Helium is the gas we use to fill up party balloons. It is also the illustration of a lesson I have learned today about prayer and faith. I feel compelled to tell you about it because it’s one of those spiritual lessons that come straight from God’s heart to yours in a way that you can understand and apply immediately.
Backstory: I posted a blog called BELIEVE not long ago, sharing about how God was embossing this word on my heart, branding me with this directive to BELIEVE Him. Awesome right? Its great to get a directive from God because then you know what to do! Yes. So I said sure, God. I want to believe. Show me. . . Well this lesson is still evolving for me. I’ll tell you how. This is hot off the press. I learned this lesson after I started drinking the coffee sitting next to me and there is still some in the cup.
The illustration: What I am beginning to understand is that faith is like helium gas. Think about this with me . . . If you have a helium tank in a large room and you begin to release the gas from the nozzle, what happens? The helium comes out and diffuses all over the room. It fills the space, but if the space is too big, the helium doesn’t have much effect at all. It is still helium when it comes out of the tank but it isn’t very useful.
However, if you put a balloon on the nozzle of the tank, you can fill that balloon up fast and it has pressure inside that takes it somewhere. The helium has a specific space to fill. It fills that space and has power.
The application: I have had general “open space” faith since God gave me that gentle directive to BELIEVE back in the fall. (I make it all caps because this word is set apart for me this year. It is literally my word of the year!) However . . . I have not demarcated any defined space for my faith. I was recently convicted in my heart by the question “what prayer circles are you drawing currently?” I didn’t have an answer. My prayers have been vague and general at best.
The point: Drawing a prayer circle gives faith a space to fill and increases its power. General prayers and vague requests are not inspiring to God, and they are not the kind of faith God is moved to bless. Specific prayers force us to define what it is we want from God, and helps us know what we are believing for. Not to mention how we will know that God has answered!
Why this is so remarkable to me today: I felt God dropping this analogy on my heart before I picked up my Circle Maker book and read chapter 3. This is exactly what chapter 3 is about. If you want to go deeper on this, pick up the book and read the third chapter! God is doing something in me, and I am sure he will do something in you as well. He is pleased with bold, specific faith.
What’s next: Now my efforts are focused on doing three things. . .
- Searching for and compiling God’s promises.
- Defining my own desires and dreams to see these promises fulfilled in my life, family and ministry.
- Connecting the dots. Or, as I should probably say, drawing the circles.
I’ll tell you one thing, my friend. I am excited to see what prayer circles I feel compelled to draw in the next few weeks. Thankful for a God who isn’t satisfied to leave me the way I am. Thankful he wants more for me than I want for myself. Otherwise He wouldn’t be opening my heart to this.
Join me in these 3 things above! Lets find God’s promises and having the faith to make specific prayers about what we want God to do. He may not answer the way we envision he will, but we can know that he will. Here is a promise to get us started!
“This is the confidence that we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.” -1 John 5: 14-15.
There you go, straight from the horse’s mouth.