the cycle of prayer.

Here are some Scriptures that correspond with the various steps in the cycle:

Assurance—If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. (John 15:7)

Discernment—But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)

Peace—Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

Boldness—After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:31)

Holy Spirit Empowerment—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 through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:26-28)

The only way I know of to learn how to pray better is to pray more! Don’t wait for a better opportunity to begin to pray … Start right now!

Next Sunday I am continuing our series on prayer. If you are near Cedar Springs, please join us!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, Calvary Assembly of God, God's Word, Holy Spirit, infographic, Jesus Christ, peace, prayer, Scripture, sermon. Leave a Comment »

Sunday Recap

February 2, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Another great Sunday worshiping with my church family and learning more about prayer! Here are a few take-aways that I hope encouraged you today.

Prayer isn’t supposed to look like this Jonny Hawkins cartoon!

In the cycle of prayer, your level of peace will determine your level of perseverance. This is why it’s so important to be immersed in God’s Word and allowing the Holy Spirit to give you His discernment. Keep on praying!

“The worst of it is that we can believe God about everything except the present pressing trial. This is folly. Come, my soul, shake off such sinfulness, and trust your God with the load, the labor, the longing of this present.” —Charles Spurgeon

“God’s silences are His answers. … Some prayers are followed by silence because they are wrong [this is where we need God’s discernment], others because they are bigger than we can understand [this is where we need His peace].” —Oswald Chambers

God was going to give Hannah a son, but the time was not yet right. God needed a strong man in a dark time, and it wasn’t dark enough yet! (see 1 Samuel 1:1-17)

God feels & sees

In the meantime, remember this: God feels all of your infirmities, and He sees all of your tears.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Calvary Assembly of God, cartoon, Charles Spurgeon, God's love, infirmities, Jonny Hawkins, Oswald Chambers, perseverance, prayer, tears. 1 Comment »

A Caution About Success

January 29, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

After King David had been firmly established as the king of Israel, he wanted to show the world how devoted he was to God, and undertook to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem.

This move came after “David knew that the Lord had established him as king” and “that his kingdom had been highly exalted for the sake of God’s people” (2 Samuel 5:12; 1 Chronicles 14:2). David also asked the people about bringing the ark to Jerusalem and “it seemed right to all the people” (1 Chronicles 13:4).

Hooray! It sure sounds like David is using his new position as king to do something wonderful for his people. But…

Even with David’s knowledge that God had established him, David proceeded in a way that was displeasing to God, by attempting to move the ark in a way that God never sanctioned (2 Samuel 6:3; 1 Chronicles 13:7).

When things are going well and there seems to be a lot of positive momentum, we cannot abandon the things that brought God’s success in the first place!

David had a habit of inquiring of God (2 Samuel 5:19, 23; 1 Chronicles 14:10, 14) which had led to his God-given success (1 Chronicles 14:17). But in the excitement of moving the ark, and the applause of the people David said, “We did not inquire of Him” (15:13) nor did they undertake the task “in accordance with the Word of the Lord” (15:15).

CAUTION!!! We can never be too careful about inquiring of God nor consulting His Word. A danger of success is that we abandon those things which God blesses and simply ride the positive momentum of the moment. No matter how popular or obvious a thing may seem, don’t forget to pray about it and consult God’s Word about it!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: applause, ark of the covenant, Bible, Bible study, blessing, God's approval, Jerusalem, King David, momentum, prayer, Scripture, success. 1 Comment »

Monologue Or Dialogue

January 27, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

True prayer, according to the Bible, is a dialogue. If we ever think of it as a monologue, it ceases to be true prayer.

Look at the contrasting statements in the opening verses of Psalms 13 and 14—

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? (13:1)

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” (14:1)

We can have a dialogue with God—even asking questions of the Almighty—or we can monologue to ourselves.

The dialoguer asks a lot of questions (five of them in the first two verses of chapter 13) and anticipates that God will answer. In fact, David wrote in an earlier psalm, “In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation” (Psalm 5:3).

God’s answers are expected, as the dialoguer stops asking questions of God and begins to express his trust in God’s love, as he rejoices in God’s salvation, and sings about God’s goodness (13:5-6). Clearly, this trust, rejoicing, and singing come from assurances received in his dialogue with God.

The monologuer asks no questions of God, but makes definitive conclusions that he himself concocted. He talks to himself, making himself the final authority! The result is inevitable: “There they are, overwhelmed with dread” (14:5).

Jesus told a similar account of a man whom Jesus said, “prayed about himself” (see Luke 18:9-14). That word “about” is probably better translated “to.” That’s right: this man was so sure of himself that he now monologued to himself and thought he was praying. But Jesus said this about the monologuer: He went home without God taking notice of his prayer.

May we always be dialoguers in prayer, and never monologuers.

God wants to talk with you, even hearing and answering your many questions. Be sure you allow Him time to speak with you, as you anticipate His loving reply.

I will be continuing our series on prayer next Sunday, and I would love to have you join me!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: dialogue, Gospel of Luke, monologue, prayer, psalms, questions. 3 Comments »

Don’t Exasperate Them

January 24, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Pastoring is not for the faint of heart. Nor those easily offended. Nor those lacking in patience…. You get the idea!

John Chrysostom (347-407) gave this counsel to pastors—

“Thus then must the Priest behave towards those in his charge, as a father would behave to his very young children; and as such are not disturbed either by their insults or their blows, or their lamentations, nor even if they laugh and rejoice with us, do we take much account of it; so should we neither be puffed up by the promises of these persons nor cast down at their censure, when it comes from them unseasonably.”

The Bible tells fathers not to irritate and provoke your children to anger [do not exasperate them to resentment], but rear them [tenderly] in the training and discipline and the counsel and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4, Amplified Bible)

Instead we should follow the example of Jesus, the Great Shepherd—

When He saw the throngs, He was moved with pity and sympathy for them, because they were bewildered (harassed and distressed and dejected and helpless), like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36, Amplified Bible)

Ask our Shepherd to give you His patience, and compassion, and tenderness, and wisdom to carry His sheep in your arms. After all, it’s His flock that we’ve been given the privilege and responsibility to care for!

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: children, compassion, Ephesians, father, Jesus Christ, John Chrysostom, pastoring, pastors, patience, prayer, shepherds. Leave a Comment »

God’s Answers Are Bigger

January 22, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

I’m studying for our current series on prayer at Calvary Assembly of God, and I came across this amazing story (see John 20:10-15). I’m not sure if we will have time to get to it during this series or not, but in either case it’s just too good to hold back any longer …

If you are praying for something right now and the answer hasn’t arrived yet, keep on praying. God is doing something in the waiting time. Perhaps He wants you to modify your prayer, or perhaps He has something even bigger in store for you, bigger than you could have even imagined.

Keep on praying!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: blessing, Calvary Assembly of God, Jesus Christ, perseverance, prayer, video. Leave a Comment »

Prayer’s Empowerment

January 20, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Prayer is not about insurance, but assurance. Prayer is not about figuring things out, but about getting God’s mind on a subject.

But how does the faith to believe for that assurance, and the faith to capture God’s discernment come to us? It comes through the Third Person of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us; He’s the central part of our prayer life.

Check out what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit’s role in your prayer life (see John 14:15-27).

Assurance—the Counselor [will] be with you forever (v. 16). The Holy Spirit doesn’t come and go, but He abides constantly. Jesus said I will not leave you as orphans (v. 18), but you will be loved by My Father (vv. 21-23). The Holy Spirit plays a vital role in bringing you into this intimate relationship (Romans 8:15).

Discernment—Jesus said a key component of your prayer life was if you remain in Me and My words remain in you (John 15:7). The Holy Spirit helps teach you what the Word says, and He will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:26). The more you can be reminded of God’s Word, the more you can pray and live with God’s discernment.

Peace—My peace I give you … do not be afraid (v. 27). One of the names given to the Holy Spirit is Comforter. The Amplified Bible defines this title as, “Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby.”

Boldness—when you have greater assurance of God’s Word, deeper discernment into the mind of the Lord, and a more tranquil peace because of prayer, you can pray and live boldly! Want to see boldness in action? Check out how the followers of Jesus lived and prayed after they were baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; 2:14; 4:8; 4:31).

Make no mistake about it:

How we pray is how we will live!

Our prayers and our lives will be more assured, more discerning, more peace-producing and more bold when we let the Holy Spirit empower every aspect!

We will be continuing our series on prayer—If You Will Ask—next Sunday. I would love to have you join us!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: assurance, baptism, Bible study, boldness, Calvary Assembly of God, discernment, faith, God's Word, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, peace, prayer, Scripture, sermon. Leave a Comment »

Sunday Recap

January 19, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

In remembering Sanctity of Human Life Sunday we looked at some sobering, heart-breaking stats—

Planned Parenthood reported:

They performed 327,166 abortions in the course of one year and only 2,197 adoption referrals.
That’s 149 abortions for each adoption referral (149:1).
In order to hit this astronomical number they had to perform approximately one abortion every 96 seconds.
That means they killed more than the population of Grand Rapids AND Lansing. Combined!
They did all of this while receiving over $540 million in government grants and reimbursements.

But we also learned some happier stats from Alpha Family Center of Cedar Springs—

Alpha has been providing pro-life, pro-family services in Cedar Springs for 22 years.
11,300 baby and toddler related items were given out in 2013. That includes 1000+ packs of diapers, 214 cans of formula, 900 jars of baby food & baby cereal, and nearly 5200 articles of clothing for babies, toddlers and pregnant women.
Alpha’s counselors provided over 1000 peer counseling sessions, taught 850 parenting classes, and gave 70 free pregnancy tests.
And they did all of this without one cent of government aid!

Please support Alpha with your prayers and financial support.

In our series on prayer, I shared this great quote from Charles Spurgeon:

“Why do I not call on God’s Name? Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call? Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans? Why not at once roll my self and my burden on the Lord?”

Great questions! In answering those we learned this great truth: How we pray is how we will live!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abortion, adoption, Alpha Family Center, Calvary Assembly of God, Charles Spurgeon, Planned Parenthood, prayer, pregnancy, pro-family, pro-life, sanctity of human life. 1 Comment »

Smith Wigglesworth On Prayer, Power, And Miracles (book review)

January 14, 2014 — Craig T. Owens

Whenever I need a booster shot of faith, or a challenge to believe God for even greater things, or just a unabashed reminder of the power of the Scriptures, I pick up a book by Smith Wigglesworth. By the time I got done reading Smith Wigglesworth On Prayer, Power, And Miracles compiled by Roberts Liardon I was totally fired up!

This book is a collection of sermons delivered by Wigglesworth and articles he authored for various Pentecostal publications. Every one of the chapters is simply saturated in Scripture and the anointing of the Holy Spirit! Each of the articles made we want to dig into the Bible more, believe God for more, and crave the empowerment of the Spirit more!

If you are tired of humdrum church-as-usual, or if you are ready for your faith to be stretched like it’s never been stretched before, pick up a copy of this book and strap yourself in. I promise that you will not think about the things of God the same after these messages have worked their way into your heart.