2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
In dealing with spiritual warfare there are some often harsh realities that believers encounter. Perhaps the harshest of all is that all believers will be exposed to the devil's attempts to challenge their faith. Yes, there is often pain and suffering associated with this. As I have written so often before, we do not go into this warfare without God's blessings, protection, encouragement, and full armor. The warfare takes many different forms and rarely allows us to remain in our "comfortable places." So, the question comes up: Do we have to be frightened when facing spiritual warfare? That is the subject of today's message.
Often we are scared when faced with peril. Feeling powerless, we try to escape when we give in to our outer flesh. That is what happened when God directed Jonah to go to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, to "speak out against it" and bring God's truth to it [JON 1: 2]. We all know that "Jonah, however, set out in the opposite direction in order to get away from the Lord. He went to Joppa, where he found a ship about to go to Spain. He paid his fare and went aboard with the crew to sail to Spain, where he would be away from the Lord," JON 1:3. We all know that what followed was a terrible storm at sea which the Lord brought that caused Jonah to be heaved out of the ship and swallowed by a big fish. It was during the three days that Jonah was in the big fish that he learned the importance of obedience to God and prayed to escape his present circumstances. God answered that prayer, and eventually Jonah went to Nineveh, where a miracle happened. Many Assyrians who heard Jonah speak God's words came to faith in God. What Jonah was to learn there is that God really does protect and provide for those who obey Him. It's a lesson from which we can all benefit.
Weak or non-existent faith are things the adversary loves. That's a good reason why we need to take every step we can to strengthen our faith and that of others. Not being strongly grounded in the Scriptures is a salient cause of this condition. HE 5: 13-14, "Anyone who has to drink milk is still a child without experience in the matter of right and wrong. Solid food on the other hand is for adults who through practice are able to distinguish between good and evil." God makes His will for us very clear in HE 6: 1, "Let us go forward, then, to mature teaching and leave behind us the first lesson of the Christian message. We should not lay again the foundation of turning away from useless works and believing in God..."
Many of you know I am taking an intensive one-year course on discipleship called "MasterLife," written by a former missionary who served for 14 years in Indonesia for the Baptist church, Pastor Avery T. Willis. While in Indonesia, Pastor Avery wrote this wonderful course, and I feel the brilliance and power of the Holy Spirit is all over it. It is certainly having a major impact on the lives of the ten of us who are taking it right now in our congregation. I mention this because Pastor Avery wrote about a method for getting God's word in your heart and your hand that serves as a wonderful "how-to" approach the study of Scripture. Let me share it here. Picture a diagram of a person's hand, palm-side up. The word "hear" is written vertically on the pinkie with the "H" at the tip. "Think" is on the thumb with the "T" at the tip. The ring middle, and index fingers have the following words respectively with their first letters at their tips, "examine, analyze, and remember." The word "apply" is written across the open palm of the hand. If one first hears the word and thinks about it, that brings the thumb and the pinkie together in a weak grasp. Add examining, analyzing, and remembering the word gradually, and one gradually strengthens the grip. Once all of this is done, a firm grip of the word is had and one can go on to applying it to his life and his work for the Lord. Here are some supporting Scriptures for you to access which apply to each step in this process: "hear"- MK 4 :23; ROM 10: 17; "think"- PS 1: 2-3; JS 1: 8; "examine"- REV 1: 3; "analyze"- AC 17: 11; 2 TIM 2: 15; "remember"- PS 119: 11; DT 6: 6; "apply"- LK 6: 46-49; JAS 1: 22. When you read across the tips of the fingers, you get "heart." Try making this diagram for yourselves and look up these citations. You will be blessed as I was.
There is more to say on answering the question about should we be afraid when facing spiritual warfare, so I will go on discussing it in tomorrow's message. In the meanwhile, we should all meditate on how we might answer this question within the context of our own lives and faith.
PRAYER: O Lord, we are Your children and we come to Your with our imperfections, desirous of improving the strength of our faith, our ability to trust and obey You, and making better how our work for You conforms to Your will. The battle between the flesh, which is dying, and the Spirit, which is slowly gaining dominance in our lives goes on. Often, we are weak and give into the flesh. We know this is what we should not do, and pledge to You that we will be diligent in not continuing to give into it. Just as You taught Jonah and others that they could trust in You and that You would equip them to carry out Your will, we know You do the same for us. We must not be complacent and must be willing to moved out from our "comfortable places" to obey Your commands. You love us so much that You know that we must make these changes in our lives to be brought to perfection and prepared for eternal life with You. We promise, as Your covenant partners, not to lose sight of Your major goals for us as individuals and as members of the Body of Christ. One way we can do this is to be firmly grounded in Your word. When we are not, then our faith suffers and weakens. We humbly pledge to spend some time each day studying Your word and putting it into practice in our daily lives. We thank You for inspiring writers like Pastor Avery Willis, to give us practical approaches we can take to carry out Your will. Most of all we offer You our utmost thanks and praise for sending Your Son to the cross for us and giving us the Holy Spirit as a Helper in doing what we must to be closer to You. We adore, worship, honor, trust, obey, praise, and thank You for Who Your are in our lives and the many blessings You give us. In Christ's name, amen.
As promised above, I will go on addressing myself to the question: When battling the devil, do we need to be frightened? If we were to go back over every word that is in the Scriptures, it would be hard to miss the extraordinary and unparalleled love our Abba has for us. He deserves nothing less that our trust, obedience, and faith in Him. Pete and I send your our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn