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Lord, When Is Priming The Pump Acceptable and Unacceptable?

Mark Virkler's picture

Journaling from Colin Tucker:

Lord, when is “priming the pump” acceptable and unacceptable?


Colin, I love you.  I look at the heart and the motive.  It is not a matter of whether priming the pump is acceptable or not, but it is a matter of the heart.  Is your motive and desire to truly spend time with me or is your motive or desire for personal or selfish gain?  It is on that level that “priming the pump” is acceptable or not acceptable.  Not on the level in which you think.  Every time you read the Bible or sing a worship song to Me, are you not ‘priming the pump?’  Are you not doing something that will enable you to hear My voice?

Lord, how is what we are doing different than Eastern Mysticism or the New Age Movement?

Foundation.  Upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  Flesh and blood did not reveal the revelation of who I was to Peter, but it was My Father as the Scripture says.  Compare this with Paul’s encounter with the girl who had a spirit of divination.  Was what she was saying true?  Indeed, Paul was proclaiming the way of salvation, but Paul discerned that that proclamation (of the girl) wasn’t coming from a right foundation.  It is about foundation, Colin.  Your foundation is in Me.  I am your rock.  Even when two people say the same thing, you’ll be able to discern the difference because of the foundation.  You’ll be able to discern whether something is coming from My Holy Spirit.  Do not fear, Colin – I am with you.  If I have led you in the wilderness, it means that I too am with you in the wilderness.  Receive the promise afresh that I will never leave you nor forsake you.  And rest in that promise.

 

Additional Resources Which Relate to Using the Eyes of Your Heart as You Approach God

  1. What Does the Bible Teach about Visualization?
  2. You Can See Visions! They Are a Pathway to God
  3. Poised Before Almighty God
  4. Lord, When Is “Priming The Pump” Acceptable and Unacceptable?
  5. Initiative - Should I Take It? by Charity Kayembe
  6. Help! I Have Trouble Seeing Vision!
  7. Training Your Child to Encounter Jesus - Godly Imagination & Visions
  8. Training Package - 4 Keys To Hearing God's Voice (One key is to use vision)
  9. Training Package - Hear God Through Your Dreams (Dreams utilize imagery)
  10. Book - Am I Being Deceived? (Difference between New Agers and Christians)
  11. Book  - Secret Place (Examples of God painting beautiful scenes during prayer times)
  12. Divine Healing Toolbox CD/DVD Set (using vision while praying for healing)
  13. Protestantism's 500-Year-Old  Bitter Root Judgment and Inner Vow (a chance to repent)
  14. Training Package - Prayers That Heal the Heart (Inner healing prayer utilizes vision)
  15. Western Study Verses Biblical Meditation
  16. Also related to this topic: How to Receive Revelation Knowledge

Related Resources: 

How to Hear God's Voice!   

Related Blogs: 

Restoring Vision   
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Mark Virkler's picture

The phrase “priming the pump” comes from the old wells one pumped by hand, in order to get water up from underground. Often, to get the water started, you needed to dump a pail of water in the top as you pumped the handle, and then the suction would catch, and as you continued to pump, water would start flowing from deep underground. We are just applying this imagery to the flow of the Holy Spirit within our hearts.

Priming the pump is when one takes a simple step toward God. For example, according to my understanding of the Word, I believe God wants to heal me. I “prime the pump” by seeing His grace, love and healing power flowing upon my body and I speak His healing to my body. However, I want to go beyond simply picturing and speaking what I know is His will (i.e. priming the pump).

I want to also ask the Holy Spirit to take this scene over and show me anything else Jesus is doing to get me well. So I then tune to flowing thoughts and flowing pictures, and I watch the scene move by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus may be doing additional things I had not thought to do. Perhaps rebuking a demon, perhaps asking me to repent of a sinful action or attitude which has precipitated the sickness and can hinder the fullness of the healing from being manifested (i.e. like anger, or bitterness, or unforgiveness or resentment). He may be speaking to the damaged body tissue and commanding it to be restored to normal.

So whatever I now hear and see Him doing in the vision, I also do, and this paves the way for full and complete healing.

So my priming the pump is me picturing those things the Bible has told me are God’s will and God’s truth toward myself and others. Then I step from this godly imagination into a divine vision by asking the Holy Spirit to take it over (Eph. 1:17-18). It turns into a divine vision as I tune to flow because the Bible tells me that the River of God within me is sensed as flow (Jn. 7-37-39). This vision unfolds before the eyes of my heart and I act in obedience to whatever the Lord is showing me, and in this example of healing prayer, these steps should help release a fullness of healing.

Of course it never hurts to have others involved, who are also praying and tuning to flow, as God especially loves to manifest His grace from one to another (check out the “one another” commands in the New Testament). This keeps us mutually dependent upon others in the body of Christ, and keeps us close knit, which is also one of God’s goals – that we function and live together as the body of Christ, in humility and meekness one toward another and in love serving one another.

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