Authority

We, God's people, have authority over all the Creation; we are to help in determining how things are to be here on the Earth. 
 

God has knowledge and power; He is all knowing, omniscient, and he is all powerful, omnipotent.

Yet our Bible tells us: Satan is "the prince of this world" (John 16:11) and "the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient" (Ephesians 2:2) and will remain so until Jesus returns after our Father has put "everything under His feet" (Matthew 22:44).
 
Here is my question (I am still pondering this): What, in all the Creation, is my sphere of influence? Where can I, a simple Christian believer, bring God's mighty power, (Matthew 3:11; Matthew 10:8; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:1-2, 38-39), to my neighbour, my family, and even myself, and see God's love, glory and peace overcome some of the pain, sickness and trouble in the world?

My present understanding, (while I continue to pray and study):
 
In the beginning God gave humankind authority over the Creation: "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground'" (Genesis 1:28). These words were spoken to the first human beings, both to the man and to the woman, thus to all humankind.
 
Then, even before Adam and Eve had their first baby, Satan came and tricked them into giving him the authority God had given them. What Satan promised was less than Adam and Eve already had, yet they went along, thus precipitating the Fall with sin and death coming to the world (Genesis 3).
 
Throughout the Old Covenant, Satan had authority while God in Heaven continued in His eternal knowledge and power. We can see why things were so difficult for the Israelites during those centuries. Yet God loved Israel and her people deeply with a Father's love, He was faithful to them despite their callous treatment of Him and His way. God foresaw the cost of sending His Son to Earth to pay for all of humankind's sin, yet for Jesus' sake, He continued, and continues still, to love and be faithful to His Creation and its crown, humankind.
 
At just the right time Jesus came to Earth, "Emanuel, God with us", born as a boy child to the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:23, 25); His God-given name means "saviour":
 
"You know that [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin" (1 John 3:5).
 
"Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8).
 
Jesus' earthly ministry concluded with His Passion. Humility in God's people is a great Bible theme; Jesus, the only person who ever lived without sin, humbled Himself even unto death on the Cross (Philippians 2:8). Jesus died (Mark 15:33-38) then God's mighty power raised Him from the dead (Ephesians 1:18-23) and He ascended to Heaven where He now rules and reigns, with Father God, by their Holy Spirit (Revelation 19:6).
 
This is how Jesus recovered back (an exact legal term) the authority Adam and Eve had given away; Jesus defeated Satan, sin and death. Jesus established the New Covenant so that we Christians, the "ecclesia", His church, could work with our God in Heaven to reveal Him and share in His glory. 

Jesus gave us His authority (Luke 10:19; Matthew 28:18) and commands that we, His body, do His work on Earth until He comes again (1 Corinthians 4:5; Ephesians 2:10). Remember, Jesus is "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), "God is love" (1 John 4:8,16). We are called to pray and lend our authority to ensure that God's knowledge, power and love can do their good work as we continue to steward and care for all the Earth (John 14:16; John 14:23; Luke 10:19; Matthew 10:8).
 
This is why we are given "spiritual gifts" (1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12; Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Peter 4:9-11), so that we have the skills and power to exercise this God-given authority to do good.
 
Are we the church fulfilling that rôle today?
 
How did we do last century? Well, we had World War I, The Great Depression, World War II, also many totalitarian and communist governments (who deliberately killed more than 100,000,000 of their own people while completely failing to bring their utopian paradises into being).
 
In my lifetime we have seen the sexual revolution and acceptance of many unbiblical practices which undermine the family; "family" is God's foundation and building block for every human society. Sure, there were many advances too, in productivity and prosperity and diminution of hunger and some diseases. But the church shrank in impact, in numbers and in its blessing to the people and the societies of the world. This 21st century already looks worse.
 
Happily, Christian testimony shows that when we follow Jesus and God's way, His Kingdom can be seen here and now in our midst (John 7:38; Acts 2:42-47; Galatians 5:22-23; Colossians 1:27).
 
God asks us to unify, repent and pray:
"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:13-14).
 
Those words were first spoken to Solomon about Israel's great Temple. We Christians are the present-day "temple of God" (2 Corinthians 6:16) made of "living stones" (1 Peter 2:5); we are spiritual workers for God's earthly Kingdom (Ephesians 6:10-12).

Jesus ever intercedes for us, by His Spirit (Romans 8:26), so that we can live by and for Him (Colossians 1:16). God asks us to "humble [our]selves and pray and seek [His] face and turn from [our] wicked ways [of omission as well as commission], then [God] will hear from heaven, and will forgive [our] sin and will heal [our] land". 

We may be small in number, it seems to me that we are a remnant like those reported in our Bibles. Hitler's Germany had a remnant during those twelve terrible years, as did the Soviet Union during their three generations. We know, and thousands of testimonies show us, that Jesus is truly with us and amongst us, but the world does not see Him.
 
Let us unite and care for one another. "Jesus, I pray, reveal yourself, teach us to love in your likeness".
 
We each have a place and a rôle to fill. A great theme of the Bible is that we, God's people, pray:

God is the power,

Ours is the prayer,

Without Him we can not,

Without us He will not.

(Quoted by Stuart Robinson in "Prayer Power").

Let us gather together and pray often. Let us seek our Father’s will, and lend our hearts and voices, our availability and obedience, to His wisdom and strength, for ourselves, our families, our brothers and sisters in Jesus, and for our neighbours everywhere.

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3).
 
"Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them from heaven" (John 14:23).
 
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, Intercessor, Advocate to help you and be with you forever" (John 14:16).
 
"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you" (Luke 10:19).
 
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6).
 
"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give" (Matthew 10:8).
 
Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
 
Permalink: https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2024/05/authority.html
 

Husbands, Love Your Wives

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25).

"Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them" (Colossians 3:19).

Many may say "what a strange thing to talk about .. of course I love my wife, it is natural, it is why I married her".

My wife is Trish; we are long married, and the years have rolled by. Trish and I have had to face many difficulties, together and separately. Children have come along, bringing great blessings and also many complications. And there is our work, mine and hers, within and outside of our home, and also our extended family and sport and our other strong interests.

We grow and are not the same as when we were courting and newly wed. Love is different now. Isn't this true? Isn't your life together different?

"Husbands, love your wives" said Paul. The words are clear; they were written to the whole church at Ephesus and also at Colossae; Paul will have seen things which prompted him to share this thought with both groups.

I see Paul as the great discipler, he shows us who we are in Jesus - see the early chapters of Ephesians and Colossians. Then, to complete those letters, he teaches us how to grow in Jesus to realise our potential as human beings, as Christians (Ephesians 4:12-13) and as ambassadors for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:20), and so that we can to bring salt and light (Matthew 5:13-14) to our generation (Philippians 2:15).

Like Paul I have seen things. Trish and I were "fine"; we now have grown-up children, and grandchildren too. But, truth be told, things were only mostly fine, other times there was friction and dissatisfaction.

Oscar Wilde said that bigamy is when a man has too many wives, and that having just one wife is very much the same .. In the Western democracies statistics suggest that about half of all married people feel as Oscar Wilde did.

Was I heading along the path to be another statistic? I don't know. Trish is likely strong enough that she would have kept us together regardless of any foolishness I did, like running off to live alone. I never stopped loving Trish. What we have is precious, as it was when I fell in love across a room. I think that it just became a bit patchy.

Thankfully I met two men for whom these Scripture verses have come alive, men who are now my friends, who have actively responded to this godly command and have the most beautiful testimonies. Each of them, and I, have different stories, but the glorious joy and richness we have found is the same.

Testimony: My Two Friends, And Now Me Also

Here is my wife, this person whom God gave to me, (and I truly believe this: my wife Trish was chosen for me and given to me by our loving Father God). Sometimes we became uncomfortable, at those times we seemed to no longer belong together or be fully fitted.

Even so, I knew that our separating would have a terrible impact on everyone in our family, us too. Our thousands of wonderful memories would be blighted. Family events, (and there are many every year), would be less fulsome, less happy, less complete. The children may feel that they have to take sides.

Trish and I remember when our kids would come home from school and say that such-and-such brother's and sister's parents had split up and how hurt the children were; years later the hurt is still there with the now-young-adult brother and sister making their way in the world; and the parents too, their pain is still clearly present, even after they have "moved on".

Besides, there was so much promise in Trish and my meeting and marrying, surely this was not a false promise?

And there is God's Word:

"May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth" (Proverbs 5:18, see also Malachi 2:15).

"He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord" (Proverbs 18:22).

