by Jeanne Page
Chapter Four
The King’s Garden
The King cultivates a fragrant garden in your heart, but the fragrance must be diffused.
E.M. Bounds said in his book on prayer: “The seed of God’s Word must be saturated in prayer to make it germinate. It grows readier and roots deeper when it is prayer-soaked.” The Servant Girl asked her Companion if she was meant to journey in the hallway of doors, and He explained that one could be quite content to do such a thing. But what He intended for her was so much more. Those powerful words are beautiful and glorious, but now…add prayer to the mix and something supernatural happens. Saturating the seed of God's Word in prayer will result in a lush garden. But how do we "prayer-soak" God's Word?
Spurgeon gives us some insight on this question: "A text is like a casket which is locked, and prayer is the key to open it, and then we get God’s treasure. The text is God’s letter, full of loving words, but prayer must break the seal. When reading goes with praying and praying goes with reading, then a man goes on both his feet, the bird flies with both his wings. To read only is unprofitable: to pray without reading is not so soul-enriching; but when the two run together, they are like the horse in the chariot, and they speed along right merrily… We may hammer away at a text sometimes in meditation and strike it again and again, and yet it may not yield to us, but we cry to God, and straightway the text opens, and we see concealed in it wondrous treasure of wisdom and of grace."
Oh, that we may be wise enough to use prayer to unlock the treasure hidden within His Holy Word!
As the Servant Girl takes her Golden Key of Prayer and unlocks the door “Pray Without Ceasing,” she steps into the King’s garden. She is praying through this important text from God's Word. The three-word-phrase “pray-without-ceasing” is saturated in prayer as she communes with her Companion in the garden. Take time to do as the Servant Girl did. Commune with God in prayer about His Holy Words and you will blessed as the Holy Spirit plants these prayer-soaked Seeds in your own garden and you will certainly rejoice to see what flourishes. You see, as Spurgeon explains below, we, ourselves are a garden!:
"We are a garden, then, and in a garden there are flowers and fruit. And in every Christian’s heart you will find the same evidences of culture and care—not in all, alike, for even gardens and fields vary in productiveness…Still, there are the fruits and there are the flowers in measure. There is a good beginning made wherever the Grace of God has undertaken the culture of our nature… There are sweet spices lying in Christians, like hidden honey and locked-up perfume within the flowers on a hot day! Those sweet odors should be diffused. Observe, first, that until our Graces are diffused, it is the same as if they were not there…Oftentimes, something is needed from without to stir the life that lies hidden within. It is so with these sweet flowers in the spouse’s garden—they need either the north wind or the south wind to blow upon them that they may shed abroad their sweet odors."
So as God works fruitfulness in our lives, He will often allow a north or south wind to blow on us, to diffuse and spread the work He has done for the benefit of others. Has God worked joy in your life? How has he used it to spread fragrance in to the lives of others around you? What about love? Peace? Patience? Kindness? Know that if He is working these fruits in the garden of your heart, He will also see to it that opportunities abound for the sweet scents of His handiwork to waft into the lives of others in your little corner of the world.
Your Companion will guide you every step of the way if you let Him.
As the Servant Girl began her stroll in the garden with her Companion, she had the peace of knowing she was being led. When a fork in the road appeared, it was her Companion who pointed her in the right direction.
Spurgeon explains, "Walking along the road of life you may suddenly reach a turn—two roads meet. Which is the way? Is it to the right hand or to the left? Possibly both may appear to be equally right. You ask friends or neighbors. They will readily enough mislead you with the best intentions. You consult your own heart, and if you follow its counsels you will discover yourself to be a fool! But, if your heart is true, and God’s Grace is flourishing in your soul, you will not be long held in the dilemma. You will take the case before God. You will say as David did, “Bring here the ephod,” and your Urim and your Thummim shall be with the Holy One and you shall hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk you in it.” It may be Providence will block up one of the two roads and point to the other. Or your judgment being further enlightened, you shall see that the one is right and the other wrong. Or, perhaps some stress shall be put upon your soul so that, though you hardly know why, you will feel that you must choose the right and leave the wrong. There are no dilemmas out of which you shall not be delivered if you live near to God and your heart is kept warm with holy love. He goes not amiss who goes in the company of God! Like Enoch, walk with God and you cannot mistake your road."
Like Enoch, the Servant Girl walked side by side with God. At times we may not sense His presence immediately with us, (and whether we sense it or not, He is still with us) but we can always call on Him for guidance and know that we will receive it. Spurgeon explains this process, as well, and likens it to finding our way through a maze: "You have been, perhaps, in a maze and you know how difficult it is to find your way to the center. But sometimes there is one perched aloft who sees the whole of the maze spread out before him like a map, and he calls out to you to turn either to the right or to the left. And if you attend to his directions you soon find the way. Even so the maze of life is only a maze to us, but God can see it all! He who rules over all looks down upon it as men look down upon a map. And if we will but look to Him, and if our communion is constantly kept up, we shall never err, but we shall come to the goal of our hopes right speedily by following His voice."
