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More about prayer…

Dec9

There have been volumes written about prayer. So, I really don’t have anything new to add to the subject. What I have to share will be a reminder to many. Yet for some it might just be a new discovery! I write that because it wasn’t until the middle half of my life that I made such a discovery regarding prayer.

I’l preface this by sharing that my prayer life has undergone various transformations over the years. As I grew spiritually that growth inspired alterations in how I prayed. For instance, as a young Christian, my prayers focused mostly on what I wanted from God. But as the years passed, and I learned more about God, my prayers focused more on what He wanted for me. Yet, it was an up and down journey which was directly impacted by my growth or lack thereof.

However, there was something missing. A failed connection. I use to remind my children and my students that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. That reason was that He wanted us to listen twice as much as we spoke. It took awhile for that to sink in and apply it to my spiritual life. For you see, I had failed to realize that while prayer was my talking to God, reading and meditating on His words was how God talked to me. What I discovered, well into my adult life, was that I was over focused on making sure God knew what I wanted. Yet, I wasn’t giving Him the opportunity to tell me what He wanted!

There’s a verse that showed me it was in recognizing God’s mighty weapons (His Word, His Truth) that resulted in my hearing God’s voice. It was what God said to me in Ephesians 6:16, “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one,” that I began to make the connection between lies and fiery darts. From that verse God referred other verses which led me to be able to recognize the fiery darts, reject them, and to replace them with His Truth. Truth thoughts that countered the lies from the enemy.

The key to communicating with God is to become familiar with His word. Leave the Bible reading out and we will only be talking to God. We won’t know what He has to say about our petitions, if we do all the talking.

Casual Christianity?

Nov5

Ever since World War II, there has been a steady decline in Christianity. In the 1960’s there was social upheaval, the sexual revolution, and a questioning of institutions. That fueled a greater withdrawal. And the steady decline continued.

In the meantime, our claim of being a Christian nation slowly faded. Sadly, it was accepted that we just weren’t what we use to be. We settled for a casual attitude in displaying our faith. It became much more acceptable to lower our aim. Living a committed Christian life wasn’t necessary anymore. Gradually, attending church or reading our Bibles grew less important. Life just got in the way and left little room to include a sincere faith walk with God. But have we stopped to consider the repercussions of such a choice?

A whole list of Pandora’s box lifestyles have emerged: same sex marriage, abortion, transgenderism, hyper individualism, rebellious and disrespectful behavior towards parents or any authority figure, cohabitation as opposed to marriage, and so much more.(btw, Ever read 2 Timothy 3:2-4?)

So I would ask, is the price we paid to have the freedom (or should I say license) to do what we wanted to do without the inconvenience of having someone speak against it given us the happiness we were seeking? Apparently not! For Psychology Today reports that Americans are not a very happy group of people.

But someone was happy about all of this. The enemy’s gloating laughter echoes throughout the country, in homes, in churches, in our schools, our places of business, the halls of government. Yet take heart my dear readers, for his seemingly incessant attacks can be thwarted. His glee can be diminished. How? By the power of God within us! Read on!

When we return to the realization that we need God. That we need to spend time with Him in prayer and His word. That’s the core weapon that we have access to. The mighty weapon that can tear down the strongholds of human reasoning and destroy false assumptions of the enemy’s fiery darts. And leaning into the Truth that God within us is greater than the enemy in the world. By remembering that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a strong mind. And by fearlessly planting our feet of faith into whatever situation we find ourselves. By unashamedly proclaiming who we are in Christ. (Like I’m thrilled to be witnessing in the public arena these recent days.) By focusing on the mighty works of God in creation and in history, proving He can do anything. Starting by bringing individuals back to their senses.

Now is the time to draw upon the power of His might as is referred to in Ephesians 6:10, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the LORD and in the power of His might.” Only God’s strength can successfully stand against the spiritual forces that entice and manipulate us to be casual about our faith.

Lie or Truth/Can we tell the difference?…

May5

Today I am getting back to the basics of Fiery Darts. We are awash these days in lies. I’ve heard it said, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” (that may be a quote from Lenin but I am confident the original source is Satan himself, the father of liars. We all have been lied to so many times, we can’t easily recognize the difference between a lie and the truth. And this has been going on ever since the Garden of Eden. We are in pretty deep, so what are we to do?

