2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Before I can leave the subject of God's full-armor that He gives us to engage successfully in spiritual warfare, I must cite EPH 6: 18-20, which reveals the approach the Lord is wanting us to take and some thing about Paul that we should all know. "Do all this in prayer, asking for God's help. Pray on every occasion as the Spirit leads. For this reason, keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God's people. And pray also for me [Paul] that God will give me a message when I am ready to speak, so I may speak boldly and make known the Gospel's secret. For the sake of this Gospel I am an ambassador, though now I am in prison. Pray that I may be bold in speaking about the Gospel as I should." The "Gospel's secret" to which Paul refers here is all that God had revealed more recently to him regarding not only the message so succinctly stated in 1 COR 15: 1-8, but also about the message of grace. The two powerful spiritual warfare weapons here are prayer and filling with the Holy Spirit.
Because I coordinate our congregation's 87-person prayer chain, a lot of requests come to me that I must relay to them. The Holy Spirit put the idea in my head to do this including an appropriate Bible verse, so that I would be sure to stay in God's word and put God's touch on each request. This way, a connection exists between prayer and God's word in what I have been called to do. God has given me a special gift which I want to share with you. It is that through writing these prayer requests and the follow ups that people send in, I am allowed to really see Him at work in not only my own life but in that of others. This is powerful, Dear Ones. It is amazing, which is only to be expected from a Lord Who is awesome as ours is. Prayer is a powerful weapon for chasing away the devil and his evil. The Lord wants us to use it liberally. Just in case we get the foolish idea that our prayers don't count, look at PS 10: 17, "You will listen, O Lord, to the prayer of the lowly; You will give them courage."
Naturally, it's historically interesting that Paul was in prison when he wrote this powerful letter to the Ephesians. However, it goes beyond this level when one realizes that he knew his physical death was coming soon and still had the courage of his convictions to write such a message. This kind of mind set comes only from the Lord, because his impending physical death didn't interfere with his faith, nor was that faith outside of anything the Lord teaches. The message Paul gives to speak boldly about the Gospel (and might I say about grace) is crucial to us today. So is the example Paul sets of asking us to pray as the Spirit leads and to be able to speak boldly. He is intimating that we must: 1) confess our sin; 2) present ourselves to God; 3) ask for the Holy Spirit to fill us each time we are to do a task for the Lord. If we don't take these steps, how can we do spiritual warfare effectively? Confessing sin helps to empty our spiritual vessels to make room for the Spirit to fill us. Presenting ourselves to God is a way of saying, "I acknowledge that You have given me specific gifts to use in joining You in Your work. I will use them for that purpose. I am ready." The oft-used phrases, "Here I am, Lord" and "I will go! Send me!" come to mind, spoken by many famous and not-so-famous wonderful servants of the Lord. [IS 6: 8 is an example]. Paul sets an example of the same confidence that we can have when we proclaim the word of God with accuracy and diligence. We really can overcome our shyness about witnessing to our faith. If we have prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit after having emptied our spiritual vessels to let Him pour in and do what He does best, we really can be effective as Christ's disciples in spreading the Good News, the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of Grace. If we will pray for God to provide us with opportunities to witness to the truth, He will supply them. Be bold in doing this, as this is His will for us stated in MT 28: 19-20.
I had promised that I would write about exactly who God's enemy is, the forces we must fight against in doing spiritual warfare. I will do this in tomorrow's message, because the Lord wanted me to say more about prayer and speaking boldly about the Gospel's secrets above than I had originally planned. God must have felt that was more important for me to do today. Please read this message over again, because what is discussed really matters for us and for God. He knows that it may require us to make changes in our lives that are sometimes uncomfortable for us, but they are really necessary. Getting in the habit of praying often and overcoming shyness about witnessing aren't always easy to do, but they can further the process of our sanctification and make us more effective servants for God, helping the Holy Spirit to bring more people than ever before to faith.
PRAYER: O Lord, when we take the time to consider all the ramifications of EPH 6: 10-20, we really can see that You have equipped us to be effective in spiritual warfare and to have victory in Christ. Prayer is a powerful weapon that that devil hates. It is able to thwart his efforts and those of his followers to challenge faith or to impede the progress of their work. Your Son demonstrated this when He resisted the temptations the Evil One placed before Him in the wilderness in MT 4: 1-11. Christ never does anything without praying first, giving You the opportunity to lend Him guidance and encouragement. We should follow that example and heed well Paul's words to "pray often as the Spirit leads." You inspired Paul to tell us to "speak boldly about the Gospel's secrets." This entails not fearing our physical death or suffering, having the courage of our convictions, and overcoming shyness about witnessing to Your truth. We dedicate ourselves today to taking both these pieces of advice from You, even though doing so may not be easy for us. We humbly approach Your altar to ask You to provide us with many opportunities to witness to our faith in You, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We beseech You to give us the courage we need to do this and to make it possible for us to be diligent about praying continuously for each other and for Your work to be done. JN 14: 6 tells us that Christ is "the way, the truth, and the life." No one comes to the Father except by Him. We consecrate ourselves to remaining focused on that message, so that we won't lose sight of the big picture. We acknowledge Your many blessings extended to us, particularly the death of Christ on the cross and the giving of the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. We humbly offer You our worship, adoration, loyalty, confession, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ's name, amen.
As promised above, tomorrow's message will be about exact what and who we fight against in our battles of spiritual warfare. The more the Lord directs us to examine the weapons He has given us for spiritual warfare and the more combat intelligence He gives us about the enemy, the more we can be confident in not only victory through faith and obedience but in our ability to endure in that faith and obedience. All of this comes out of the matchless love that He has for us and the blessings He showers on His children every day of our lives. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn