The Scripture revealed that the primary purpose and plan of God for His New Testament people is to be the Army of Christ and at the same time to be prepared as the Bride of Christ. When we are born again we become representatives of God's Kingdom here on earth. Whether we like it or not, we find ourselves involved in an all out war with an opposing kingdom. This opposing kingdom is Satan's kingdom, which is a highly organized kingdom of evil beings - persons without bodies. Therefore we are involved in a spiritual warfare.
This message is the introductory Spiritual Warfare message concerning the Church as Christ's Army and Christ's Bride. In the the forthcoming message, the Lord willing, we will discuss the following topics: The dwelling place of God and the dwelling place of Satan; the battle ground and Satan's authority; agressive warfare prayers; our spiritual weapons and how to launch the weapons. The Scripture is our only source of information and it is our responsibility to search for it. This information will help us to fight with certainty and to fight to win.
Paul said, "Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air" (1 Cor. 9:26, NKJV).
Distinctive Pictures of Believers in Christ
Paul's epistle to the Ephesians reveals seven distinctive pictures of believers in Christ:
The Church - "And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the Church, ..." (Eph. 1:22, emphasis added).
The word "Church" comes from the Greek word "ekklesia" which means "an assembly" - A group of poeple called out by God to form a special group for a special purpose. The word "assembly" that appears in Acts 19:32, 39, 41, is used to described the riot in Ephesus.
The special responsibility given to this group of people is to serve Jesus Christ and to be prepared by Him to become the collective instrument of the Government which He will establish in the next age. Someone said that it is God's purpose to govern the nations through the Church.
The moment a person is regenerated and born agin by the Spirit of God he automatically becomes a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. Therefore he needs not apply for membership. God expects him to come together with other believers in a local Church assembly for worship and fellowship on a regular basis. On the other hand, membership in a local Church has nothing to do with being recognized by God as a member of His Church. If a believer has been a member of a local Church for 20 year, but he is not born again, he has not entered the kingdom of God, and therefore he does not actually belong the the Church of Jesus Christ.
The Body - "... which (the Church) is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all" (Eph 1:23, emphasis added).
Paul also said, in his other epistles that believers collectively are the Body of Christ:
"Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Cor. 12:27).
"And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence" (Col. 1:18).
We, the Church are the Body of Christ. The function of the body is to do the will of the head. It is our head (Christ) that controls the movement and activities of our various body parts and their God-given functions and gifts. Therefore, as parts of His Body, we must do the will of the Head, our Lord. The body is crippled if any part goes out of alignment with the head. Therefore, the Church will be crippled if some Christians failed to do the will of God. I believe there are many crippled Local Churches that bear little or no fruit for God.
God's Workmanship - "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10, emphasis added).
The Church is His workmanship, His created masterpiece. God has chosen to demonstrate His wisdom to the entire universe, including unbelievers and satanic beings, through us, as we do His good works!
"... to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, ..." (Eph. 3:10, emphasis added).
God's Family - "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ..." (Eph. 2:21, 22, emphasis added).
We are not outsiders or strangers. We belong to God's family. This implies that as Christians we have horizontal and vertical relationships. We have God as our Father and we are brothers and sisters to one another. Someone said that you may choose your friends but you don't choose your family members. Therefore, whether we like one another or not we have to get along - for we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
God's Temple - "... in whom (Jesus Christ) the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Eph. 2:21, 22, emphasis added).
Paul also said, in his epistle to the Corinthians, that believers are the temple of God:
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are" (1 Cor. 3:16, 17).
We are God's dwelling place. Someone said we don't go to Chruch, we are the Church. Where we are the Church is; where the Church is, God is. God's residential address is the Church - the true Church of Jesus Christ.
The Bride of Christ - "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and withour blemish" (Eph. 5:25 - 27, emphasis added).
Here we use the principle of making inference because we can't find anywhere in the Scripture which indicates explicitly and directly that the Church is the Bride of Christ.
Paul said early, "For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body" (Eph. 5:23).
The above verses indicate, without any doubt, that the relationship between the husband and the wife is similar to the relatioship between Christ and the Church - a relationship of intense love, total commitment and deep yearning for each other! We are one with Christ.
However it is important to note that Paul made it plain that only those Christians who have gone through a process of cleansing and sanctifying "with the washing of water by the word" (V. 26) will be in the condition necessary for their final presentation to Christ as His Bride. Therefore it is extremely important that Christians who want to be the Bride of Christ understand the Scripture thoroughly, knowing that there are many compromising preachers, teachers and pastors in the Church today. Instead preaching sound doctrine they are likely to preach "itching ear" and men-pleasing doctrines (2 Tim. 4:3). Those who listen to such preaching will not fulfill the condition for being the Bride of Christ.
The Bride of Christ will be the "Glorious Church" - "Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing ... Holy and without blemish" (V. 27).
The Army of God - "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Eph. 6:10, 11).
Here again we need to make inferences. What kind of a person that puts on armor? The answer is, a soldier. We notice that the above passage is in the plural. Therefore it is written to Christians collectively and not individually. The name for collective group of soldiers is an army. The army speaks about being tough, manly, disciplined, courageous, standby in ranks and if necessary, each soldier lays down his life in the obedience to orders.
The Army and the Bride
I believe there is great significance in the fact that the two pictures of God's people, the Bride and the Army, were placed last in Paul's description of the seven pictures of God's people. This represents the end time emphasis of the Holy Spirit. This certainly concerns us as Christians in our involvement in Spiritual Warfare.
There is an apparent paradox in moving from being the Bride to being the Army. I can't think of any two things in the natural less like one another than a bride and a soldier, a member in the army. The nature of the bride is tender, yearning passionate, expectant, gentle and sweet. It is just the opposite to the the picture of the soldier.
It seems to me that the time has come when the Bride is being prepared by God to meet the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Army is being organized and disciplined and equipped also by God to go out and fight the great End-time spiritual conflict. I believe God is asking us to take on both these aspects. He is asking you and me to take on the nature and character of the Bride in our relationship to the Bridegroom. But He is also asking us to be very military minded and to be prepared to take up a soldier's life, and to accept the discipline, the hardship and the pressure of the military life. We are living in an exciting time in God's timetable!
I notice that there is only one verse in the entire Bible that interestingly combines these two beautiful pictures of God's people:
"Who is she who looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, awesome as an army with banners" (Song of Solomon 6:10, NKJV).
The Song of Solomon pictures Israel as God's betrothed Bride (Hosea 2:19, 20) and prophetically, the true Church as the Bride of Christ. As human life finds its highest fulfillment in the love of a man and a woman, so spiritual life finds its highest fulfillment in the love of God for His chosen people, and the love of Christ for His Church.
I believe Song of Solomon 6:10 depicts a very beautiful picture of the Bride. She is like the brightness in the morning after a long dark night. She comes forth with the brilliant and the beauty of the rising sun. She is as fair as the moon.
The unique function of the moon is to reflect the sun. Similarly, the function of the Church is to reflect the Sun of Righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ (Malachi 4:2). the moon is not constant, it vexes and vanes. So is the Church. In the Book of Acts we see the early Church as a full moon, reflected the whole nature and minintry of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church had the ministries and gifts as those of Christ when He was in His humanity at the time of the twelve apostles. But, according to history and observation, the moon began to vane, and it became smaller and smaller reflected less and less of Christ. And then the moon was no longer there - The Church lost her function of reflecting the light of the sun. I believe that was during the Dark Ages! Then the moon began to appear again and reflected a little of Christ but it has been vexing and vaning. Many prophetic teachers tell us that at the close of this age, the "moon" of the Church will be full again with all the ministries and gifts restored and it will fully and accurately reflect the Sun of Righteousness again. But, one thing is certain - Jesus Himself said: "... the harvest is at the end of the age ..." (Matt. 13:39).
Whatever happens, the moon only depicts part of the picture of the Bride. But then the same verse also says that the Bride is as "clear as the sun". So, although the Church is as responsible as the moon as to reflect the sun, nevertheless the Church is also clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself - the Sun of Righteousness!
"For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).
The last part of the picture of the Bride is "... awesome as an army with banners". The banner speaks of victory. I am sure this is the picture that makes all the forces of evil tremble! The Bride is not called just to win a battle or two but to proclaim and administer the total victory of the War that her Bridegroom has already won on the cross!
I believe the Holy Spirit is challenging us, calling us to repentance, to humble ourselves before Him who sets before us God's objective. The Church is facing two options, to rise up and get involved in what God is doing or to carry on "sleeping", doing things our own way and left out of it. The Church today is assuming there is a revival coming, but you don't see many Christians in the prayer meeting! Church members, and even pastors, have little or no idea of what Spiritual Warfare involves. Many are "at ease in Zion" (Amos 6:1).
Beloved, revival start in the hearts of individual Christians and starts from the hearts of pastors and Church leaders; starts with prayer burden with the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It is possible to go the heaven whan a Christian dies, but misses most of what God has for him while he lives. It is never the will of God for God's people to live out his earthly life, be a religious and churchy Christian who sits in the pews, and be an easy target for Satan! The Bride of Christ is called to be the Army of God and called to get involved in doing God's will - in Spiritual Warfare!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The Authority of Satan
The Scripture indicates clearly that Satan has authority. But God is the Author of all authorities, even Satan's authority, is ultimately God's.
Paul said, "He (God) has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col. 1:13, NKJV, emphasis added).
When a person is under the power of darkness he is under Satan's authority. Power speaks of authority. What God has done was that He has translated us from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ - power of light.
God talked to Job concerning His power and Satan's authority (Job 41). He was telling Job that Satan, like Leviathan, the sea monster, is the king of those who has pride:
"He (Satan) beholds every high thing; he is king over all the children of pride" (Job 41:34).
All those who live in pride, in disobedience and rebellion against God automatically have Satan as their king and authomatically become members of his government system. Only the sovereign act of God's grace can deliver them and then translate them into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.
Satan's Strongholds and the Battle Field
Paul said, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ..." (2 Cor. 10:3 - 5, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Notice that everthing we do is "in God" or "through God" (KJV). We are always totally dependent upon God.
2. By using various translations of the Bible I discover Satan's strongholds consist of 5 things - arguments, imaginations, reasoning, knowledge and proud thoughts. Notice that these strongholds are in the realm of the mind. Therefore the battle field is the mind of humanity.
Satan builds his stronghold in the mind of people and he gets control certain areas of their mind so that they are no longer free to appreciate the truth of God, no longer free to love God and to love one another. They become unable to think rationally.
3. These verses are very similar to that which Paul said to the believers in Ephesus:
"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).
Paul gave the picture of the conflict that we are involed in, as a wrestling match. And this wresting match is not against persons with bodies. The most important thing to understand is that the problem is not human beings, but what is in the minds of human beings. We are dealing with spiritual forces in a spiritual wresting match.
Believers' Assignment
It is our responsibilities to cast down the strongholds in the minds of men and women and to release them from the deception and captivity of Satan, and to bring their minds into the captivity of obedience to Christ - that is our assignment. We are the only group of people here on earth can do the job because we have the spiritual weapons to intervene in the spirit realm. Physical military weapons like warplanes, warships, tanks and guns can't do the job because they can't be used in the spirit realm.
An important fact revealed by the Scripture is that when God's people had won in the spiritual realm they also won in battles and subsequently changed the course of history. In other words, what happens in the spiritual realm determines what follows in the natural - in the political scene, in the economical scene and in the social scene. The source of everything is in the spirit realm!
An important basic fact regarding Christ's Victory
In order to be effective in the battle we need to understand one basic Biblical principle. The great basic fact is this - Christ has already totally defeated Satan. He is not going to defeat him; He had defeated him more than two thousand years ago! Christ had defeated Satan by His death on the cross and by His resurrection. On the cross Jesus administered to Satan total, eternal, ineradicable defeat. Satan can never recover from that defeat. As believers we don't have to win the victory; we have to enter into a victory that has already been won. Satan's main objective ro tactic is to keep us ignorant of the fact that he was defeated once for all on the cross.
Paul said, "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:13 - 15, emphasis added).
The above is an act of God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son. Together with Jesus Chrsit God has not merely defeated Satan, but He has taken the spoils and and striped him with his weapons. Satan is now not merely a defeated foe, but also deprived of his weapons. We have the spiritual weapons, Satan doesn't. He has only got one "weapon" left and that is bluff. The only "weapon" Satan seeks to use against the human race is guilt. That is why Satan is called the "accuser of our brethren" (Rev. 12:10). Now, what does he want to achieve by his accusation? The answer is simple; he wants to prove us guilty. We have to establish that we are guilt but righteous. Therefore, the whole battle ultimately centers around the issues of guilt or righteousness!
In order to deliver us from our guilt and render us righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, God had to do two things - one in relation to our past and the other, in relation to our present. Each of these provisions of God is logically stated in their correct order in verses 13 and 14 of Chapter 2, Colossians. Let us look at each of these in some details.
The provision of God in relation to our past
Paul said, "... He has made (you) alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Col. 2:13).
On the basis of Christ's death, God can forgive because Christ has paid the due penalty for all our sins and therefore, God does not compromise His eternal justice by offering us pardon. All we have to do is to receive it. When all our sinful acts have been forgiven, that takes care of the past. There are no more shadows of guilt or condemnation that can follow us from the past. If you don't know this fact, then you are no match for Satan! Every time you seek God or serve God, Satan will remind you of the things from your past. Therefore you have to come to the place where you know by repentance, confession and turning from your sin and trusting in Christ, that those things have been finally and forever dealt with.
God declared through Isaiah: "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25).
Let us remember that the devil has not right to remind us of what God determines to forget.
The provision of God in relation to our present
Paul said, "... having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary in us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Col. 2:14, emphasis added).
This deals with the Law of Moses. Through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, God had abrogated (set aside) the Law of Moses as a condition for achieving righteousness with God. In other words, we are no longer required to observe the Law of Moses in order to attain righteousness with God.
Paul also said, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4).
Through His death on the cross, Christ put an end to the Law as a means to achieve righteousness with God. We have been set free from the Law; we are no longer married to the Law, but we are married instead to the risen Christ!
What is our righteousness? Our faith is reckoned to us as righteousness. We must hold on to our faith, because if we have no faith, we have no righteousness. We are not accepted because we kept the Law; we are accepted because we believe. Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us when we believe. When we believe, God has not only clothed us with the garments of salvation, He has covered us with the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10).
Paul said, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21, emphasis added).
Our righteousness is Christ's righteousness. On our own we have no righteousness. It is important to realize that when you have the righteousness of God the devil can't say anything against you! He can't accuse you.
It astonishes me that on the night of the Last Supper, when Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny Him, He didn't pray that he would not deny Him. He prayed that he would not lose his faith (Luke 22:32). I believe one thing you must not lose is you faith. Hold on to it and God will see you through and the devil can't touch you.
Now let us consider the Law of observing the Sabbath day. Further on in Colossians 2 Paul said: "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths" (Col. 2:17).
Observing the Sabbath day is in the 4th of the Ten Commandments. No one should judge us in respect to Sabbath day because God has abrogated the Law as a requirement to achieve righteousness with Him. Therefore we are not guilty every time we break it. God has to do this because every time we break it Satan would be there pointing his finger at us and make us feel guilty.
By the above two provisions of God, we have been set free from the accusation of Satan concerning our past and our present. God has made it possible for you and me to live without any sense of guilt whatever! Therefore we can face the devil and defeat him.
The same provisions of God are in Paul's Epistle to the Romans
It is interesting to note that, in general, Paul said about the same provisions of God in his epistle to the Romans. The first eight Chapters give a systematic building up of the kind of life that God wants us to live - by the power of the Holy Spirit. The eight Chapter is the concept of the Spirit filled life. It is the level on which God wants us to live. The previous seven Chapters are all essential to get there. When you have been through them, you can answer any question the devil has got about your righteousness.
Paul said in the beginning of Chapter eight: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
Notice that you can't live in Chapter Eight if you live under condemnation. If you walk according to the flesh (in the soul or in the mind realm) you are likely to live under condemnation! The devil will accuse you day and night and make you feel guilty! Therefore, you and I must always walk in the Spirit.
The outworking of Christ's Victory
Paul said, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and throgh us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place" (2 Cor. 2:14, emphasis added).
The above is a tremendous verse because it starts with "always" and ends up in "every place". This means we are invited, by God, to join with Christ in His triumph at all times and in every place. We don't have to win the victory over Satan but we are offered the privilege of celebrating the triumph - We, the Church, are in the chariot of God with Christ by faith. Now, Christ has won the victory, Christ has gained the authority, but the responsibility to administer His victory and to exercise His authority has been placed upon us. And unless we do it, the actual benefits of His Victory are not manifested. If we don't do it the world will never know that Christ has won the victory!
The Great Commission
The Great Commission is Christ's Commission for us to go and exercise His Authority and thus demonstrate His Victory (Matt. 28:18, 19). But if you don't go, His Authority remains ineffective. In Mark 16, Jesus said, as we go He would demonstrate His Authority with five supernatural signs (Mark 16:17, 18).
Some Christians said that signs don't follow today. My understanding is that Jesus only ordains signs to follow those who go. And those who don't go has no right to claim the signs!
Paul said, "He (God) has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col. 1:13, NKJV, emphasis added).
When a person is under the power of darkness he is under Satan's authority. Power speaks of authority. What God has done was that He has translated us from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ - power of light.
God talked to Job concerning His power and Satan's authority (Job 41). He was telling Job that Satan, like Leviathan, the sea monster, is the king of those who has pride:
"He (Satan) beholds every high thing; he is king over all the children of pride" (Job 41:34).
All those who live in pride, in disobedience and rebellion against God automatically have Satan as their king and authomatically become members of his government system. Only the sovereign act of God's grace can deliver them and then translate them into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.
Satan's Strongholds and the Battle Field
Paul said, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ..." (2 Cor. 10:3 - 5, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Notice that everthing we do is "in God" or "through God" (KJV). We are always totally dependent upon God.
2. By using various translations of the Bible I discover Satan's strongholds consist of 5 things - arguments, imaginations, reasoning, knowledge and proud thoughts. Notice that these strongholds are in the realm of the mind. Therefore the battle field is the mind of humanity.
Satan builds his stronghold in the mind of people and he gets control certain areas of their mind so that they are no longer free to appreciate the truth of God, no longer free to love God and to love one another. They become unable to think rationally.
3. These verses are very similar to that which Paul said to the believers in Ephesus:
"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).
Paul gave the picture of the conflict that we are involed in, as a wrestling match. And this wresting match is not against persons with bodies. The most important thing to understand is that the problem is not human beings, but what is in the minds of human beings. We are dealing with spiritual forces in a spiritual wresting match.
Believers' Assignment
It is our responsibilities to cast down the strongholds in the minds of men and women and to release them from the deception and captivity of Satan, and to bring their minds into the captivity of obedience to Christ - that is our assignment. We are the only group of people here on earth can do the job because we have the spiritual weapons to intervene in the spirit realm. Physical military weapons like warplanes, warships, tanks and guns can't do the job because they can't be used in the spirit realm.
An important fact revealed by the Scripture is that when God's people had won in the spiritual realm they also won in battles and subsequently changed the course of history. In other words, what happens in the spiritual realm determines what follows in the natural - in the political scene, in the economical scene and in the social scene. The source of everything is in the spirit realm!
An important basic fact regarding Christ's Victory
In order to be effective in the battle we need to understand one basic Biblical principle. The great basic fact is this - Christ has already totally defeated Satan. He is not going to defeat him; He had defeated him more than two thousand years ago! Christ had defeated Satan by His death on the cross and by His resurrection. On the cross Jesus administered to Satan total, eternal, ineradicable defeat. Satan can never recover from that defeat. As believers we don't have to win the victory; we have to enter into a victory that has already been won. Satan's main objective ro tactic is to keep us ignorant of the fact that he was defeated once for all on the cross.
Paul said, "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:13 - 15, emphasis added).
The above is an act of God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son. Together with Jesus Chrsit God has not merely defeated Satan, but He has taken the spoils and and striped him with his weapons. Satan is now not merely a defeated foe, but also deprived of his weapons. We have the spiritual weapons, Satan doesn't. He has only got one "weapon" left and that is bluff. The only "weapon" Satan seeks to use against the human race is guilt. That is why Satan is called the "accuser of our brethren" (Rev. 12:10). Now, what does he want to achieve by his accusation? The answer is simple; he wants to prove us guilty. We have to establish that we are guilt but righteous. Therefore, the whole battle ultimately centers around the issues of guilt or righteousness!
In order to deliver us from our guilt and render us righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, God had to do two things - one in relation to our past and the other, in relation to our present. Each of these provisions of God is logically stated in their correct order in verses 13 and 14 of Chapter 2, Colossians. Let us look at each of these in some details.
The provision of God in relation to our past
Paul said, "... He has made (you) alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Col. 2:13).
On the basis of Christ's death, God can forgive because Christ has paid the due penalty for all our sins and therefore, God does not compromise His eternal justice by offering us pardon. All we have to do is to receive it. When all our sinful acts have been forgiven, that takes care of the past. There are no more shadows of guilt or condemnation that can follow us from the past. If you don't know this fact, then you are no match for Satan! Every time you seek God or serve God, Satan will remind you of the things from your past. Therefore you have to come to the place where you know by repentance, confession and turning from your sin and trusting in Christ, that those things have been finally and forever dealt with.
God declared through Isaiah: "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25).
Let us remember that the devil has not right to remind us of what God determines to forget.
The provision of God in relation to our present
Paul said, "... having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary in us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Col. 2:14, emphasis added).
This deals with the Law of Moses. Through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, God had abrogated (set aside) the Law of Moses as a condition for achieving righteousness with God. In other words, we are no longer required to observe the Law of Moses in order to attain righteousness with God.
Paul also said, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4).
Through His death on the cross, Christ put an end to the Law as a means to achieve righteousness with God. We have been set free from the Law; we are no longer married to the Law, but we are married instead to the risen Christ!
What is our righteousness? Our faith is reckoned to us as righteousness. We must hold on to our faith, because if we have no faith, we have no righteousness. We are not accepted because we kept the Law; we are accepted because we believe. Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us when we believe. When we believe, God has not only clothed us with the garments of salvation, He has covered us with the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10).
Paul said, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21, emphasis added).
Our righteousness is Christ's righteousness. On our own we have no righteousness. It is important to realize that when you have the righteousness of God the devil can't say anything against you! He can't accuse you.
It astonishes me that on the night of the Last Supper, when Jesus knew that Peter was going to deny Him, He didn't pray that he would not deny Him. He prayed that he would not lose his faith (Luke 22:32). I believe one thing you must not lose is you faith. Hold on to it and God will see you through and the devil can't touch you.
Now let us consider the Law of observing the Sabbath day. Further on in Colossians 2 Paul said: "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths" (Col. 2:17).
Observing the Sabbath day is in the 4th of the Ten Commandments. No one should judge us in respect to Sabbath day because God has abrogated the Law as a requirement to achieve righteousness with Him. Therefore we are not guilty every time we break it. God has to do this because every time we break it Satan would be there pointing his finger at us and make us feel guilty.
By the above two provisions of God, we have been set free from the accusation of Satan concerning our past and our present. God has made it possible for you and me to live without any sense of guilt whatever! Therefore we can face the devil and defeat him.
The same provisions of God are in Paul's Epistle to the Romans
It is interesting to note that, in general, Paul said about the same provisions of God in his epistle to the Romans. The first eight Chapters give a systematic building up of the kind of life that God wants us to live - by the power of the Holy Spirit. The eight Chapter is the concept of the Spirit filled life. It is the level on which God wants us to live. The previous seven Chapters are all essential to get there. When you have been through them, you can answer any question the devil has got about your righteousness.
Paul said in the beginning of Chapter eight: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
Notice that you can't live in Chapter Eight if you live under condemnation. If you walk according to the flesh (in the soul or in the mind realm) you are likely to live under condemnation! The devil will accuse you day and night and make you feel guilty! Therefore, you and I must always walk in the Spirit.
The outworking of Christ's Victory
Paul said, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and throgh us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place" (2 Cor. 2:14, emphasis added).
The above is a tremendous verse because it starts with "always" and ends up in "every place". This means we are invited, by God, to join with Christ in His triumph at all times and in every place. We don't have to win the victory over Satan but we are offered the privilege of celebrating the triumph - We, the Church, are in the chariot of God with Christ by faith. Now, Christ has won the victory, Christ has gained the authority, but the responsibility to administer His victory and to exercise His authority has been placed upon us. And unless we do it, the actual benefits of His Victory are not manifested. If we don't do it the world will never know that Christ has won the victory!
The Great Commission
The Great Commission is Christ's Commission for us to go and exercise His Authority and thus demonstrate His Victory (Matt. 28:18, 19). But if you don't go, His Authority remains ineffective. In Mark 16, Jesus said, as we go He would demonstrate His Authority with five supernatural signs (Mark 16:17, 18).
Some Christians said that signs don't follow today. My understanding is that Jesus only ordains signs to follow those who go. And those who don't go has no right to claim the signs!
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Aggressive and Authoritative Prayers
I believe the Holy Spirit is telling the Church to pray aggressively and authoritatively as we are approaching the close of this age. There are two specific forms of prayer which are expressions of aggressive praying. One is, "The prayer of binding and loosing" and the other is, "A specific directed, persistent prayer given by the Holy Spirit".
I am not suggesting that we can ever exhaust the possibilities of praying. Rather, these prayers we are about to discuss just begin to open the door, for there is more to be entered into in aggressive and authoritative prayers.
The Prayer of Binding and Loosing
Jesus said to Peter, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19, KJV, emphasis added).
By saying the above, Jesus had conferred to Peter the most tremendous spiritual authority, an authority to be exercised on earth but effective in heaven. Notice that in Matthew 18 Jesus gave the same promise, but this time it was given in the plural:
"Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:18 - 20, KJV, emphasis added).
One of the advantages of the King James translation of the Bible is that it preserves the distinction, in the second person, between singular and plural which does not exist in Modern English. Usually we say "you" whether we are talking to one person or to more than one person. But in the Elizabethan English they say "thou" to mean one and "ye" to mean more than one.
For instance, Jesus said to Peter at the Last Supper, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32, KJV, emphasis added).
Notice that "thee", "thy" and "thou" are all singular.
Let us go back to Matt. 18:19 again. The Greek word for "agree" is "sumphoneo" which in English means, "in perfect harmony" or "in perfect accord with one another". It does not mean intellectual agreement, like in many of our Local Church prayer meetings, to pray for someone who is sick. It means harmony in the spirit. If you don't have harmony, don't waste your time in the prayer meeting. Your prayer will not be answered.
In my opinion, a more accurate translation for Matt. 18:20 is: "For where two or three have been led together into My Name, there am I in the midst of them". The word "led" speaks of a leader - the Holy Spirit.
Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14, NKJV).
So, Jesus was speaking about believers brought together by the Holy Spirit around the focus of the Name of Jesus - not in the basis of denomination or doctrine, but around the Person of Christ represented by His Name. Clearly, the exercising of the authority of binding and loosing depends on the leading of the Holy Spirit.
On the above basis alone, Jesus said, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18, KJV, emphasis added).
In Greek, the phrases "shall be bound" and "shall be loosed" are very emphatic. The tense used here in English is a perfect past participle and not a simple past. For example, if I say: "The door was closed yesterday" which is a simply past, I say nothing about the situation of the door today - opened or closed. But if I use the perfect participle I will say: "The door has been closed" which implies that the door is still closed now. In other words, the perfect past participle tells you something that happened in the past with continuing application right on into the present.
This was what Jesus actually put it in Matt. 18:18. - Very emphatic and very accurate with no room for any kind of alternative or dispute or doubt. Notice that there are actually two ways of looking at what Jesus said - one, emphasized on man's responsibility and the other, emphasized on God's sovereignty.
On man's responsibility
"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 'haven't been' bound in heaven". The moment you bind it on earth it is bound in heaven. In other words, your action is decisive. As you take action on earth its consequence is effective in heaven.
On God's sovereignty
"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth will be there which has already been bound in heaven". This places all the emphasis on God's sovereignty. In other words, you can only bind on earth what has already been bound in heaven.
However, it is extremely important to note that in whichever way you choose to look at it, it still places upon us the responsibility to do it, because until it is done it is not effective. Actually it is the same truth with two different emphases. What I am trying to say is the fact that we have a much greater responsibility and authority than we are wiiling to face up to! God places the initiative to bind and loose on us and He just goes along with us.
The importance of binding and loosing
I have spent a lot of time and effort to explain the principle of binding and loosing because it is extremely important in spiritual warfare. Binding and loosing essentially cover any situation you can think of. Basically if you know how to bind and loose, there is no situation to which you do not have the answer. In those two verses (Matt. 18:18 and 19) God gave us all the authority that will ever be neeeded in warfare prayer.
The need of the right relationship
The whole essence of the matter is having the right relationship between God's people. The authority of binding and loosing is not given to those who are not in right relatioship. God has invited believers to share the Throne with Him:
Paul said, "... and raised up up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ..." (Eph. 2:6, NKJV).
God has got to take some elementary precaution because the heavenly realm is going to have problem if His people are not in right relation with one another.
Binding the Strongman
The following passages of Scripture spotlight the two kingdoms in conflict, the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan:
Jesus said, "But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils" (Luke 11:20 - 22, NKJV, emphasis added).
The strongman is the devil fully armed and Jesus is the One stronger than the devil. The devil guarded his goods kept in his palace and he was in peace thinking that no one could overcome him. But Jesus came upon him, and took from him his armor and his spoils. The devil is therefore an unarmed foe now. The armor is on our side.
There is a parallel passge in Matthew:
Jesus said, "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his good, unless he first binds the strong man? An then he will plunder his house" (Matthew 12:28, 29, emphasis added).
By comparing the two passages we learn that "The Spirit of God" is also "The finger of God". That means the Holy Spirit is our helper in binding the strongman. Jesus is the One who has defeated the devil (Colossians 2), but we still have our part to play to deal with the strongman because we have to administer his defeat. Matthew said specifically we have to enter the strongman's house and bind him.
I believe the Holy Spirit is seeking to show us that much of our prayers and activities, though good, are not fully effective until, in any given situation, we learn how to deal with the strongman.
Daniel 10 gives us a picture of strongmen that hindered Daniel's prayer. There were strongmen over the kingdoms of Persia and Greece. Before the answer to Daneil's prayer could come, these strongmen had to be overcome by Michael, God's archangel.
Strongmen are Satan's delegated representives to watch over Satan's interests in various places. I believe there are many levels of authority in Satan's kingdom. I also believe Satan has echelons of strongmen, not only over the major cities, but over areas of a city, smaller towns, villages and communities. Some cities have the strongman of gambling; other cities have the strongman of alchhol, strongman of homosexual, strongman of pornography, strongman of lawlessness and strongman of legalism and so on (You many wish to read my earlier message: "The Strongman").
The identification of these strongmen depends, to a large measure, on revelation; not Bible revelation but by direct Word of knowledge. If we can find the specific strongman and bind him we save ourselves a whole lot of hard work and frustration.
A specific directed persistent prayer given by the Holy Spirit
Let us take two pictures from the Old Testament:
1. The capture of Ai (Joshua 8)
Joshua 8 deals with the capture of the city of Ai by the children of Israel. In the previous chapter, they tried to capture it but failed because there was sin in the camp. Sin was dealt with and then God gave them the military strategy to take the city. In the middle of all the military operations God told Joshua to do something which had no military significant at all. He was to stretch out his spear directly toward Ai and God would give it to him (Joshua 8:18). Like a prayer, this action had spiritual significance. Verse 26 says that Joshua, laying hold of God's promise to give them Ai and claiming it until it was completely fulfilled.
