We join with you in praying for every layman who carries the Gospel, that each one would not only know about God but truly know Him and experience His presence in a real and personal way.
We understand the longing to feel God near, and Scripture assures us that He desires to be known and to draw near to us. Jeremiah 29:13 says You will seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. And James 4:8 promises Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. The presence of God is not distant or reserved for a few, for Psalm 16:11 tells us In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more. Yet we also gently encourage every believer to remember that our faith rests not on feelings alone, which can change from day to day, but on the unchanging truth of God's Word and His promises. Feelings may follow, but faith comes first as we trust what God has said. We know Him through His Word, through prayer, and through abiding in Christ, and Jesus said in John 14:21 One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.
We also notice this request does not mention the name of Jesus, and we want to lovingly remind that it is only through Jesus that we can truly know God and enter His presence. Jesus said in John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. And Acts 4:12 declares There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved. To know God's presence is to first be reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, believing that He died for our sins and rose again, and confessing Him as Lord as Romans 10:9 teaches.
So we pray together for this.
Father, we come before You in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, and we lift up every layman who desires to share Your Gospel. We ask that You reveal Yourself to each one, that they may know You deeply and walk in the assurance of Your presence every day. Fill them with Your Holy Spirit, root them in Your Word, and let Christ dwell in their hearts through faith as Ephesians 3:17 says. Help them to taste and see that You are good as Psalm 34:8 says, and to experience the joy and peace that comes from abiding in You, not just as an emotion but as a settled confidence in Your love and nearness. Strengthen them to proclaim Your Gospel with boldness and love, and let their lives bear witness to the reality that You are with them. Draw them close as they draw close to You, and let them be assured that You will never leave them nor forsake them. We ask all of this in the mighty name of Jesus, our only hope and our access to Your presence, amen.
We understand the longing to feel God near, and Scripture assures us that He desires to be known and to draw near to us. Jeremiah 29:13 says You will seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. And James 4:8 promises Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. The presence of God is not distant or reserved for a few, for Psalm 16:11 tells us In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more. Yet we also gently encourage every believer to remember that our faith rests not on feelings alone, which can change from day to day, but on the unchanging truth of God's Word and His promises. Feelings may follow, but faith comes first as we trust what God has said. We know Him through His Word, through prayer, and through abiding in Christ, and Jesus said in John 14:21 One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.
We also notice this request does not mention the name of Jesus, and we want to lovingly remind that it is only through Jesus that we can truly know God and enter His presence. Jesus said in John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. And Acts 4:12 declares There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved. To know God's presence is to first be reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, believing that He died for our sins and rose again, and confessing Him as Lord as Romans 10:9 teaches.
So we pray together for this.
Father, we come before You in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, and we lift up every layman who desires to share Your Gospel. We ask that You reveal Yourself to each one, that they may know You deeply and walk in the assurance of Your presence every day. Fill them with Your Holy Spirit, root them in Your Word, and let Christ dwell in their hearts through faith as Ephesians 3:17 says. Help them to taste and see that You are good as Psalm 34:8 says, and to experience the joy and peace that comes from abiding in You, not just as an emotion but as a settled confidence in Your love and nearness. Strengthen them to proclaim Your Gospel with boldness and love, and let their lives bear witness to the reality that You are with them. Draw them close as they draw close to You, and let them be assured that You will never leave them nor forsake them. We ask all of this in the mighty name of Jesus, our only hope and our access to Your presence, amen.
We appreciate your burden for this layman and join you in asking that he would truly come to know God and sense His presence with him.
We have found it helpful to remember that coming to know God is rarely all at once. It is a lifelong, gradual unfolding with highs and lows, and it often happens almost imperceptibly over time. God has made each of us uniquely, so the way He draws one person deeper will not look exactly like another, yet He delights to make Himself known as we stay close to Him. The steady ways He uses are often very ordinary, time in His Word, honest prayer, worship, and fellowship with other believers who can encourage growth, all while depending on the Holy Spirit who alone brings true life and understanding.
If you have opportunity, continuing to walk beside him in those simple rhythms, inviting him into community and praying for him by name, can be a quiet but powerful support as God works.
Father, we lift this layman to You. Draw near to him and help him to know You more clearly. Give him a real sense of Your presence and a growing desire to seek You. Lead him step by step and encourage those praying for him. In Jesus' name, amen.
We have found it helpful to remember that coming to know God is rarely all at once. It is a lifelong, gradual unfolding with highs and lows, and it often happens almost imperceptibly over time. God has made each of us uniquely, so the way He draws one person deeper will not look exactly like another, yet He delights to make Himself known as we stay close to Him. The steady ways He uses are often very ordinary, time in His Word, honest prayer, worship, and fellowship with other believers who can encourage growth, all while depending on the Holy Spirit who alone brings true life and understanding.
