The Shining One: Praying with the Prayer Leader of Heaven

Description

About the Book

Jesus continually prays for you and yet He desires to pray with you. He invites us to join His prayer gathering of heaven. Praying with Jesus will lead to Him trusting you with more of His greatest gift—Himself.

—

Jesus started a prayer meeting in heaven over 2,000 years ago and He faithfully prays for each of us every moment of our lives—with brilliant joy and fervent passion. His heart burns to not just pray for you but with you. He is eager for us to join His prayer gathering and hear His prayers. Our rabbi wants to personally instruct us in the ancient and fascinating adventure of prayer. Join us on a journey to encounter the prayer leader of heaven and learn how to pray with Him. Prayer will never be the same as you encounter The Shining One of heaven.

From the Foreword:

Curiously, the oldest original fragment we have of the Bible is not a manuscript. In 1985, some ancient silver amulets, likely worn as necklaces, were discovered in the old city of Jerusalem by Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay. Dated from between the sixth and seventh century BC, these treasures bear the text of Numbers 6:22–27:

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you; the Lord turn his face toward you and grant you peace. (vv. 24–26)

In other words, as far back as we can go, God’s people have known and cherished the revelation of the Shining One. His radiant countenance is our most enduring perception of God. And the gleaming smile of His holy love remains the greatest need of our cultural moment.

The book you are holding is an invitation into that encounter. This is a book aimed not at impressing or persuading you. It’s not about theory or tactics or building a case. It’s about meeting with Jesus, who we find already looking at us with fiery eyes of sacrificial affection every time we turn His way. Or in Mark’s words: “Jesus, the Shining One, wants you to see Him praying for you. He wants you to experience His loving presence.”

Mark McGovern has given us a book emerging straight out of what he lives and breathes and does on instinct. The water table of prayer rises around Mark. I’ve seen this man shepherd a church that has been visited by the Shining One in a place of notorious darkness. To be in friendship with Mark is to be bridged to Jesus. Think of this book as a spiritual director on paper. I can vouch for the author to be a man who writes out of the overflow of deep sojourn with Jesus and gives of himself for that to be the reality of his friends and family, his church, and his city.

Mark will invite you here to go slow, take lots of selahs as you read, and he’s right. I hope you will allow yourself to be easily interrupted by the Spirit’s whispers between the lines of this book. Read it in drips. Move around in it. “Let go of how you think God will meet you and simply let it happen,” Mark writes. “He initiates and we respond. He’s much better at encounter than we are.”

And Jesus knows that encounter with Him is our most desperate need. All awakening, all our liberty and wholeness, all life in the kingdom flow from encounter with Jesus—not merely becoming better informed of Him, but colliding with Him, being arrested by the radiance of His holy love. So don’t just read this book. Experience it.

From ancient days, the primal longing of God’s people has been to “seek His face always” (Ps. 105:4). I pray His face will shine on you now as you keep reading.

–David Thomas

About the Author