2003-03-11
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Yesterday, I began a group of messages about how defensive prayer works. The answers for this are found in Ephesians 1 & 3, which led me to return to these two wonderful chapters to find them. As always, the Lord has been very generous in providing in the Scriptures, so it’s appropriate for me to spend some time examining this part of the Bible. The first three steps were: 1) thank God; 2) praise God; 3) know God’s plan found in daily study of His word. I know this has all be written before, but my point (or should I say the Spirit’s) is to remind us by repetition of just how important these things are to the life of a devout believer. Moreover, notice that our prayers should always begin with recognition that God deserves to be thanked for His gracious deeds for us and praised for His marvelous attributes first. Then, His remarkable, compassionate plan should be acknowledged before we get to our confession of sin and our supplications. The idea is God first and us last.
Please believe that just because God comes first that He somehow gets bored and doesn’t want to hear our confession or supplication. God is eager to know where we put Him in our lives and just as eager to know that we recognize our sinful condition, desire to stop sinning, and have needs that we feel only He can fulfill. Let’s look at God’s response to our decision to come to faith and pray to Him, as seen in EPH 1: 13b-14. “You believed in Christ, and God put His stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit He had promised. The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised His people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are His. Let us praise His glory!” God’s “stamp of ownership” is an enormous privilege, because it means that God will care for us, provide for our needs, love us, and guide us on the hard path to eternal life. It means that God will bring us back to His side for a life of bliss, joy, fellowship, and fulfillment in the new Jerusalem. To understand what ownership means in this context, look at RO 8: 9 and the other passages which follow here. “But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to-if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you.” 1 COR 1: 30, “But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. But in Him we are put right with God; we become God’s holy people and are set free.” We are set free from Satan’s stronghold over us. We now have the choice not to sin and to depart from certain spiritual death. 1 COR 8: 3, “But the person who loves God is known by Him.” 2 TIM 2: 19, “But the solid foundation that God has laid cannot be shaken; and on it are written these words: ‘The Lord knows those who are His’ and ‘Whoever says that he belongs to the Lord must turn away from wrongdoing.’” Just in case this issue of ownership seems to us to be a “NT only” issue, we should be assured that it is not. God’s response and attitude on this issue has been consistent from the beginning. IS 43: 1, “Israel, the Lord Who created you says, ‘Do not be afraid-I will save you. I have called you by name-you are Mine.’” IS 49: 15-16 also points this out. “So the Lord answers, ‘Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child I will never forget you. Jerusalem, I can never forget you! I have written your name on the palms of My hands.’”
God gave Paul the words for his prayer for us found in EPH 1: 15-23. Paul begins that prayer in (15) exactly as he should-with thanks. “For this reason [that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of God’s promise-keeping], ever since I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks to God for you…” With all of this in mind, we come to the fourth step in EPH 1: 17, “And ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit, who will make you wise and reveal God to you, so that you will know Him.” I’m fully aware that I have cited this verse before, but it deserves more of our time due to its importance to us. Since we were already given the Holy Spirit at the time we came to faith, this admonition refers to the Spirit’s power. As I written so often before, we need to confess our sins, empty our spiritual vessel of human agendas, and then, ask for the Spirit’s power before we do any task for the Lord. And yes, that should be often. The other phrases in (17) matter tremendously to us too. We are asking for God’s wisdom here, something we should do before making any decisions or taking any actions. The last phrase of (17) has come to be the most important of all to my way of thinking. It’s giving God the opportunity to reveal Himself to us. Several years ago, I wrote and taught an adult Bible course called “Hebrew Names of God.” Each name that is used for God in the Scriptures reveals one of His attributes. There’s a lot to know about our Deity; He is a complex personality and a very awesome One. Our taking the time to delve deeply into the Scriptures and praying allows Him to reveal Himself to us. When this happens, we are richly blessed. The pauses we should be taking in our prayers are to allow God to speak to us, and when He does, He reveals Himself and His will to us. The next time we pray, let’s all listen carefully for what God says to us. We will hear the gentle voice of our loving Abba and better understand how blessed we are that He has claimed ownership of us.
PRAYER: O Lord, You are an awesome God, and Your love for us is constant. We are grateful for that and understand our need for You, in view of our utter spiritual emptiness without You in our lives. Many of us feel uncomfortable when there are periods without human talk amidst our prayers. We should understand that those are the times You are speaking to us and should learn to listen intently while they’re in progress. PS 116: 5 points out some reasons why You deserve for us to say, “thank You,” first in our prayers. “The Lord is kind and does what is right; our God is merciful.” We are so imperfect in comparison to You and the Son. And yet, You continue to love us. That is why it is so right for us to pray PS 33: 22 often. “Yes, Lord, let Your constant love surround us, for our hopes are in You alone.” Our perceptions are limited in comparison to Yours, and we are in need of Your guidance. So often, we take steps and stumble because of that. And still, David understood this enough to give us PS 37: 23-24, “The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” With so many children to tend, it is nothing short of amazing that You can so ably care for each one of us the way You do. We thank You for that and praise You for being so loving and compassionate. Dearest Abba, one great manifestation of Your love for us is the plan You devised to bring us back to You via Jesus Christ. When we read Your word and pray about it, You make that plan clear to us, and You admonish us not to lose sight of it as we deal with Satan’s misdeeds in our lives. Then, You gave Paul these words to help encourage us. RO 8: 18, “I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” All of this despite our sinful condition! You, Lord, are unmatched anywhere! We come before You to humbly confess our sins and to ask You to fill us with the Holy Spirit’s power, so we can go forth and serve You, as Your friends, with dignity, faithfulness, and in a way which pleases You. We place before Your altar today our adoration, worship, diligence, loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, thanks, and praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
My prayer was a longer than usual, because that is what the Lord has put on my heart. Our generous God has given me more to say about how defensive prayer works for tomorrow’s message. I am grateful, because He has so much that is so valuable to teach us all. I’m blessed to have some wonderful friends, ones who are very good to me. A few messages ago, I told you that I was going to serve on a Cursillo spiritual retreat on one of the teams. Through some of those friends, I have seen God at work, as we helped each other to carry out our duties. The others knew I am physically handicapped, and they took care of the things they knew I couldn’t do. On the other hand, I was able to do some things they were not as able to do. That’s how God intends the Body of Christ to be. Our weekend was wonderful, bringing many people to stronger faith. Any goodness that we experience in this world comes from the God Who loves each of us so very much. Peter and I send each of you our love too.
His Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn