He knows he does not know how, and the not knowing at his age is what keeps him out.
He is sixty-two. He was raised in the middle of all of it and he left in his twenties and he has not done any of it since.
And here is the specific difficulty, and it is not doctrine.
He does not know how to start. He does not know what you actually do when you sit down. He does not know whether there is a form, whether you say something particular first, whether there is a way it goes.
He knew all of this once. It has been thirty-eight years and it has gone the way anything goes when it is not used.
So the barrier is not belief. The barrier is that a man of sixty-two who was raised in it cannot ask a question that a nine-year-old would be able to answer, because the asking would reveal how far he has gone.
He would rather not begin than begin badly in front of anybody, including himself.
Thirty-eight years, and the thing standing in the road is not God. It is a small hot feeling about looking foolish.
So let me ask you.
Who exactly would you be embarrassed in front of?
They asked out loud, in front of each other
There is a line in Luke that I love for how ordinary it is, and for who is speaking.
These are the men who are with Him constantly. They have left everything. They have seen what has been happening. Nobody is closer.
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.Luke 11:1
Teach us to pray.
They did not know how. These men. And they said so out loud, in company, and asked to be taught the mechanics of it like a class of beginners.
Luke 11 has the closest men in the account asking to be taught the basics out loud in front of each other, and the Spirit put that request in the record rather than sparing anybody's dignity, so the embarrassment of not knowing how has never once been a reason anybody in that scene stayed quiet.
Now, hermano, plainly, and with affection, because sixty-two is not old and you are behaving as though it disqualifies you.
Nobody is watching. This is the thing I need you to actually hear. There is no examiner. The nine-year-old you are afraid of does not exist and would not care. Luke 11 has the closest men there asking to be taught the basics out loud, and the Spirit was in that question being put in company, so you are asking what they asked.
And even if there were somebody, look at who asked the question in Luke. Not an outsider. Not a curious stranger. One of the closest men there, in front of the rest of them.
Luke 11 has the asking done by an insider who might have been expected to know already, and the Spirit was in that man's willingness to say it in company, which means thirty-eight years held up by a small hot feeling has been thirty-eight years given to something that is not real.
And notice what the answer is not. He does not tell them they should already know. He does not comment on how long they have been around.
He answers the question. Immediately, plainly, with a form so short a child could hold it.
Luke 11 has the question answered without one word about how they came to be asking it, and the Spirit was in that plain answer, so beginning as a beginner at sixty-two has never once been coming in the wrong door.
Now the turn, and it takes the mechanics off the table entirely.
Begin with the version that has no technique in it.
You are stuck because you do not know how. So do the one that cannot be done wrong: get down, or sit, and say nothing at all. Luke 11 has the answer given without one remark about why they needed it, and the Spirit was in that plain answering.
There is no form to get wrong. There is nothing to remember. A man who has been away thirty-eight years and a man who has never been away do exactly the same thing for that minute.
Luke 11 has men who were closer than anybody asking to be taught the basics, and the Spirit was in that question being asked out loud, so beginning without knowing how has never once been beginning improperly.
Thirty-eight years of not wanting to look foolish. Sixty seconds that cannot be done badly.
Declare this over yourself
Say these where you can hear yourself. Know what holds them up. This authority is not yours by nature, it is Christ's, and in Christ it has been given to you, so you speak as one representing the King. And you speak under His will, never over it. However He answers, and in whatever way He comes, the outcome is His.
- Embarrassment, you are the small hot feeling that stops me and they asked out loud in front of each other. Luke 11 says Lord, teach us to pray, and it was one of the closest men there who said it.
- Thirty-eight years held up by not wanting to begin badly in front of anybody, you are not doctrine and you are not God and there is no examiner, and in the name of Jesus you are finished. The Spirit was in that request being put plainly in company.
- Lord, Luke 11 answers the question without one word about how long they had been around before asking it. I am kneeling for one minute today and saying nothing at all, and there is no form in that minute I could possibly get wrong.
Luke 11:1
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