July 21, 2026 • 30 mins
Pre-Order Pete Scazzero's forthcoming book, Emotionally Healthy Success at www.emotionallyhealthy.org/success
I was taught that no one rises above their intercessory prayer life. If revival wasn't happening, that meant I hadn't prayed hard enough. So I prayed. We held five morning prayer meetings a week and monthly half nights of prayer, pleading with God to move. He did, slowly. Not the outpouring I was hoping for. Prayer turned into duty, something I dragged myself through rather than something I wanted.
Two things changed that. Time with Trappist monks who taught me to listen more than talk. And years spent inside Luke's gospel, watching how Jesus actually prayed.
This week, I open the first of four reversals from my new book, EH Success: The Move from Praying for Results to Praying for Communion. Jesus didn't pray to get things done. He prayed to stay with the Father, to hear him, and to receive strength from him. That's a different kind of prayer than most of us were taught, and it might be exactly what your prayer life is missing.
Learn more about the EH Global Leader Conference 2026: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/conference
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SPEAKER_00 (00:02):
Hi, my name is Pete Scero.
I want to welcome you today tothe Emotionally Healthy Leader
Podcast.
Great to be with you.
And our topic today is reversalnumber one: moving from prayer
for results to prayer forcommunion.
Moving from prayer for resultsto prayer for communion.
(00:23):
Now, uh, I spent, as many of youknow, the last three and a half
years writing a book calledEmotionally Healthy Success.
And actually, I was thinkingabout this issue of success for
the years prior to that, beforeI actually started writing.
But I so as a result, I spentyears in the Gospels, and in
particular in the Gospel ofLuke, looking at Jesus and his
(00:47):
life and his understanding ofsuccess, how he measured it.
And so, core to that is heinvites us into four, what I
call four great reversals of howwe define what success actually
is.
And it's very challenging for usto receive these four reversals
in the Western church in the21st century.
(01:08):
It's just so counterintuitive tohow we operate today, and it's
very challenging.
So uh actually in the book, it'sactually there are small
sections of a chapter.
It's one chapter, but uh therewas so much I could have said
about each one of thesereversals.
It's so much material that eachcould have been its own book,
(01:28):
let alone its own chapter.
But because I had a larger goalin mind, uh, as you'll see when
you look at that book, um, ithad to be condensed into a
chapter.
So I want to take this week aswell as the following three
podcasts to talk uh a bit morein depth and broadly about each
of these four reversals becausethey are so significant for us.
(01:50):
Because we've all been shaped onhow we understand prayer, how we
understand success, uh, and bywe've been formed by our
families of origin, first ofall.
Secondly, we've been formed byour uh our culture.
Uh thirdly, we've been formed bychurch culture.
And then finally, we've gotpowers and principalities that
(02:10):
are seeking to shape us andconform us to a certain way of
living.
And so we've got all theseenormous external forces.
And Jesus comes and he buststhrough them uh for us.
And uh and it actually, thewarfare around what I'm talking
about in this podcast and in theones that follows is really as
significant as the temptationsthat Jesus faced in the
(02:32):
wilderness.
Uh, if you remember, those threemassive temptations by the
devil, they weren't just forJesus then.
They actually are kind of likeparadigms or archetypes.
They're there, they contain inthose three temptations all the
temptations that we face onearth.
They're so profound and so deep.
Remember, turning stones tobread, make something happen was
(02:54):
the first one.
And Jesus refuses and citesscripture, and then the second
temptation is throw yourselfdown from this temple and God
will rescue you.
He quotes scripture, and Jesussays, You shall not test the
Lord your God.
And the third temptation is justbow to me for a minute, I'll
give you all the kingdoms.
And Jesus, you know, says awayfrom me.
And and uh but in some ways,these four reversals we're gonna
(03:16):
talk about are uh really are abattle uh for freedom and in
order for us to do God's will.
So we're gonna talk about movingfrom prayer moving from prayer
for results, we pray just forresults, to praying actually as
communion with God.
And then I'll we'll go into thefollowing three in the next few
podcasts.
So um these are really aninvitation to an entirely new
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kingdom.
So let's go into this reversalnumber one of moving from prayer
for results.
I need God to need you to dothis or do this in your name,
versus prayer as fundamentallycommunion with God.
Now, in my early years, I wastaught very clearly that the
ministry and what I do will onlygo as far as my prayer life of
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intercession, that everythingrises and falls on prayer,
primarily intercession with Godfor Him to move in power.
And so I read all the prayerbooks and revival books, and a
revival was going to come, ifGod's power was gonna get
released, if people were goingto come to Christ, his ministry
was gonna grow and the kingdomwas gonna expand, it was gonna
require a cost in prayer.
(04:27):
Everything rises and falls onprayer, intercession, and uh,
you know, paying that kind of aprice.
And so I read books, I went toconferences, all that.
And um, and and key scriptureswere things like, you know,
Jesus, when he heals a demonizedboy, on the disciple and
disciples who weren't unable todo it, they say, Jesus, you
know, why couldn't we drive outthis demon?
(04:47):
And he says, this kind can onlycome out by prayer.
Some versions include fasting.
And then texts such as when hesays to Peter at some point,
when he curses a fig tree, havefaith in God, um, whatever you
ask for in prayer, believe thatyou've received it and it will
be done.
So your belief is key for it toget done.
And then even texts like Luke 18about the Jesus says how we
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should always pray and not giveup, that the widow comes to this
unjust judge and he she hebadgers him day and night.
And actually, the text says inthe original Greek, until she
gives him a black eye is theimage.
And then he finally relents andgives her what she wants.
And so it's going to take comingto God with that kind of
relentlessness and persistenceand intercession for God to
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move.
And so I prayed.
I prayed a lot personally, andthen our church, as we planted
it, I we we prayer was, hey, wehave prayer meetings five
mornings a week, um, earlymorning prayer meetings.
And once a month we had a youknow half night of prayer all
together, you know, storming theheavens.
And uh and it was so God wouldgrow the church.
(05:53):
God would grow people coming toChrist, not just grow our
church, but expand his kingdom.
And and God did grow the church.
And it was slow.
Uh people came to Christ.
There was a move of God, but itwas slow.
It wasn't Pentecost, like I wasexpecting.
Pentecost and then the 3,000,5,000.
And uh, but gradually whathappened was I prayer went from
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a joy to a duty and anobligation.
Uh, delight seemed to disappear.
And uh, but then over time, twounexpected gifts came my way
that shifted everything.
Uh, the first was uh my exposureto Trappist monks.
(06:35):
And I'll never forget, thesewere folks who who uh their
whole life was dedicated toprayer.
And I remember uh spending timewith them, and they would meet
seven times a day for what wascalled the daily office.
They were Benedictine monks fromyou know from 3:15 in the
morning to you know 5:30 and toyou know 6:30 at different
points, a whole life of prayer.