"In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself" (Ephesians 5:28).

My testimony continues: "I thought that I could take this on as a project for Jesus (and for my wife and me). What do Paul's words mean? What is the "love" he talks about? How and what will I need to change? What do I need to give up? And for how long?"

Both my friend's testimonies, and my own, tell that we learned that "love" is a doing word; love requires thought, humility, commitment and sacrifice, indeed everything we admire in Jesus points to how we should love our wife (Ephesians 5:25). Just as Jesus always prayed before He acted, we learned that prayer was an essential part of our "work" in re-growing our marriages. And, the relationships between men and women are not simply physical and emotional, they are also spiritual, we had to learn to give more fully from our spirit too.

Marriage was never primarily for the husband and wife, and it is not "all about love" (which implies that if we can no longer feel the love, the marriage is over). No, marriage is primarily for the children, so that they grow strong and loving and balanced in a healthy, stable environment, and also for our society, that it too is a stable, healthy environment. This is why, in every country, marriage has been made part of the civil law. Marriage is so important to every society that we protect and encourage it for the betterment of all.

I was intrigued to note that, in our Bibles, wives are not instructed to love their husbands. My researches show that this is because men and women are different. Men must make a conscious effort to take their focus off their work and other interests, and deliberately care for their wife, while women will respond to true, practical love with love! Women are instructed: "However .. the wife must respect her husband" (Ephesians 5:33). Observation shows me that unless we husbands earn that respect, I believe we are unlikely to receive very much at all.

When I set out to grow in loving Trish, one of the first things I learned was to bite my tongue, to be less free with my comments and criticisms of Trish and her ways (James 3:5, 1 Peter  3:10). This was hard. It still is. Over the years I had become like Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady", thinking "why can't a woman be more like a man?" Trish, like Eliza Doolittle, is not a man, praise Jesus, and, like all of us, was carefully hand-made by God our Father to be herself; and this I needed to learn again, how to treasure and respect her unique person and her woman-ness.

Another thing. These changes in me would not happen overnight. We three men learned that the necessary changes would be difficult and that we would have to call on our Christian training for guidance. Also we would have to break old habits and learn new ones (this I believe takes about 40 days, a timespan known to Jesus Himself): "train yourself to be godly .. godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come" (1 Timothy 4:7-8). I realised that loving my wife God's way would be costly, it would be me who would need to change so it would be costly to me.

In my career as a computer database specialist, I was involved in some important cutting-edge projects, I became a hot-shot and loved my work; but that was then. Now I no longer do paid work, my life is small and I have come to love that. I pray for the whole world, but day-to-day I live among my immediate family and a handful of small prayer groups. People with big lives seem to have all the big problems associated with the big things they are involved in; they may have too little time or energy for the truly big things in their lives, those things involving their relationships with family and the people close to them.

When we study God and the Cosmos, we see that God is most focused on relationships, firstly within the Godhead of Father, Son and Spirit and their eternal loving, sharing relationship, and then with us, His created people, the only creatures created in God's image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), and the only creatures with a spirit (Genesis 2:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:23), just like "God who is spirit" (John 4:24).

We can relate to God spirit to spirit. The whole Bible is about this special relationship between God and humankind (Matthew 22:37), a relationship where God's precious Son will marry a spotless bride (Ephesians 5:27), us Christians, and we will see and know His glory (Isaiah 60:2).

The Creation of physical things and all life was created on God's spoken word in six days. In the fullness of time this Creation will have served its purpose and "be rolled up like an old garment" (Hebrews 1:10), then God will bring forth "a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). The Creation is vast to us and we all wonder at its beauty. Scientists have been studying it since the earliest days and still have many questions. The Creation is not a closed system. To God it is secondary to us people and our relationship with Him, including our marriages, these are all designed to last eternally. Hallelujah!

Trish’s and my marriage had sometimes lost some of its joy and flavour and vitality, but it did not so much need rescuing as reviving, happily it was far from dead.

We can find many lists of the most important elements of human life, none include "being divorced" or "being unhappy in marriage". Here is a list I made when reflecting on the past two or three years of our marriage:

• Listening
• Commitment
• Cleanliness
• Generosity
• Humility
• Contentment

"Listening" comes first, I think this was Trish's greatest unmet need from me, she is very relational (Trish is not strong with physics or numbers, while I am). People respond to her amazingly, (it was the same with my mother!) and she can make any plant grow and bloom! I needed simply to listen. I studied "active listening", it is a skill, easy to learn but quite hard to do.

"Commitment" speaks for itself .. I am often reminded that my greatest good will come from a great marriage, so, I am looking out for me, not just "us". Yes, I am committed!

"Cleanliness” may be obvious. I am not a dirty person but some of my untidy habits ("O, surely that pile of books is fine") really upset Trish who is a lovely homemaker, so I try to improve in those things .. inside and out, on myself and around about our household.

"Generosity" is something Jesus loves. I pray about giving and have learned to go beyond tithing and be free and relaxed about it, and now with myself towards Trish too.

"Humility" is a Jesus hallmark. He was the one who left His glorious life in Heaven to come and become a servant to all (Mark 9:12; Luke 9:22) and then die for us (Romans 5:8) and rise again (1 Corinthians 15:3-7). Besides, as Christians we are expected to "one another" one another, our wife is our best place to start: (Philippians 2:3-4; Matthew 22:35-40).

"Contentment" is lovely: we are told to "grow where you are planted" and "be grateful in all things". "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6), so true. Trish and I volunteer at "The Garden of Hope" where many of the people are recovering addicts, the amount of gratitude seen there is awesome and inspirational. I now have Jesus' peace (John 14:27) and am content .. I think that this is what the Bible calls "shalom".

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful" (Colossians 3:15).

So I have been working at all this for a good while now, it is not a burden and has mostly become second nature. Our marriage is really good. 

Trish and I, and our whole family, are facing some big challenges but we are facing them together with peace, joy and love in our hearts. 

Both Trish and I know and love Jesus, and we have one another truly and fully in our covenant marriage. Thank you Jesus. Hallelujah!

Simple But Poignant Quotes

"The greatest gift a father can give his children is to love their mother" - Theodore Hesburgh.

"And as ridiculous as it may sound, sometimes all any of us needs in life, is for someone to hold our hand and walk next to us" - James Frey.

Favourite Scripture Verses

"Keep looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends" (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life" (2 Peter 1:3).

"So encourage one another and help one another to grow stronger in faith, just as you are already doing" (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Thank you Jesus. Amen.

Permalink: https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2023/08/husbands-love-your-wives.html

Prayer Now

More Prayer And More Christians Praying

These days a great many people I know are thinking and talking in terms of "where do we go from here?" Even secular people are asking too ..

In my own Christian circles the answer is immediate: "prayer, more prayer and more Christians praying". This is not a new conclusion for Jesus' Church when the world hides from the light of Christ.

 

In my early days of Bible College our very fearsome theology teacher told us that he would ask a great many questions of us over our years of study, and that the answer to all the questions would be "Jesus". This turned out to  be a true statement, and is still true to this day! (I have now known this teacher for nearly 20 years and, long ago, learned that he is kind, gentle, (even soft), full of love and a very godly and Christ filled man, his fierceness is illusory!)

Here are quotes about prayer from some of my heroes of the faith:

•     Martin Luther - "To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing".

•    Mother Theresa - "Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts".

•    EM Bounds - "God shapes the world by prayer".

•    John Wesley - "God does nothing except in response to believing prayer".

•    John Wesley again - "I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it".

•    Elisabeth Elliot - "Prayer lays hold of God's plan and becomes the link between His will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit's power".

It is so good that all through the centuries so many have been praying so obediently. We cannot imagine how awful the world would be without the good that their, (and our), prayers have brought, and without the many blocks their, (and our), prayers have placed to obstruct Satan's plans for evil.

I've seen a few end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it apocalyptic movies so beloved of Hollywood producers; I'm sure that none of them come close to the horrors that a prayer-less world would suffer. Yet here we are ..

So I ask: Jesus, how would you have us pray? How would you have me pray? How, as our Father's son? How as your brother, Lord? How as a husband, father and grandfather? How as your ambassador on the Earth? How as your steward of the Earth? How as your servant in this place?

The Australian Prayer Network teaches that prayer is an activity of God which requires human co-operation to achieve God's desired ends. God knows all the "ends from the beginnings" (Isaiah 46:10, Revelation 21:6). Human prayer releases God's power. God wants to work through us (Luke 10:19; John 14:12), so that our lives come to have the meaning He planned for us before we were born (Psalm 139:14-17; Ephesians 2:10). Good things happen because we obey and do what God asks of us.

God wants us to be totally available to Him, and radically obedient. When God brought Australian Prayer Network into being He made it clear that that was what He seeks in His intercessors .. availability and obedience ..

Continuous Prayer

Scripture shows us prayer in action, it is constant and continuous. Revelation chapters 4 and 5 show us the eternal prayer meeting in Heaven. We are the "blood purchased .. persons from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9), we are very precious to our Lord. As we pray, our prayers join those in the "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Revelation 5:8). 

Our prayers are also very precious! We participate with the "10,000 times 10,000 angels" (Revelation 5:11). The apostle John was shown this scene so that he could tell us about it. What an awesome responsibility we have been given. (10,000 X 10,000 = 100,000,000, a truly huge number!) When John wrote the book of Revelation it is estimated that the world population was between 200 million and 300 million; this suggests that there was one praying in Heaven for every two or three on the Earth!

Prayer was a constant during Jesus' life on Earth (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; John 17:1); in everything He sought the counsel and direction of His, (now our), Father. We are encouraged to do the same. Even now Jesus is constantly praying, by His Spirit, and interceding for us (Romans 8:27). He died that we may be forgiven our sins and saved (1 Thessalonians 5:10). Now He prays that we may have life "to the full" (John 10:10).

We can hear from Jesus. Our Brother and Lord communicates with us, God's children .. "Listen, O my people, to my instruction; incline your ears to the words of my mouth" (Psalm 78:1 NASB).

Many people have difficulty with the idea of talking or communicating with God, or being close with Him. But the very instant we are saved, Jesus brings us to His Father to be adopted as His children and to come fully into His inheritance just as Jesus is. It took years for me to accept how closely Jesus had brought me into His family .. right into the very arms of His Father! Jesus' Father is now our "Abba" (Romans 8:15); I am certain that Father God's love for each one of us is much greater than my best love and care for my own children .. We are not alone in our desire for relationship, many Psalms are cries for God's loving attention, or even His rescue (Psalm 102, 140, 141, 142, 143), in other Psalms we see God's great love and commitment to us (Psalm 91, 23).

We can also ask ..

•   "Lord, what is the big problem in the world?" 

•   "What is the big problem in my world?"

•   "What is the main thing which you want me to pray for?" and

•   "Lord, what is something helpful that I can do?"

Drought

Australia is in a major season of drought. About a decade ago, during our previous drought, many people asked the Australian Prayer Network to pray for rain. APN ran a survey; the many thousands of members were asked which Scripture God gave them when they asked about our nation and the drought. Results overwhelmingly revealed that God wanted us all to consider Haggai Chapter 1: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house, [God's Temple], remains a ruin?" (Haggai 1:4). It was clear that it was the sin of the Church which was causing God to withhold the rain. Not the sin of the secular population, or of the Australian population as a whole, but the sin of the Christian people.

The survey also showed that the sins which particularly concerned God were:

•         Lack of Christian intimacy with God

•         Idolatry

•         Sexual sins

•         The shedding of innocent blood

•         Injustice, and

•         Broken covenants.

Drought Again

Once again Australia is in a time of devastating drought. Are we still immersed in the same spiritual problems? In the years between then and now, has the Church in Australia become more Christ focused? More intimately involved with Jesus? Have we become more united? Do we still overlook our own acceptance of the world's moral codes? Our acceptance of our own moral failures? Have we grown to care more for ".. justice, mercy and faithfulness .." (Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23) and the "widows and orphans" (James 1:27)? Or do we still focus on our own local congregation, our buildings and mortgages, our sound and video systems, our travel, celebrity and wealth? Do we still love our lives above Jesus (Revelation 12:11)?

Can we truly expect God to grant us the great revival we ask Him for? The peace we ask for?

 

In 2nd Chronicles the chronicler, (possibly Ezra), writes about times of drought and great difficulty:

"When I, [God], shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:13-14).

When times are tough for us it may be that God is withholding benefits, and not Satan causing more trouble than usual (John 10:10, 1 Peter 5:8).

These two verses from Chronicles still speak to us today. God's Word is eternal and imperishable (1 Peter 1:23). God is calling to His people .. today that is us .. the oikos, the household and family of God .. the ecclesia, the ones He has gathered in His name, His people to rule in this world and to steward His Creation (Genesis 1:26).

He wants us to humble ourselves, that is, to put Jesus first in our lives, not just on Sundays, and to honour others and put them ahead of our self, to truly be servants. (I am reminded of the "me", "me", "me" that I am so familiar with in my own life).

Jesus asks us to pray and seek His face; to regularly and frequently seek intimate time with Him, to ask: "Lord Jesus, what are you saying? What are you doing? How can I be part of all this, here and now?"

Ezra's next words are where God asks us to repent; to identify our sinfulness, then seek forgiveness, and then to change direction, to chart a new course, to repent ..

We pray "Father .. lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13); my experience is that in Christ I can say "no" to temptation, Jesus will always help me to do this. But when temptation comes, instead of relying on my own (small) strength, I must turn my spiritual eyes to Jesus and ask for His (mighty) help. Satan hates this and continues to bring temptation to me .. it is a constant battle .. But it is very reassuring when Jesus wins my battles for me, again and again .. Sometimes I think that Satan is getting tired and may move on from me, but this never lasts, he is a very persistent foe.

Repenting or charting a new course is hard, it means changing our habits, perhaps even our lifestyle. (Joining with someone else or with a group can be great for this ..)

Then, towards the end of verse 14, the chronicler reports God's promise that we all long for:

" .. then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land". And what a promise this is! We know Scripture so we know that this promise is rock solid, we can base our faith on it because the promise is based on Jesus and His life and work.

Our World

We can each make a difference in our world. We each have a God given purpose (Ephesians 2:10) which we can discover and work towards. We can be encouraged and look at our world with hope .. Time with Jesus, intimacy, conversation, day by day .. Even starting in the smallest ways ..

Bless us all. Amen.

Favourite Bible Verses

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3).

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6).

"I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please'" (Isaiah 46:10).

Note:

This is the 5th article I have posted on prayer - I believe that it may be my own most thought about subject, certainly it is a passion of mine, and it is Jesus who puts our (healthy) passions in us; He wants us to be engaged, even excited, as we go about the lives He has given us ..

Pray Northbridge  -  Posted 6th August 2010

   Permalink   https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2010/08/pray-northbridge.html

Unity Through Prayer  -  Posted 21st November 2011

   Permalink   https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2011/11/unity-through-prayer.html

Prayer With An Ache  -  Posted 31st May 2015

   Permalink   https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2015/05/prayer-with-ache.html

In Their Image: Prayer  -  Posted 29th November 2015

   Permalink  https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2015/11/in-their-image-prayer.html

I believe that I am expressing here what Jesus wants me to share ..

Amen.

Permalink for this post:

"Prayer Now" https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2019/10/prayer-now.html

Praise Jesus.

Passion Gifting and Power

One Day I Will Ask You

A few months ago I had a clear word from Jesus as my first conscious thought of the day, (this kind of thing happens to Christians, it's good to be ready for it and take note or it can just dissolve away like smoke, as a dream does).

Jesus said, very softly: "one day I will ask you, what did you do with all the passion, gifting and power that I gave you?"

Since then this future requirement from Jesus has been weighing on me and I've been looking for "passion", "gifts" and "power", in my Bible and in my life. These qualities are everywhere in the New Testament, under the New Covenant. I realise that most of my time is spent on the things of the world rather than the things of Heaven, so my balance is not yet fully right. 

There is a lovely song: ".. and the things of the world will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace" (Philippians 3:8; Hebrews 12:2) (Helen Lemmel 1863-1961) . 

The parable of the sower includes the warning "but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful" (Mark 4:19).

So in the time I have left on this Earth I am trying to lift my game. This kind of desire is a place where Jesus and Holy Spirit together are always ready to help. I've heard so many testimonies where the person earnestly sought after Jesus, and He invariably made Himself available by His Spirit (Jeremiah 29:13, Proverbs 8:17, Matthew 5:6).

Where am I now? I am praying more and have been this whole year. Even as the world seems to be going downhill, Jesus' call to prayer is increasing, not just in me, but in many others I see in meetings and in day-to-day life. This is a common theme amongst God's people; whoever I read, and from whatever century or season in history, there are those who feel to pray more. Even in His own day, Jesus said ".. This is an evil generation .." (Luke 11:29, Ephesians 6:12), these days seem to be no different. Today there are many who are calling evil good and calling good evil (Isaiah 5:21). This is so contrary to God who made everything "very good" (Genesis 1:31), and who loves truth (John 14:6) and light (John 1:4).

Some years ago I bought E. M. Bounds' "Complete Works on Prayer", for my wife, Trish, and now feel called to read it again, (see Note 1). It's a big book, (eight books in one volume), and I'm cherry-picking subjects and chapters. It is a delight. Bounds places great importance on Jesus' words to me: "passion", "gifts", and "power", and many more strong words besides: faith, trust, desire, fervency, character, obedience, humility, devotion, trouble, mission, promises, miracles, providence, sacredness, purpose, unction (anointing), deliberation (pondering) .. and includes a great many stories of prayer heroes from both the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible. Very encouraging. 

Time and again Bounds reminds us that prayer is God's idea. It is an essential inclusion in His design for humankind and for each of our unique relationships with our Abba Father; our Saviour and Lord, Jesus; and our Counsellor and Comforter, Holy Spirit. Essential!

As I spend time in my Bibles, (Trish and I are blessed to have many different Bible translations, see Note 2), I am every day reminded that part of Jesus plan in rescuing us from the world is that He will ultimately sanctify us: "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). 

This means that He will lead and guide and help us to leave our sin behind .. He will clean us up and develop our ministry in the world "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature person-hood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Ephesians 4:13-14). 

This is very good news; it means that, more and more, we are able to live lighter, yet with great purpose (2 Timothy 1:9), and live free (Galatians 5:1). Over the past months I have grown in my determination to participate more in Jesus' work, to be more aware, to try harder!

Prayer works. Trish and I both got to know Jesus and who He is through prayer meetings and getting to know born-again Christians on a personal level. God makes prayer possible by equipping us, then He asks us to pray. Trish and I set aside time to pray together and I love to take part in prayer groups. Another application of passion, gifts and power.

Surveys of hospital patients show that those who pray, or are prayed for, show fewer deaths and markedly better and faster recoveries from operations, procedures and treatments than do those who receive no prayer; this was in the same hospitals with the same doctors and nurses and the same operations, procedures and treatments performed for the same symptoms. The only things different were the prayers. Prayer works.

It is no wonder then that 82% of all the people in the world believe that the spiritual world is real and influential, even powerful. That is more than four out of every five people. This number comes from a Pew study, Pew are a very well established and trusted survey company.

Trish and I recently heard a report of a testimony about prayer, (so it was not first hand, nonetheless we found it to be entirely believable). A man was saying that he used to be a Satanist and had lots of fun praying to Satan that people's troubles would increase; he found that these prayers were effective and the people he prayed for got into all sorts of difficulties. 

Later he found that when he made these prayers towards people who were being prayed for by Christians, nothing happened; his prayers fell to the ground. The man said that this took all the fun out of his "game" so he stopped trusting in Satan and became a Christian, and is now very happy with that decision! Prayer works!

Prayer is global in scope and it is also intimate. Our prayers effectively help God to do His will in the world! Testimonies abound, from the smallest things to lives being saved or radically changed. As a computer programmer and data-base expert I was trained to see patterns; with prayer I find it hard to see any. For every rule or guide-line I could offer, I could also list exceptions. The important thing is to follow Jesus, let Holy Spirit be our guide, our prayer leader, and to listen to His heart and our conscience.

Although I am a house husband for Trish and a helper for all our family, I now see my main work as writing PsalmsOfJohn.com. I love this work because I work so closely with Jesus. He is my Ideas Man, all the concepts and ideas come from Him, He is also my Mentor and helps in a hundred ways as I work, and He is my Editor-in-Chief, nothing is considered to be complete until Jesus has given His approval. This is extraordinarily satisfying and I am ever so thankful. I plan to continue working hard at this as it needs all the passion, gifting and power Jesus gives me.

John the Baptist announced Jesus with the words: "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Matthew 3:11).

Baptise means "immerse in", Scripture also tells us that we are filled with Holy Spirit. It's not surprising that Jesus expects us to have, and to show, fire. After all, as born-again Christian, we are filled with Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4, 4:13, 9:17, 13:52). Holy Spirit is the power who raised Jesus from the dead. "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11). 