To me, that outstretched spear is a beautiful picuture of a God given persistent unwavering directed prayer. Just like the psalmist David, Joshua knew that God never approved a partial victory:
"I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them; neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed" (Ps. 18:37).
2. Prophet Elisha and king Joash (2 Kings 13)
Elisha was a prophet in the Northern kingdom of Israel. The king over Israel at that time was Joash. Elisha was sick and was about to die.
"Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel come down to him, and wept over his face, and said, 'O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!'" (2 Kings 13:14, emphasis added).
Now, why did king Joash acknowledge Elisha as Israel's chariots and horsemen? In my opinion, the king acknowledged that the true spiritual protection of Israel was not in the army that the king commanded, but in the presence of the prophet in their midst! And now where would the protection be since the prophet, a symbol of chariots and horsemen, was about to leave them?
Elisha told the king to do something that was related to the military situation in Israel at that time. Israel was being threatened by a stronger power from the East - Syria. Before Elisha died he made a remarkable provision to deal with the threat of Syria against Israel. The provision was quite similar to the situation with Joshua except the weapon used was bow and arrow.
"Then he (Elisha) said to the king of Israel, 'Put your hand on the bow.' So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands" (2 Kings 13:16).
The above action signifies the anointing of Elisha had been transferred to the king through the prophet's hand. The next verse says, Elisha told the king to shoot the arrow to the directio of Syria and he shot. Then Elisha told the king to strike the ground five or six times until Syria was completely destroyed. But the king stopped too soon and though he defeated Syria, he did not completely destroy it.
The above picture is also a picture of a God given directed prayer. It tells us that military victory is directly dependent on spiritual forces. It tells us if you win the battle in the spiritual realm, it will be worked out in the military, the political, and the social or economical realm. That is the power of our aggressive and authoritative prayers.
I am not suggesting that we can ever exhaust the possibilities of praying. Rather, these prayers we are about to discuss just begin to open the door, for there is more to be entered into in aggressive and authoritative prayers.
The Prayer of Binding and Loosing
Jesus said to Peter, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19, KJV, emphasis added).
By saying the above, Jesus had conferred to Peter the most tremendous spiritual authority, an authority to be exercised on earth but effective in heaven. Notice that in Matthew 18 Jesus gave the same promise, but this time it was given in the plural:
"Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:18 - 20, KJV, emphasis added).
One of the advantages of the King James translation of the Bible is that it preserves the distinction, in the second person, between singular and plural which does not exist in Modern English. Usually we say "you" whether we are talking to one person or to more than one person. But in the Elizabethan English they say "thou" to mean one and "ye" to mean more than one.
For instance, Jesus said to Peter at the Last Supper, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:31, 32, KJV, emphasis added).
Notice that "thee", "thy" and "thou" are all singular.
Let us go back to Matt. 18:19 again. The Greek word for "agree" is "sumphoneo" which in English means, "in perfect harmony" or "in perfect accord with one another". It does not mean intellectual agreement, like in many of our Local Church prayer meetings, to pray for someone who is sick. It means harmony in the spirit. If you don't have harmony, don't waste your time in the prayer meeting. Your prayer will not be answered.
In my opinion, a more accurate translation for Matt. 18:20 is: "For where two or three have been led together into My Name, there am I in the midst of them". The word "led" speaks of a leader - the Holy Spirit.
Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14, NKJV).
So, Jesus was speaking about believers brought together by the Holy Spirit around the focus of the Name of Jesus - not in the basis of denomination or doctrine, but around the Person of Christ represented by His Name. Clearly, the exercising of the authority of binding and loosing depends on the leading of the Holy Spirit.
On the above basis alone, Jesus said, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18, KJV, emphasis added).
In Greek, the phrases "shall be bound" and "shall be loosed" are very emphatic. The tense used here in English is a perfect past participle and not a simple past. For example, if I say: "The door was closed yesterday" which is a simply past, I say nothing about the situation of the door today - opened or closed. But if I use the perfect participle I will say: "The door has been closed" which implies that the door is still closed now. In other words, the perfect past participle tells you something that happened in the past with continuing application right on into the present.
This was what Jesus actually put it in Matt. 18:18. - Very emphatic and very accurate with no room for any kind of alternative or dispute or doubt. Notice that there are actually two ways of looking at what Jesus said - one, emphasized on man's responsibility and the other, emphasized on God's sovereignty.
On man's responsibility
"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 'haven't been' bound in heaven". The moment you bind it on earth it is bound in heaven. In other words, your action is decisive. As you take action on earth its consequence is effective in heaven.
On God's sovereignty
"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth will be there which has already been bound in heaven". This places all the emphasis on God's sovereignty. In other words, you can only bind on earth what has already been bound in heaven.
However, it is extremely important to note that in whichever way you choose to look at it, it still places upon us the responsibility to do it, because until it is done it is not effective. Actually it is the same truth with two different emphases. What I am trying to say is the fact that we have a much greater responsibility and authority than we are wiiling to face up to! God places the initiative to bind and loose on us and He just goes along with us.
The importance of binding and loosing
I have spent a lot of time and effort to explain the principle of binding and loosing because it is extremely important in spiritual warfare. Binding and loosing essentially cover any situation you can think of. Basically if you know how to bind and loose, there is no situation to which you do not have the answer. In those two verses (Matt. 18:18 and 19) God gave us all the authority that will ever be neeeded in warfare prayer.
The need of the right relationship
The whole essence of the matter is having the right relationship between God's people. The authority of binding and loosing is not given to those who are not in right relatioship. God has invited believers to share the Throne with Him:
Paul said, "... and raised up up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ..." (Eph. 2:6, NKJV).
God has got to take some elementary precaution because the heavenly realm is going to have problem if His people are not in right relation with one another.
Binding the Strongman
The following passages of Scripture spotlight the two kingdoms in conflict, the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan:
Jesus said, "But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils" (Luke 11:20 - 22, NKJV, emphasis added).
The strongman is the devil fully armed and Jesus is the One stronger than the devil. The devil guarded his goods kept in his palace and he was in peace thinking that no one could overcome him. But Jesus came upon him, and took from him his armor and his spoils. The devil is therefore an unarmed foe now. The armor is on our side.
There is a parallel passge in Matthew:
Jesus said, "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his good, unless he first binds the strong man? An then he will plunder his house" (Matthew 12:28, 29, emphasis added).
By comparing the two passages we learn that "The Spirit of God" is also "The finger of God". That means the Holy Spirit is our helper in binding the strongman. Jesus is the One who has defeated the devil (Colossians 2), but we still have our part to play to deal with the strongman because we have to administer his defeat. Matthew said specifically we have to enter the strongman's house and bind him.
I believe the Holy Spirit is seeking to show us that much of our prayers and activities, though good, are not fully effective until, in any given situation, we learn how to deal with the strongman.
Daniel 10 gives us a picture of strongmen that hindered Daniel's prayer. There were strongmen over the kingdoms of Persia and Greece. Before the answer to Daneil's prayer could come, these strongmen had to be overcome by Michael, God's archangel.
Strongmen are Satan's delegated representives to watch over Satan's interests in various places. I believe there are many levels of authority in Satan's kingdom. I also believe Satan has echelons of strongmen, not only over the major cities, but over areas of a city, smaller towns, villages and communities. Some cities have the strongman of gambling; other cities have the strongman of alchhol, strongman of homosexual, strongman of pornography, strongman of lawlessness and strongman of legalism and so on (You many wish to read my earlier message: "The Strongman").
The identification of these strongmen depends, to a large measure, on revelation; not Bible revelation but by direct Word of knowledge. If we can find the specific strongman and bind him we save ourselves a whole lot of hard work and frustration.
A specific directed persistent prayer given by the Holy Spirit
Let us take two pictures from the Old Testament:
1. The capture of Ai (Joshua 8)
Joshua 8 deals with the capture of the city of Ai by the children of Israel. In the previous chapter, they tried to capture it but failed because there was sin in the camp. Sin was dealt with and then God gave them the military strategy to take the city. In the middle of all the military operations God told Joshua to do something which had no military significant at all. He was to stretch out his spear directly toward Ai and God would give it to him (Joshua 8:18). Like a prayer, this action had spiritual significance. Verse 26 says that Joshua, laying hold of God's promise to give them Ai and claiming it until it was completely fulfilled.
To me, that outstretched spear is a beautiful picuture of a God given persistent unwavering directed prayer. Just like the psalmist David, Joshua knew that God never approved a partial victory:
"I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them; neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed" (Ps. 18:37).
2. Prophet Elisha and king Joash (2 Kings 13)
Elisha was a prophet in the Northern kingdom of Israel. The king over Israel at that time was Joash. Elisha was sick and was about to die.
"Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel come down to him, and wept over his face, and said, 'O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!'" (2 Kings 13:14, emphasis added).
Now, why did king Joash acknowledge Elisha as Israel's chariots and horsemen? In my opinion, the king acknowledged that the true spiritual protection of Israel was not in the army that the king commanded, but in the presence of the prophet in their midst! And now where would the protection be since the prophet, a symbol of chariots and horsemen, was about to leave them?
Elisha told the king to do something that was related to the military situation in Israel at that time. Israel was being threatened by a stronger power from the East - Syria. Before Elisha died he made a remarkable provision to deal with the threat of Syria against Israel. The provision was quite similar to the situation with Joshua except the weapon used was bow and arrow.
"Then he (Elisha) said to the king of Israel, 'Put your hand on the bow.' So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands" (2 Kings 13:16).
The above action signifies the anointing of Elisha had been transferred to the king through the prophet's hand. The next verse says, Elisha told the king to shoot the arrow to the directio of Syria and he shot. Then Elisha told the king to strike the ground five or six times until Syria was completely destroyed. But the king stopped too soon and though he defeated Syria, he did not completely destroy it.
The above picture is also a picture of a God given directed prayer. It tells us that military victory is directly dependent on spiritual forces. It tells us if you win the battle in the spiritual realm, it will be worked out in the military, the political, and the social or economical realm. That is the power of our aggressive and authoritative prayers.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
The Primary Responsibilities of a Believer
The Scripture reveals that there are rival programs of God and of Satan at the close of this age. It s important to understand that the name Satan means, literally, the resister. This indicates one major aspect of Satan's character and activity is that he deliberately and systematically resists and opposes every aspect of God's grace and mercy toward the human race. Satan has established a rival spiritual kingdom where he rules over fallen angels in the heavenly realm and demons on earth.
God's objectives and Satan's objectives
At the close of this age God has two major objectives on earth in relation to the Church:
1. To reap earth's last great harvest of souls. There is to be a great harvest at the close of this age because Jesus said so.
Jesus said, ".... the harvest is the end of the age ...." (Matt. 13:39, NKJV).
2. To prepare the Church as a Bride for Christ who is the Bridegroom (Eph. 4:25 - 27).
At the same time Satan also has his two specific objectives on earth:
1. Seek to gain complete political control. In order to do this he has to find a man that will be an instrument whom he can use, whom he can raise up to a position of unique and supreme political power, so that through this man he can accomplish his purposes. This man in Scripture is called the antichrist.
2. Satan's final objective, through this man, is to receive universal worship. This has been his objective since he fell. He wanted to be equal with God and to receive the worship that is due to God only (Isaiah 14:13, 14).
In relation to these two purposes of Satan, Christ has committed to his disciples (believers) two responsibilities - Firstly, to restrain Satan's purposes on earth, and secondly, to cast down Satan's kingdom from the heavenly realm.
The power of the believer to restrain Satan
I prefer to use the word "believer" to the word "Christian" because the word "Christian" is so often misused today (Please refer to my earlier message, "Definition of being a Christian"). Notice that all the promises of God are only for believers.
Our key verse comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount:
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men" (Matt. 5:13).
There are two important things that salt does, both of them are extremely relevant to our function as believers today - Firstly, it gives flavor to the food which otherwise lack, and secondly, it has the ability to restrain the process of corruption.
To give flavor to the earth
Food which by itself alone is unappetizing becomes tasty and acceptable when seasoned with salt. As believers, our function as little grains of salt is to give flavor to the earth. The one who enjoys this flavor is God. Our presence makes the earth acceptable to God. Our presence commends the earth to God's mercy. Without us, there would be nothing to make the earth acceptable to God. But because we are here, God continues to deal with the earth in grace and mercy rather than in wrath and judgment. It is our presence that makes the difference. Salt is sprinkled just a grain at a time - a grain here and a grain there. But each little grain has its particular function and purpose to give flavor to that particular area where it is sprinkled. We are responsible for the situation in which we live; we are responsible for the atmosphere around us.
Let us illustrate this principle of believers as salt of the earth with Biblical examples:
1. God's dealing with Abraham concerning Sodom (Gen. 18)
Lot, Abraham's nephew, lived in Sodom and so Abraham had a very special reason for being concerned that God would not bring judgment upon Sodom while Lord and his family were still there. Abraham then decided to talk to God.
Abraham questioned God, "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked" (Gen. 18:23)?
Abraham knew that it is altogether out of the question that a just God would ever do that - God's judgment for the wickedness of the wicked should ever touch the righteous.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and made righteous by Him, judgment for the wickedness of the wicked should not come near you; it should not touch you; it should not even bring fear over you. Abraham saw this and God saw it too and went along with it. And so Abraham reduced, stage by stage, the number of righteous person from 50 to just 10 - just 10 little grains of salt that would make Sodom acceptable to God, so that He would not deal with it with wrath and with judgment.
2. Paul's voyage to Rome (Acts 27)
Paul had been brought for trial in Jerusalem and then on his way, in a ship, to Rome where he would be judged by Caesar. The ship ran into a terrible storm for 14 days and nights and the people together with Paul had given up hope of being saved (V. 20). At that point in time, the angel of God came and spoke to Paul and assured him that there would be no loss of life among them.
Paul said to them, "For there stood by me this night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.'" (Vs. 23, 24, emphasis added).
Notice the two good things Paul said about God - "I belong to Him and I serve Him". Every single person on the ship will be saved for Paul's sake. He had to be at Rome because that was God's program for him. Satan can hinder but he can never prevent the fulfillment of God's program. The presence of the true believer makes the difference. In the case of Paul, he was a grain of salt that changed the environment.
To restrain the process of corruption
In the days before refrigeration was made available, one main way of preserving things such as meat was to use salt. The process of corruption was already at work before the meat was salted. But the presence of salt restrains the forces of corruption to make the meat edible. This again is exactly what you and I are responsible to do. We are here to hold back the forces of corruption which is already at work in the world, until the purposes of God have been fulfilled. Then, corruption will come to its climax. This is very clearly stated in Scripture.
Paul said, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ..." (2 Thess. 2:3, emphasis added).
The two titles given to the antichrist are "man of sin" and "son of perdition". Paul reminded Christians that the antichrist cannot be manifested before "the falling away" (Greek word is apostasy) comes to the Church - until Christians turn away from the true faith of Jesus Christ. As long as the believers retain the true faith, the antichrist can't be revealed. Why? Because the believers, as grains of salt, are holding back the final manifestation of total corruption or degradation.
Satan knows that if he is going to manifest this man, he has got to produce an apostasy within the Church. In other words, the salt of the Church has got to lose its saltiness; it has got to cease to fulfill its function. When the Church has lost its saltiness, the way is opened for the manifestation of this final evil satanic ruler.
Let us look at Matt. 5:13 again where Jesus said, when the salt loses its saltiness it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot of men. That is precisely what Jesus said about a believer who does not believe. Men become the instruments of God's judgment upon the saltless, apostate Church. The only hope to avoid this is the return to the faith by the believer.
Let us illustrate this principle of restraining process of corruption with Biblical examples:
1. In the days of Noah
Jesus said, "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man; ..." (Luke 17:26).