(06:56):
And uh their primary prayer,there was intercession, but it
was really communion.
It was silence and stillness andbeing with God was the focus.
It was communion with God.
And I was just like, what'swrong with these folks?
You know, initially, I'm like,this doesn't count.
Um, but I was I was stunned bytheir level of surrender to God
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and his will.
And it caught, it caused me torealize how much of my prayer
life was not surrendered.
It was really my will be done,and how much of my will was
mixed in with wanting God's willand uh my and how stubborn my
self-will was.
Uh, and I wanted to bend God.
I kind of saw prayer as bendingGod to do my will, and I
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realized how twisted things hadgotten inside of me and my
desire to see God's kingdomexpand.
Um, it all surfaced.
Once I got silent and still andlots of solitude, it was very
sobering to me and embarrassingto realize how much of making it
happen bigger, better, fasterhad gotten into me and had
informed my prayer life.
And the second big thing thatreally impacted my prayer life
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was a big study in the Gospel ofLuke on Jesus' prayer life.
And that was transformative.
It actually is a book writtencalled Jesus the Intercessor.
It was actually a PhD thesisturned into a book, a bit
academic, but a deep study onthe prayer life of Jesus in the
book of Luke actually revealsJesus as a praying Messiah.
(08:23):
It's powerful.
He's a praying Messiah.
That's who who he is.
He's called the intercessor.
In uh Romans 8, he's our notjust an earthly intercessor,
he's our heavenly intercessor.
It's just it's who he is.
Uh we see that in Romans 8 andactually Hebrews 7, he's called
the intercessor.
And uh we see Jesus in theGospel of Luke constantly in
(08:43):
prayer.
Uh he's he's praying for foractually three things we're
gonna see.
Three aspects of that prayerlife, and I'll talk about them
right now.
He's he's he's he's incommunion, he lives in communion
with the Father.
Uh, prayer is communion.
That is prayer, it gets clarityuh and direction from the Father
in prayer.
And then finally, his powerflows from his prayer life.
(09:05):
So everything comes out of hisprayer life.
You can't understand Jesus asthe Messiah without the prayer
life.
So uh let me just take thosethree aspects of what Jesus in
the Gospel of Luke and hisprayer life, because to me they
they kind of encompass what dowe, when we talk about Jesus
moving from praying for resultsto praying as communion, uh,
this is what the shift begins tolook like.
(09:27):
So uh let's just take prayer ascommunion uh first for Jesus.
From his very from the veryoutset, we see this in his
baptism.
A voice comes from heaven as hegets baptized by John the
Baptist.
This is my beloved son with whomI am well pleased.
You know, heaven opens up.
And you've got this tremendousimage of Jesus being delighted
(09:51):
in by the Father.
Uh in other words, prayer isinitially revealed to us, not as
petition or performance, butactually a place where Jesus
receives love and delight.
This is my son, my beloved son,my loved son, my priceless son,
that's called in one version,with whom I am pleased.
(10:13):
And I just I love that becauseit changes everything about
prayer.
Uh, we're coming to a fatherwhose face lights up when he
sees us.
In other words, we come to theFather in the name of Jesus.
We've been adopted daughters,adopted sons.
So every time we come before theFather, we don't come in our own
righteousness, our ownperformance.
We come in in the righteousnessand in the name and the
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performance and the perfectrecord of Jesus.
And the Father delights in uswhen he sees us.
We're coming, you know, he wemay acknowledge that God loves
us, but actually in prayer isthe place, and we may even hear
moments, oh, God said I loveyou, but then we immediately
shift our attention to what Igot to get done for God.
But prayer actually is aninvitation to linger and to
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remain in receiving the love ofthe Father for us, his delight
for us.
So, in other words, when wepray, God's not saying, shape up
or ship out, or do you knowwhat?
I got a lot of things for you todo.
Let me tell you about your to-dolist today, or I'm disappointed
with you.
You just don't pray enough, youdon't read the Bible enough.
Uh, it's none of that.
Uh uh instead, you we we pray inbefore an open heaven like
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Jesus.
Again, we're we we're adopted.
We pray in the name of Jesus,and God freely offers us
affection and delight.
I want you to hear that.
There's a great quote by aJesuit priest uh from India
named uh Anthony DeMello.
And he says he defined prayer asthis.
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He goes, prayer is simplybeholding the one who beholds us
and smiles.
I want to say that again to youbecause I I've written that in
my journal.
I've I've let myself bask inthat because it just to me
captures what Jesus understoodfundamentally in this prayer
life as communion with theFather.
(12:00):
He said this Anthony DeMelloprayer is behold the one
beholding us and smiling.
I want you, I want you to sitwith that uh and you sit before
the father in prayer.
Behold the one beholding you andsmiling.
Oh because if we don't receivethe father's love and delight
(12:23):
first, uh we get driven by allkinds of unconscious stuff,
comparing ourselves, my doingenough and proving ourselves.
And so we become performersrather than beloved sons and
daughters, which is really thecore of prayer.
We're meant to bathe in thatEphesians 3, 18 and 19, the love
of Jesus that surpassesknowledge.
(12:44):
It's a height and depth andbreadth of the love of Jesus.
We are meant to bathe and swimin that love that is beyond
anything in the world uhhumanity could ever even
conceive.
Prayer is where we actuallyreceive the Father's love, not
as a heady thing, but as a livedexperience.
It's actually, it's where we letthe, we let the Father enjoy us
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as his sons and daughters, andwe enjoy being enjoyed.
It's actually a soil out ofwhich we begin to lead and live
differently.
And and as we allow ourselves tolive in that love of God, uh,
because it doesn't comenaturally to us, we're actually
changed.
Uh and Jesus shows us thatcommuning with the Father and
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receiving his love is not aluxury.
It's actually the core of ourlives.
It's it's it's the first orderof what he's invited us and
called us to do.
It's it's to receive his love,is to pray as communion with the
Father.
We're abiding, John 15.
Where Jesus says, remain in mylove, uh, as I remain in the
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Father's love.
We're called to abide in himbecause apart from him we can we
can do nothing.
There's no fruit.
This is first.
What a shift.
And I pray you'll make thisshift.
I know for me, it shifted mywhole prayer life.
So I do morning, midday,evening, daily offices, prayer,
but I the the the silence andthe stillness is first about
receiving his love and beholdingthe one who beholds me and
(14:13):
smiles and allowing his love tosaturate me.
Uh and I want to invite you todo the same.
It's transformative.
Everything else will follow outof that one.
And um and that's why silence isso critical.
And out of that, I also then Isurrender.
I surrender my will to theFather's will uh from that place
because I'm so loved, I cantrust him.
I'm whatever you want, Lord.
(14:34):
This is our first work.
All right.
So prayer, Jesus models for us aprayer as communion.
But then Jesus also models forus that prayer for him was a
place of clarity and direction.
