Alone with God (Part I)
Every Christian agrees that we are all called to pray but few understand the importance of intimacy with God in prayer. We all agree that prayer means talking to God, but the spiritual explanation goes a step further because while we pray, our spirit is in communion with the Spirit of God. It's a bit like the relationship of a married couple; there is an intimacy that can only be done in their bedroom away from everyone. It is this intimate relationship that with time eventually causes the fruit called "child." The relationship in the privacy not only produces a child but it strengthens love in a married couple.
God is the founder of relationship and when He created a human being, he wanted above all to build and develop a relationship. This is the best explanation of prayer. Prayer is not just talking to God but it’s all about maintaining an INTIMATE relationship with God and any intimate relationship with God eventually produces fruit and simultaneously strengthens love and communion.
In this teaching, I will show you by the scriptures that God wants His child to have a solitary place away from everyone and spend time with him. This has always been the case even in the Old Testament when Moses had to retire to Mount Sinai away from everyone to meet God (Exodus 34: 2-3), and even Daniel had to retire to his home praying being alone with God (Daniel 6: 10). But today we are more interested in Jesus as our perfect model. Did Jesus pray? Obviously the answer is yes, but how much time did he spend in prayer? I will give the details of Jesus' prayer life in the second part of this teaching but I can already tell you that Jesus rose every morning to pray before going out to meet people.
Let’s read in Mark 1: 35-37 "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a SOLITARY PLACE, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”"
It is said that Jesus woke up very early in the morning while it was still dark (before the sunrise) and in the Middle East it’s around 4 a.m. He was away from Simon and those who were with him at night and the verse shows us that they had trouble to find him. It is said that he went off to a solitary place. The word "solitary" is translated from the Greek word "eremos" which means "lonesome".
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5: 17 that we must pray without ceasing but many people have misinterpreted this verse believing he meant we should pray every minute of the day (speaking to God), but you know that when we spend an hour with friends for lunch and laughing, we are not speaking to God (so we cease praying). When watching a soccer game for 90 minutes with friends, we are focus on the game and not on God. When one is in a class following a teacher for an hour, his attention is not on God but on the teacher. If prayer only means "speaking to God," it is clear that Paul did not say "speak to God without ceasing" but he meant that we must remain in communion with God and spend time with Him every single day (exactly like Jesus did).
You will get the details in the second part
Chris Ndikumana
Alone with God (Part 2)
In the first part I said that when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5: 17), many Christians interpret this verse by believing that he said that we must pray every minute of the day justifying that to pray only means talking to God but I have shown you that you cannot talk to God every minute of the day because we also need to talk to men and take care of other tasks of the day that require our attention for God’s glory.
It is like the verse in the letter to the Hebrews that says that we have to give a sacrifice of praise without ceasing by the confession of our lips (Hebrews 13: 15). What matters here is not the continuous confession of praise every minute of the day but it is the attitude of gratitude and spending some time during the day to enter into communion with the Lord to thank him.
The solitary place of Jesus to retire to prayer was a mountain called "Mount of Olives" and the bible says that going to this mountain became his custom (Luke 22: 39). He used to spend nights in prayer before meeting the people of God (Luke 21: 37). He spoke to God before speaking to men. We should also speak to God in the morning before speaking to men during the day. The living room of my house is my solitary place and here is my question for you: DO YOU HAVE A SOLITARY PLACE? If the answer is NO, then this message is for you because you need one.
The purpose of this teaching is to show you how God is very attracted and honored when his child put himself away from everything to spend time with Him. Speaking of prayer, Jesus said: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” "(Matthew 6: 6)
Here Jesus did not speak of a room that should be locked but he wanted to talk about a private prayer in which we separate from anything that can distract us. If Jesus had said this in 2015, he would say this: when you enter in prayer, you must not only close the door of your room, but you must also turn off your mobile phone to be far from Facebook mails and Whatsapp, far from internet and television, away from your friends and your family and go entirely to God. Notice that Jesus said that the Father (God) sees what is done in secret! The word "secret" is translated from the Greek word "kryptos" meaning "private". The prayer in private is very powerful and effective. We should also avoid to brag about the time spent in prayer for anything private requires discretion.
I encourage married couples to have time to pray together but I highly recommended to have a special time alone with God even when you are married.
In the third part we will see by a biblical example the impact of spending time alone with God in everyday life.
Chris Ndikumana
Alone with God (Part 3)
As I said from the beginning, God loves to talk to his people in private. He wants your full attention without distraction and when He has your attention, you can be sure that his ear is attentive to your words and you are in an ideal position to benefit from His wealth.
Today I will show you the impact of communion with God in the intimacy here based on Moses’ example. In Exodus 34, we see God giving instructions to Moses when he was still in bed (at night) certainly lying down side of his wife. He said: "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain "(Exodus 34: 1-2). Why the Lord wanted Moses on Mount Sinai while they could communicate when Moses was still at home? Because God could not tell him sacred things while he was still in bed. Moses had to leave his bed and heads to Mount Sinai away from his wife, his children and his neighbors. In the third verse, God clearly says: " NO ONE is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; NOT EVEN the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain "
This should open our spiritual eyes to understand that God wants an intimate relationship with his children and that happens when you get rid of everything to focus in prayer. Each of us should have his mountain (meeting place with God) in the intimacy which is the solitary place.
Moses spent 40 days on the mountain alone with God and something unusual happened when he left the mountain. His skin was radiant so much that no one dared to look at his face. In verse 29 it says, "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was RADIANT because he had spoken with the Lord "(Ex 34: 29). Why was his face radiant? The answer is in the same verse: "Because he had spoken with the Lord." The 35th verse says that Moses had to put a veil over his face in order to communicate with the people and then removed the veil when he returned to the mountain.
The spiritual interpretation is that when we spend time with God in a solitary place, we leave the place with a spiritual radiance and the demons cannot stand it. But there is a condition in order to keep this radiance: We must ALWAYS return to the mountain i.e to the solitary place.
I hope that this teaching has opened our eyes to understand where most of our blessings and our spiritual strength are located: at the SOLITARY PLACE
God bless you
Chris Ndikumana