• Session 1
• Session 2
• Session 3
• Session 4

In one of the later sessions Les spoke on “waiting on God and hearing the voice of God” and Les has also made available an article he wrote some time ago for the magazine “New Covenant Voice” entitled “Waiting on God”. This has been scanned as a series of images and converted to a PDF file for download:

• Extra Material: Waiting On God Article by LesWheeldon

And some of what Les spoke on can be found in two chapters of his recent book, The Christian Compass:

• Chapter 3 of the Christian Compass by Les Wheeldon – The Bible – The Word of God
• Chapter 10 of the Christian Compass by Les Wheeldon – The Preaching Ministry

Psalm 119 has been a great encouragement. It stands out as the longest Psalm and is a about  devotion or commitment to the word of God, his statues, word, law, command, precepts or decrees. It mixes profession of devotion to Gods word, with prayer for Gods help. For that reason it’s great to meditate on and make notes on what to pray for. If these things are important for the author to pray for, they are clearly good enough for me.

 It’s a long Psalm because, in the words of the NIV study bible, “the author had a theme that filled his soul, as big as life, that ranged the length and breadth, height and depth of a persons walk with God.” The Psalm reflects this by encompassing the entire power of the Hebrew language, the scope of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph to Taw (A to Z). As the first section under the letter Aleph is the introduction, the last section under the letter Tau contains a summary of the themes within the Psalm, expressions of devotion and things to pray for in life. Here’s my list of what to pray from Psalm 199:

• 119:169: Pray for God to teach you, to give you a better understanding of his word. It doesn’t matter if you are smart enough to write a Psalm, you still need to pray for ‘the LORD’ to give you more wisdom, more understanding.
• 119:170: Pray for God to hear your prayers or supplication! It’s strange, but in many prayers and psalms in scripture the author asks God to listen, to hear him (1 Ki 8:30; Dan 9:17; Psa 28:2). Appeal to him to listen to you, to have compassion or mercy on you, on your own situation and on your own failings. God has also filled scripture with promises and these are the confidence behind our petitions.
• 119:171-172: Pray for praise to always be on your ‘lips’ and ‘tongue’. This is an expression of intent, of devotion, and a prayer for help. If we understand his word fully as per our first prayer, we would praise him more as we would have a greater understanding of his salvation. Earlier in verse 165 the Psalmist writes “seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.” Seven is the number of perfection, completeness and signifies that the author praises ‘the LORD’ all day long. The high standard of prayer and praise is not necessarily hours of devotional time but those continual scattered moments of prayer and praise throughout the entire busy day.
• 119:173-175: Pray for salvation. A true understanding of Gods law, precepts or promises gives us an understanding that only he can save us. We therefore need to pray continually for his salvation. Pray for salvation in current circumstance, from our own failings and for his mercy in letting us live simply that we would be able to do the only thing worth doing which is to praise him.
• 119:176: Finally pray a confession of fault. Even the author of this Psalm, scripture itself, acknowledged that he often ‘strayed like a lost sheep’. He prayed that God would continually seek him, that God would not forget about him despite the fact that he continually failed Gods law time and time again. Reading the Psalm doesn’t leave you with the impression that he had messed up much, but still he recognises and prays about his need to be constantly brought back to God.

Reading this Pslam did not encourage me because I could accept a lesser prayer life, it encouraged me because no matter how good the author of the Psalm was in any aspect of his walk with God, he still recognises his own lack, his need for Gods great help in staying devoted to Gods law. The Psalmist understood that he had to continually pray to God for help in his walk with God and clearly laid out for us the greatest issues in our christian walk that we need to pray for.

In an age of the self help book you need to clear out the bookshelf and make some serious space for a classic page-turner. A book that gives an incredible method for fullness, spiritual fulfilment. It expands on what it looks like, and explains convincingly why the method works. It’s Colossians.

Living a fully-filled life:

Paul’s aim in Colossians is stated simply at the start and end of the book: [1v28] ”that we may present every man mature in Christ Jesus” and again in [4:12] “that ye may stand mature and complete in all the will of God”. Anyone serious about his faith would admit that they would love to have confidence that they were (spiritually) fulfilled, complete, mature, no longer striving to be something more or kicking and fighting to attain some higher level of existence.

The Method:

Col.2:6-9 “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving… For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete (fully filled, fulfilled, reach full spiritual stature) in him”

Being “In Christ” or “In Him” simply describes the relationship between a believer and Christ. You could re-write the phrase simply as “in (relationship with) Him”. Go and re-read your favourite scriptures like this. It’s a simple relationship, a simple daily walk, “as you’ve been taught”, a “walk” of scripture reading, prayer and giving thanks, growing into maturity.

The Reason it works:

As a man who walked this earth, Jesus had potential, potential for all sorts of things. Colossians tells us that that he fulfilled all of his potential, he was the “fullness of the Godhead in bodily form” or the completeness of God in human form. Amazingly, Paul immediately adds “and you are complete (fulfilled, fully-filled) in (relationship with) Him”. We fullfill all our (spiritual) potential when we are in (relationship with) Him. We are fully-filled.

What it does not look like:

But Paul adds more. Stop! Stop, stop, stop. The rest of chapter 2 (Col. 2:16-23) contains a list of all the things we should stop doing. Stop making up rules, introducing barriers, conditions, hurdles to get over. Stop thinking you’re saved by grace, earnt by works. To make Christianity a set of rules needed to earn salvation is to make it no different to any other world religion. Instead it is about His Action, your reaction. 1 John 2:6 describes our reaction like this “He that says he exists in Him ought therefore to also walk like he walked.”. Walk like it, Act like it. Live up to it. Walk “In Him”.

Paul’s Confidence in the Method:

Paul was confident in this method, walking (in relationship with) Him, simply because of Christs supremacy. By Him all things were created, exist and are held together.   He is supreme over all things visible and invisible, powers and authorities (Col 1:16-19).  Being “in Him” is not just supreme over all other methods, it is the method for being  spiritually fully-filled.  Any other system of religion man creates might look good but it is simply a shadow of the real thing, it has no substance (Col 2:17). The substance of Christianity is simply Christ and His Action.

What it does look like:

When this is got right, it should be something that spills over into the whole of our lives. It should affect us, those around us, friends, family, husbands, wives, children, collegues, the boss at work (Col.3:17-4:2). And then Church is described (Ephesians 1v23) as being “his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all”. As we walk this daily walk, existing in him, and as we meet with other Christians in our church in it’s broadest sense, we should express this fullness of who God is.