It was a place of clarity anddirection for him.
I mean, Luke often shows usJesus withdrawing away from the
crowds to pray, to receivedirection about where to go.
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So, for example, remember thatthe revival breaks out in
Capernaum, uh, and all the, youknow, the whole town is seeking
after him, and he goes awayearly in the morning to pray.
And they want him to stay andnurture this revival in
Capernaum.
I mean, who would who wants toleave this great move of the
Father?
But Jesus says, you know, no, Imust go to other cities also.
(15:17):
He's gotten clarity from thecrowds.
Actually, in in Luke 5, 16, itsays he often withdrew to lonely
places and prayed.
Uh, but actually, the context ofthat is his popularity is
growing.
And so he's got to get away fromthe crowds who are who are
seeking to make him so popularand distort his mission.
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He's got to get away to theFather to know where to go and
get direction.
In fact, before he chooses the12, uh, he prays all night, it
says in Luke 6.
Now we forget that when he praysall night and chooses those 12,
that means there was a lot ofpeople he did not choose.
Imagine the disappointment inthem, but he gets that
discernment in that place ofprayer.
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Even if you look closely at uhthe especially the gospel of
Luke, you'll find him prayingbefore there's a new revelation
of himself to his disciples.
So I see that, for example, inthe Mount of Transfiguration,
he's there praying.
And then he got direction aboutrevealing himself in all of his
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glory.
The first time he tells Peterand the disciples about the
crucifixion, uh, that he's goingto the cross to die, he doesn't
reveal that until, if you noticeclosely, he prays first.
And so a number of times when hedoes new teachings to the
disciples, he's he the timing ofthat is coming out of a place of
prayer for him.
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Uh so prayer is where Jesushears.
Do this, don't do that.
Um, and uh, so we don't pray toget brainstorms, you know.
We we we we pray to not not toget our best plans, we pray to
get God's plans.
We attune, you know, we teachattunement in uh relationships.
We want to learn to listen, toattune, to feel what another
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person's feeling.
Well, in some way, in the sameway, when prayer, we attune to
the Father.
We get attuned to him aboutwhere he's going, what he's
feeling and thinking.
And so we're attuning, thebiblical word often is we
listen.
You know, I love that in theMount of Transfiguration, you
listen to him.
Peter's making plans, and thefather speaks and says, listen
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to him.
Who?
Jesus.
And so we pray as we pray, welay aside our agendas.
I've got a lot of agendas.
I lay aside my plans.
I got a lot of plans.
And it's when we let go of whatwe think is strategic.
Not that we don't do strategy,we surrender our wills to God's
will.
We get aligned, you know, withthe Father.
But this is something we don'tpractice a lot, and it's very
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difficult to do.
Uh, we want clarity now.
We want the green light at theend of our team meeting.
Can we go forward, God?
You know, we want directionimmediately.
Uh but the clarity that Jesusreceived from the Father
required attentiveness, uh, nota quick consultation.
And so real discernment takestime in prayer.
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Uh, it requires a quieting ofour self-will and to let our
disordered desires fall away.
We have lots of disordereddesires.
We can't even sort them out.
And we need to be still so wecan hear what God's saying and
places he wants to go.
So even when I've done twosuccessions, succession from New
Life Fellowship Church and asuccession for emotionally
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healthy discipleship.
But in each case, um I, ofcourse, I prayed for God's
direction, you know, who shouldtake over.
And I wanted a healthysuccession for long-term
generational fruit.
However, in my prayer times, andI remember through both
processes, I re I had tosurrender in that place of
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communion and getting direction,and I had to surrender saying, I
recognize that, okay, God, thewhole thing may not, you have to
make this happen.
There's so many factors beyondmy control.
And I had to surrender that itmay, maybe God, not my will, but
your will be done.
And it may be that this thingscatters into pieces.
That's not what happened.
But I had to, in that place ofgetting clarity, always be like
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Jesus in Gethsemane,surrendering my will to God's
will, uh, knowing that, youknow, God is God.
And so even in write, when Iwrite, um, and I don't write a
ton of books, but what I write,what the theme is, and when I
write has to come out ofdiscernment.
A long process of discernmentfor me.
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Um and in fact, again, place soso I I, again, that's why my one
of my favorite texts in the NewTestament is the text of the
Mount of Transfiguration.
And the reason it's one of myfavorite texts is because Peter
is making plans when he seesJesus in all his glory and he
sees Elijah, he sees Moses, hegoes, Oh, Lord, let's call him
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Lord, Lord, we want to buildthree tents here.
One for you, one for Elijah, onefor Moses.
So he's making a plan.
And the father interrupts himand stops him from this plan and
says, Listen to him.
Because Jesus is talking aboutgoing to the cross and dying and
a whole different plan thanPeter's got.
And I just, I said, that's mylife.
You know, I so often I don'twait for, I'm not in communion
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and I'm not in waiting forclarity and direction.
I just, I'm moving.
And I love the way Jesus justthe Father intervenes there and
stops Peter.
Wonderful text.
All right.
And finally, the third thinghappening in the prayer life of
Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.
It's not just communion.
He's not just learning aboutclarity and purpose and
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direction.
He actually, in prayer, it's theplace where he receives power.
It's really another fascinatingconnection when you look closely
at the Gospel of Luke.
Jesus expressed, I mean,possessed extraordinary power, I
mean, extraordinary power, butit flowed from his continual
life of prayer with the Father.
His public ministry began after40 days in the wilderness, you
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know, being tempted by the evilone.
And it says, out of that time,he emerges in the power of the
Spirit.
So in those 40 days, he's in aplace of prayer and he emerges
in power.
And then he begins to domiracles there in Capernaum.
It says, after a night ofprayer, uh, Jesus in Luke and
Luke chapter six, um, is there anight of prayer, people are
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touching him.
Uh, and uh they just touch him,power goes out from him, uh, and
he heals them all.
But the but the connection ofprayer and power is right there
in that text.
And in Gethsemane, uh, he ispraying, right?
He's struggling with his willand the father's will.
But it says an angel comes andstrengthens him.
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He gets supernatural strengthand power in that place.
So he emerges out of Gethsemane,for example, having received
power to do the Father's will.
He's resolute, he's surrendered,he's he's clear.
Uh the twelve disciples are notat all.
They They haven't been praying,they've been sleeping, and they
come out and they cut off earsand they abandon Jesus because
they they're not discerning whatthe Father is doing at all.
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They don't have any power, theydon't have discernment, they
leave communion.
When Judas betrays Jesus, theyjust they scatter, they they
run.
Prayer is where we receive ourpower, not the power to make
things happen.
It's power to remain, power topersevere, power to discern,
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power to stay with Jesus whenthings, everything in us, want
to run.
There's no strategy or supportsystem that can give you that.