The key, Spurgeon says, is that "our communion is constantly kept up." In other words…if we pray without ceasing.
One of my favorite hymns, “In the Garden,” was written in 1913 by Charles Austin Miles. He said of the hymn, “I read the story of the greatest morn in history. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet very dark, unto the sepulcher. Instantly, completely, there unfolded in my mind the scenes of the garden, where out of the mist comes a form, halting, hesitating, tearful, seeking, turning from side to side in bewildering amazement…He said to her “Mary!”….just one word and forgotten are the heartaches, the long dreary hours, all the past blotted out in His presence.”
And then Miles wrote words that have become so dear to me:
“He speaks and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing, and the melody that He gave to me within my heart is ringing. And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”
The Servant Girl’s walk in the garden with her Companion, her Teacher, is full of joy as He guides her every step. May yours be as well.
Your own private Tutor will teach you all that you need to know.
As the Servant Girl walks with her Companion in the garden, He takes the opportunity to teach her the depths of God's Word. This is why praying through Scripture is so powerful. The Holy Spirit, the Author of The Book, is your own private Tutor and He will bit by bit, explain Truth to a willing student. Spurgeon elaborates: "It is the true disciple’s privilege to possess, in the Holy Spirit, a private Tutor, a Prompter and a Comforter. The Lord Jesus says, 'The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things.' Christ, in His sayings, gave us our class book, complete and Infallible, but through our dullness, we need more."
Spurgeon gives the example of a student entering the university: "That young man has gone to college. He has with him all necessary books and in them is to be found all that he will need to learn. Even thus the Lord Jesus has given us, in His sayings, all that we need to know. But the young man’s father wishe
s him to become a learned man and, therefore, he engages a private tutor for him—one who will teach him what the books contain. With his tutor’s help, his books are of far greater use to him than before. If any passage is difficult, the tutor explains it. He puts the youth into the way of reading his books so as to get the full value of them. Spiritually, this is the office of the Holy Spirit—He finds us the key wherewith to open up the mystery which otherwise would be out of our reach."
How could we not relish the opportunity to walk in the garden with our own private Tutor as He explains to us everything we need to know?
The Words written on your heart will grow deeper and broader each day.
At one point during their garden walk, the Servant Girl comes upon a tree with the words of Scripture engraved upon them. This imagery comes from Spurgeon's explanation of the process of learning in a Christian's life; "Christ’s love is not hung upon us like a garland on a tree, but it is cut into us and, as the tree grows, the letters grow deeper and broader every day! The Holy Spirit, who is the life of Believers, writes more and more clearly upon that life the glorious and blessed name of Jesus!"
It is an amazing process that He leads us through. We think we understand a Scripture when the Holy Spirit explains it to us, but that is only the initial carving of the words upon our hearts. Like the tree, as we grow, the Truth written there grows deeper and broader every day. Every time I have foolishly assumed that I understand what He is teaching me, He seems to smile and assure me that we've barely scratched the surface of what He intends for me to comprehend. Even the most "basic" of Truths have depths that will take a lifetime (and beyond!) to explore. The tree needs time to grow and our hearts need time to grow these Truths to maturity.
Praying without ceasing is simply a heart conversation with God, lived out in every breath you take each day, from your first "Good morning, Lord!" to your "Now I lay me down to sleep" offerings.
One of the sacred priestly duties in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle was to light the golden altar of incense in the morning hours and then again in the evening. The sweet aroma was to ascend to God without ceasing…just as our prayers are to do the same.
Many years ago I read a life-changing little book, “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence, and I began to understand what it meant to pray without ceasing. God is Omnipresent. Do we live our lives as if we believe He is everywhere? As believers we are like a bucket lowered into the depths of the ocean. We are at all times immersed in God’s Presence. He is all around us. Just as the water rushes in to fill the bucket as it is lowered, we are filled with His Holy Spirit as well. We are immersed in Him and filled with Him at the same time. If we have even the smallest understanding of this truth, how can we not be in constant communion with Him?
Spurgeon encourages us to begin each day just as the priests of the Tabernacle did: "Though all hours are alike to me, I find it profitable to meet with God at set periods, for these seem to me to be like the winding up of the clock. The clock is to go all day, but there is a time for winding it up. And the little special season that we set apart and hedge round about for communion with our God seems to wind us up for the rest of the day. Therefore, if you would pray without ceasing, continue in the offering of the morning and the evening sacrifice, and let it be perpetually an ordinance with you that your times of prayer are not broken in upon."
As I light the incense of prayer in my heart each morning, I find one continual request wafting to the heavens: “Lord, may I be keenly aware of Your surrounding Presence and Your indwelling Presence today.” The natural result of that will be a life of perpetual prayer.
Good morning, Lord! I am so looking forward to our stroll in the garden today! And may I close my eyes tonight whispering grateful praise to my King, my Savior, and my Comforter. May I live the words "pray without ceasing."