Solitary Time With God
Pastor Andre Butler
And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. --Matthew 14:23
Jesus not only went apart to pray but also spent considerable time in prayer. It appears from study of the Word that this was His daily practice; He didn’t pray every now and then or only when He was in trouble. He would go away consistently to spend time with God.
He was staying full. If you are to be like Him, then you need that time, also. You need some time alone with God. Jesus understood that, so He went out “into a solitary place” and prayed. He communed with the Father. This tells me that prayer is of the highest importance.
It is time for mature saints of God to move beyond praying one hour a day. When you’re first saved, it’s good to start with fifteen minutes or so of prayer a day, but once you arrive at the time when you should be eating meat, you need to increase the time you spend with the Father.
You need to become more and more like Jesus. Dr. David Yonggi Cho pastors one of the largest churches in South Korea, and he prays two to three hours a day. In fact, The average member of that church spends an hour and a half a day in prayer.
“Yes, but they live a different life than I live,” you may say.They are people just like you. They have lives just like you have. Seoul, South Korea is comparable to New York. And yet this church has all night prayer every Friday night. It is no coincidence that these people are blessed and have reached the whole country.
You may say, “I can’t see how I can do this.” It all starts with getting an understanding of how important prayer is, then having a commitment to do it, then going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. You need to be able to get up early to pray!
You will not be where you are supposed to be and you will not experience Holy Ghost breakthrough if you do not increase your prayer life. Breakthrough happens when you make a firm commitment to spend quality time with God.
Yes, it is time to step up the amount of time we spend in prayer.
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Pastor Andre Butler is senior pastor of Faith Christian Center, located in the Metro Atlanta, Georgia area. Pastor Andre is also the founder and president of Andre Butler Ministries and Six20 The Gathering Campus Ministry. He is a devoted husband and father of three girls. For more information about Pastor Andre Butler, log onto www.andrebutler.tv or www.myspace.com/pastorandrebutler
*Pastor Andre Butler is a 2009 StreamingFaith.com Guest Columnist. |
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