Paul is famous for comparing himself to an athlete; he was ready to press on to win the race and receive the prize (1 Corinthians 9:25, Philippians 3:13-14). This is a great way to look at Christian life. There is a prize and it is very precious; the prize is eternal life with Jesus! It is so very good to press on .. "perseverance" is one of my favourite Bible words ..

"My beloved spoke and said to me, "Arise, my love, my fair one, come away. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me" (Song of Solomon 2:10-13).

And, as we live our Christian life each of us can rejoice that it will not run dry; there is no end to it: "Now there are also many other things which Jesus did. If they should be all recorded one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain (have room for) the books that would be written" (John 21:25).

Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus.

Note 1: Bounds, E. M. 2004. "The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer". Baker Books. Paperback Edition.

Note 2: Bibles - Reading, spending time immersed in, and pondering the content of the Bible is a vital part of Christian life. At Bible college we were taught to ask: "What does the text say?" We were told to consider how the reader at the time would have understood the passage in question. What was the writer of the passage trying to pass on to the people of his time?

I read English translations, they all have differences from one another. We can read a passage in more than one translation and work out what God is saying. Also, at Bible College I learned Greek (from Bible times), which is the original language of the New Testament, I still use my Nestlé Greek/English New Testament. There were no sentences or paragraphs in the original languages so the structures in our translations vary. Ultimately how we read the Bible reflects how we know Jesus, on our own personal relationship with Him and our Father, and what Jesus reveals to us. Jesus is the Word of God and the Bible is simply Jesus written down (John 1:1-4). God is the God who reveals Himself (Amos 4:13, Jeremiah 29:13, Proverbs 8:17, Matthew 5:6).

"Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy" (1 Corinthians 14:1). 

Jesus wants us to hear from Him and be able to share what He says.

King James was King, his word was law. He instructed his translators to tone down the "everyone" (Colossians 3:11) language of the New Testament so that people would continue to respect and honour the authority structures in the land and in the church.

There is much talk of "men" in the King James Version even though, since Jesus' ministry on Earth, God includes everyone; men, women, slaves, free people, citizens, visitors, Jews and others. Many newer translation have continued this masculine focus. (It is also widespread in the church in recent times; E. M. Bounds' book, written in the early 20th Century), is full of "men" and hardly mentions women). 

The idea that "church" is an institution and a social and authority structure is strongly reinforced in the KJV, and in many later English language translations; but the word for "church" is the Greek word, "ecclesia", which means "the gathering of God's people"! Nothing about leadership, or hierarchy structures or buildings. King James supported this distorted view and, sadly, we often still tend to be presented with this error. "Church" is often a "service"; in the Bible the early Christians "met", they had meetings where everyone contributed.

In the King James Version Holy Spirit is referred to as the "Holy Ghost"; I believe this to be a terrible piece of translation because our beloved Holy Spirit is definitely not a ghost, He is not a spirit of a dead person, Jesus is assuredly alive! Yet today, pastors and others seem to love using this misleading word.

God never changes (Hebrews 13:8), so we can expect to find the same awesome, loving, powerful, creative and good God everywhere we look. For years my life was tough and I came to think that God had a closed hand towards me, that I wasn't good enough. I let these thoughts affect me in very negative ways. At the time I knew that my thoughts were wrong but still allowed them to affect me. Thankfully I am now past this piece of foolishness. It took a long time for me to correct my own wrong translation, (my strongholds), and find Bible verses which would help me. A long time to learn, in my heart, "what the text says"! Now I know, Jesus loves me, unconditionally!!

Amen.

Permalink

https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2018/12/passion-gifting-and-power.html

Praise our lovely Lord Jesus.

Unity Healing WPA2012

Unity Healing WPA2012

Prophetic Word: Unity And Humility And Prayer Bring Healing To The Land And The People


World Prayer Assembly 2012 - Jakarta Indonesia


Jesus is saying:

"If my people" means MY people, ALL my people.

     All.

          United.

               Together.

                    As one.

                         Linked.

                               Brothers and sisters ..


(2 Chronicles 7:14)

".. if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land".
 

Praise Jesus!

• Permalink to web page

https://www.psalmsofjohn.com/2012/05/unity-healing-wpa2012.html

"Unity Healing WPA2012" is now a podcast on Spotify under PsalmsOfJohn

• Public link to podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3p9bxnpXkKuSiQZ7WAJ7Ip

Amen.