Truth exists and is never changing. As Christians we know that God is Truth. The Truth that He desires for us to know is contained within the pages of the Bible. Therefore, all we have to do in order to recognize a lie is to compare it with God’s Truth. Yet, confusion reigns, generally speaking. So what’s the problem?

The following quote from my book I believe answers my question:

During a Bible study a few years ago, it became apparent that I had a problem identifying Satan’s lies. The major reason for this was that I was not familiar enough with the Truth of God’s Word. I discovered that five-minute, intermittent devotions, for years the characteristic of my time spent with God, was equivalent to not moving beyond the infant stage and drinking only milk. I had become spiritually malnourished and did not possess the strength I needed to distinguish good from evil. pp 29-30,Fiery Darts: Satan’s Weapon of Choice, 3rd edition

Here’s what it boils down to. A Christian meandering in and out of the Bible at will, won’t be familiar enough with the Truth Thoughts contained therein. Understandably, when we are confronted with a lie our lack of familiarity with God’s Truth contributes to our not being able to recognize the lie. We will fall back to what we are most familiar with to decipher the lie. And if we are more familiar with the World’s view on the subject then we will go with that.

Prayer to thwart lies:

Dearest Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that I need your wisdom to prevent anyone from taking me captive through philosophy and empty deceit (teachings that sound impressive but contain very little substance and are not grounded in Christ’s teachings) but based on the elemental forces of the world (that would be any godless idea raised up against the knowledge of God, 2 Corinthians 10:5) and not based on Christ. (based on Colossians 2:8)

Stronger for the struggle…

Jan14

2025 only 14 days old is already proving to be a tough year to handle. The wildfires in California, the turmoil in the Middle East, and Europe provide a bleak backdrop of expectations for the rest of the year. Other contributors such as the drastic increase in religious persecution, and the moral upheaval not just here in America but throughout the globe give cause for concern. And there’s oh so much more we have to contend with. Just watching the news reveals a world spiraling out of control.

The enemy seeming to have the upper hand is manipulating and deceiving individuals into believing and acting on the lies he feeds them. Our society has lost its senses actually. Senses about what is right and what is wrong. So much so that even sometimes Christians are confused regarding these issues. Why is this?

Could it be due to our inconsistency and/or neglect in the simple but powerful act of opening our Bibles to find out what God has to say about the choices we make? And when that void of life sustaining information runs low, the enemy stands all too ready to substitute his lies for God’s truths.

Now back to my first paragraph. We have deteriorated to a such a state that our perspective about it all doesn’t include even a flavoring of God’s word. We feebly attempt to solve our problems on our own because we aren’t even sure God exists anyway. And look where that has gotten us?

Nevertheless, in God we have hope? For God has the power and it’s His will to take the very thing that Satan meant for bad and turn it into good. The foremost example of this is the crucifixion of Jesus. For because of Jesus’ horrible death and suffering, followed by His glorious resurrection, all who believe in Him can’t be defeated by anyone or anything on this earth. Therefore, the aftermath of the enemy’s attacks will find us stronger for the struggle. So take heart and hope!

The Voice to Listen to…

Jul23

My most difficult battles are fought within the arena of self! As a Christian, I understand that I am made up of my body, soul, and spirit. My body while alive on this earth is in a constant civil war between my soul (ruled by my flesh) and my spirit (ruled by God’s Holy Spirit at the point when I believed in and accepted Christ). But I must choose who rules. And therein lies the struggle.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.Galatians 5:17

*For too many years, I experienced more defeat than victory. (Fiery Darts 3rd Edition, p. 14) And it wasn’t until God made me aware of the weapons (fiery darts) of Ephesians 6:16 that I began to understand why.

As a young adult (that’s been a long time ago now!), I succumbed to the enemy’s main line of attack: keeping me distracted from daily spending time with God in prayer and in His Word. I naively thought that by attending church faithfully, reading my Bible now and then, praying often, taking to heart the Truths I heard in sermons, and just basically trying to be a good Christians that would suffice in overcoming the attacks from the enemy. I would have victories, yes, but some of my greatest failures occurred during those years. Why?

By not setting aside daily time with God in prayer and the reading of my Bible, God’s Spirit within me was simply not getting fed enough . I fell prey to human reasoning and false assumptions fed to me by my flesh. The weapons I needed to fight my battles successfully were within the pages of Scripture. By not availing myself to God’s instruction on what the weapons were and how to use them, my vulnerability to the manipulation and deception of the enemy increased.

Now that I’m older and thankfully wiser (due to the instruction from God’s word about the weapons available to me), I am more alert to the enemy’s attacks. Thus my victories have increased. For example, as a 76 year old, I have questions about my future. How much more time I might have left with my children and grandchildren? Will I still have decent health or not? Will I still be able to stay in my home? If I’m not careful those questions (note they are all self-centered) will pop up in my mind and my flesh will attempt to grab them. Fear, despair, doubt, worry, all stand by, on the ready to receive the baton and run.

But God has taught me a cleaver trick. He asks me a question of His own when those questions arise. “Whose voice is speaking to you?” Because I have learned from time spent with God in prayer and His word, I have been made aware of the following:

God gives us the ability to think. We are capable of our own independent thoughts and we will frequently have thoughts such as “I’m hungry” or “I’m tired.” But it’s also important to keep in mind that the enemy will also speak to us in the form of thoughts in the first-person singular, such as “I can’t do this.” We must take those thoughts and determine if they are consistent with God’s word.

Thus I knew that thoughts of my future that invoked fear, despair, doubt, or worry were not consistent with God’s word. For example, God tells me in 2 Timothy 1:7, that He has not given me the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a strong mind. In Philippians 4:6-7, I’m reminded, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. These are just two examples (they are in abundance in the Scriptures) of how to distinguish between God’s voice and the enemy’s voice.

So when these negative questions arise originating in my flesh and influenced by the enemy, I counter them with this prayer based on Isaiah 54:17, May this weapon formed against me not prevail… It stops there. The battle is won.

But allow me to add those fiery darts will return again and again. It’s not a one time battle. As long as we live we will wage war with the enemy. He won’t give up, until we are secure in heaven. It’s just the truth of the matter. But thankfully God sent Christ to secure our heavenly home and equip us with the weapons we need to fight successfully against our enemy, Satan, while we live here on earth.

*Remember, my book Fiery Darts: Satan’s Weapon of Choice can be purchased as an e-book. If you are interested, please check the sideboard.

Death changes things…

May21

My best friend, who I was looking to several more years of camaraderie with, has passed away. Her death causes me to be reflective. Our friendship was of the rarest kind. It was not of this world, for it was based, grounded, and gifted by God. We had one of those iron sharpening iron unions. When God needed to make a point with us, He often would give it to the one to share with the other. I told her often, “I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Well, now I’m having to find that out. 

What am I finding out? I’m finding out death and change are companion forces. Death demands change. I’m finding out this harsh change can be used in one of two ways. It can produce a resolve to willingly reflect upon the changes I need to face up to in my own life or it can be used to create a numbness to the need for change in my life.

My best friend’s death has thrust me onto an undesirable path. A path without her companionship. Many of those she loved are finding themselves on a similar path. One without her countless physical acts of loving care. A path without the benefit of her voice reminding them of God’s love and calling on their lives. 

May we allow the memory of the words God spoken to us during her time with us to produce the changes that remain to be made in our lives. May we allow God’s pure voice to rise above all the cacophony of voices pulling us to focus only on ourselves. Voices that would cloud our memories of the truths she shared with us.

May we cooperate with God in examining those changes still needing to be made and from this point forward display actions and attitudes that truly honor Him and the prayers of the one who loved us so much. And by the way, bring us to our senses and escape the devil’s trap having been captured by him to do his will.

$/Loaves and Fishes

Aug13

Loaves in Tabgha Church in Israel, Mosaic: four loaves and two fish,

Recently, my LORD gave me a prompting when I was praying about some personal financial matters. A big bill is coming due, and I do not have enough in my account to pay it. Though I resist the thought to dip into my meager savings, I really have no other recourse.

This choice was disturbing to me. For I would prefer to manage my money without having to depend on my dwindling savings. Yet as scanty as it is, I feel the reassurance of its existence is threatened when I have to use it. The fiery dart of fear edged closer. Attempting to catch me in its trap as it has so often done before. And fear typically brings with it its cohorts of anxiety, and doubting God’s provision, right!

Now that’s the backstory for the prompting I received this morning during my prayer time.

So often during my prayer time, God will remind me of truths that apply to the situations I bring to Him. This morning, He brought to me the story of the loaves and fishes.

When evening came, the disciples approached Him and said, “this place is a wilderness, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

“They don’t need to go away,” Jesus told them. “You give them something to eat.”

“But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to Him.

“Bring them here to Me,” He said.

Then He commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. Everyone ate and was filled. Then they picked up 12 baskets full of leftover pieces! Now those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children. Matthew 14:15-21 HCSB

It was as if God was having a conversation with me. He directed my thoughts to the 5 loaves and 2 fish. And pointed out to me where I fit in this biblical reference. Like the disciples, I felt my skimpy savings was insufficient. I felt this way, having ruled out God’s provision.

God reinforced my trust level with a couple of truths from His word:

Philippines 4:19, And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

Philippines 4:6-7, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

(Allow me to interject this tidbit of interesting truth, “there were more than 5,000 people fed that day. Notice the wording “besides women and children!” There is no limit when it comes to what God can provide.)

In addition, thoughts of God’s provision and the peace that would guard my heart and mind was much preferable to the disturbing thoughts of fear, anxiety, and doubt my fleshly sin nature was promoting.

So, this is just an example of the effect of becoming familiar with what God has to say to us in His word, the Bible. By becoming familiar with His truths, in times of need, God will prompt us with what we have stored in our hearts. And my caution to us all, if God’s truths are not stored there, then our fleshly sin nature will get the upper hand. And instead of allowing a difficult situation to teach us more about how to trust God, Satan will use it to steal God’s work in our lives. We do have a choice, you know.

Fear Reveals Our Focus

Mar23

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     My first night in Israel, I woke up around 1:30 am (Israel time) and wasn’t able to go back to sleep. Thoughts were popping into my mind, demanding I pay attention to them. (I had to be considerate of my friend who shared the room with me and not turn on any lights). Finally, there was nothing to do but grab my phone, go to my Word app, and begin recording those thoughts. The following are the words that forced themselves upon my mind that night. At the time, I thought they were a personal word for me. Up to a point they were. But after I returned home following my pilgrimage to Israel right smack in the middle of the Coronavirus fallout, I feel those words were also meant for such a time as this.

     Two themes encased my thoughts that early morning–Perspective and Fear.  Our perspective is determined by our focus. But before we choose our focus (and it is a choice, by the way) there is a viewpoint to be considered.

     First,

we need to view our lives within the context of God’s plan for them. He has given us assignments that are fashioned by that plan. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Second,

we need to be aware that Satan also has a plan:

To steal, kill, and destroy God’s plan for us. (from John 10:10a)

     Unfortunately, our human nature is too often susceptible to the manipulation and deception of our enemy, Satan. When we succumb to his temptations, we limit ourselves from fulfilling God’s plans for our lives. How does this happen?

    Satan’s premiere plan is to keep us ignorant of God’s plan. So how does Satan pull this off?

     By distracting us from spending time with God in prayer and His word. Make no mistake about it, that is the foundation stone on which Satan’s destructive tactics are built.

     Now, let’s bring this all down to the trial we are facing at present–the Coronavirus.

     Do we think for one minute that those thoughts of fear and despair come from anyone other than Satan? Of course not! But we are being tempted to take on a perspective of fear, are we not? Then how can we avoid or resist such temptation?

Consider the following:

     A fearful thought will come to our mind. That thought, if allowed to take root, will produce more fear and put us in panic mode. We will begin to behave irrationally. Thoughts of self-preservation at all costs will be entertained.

    YET, if we will but recognize that thought as a fiery dart from the enemy, there is a plan to nullify its effect. Here’s how it works:

Recognize that thought of fear as a fiery dart

Reject it outright. Don’t allow its deadly poison to take root

then Replace it with Truth thoughts.

     This is critical. We can’t just reject fear and expect to be done with it. But when it returns it needs to find no room to plant itself. This is where Truth thoughts come into play. The Truth thought found in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”, will quench such a thought. Just as it says in Ephesians 6:16, “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

Therefore, the plan we focus upon will determine our perspective in facing the Coronavirus pandemic.

     

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What is accomplished by concealing the importance of discipleship in our churches? 

Nov9

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Some subtle alterations take place when churches fail to grasp the balance that needs to be maintained concerning conversion and discipleship. Consider these:

    Churches over-focus on evangelism while the role of discipleship fades away into confusion. Evangelism must be followed by discipleship if the church is to be filled with Christians who are growing and maturing in their faith.

Satan doesn’t shutter in fear when we become believers in Christ. It’s our being discipled that sends shivers up his spine!

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     New converts are often left to fend for themselves as they face the world and encounter life’s challenges. Without the counsel of a discipler, we fail to learn that God’s plan is to take what Satan means for bad and turn it into good. Romans 8:28

     Consider what often happens to new adult converts. Too often they are given responsibilities within the church by virtue of their physical age, not spiritual maturity. In the physical world, no one would expect an infant to teach a class of adults! No wonder many face burn out and/or disillusionment. They need to be a learner; not a teacher. Many leave the church because they were put in just such a position. 

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     Without discipleship, our churches are likely to be filled with immature Christians. These baby Christians, simply put, are suffering from failure to thrive. Due to their immaturity, they are easily deceived and manipulated by Satan. They haven’t been taught how to recognize the truth from a lie. Which is why fiery darts can be so deadly in these cases.

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Fiery darts of Confusion dull our understanding of these terms

Conversion births us into God’s kingdom. Discipleship means to allow God to form our lives, our real, everyday, actual practices, choices, and beliefs – to look more and more like Christ.

Conversion and Discipleship are the two parts of the whole. Conversion is all about the birth and Discipleship is all about growth after the birth.

Disciples making disciples go out into the world impacting for Christ the systems we create and participate in. (and that makes for a better world for all.)

 

Choose Easter’s Victory

Apr20

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“He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” – Genesis 3:15

It’s important to remember Easter is ultimately a spiritual battle between Christ and Satan

 

   When God created man and Satan tempted Adam and Eve, the great civil war between man’s spirit and flesh began. Then Christ came and as a man and as God, resisted Satan. Easter makes a way for us to resist Satan’s fiery darts. By accepting Christ’s death for ourselves, we can be assured that after our death, just like Christ, we will ascend to heaven. 

   As I grow older and move closer to my life’s end, the thrill of heaven, being with Jesus, becomes more intense. Therefore, I do not fear death. Nor should any believer.

You see that’s the victory we as Christians have over the plan of Satan’s to steal, kill, and destroy. 

   Satan’s plan to remove the influence of God’s Word and spending time with God in prayer, makes possible the fulfillment of his plan. Just look around at all the people in our country that see nothing wrong with abortion, homosexuality, divorce, or lying to gain an advantage, etc. When we remove what the Bible says about either of these, and have no personal relationship with God, Satan easily victimizes us. And you know what, we won’t even realize how we have been deceived and manipulated. 

   When the world accuses Christians for standing firm on these issues, we get accused of all sorts of hateful actions. And Satan will make sure that our accusers don’t open up their Bible. Why? Because he doesn’t want the world to know about God’s love, compassion, forgiveness, redemption of those involved with the sins I mentioned above.

   Remember, if you ignore the Bible and prayer, you are easy prey to the enemy. He will lie to you with such skill, that you can become convinced that right is wrong and wrong is right.

   This Easter, choose Christ. Choose victory. Defeat the enemy. Begin cooperating with God as He gives us the desire and power to do what pleases Him. 

   Refuse to allow ourselves to be manipulated, deceived, and blinded by Satan.

Satan has come to condemn us; Christ has come to restore us.