The Circle Maker_Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears
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chapter 2: Circle Makers
Page 15: God is for you: Romans 8:31.
Page 17: “I’m giving you every square inch”: Joshua 1:3 MSG.
Page 17: I had a Honi-like confidence: Notice that the promise was originally given to Moses. The promise was then transferred to Joshua. In much the same way, all of God’s promises have been transferred to us via Jesus Christ. While promises must be interpreted and applied in an accurate historical and exegetical fashion, there are moments when the Spirit of God quickens our spirit and transfers a promise that He had originally given to someone else. While we have to be careful not to blindly claim promises, I think our greatest challenge is that we don’t circle as many promises as we could or should.
chapter 3: The Jericho Miracle
Page 22: They finally understood why: Numbers 13:33.
Page 23: Your entire army is to march: See Joshua 6:3 – 4.
Page 24: “What do you want me to do for you?”: Matthew 20:31 – 32.
Page 27: Then we wrote down our holy desires: According to Psalm 37:4, God actually downloads new desires in our hearts when we genuinely seek His glory. Those desires are often conceived in the context of prayer and fasting. It takes tremendous discernment to distinguish between holy desires and selfish desires.
Page 31: If you think of a problem: Quoted in M. Mitchell Waldrop, Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 29.
chapter 4: Praying Through
Page 34: Lord, if you will bless my husband: Mother Elizabeth J. Dabney, “Praying Through,” www.charismamag.com/index.php/newsletters/spiritled-woman-emagazine/22087-forerunners-of-faith-praying-through (accessed June 7, 2011).
Page 36: Like the story Jesus told: Luke 18:1 – 8.
Page 39: “gates of Jericho were securely barred”: Joshua 6:1 – 2.
Part 1: The First Circle — Dream Big
Page 43: Is it possible for a man to dream: Henry Malter, The Treatise Ta’anit of the Babylonian Talmud (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1978), 270.
Page 44: “One of the best things about aging”: Quoted in Sally Arteseros, American Voices: Best Short Fiction by Contemporary Authors (New York: Hyperion, 1992), 123.
chapter 5: Cloudy with a Chance of Quail
Page 48: “The people of Israel also began to complain”: Numbers 11:4 – 6 NLT.
Page 49: “Here I am among six hundred thousand men”: Numbers 11:21 – 22.
Page 51: “How far will they go among so many?”: John 6:9.
Page 52: “So Moses went out and told the people”: Numbers 11:24.
Page 54: “Now a wind went out from the Lord”:Numbers 11:31 – 32.
Page 56: “Still other seed fell on good soil”: Matthew 13:8.
Page 57: And if you are willing to subtract: I’m a proud member of the Junky Car Club. I drive a Honda Accord with 230,000 miles on it. Check out www.junkycarclub.com. It’s an intentional effort to spend less on a car payment so more money can be given to kingdom causes.
chapter 6: You Can’t Never Always Sometimes Tell
Page 67: “One day at about three”: Acts 10:3.
Page 67: “prayed to God regularly”: Acts 10:2.
Page 68: “amazed and perplexed”: Acts 2:12.
Page 68: “Surely not, Lord!”: Acts 10:14.
Page 68: Scripture says he was “very perplexed”: Acts 10:17 NLT.
Page 68: “I have never eaten anything impure”: Acts 10:14.
Page 71: “unless the LORD builds the house”: After our failed church plant in Chicago, I circled Psalm 127:1.
chapter 7: The Solution to Ten Thousand Problems
Page 73: “Is there a limit to my power?”: Numbers 11:23 GNT.
Page 76: “Is the Lord’s arm too short?”: Numbers 11:23 NIV; “Is the Lord’s hand
waxed short?”: Numbers 11:23 KJV.
Page 76: “This is the finger of God”: Exodus 8:19.
Page 77: “As the heavens are higher than the earth”: Isaiah 55:9.
Page 81: “Casting all your care upon him”: 1 Peter 5:7 KJV.
Part 2: The Second Circle — Pray Hard
Page 83: “One day Jesus told his disciples a story”: Luke 18:1 – 5 NLT.
Page 86: He is praying hard for you: Romans 8:26.
chapter 8: Persistence Quotient
Page 87: The American children lasted, on average, 9.47 minutes: Malcolm Gladwell,
Outliers (New York: Little, Brown, 2008), 249.
Page 88: the average players had logged: Gladwell, Outliers, 38 – 39.
Page 88: “The emerging picture from such studies”: Daniel Levitin, This Is Your Brain
on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (New York: Penguin, 2007), 193.
Page 89: it wasn’t a light drizzle: 1 Kings 18:45.
Page 90: “Blessed is the one who is not offended”: Luke 7:23 ESV.
Page 91: “Lord, if you had been here”: John 11:21 – 22.
Page 94: “No matter how many promises”: 2 Corinthians 1:20.
chapter 9: The Favor of Him Who Dwells in the Burning Bush
Page 100: has been voted the #1 coffeehouse: Washington, DC, metro area, AOL City Guide, 2008.
Page 101: Elijah won that sudden-death showdown: 1 Kings 18:38.
