God's Healing Oil: The Ministry of Contemplative Prayer
by Tricia McCary Rhodes

The first seeds of contemplative prayer were planted in my soul as a college freshman, when an older aunt challenged me to seek God's face as well as His hand. Getting to know Him through quiet moments of meditation brought new life to the stale traditionalism of my faith, and I fell in love with Jesus at last.

Several years later, Dick Eastman's book The Hour that Changed the World introduced me to something even more profound ... the act of waiting in silence in the presence of God. I was so captivated by the wonder of speechless adoration that I bought the books Eastman referenced, devouring them like one who'd found an oasis in a desert.

Now, 20 years later, I am in awe at the tender and passionate love affair I enjoy with the living God. So when the chance came to write about it for Pray!, I was eager. Filled with zeal, I wrote a prophetic piece calling intercessors to get their prayer life in balance by embracing contemplation in prayer.

But something happened within a few days of finishing the article. For several weeks God had been paring my heart, painstakingly breaking me of things which hindered His work in my life. On this particular day, He revealed a secret spirit of pride concerning prayer. I wept as He showed me how I saw myself as an expert in "quiet" prayer, believing most intercessors were missing what I had found.

In the midst of my of repentance, God convicted me that I was remiss, often neglecting His call on my own life as an intercessor. Over the next few days, I sensed new spiritual insight as God revealed His deep compassion for intercessors, showing me that contemplative prayer is the daily balm for wounds inflicted on the front lines of battle. So now I write a different article, one I pray our Father will use to encourage, bless and draw prayer warriors to His very own heart.

Demystifying Contemplative Prayer

To contemplate is to gaze or look intently at something. In contemplative prayer, we set our hearts to gaze into the face of God through quiet hours of meditation, listening, recollection, and adoration. God enables us to do this: He has given us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). A contemplative simply responds as David did: "My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek" (Psalm 27:8).

This is what Mary did when she sat at Jesus' feet doing the one thing that was needful (Luke 10:42). It's what we hear in David's groan: "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" (Psalm 42:2). It's what is behind Paul's passionate declaration, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). The woman bathing Jesus' feet with her tears (Luke 7:38), John laying his head on Jesus' chest (John 13:25), Isaiah's yearning for God in the middle of the night (Isaiah 26:9), -- they all show us what it means to be contemplative.

While most Christians commune with God on some level, intimate communion with God requires regular times of quiet contemplation in His presence. The contemplative embraces a God whose sheep know the sound of the Shepherd's voice, whose children can't wait to run into the Father's arms and whose bride eagerly offers herself to the Bridegroom. From the closet of contemplation to the highways of a busy life, we embrace the presence of the Sovereign Lord.

For intercessors, contemplative prayer can be therapeutic. Once we experience it, we wonder how we remained steadfast without it. It's almost as if God pours His healing oil into this kind of prayer. Here's four ways that I've experienced this kind of healing.

The Oil of God's Love

The work of intercession is at times tedious and often intense and exhausting. We've chosen to be bondservants to our King. How can we serve diligently day after day, year after year? By infusing intercession with times of reflection on our precious Redeemer. By soaking in the love He pours out. By listening for His voice, which tenderly assures us of His presence. Battle-weary soldiers seek refuge in Christ's everlasting arms. Let Him refresh your soul until you're ready to fight once again.

The Oil of God's Encouragement

One of the great struggles in a ministry of prayer is the enormity of the task. Not only are we confronted daily with the vast array of needs in our own sphere, but modern technology and the media threaten to drown us in even more information. A recurring cry of the intercessor is: "How can I know what to pray for when I know I can't cover it all?"

The answer is found in listening to our King. He has uniquely tailored battle plans for each of us. He strengthens us with personal words of encouragement. And He shows us what is on His heart for our time in prayer. Only when we learn to come quietly before Him can we partake of this incredible blessing. He lifts us up, opens our eyes and tells us which way to go in prayer.

Dick Eastman calls this phenomenon the yada factor (the Hebrew word for "know"). He points out that when God says He will direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6), it is contingent on our acknowledging or knowing Him. "The final key to receiving absolute guidance in all our ongoing warfare," says Eastman in The Jericho Hour, "is to maintain daily, intimate contact with the Lord."

The Oil of God's Protection

Intercessors are like weapons of war in the Lord's hands. God wields His power, using the words of our prayers. Because our prayers arise out of a supernatural work of God's Spirit, nothing can defeat us quicker than relying on our own strength.

In the busyness of trying to "do good", it's all too easy to forget that in our flesh dwells no good thing. When we bank on our fervor, our skills, or even prayer books or seminars, we enter the battle alone. We unaware of and unprotected from the lurking dangers.

When we silently adore our Lord, we become keenly aware of our own sin and neediness. His greatness shines into the hidden places of our hearts, making us year to confess, repent of, and empty ourselves of the darkness and receive His fullness. There is no greater protection against a carnal spiritual life than to be still in the presence of the living God, letting Him do His sanctifying work.

The Oil of God's Glory

God's ultimate purpose is to manifest and fill the earth with His glory. We are created for it and are meant to bring Him worship worthy of it. Our call as intercessors is to do all for it. But how do we join God in this mind-boggling purpose?

John Piper uses this illustration: How would you glorify a bubbling fountain? We glorify a fountain by drinking from it and then giving expression to that experience. So to glorify God is to drink from His springs of living water until we can't help but cry out, "Glory!"

If we don't drink from the living water, however, our can fall short of the ultimate purpose of making His glory known. Instead of drinking freely and pouring out worship in response, we'll labor, carrying buckets of water up the hill to dump in the fountain. When we learn to drink our fill of the river of His delights (Psalm 36:8), a passion to make His glory known pours from our lips in intercession.

Jesus is our Portion Now

We live in a time when the glorious revelation of God to this generation seems imminent. Intercessors, both those who have fought a long, hard battle and those who jaoined in at the last hour, anticipate the same prize: the joy of worldwide awakening. Through contemplative prayer, however, we can taste our reward right now. Jesus is our portion. We can simply run to Him as He tenderly beckons: "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy-laden . . . and you shall find rest for your souls". (Matthew 11:28-29).

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