40 Days Nine Ways: First Sunday of Lent

The Season of Lent is an invitation to intimacy with God. Scripture for the first Sunday in Lent takes us into the wilderness with Jesus. For 40 days Jesus fasted, prayed and faced down the evil one, with the “word” that lived in him. The incarnate Word is Jesus himself.

 

Did you know that you are a word of God, too?

…even as he “chose” us in him before the foundation of the world…        Ephesians 3:4

The word “chose” is the Greek work- Eklectos- which means a
“spoken forth word of God.” God spoke you forth before the foundations of the world. Your Divine DNA, the family genes, is uniquely expressed through you. It is your intimate connection with God’s Holy Spirit and the way you bring the image of God through your created being.

We can awaken to God’s Spirit and our true-self when we pray. We overcome the evil one when we live the unique “word of God’ we are. This “word” is a way we can “pray in the spirit at all times.”

How do you pray in the Spirit? Who is the Spirit of Jesus in you specifically? Do your prayers “walk with God, and work with God – watch how God does it? Are you learning the “unforced rhythms of grace?” Have you experienced God’s promise, “I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.” (from Matthew 11:29 MSG) Praying in the spirit is as natural as your breathing. Nobody has your spiritual DNA, and the Nine Personality styles can give you a gateway to awaken and pray as uniquely you.

And what if there were Nine Ways to fast that could overcome temptation and open you up to freedom?

Style Eight: Fast the need to be against

Style Nine: Fast the need to avoid conflict

Style One: Fast the need to be perfect

What if you fasted the desire for affection, esteem, approval and the lie that you are not enough. And for 40 days-

Style Two: Fast the need to be needed

Style Three: Fast the need to succeed

Style Four: Fast the need to be special

What if you let go of your desire for survival and security and the lie that you haven’t don’t have enough. And for 40 days-

Style Five: Fast the need to know it all

Style Six: Fast the need to be secure

Style Seven: Fast the need to avoid pain

If we are willing and open to this way of praying through the Season of Lent, Easter Sunday will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and could be a resurrection in you!

Are you interested? Is there a fresh desire to pray in the way you’re made? Join us Sunday live or live stream Crossroads or watch for the podcast as we take the journey 40 days: 9 ways!

 

Inspirations:

Robert Mulholland, Shaped by the Word

Richard Rohr, The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective

Thomas Keating, The Welcoming Prayer