Page 101: “whatever you bind on earth”: Matthew 18:18.
Page 102: Honi was honored for his prayer: Jacob Neusner, The Rabbinic Traditions about the Pharisees Before 70: The Houses (Leiden: Brill, 1971), 179.
Page 102: The Lord is watching over His word: Jeremiah 1:12 ESV.
Page 102: He is actively watching and waiting: Matthew 8:8 is a great example of this kind of faith. The Roman centurion doesn’t ask Jesus to come and heal his child. He simply says, “Just say the word.” He had an inherent belief that God’s word was His bond. And it says that Jesus “was amazed.” If you amaze the Son of God, you’ve done something significant.
Page 103: “No good thing does [God] withhold”: Psalm 84:11 ESV.
Page 103: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me”: Psalm 23:6 ESV.
Page 105: “Now is the time of God’s favor”: 2 Corinthians 6:2.
Page 106: “May the LORD bless his land”: Deuteronomy 33:13 – 16.
Page 107: “Let my people go”: Exodus 5:1.
chapter 10: The Cattle on a Thousand Hills
Page 109: Shortly after Dallas Theological Seminary opened: While the broad strokes of this story are true, there are different versions as it relates to specific details. I’ve tried to relay the story based on personal research. Most versions attribute the gift to a Texas cattle rancher, but some research indicates it may have been an Illinois banker. Either way, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the money in a thousand bank vaults. And it was the amount of the gift and its timeliness that is the true miracle.
Page 111: He did it with the widow: 2 Kings 4:1 – 7.
Page 111: He did it when the Israelites are trapped: Exodus 14:21 – 31.
Page 111: He did it when the boat is about to capsize: Matthew 8:23 – 27.
Page 112: When God provided the miraculous manna: Exodus 16:4.
Page 112: “Do not keep any of it until morning”: Exodus 16:19 NLT.
Page 112: “Give us today our daily bread”: Matthew 6:11.
Page 116: “Elijah was as human as we are”: James 5:17 – 18 NLT.
Page 116: Elijah didn’t just pray against: 1 Kings 18:22 – 24; didn’t tell the widow of Zarephath: 1 Kings 17:13; in a remake miracle, Elijah didn’t pray for: 2 Kings 2:8.
Page 117: “When you reach the banks”: Joshua 3:8 NLT.
Page 119: “Come”: Matthew 14:29.
Page 120: “After Jesus and his disciples arrived”: Matthew 17:24 – 27.
chapter 11: No Answer
Page 126: “What have I done to you”: Numbers 22:28.
Page 127: “I have come here to oppose you”: Numbers 22:32 – 33.
Page 128: “T
hese are the words of him”: Revelation 3:7 – 8.
Page 128: The key of David is an allusion: Isaiah 22:20 – 24.
Page 131: “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still”: Exodus 14:13 – 14.
Part 3: The Third Circle — Think Long
Page 137: After a little historical research, it was discovered: Stewart Brand, The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility (New York: Basic, 1999), 162.
chapter 12: Long and Boring
Page 141: “Now when Daniel learned”: Daniel 6:10.
Page 141: Daniel prophesied that it would take: Daniel 9:2.
chapter 13: The Greatest of Them All
Page 150: “Go and pray, Connie”: Conrad Hilton, Be My Guest (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 17.
Page 150: “In the circle of successful living”: Hilton, Be My Guest, 288.
Page 154: “I will give you every place”: Joshua 1:3.
Page 155: New York University psychologist John Bargh: Cited in Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005), 53 – 57.
Page 156: “fearfully and wonderfully made”: Psalm 139:14.
Page 156: Dutch researchers did a similar priming experiment: Gladwell, Blink, 56.
Page 157: “In the morning, Lord”:Psalm 5:3.
Page 157: “I would rather be able to pray”: Donald Sweeting and George Sweeting, Lessons from the Life of Moody (Chicago: Moody, 2001), 128 – 29.
Page 158: He loved to pray early in the morning: Mark 1:35.
Page 158: “I will stand upon my watch”: Habakkuk 2:1, quoted in The Book of Legends: Sefer Ha-Aggadah, ed. Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky (New York: Schocken, 1992), 202.
Page 159: “Let God be as original”: Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 2006), June 13.
Page 161: “We try to call Him to mind”: Frank Laubach, The Game with Minutes (Westwood, N.J.: Revell, 1961).
Page 162: “Last Monday was the most completely successful”: Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach, Practicing His Presence (Goleta, Calif.: Christian Books, 1973), June 1, 1930 entry.
chapter 14: The Speed of Prayer
Page 166: “Do not be afraid, Daniel”: Daniel 10:12 – 14.
Page 168: “The moment you began praying”: Daniel 9:23 NLT.
Page 171: “Daniel resolved not to defile himself”: Daniel 1:8.
Page 172: “the accuser of our brethren”: Revelation 12:10 KJV.
Page 173: “Couldn’t you men keep watch”: Matthew 26:40.
Page 174: “The spirit is willing”: Matthew 26:41.
Page 175: “I am the vine, you are the branches”: John 15:5 NASB.
chapter 15: Life Goal List
Page 179: In his groundbreaking book: Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 93.
