My comment can be summed up with Jonathan’s last sentences in the previous comment.

Jesus didn’t die on the cross just so we can have a job to do. Although that is what the Evangelical movement has taught us. They have placed heavier weight to scriptures that say, “be doers of the Word and not hearers only” and have downplayed perceived (note that I use the word perceived) passive verses such as “that they may all be one” with the Father.

The Evangelical movement has downplayed prayer as a primary initiative for every believer. Intimacy has been viewed as passive and unproductive. For someone to say they desire to “waste their life” in prayer is so offensive to those who have been raised in the culture of measured results.

Please hear what I am saying here. The ultimate purpose of the death and resurrection of Christ is for us to be ONE with the Father. For us to try to define that is silly and shows our immaturity. Our only hope is to devote ourselves into a lifestyle that is constantly in His presence. That is a “daily death” lifestyle. It is not the death of our will as others have proposed. It is a death of the World System influence that has pride and rebellion at its very core. The more we die to the influence of the Flesh, World, and Satan (there is a deeper historical story here that I do not have the space to share) the more we understand the heart of the Father. The more we understand His heart the more we will want to align our will with His. The end result will look more like Jesus than it does (insert name of International Bestseller Preacher here).

I believe that Jonathan is absolutely on the right path and that his blog clearly lays out the challenges and hope of a “wasted life”.

I admit that it is hard to properly clarify oneself in the space of a single comment but please understand my heart. I always attempt to interpret all matters through the filter of the Bible and provide my limited understanding based upon what I have received. We really need each other. The Holy Spirit provided fruit in order to tolerate the uniqueness of one another for the sake of community.

I love Jesus.

Living in that type of fellowship with the Holy Spirit will propel you into missional works. I submit that I probably do more missionary work than most, although I don’t do it because I feel as if I have to. I do it because that is where the Spirit leads me.

I still feel as if the statement “how do we separate our personal desires and wants from the true calling of Christ which is to share the Gospel?” is a false pretense. If, by “gospel,” you are referring to the Gospel of the Kingdom, then you must consider that “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who prepared a wedding banquet for His son.” It’s a celebration of intimacy and committment. All of it. Every single aspect of the Kingdom is about intimacy first and foremost. That’s why it’s still the first and great commandment.

I challenge you to waste your life in the place of prayer and NOT get missional. Can’t be done.

It is the nature of humans that when we encounter something divine, glorious, and other worldly that we desire to build an alter. There are many examples throughout the old testament but I will focus on one from the New. The mount of transfiguration. The intent was to be a witness to the divine glory of the Son of God but the inner-circle disciples wanted to build an alter. They wanted to make this experience last. To hang out in it. To “waste their life” (if you will) to the experience of the glory.

If we are to reflect upon the Servant nature of the Messiah Ben Joseph then we must recognize that He lived a complete sacrificial life to the will of the Father. How could He sacrifice to that which is unknown? This fueled Him in the place of prayer. While others slept, He prayed. While others sailed away, He prayed. (While He slept, they prayed! Sorry, I had to throw that in there.) The fact is that it is impossible, let me say again, it is IMPOSSIBLE to properly fulfill the prayer of Jesus, “thine will be done on Earth as it is in heaven,” if we have no clue what His will actually is. Intimacy in the place of prayer (secret place – bed chambers) is to fully comprehend the heart and the will of the Father. To understand and act. Again, to UNDERSTAND – AND – ACT!

Psalm 89:14 “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.”

To understand the Servant nature and the complete work of salvation in the person of Jesus you must read carefully Isaiah chapters 39 – 66. Justice is key. Not humanism, but God’s justice that is carried out in the person of Jesus Christ, in which we are His body.

We cannot know Him unless we KNOW Him. The majority of our failure, nearly complete failure, of the Great Commission is that we have spent so little time in prayer that we have misinterpreted His will. We cannot ask for God’s will to be done if we have no clue what it is. His will is not revealed to the person who pops in and out of His throne room like a consumer at Walmart. He reveals Himself to His friends.

Intimacy; long, long, hours of union with the Father will produce Sonship. You will be the Body of Christ when you become one with God the Father. Stop acting the whore, or better yet, stop treating God like a whore. As if He is there for you to pop in for a one night stand then go off on your own agenda; even if you perceive that agenda is good and Biblical. God is looking for the union of His Son. Example:

[20] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22] The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23] I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. [24] Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. [25] O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. [26] I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
(John 17:20-26 ESV)

This can only be accomplished through the complete abandonment that Jonathan is talking about.

[18] And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

This can only be accomplish if we are aware of what Jim is talking about.

But SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Do not seek as a casual hunter but intently seek like a mother that lost her child in the mall. Radical, un-distractable, laser-guided, focus on His Kingdom (Thine will be done on Earth as it is in heaven, God’s RULE) and His righteousness (the Throne, secret place, bed chambers) then your needs will be supplied.

OK, enough said.

It’s first because it is God’s top priority for His people. It’s great because it actually enables us to do all of the other stuff we have been called to do. We are called to be “rooted and grounded” in love, to live from that experiential place of love that “passes knowledge.” (See Ephesians 3:14-19). From that place, we become missional; not because we have to but because we are moving in Christ and Christ is missional.

Paul is the perfect example, he could have continued to search for the initial contact experience with Christ on the road to Damascus, he could have wanted nothing more but to bath in that experience, to try and recreate it in his life, but the true encounter results in an unselfish, outreach and outpouring of the revelation for the Glory of God. One might also note, Paul’s greatest impact, the most conversions of his ministry while he lived, came from the city in which he was a tent maker. His occupation at that time was used as a spring board by God to reach a whole city. So I ask again, If all we are to do is, “have no other purpose for the rest of my life but to live in the glory realm in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” how do we live the mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?