It all see the prayer, when yousee Jesus' prayer life, it
actually reframes Luke 11 andLuke 18, where it says, for
example, in Luke 18, we shouldalways pray and not give up.
There's two parables aboutpersistence.
But the persistence isn't to getwhat we want.
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It's actually persistence thatwhen we don't, when we have,
when we're disappointed, when itlooks like things are going
sideways, uh, when it doesn'tlook like God's answering us,
Jesus is preparing us to staywith the Father and keep
praying.
Um, when there's delays andsilence and disappointments,
that we should always pray,Jesus says, and not give up.
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So again, we do pray.
We we have things we areinterceding about, but we always
hold it with an open hand.
God's not stingy.
Jesus made very clear, yourfather knows what you need
before you ask.
And if you being evil know howto give good gifts to your
children, how much more will theFather in heaven give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask?
And so we don't pray to getcertain results from God.
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We pray to remain with God anddo his will.
We we pray not to get what wewant.
We actually pray, we actuallypray to actually do what he
wants.
We pray to actually become thepeople that want to do what he
wants.
That's powerful.
And uh, we pray to receivestrength to follow him, even
when, my goodness, when his willis unfathomable.
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Sometimes we don't know whathe's doing.
It's hidden.
But this reframing of prayer andpower, it turned my life upside
down.
My goodness, it so set me free.
See, I wanted power to makethings happen.
God wanted to give me power toremain faithful and discern his
will and do his will, and uh towait more, to love my enemies,
etc.
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So it took me years to acceptwhat should have been so obvious
from the beginning.
Prayer is where God gets hiswill done in the world by first
getting his will done in me andthrough me.
I'll say it again.
Prayer is where God gets hiswill done in the world first by
getting it done in me andthrough me.
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And uh, wow.
Last month, Jerry and I uh werein, we had we had a mission
trip.
We we booked it, we went toIstanbul first, formerly
Constantinople in Turkey, and wesaw where the church was the
center of the church for athousand years before the
Ottoman Empire conquered it andit became Muslim.
But that was that wasConstantinople for over a
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thousand years, a center ofChristianity there in Turkey.
Then we went over to Bulgariaand we did a two-day uh
emotionally healthy leaders'conference for leaders from
throughout Europe.
And then we went to Greece, andwe actually saw some Orthodox
churches and monasteries.
It was fascinating.
But one of the places we went towas a church uh called the Hagia
(25:15):
Sophia, a smaller version ofwhat's in uh Istanbul, in it in
Thessaloniki.
And in that church, and I Iwanted to pray, I wanted to pray
with some of the icons that arethere.
They're basically meant to bewindows to help us to pray.
Remember, most of churchhistory, people were illiterate,
so they used uh pictures andicons and things to help people
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pray.
That's windows to get to God.
So over the altar was thismassive uh mosaic of Mary.
And here it is, if those of youwatching on YouTube uh can see
this right now.
It's a it's this very famousimage of Mary holding Jesus as
probably a looks like about atwo-year-old, three-year-old.
And she's holding him and she'sgazing at us, and and very much
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he's sitting down there at rest,and and Jesus is kind of seeking
a blessing to us.
And it's it's a beautifulpicture.
But God just caught me with thatmosaic.
And I just sat there foractually a couple of hours, and
uh, because in it you you haveMary, the mother of Jesus, uh,
she is surrounded by light, youknow, it's gold, which is the
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radiance of God's light andglory around her.
And her gaze is steady, she'snot hurried.
Uh, it's her attentiveness, herwhole body is organized around
Jesus, holding him.
Uh, she's attending to him,she's beholding him, she's
treasuring him, she's ponderinghim.
It's it's taking the verses inscripture, especially in Luke,
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where it says, you know, forexample, when the shepherds come
and when Jesus is beingdedicated to the temple or at 12
years old, she treasures andponders these things in her
heart.
And um, she's not striving.
And I just was so struck by howmuch of my leadership and my
Christian life has been makingplans and striving.
And here's Mary, she'sreceiving, she's active, but
(27:10):
she's actively receiving theseeds of God coming through
Jesus in her life.
And she's attentive to it andgoing with that.
And I said, that's leadership.
And actually, there was anothericon that was there, and it
showed Mary at Pentecost,because Mary was there at
Pentecost, but she's seated andcalm, and it shows a lot of some
of the people chaotic around herfalling over when the spirit
(27:31):
comes at Pentecost.
But she's just pondering andwatching as the will of the
Father is unfolding.
I just said to myself, oh mygosh, if I was Mary and knew I
was the mother of God, wasliving inside of me, I would
say, Jesus, we got to get youinto the best schools for when
you, you know, bestkindergarten, the best
elementary school, because wegot to build a network for you
for when you build yourministry.
I mean, none of that.
She's just waiting and followingJesus coming through her.
(27:55):
That's her leadership.
That's why she says, Behold, I'mthe servant of the Lord, may it
be to me as you have said.
She doesn't, she doesn'toriginate the mission.
She simply follows the mission.
That's why she says at Cana, thewedding of Cana, do whatever he
tells you to do.
That's leadership.
Do whatever he tells you to do.
She's doing, and I was sopersonally inspired, blessed, I
(28:19):
said, Lord, that's how I want tolive my life.
I want to, you, you live insideof me, and whatever you're doing
in birthing is what I want todo.
I want to treasure and ponderyou.
And I want to receive the seedsof what you want to do through
my life and my ministry, but Idon't want to make something
happen that you're not doing.
(28:39):
And I just saw Mary as atremendous model of prayer and
leadership, communion,discernment.
And I got a, I got a chart hereof two, you know, two, two ways
to go.
Mary is, you know, her authorityis received, not achieved.
Uh, her visibility is she'shidden.
In fact, as you go throughscripture, she becomes less
(29:00):
visible, and Jesus, of course,more.
She's being with Jesus.
Her fruitfulness flows out ofthat.
Her identity is not coming fromanything she does, but out of
him in her.
She's not scaling anything.
It's one Jesus, one child inthis small village of Nazareth,
you know.
Her pace is slow, unhurried,peaceful, not speedy, urgent,
(29:24):
frantic.
She's holding a lot of mystery.
Like she doesn't know all thatGod's doing.
We don't know.
We know what we have a piece ofwhat the Father's doing, and
that's what we hold on to, butwe don't have the big picture.
But she's content with that.
And her power, she's powerless.
A sword's going to go throughher.
Uh, she's not in control.
He is, and she follows him.
And her aim is union with Jesus,right?
(29:46):
Just following him.
She's being one with Jesus.
And uh versus praying to makethings happen, you know,
controlling, competent, and all.
And so these three aspects ofJesus' life, I pray that you
will just ponder them.
Let them change your life asthey've changed mine.
Prayer is actually a place ofcommunion with the Father.
It's a place for receivingclarity and direction, and it is
(30:09):
a place of actual power.