Page 180: Scripture says that without a vision: Proverbs 29:18 KJV.
Page 184: “Record the vision and inscribe it”: Habakkuk 2:2 NASB.
Page 186: “Thus far the LORD has helped us”: 1 Samuel 7:12.
Page 189: “Devote yourselves to prayer”: Colossians 4:2.
chapter 16: Double Miracle
Page 199: “Stand still, and see the salvation”: Exodus 14:13 KJV.
chapter 17: Bottled Prayer
Page 207: “My lord, what will the outcome”: Daniel 12:8.
Page 207: “Go your way, Daniel”: Daniel 12:9.
Page 207: kairos, not chronos: Both Greek words can be translated “time,” but they have very different meanings. The word chronos refers to mechanical or linear time. The word kairos has more to do with timing. It’s the ability to recognize when the right time has come, for example. In fact, it can be translated “opportunity.” There is also a providential dimension to kairos. If chronos is clock time, then kairos is divine timing.
Page 207: “Let there be light”: Genesis 1:3.
Page 208: His words never return void: Isaiah 55:11.
Page 208: “The Lord is watching over His word”: Jeremiah 1:12 ESV.
Page 210: “You have collected all my tears”: Psalm 56:8 NLT.
Page 210: God collects our prayers: Revelation 8:3.
chapter 18: Now There Was One
Page 213: “Now there was one”: Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities (London: Wordsworth, 2006), 581.
Page 213: “History belongs to the intercessors”: This is one of my all-time favorite sayings, but I want to share the larger context of the statement (from Walter Wink’s The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium [New York: Doubleday, 1999], 185 – 86).
Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present.
History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being. This is not simply a religious statement. It is also true of Communists or capitalists or anarchists. The future belongs to whoever can envision a new and desirable possibility, which faith then fixes upon as inevitable.
This is the politics of hope. Hope envisages its future and then acts as if that future is now irresistible, thus helping to create the reality for which it longs. The future is not closed. There are fields of forces whose actions are somewhat predictable. But how they will interact is not. Even a small number of people, firmly committed to the new inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations, can decisively affect the shape the future takes.
These shapers of the future are the intercessors, who call out of the future the longed-for new present. In the New Testament, the name and texture and aura of that future is God’s domination-free order, the reign of God.
No doubt our intercessions sometimes change us as we open ourselves to new possibilities we had not guessed. No doubt our prayers to God reflect back upon us as a divine command to become the answer to our prayer. But if we are to take the biblical understanding seriously, intercession is more than that. It changes the world and it changes what is possible to God. It creates an island of relative freedom in a world gripped by unholy necessity. A new force field appears that hitherto was only potential. The entire configuration changes as the result of the change of a single part. A space opens in the praying person, permitting God to act without violating human freedom. The change in one person thus changes what God can thereby do in that world.
Page 213: “Were you not Honi”: Jacob Neusner, The Talmud: Law, Knowledge, Narrative (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2005), 183.
Page 215: “O God, the King of the whole world”: Lawrence H. Schiffman, Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Hoboken, N.J.: KTAV Publishing House, 1998), 261.
Acknowledgments
To my wife, Lora — you are the love of my life. To my kids, Parker, Summer, and Josiah — nothing compares with being your dad.
To my grandparents, Elmer and Alene Johnson — your prayers outlive you.
To my mom and dad, Don and Bonnie Batterson — your prayers are a constant in my life.
To my father-in-law, Bob Schmidgall — you showed me how to kneel.
To my mother-in-law, Karen Schmidgall — your intercessions are priceless.
To my spiritual family, National Community Church — I wouldn’t want to be anyplace else, doing anything else, with anyone else.
To Beth, Heidi, Deb, Madeline, Jennifer, and the entire prayer team at NCC — thanks for circling me and circling this book in prayer.
To my agent, Esther — you believed in this book before I did.
To my editors, John and Dirk — you are skilled word surgeons. And on the electronic side, to Jake and the E-Team — thanks for the finishing touches.
To my publishing family—Cindy Lambert, Don Gates, Verne Kenney, and Scott Macdonald — your personal and professional support
for this book has gone above and beyond the call of duty.
To the curriculum crew — John Raymond, TJ, Mike, Andy, and Jay — thanks for your “sweat equity” in this project.
About the Author
Mark Batterson serves as the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D. C. Recognized as “one of America’s 25 most innovative churches,” NCC is one church with seven locations. Mark’s blog (www.markbatterson. com) and webcast (www.theaterchurch. com) also reach a virtual congregation around the world. Mark is the author of several bestselling books, including In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. He and his wife, Lora, live on Capitol Hill with their three children.
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Praise
Mark Batterson’s The Circle Maker will have you praying circles around any situation you are facing. You’ll be inspired and motivated into a deeper level of prayer and faith.
Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv
and author of Weird: Because Normal Isn’t Working
Honi the circle maker is a longtime legendary figure, and Mark Batterson is well on his way. You will love the freshness of this approach to prayer.
John Ortberg, pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in
Menlo Park, California, and author of The Me I Want to Be