The Scripture reveals the condition of the world in the days of Noah. There were two features - Satanic supernatural intervention in the spiritual realm and the breakdown of moral character of men in the natural realm. But God had a restraining force at work in Noah and his family. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Seven days before the flood actually began, God withdrew Noah and his family into the Ark (Genesis 7). The restraining force represented by Noah was withdrawn. In those seven days, iniquities, godlessness and lawlessness came to their climax and followed by the judgment of the Flood.
2. At the close of this age
It is going to be the same at the close of this age. God's representatives will be withdrawn, and for a short period of time, lawlessness will be allowed to come to its climax, But it cannot happen until God's people, the Church, have been withdrawn because the Church is the salt of the earth and it has the restraining power.
Let me put it in another way. The Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Godhead, came to earth on the day of Pentecost and formed a Body of Christ. When the Body is matured and complete, the Holy Spirit will return to heaven, taking the Body of Christ with Him. And the Body becomes the Bride of Christ.
This will happen according to what Paul said, "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thess. 2:7, 8, emphasis added).
I believe Paul referred to the Holy Spirit as a Person within the Church of Jesus Christ when he mentioned "He". The Holy Spirit and the Church need to be taken out of the way before God's judgment is poured out without restrain just as it was in the Flood. it will be altogether inconsistent with God's dignity that the final manifestation of Satan's power and authority should take place when the third Person of the Godhead is still personally resident here on earth.
The power of the believers to cast down Satan's kingdom
We can only discuss this section briefly, but when we come to the topics of Spiritual Warfare and Spiritual Weapons we shall deal with it in greater details.
Jesus has committed to His disciples (believers) the power and authority to cast down Satan's kingdom from the heavenly realm. It is part of God's program for His people. We must understand that God has made possible for us to have total victory. God would never commit His people, deliberately, within His will, to a conflict which they could not win. In fact, on the cross, Jesus had already defeated Satan on our behalf -He won the victory for us and defeated our enemy. It is now our responsibility to demonstrate and administer the victory of Jesus.
Paul said, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and evey high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:3 - 5, NKJV, emphasis added).
For the purpose of this message, just think of "strongholds" as roadblocks, and we are given the spiritual weapons to pull down these roadblocks.
We must understand that in our Christian walk we encounter many roadblocks. We must also understand the fact that Satan opposes some of the things that God leaves us to do and we should receive it as a compliment. If it wasn't pretty good Satan wouldn't bother to oppose it. Actually one sure way to find out the will of God is to notice what Satan opposes because he opposes the will of God.
An illustration of spiritual stronghold or roadblock may be seen in Daniel's prayer (Daniel 10). Daniel was mourning for 21 days, and then come the answer. It was Daniel's prayer that got the angel through with the answer to his prayer. When Daneil started to pray on earth, heaven started to move. But the angel couldn't get through, because of the roadblock, until Daniel prayed through. A lesson learned is that the initiative is with us and not with heaven.
Revelation 12:7 - 11 relates how Satan's is going to be thrown out of heaven and we are the instruments God uses to do this job.
"And they (believers) overcame him (Satan) bey the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Rev. 12:11).
Notice that the final culmination Satan's casting down from heaven is attributed to the believers on earth. This is our responsibility. Angels can't do it because they don't have any testimony, but we do! There is one final phase which is the destruction of Satan's forces on earth and that is left to Jesus. Jesus will come from heaven and he will personally deal with the antichrist. But the casting down of Satan and his angels from heaven is the believers' responsibility.
God's objectives and Satan's objectives
At the close of this age God has two major objectives on earth in relation to the Church:
1. To reap earth's last great harvest of souls. There is to be a great harvest at the close of this age because Jesus said so.
Jesus said, ".... the harvest is the end of the age ...." (Matt. 13:39, NKJV).
2. To prepare the Church as a Bride for Christ who is the Bridegroom (Eph. 4:25 - 27).
At the same time Satan also has his two specific objectives on earth:
1. Seek to gain complete political control. In order to do this he has to find a man that will be an instrument whom he can use, whom he can raise up to a position of unique and supreme political power, so that through this man he can accomplish his purposes. This man in Scripture is called the antichrist.
2. Satan's final objective, through this man, is to receive universal worship. This has been his objective since he fell. He wanted to be equal with God and to receive the worship that is due to God only (Isaiah 14:13, 14).
In relation to these two purposes of Satan, Christ has committed to his disciples (believers) two responsibilities - Firstly, to restrain Satan's purposes on earth, and secondly, to cast down Satan's kingdom from the heavenly realm.
The power of the believer to restrain Satan
I prefer to use the word "believer" to the word "Christian" because the word "Christian" is so often misused today (Please refer to my earlier message, "Definition of being a Christian"). Notice that all the promises of God are only for believers.
Our key verse comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount:
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men" (Matt. 5:13).
There are two important things that salt does, both of them are extremely relevant to our function as believers today - Firstly, it gives flavor to the food which otherwise lack, and secondly, it has the ability to restrain the process of corruption.
To give flavor to the earth
Food which by itself alone is unappetizing becomes tasty and acceptable when seasoned with salt. As believers, our function as little grains of salt is to give flavor to the earth. The one who enjoys this flavor is God. Our presence makes the earth acceptable to God. Our presence commends the earth to God's mercy. Without us, there would be nothing to make the earth acceptable to God. But because we are here, God continues to deal with the earth in grace and mercy rather than in wrath and judgment. It is our presence that makes the difference. Salt is sprinkled just a grain at a time - a grain here and a grain there. But each little grain has its particular function and purpose to give flavor to that particular area where it is sprinkled. We are responsible for the situation in which we live; we are responsible for the atmosphere around us.
Let us illustrate this principle of believers as salt of the earth with Biblical examples:
1. God's dealing with Abraham concerning Sodom (Gen. 18)
Lot, Abraham's nephew, lived in Sodom and so Abraham had a very special reason for being concerned that God would not bring judgment upon Sodom while Lord and his family were still there. Abraham then decided to talk to God.
Abraham questioned God, "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked" (Gen. 18:23)?
Abraham knew that it is altogether out of the question that a just God would ever do that - God's judgment for the wickedness of the wicked should ever touch the righteous.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and made righteous by Him, judgment for the wickedness of the wicked should not come near you; it should not touch you; it should not even bring fear over you. Abraham saw this and God saw it too and went along with it. And so Abraham reduced, stage by stage, the number of righteous person from 50 to just 10 - just 10 little grains of salt that would make Sodom acceptable to God, so that He would not deal with it with wrath and with judgment.
2. Paul's voyage to Rome (Acts 27)
Paul had been brought for trial in Jerusalem and then on his way, in a ship, to Rome where he would be judged by Caesar. The ship ran into a terrible storm for 14 days and nights and the people together with Paul had given up hope of being saved (V. 20). At that point in time, the angel of God came and spoke to Paul and assured him that there would be no loss of life among them.
Paul said to them, "For there stood by me this night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.'" (Vs. 23, 24, emphasis added).
Notice the two good things Paul said about God - "I belong to Him and I serve Him". Every single person on the ship will be saved for Paul's sake. He had to be at Rome because that was God's program for him. Satan can hinder but he can never prevent the fulfillment of God's program. The presence of the true believer makes the difference. In the case of Paul, he was a grain of salt that changed the environment.
To restrain the process of corruption
In the days before refrigeration was made available, one main way of preserving things such as meat was to use salt. The process of corruption was already at work before the meat was salted. But the presence of salt restrains the forces of corruption to make the meat edible. This again is exactly what you and I are responsible to do. We are here to hold back the forces of corruption which is already at work in the world, until the purposes of God have been fulfilled. Then, corruption will come to its climax. This is very clearly stated in Scripture.
Paul said, "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ..." (2 Thess. 2:3, emphasis added).
The two titles given to the antichrist are "man of sin" and "son of perdition". Paul reminded Christians that the antichrist cannot be manifested before "the falling away" (Greek word is apostasy) comes to the Church - until Christians turn away from the true faith of Jesus Christ. As long as the believers retain the true faith, the antichrist can't be revealed. Why? Because the believers, as grains of salt, are holding back the final manifestation of total corruption or degradation.
Satan knows that if he is going to manifest this man, he has got to produce an apostasy within the Church. In other words, the salt of the Church has got to lose its saltiness; it has got to cease to fulfill its function. When the Church has lost its saltiness, the way is opened for the manifestation of this final evil satanic ruler.
Let us look at Matt. 5:13 again where Jesus said, when the salt loses its saltiness it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot of men. That is precisely what Jesus said about a believer who does not believe. Men become the instruments of God's judgment upon the saltless, apostate Church. The only hope to avoid this is the return to the faith by the believer.
Let us illustrate this principle of restraining process of corruption with Biblical examples:
1. In the days of Noah
Jesus said, "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man; ..." (Luke 17:26).
The Scripture reveals the condition of the world in the days of Noah. There were two features - Satanic supernatural intervention in the spiritual realm and the breakdown of moral character of men in the natural realm. But God had a restraining force at work in Noah and his family. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Seven days before the flood actually began, God withdrew Noah and his family into the Ark (Genesis 7). The restraining force represented by Noah was withdrawn. In those seven days, iniquities, godlessness and lawlessness came to their climax and followed by the judgment of the Flood.
2. At the close of this age
It is going to be the same at the close of this age. God's representatives will be withdrawn, and for a short period of time, lawlessness will be allowed to come to its climax, But it cannot happen until God's people, the Church, have been withdrawn because the Church is the salt of the earth and it has the restraining power.
Let me put it in another way. The Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Godhead, came to earth on the day of Pentecost and formed a Body of Christ. When the Body is matured and complete, the Holy Spirit will return to heaven, taking the Body of Christ with Him. And the Body becomes the Bride of Christ.
This will happen according to what Paul said, "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming" (2 Thess. 2:7, 8, emphasis added).
I believe Paul referred to the Holy Spirit as a Person within the Church of Jesus Christ when he mentioned "He". The Holy Spirit and the Church need to be taken out of the way before God's judgment is poured out without restrain just as it was in the Flood. it will be altogether inconsistent with God's dignity that the final manifestation of Satan's power and authority should take place when the third Person of the Godhead is still personally resident here on earth.
The power of the believers to cast down Satan's kingdom
We can only discuss this section briefly, but when we come to the topics of Spiritual Warfare and Spiritual Weapons we shall deal with it in greater details.
Jesus has committed to His disciples (believers) the power and authority to cast down Satan's kingdom from the heavenly realm. It is part of God's program for His people. We must understand that God has made possible for us to have total victory. God would never commit His people, deliberately, within His will, to a conflict which they could not win. In fact, on the cross, Jesus had already defeated Satan on our behalf -He won the victory for us and defeated our enemy. It is now our responsibility to demonstrate and administer the victory of Jesus.
Paul said, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and evey high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. 10:3 - 5, NKJV, emphasis added).
For the purpose of this message, just think of "strongholds" as roadblocks, and we are given the spiritual weapons to pull down these roadblocks.
We must understand that in our Christian walk we encounter many roadblocks. We must also understand the fact that Satan opposes some of the things that God leaves us to do and we should receive it as a compliment. If it wasn't pretty good Satan wouldn't bother to oppose it. Actually one sure way to find out the will of God is to notice what Satan opposes because he opposes the will of God.
An illustration of spiritual stronghold or roadblock may be seen in Daniel's prayer (Daniel 10). Daniel was mourning for 21 days, and then come the answer. It was Daniel's prayer that got the angel through with the answer to his prayer. When Daneil started to pray on earth, heaven started to move. But the angel couldn't get through, because of the roadblock, until Daniel prayed through. A lesson learned is that the initiative is with us and not with heaven.
Revelation 12:7 - 11 relates how Satan's is going to be thrown out of heaven and we are the instruments God uses to do this job.
"And they (believers) overcame him (Satan) bey the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Rev. 12:11).
Notice that the final culmination Satan's casting down from heaven is attributed to the believers on earth. This is our responsibility. Angels can't do it because they don't have any testimony, but we do! There is one final phase which is the destruction of Satan's forces on earth and that is left to Jesus. Jesus will come from heaven and he will personally deal with the antichrist. But the casting down of Satan and his angels from heaven is the believers' responsibility.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Power of Intercession
We are now going to look at a number of the Lord's servants who played the role of intercessors. I think you will find that all of them were men and women close to the heart of God. I believer the ministry of intercession is something very close to the heart of God. By studying the powerful intercessions of these Old Testament saints, we are able to understand and identify the various features and characteristics of an effective intercessor. You will find many examples in the Bible, but let us focus our attention to the intercessions of just two men and a woman. They are very good examples for us to follow.
The Intercession of Abraham on behalf of the City of Sodom
Sodom was a very wicked city and was ripe of God's judgment. In Genesis 18 we read how three men came to visit Abraham. One of the men was the Lord and the other two were angels. Abraham welcomed them and entertained them. They brought Abraham and his wife Sarah the promise of their son, Issac. And then they were ready to move on.
The Lord then told Abraham that He was going to look at the city of Sodom for Himself to see if it was really as bad and as sinful as He had heard about it. I believe the Lord would not hide anything from Abraham because Abraham was a prophet - The Lord told Amos, "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7, NKJV, emphasis added).
Genesis 18:22 - 33 relates how Abraham interceded for Sodom. After the two angels went on their way to Sodom, Abraham stood before the Lord.
"The men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord" (Gen. 18:22, emphasis added).
Abraham stood between the Lord and the city of Sodom, the object of God's impending judgment. This is a perfect example of intercession.
From the conversation between the Lord and Abraham we learn about Abraham's intimacy with the Lord. In fact James 2:23 says Abraham was called the friend of God. He was talking to the Lord as a personal friend. Notice also Abraham's boldness. He was actually challenging God's righteousness:
He said to God, "Far be it from You to such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all do right" (Gen. 18:25, emphasis added)?
Abraham was not afraid to speak out and said what he thought and with holy reverence at the same time. Notice also that Abraham had absolute conviction of God's justice - both positive and negative. Negatively that God would punish the wicked; positively that God would not deal with the righteous as with the wicked. I believe that a conviction of God's absolute justice is an essential part in the ministry of intercession.
It is interesting to study God's response to Abraham. God did not brush Abraham aside, but listened to him. In a sense, God allowed His course of action to be influenced by whatever Abraham said to Him. Think of both the privilege and responsibility of being able to speak to God in such a way that we can actually influence His course of action! God was indeed delighted to show mercy. At Abraham's intercession, God came down step by step, from promising to show mercy if there were 50 righteous persons, to the last promise He made that He would show mercy if there were only 10 righteous persons in the entire city of Sodom. God kept His promise to Abraham and Sodom was destroyed because there were actually less than 10 righteous persons in that city! Only Lot and his two daughters escaped.
An Intercession of Moses
In the course of bringing Israel out of Egypt Moses made many intercessions to God on behalf of God's people. It is beyond the scope of this message to discuss all of them. But let us consider just one interesting situation.
Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Commandments and the Law from God. His people had corrupted themselves by worshipping the Gold Calf. Exodus 32:7 -14 contains an interesting conversation in the form of intercession between Moses and the Lord. Notice that neither the Lord nor Moses would accept resposibility for Israel at that time. They were both disgusted with Israel. I find the conversation between the Lord and Moses rather amusing.
"And the Lord said to Moses, 'Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves'" (Exodus 32:7, emphasis added).
Later on Moses said to the Lord, "Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people ...." (Exodus 32:11, emphasis added)?
Moses was actually arguing with the Lord by saying something like this, "No Lord, they are not my people but Your people!"
This shows Israel was in such a state of degradation that neither the Lord nor Moses wanted to identify with them!
We need to give special attention to what the Lord said to Moses, "Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation" (Exodus 32:10, emphasis added).
God was saying something like this to Moses, "If you step aside I'll act, but if you remain there before me I can't act". To me this is the whole faith of the intercessor. The intercessor's presence between God and the object of His wrath restrains God's wrath. If the intercessor fails to intercede, God will bring judgment to the object of His wrath. If Moses would let God alone (by stepping aside) and failed to intercede, God would have wiped out the whole nation of Israel! The marvelous thing about Moses was that he would not let God alone. He stayed there, he held on!
Look at what God offered Moses if he would "let Him alone". God would make Moses and his descendents a great nation after He had blotted out the whole nation of Israel! How many people would not be delighted with the prospect of becoming the unique head and founder of a great nation? But, Moses was not concerned with his own personal glory; he was greatly concerned for God's glory.
Moses reasoned with God, "Why should the Eqyptians speak, and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'" (Exodus 32:12)?
If God had blotted out the whole nation of Israel His power and integrity would be in question!
Notice the basis of Moses' appeal to God. He appealed to two things - God's Oath (His promises) and God's Word (V. 13). I think the basis of which any intercessor comes to God must also be God's Oath and God's Word. This is one of the keys of a successful intercessor. God's response and answer to our prayer and intercession is always based on His Word, His promises, and His Will - and His promises are in His Will.
Immediately, the next Verse (V. 14) says, "So the Lord relented from the harm which He said he would do to His people". In other words, the Lord changed His mind. God does not change (Malachi 3:6), but His mind can be changed or influenced to be changed by intercession. The intercessor can change the mind of God in the direction of His hightest will. This was precisely what Moses did!
By the act of intercession of just one man (Moses) the whole nation of Israel is saved from God's wrath. This is the power and possibility of intercession.
The Intercession of Queen Esther
Esther was a beautiful Jewish maiden living in the Persian Empire at the time the Jewish people were exiled from their land. She was an orphan girl brought up by her cousin Mordecai. Mordecai was an important official in the court of the Persian king.
When Queen Vashti was displaced by the king, Esther was chosen to be the new Queen. However, Esther had never publicly revealed that fact that she was Jewish. Harman who hated Mordecai was also an official in the court of the Persian king. Harman sought to destroy all the Jews living in the provices of the Persian Empire and the surrounding districts. he obtained a decree from the king to this effect. This was a desperate situation. When the decree went forth from the palace, Mordecai sent a message to Esther in the Queen's palace that it was her responsibility to get to the king and to persuade him to change his mind about the decree. But initially Esther didn't want to go to the king on behalf of her people for reasons given in Esther 4:11.
However, Mordecai persuaded her with these words, "For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this" (Esther 4:14, emphasis added)?
Mordecai was under the conviction that Esther was called to the kingdom to do the will of God - "For such a time as this". In other words, the purpose of her being chosen as the Queen was to be used as an instrument to protect the Jews. She and her father's house would perish if she failed to do God's will, but God would find another way to protect the rest of the Jews!
I believe this also applies to us as Christians. We are a Kingdom of priests. We have come to the royal position, "for such a time as this" - the end-time. We cannot turn away from our responsibility and and be indifferent any more than Esther could. We must be willing to identify ourselves with the rest of God's people. We can't hide away by saying that this crisis does not concern us. If we do, we shall perish, but God's own mighty arm will bring deliverance to those whom He had shown mercy. We must be willing to lay down our lives, to risk all, to stand by the poeple of God, to identify ouselves with God's purposes, and to take up the prayer burden!
Esther replied Mordecai immediately: "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night and day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish" (Esther 4:16, emphasis added)!
Notice the commitment of Esther - "If I perish, I perish". She was, in effect, saying, "Whether I live or die is not the most important question. I am willing to lay down my life for God's people and do what I can on behalf of them."
Esther knew that prayer alone was not good enough. All of them must fast and pray for three days and three nights. Only after that she would go and meet the king. Chapter 5 tells us how Esther went in to meet the king in the king's palace.
"Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace ...." (Esther 5:1, emphasis added).
Intercession always means coming into the Inner Court (Tabernacle of Moses) - in the immediate presence of the Lord. Similarly, it was in the inner court of the king's palace that the king held out to Queen Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. This was the evidence that the king was prepared to show mercy to Esther and he would not apply the law that she would be put to death.
The rest of the Book of Esther unfolded the consequences of her intercession. Victory was won for the Jewish people! Mordecai was honored by the king, but Haman was hanged.
Notice that when Esther went in before the king she didn't go in as a beggar. She put on her royal robe, and stood in the king's presence in her rightful position. Similarly, as intercessors we stand before God in our rightful position. We are not to beg, but to arise and sit on the throne that God had offered us that we may rule with Him in prayer and intercession.
The intercession of Esther changed the course of history. You and I can do the same with our intercession!
Characteristics of the intercessor
Certain features have been emerged from our study of the ministry of intercession - taking examples from Abraham, Moses and Esther. We discover certain features that characterize those who have mastered the art of intercession:
1. Intimacy with God. This is seen in Abraham and Moses. They talked to God just like a man talking to his friend.
2. Boldness. This is also seen in Abraham and Moses. They spoke out to God. They, in a sense, challenged the Almighty God.
The writer of Hebrews said, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
3. Conviction of God's absolute justice. We see this particularly in Abraham who fully acknowledged that God's judgment was entirely just.
4. A concern of God's Glory. This is seen in Moses who disregarded his won personal interest and ambition.
5. Dedication to the task at all cost, even the cost of life itself. This is seen in Esther.
6. The willingness to identiy with those to whom they intercede. This is also seen in Esther.
The Intercession of Abraham on behalf of the City of Sodom
Sodom was a very wicked city and was ripe of God's judgment. In Genesis 18 we read how three men came to visit Abraham. One of the men was the Lord and the other two were angels. Abraham welcomed them and entertained them. They brought Abraham and his wife Sarah the promise of their son, Issac. And then they were ready to move on.
The Lord then told Abraham that He was going to look at the city of Sodom for Himself to see if it was really as bad and as sinful as He had heard about it. I believe the Lord would not hide anything from Abraham because Abraham was a prophet - The Lord told Amos, "Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7, NKJV, emphasis added).
Genesis 18:22 - 33 relates how Abraham interceded for Sodom. After the two angels went on their way to Sodom, Abraham stood before the Lord.
"The men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord" (Gen. 18:22, emphasis added).
Abraham stood between the Lord and the city of Sodom, the object of God's impending judgment. This is a perfect example of intercession.
From the conversation between the Lord and Abraham we learn about Abraham's intimacy with the Lord. In fact James 2:23 says Abraham was called the friend of God. He was talking to the Lord as a personal friend. Notice also Abraham's boldness. He was actually challenging God's righteousness:
He said to God, "Far be it from You to such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all do right" (Gen. 18:25, emphasis added)?
Abraham was not afraid to speak out and said what he thought and with holy reverence at the same time. Notice also that Abraham had absolute conviction of God's justice - both positive and negative. Negatively that God would punish the wicked; positively that God would not deal with the righteous as with the wicked. I believe that a conviction of God's absolute justice is an essential part in the ministry of intercession.
It is interesting to study God's response to Abraham. God did not brush Abraham aside, but listened to him. In a sense, God allowed His course of action to be influenced by whatever Abraham said to Him. Think of both the privilege and responsibility of being able to speak to God in such a way that we can actually influence His course of action! God was indeed delighted to show mercy. At Abraham's intercession, God came down step by step, from promising to show mercy if there were 50 righteous persons, to the last promise He made that He would show mercy if there were only 10 righteous persons in the entire city of Sodom. God kept His promise to Abraham and Sodom was destroyed because there were actually less than 10 righteous persons in that city! Only Lot and his two daughters escaped.
An Intercession of Moses
In the course of bringing Israel out of Egypt Moses made many intercessions to God on behalf of God's people. It is beyond the scope of this message to discuss all of them. But let us consider just one interesting situation.
Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Commandments and the Law from God. His people had corrupted themselves by worshipping the Gold Calf. Exodus 32:7 -14 contains an interesting conversation in the form of intercession between Moses and the Lord. Notice that neither the Lord nor Moses would accept resposibility for Israel at that time. They were both disgusted with Israel. I find the conversation between the Lord and Moses rather amusing.
"And the Lord said to Moses, 'Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves'" (Exodus 32:7, emphasis added).
Later on Moses said to the Lord, "Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people ...." (Exodus 32:11, emphasis added)?
Moses was actually arguing with the Lord by saying something like this, "No Lord, they are not my people but Your people!"
This shows Israel was in such a state of degradation that neither the Lord nor Moses wanted to identify with them!
We need to give special attention to what the Lord said to Moses, "Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation" (Exodus 32:10, emphasis added).
God was saying something like this to Moses, "If you step aside I'll act, but if you remain there before me I can't act". To me this is the whole faith of the intercessor. The intercessor's presence between God and the object of His wrath restrains God's wrath. If the intercessor fails to intercede, God will bring judgment to the object of His wrath. If Moses would let God alone (by stepping aside) and failed to intercede, God would have wiped out the whole nation of Israel! The marvelous thing about Moses was that he would not let God alone. He stayed there, he held on!
Look at what God offered Moses if he would "let Him alone". God would make Moses and his descendents a great nation after He had blotted out the whole nation of Israel! How many people would not be delighted with the prospect of becoming the unique head and founder of a great nation? But, Moses was not concerned with his own personal glory; he was greatly concerned for God's glory.
Moses reasoned with God, "Why should the Eqyptians speak, and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'" (Exodus 32:12)?
If God had blotted out the whole nation of Israel His power and integrity would be in question!
Notice the basis of Moses' appeal to God. He appealed to two things - God's Oath (His promises) and God's Word (V. 13). I think the basis of which any intercessor comes to God must also be God's Oath and God's Word. This is one of the keys of a successful intercessor. God's response and answer to our prayer and intercession is always based on His Word, His promises, and His Will - and His promises are in His Will.
Immediately, the next Verse (V. 14) says, "So the Lord relented from the harm which He said he would do to His people". In other words, the Lord changed His mind. God does not change (Malachi 3:6), but His mind can be changed or influenced to be changed by intercession. The intercessor can change the mind of God in the direction of His hightest will. This was precisely what Moses did!
By the act of intercession of just one man (Moses) the whole nation of Israel is saved from God's wrath. This is the power and possibility of intercession.
The Intercession of Queen Esther
Esther was a beautiful Jewish maiden living in the Persian Empire at the time the Jewish people were exiled from their land. She was an orphan girl brought up by her cousin Mordecai. Mordecai was an important official in the court of the Persian king.
When Queen Vashti was displaced by the king, Esther was chosen to be the new Queen. However, Esther had never publicly revealed that fact that she was Jewish. Harman who hated Mordecai was also an official in the court of the Persian king. Harman sought to destroy all the Jews living in the provices of the Persian Empire and the surrounding districts. he obtained a decree from the king to this effect. This was a desperate situation. When the decree went forth from the palace, Mordecai sent a message to Esther in the Queen's palace that it was her responsibility to get to the king and to persuade him to change his mind about the decree. But initially Esther didn't want to go to the king on behalf of her people for reasons given in Esther 4:11.
However, Mordecai persuaded her with these words, "For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this" (Esther 4:14, emphasis added)?
Mordecai was under the conviction that Esther was called to the kingdom to do the will of God - "For such a time as this". In other words, the purpose of her being chosen as the Queen was to be used as an instrument to protect the Jews. She and her father's house would perish if she failed to do God's will, but God would find another way to protect the rest of the Jews!
I believe this also applies to us as Christians. We are a Kingdom of priests. We have come to the royal position, "for such a time as this" - the end-time. We cannot turn away from our responsibility and and be indifferent any more than Esther could. We must be willing to identify ourselves with the rest of God's people. We can't hide away by saying that this crisis does not concern us. If we do, we shall perish, but God's own mighty arm will bring deliverance to those whom He had shown mercy. We must be willing to lay down our lives, to risk all, to stand by the poeple of God, to identify ouselves with God's purposes, and to take up the prayer burden!
Esther replied Mordecai immediately: "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night and day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish" (Esther 4:16, emphasis added)!
Notice the commitment of Esther - "If I perish, I perish". She was, in effect, saying, "Whether I live or die is not the most important question. I am willing to lay down my life for God's people and do what I can on behalf of them."
Esther knew that prayer alone was not good enough. All of them must fast and pray for three days and three nights. Only after that she would go and meet the king. Chapter 5 tells us how Esther went in to meet the king in the king's palace.
"Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace ...." (Esther 5:1, emphasis added).
Intercession always means coming into the Inner Court (Tabernacle of Moses) - in the immediate presence of the Lord. Similarly, it was in the inner court of the king's palace that the king held out to Queen Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. This was the evidence that the king was prepared to show mercy to Esther and he would not apply the law that she would be put to death.
The rest of the Book of Esther unfolded the consequences of her intercession. Victory was won for the Jewish people! Mordecai was honored by the king, but Haman was hanged.
Notice that when Esther went in before the king she didn't go in as a beggar. She put on her royal robe, and stood in the king's presence in her rightful position. Similarly, as intercessors we stand before God in our rightful position. We are not to beg, but to arise and sit on the throne that God had offered us that we may rule with Him in prayer and intercession.
The intercession of Esther changed the course of history. You and I can do the same with our intercession!
Characteristics of the intercessor
Certain features have been emerged from our study of the ministry of intercession - taking examples from Abraham, Moses and Esther. We discover certain features that characterize those who have mastered the art of intercession:
1. Intimacy with God. This is seen in Abraham and Moses. They talked to God just like a man talking to his friend.
2. Boldness. This is also seen in Abraham and Moses. They spoke out to God. They, in a sense, challenged the Almighty God.
The writer of Hebrews said, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
3. Conviction of God's absolute justice. We see this particularly in Abraham who fully acknowledged that God's judgment was entirely just.
4. A concern of God's Glory. This is seen in Moses who disregarded his won personal interest and ambition.
5. Dedication to the task at all cost, even the cost of life itself. This is seen in Esther.
6. The willingness to identiy with those to whom they intercede. This is also seen in Esther.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Importance of Intercession
The word "intercession" comes from the Latin root which means "to come in between". The Greek word for "intercession" is "entunchono" which also means "to come in between" or "to meet with" or "to stand before". Therefore an intercessor is someone who comes and stands between God and God's just wrath and judgment. The intercessor stands before God and positions himself between God and those who deserve God's wrath and judgment. The intercessor, in effect, says to God, "Lord, You have every right to smite these people, but if You smite them You are going to smite me first, because I am standing between You and them!"
Intercession is the act of earnest appeal of a believer to God on behalf of others, believers or non-believers. One of the most important ministries of the Christian life is the ministry of intercession. It is God's method for involving His people more completely in the totality of His plan. In no other way can the believer becomes as fully involved with God's work as in intercessory prayer - and in fact all forms of prayer.
Paul said, "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men, ..." (1 Timothy 2:1, NKJV, emphasis added).
The prayer life for a local Church, local assembly or a group of Christians, begins with the ministry intercession (and all prayers). The phrase "first of all" indicates that there can be no highter priority for Christians who assemble together, except to make intercession for all men.
It is said that, no man is greater than his prayer life. It is also said that, behind the pulpit a man preaches and reveals his knowledge of the Word of God. In prayer, he reveals his knowledge of the God of the Word! That is why prayer and intercession are so important.
Jesus, the great Intercessor
Jesus not only taught His disciples the Lord's Prayer when they asked Him to teach them how to pray, He also taught them by examples for being the great intercessor Himself.
The most beautiful and touching prayer ever prayed by Jesus is in John 17. In this chapter, Jesus prayed for Himself (John 17:1 - 5), He prayed for His disciples (John 17:6 - 19), and He prayed for all believers (John 17:20 - 26). In my opinion this prayer should be called the Lord's Prayer. But the commonly known "The Lord's Prayer" should be called the disciples prayer. The reason being, Jesus wound not pray the Lord's Prayer and the disciples could not pray what Jesus prayed in John 17.
Prophet Isaiah painted a glorious picture of Jesus, the great intercessor in Isaiah Chapter 53. This chapter, commonly known as the Atonement Chapter, gives a glorious description of the atoning work of Jesus. Let us look at the last verse of the Chapter:
"Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:12, emphasis added).
The four things accomplished by Jesus as recorded by the above verse are:
1. He poured out His soul unto death. Leviticus 17:11 says, "The life (or soul) of the flesh is in the blood". That means Jesus poured out every drop of His Blood for you and me.
2. He was numbered with the transgressors. Jesus was crucified with two thieves.
3. He bore the sin of many. He became the perfect Sin Offering for you and me.
4. He made intercession for the transgressors. He started this intercession from the Cross! He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34, KJV). What Jesus meant was this, "The judgment that is due to them let it come upon Me!" And it did!
Hebrew Chapter 7 says, Jesus, after His death, resurrection, and ascension, became our Great High Priest sitting at the right hand of God (Hebrews 7:24, 25). He ever lives to make intercession for all of us! If we study the life and Ministry of Jesus, we"ll arrive at some rather interesting time comparison. He spent 30 years in obscurity living a perfect family life, 3 and a half years in dramatic and powerful Ministry, and more than 2000 years in intercession! This is telling us How God thinks about the importance of intercession!
The Prayer Life of Jesus
Jesus had a meaningful and effective prayer life during His time with His disciples. The gospel according to Luke gives us some details of Jesus' prayer life. Here are some incidences:
1. Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan. But only Luke said while Jesus was praying the Holy Spirit discended upon Him.
"When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed the heaven was opened" (Luke 3:21, NKJV, emphasis added).
2. Only Luke recorded that Jesus was praying when He was hanging on the Cross.
"Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.' And they divided His garments and cast lots"(Luke 23:34).
3. Only Luke recorded that Jesus spent the whole night in prayer before He chose His apostles from among His disciples.
"Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called his disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles" (Luke 6:12, 13, emphasis added).
Notice that Jesus did not call for a nomination committee meeting, or obtain a consensus by the casting of votes among the disciples. Why? His group of apostles (leaders) must be the choice of God and not the choice of men! All he did was pray and wait upon the Father. Jesus Knows His Father always hears Him and tells Him what to do (John 11:42).
Surely the Church of Jesus Christ can learn something from what Jesus did. It is God's will that the appointment of leadership positions (Bishops, Elders, Pastors and deacons and so on) must be a choice of God and never the choice of men.
4. Only Luke recorded that Jesus was praying when He was transfigured.
"Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening" (Luke 9:28, 29, emphasis added).
5. Prayed for God's will at the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36 - 46; Mark 14:32 - 42; Luke 22:39 - 46).
All three gospel writers, except John, recorded this prayer burden of Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus found the perfect will of God - His crucifixion!
Jesus took Peter, John and James to the Garden to watch with Him for one hour, but not to pray with Him (Mark 14:32). The word rendered "watch" means, literally, to be vigilant and to abstain from sleep. In the context, it menas unite with Jesus in seeking divine strength and support. But three times Jesus went away to pray and three times He found them sleeping. Some Bible teachers said that disciples' grief and sorrow were so great that they naturally fell asleep. But for whatever the reason, Jesus said, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak".
Does our flesh prevent us from watching and praying?
Situations where there was no intercessor
Both Isaiah and Ezekiel painted a vivid but grim picture of a situation where God's people were backslidden (separated from God) and where the Lord could not find a single intercessor.
According to Isaiah (Isaiah 59:1 - 16)
Isaiah Chapter 59 contains a terrible list of the sins of God's backslidden people. I believe this chapter was written to backsliders, to people who had known God but subsequently turned from Him; to people who were religious but in rebellion against God. What amazes me is that these backsliders acknowledged and confessed their own sinful condition and yet repentance was never found!
"For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities we know them (Isaiah 59:12).
Read this Chapter carefully and see for yourself whether the description fits the condition in some of our local Churches - backslidden believers, from the highest leadership to the "least important" members of the congregation.
Let us look at just three verses that describe how the Lord assessed this backsliding condition of His people:
"Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice, He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; ..." (Isaiah 59:14 - 16, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. There is no justice and righteousness among God's people.
2. They have rejected the truth and failed to do right.
3. Anyone who chooses to do right and departs from evil becomes a prey (victim) in such a backsliding congregation.
4. The Lord saw the situation and was not pleased that there was no intercessor. Notice that the fearful list of transgression and failure of God's people come to its climax with the statement - "There was no intercessor". God was looking for just one and not many intercessors.
According to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 22:23 - 29)
A similar situation that was appalling to God can be found in Chapter 22, Ezekiel. This time God listed the wickedness and wrongdoings of all categories of His people. Amazingly all start with the letter "P" - prophets, priests, princes and people. Read the entire chapter and you will realize that God laid the blame, primarily, at the doors of the spiritual leaders - prophets and priests. The wickedness of the princes (the secular rulers) and the people are the reflections of the failures and wickedness of the spiritual leaders.
In Old Testament time, the prophets were responsible to declare the counsel of God to God's people and the priests were responsible to take care of the daily life of the congregation of God's people. Elders and Pastors, deacons and leaders, respectively, have similar duties in the local Church. All sections of the entire nation of Israel in the days of Ezekiel were held guilty before God because of the failures and wickedness of the spiritual leaders. Similarly, it is reasonably to suggest that all the people of God in every nation of the world at present are held guilty before God because of the failures and wickedness of the spiritual leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The general characteristic of guilt before God is - The ruthless pursue of selfish end. Everyone was putting his own selfish gain before the interest of the fellowmen and before the interest of God. The spiritual leaders were also found to be lacking spiritual knowledge and very often deceive God's people with man-centered and man-pleasing doctrines.
God's response to this desperate situation of wickedness is:
"So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads" (Ezekiel 22:30, 31, emphasis added).
The intersting thing is that in this deperate situation God did not look for a large group of people to organize a prayer vigil of praying and fasting. He did not ask them to seek the Lord for direction! All these activities were good but that was not His primary concern. What He looked for was just one man, a man who would lay down his life, build up the wall and stand in the gap before Him for the Church, the land, the city and the nation. The man He looked for was the intercessor!
Intercession is the act of earnest appeal of a believer to God on behalf of others, believers or non-believers. One of the most important ministries of the Christian life is the ministry of intercession. It is God's method for involving His people more completely in the totality of His plan. In no other way can the believer becomes as fully involved with God's work as in intercessory prayer - and in fact all forms of prayer.
Paul said, "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men, ..." (1 Timothy 2:1, NKJV, emphasis added).
The prayer life for a local Church, local assembly or a group of Christians, begins with the ministry intercession (and all prayers). The phrase "first of all" indicates that there can be no highter priority for Christians who assemble together, except to make intercession for all men.
It is said that, no man is greater than his prayer life. It is also said that, behind the pulpit a man preaches and reveals his knowledge of the Word of God. In prayer, he reveals his knowledge of the God of the Word! That is why prayer and intercession are so important.
Jesus, the great Intercessor
Jesus not only taught His disciples the Lord's Prayer when they asked Him to teach them how to pray, He also taught them by examples for being the great intercessor Himself.
The most beautiful and touching prayer ever prayed by Jesus is in John 17. In this chapter, Jesus prayed for Himself (John 17:1 - 5), He prayed for His disciples (John 17:6 - 19), and He prayed for all believers (John 17:20 - 26). In my opinion this prayer should be called the Lord's Prayer. But the commonly known "The Lord's Prayer" should be called the disciples prayer. The reason being, Jesus wound not pray the Lord's Prayer and the disciples could not pray what Jesus prayed in John 17.
Prophet Isaiah painted a glorious picture of Jesus, the great intercessor in Isaiah Chapter 53. This chapter, commonly known as the Atonement Chapter, gives a glorious description of the atoning work of Jesus. Let us look at the last verse of the Chapter:
"Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53:12, emphasis added).
The four things accomplished by Jesus as recorded by the above verse are:
1. He poured out His soul unto death. Leviticus 17:11 says, "The life (or soul) of the flesh is in the blood". That means Jesus poured out every drop of His Blood for you and me.
2. He was numbered with the transgressors. Jesus was crucified with two thieves.
3. He bore the sin of many. He became the perfect Sin Offering for you and me.
4. He made intercession for the transgressors. He started this intercession from the Cross! He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34, KJV). What Jesus meant was this, "The judgment that is due to them let it come upon Me!" And it did!
Hebrew Chapter 7 says, Jesus, after His death, resurrection, and ascension, became our Great High Priest sitting at the right hand of God (Hebrews 7:24, 25). He ever lives to make intercession for all of us! If we study the life and Ministry of Jesus, we"ll arrive at some rather interesting time comparison. He spent 30 years in obscurity living a perfect family life, 3 and a half years in dramatic and powerful Ministry, and more than 2000 years in intercession! This is telling us How God thinks about the importance of intercession!
The Prayer Life of Jesus
Jesus had a meaningful and effective prayer life during His time with His disciples. The gospel according to Luke gives us some details of Jesus' prayer life. Here are some incidences:
1. Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan. But only Luke said while Jesus was praying the Holy Spirit discended upon Him.
"When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed the heaven was opened" (Luke 3:21, NKJV, emphasis added).
2. Only Luke recorded that Jesus was praying when He was hanging on the Cross.
"Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.' And they divided His garments and cast lots"(Luke 23:34).
3. Only Luke recorded that Jesus spent the whole night in prayer before He chose His apostles from among His disciples.
"Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called his disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles" (Luke 6:12, 13, emphasis added).
Notice that Jesus did not call for a nomination committee meeting, or obtain a consensus by the casting of votes among the disciples. Why? His group of apostles (leaders) must be the choice of God and not the choice of men! All he did was pray and wait upon the Father. Jesus Knows His Father always hears Him and tells Him what to do (John 11:42).
Surely the Church of Jesus Christ can learn something from what Jesus did. It is God's will that the appointment of leadership positions (Bishops, Elders, Pastors and deacons and so on) must be a choice of God and never the choice of men.
4. Only Luke recorded that Jesus was praying when He was transfigured.
"Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening" (Luke 9:28, 29, emphasis added).
5. Prayed for God's will at the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36 - 46; Mark 14:32 - 42; Luke 22:39 - 46).
All three gospel writers, except John, recorded this prayer burden of Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus found the perfect will of God - His crucifixion!
Jesus took Peter, John and James to the Garden to watch with Him for one hour, but not to pray with Him (Mark 14:32). The word rendered "watch" means, literally, to be vigilant and to abstain from sleep. In the context, it menas unite with Jesus in seeking divine strength and support. But three times Jesus went away to pray and three times He found them sleeping. Some Bible teachers said that disciples' grief and sorrow were so great that they naturally fell asleep. But for whatever the reason, Jesus said, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak".
Does our flesh prevent us from watching and praying?
Situations where there was no intercessor
Both Isaiah and Ezekiel painted a vivid but grim picture of a situation where God's people were backslidden (separated from God) and where the Lord could not find a single intercessor.
According to Isaiah (Isaiah 59:1 - 16)
Isaiah Chapter 59 contains a terrible list of the sins of God's backslidden people. I believe this chapter was written to backsliders, to people who had known God but subsequently turned from Him; to people who were religious but in rebellion against God. What amazes me is that these backsliders acknowledged and confessed their own sinful condition and yet repentance was never found!
"For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities we know them (Isaiah 59:12).
Read this Chapter carefully and see for yourself whether the description fits the condition in some of our local Churches - backslidden believers, from the highest leadership to the "least important" members of the congregation.
Let us look at just three verses that describe how the Lord assessed this backsliding condition of His people:
"Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice, He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; ..." (Isaiah 59:14 - 16, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. There is no justice and righteousness among God's people.
2. They have rejected the truth and failed to do right.
3. Anyone who chooses to do right and departs from evil becomes a prey (victim) in such a backsliding congregation.
4. The Lord saw the situation and was not pleased that there was no intercessor. Notice that the fearful list of transgression and failure of God's people come to its climax with the statement - "There was no intercessor". God was looking for just one and not many intercessors.
According to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 22:23 - 29)
A similar situation that was appalling to God can be found in Chapter 22, Ezekiel. This time God listed the wickedness and wrongdoings of all categories of His people. Amazingly all start with the letter "P" - prophets, priests, princes and people. Read the entire chapter and you will realize that God laid the blame, primarily, at the doors of the spiritual leaders - prophets and priests. The wickedness of the princes (the secular rulers) and the people are the reflections of the failures and wickedness of the spiritual leaders.
In Old Testament time, the prophets were responsible to declare the counsel of God to God's people and the priests were responsible to take care of the daily life of the congregation of God's people. Elders and Pastors, deacons and leaders, respectively, have similar duties in the local Church. All sections of the entire nation of Israel in the days of Ezekiel were held guilty before God because of the failures and wickedness of the spiritual leaders. Similarly, it is reasonably to suggest that all the people of God in every nation of the world at present are held guilty before God because of the failures and wickedness of the spiritual leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ.
The general characteristic of guilt before God is - The ruthless pursue of selfish end. Everyone was putting his own selfish gain before the interest of the fellowmen and before the interest of God. The spiritual leaders were also found to be lacking spiritual knowledge and very often deceive God's people with man-centered and man-pleasing doctrines.
God's response to this desperate situation of wickedness is:
"So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads" (Ezekiel 22:30, 31, emphasis added).
The intersting thing is that in this deperate situation God did not look for a large group of people to organize a prayer vigil of praying and fasting. He did not ask them to seek the Lord for direction! All these activities were good but that was not His primary concern. What He looked for was just one man, a man who would lay down his life, build up the wall and stand in the gap before Him for the Church, the land, the city and the nation. The man He looked for was the intercessor!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Categories of Prayer
The Scripture reveals four categories of prayer. There might be more, but generally, any prayer that a believer ever prayed, falls into one or more of these four categories.
Entreating God's Favor, God's Help and God's Power
This is the primary form of prayer and the most common type of prayer. It is calling out or crying out to God. It is opening our needs up to God and asking God to do things for us. Most prayers, including intercessory prayers and supplication are under this category.
1. Elijah's prayer
A good example of a prayer under this category is a prayer that led to Elijah's victory at Mount Carmel where he confronted 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.
This was the prayer that brought victory to Elijah:
"Lord God of Abrahem, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to You again" (1 Kings 18:36, 37, NKJV, emphasis added).
James said, "The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produce its fruit" (James 5:17, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Elijah was a prophet of God. He was a righteous man with a nature like ours. He had the same weakness and problem as any other person. But he prayed effectively and fervently.
2. Elijah prayed according to the will of God. He hated what God hates and loved what God loves. He detested the prophets of Baal, and so is God. He wanted the people to know that the Lord alone is the God of Israel, and so is God.
3. Elijah was obedient to God and to His Word. He said: "I have done all these things at your word."
4. Elijah's main concern is God's Glory. He said: "... that this people may know that You are the Lord God, ..."
5. Elijah wanted the people who were deceived by the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah to come back to God. And this pleased God.
2. Samuel's Intercession
A good example of entreating God's favor and God's Power by crying out to God can be seen when the Philistines came against Israel at Mizpah, during the time when Samuel was judging Israel (1 Samuel 7:1 - 11). The children of Israel asked Samuel to intercede for them so that the Lord would help them to overcome the Philistines:
"So the children said to Samuel, 'Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.' And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him" (1 Samuel 7:8, 9, emphasis added).
Basically, intercession includes "crying out to the Lord". The next verse says, the Lord brought confusion to the Philistines and they were overcome before Israel.
Transacting Spiritual Authority
God is the source of all Authority. In Christ, all believers are under the Authority of Christ and therefore have authorities to come against any situation according to the will of God. When we command in God, in the Name of Jesus, we are transacting Spiritual Authority. This is the basis of Warfare Prayer in Spiritual Warfare. God willing, my messages on Spiritual Warfare are forthcoming.
Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:18 - 20, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. As we take authority (or command) in Him, Jesus exercises the same Spiritual Authority in heaven as we evercise on earth. Notice that the initiative is not with Jesus but with us. Our actions of "binding" and "loosing" on earth change the course of events in heaven.
2. A condition attached to our exercising this authority is given in verse 19 which says, "two of you agree" when they ask or pray in "binding" and "loosing". The Greek word for "to agree" is "sumphoneo" which means, "in symphony" or "in harmony".
We can read verse 19 as: "Again I say to you if two of you can harmonize on earth concerning anything that they ask, ...".
3. Jesus was talking about harmony in the Spirit. It has nothing do with two believers having a casual decision to pray for someone. In other words, in exercising this spiritual authority two or more believers must be in right relationship or rightly related to one another in the Spirit - being united in the Holy Spirit.
4. Verse 20 explains why the believers can exercise this spiritual authority. When believers are brought together in Jesus' Name to fellowship with one another and to pray, Jesus is present with them. It is the presence of the Lord that enables us to exercise the authority of binding and loosing.
I believe when we fulfill the above conditions and take authority on earth, God releases power from heaven into the heavenly realm where Satan dwells. We are actually issuing a legal restraining order against Satan telling his demonic forces that they cannot operate any longer in the unseen realm. And at the same time God releases angelic beings with restraining orders to forbid these demonic forces to operate in any situation that is against us! The Bible is full of examples of angels involved in answers to prayers (Acts 5:18 - 20; Acts 12:5 - 17). Michael, the archangel, is not mentioned in the Scripture except in relationship in Spiritual Warfare. And in every case when he is mentioned people were praying (Daniel 10:11 - 14; Daniel 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7).
The first time the apostles used the authority of the Name of Jesus was when Peter and John were on their way to a prayer meeting in the temple at 3:00 pm one day (Acts 3:1 - 10). At the Gate of Beautiful Peter said to a certain man lame since birth:
"'Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength" (Acts 3:6, 7).
Notice that Peter did not ask God to do anything for that man. He did not ask God to heal him, and to give him a good life, or ask God to command him to rise up on his feet!God had already given Peter the authority to use His Name by faith. Peter helped the lame man to get up in order to release his faith.
Tapping Spiritual Secret
This involves sharing our secret with the Lord and the Lord sharing His secret with us. When we pray the Lord confides with us and He reveals His secret to us.
Daniel said, "And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him" (Daniel 2:21, 22, emphasis added).
Daniel said the above because he realized that the key to tapping spiritual secret and to answers to prayer is by fearing God! I believe this is the foundational truth for all believers if they want their prayers to be effective.
The Bible says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) and the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10 and Psalm 111:10). This means that if we do not fear the Lord we lack knowledge and wisdom. Because of this lack, our prayer would not be as effective as it should.
The psalmist David was consistent with Daniel when he said:
"The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them" (Psalm 25:14, NIV, emphasis added).
The word "fear" in describing the fear of the Lord means to show reverence and respect to God. Respect is the act of noticing with attention to God. This means showing consideration to God and wanting to please Him. When you reverent God you want to be with Him. And that is what happens when we pray. We want to be close to Him. And because we are close to him He confides with us. We fear God is the sense that we reverent Him but not frighten of Him.
Please read my earlier messages: "Walking in the Fear of the Lord" and "Walking in the promises of God".
Developing Spiritual Love
The only way to develop Spiritual Love is to know God and not just to know about God. To know God is to acquire knowledge about Him through our personal relationship with Him. To know about God is to learn what is written about Him in the Bible. In order to really know God we need to seek Him diligently, to dwell in His presence, to commune with Him, to touch Him with or worship and prayer.
Many of us are seeking things from God under the pretence of seeking God. When we are sick, we seek healing from God. When hard financial times hit us, we seek money from God. The one who truly seeks God expects only one thing - God Himself. He is looking for God, not just the things God can give him. He knows when he has God, he has everything!
Jesus said, in part of His Priestly prayer to the Father, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3, emphasis added).
Jesus' desire is that you and I know God and know Him, and consequently, have eternal life. In other words, if we fail to Him and God, the Father we may not have eternal life!
This is of great spiritual significance concerning our personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Whether we really know God or not, makes the difference between eternal life and eternal death! God makes Himself known not to casual intellectual curiosity, but to passionate thirst.
Great men of God had passionate spiritual love for God:
1. Paul - "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Phil. 3:10, emphasis added).
2. Daniel - "... but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits" (Daniel 11:32, emphasis added).
In Hebrew the word "know" is "yada" which means "intimate knowledge". In fact, "yada" represents a high level of knowing - knowledge that is gained only from direct intimate contact. "Yada" speaks more of heart intimacy than it does of head knowledge. The word "strong" means "stand firm and durable" and "exploits" means "bold deeds and daring acts".
If we paraphrase Daneil 11:32 we have, "The people who truly know God intimately shall stand firm and carry out bold deed and daring acts".
3. Joshua - Joshua was an Old Testament hero who knew his God and carried out bold deeds and daring acts (Joshua 5 and 6). When Joshua looked toward the towering Canaanite fortress of Jericho, he was looking at a problem. But suddenly, he saw the Solution - in the form of a Person, the "Commander of the army of the Lord" (Joshua 5:14). It wasn't a strategy or a concept; it wasn't a battle plan but the Person Jesus! Joshua knew he was in the presence of the Lord whom he knew. He did not ask his Commander specifically for a strategic plan to help him to conquer Jericho. He was simply caught up in Jesus. In reverence and awe, flat on his face, he pleaded:
"What message does my Lord have for his servant" (Joshua 5:14, NIV)?
Joshua, no doubt, was waiting for a physical battle plan, but the Lord simply said, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are stading is holy" (Joshua 5:15, NIV).
Instead of a battle plan, a specific spiritual warface strategy was given to Joshua (Joshua 6). The rest is history! Israel's ultimate victory over Jericho was brought about by Joshua's reverence and obedience to the God he truly knew!
The four categories of prayer we have discussed include all types of prayer that believers are expected to pray - all personal and corporate prayers of supplication, intercession, petition, and warfare prayers.
Entreating God's Favor, God's Help and God's Power
This is the primary form of prayer and the most common type of prayer. It is calling out or crying out to God. It is opening our needs up to God and asking God to do things for us. Most prayers, including intercessory prayers and supplication are under this category.
1. Elijah's prayer
A good example of a prayer under this category is a prayer that led to Elijah's victory at Mount Carmel where he confronted 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah.
This was the prayer that brought victory to Elijah:
"Lord God of Abrahem, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to You again" (1 Kings 18:36, 37, NKJV, emphasis added).
James said, "The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produce its fruit" (James 5:17, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Elijah was a prophet of God. He was a righteous man with a nature like ours. He had the same weakness and problem as any other person. But he prayed effectively and fervently.
2. Elijah prayed according to the will of God. He hated what God hates and loved what God loves. He detested the prophets of Baal, and so is God. He wanted the people to know that the Lord alone is the God of Israel, and so is God.
3. Elijah was obedient to God and to His Word. He said: "I have done all these things at your word."
4. Elijah's main concern is God's Glory. He said: "... that this people may know that You are the Lord God, ..."
5. Elijah wanted the people who were deceived by the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah to come back to God. And this pleased God.
2. Samuel's Intercession
A good example of entreating God's favor and God's Power by crying out to God can be seen when the Philistines came against Israel at Mizpah, during the time when Samuel was judging Israel (1 Samuel 7:1 - 11). The children of Israel asked Samuel to intercede for them so that the Lord would help them to overcome the Philistines:
"So the children said to Samuel, 'Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.' And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him" (1 Samuel 7:8, 9, emphasis added).
Basically, intercession includes "crying out to the Lord". The next verse says, the Lord brought confusion to the Philistines and they were overcome before Israel.
Transacting Spiritual Authority
God is the source of all Authority. In Christ, all believers are under the Authority of Christ and therefore have authorities to come against any situation according to the will of God. When we command in God, in the Name of Jesus, we are transacting Spiritual Authority. This is the basis of Warfare Prayer in Spiritual Warfare. God willing, my messages on Spiritual Warfare are forthcoming.
Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:18 - 20, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. As we take authority (or command) in Him, Jesus exercises the same Spiritual Authority in heaven as we evercise on earth. Notice that the initiative is not with Jesus but with us. Our actions of "binding" and "loosing" on earth change the course of events in heaven.
2. A condition attached to our exercising this authority is given in verse 19 which says, "two of you agree" when they ask or pray in "binding" and "loosing". The Greek word for "to agree" is "sumphoneo" which means, "in symphony" or "in harmony".
We can read verse 19 as: "Again I say to you if two of you can harmonize on earth concerning anything that they ask, ...".
3. Jesus was talking about harmony in the Spirit. It has nothing do with two believers having a casual decision to pray for someone. In other words, in exercising this spiritual authority two or more believers must be in right relationship or rightly related to one another in the Spirit - being united in the Holy Spirit.
4. Verse 20 explains why the believers can exercise this spiritual authority. When believers are brought together in Jesus' Name to fellowship with one another and to pray, Jesus is present with them. It is the presence of the Lord that enables us to exercise the authority of binding and loosing.
I believe when we fulfill the above conditions and take authority on earth, God releases power from heaven into the heavenly realm where Satan dwells. We are actually issuing a legal restraining order against Satan telling his demonic forces that they cannot operate any longer in the unseen realm. And at the same time God releases angelic beings with restraining orders to forbid these demonic forces to operate in any situation that is against us! The Bible is full of examples of angels involved in answers to prayers (Acts 5:18 - 20; Acts 12:5 - 17). Michael, the archangel, is not mentioned in the Scripture except in relationship in Spiritual Warfare. And in every case when he is mentioned people were praying (Daniel 10:11 - 14; Daniel 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7).
The first time the apostles used the authority of the Name of Jesus was when Peter and John were on their way to a prayer meeting in the temple at 3:00 pm one day (Acts 3:1 - 10). At the Gate of Beautiful Peter said to a certain man lame since birth:
"'Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength" (Acts 3:6, 7).
Notice that Peter did not ask God to do anything for that man. He did not ask God to heal him, and to give him a good life, or ask God to command him to rise up on his feet!God had already given Peter the authority to use His Name by faith. Peter helped the lame man to get up in order to release his faith.
Tapping Spiritual Secret
This involves sharing our secret with the Lord and the Lord sharing His secret with us. When we pray the Lord confides with us and He reveals His secret to us.
Daniel said, "And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him" (Daniel 2:21, 22, emphasis added).
Daniel said the above because he realized that the key to tapping spiritual secret and to answers to prayer is by fearing God! I believe this is the foundational truth for all believers if they want their prayers to be effective.
The Bible says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of Knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) and the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10 and Psalm 111:10). This means that if we do not fear the Lord we lack knowledge and wisdom. Because of this lack, our prayer would not be as effective as it should.
The psalmist David was consistent with Daniel when he said:
"The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them" (Psalm 25:14, NIV, emphasis added).
The word "fear" in describing the fear of the Lord means to show reverence and respect to God. Respect is the act of noticing with attention to God. This means showing consideration to God and wanting to please Him. When you reverent God you want to be with Him. And that is what happens when we pray. We want to be close to Him. And because we are close to him He confides with us. We fear God is the sense that we reverent Him but not frighten of Him.
Please read my earlier messages: "Walking in the Fear of the Lord" and "Walking in the promises of God".
Developing Spiritual Love
The only way to develop Spiritual Love is to know God and not just to know about God. To know God is to acquire knowledge about Him through our personal relationship with Him. To know about God is to learn what is written about Him in the Bible. In order to really know God we need to seek Him diligently, to dwell in His presence, to commune with Him, to touch Him with or worship and prayer.
Many of us are seeking things from God under the pretence of seeking God. When we are sick, we seek healing from God. When hard financial times hit us, we seek money from God. The one who truly seeks God expects only one thing - God Himself. He is looking for God, not just the things God can give him. He knows when he has God, he has everything!
Jesus said, in part of His Priestly prayer to the Father, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3, emphasis added).
Jesus' desire is that you and I know God and know Him, and consequently, have eternal life. In other words, if we fail to Him and God, the Father we may not have eternal life!
This is of great spiritual significance concerning our personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Whether we really know God or not, makes the difference between eternal life and eternal death! God makes Himself known not to casual intellectual curiosity, but to passionate thirst.
Great men of God had passionate spiritual love for God:
1. Paul - "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Phil. 3:10, emphasis added).
2. Daniel - "... but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits" (Daniel 11:32, emphasis added).
In Hebrew the word "know" is "yada" which means "intimate knowledge". In fact, "yada" represents a high level of knowing - knowledge that is gained only from direct intimate contact. "Yada" speaks more of heart intimacy than it does of head knowledge. The word "strong" means "stand firm and durable" and "exploits" means "bold deeds and daring acts".
If we paraphrase Daneil 11:32 we have, "The people who truly know God intimately shall stand firm and carry out bold deed and daring acts".
3. Joshua - Joshua was an Old Testament hero who knew his God and carried out bold deeds and daring acts (Joshua 5 and 6). When Joshua looked toward the towering Canaanite fortress of Jericho, he was looking at a problem. But suddenly, he saw the Solution - in the form of a Person, the "Commander of the army of the Lord" (Joshua 5:14). It wasn't a strategy or a concept; it wasn't a battle plan but the Person Jesus! Joshua knew he was in the presence of the Lord whom he knew. He did not ask his Commander specifically for a strategic plan to help him to conquer Jericho. He was simply caught up in Jesus. In reverence and awe, flat on his face, he pleaded:
"What message does my Lord have for his servant" (Joshua 5:14, NIV)?
Joshua, no doubt, was waiting for a physical battle plan, but the Lord simply said, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are stading is holy" (Joshua 5:15, NIV).
Instead of a battle plan, a specific spiritual warface strategy was given to Joshua (Joshua 6). The rest is history! Israel's ultimate victory over Jericho was brought about by Joshua's reverence and obedience to the God he truly knew!
The four categories of prayer we have discussed include all types of prayer that believers are expected to pray - all personal and corporate prayers of supplication, intercession, petition, and warfare prayers.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Effective Praying
Prayer is one of the greatest opportunities, one of the greatest privileges and one of the greatest ministries available to all Christians. Jesus did not teach His disciples how to preach but He did teach them how to pray. I believe everyone who seeks to be a disciple of Christ should seek to learn how to pray effectively.
God's attitude toward our prayers
The first thing we need to do is to understand God's attitude toward our prayers. The Scripture teaches the willingness of God to answer our prayer, both in the Old Testament and in the New New Testament:
In the Old Testament
1. Solomon said, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight" (Prov. 15:8, NKJV, emphasis added).
The word "delight" means "strong pleasure".
"The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous" (Prov. 15:29).
If you are upright, sincere and you come to God with prayer He delights in your prayer and He loves to hear you.
2. The Song of Solomon depicts the love relationship between Christ the Bridegroom, and the Church as His bride. Christ said to the Church:
"O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely" (Songs of Solomon 2:14, emphasis added).
God desires to hear our (the Church) voice lifted up to Him in believing prayer.
In the New Testament
The New Testament emphasizes the fact that God wants us to pray and He wants us to receive what we prayed for. The revealed will of God for all believers in Christ is that they should pray and that they should receive that which they prayed for:
1. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said in three diffrent ways, that God wnats you to get what you prayed for:
Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you, seek; and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matt. 7:7, 8, emphasis added).
Notice, not one negative suggestion in all these words.
2. Jesus said, "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matt. 21:22, emphasis added).
How can any promise wider that that?
3. Jesus made similar statement according to Mark, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believing that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24).
4. Jesus said, "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:13, 14).
What could be more emphatic or more embracing than this statement?
5. Jesus said, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done to you" (John 15:7).
If you want to know how wonderful the above promise is, read my ealier message, "The Power of Prayer".
6. Jesus said, "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24).
In my opinion, there is nothing more joyful than having our prayers answered. What could be more wonderful to know that the creator of the universe, the all powerful almighty God, is attentive to the voice of our prayer and delights to do that which we asked?
Basic principles and conditions
It is very unfortunate that there are Pastors, Bible teachers and evangelists, carelessly and conveniently built a ministry out of some of the statements made by Jesus, without realizing that conditions which must be applied before we expect God to hear and answer our prayers. Therefore in this message I attempt to list out some of the important, yet basic, conditions and principles for receiving regularly, answers to our prayer.
1. We pray in the Name of Jesus (John 14:13, 14)
When we pray in the Name of Jesus it means this - We acknowledge that we have no right of access to the almighty God at all apart from our Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus had not come and had not become our sacrifice, our substitute on the cross, had not risen from the dead and then to became our mediator, and our High Priest at God's right hand, we would have no right of access, whatever to the almighty God. But in Jesus we have absolute right of assess with complete liberty and boldness to God, so that when we pray in the Name of Jesus we are reminding ourselves that the only basis of our assess to God is what Jesus had done for us on the cross.
On the above condition God opens all treasures in heaven and makes them available to us in the Name of Jesus:
Paul said, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things" (Romans 8:32, NKJV, emphasis added).
Notice the condition for receiving all things is - with Him. Apart from Jesus there is nothing; in and through Jesus there is everything! That is exactly what we are declaring when we come in prayer in Jesus' Name.
Paul said, "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us" (2 Cor. 1:20).
All God's promises are made available to us, but only in Him - Jesus Christ.
2. We come with praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4)
The psalmist said, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations" (Psalm 100:4, 5).
We do not praise because of feelings. We praise God because of the fact that God is good and His mercy and truth endure forever. His gate of access is thanksgiving and His court of access is praise. God wants us to get into this kind of relationship with him so that He can answer our prayers and so that we can receive what He has for us. But if we don't come with praise and thankgiving we don't have access to the almighty God. Then we will feel lonely, shutoff and for removed from Him.
God spoke through Isaiah, "... but you shall call your walls salvation, and your gates Praise" (Isaiah 60:18).
Every gate of assess to the presence of the almighty God has the same name - Praise. Our salvation is called walls because walls speak of security and protection.
Paul said, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ..." (Phil. 4:6, emphasis added).
Paul did not leave out the thanksgiving. Why? Because as you begin to thank God for who He is and for what He had already done, faith rises in you heart for the next thing that you are going to pray for.
3. We approach God without condemnation
The psalmist said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer" (Ps. 66:18, 19).
"To regard iniquity in my heart" means "I come to God but I am conscious, in my heart, something that condemns me" or "Every time I try to approach God with faith, Satan reminds me of the thing that is not right, that has not been dealt with, or that has not been confessed and I have not received God's forgiveness". Or put it simply, "I am conscious of this sin in my heart all the time". Because self-condemnation hinders my prayer and therefore, I must remove the consciousness of sin from within my heart. The way to do it is to confess, repent and trust God for the forgiveness and the cleansing as He had promised.
John said, "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all runrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
The psalmist went on to say that God had "attended to the voice of my prayer" (V. 19). In other words, he understood Satan's attempt to condemn him and tried to make him feel guilty.
John went on to say, "For if your heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God" (1 John 3:20, 21).
We don't have to keep anything from God and when we have confessed our sins we have the confidence that God will never remember it and will never hold it against us any more. When we are set free from condemnation we can come to God boldly because He had dismissed the whole question of guilt.
The writer of Hebrews said, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16, emphasis added).
Notice that grace is enthrone with God in His throne. It is not justice we are coming for; it is grace. We do not come on the basis of our merit or our own righteousness; we come boldly without condemnation. We come boldly because it is the throne of grace.
4. We come with the right motive
God searches our motive when we come to Him in prayer; He is very conscious of the reason for which we pray.
James said, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3).
In other words, your prayers are self-centered and you are aiming to get something for your own personal satisfaction and indulgence, which is of the wrong motive. What is the right motive? The answer is found in John 14 where Jesus said:
"And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13, emphasis added).
The right motive is a prayer that is prayed sincerely so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in answering that prayer.
5. We come with the right relationship
In the model prayer which Jesus taught His disciples, commonly known as the Lord's Prayer, Jesus emphasized the importance of having the right relationships between us and our God, and between us and our fellowmen.
"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12).
Jesus here tied us down to asking God for forgiveness only in the proportion we forgive others. In the same proportion that we forgive others God will forgive us. One of the reasons why Christians fail to receive the answer to their prayers is because they fail to forgive others.
Jesus said, "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses" (Mark 11:25, 26).
6. Prayer directed by the Holy Spirit
Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14).
In the original Greek, the above is of continuing present tense. In other words, the only way to live daily as a child of God in the world, you have to be regularly, continuingly led by the Holy Spirit. Only those who are regularly led by the Spirit of God are living as sons of God.
Paul said, "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know that we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26, 27, emphasis added).
Our weaknesses are - sometimes we do not know what to pray for, and do not know how to pray even if we know what to pray. You might know your wife needs prayer, or your son needs prayer but you still don't know how to pray. God's solution is - the Spirit of God comes to your help by taking over and He makes intercession through you and He prays according to the Mind and Will of God (Please refer to my earlier message - The Power of Prayer). This is one of the glorious blessings of being truly baptized in the Holy Spirit. When you cannot pray, He prays through you in an unknown tongue that you can be sure you are praying according to His will.
7. Prayer in accordance to the Word of God
The central issue of effective praying is praying according to the revealed will of God which is the Word of God. And the Word of God is packed, from Genesis to Revelation, with divine promises. The apostle Peter called these promises as "exceedingly great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4).
When you find the promise, given in the Word of God, that relates to your situation and meets your need, that promise is God's will for you. God never pomises anything that is not His will because that would be inconsistent for Him to do so. Let me illustrate this principle with two examples, one from the Old Testament and the other from the New Testament:
1. God's covenant with David (1 Chron. 17)
God promised David through the prophet Nathan that "the Lord will build him a house". The word "house" in the context means "A Royal Dynasty", or "A Roya line of Household" which would endure for ever (Vs. 10, 11).
David's reply was, "And now, O Lord, the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, let it be established forever, and do as You have said" (V. 23, emphasis added).
I believe the five short words of one syllable each - "and do as You have said", contain the essence of effective praying. If God had said He would do it and you asked Him to do it, you can be absolutely certain that He is going to do it!
2. God's promise to Mary (Luke 1)
In my opinion the greatest single miracle that ever took place in the life of anordinary human being was the virgin Mary, who became the mother of the Son of God. Mary received the Word of God, through the angel Gabriel, which brought fulfillment by His (the Word) own Power.
Mary's response was, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38, emphasis added). With this, ushered in the greatest miracle in human experience!
When you pray on the level of the Word, you pray on the level that is far above your human ability to wish, to ask or to think (read Eph. 3:20). Notice the above two prayers were intimately connected with the coming of the Lord Jesus. God promised David the Son and the promise was fulfilled through the birth of Jesus Christ, conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. And in each case the key to the prayer is the same - "God You said, You do it".
You will never pray a higher prayer or pray a more effective prayer than when you go to God, guided by the Holy Spirit, go to the Word and find the promise of God that relates to you and your situation. This I believer is the secret of effective praying!
God's attitude toward our prayers
The first thing we need to do is to understand God's attitude toward our prayers. The Scripture teaches the willingness of God to answer our prayer, both in the Old Testament and in the New New Testament:
In the Old Testament
1. Solomon said, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight" (Prov. 15:8, NKJV, emphasis added).
The word "delight" means "strong pleasure".
"The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous" (Prov. 15:29).
If you are upright, sincere and you come to God with prayer He delights in your prayer and He loves to hear you.
2. The Song of Solomon depicts the love relationship between Christ the Bridegroom, and the Church as His bride. Christ said to the Church:
"O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely" (Songs of Solomon 2:14, emphasis added).
God desires to hear our (the Church) voice lifted up to Him in believing prayer.
In the New Testament
The New Testament emphasizes the fact that God wants us to pray and He wants us to receive what we prayed for. The revealed will of God for all believers in Christ is that they should pray and that they should receive that which they prayed for:
1. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said in three diffrent ways, that God wnats you to get what you prayed for:
Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you, seek; and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matt. 7:7, 8, emphasis added).
Notice, not one negative suggestion in all these words.
2. Jesus said, "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matt. 21:22, emphasis added).
How can any promise wider that that?
3. Jesus made similar statement according to Mark, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believing that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24).
4. Jesus said, "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:13, 14).
What could be more emphatic or more embracing than this statement?
5. Jesus said, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done to you" (John 15:7).
If you want to know how wonderful the above promise is, read my ealier message, "The Power of Prayer".
6. Jesus said, "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24).
In my opinion, there is nothing more joyful than having our prayers answered. What could be more wonderful to know that the creator of the universe, the all powerful almighty God, is attentive to the voice of our prayer and delights to do that which we asked?
Basic principles and conditions
It is very unfortunate that there are Pastors, Bible teachers and evangelists, carelessly and conveniently built a ministry out of some of the statements made by Jesus, without realizing that conditions which must be applied before we expect God to hear and answer our prayers. Therefore in this message I attempt to list out some of the important, yet basic, conditions and principles for receiving regularly, answers to our prayer.
1. We pray in the Name of Jesus (John 14:13, 14)
When we pray in the Name of Jesus it means this - We acknowledge that we have no right of access to the almighty God at all apart from our Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus had not come and had not become our sacrifice, our substitute on the cross, had not risen from the dead and then to became our mediator, and our High Priest at God's right hand, we would have no right of access, whatever to the almighty God. But in Jesus we have absolute right of assess with complete liberty and boldness to God, so that when we pray in the Name of Jesus we are reminding ourselves that the only basis of our assess to God is what Jesus had done for us on the cross.
On the above condition God opens all treasures in heaven and makes them available to us in the Name of Jesus:
Paul said, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things" (Romans 8:32, NKJV, emphasis added).
Notice the condition for receiving all things is - with Him. Apart from Jesus there is nothing; in and through Jesus there is everything! That is exactly what we are declaring when we come in prayer in Jesus' Name.
Paul said, "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us" (2 Cor. 1:20).
All God's promises are made available to us, but only in Him - Jesus Christ.
2. We come with praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4)
The psalmist said, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations" (Psalm 100:4, 5).
We do not praise because of feelings. We praise God because of the fact that God is good and His mercy and truth endure forever. His gate of access is thanksgiving and His court of access is praise. God wants us to get into this kind of relationship with him so that He can answer our prayers and so that we can receive what He has for us. But if we don't come with praise and thankgiving we don't have access to the almighty God. Then we will feel lonely, shutoff and for removed from Him.
God spoke through Isaiah, "... but you shall call your walls salvation, and your gates Praise" (Isaiah 60:18).
Every gate of assess to the presence of the almighty God has the same name - Praise. Our salvation is called walls because walls speak of security and protection.
Paul said, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ..." (Phil. 4:6, emphasis added).
Paul did not leave out the thanksgiving. Why? Because as you begin to thank God for who He is and for what He had already done, faith rises in you heart for the next thing that you are going to pray for.
3. We approach God without condemnation
The psalmist said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer" (Ps. 66:18, 19).
"To regard iniquity in my heart" means "I come to God but I am conscious, in my heart, something that condemns me" or "Every time I try to approach God with faith, Satan reminds me of the thing that is not right, that has not been dealt with, or that has not been confessed and I have not received God's forgiveness". Or put it simply, "I am conscious of this sin in my heart all the time". Because self-condemnation hinders my prayer and therefore, I must remove the consciousness of sin from within my heart. The way to do it is to confess, repent and trust God for the forgiveness and the cleansing as He had promised.
John said, "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all runrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
The psalmist went on to say that God had "attended to the voice of my prayer" (V. 19). In other words, he understood Satan's attempt to condemn him and tried to make him feel guilty.
John went on to say, "For if your heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God" (1 John 3:20, 21).
We don't have to keep anything from God and when we have confessed our sins we have the confidence that God will never remember it and will never hold it against us any more. When we are set free from condemnation we can come to God boldly because He had dismissed the whole question of guilt.
The writer of Hebrews said, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16, emphasis added).
Notice that grace is enthrone with God in His throne. It is not justice we are coming for; it is grace. We do not come on the basis of our merit or our own righteousness; we come boldly without condemnation. We come boldly because it is the throne of grace.
4. We come with the right motive
God searches our motive when we come to Him in prayer; He is very conscious of the reason for which we pray.
James said, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3).
In other words, your prayers are self-centered and you are aiming to get something for your own personal satisfaction and indulgence, which is of the wrong motive. What is the right motive? The answer is found in John 14 where Jesus said:
"And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13, emphasis added).
The right motive is a prayer that is prayed sincerely so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in answering that prayer.
5. We come with the right relationship
In the model prayer which Jesus taught His disciples, commonly known as the Lord's Prayer, Jesus emphasized the importance of having the right relationships between us and our God, and between us and our fellowmen.
"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12).
Jesus here tied us down to asking God for forgiveness only in the proportion we forgive others. In the same proportion that we forgive others God will forgive us. One of the reasons why Christians fail to receive the answer to their prayers is because they fail to forgive others.
Jesus said, "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses" (Mark 11:25, 26).
6. Prayer directed by the Holy Spirit
Paul said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14).
In the original Greek, the above is of continuing present tense. In other words, the only way to live daily as a child of God in the world, you have to be regularly, continuingly led by the Holy Spirit. Only those who are regularly led by the Spirit of God are living as sons of God.
Paul said, "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know that we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26, 27, emphasis added).
Our weaknesses are - sometimes we do not know what to pray for, and do not know how to pray even if we know what to pray. You might know your wife needs prayer, or your son needs prayer but you still don't know how to pray. God's solution is - the Spirit of God comes to your help by taking over and He makes intercession through you and He prays according to the Mind and Will of God (Please refer to my earlier message - The Power of Prayer). This is one of the glorious blessings of being truly baptized in the Holy Spirit. When you cannot pray, He prays through you in an unknown tongue that you can be sure you are praying according to His will.
7. Prayer in accordance to the Word of God
The central issue of effective praying is praying according to the revealed will of God which is the Word of God. And the Word of God is packed, from Genesis to Revelation, with divine promises. The apostle Peter called these promises as "exceedingly great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4).
When you find the promise, given in the Word of God, that relates to your situation and meets your need, that promise is God's will for you. God never pomises anything that is not His will because that would be inconsistent for Him to do so. Let me illustrate this principle with two examples, one from the Old Testament and the other from the New Testament:
1. God's covenant with David (1 Chron. 17)
God promised David through the prophet Nathan that "the Lord will build him a house". The word "house" in the context means "A Royal Dynasty", or "A Roya line of Household" which would endure for ever (Vs. 10, 11).
David's reply was, "And now, O Lord, the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, let it be established forever, and do as You have said" (V. 23, emphasis added).
I believe the five short words of one syllable each - "and do as You have said", contain the essence of effective praying. If God had said He would do it and you asked Him to do it, you can be absolutely certain that He is going to do it!
2. God's promise to Mary (Luke 1)
In my opinion the greatest single miracle that ever took place in the life of anordinary human being was the virgin Mary, who became the mother of the Son of God. Mary received the Word of God, through the angel Gabriel, which brought fulfillment by His (the Word) own Power.
Mary's response was, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38, emphasis added). With this, ushered in the greatest miracle in human experience!
When you pray on the level of the Word, you pray on the level that is far above your human ability to wish, to ask or to think (read Eph. 3:20). Notice the above two prayers were intimately connected with the coming of the Lord Jesus. God promised David the Son and the promise was fulfilled through the birth of Jesus Christ, conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. And in each case the key to the prayer is the same - "God You said, You do it".
You will never pray a higher prayer or pray a more effective prayer than when you go to God, guided by the Holy Spirit, go to the Word and find the promise of God that relates to you and your situation. This I believer is the secret of effective praying!
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