So may the Spirit of God fall onyou over time, and may you
delight in the one who delightsin you.
May you behold the one whobeholds you and smiles.
God bless everybody.
Great to be with you today.
Have a good day.
See you in the next podcast forreversal number two.
Hi, my name is Pete Scero.
I want to welcome you today tothe Emotionally Healthy Leader
Podcast.
Great to be with you.
And our topic today is reversalnumber one: moving from prayer
for results to prayer forcommunion.
Moving from prayer for resultsto prayer for communion.
(00:23):
Now, uh, I spent, as many of youknow, the last three and a half
years writing a book calledEmotionally Healthy Success.
And actually, I was thinkingabout this issue of success for
the years prior to that, beforeI actually started writing.
But I so as a result, I spentyears in the Gospels, and in
particular in the Gospel ofLuke, looking at Jesus and his
(00:47):
life and his understanding ofsuccess, how he measured it.
And so, core to that is heinvites us into four, what I
call four great reversals of howwe define what success actually
is.
And it's very challenging for usto receive these four reversals
in the Western church in the21st century.
(01:08):
It's just so counterintuitive tohow we operate today, and it's
very challenging.
So uh actually in the book, it'sactually there are small
sections of a chapter.
It's one chapter, but uh therewas so much I could have said
about each one of thesereversals.
It's so much material that eachcould have been its own book,
(01:28):
let alone its own chapter.
But because I had a larger goalin mind, uh, as you'll see when
you look at that book, um, ithad to be condensed into a
chapter.
So I want to take this week aswell as the following three
podcasts to talk uh a bit morein depth and broadly about each
of these four reversals becausethey are so significant for us.
(01:50):
Because we've all been shaped onhow we understand prayer, how we
understand success, uh, and bywe've been formed by our
families of origin, first ofall.
Secondly, we've been formed byour uh our culture.
Uh thirdly, we've been formed bychurch culture.
And then finally, we've gotpowers and principalities that
(02:10):
are seeking to shape us andconform us to a certain way of
living.
And so we've got all theseenormous external forces.
And Jesus comes and he buststhrough them uh for us.
And uh and it actually, thewarfare around what I'm talking
about in this podcast and in theones that follows is really as
significant as the temptationsthat Jesus faced in the
(02:32):
wilderness.
Uh, if you remember, those threemassive temptations by the
devil, they weren't just forJesus then.
They actually are kind of likeparadigms or archetypes.
They're there, they contain inthose three temptations all the
temptations that we face onearth.
They're so profound and so deep.
Remember, turning stones tobread, make something happen was
(02:54):
the first one.
And Jesus refuses and citesscripture, and then the second
temptation is throw yourselfdown from this temple and God
will rescue you.
He quotes scripture, and Jesussays, You shall not test the
Lord your God.
And the third temptation is justbow to me for a minute, I'll
give you all the kingdoms.
And Jesus, you know, says awayfrom me.
And and uh but in some ways,these four reversals we're gonna
(03:16):
talk about are uh really are abattle uh for freedom and in
order for us to do God's will.
So we're gonna talk about movingfrom prayer moving from prayer
for results, we pray just forresults, to praying actually as
communion with God.
And then I'll we'll go into thefollowing three in the next few
podcasts.
So um these are really aninvitation to an entirely new
(03:41):
kingdom.
So let's go into this reversalnumber one of moving from prayer
for results.
I need God to need you to dothis or do this in your name,
versus prayer as fundamentallycommunion with God.
Now, in my early years, I wastaught very clearly that the
ministry and what I do will onlygo as far as my prayer life of
(04:04):
intercession, that everythingrises and falls on prayer,
primarily intercession with Godfor Him to move in power.
And so I read all the prayerbooks and revival books, and a
revival was going to come, ifGod's power was gonna get
released, if people were goingto come to Christ, his ministry
was gonna grow and the kingdomwas gonna expand, it was gonna
require a cost in prayer.
(04:27):
Everything rises and falls onprayer, intercession, and uh,
you know, paying that kind of aprice.
And so I read books, I went toconferences, all that.
And um, and and key scriptureswere things like, you know,
Jesus, when he heals a demonizedboy, on the disciple and
disciples who weren't unable todo it, they say, Jesus, you
know, why couldn't we drive outthis demon?
(04:47):
And he says, this kind can onlycome out by prayer.
Some versions include fasting.
And then texts such as when hesays to Peter at some point,
when he curses a fig tree, havefaith in God, um, whatever you
ask for in prayer, believe thatyou've received it and it will
be done.
So your belief is key for it toget done.
And then even texts like Luke 18about the Jesus says how we
(05:11):
should always pray and not giveup, that the widow comes to this
unjust judge and he she hebadgers him day and night.
And actually, the text says inthe original Greek, until she
gives him a black eye is theimage.
And then he finally relents andgives her what she wants.
And so it's going to take comingto God with that kind of
relentlessness and persistenceand intercession for God to
(05:32):
move.
And so I prayed.
I prayed a lot personally, andthen our church, as we planted
it, I we we prayer was, hey, wehave prayer meetings five
mornings a week, um, earlymorning prayer meetings.
And once a month we had a youknow half night of prayer all
together, you know, storming theheavens.
And uh and it was so God wouldgrow the church.
(05:53):
God would grow people coming toChrist, not just grow our
church, but expand his kingdom.
And and God did grow the church.
And it was slow.
Uh people came to Christ.
There was a move of God, but itwas slow.
It wasn't Pentecost, like I wasexpecting.
Pentecost and then the 3,000,5,000.
And uh, but gradually whathappened was I prayer went from
(06:15):
a joy to a duty and anobligation.
Uh, delight seemed to disappear.
And uh, but then over time, twounexpected gifts came my way
that shifted everything.
Uh, the first was uh my exposureto Trappist monks.
(06:35):
And I'll never forget, thesewere folks who who uh their
whole life was dedicated toprayer.
And I remember uh spending timewith them, and they would meet
seven times a day for what wascalled the daily office.
They were Benedictine monks fromyou know from 3:15 in the
morning to you know 5:30 and toyou know 6:30 at different
points, a whole life of prayer.
(06:56):
And uh their primary prayer,there was intercession, but it
was really communion.
It was silence and stillness andbeing with God was the focus.
It was communion with God.
And I was just like, what'swrong with these folks?
You know, initially, I'm like,this doesn't count.
Um, but I was I was stunned bytheir level of surrender to God
(07:17):
and his will.
And it caught, it caused me torealize how much of my prayer
life was not surrendered.
It was really my will be done,and how much of my will was
mixed in with wanting God's willand uh my and how stubborn my
self-will was.
Uh, and I wanted to bend God.
I kind of saw prayer as bendingGod to do my will, and I
(07:39):
realized how twisted things hadgotten inside of me and my
desire to see God's kingdomexpand.
Um, it all surfaced.
