Where It Begins

So much is accomplished in hidden places. Secret places. All life begins there, in fact.  

Human life. A baby is conceived in secret places that lovers run to. And, the baby comes alive in a place that no one sees, except God. 

Plants and trees start their lives in hidden places. From the place of quietness and secret, they emerge from a seed for all to see.

Everything creative, too, comes first from unseen places. Songwriters hear that number one hit like a stream that runs through their thoughts. Book ideas and plots. Multi-million dollar business ideas. A teacher's vision for her classroom. All are birthed inside the hidden places of our mind. 

And just as it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. Spiritual Life starts in secret places. It starts with a prayer. A prayer from the mouth of Jesus, Himself, in fact. The Bible talks about Him being our intercessor before God the Father. So, in unseen places, a prayer is spoken-- a prayer of Life. Prayers for you and prayers for me. 

Truth is, this is how God has set up His Kingdom to be run -- that everything would originate in prayer. Everything would start with intimacy. John 15 describes it like a vine and branches. It's only in our closeness with the Lord and through Him that we will ever see Life or Fruit. Apart from Him we can do nothing.  

God intended prayer to be the launching point of all things in our life. Though some might see it as a last resort, it is actually supposed to be the place we start from. And our enemy, the devil, knows this. He knows how this thing works and he will try to pull us away from it everyday. He makes deliberate attempts, in fact. He hands us lies like: "God doesn't hear you. God doesn't care. You're wasting your time. There's other things to be done that are far more productive in the Kingdom." Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah! All lies. So far from the Truth and God's heart for us. We need to be careful that we don't give in to such foolish thinking. 

Prayer and time spent with God is the most productive thing we will do all day. Why? Because everything springs forth from that. I can say, for sure, that my best days I ever lived have been because I consciously abided in God.  Not just spent 15 minutes with Him in the morning, but that I walked through my day with Him.  

And that is God's ultimate desire. That it would be again like it was with Adam in the Garden of Eden. They walked together. They fellowshipped and talked together. They communed. Adam didn't know life any other way (until the day sin entered the picture). And God wants us to understand and experience this amazing world of prayer in the same way.