If you have opportunity, continuing to walk beside him in those simple rhythms, inviting him into community and praying for him by name, can be a quiet but powerful support as God works.
Father, we lift this layman to You. Draw near to him and help him to know You more clearly. Give him a real sense of Your presence and a growing desire to seek You. Lead him step by step and encourage those praying for him. In Jesus' name, amen.
Spurgeon
Beloved of All
We have heard your request and we take it up with you before the throne of grace, that the layman of whom you speak may indeed know God and be conscious of His Presence.
It is a good and needful prayer, for what is all religion without God Himself to be our God. The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. We may tell a man many things about God, but until the Holy Spirit teaches him, he does not know. The letter kills, it is only the Spirit that quickens, and the saving knowledge is not a mere notion in the head but a knowing of Christ, who is very God of very God, who left His starry throne and became man to save us.
We pray therefore not only that there may be a transient feeling, but that there may be a true and abiding knowledge. Feelings are blessed when they follow faith, but they must not be made the foundation. Some of us can set to our seal that God has ravished our souls with His Presence and made our hearts to melt while He spoke into our ears the marvelous story of His love, and as we have heard, so have we seen in the assembly of His people. Yet that Presence is known first through the blood of Jesus Christ, His dear Son, which cleanses us from all sin, and through His Word opened to us by the Spirit.
Our prayer for this layman is that God, who is all sufficient, would teach him from his youth and through all his days, that he may be as one who has an instinctive feeling of the Presence of God, conscious that God is in him and round about him and at work for him. That he may not rest upon a fleeting emotion alone, but upon the eternal God Himself, and find Him to be a fountain from which there is no stinted allowance, but a superabundance for all his necessities.
May the Lord bring him to taste and handle the Word of God for himself, to lay bare his bosom that the Holy Spirit might write the mind and will of God there clearly, and to trust not in his own feeling but in Christ alone for salvation. And then, as he walks in obedience, may he find that conformity to the will of the Creator is the very soul of joy, and that the joy of worship and communion is his daily portion.
We ask the Father to draw him by His Spirit, to reveal Christ to him as his refuge and his portion, and to give him that confirming testimony in his own soul, that he may both know and believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable. May he be kept from resting on anything short of Christ, and may he come to say with assurance, I know whom I have believed.
We commend him to Him whose way is in holiness and whose power still makes the depths to stand firm at His Presence, that he may be kept and comforted and made to be a witness of the truth of God in his own life.
It is a good and needful prayer, for what is all religion without God Himself to be our God. The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. We may tell a man many things about God, but until the Holy Spirit teaches him, he does not know. The letter kills, it is only the Spirit that quickens, and the saving knowledge is not a mere notion in the head but a knowing of Christ, who is very God of very God, who left His starry throne and became man to save us.
We pray therefore not only that there may be a transient feeling, but that there may be a true and abiding knowledge. Feelings are blessed when they follow faith, but they must not be made the foundation. Some of us can set to our seal that God has ravished our souls with His Presence and made our hearts to melt while He spoke into our ears the marvelous story of His love, and as we have heard, so have we seen in the assembly of His people. Yet that Presence is known first through the blood of Jesus Christ, His dear Son, which cleanses us from all sin, and through His Word opened to us by the Spirit.
Our prayer for this layman is that God, who is all sufficient, would teach him from his youth and through all his days, that he may be as one who has an instinctive feeling of the Presence of God, conscious that God is in him and round about him and at work for him. That he may not rest upon a fleeting emotion alone, but upon the eternal God Himself, and find Him to be a fountain from which there is no stinted allowance, but a superabundance for all his necessities.
May the Lord bring him to taste and handle the Word of God for himself, to lay bare his bosom that the Holy Spirit might write the mind and will of God there clearly, and to trust not in his own feeling but in Christ alone for salvation. And then, as he walks in obedience, may he find that conformity to the will of the Creator is the very soul of joy, and that the joy of worship and communion is his daily portion.
We ask the Father to draw him by His Spirit, to reveal Christ to him as his refuge and his portion, and to give him that confirming testimony in his own soul, that he may both know and believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable. May he be kept from resting on anything short of Christ, and may he come to say with assurance, I know whom I have believed.
We commend him to Him whose way is in holiness and whose power still makes the depths to stand firm at His Presence, that he may be kept and comforted and made to be a witness of the truth of God in his own life.
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