Once I got silent and still andlots of solitude, it was very
sobering to me and embarrassingto realize how much of making it
happen bigger, better, fasterhad gotten into me and had
informed my prayer life.
And the second big thing thatreally impacted my prayer life
(08:01):
was a big study in the Gospel ofLuke on Jesus' prayer life.
And that was transformative.
It actually is a book writtencalled Jesus the Intercessor.
It was actually a PhD thesisturned into a book, a bit
academic, but a deep study onthe prayer life of Jesus in the
book of Luke actually revealsJesus as a praying Messiah.
(08:23):
It's powerful.
He's a praying Messiah.
That's who who he is.
He's called the intercessor.
In uh Romans 8, he's our notjust an earthly intercessor,
he's our heavenly intercessor.
It's just it's who he is.
Uh we see that in Romans 8 andactually Hebrews 7, he's called
the intercessor.
And uh we see Jesus in theGospel of Luke constantly in
(08:43):
prayer.
Uh he's he's praying for foractually three things we're
gonna see.
Three aspects of that prayerlife, and I'll talk about them
right now.
He's he's he's he's incommunion, he lives in communion
with the Father.
Uh, prayer is communion.
That is prayer, it gets clarityuh and direction from the Father
in prayer.
And then finally, his powerflows from his prayer life.
(09:05):
So everything comes out of hisprayer life.
You can't understand Jesus asthe Messiah without the prayer
life.
So uh let me just take thosethree aspects of what Jesus in
the Gospel of Luke and hisprayer life, because to me they
they kind of encompass what dowe, when we talk about Jesus
moving from praying for resultsto praying as communion, uh,
this is what the shift begins tolook like.
(09:27):
So uh let's just take prayer ascommunion uh first for Jesus.
From his very from the veryoutset, we see this in his
baptism.
A voice comes from heaven as hegets baptized by John the
Baptist.
This is my beloved son with whomI am well pleased.
You know, heaven opens up.
And you've got this tremendousimage of Jesus being delighted
(09:51):
in by the Father.
Uh in other words, prayer isinitially revealed to us, not as
petition or performance, butactually a place where Jesus
receives love and delight.
This is my son, my beloved son,my loved son, my priceless son,
that's called in one version,with whom I am pleased.
(10:13):
And I just I love that becauseit changes everything about
prayer.
Uh, we're coming to a fatherwhose face lights up when he
sees us.
In other words, we come to theFather in the name of Jesus.
We've been adopted daughters,adopted sons.
So every time we come before theFather, we don't come in our own
righteousness, our ownperformance.
We come in in the righteousnessand in the name and the
(10:35):
performance and the perfectrecord of Jesus.
And the Father delights in uswhen he sees us.
We're coming, you know, he wemay acknowledge that God loves
us, but actually in prayer isthe place, and we may even hear
moments, oh, God said I loveyou, but then we immediately
shift our attention to what Igot to get done for God.
But prayer actually is aninvitation to linger and to
(10:57):
remain in receiving the love ofthe Father for us, his delight
for us.
So, in other words, when wepray, God's not saying, shape up
or ship out, or do you knowwhat?
I got a lot of things for you todo.
Let me tell you about your to-dolist today, or I'm disappointed
with you.
You just don't pray enough, youdon't read the Bible enough.
Uh, it's none of that.
Uh uh instead, you we we pray inbefore an open heaven like
(11:19):
Jesus.
Again, we're we we're adopted.
We pray in the name of Jesus,and God freely offers us
affection and delight.
I want you to hear that.
There's a great quote by aJesuit priest uh from India
named uh Anthony DeMello.
And he says he defined prayer asthis.
(11:39):
He goes, prayer is simplybeholding the one who beholds us
and smiles.
I want to say that again to youbecause I I've written that in
my journal.
I've I've let myself bask inthat because it just to me
captures what Jesus understoodfundamentally in this prayer
life as communion with theFather.
(12:00):
He said this Anthony DeMelloprayer is behold the one
beholding us and smiling.
I want you, I want you to sitwith that uh and you sit before
the father in prayer.
Behold the one beholding you andsmiling.
Oh because if we don't receivethe father's love and delight
(12:23):
first, uh we get driven by allkinds of unconscious stuff,
comparing ourselves, my doingenough and proving ourselves.
And so we become performersrather than beloved sons and
daughters, which is really thecore of prayer.
We're meant to bathe in thatEphesians 3, 18 and 19, the love
of Jesus that surpassesknowledge.
(12:44):
It's a height and depth andbreadth of the love of Jesus.
We are meant to bathe and swimin that love that is beyond
anything in the world uhhumanity could ever even
conceive.
Prayer is where we actuallyreceive the Father's love, not
as a heady thing, but as a livedexperience.
It's actually, it's where we letthe, we let the Father enjoy us
(13:08):
as his sons and daughters, andwe enjoy being enjoyed.
It's actually a soil out ofwhich we begin to lead and live
differently.
And and as we allow ourselves tolive in that love of God, uh,
because it doesn't comenaturally to us, we're actually
changed.
Uh and Jesus shows us thatcommuning with the Father and
(13:29):
receiving his love is not aluxury.
It's actually the core of ourlives.
It's it's it's the first orderof what he's invited us and
called us to do.
It's it's to receive his love,is to pray as communion with the
Father.
We're abiding, John 15.
Where Jesus says, remain in mylove, uh, as I remain in the
(13:49):
Father's love.
We're called to abide in himbecause apart from him we can we
can do nothing.
There's no fruit.
This is first.
What a shift.
And I pray you'll make thisshift.
I know for me, it shifted mywhole prayer life.
So I do morning, midday,evening, daily offices, prayer,
but I the the the silence andthe stillness is first about
receiving his love and beholdingthe one who beholds me and
(14:13):
smiles and allowing his love tosaturate me.
Uh and I want to invite you todo the same.
It's transformative.
Everything else will follow outof that one.
And um and that's why silence isso critical.
And out of that, I also then Isurrender.
I surrender my will to theFather's will uh from that place
because I'm so loved, I cantrust him.
I'm whatever you want, Lord.
(14:34):
This is our first work.
All right.
So prayer, Jesus models for us aprayer as communion.
But then Jesus also models forus that prayer for him was a
place of clarity and direction.
It was a place of clarity anddirection for him.
I mean, Luke often shows usJesus withdrawing away from the
crowds to pray, to receivedirection about where to go.
(14:57):
So, for example, remember thatthe revival breaks out in
Capernaum, uh, and all the, youknow, the whole town is seeking
after him, and he goes awayearly in the morning to pray.
And they want him to stay andnurture this revival in
Capernaum.
I mean, who would who wants toleave this great move of the
Father?
But Jesus says, you know, no, Imust go to other cities also.
(15:17):
He's gotten clarity from thecrowds.
Actually, in in Luke 5, 16, itsays he often withdrew to lonely
places and prayed.
Uh, but actually, the context ofthat is his popularity is
growing.
And so he's got to get away fromthe crowds who are who are
seeking to make him so popularand distort his mission.
(15:38):
He's got to get away to theFather to know where to go and
get direction.
In fact, before he chooses the12, uh, he prays all night, it
says in Luke 6.
Now we forget that when he praysall night and chooses those 12,
that means there was a lot ofpeople he did not choose.
Imagine the disappointment inthem, but he gets that
discernment in that place ofprayer.
(16:00):
Even if you look closely at uhthe especially the gospel of
Luke, you'll find him prayingbefore there's a new revelation
of himself to his disciples.
So I see that, for example, inthe Mount of Transfiguration,
he's there praying.
And then he got direction aboutrevealing himself in all of his
(16:20):
glory.
The first time he tells Peterand the disciples about the
crucifixion, uh, that he's goingto the cross to die, he doesn't
reveal that until, if you noticeclosely, he prays first.
And so a number of times when hedoes new teachings to the
disciples, he's he the timing ofthat is coming out of a place of
prayer for him.
(16:41):
Uh so prayer is where Jesushears.
Do this, don't do that.
Um, and uh, so we don't pray toget brainstorms, you know.
We we we we pray to not not toget our best plans, we pray to
get God's plans.
We attune, you know, we teachattunement in uh relationships.
We want to learn to listen, toattune, to feel what another
(17:01):
person's feeling.
Well, in some way, in the sameway, when prayer, we attune to
the Father.
We get attuned to him aboutwhere he's going, what he's
feeling and thinking.
And so we're attuning, thebiblical word often is we
listen.
You know, I love that in theMount of Transfiguration, you
listen to him.
Peter's making plans, and thefather speaks and says, listen
(17:22):
to him.
Who?
Jesus.
And so we pray as we pray, welay aside our agendas.
I've got a lot of agendas.
I lay aside my plans.
I got a lot of plans.
And it's when we let go of whatwe think is strategic.
Not that we don't do strategy,we surrender our wills to God's
will.
We get aligned, you know, withthe Father.
But this is something we don'tpractice a lot, and it's very
(17:45):
difficult to do.
Uh, we want clarity now.
We want the green light at theend of our team meeting.
Can we go forward, God?
You know, we want directionimmediately.
Uh but the clarity that Jesusreceived from the Father
required attentiveness, uh, nota quick consultation.
And so real discernment takestime in prayer.
(18:10):
Uh, it requires a quieting ofour self-will and to let our
disordered desires fall away.
We have lots of disordereddesires.
We can't even sort them out.
And we need to be still so wecan hear what God's saying and
places he wants to go.
So even when I've done twosuccessions, succession from New
Life Fellowship Church and asuccession for emotionally
(18:30):
healthy discipleship.
But in each case, um I, ofcourse, I prayed for God's
direction, you know, who shouldtake over.
And I wanted a healthysuccession for long-term
generational fruit.
However, in my prayer times, andI remember through both
processes, I re I had tosurrender in that place of
(18:51):
communion and getting direction,and I had to surrender saying, I
recognize that, okay, God, thewhole thing may not, you have to
make this happen.
There's so many factors beyondmy control.
And I had to surrender that itmay, maybe God, not my will, but
your will be done.
And it may be that this thingscatters into pieces.
That's not what happened.
But I had to, in that place ofgetting clarity, always be like
(19:14):
Jesus in Gethsemane,surrendering my will to God's
will, uh, knowing that, youknow, God is God.
And so even in write, when Iwrite, um, and I don't write a
ton of books, but what I write,what the theme is, and when I
write has to come out ofdiscernment.
A long process of discernmentfor me.
(19:35):
Um and in fact, again, place soso I I, again, that's why my one
of my favorite texts in the NewTestament is the text of the
Mount of Transfiguration.
And the reason it's one of myfavorite texts is because Peter
is making plans when he seesJesus in all his glory and he
sees Elijah, he sees Moses, hegoes, Oh, Lord, let's call him
(19:56):
Lord, Lord, we want to buildthree tents here.
One for you, one for Elijah, onefor Moses.
So he's making a plan.
And the father interrupts himand stops him from this plan and
says, Listen to him.
Because Jesus is talking aboutgoing to the cross and dying and
a whole different plan thanPeter's got.
And I just, I said, that's mylife.
You know, I so often I don'twait for, I'm not in communion
(20:17):
and I'm not in waiting forclarity and direction.
I just, I'm moving.
And I love the way Jesus justthe Father intervenes there and
stops Peter.
Wonderful text.
All right.
And finally, the third thinghappening in the prayer life of
Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.
It's not just communion.
He's not just learning aboutclarity and purpose and
(20:38):
direction.
He actually, in prayer, it's theplace where he receives power.
It's really another fascinatingconnection when you look closely
at the Gospel of Luke.
Jesus expressed, I mean,possessed extraordinary power, I
mean, extraordinary power, butit flowed from his continual
life of prayer with the Father.
His public ministry began after40 days in the wilderness, you
(21:01):
know, being tempted by the evilone.
And it says, out of that time,he emerges in the power of the
Spirit.
So in those 40 days, he's in aplace of prayer and he emerges
in power.
And then he begins to domiracles there in Capernaum.
It says, after a night ofprayer, uh, Jesus in Luke and
Luke chapter six, um, is there anight of prayer, people are
(21:23):
touching him.
Uh, and uh they just touch him,power goes out from him, uh, and
he heals them all.
But the but the connection ofprayer and power is right there
in that text.
And in Gethsemane, uh, he ispraying, right?
He's struggling with his willand the father's will.
But it says an angel comes andstrengthens him.
(21:44):
He gets supernatural strengthand power in that place.
So he emerges out of Gethsemane,for example, having received
power to do the Father's will.
He's resolute, he's surrendered,he's he's clear.
Uh the twelve disciples are notat all.
They They haven't been praying,they've been sleeping, and they
come out and they cut off earsand they abandon Jesus because
they they're not discerning whatthe Father is doing at all.
(22:07):
They don't have any power, theydon't have discernment, they
leave communion.
When Judas betrays Jesus, theyjust they scatter, they they
run.
Prayer is where we receive ourpower, not the power to make
things happen.
It's power to remain, power topersevere, power to discern,
(22:28):
power to stay with Jesus whenthings, everything in us, want
to run.
There's no strategy or supportsystem that can give you that.
It all see the prayer, when yousee Jesus' prayer life, it
actually reframes Luke 11 andLuke 18, where it says, for
example, in Luke 18, we shouldalways pray and not give up.
There's two parables aboutpersistence.
But the persistence isn't to getwhat we want.
(22:50):
It's actually persistence thatwhen we don't, when we have,
when we're disappointed, when itlooks like things are going
sideways, uh, when it doesn'tlook like God's answering us,
Jesus is preparing us to staywith the Father and keep
praying.
