Housegroups 

Lent: deepening our Prayer Lives
Week 1: Prayer as a Pathway
Sermon Date: March 1st
Reading: Ezekiel 47 v.1-12
 
Please read the passage out loud

Study

In this passage, Ezekiel is envisioning a time when the Lord will bring about absolute healing in the nation of Israel. He sees a time when the river of God’s grace and blessing will flow from His throne and will refresh the Promised Land. While this prophecy is for the nation of Israel, today it can teach us about prayer, and our reluctance to be fully immersed within it.

Q.1 Can we live lives that are fully immersed in prayer and transformation?
       How do you feel when you think of prayer and how you pray?

Prayer connects us to God in relationship, we are connected through all the stages and seasons of life and at times (perhaps this is in despair) we connect more fully. God is always seeking us, far more than we seek him.

Q.2 Can you think of a time in your life when you were desperate and sought God more in prayer? Or was it in a time of joy, which perhaps if we are honest is not that often.

This passage is one of the most beautiful prophecies about living water (prayer) the prophet Ezekiel is at the temple, and sees a little trickle of water flowing out from under the altar. The water flows out of the temple down the south stairs.

As it flows, this paradoxical river does a strange thing – it grows wider and deeper until finally it becomes a stream so great that it can’t be crossed. Moreover, this little stream from the temple is flowing southeast out of Jerusalem toward the Dead Sea, twelve miles away. The area near the Dead Sea is a salt wasteland where nothing can live. But this stream has a marvellous effect. Trees grow on either side, and the waters of the Dead Sea suddenly teem with life.

Jesus says to the woman at the well in John 4 v.10 ‘……he would give you living water’ v.13….’Indeed, the water I give will become like a spring of water welling up to eternal life’.

So we our called to have the Holy Spirit living in us, as well as us being fully immersed in prayer.

Q.3 Can you share with the group how you experience this in your own life?

For those early believers, the living water of the Spirit first fell on the people in the temple as they were worshipping there, as if the Spirit started trickling out of the sanctuary to that little “puddle” of believers.

The trickle of God’s Spirit became ankle deep as the first believers shared the gospel and many in the city believed, and then knee deep as they carried the gospel to the surrounding countries. Instead of running out of energy as it flowed, the river of God’s Spirit got deeper and wider as it flowed! And its ultimate destination is that of the most desolate of wastelands, full of the poisonous water of the Dead Sea. Anywhere it touches it gives new life and a deeper experience of what it is to encounter God. This stream not only can transform us and our relationship with God but it also says something about God’s care for our world. The word healed (Rapa) normally refers to the healing of a deceased body, but here in this passage it involves neutralising the harmful waste which will be in the river, and so it becomes flesh (alive)

This spiritual analogy gives us a powerful picture of increasing power and depth in the spiritual life. It shows us that if we are willing, we can go from ankles, to knees, to waist, to depths where we can no longer touch the ground and must swim
.

Once we are fully immersed, Spurgeon saw ‘a spiritual analogy between the life of faith and swimming. We start out “floating in faith,” somewhat passively, just keeping our head up out of the water’

Q. 4 Do you feel a call to go deeper in your prayer life?

Action

Here are some possible ways in which you might deepen your prayer life:

  • There are many good books that can help us pray, would you consider reading one of them? A few suggestions might be: Prayer by Phillip Yancey, Falling Upward by Richard Rohr, Word into Silence by John Main, Companions of Christ by Margaret Silf or Dirty Glory by Pete Grieg.
  • How about having an app on your phone that can prompt and lead you, here are a few: Sacred Space, Pray as you Go, Daily Prayer, and Prayer Mate.
  • Sign up to a daily prayer inspirational thought coming into you inbox, an excellent one is Brian Draper’s Lent 40 RSVP.
  • Go to one of the prayer offerings in the church this Lent, try something new, let go of the bottom of the river and swim. See the Lent leaflet or Church website for all that is going on.
  • Find a spiritual director or someone to accompany you on your faith journey, come and have a chat with me and I will help you find someone.

Prayer

Instead of praying for each other, try to pray in a different way, think outside of the box and be creative. There are many websites that can inspire you and as well as doing, try to use silence, music, poetry and your senses. Here’s a prayer to end your group with, if you would like to:

Lord, may we bear the fruit of your spirit;
Give us love that boundless, healing energy which transforms the world;
Give us joy, because no darkness or evil can overcome you;
Give us peace to quiet our hearts, and free us from bitterness;
Give us patience to go on following you even when it is hard;
Give us kindness to reach out to our neighbour and to the person who needs to be loved;
Give us goodness to give with a generous heart and without ulterior motive;
Give us faithfulness to stay at your side, come what may;
Give us gentleness to respect the freedom and integrity of others;
Give us self-control to see our weaknesses and overcome them in your strength
Lord, may we all, through your grace, bear the fruit of your Holy Spirit, now and always. Amen
 
 
Sharon Seal


Sharon Seal, 24/02/2020