Last Sunday, I heard a sermon on prayer, the second in a series on prayer. Oddly enough, well maybe not so oddly, these two sermons came on the heals of an entreaty of mine asking God how I could pray more efficiently. Specifically, as to how to better pray for my family, and generally, as to how to better pray for others. My take away from that sermon was profoundly simple:
‘Read your Bible before you pray.’
Since my prayers are usually worded with a particular scripture in mind, I reasoned, “Okay, I do that.” But the more I pondered that simple directive, the more I began to question myself, “Do I actually do that?” My conclusion was No!
So this morning before I began my prayer time, I opened my Bible. I questioned, “Where do I turn to?” The book of Ephesians came to mind. Feeling no need to question further, I turned to Ephesians, and began reading chapter 1 verses 16-20. Here’s what I read.
“I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”
The last two sentences lingered in my thoughts as I began to pray for my immediate family, in particular my grandchildren. I pondered how praying this verse back to God on behalf of my grandchildren would benefit them. If my loved ones had a better understanding of the incredible power of God (the very same power that God used to resurrect Jesus from the dead), then it stands to reason they would be empowered to pray with more confidence in God to meet their needs. That could shift their focus. Their focus would then center on the power of God to meet their needs, not solely on their needs.
This is a ‘Need to Know’ kind of information. That being the case, I texted my beloved grans and shared the above verse adding the following comment:
..You have incredible power, to live the life to which God has called you. To call upon during the tough times in your lives. To give you guidance when the way seems uncertain. To encourage and assure you. To enable you to recognize when the enemy is attacking you and empower you to resist him. Just remember you have access to the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Learn how to draw upon that power…..
We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 NLT
As we learn more about Christ, through Bible study and prayer, we will gain wisdom and understanding for accessing God’s power to attack the fiery darts that have gotten us off course and confused our thinking concerning what God desired to teach us…
p. 92, 3rd Ed Fiery Darts: Satan’s Weapon of Choice
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2 NI
Those who don’t read and study their Bibles consistently are the easiest to deceive by those who misuse it.
Ever had a thought intrude upon your mind that made you shutter? Have you had thoughts about a situation that just couldn’t move beyond the negative? Do these types of thoughts plant seeds of concern about who you really are? If we persist in giving sway to these concerns, they will set us on a path of lies and deception.
But as Christians, we have a defense against such deception. It is clearly stated in over 100 verses in God’s authoritative word that our true identity is based on our personal relationship with God. By believing in Christ and accepting His sacrifice on our behalf, our bodies became the dwelling place of Christ via the Holy Spirit. At the moment of salvation, our old self’s took on a new identity. Therefore, my true identity, my authentic self, is based on my new life in Christ. I am no longer deceived. I have the assurance my negative feelings are not my true self. In other words, “I was one way then I was completely different and what happened in between was Him.” (Season 1, Ep. 1, The Chosen)
Ponder these Truths:
…and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV
Yet, when we reject God’s authoritative word, we open our sin nature (our old identity) to any and everything false. And today the downward spiral of the morals of our country gives evidence of the consequences of such rejection. Some have even digressed to the point that they place authority and value on feelings, over God’s transcendent truths, to define their authentic selves.
In short, the modern self is one where authenticity is achieved by acting outwardly in accordance with one’s inward feelings.
Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists redefined identity and sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl T. Trueman
When the feelings of ‘self’ dictate our attitude and actions, we are capable of choices that fly in the face of God. Choices that will eventually set us and those directly affected by our choices on a path of destruction. Attitudes and actions that deep within our hearts we know are wrong.
Feelings as authority vs God as authority?
The Scriptures explain the nature of our old selves and why the world rejects those of us who belong to God, as well as God’s authoritative word.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1 ESV
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,..Ephesians 4:22
Consider
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10 ESV
Even Christians are susceptible to his deception and manipulation. By ignoring those tactics, our attitude toward those who reject God and are living in rebellion towards Him can take on a condemning nature. Thereby painting Christians as enemies. The enemy’s temptations can influence us to treat those who live contrary to God’s word in a less than loving way. Our misconception is by showing love towards those who have rejected God and His ways then we are condoning their sin. However, when we fail to exhibit love and forgiveness, we take on the characteristics of the true enemy.
The world doesn’t understand how a person can be accepted, while their sin can be rejected. Christians understand by acknowledging and forsaking our sin and receiving Christ’s forgiveness, we are accepted.
The true enemy of our souls shoots lies towards us with the intention of destroying us. Why? He hates God. Therefore he will steal, kill, and destroy every aspect of God in our lives.
The enemy is exposed by the light of God’s word. But if we haven’t given our lives to Christ, we will remain blind to this fact. Apart from God’s truth, we won’t recognize thoughts, feelings, or actions that are being influenced by our enemy. We won’t recognize when our faith is being compromised to believe things contrary to God’s Truth.
Do you know what Jesus’s last words were to his disciples?
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20
Christ ascended in 30 AD and by 49 AD the Good News had been preached to all the known world. Imagine that! It only took 19 years for the disciples to get the word out. How do you suppose they did that?
They followed Christ’s instructions to “Go and make disciples!”
Sounds like an oversimplification doesn’t it. But guess what? It worked! Well, at least it did for the disciples! But it doesn’t seem to be working quite as efficiently in our modern world.
So what’s the problem?
Let’s ask ourselves (those of us who are Christians) this question. After our decision to turn from our life without God in the center of it and turn instead to a life with God in the center, what happened next? Perhaps we started attending church regularly, joined a Sunday school class, maybe even participated in some bible studies. Next question:
Did these activities equip us to live life successfully?
Or did we find ourselves taking detours? Did we soon lose our desire to read our Bibles? Did we find ourselves succumbing to temptations? And for those of us who stayed the course, how intense was our struggle to do so? Were there times in our lives when our doubts became almost overwhelming? And, more seriously, did we reach a point where we no longer felt guilty about not living for Christ?
The Church today stresses evangelism (that’s going out and leading people to Christ). AND that’s a wonderful thing. But what about Jesus’s last words to make disciples? Ah! Herein lies the core of our problem, I think. If we evangelize but fail to make disciples, we’ve played right into Satan’s manipulative and deceptive hands. Let’s consider this final question:
Were we discipled?
In all likelihood, we were not. (I know I wasn’t) and I’ve been a Christian for 62 years!!!!! So, this may surprise my readers, but starting just last week I began attending my first discipleship class. It’s a small class, only 3 of us. I’m learning that’s plenty. Classes of this nature need to be small. For as we get trained then we will go out and find 2 or 3 to disciple. Then those will go out and find 2 or 3 to disciple. You get the picture, I’m sure. It’s called exponential growth. I do believe that was the same successful strategy the disciples used.
Fiery Darts: Satan's Weapon of Choice 