Um, when there's delays andsilence and disappointments,
that we should always pray,Jesus says, and not give up.
(23:10):
So again, we do pray.
We we have things we areinterceding about, but we always
hold it with an open hand.
God's not stingy.
Jesus made very clear, yourfather knows what you need
before you ask.
And if you being evil know howto give good gifts to your
children, how much more will theFather in heaven give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask?
And so we don't pray to getcertain results from God.
(23:31):
We pray to remain with God anddo his will.
We we pray not to get what wewant.
We actually pray, we actuallypray to actually do what he
wants.
We pray to actually become thepeople that want to do what he
wants.
That's powerful.
And uh, we pray to receivestrength to follow him, even
when, my goodness, when his willis unfathomable.
(23:53):
Sometimes we don't know whathe's doing.
It's hidden.
But this reframing of prayer andpower, it turned my life upside
down.
My goodness, it so set me free.
See, I wanted power to makethings happen.
God wanted to give me power toremain faithful and discern his
will and do his will, and uh towait more, to love my enemies,
etc.
(24:13):
So it took me years to acceptwhat should have been so obvious
from the beginning.
Prayer is where God gets hiswill done in the world by first
getting his will done in me andthrough me.
I'll say it again.
Prayer is where God gets hiswill done in the world first by
getting it done in me andthrough me.
(24:34):
And uh, wow.
Last month, Jerry and I uh werein, we had we had a mission
trip.
We we booked it, we went toIstanbul first, formerly
Constantinople in Turkey, and wesaw where the church was the
center of the church for athousand years before the
Ottoman Empire conquered it andit became Muslim.
But that was that wasConstantinople for over a
(24:54):
thousand years, a center ofChristianity there in Turkey.
Then we went over to Bulgariaand we did a two-day uh
emotionally healthy leaders'conference for leaders from
throughout Europe.
And then we went to Greece, andwe actually saw some Orthodox
churches and monasteries.
It was fascinating.
But one of the places we went towas a church uh called the Hagia
(25:15):
Sophia, a smaller version ofwhat's in uh Istanbul, in it in
Thessaloniki.
And in that church, and I Iwanted to pray, I wanted to pray
with some of the icons that arethere.
They're basically meant to bewindows to help us to pray.
Remember, most of churchhistory, people were illiterate,
so they used uh pictures andicons and things to help people
(25:38):
pray.
That's windows to get to God.
So over the altar was thismassive uh mosaic of Mary.
And here it is, if those of youwatching on YouTube uh can see
this right now.
It's a it's this very famousimage of Mary holding Jesus as
probably a looks like about atwo-year-old, three-year-old.
And she's holding him and she'sgazing at us, and and very much
(26:01):
he's sitting down there at rest,and and Jesus is kind of seeking
a blessing to us.
And it's it's a beautifulpicture.
But God just caught me with thatmosaic.
And I just sat there foractually a couple of hours, and
uh, because in it you you haveMary, the mother of Jesus, uh,
she is surrounded by light, youknow, it's gold, which is the
(26:23):
radiance of God's light andglory around her.
And her gaze is steady, she'snot hurried.
Uh, it's her attentiveness, herwhole body is organized around
Jesus, holding him.
Uh, she's attending to him,she's beholding him, she's
treasuring him, she's ponderinghim.
It's it's taking the verses inscripture, especially in Luke,
(26:46):
where it says, you know, forexample, when the shepherds come
and when Jesus is beingdedicated to the temple or at 12
years old, she treasures andponders these things in her
heart.
And um, she's not striving.
And I just was so struck by howmuch of my leadership and my
Christian life has been makingplans and striving.
And here's Mary, she'sreceiving, she's active, but
(27:10):
she's actively receiving theseeds of God coming through
Jesus in her life.
And she's attentive to it andgoing with that.
And I said, that's leadership.
And actually, there was anothericon that was there, and it
showed Mary at Pentecost,because Mary was there at
Pentecost, but she's seated andcalm, and it shows a lot of some
of the people chaotic around herfalling over when the spirit
(27:31):
comes at Pentecost.
But she's just pondering andwatching as the will of the
Father is unfolding.
I just said to myself, oh mygosh, if I was Mary and knew I
was the mother of God, wasliving inside of me, I would
say, Jesus, we got to get youinto the best schools for when
you, you know, bestkindergarten, the best
elementary school, because wegot to build a network for you
for when you build yourministry.
I mean, none of that.
She's just waiting and followingJesus coming through her.
(27:55):
That's her leadership.
That's why she says, Behold, I'mthe servant of the Lord, may it
be to me as you have said.
She doesn't, she doesn'toriginate the mission.
She simply follows the mission.
That's why she says at Cana, thewedding of Cana, do whatever he
tells you to do.
That's leadership.
Do whatever he tells you to do.
She's doing, and I was sopersonally inspired, blessed, I
(28:19):
said, Lord, that's how I want tolive my life.
I want to, you, you live insideof me, and whatever you're doing
in birthing is what I want todo.
I want to treasure and ponderyou.
And I want to receive the seedsof what you want to do through
my life and my ministry, but Idon't want to make something
happen that you're not doing.
(28:39):
And I just saw Mary as atremendous model of prayer and
leadership, communion,discernment.
And I got a, I got a chart hereof two, you know, two, two ways
to go.
Mary is, you know, her authorityis received, not achieved.
Uh, her visibility is she'shidden.
In fact, as you go throughscripture, she becomes less
(29:00):
visible, and Jesus, of course,more.
She's being with Jesus.
Her fruitfulness flows out ofthat.
Her identity is not coming fromanything she does, but out of
him in her.
She's not scaling anything.
It's one Jesus, one child inthis small village of Nazareth,
you know.
Her pace is slow, unhurried,peaceful, not speedy, urgent,
(29:24):
frantic.
She's holding a lot of mystery.
Like she doesn't know all thatGod's doing.
We don't know.
We know what we have a piece ofwhat the Father's doing, and
that's what we hold on to, butwe don't have the big picture.
But she's content with that.
And her power, she's powerless.
A sword's going to go throughher.
Uh, she's not in control.
He is, and she follows him.
And her aim is union with Jesus,right?
(29:46):
Just following him.
She's being one with Jesus.
And uh versus praying to makethings happen, you know,
controlling, competent, and all.
And so these three aspects ofJesus' life, I pray that you
will just ponder them.
Let them change your life asthey've changed mine.
Prayer is actually a place ofcommunion with the Father.
It's a place for receivingclarity and direction, and it is
(30:09):
a place of actual power.
So may the Spirit of God fall onyou over time, and may you
delight in the one who delightsin you.
May you behold the one whobeholds you and smiles.
God bless everybody.
Great to be with you today.
Have a good day.
See you in the next podcast forreversal number two.
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