The Bible is a book of war. From Genesis 3 when Satan comes on the scene as a snake, through the book of Revelation, when Jesus comes and wipes out his enemies, the human race is in an intense war with an adversary who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. If you filter your view of life through the lens of warfare it will help you understand the world around us and how to respond. Equipping God’s people in spiritual warfare should be one of the church’s top priorities.
Jesus talked about hell and money a lot. Both topics still offend today.
Your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness.
If I had my preference of where I would live, it might be the UK or Italy. Maybe Finland. Many of the small churches I’ve visited in those countries had more fire and passion than most of the American churches I’ve visited. None of the churches in these other countries had loud worship bands; it was easy to hear the person next to you singing. One church in North Wales comes to mind where I could barely hear the musicians because everyone in the church was singing at full volume. It was rousing and inspiring to worship with them.
The greatest crisis in the modern church may be the loss of our youth, who have been hitting the exits for decades. I constantly hear stories of youth who have wandered away. What are we doing about it?
Jesus prepared for three years of intense ministry that included ongoing spiritual warfare by 40 days alone in the desert. Many modern believers struggle with spending 40 minutes in prayer. Our seminaries would do well to include desert time in their curriculum. So would our churches.
The early church began with 7 days straight of prayer meetings, were anointed by the Holy Spirit, Peter gave a sermon that can be read in several minutes, and 3,000 coming to Christ. Why don’t we put the same heavy emphasis on prayer that they did? It’s far better to have a prayer-fueled 10 minute message with the power, conviction, and presence of God than a prayerless 45 minute message that can’t cut butter.
The early church was devoted to God’s word, prayer, and fellowship. Is your church? Are you?
Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest man who had lived. That speaks volumes of what matters to God and His way of preparing people for ministry. John grew up in the desert, with many hours of silence and prayer. His wild appearance and exotic diet of honey-coated insects was meaningless in God’s eyes. John speared people with conviction; he called the religious rulers snakes and warned people of hell. He didn’t say a word about the love of God. John called God’s people to uncompromising holiness and didn’t care what anyone thought. Without a seminary degree, and with his wild-man appearance and take-no-prisoners preaching style, John the Baptist would never make it into most modern churches.
What does this say about us, how we do church, and our values?
I find myself drawn to the writing of believers who came before us, such as Charles Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, EM Bounds, Amy Carmichael, and Vance Havner. Many modern believers try to have as much of the world as they can while giving God their leftovers, thus, they are spiritually impotent. One man or woman with single minded focus on God can change the world.
I fear that the hours many are spending on their smartphones or other devices is crippling them spiritually.
Retirement is a great hoax; a waste of life that strips a person of purpose. The parable of the rich man who wanted to finish his life living for pleasure reveals how God feels about wasting His gift of time. I’d rather be a Caleb who continued to take new ground for God well into his eighties.
Prayer is the gateway to the unseen realm of eternity, the throne-room of God, and all the wonder and blessings that comes from entering His presence. Most believers will never experience these blessings because they fear facing themselves in silence and they won’t slow down. Or they don’t really love God. Our actions reveal what we love.
Most of what I’ve learned about prayer has come by spending hours in prayer and going hard after God. The more I pray, the more I want to pray. Prayer is the key to stoking the fires of our hunger for God.
If you’re not hungry for God, something is off. We can be content and at peace with Him, but the fire that wants more of Him still burns. Love of the world, sin, pleasure, and entertainment quench the spiritual life.
If you were to strip everything away from your life except for your relationship with God, what would be left?
The Christian life is often difficult and painful. Go hard after God, and you’ll provoke more spiritual warfare, pain, and suffering, which Jesus experienced throughout His time on earth. (Herod tried to kill him at birth, remember?) If the enemy isn’t attacking you, is it because you’re comfortably numb in sin or pleasure?
“It’s easy to imagine that someday we’ll get to a place where we are complete and ready. But preparation isn’t accomplished suddenly; it’s a process that must be steadily maintained. Our lives must be preparation and more preparation. To be in a settled state of experience is a dangerous thing.”
– Oswald Chambers
The crowd often gets it wrong. Including the church crowd. Jesus told us that few will find the small and narrow path to life. We do well to consider the path we’re on.
Contentment is countercultural. “More, more, more, and then more because more isn’t enough” is the way of the world. It never satisfies. Our approach to contentment affects every part of life, including marriage (porn is about “more” than the spouse God gave us), family, finances, and suffering.
“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”
1 Timothy 6:6-7
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
I’ve been asked what my spiritual gifts are. My reply is that it doesn’t matter what I think they are. God told Moses to go to Egypt to join Him in His plan to rescue the nation of Israel. Moses responded by telling God to find someone else; perhaps he thought that spiritual leadership wasn’t his spiritual gift. Psalm 37:4 tells us God will give us the desires of our heart if we delight in Him. He has placed desires deep in our heart that we don’t see. To ignore God’s command to “go” because it’s “not our spiritual gift” is foolish.
Not long ago I asked my adult children if all the years we attended church had given them a hunger for prayer. They all gave me a blank look.
It’s easy to say we trust God, but faith that is untested is unproven. Suffering and pain reveal the true state of our faith.
Jesus never chased the lukewarm. They made him sick. He offered them the way out through fiery repentance.
I hear many believers saying “God has given us the victory.” Since this is so, are we engaged in the war for the hearts of others and living our lives with eternal impact? Or is it just talk? Walking the talk is quite different from clichés, sound bites, tweets, and posts.
Every day, around 170,000 people die and enter their eternal destiny. Your turn is coming. Are you ready? If not, what needs to change? Have you invested the treasure of your time and resources in the eternal? Do you know Him? Most importantly, will Jesus say He knows you? (Matthew 7:21-23) There are no second chances once we take our last breath.
