Monthly Archives: May 2016

Did You Know (1)

Apologetics, , ,

DID YOU KNOW (1)

…That intercession is not a “spiritual gift”?

It’s amazing to me that intercession has become the special ministry of a select few instead of the privilege of every child of God. What is even more astonishing is that it is now, according to some, both a title and a calling. Is there any verse or passage in Scripture that confirms this idea? I have yet to find one.

In fact, the Bible says the opposite. Prayer (and intercession is one kind of prayer) is the honour and privilege of all God’s children.

I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer without anger and disputing (1 Tim 2: 8).

The Greek word for “men” here is aner which refers specifically to males. Does this mean that only men may pray? Paul affirms in Gal. 3:28 that there is neither … male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. We assume, therefore, that prayer is the privilege of all God’s children regardless of colour, culture, or gender.

Although people of every religious persuasion “pray”, there is no true prayer outside of God’s family. Prayer is the way God’s children who are flesh and blood and live physical lives in a physical world, interact with the Father who is spirit and dwells in the unseen realm.

Prayer is the only way in which we can communicate with Him. Physical we may be, but we have His Spirit within us. We relate to God spirit to spirit as His sons and daughters. Our spirits communicate with His Spirit who interprets our prayers to the Father.

Prayer is a mystery. Through intercourse with God, which the Bible calls “prayer” we participate in the realm of the unseen, hearing the voice of the Spirit within us and responding with or without words to the one who knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. We participate in the “groaning” of the universe which, like the human race is also under the curse of sin, awaiting the completion of the redemption Jesus accomplished on the cross.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies…

…In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans (Rom. 8:22-23; 26)

It seems, then, that prayer is far more intense than simply talking to God. Prayer is the child’s participation with the Father in our role as “rulers” over His creation and the outworking of His purposes to bring about the restoration of all things.

Prayer is the role of God’s sons and daughters who are members of His family and citizens of His kingdom. Prayer enables us to work with Him to carry out His will on earth and bring in His eternal kingdom. Prayer is not the attempt of worshippers, as the pagans do, to manipulate God to do what we want or to appease Him through fear so that he will not destroy us.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:15-16).

Does any other religion, including the cults which have corrupted the truth, offer an intimate relationship between their god and his devotees as father and children? In what way do pagan deities offer their devotees the opportunity of participating with them in the fulfilment of their eternal purposes? Do pagan gods have any plans? Where is their religion taking them?

Of course, there are no answers to these questions. There is only one God in whom all history is wrapped up and makes sense. God not only began history – He will also conclude history as He determined in the beginning.

Rev. 5:1-9 describes the scene in heaven where the scroll of history could not be opened until the Lamb stepped forward. No one knows the meaning of history outside of Jesus. He is the only one who can interpret history according to God’s purposes.

Prayer is the all-encompassing way in which we commune with God. Prayer has many facets – what Paul calls “all kinds of prayer” – and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests (Eph. 6:18a). He enumerates the “all kinds of prayer” in his instructions to Timothy.

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone… (1 Tim. 2:1).

Did you notice that intercession is included in the “all kinds of prayer” and that all God’s people are to engage in intercession as part of our resistance to the enemy?

Why, then, is intercession singled out and made a ministry for some when we are all instructed to pray for all people, and especially for God’s people (Eph. 6: 18b)?

Prayer in all its facets is the privilege and obligation of all God’s people because it is the way God has ordained for us to have personal and intimate fellowship with Him.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available

Sons And Daughters

Christian life, , ,

SONS AND DAUGHTERS

But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but God’s child; and since you are a child, God has also made you His heir (Gal. 4:4-7).

Now we are sons and daughters of God, and no longer slaves and orphans. We have the distinguishing marks of sonship – we have a name, a home, and an inheritance. God is our Father; we have been accepted as brothers and sisters of Jesus, and we share in all the privileges and benefits of being God’s children (Eph. 1:3-14).

  1. We have been given the Father’s name

Until Jesus came, the name of the Father was not known. In Jesus, we see the nature of God fully revealed – God with us and God with a face.

I have revealed Your name to those You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word (John 17:6 – Berean Study Bible).

http://biblehub.com/john/17-6.htm

Jesus revealed the Father’s name to His disciples so that, by His Spirit they (and we) could call on and use His name.

  1. We have a home.

A slave and an orphan have no home of their own. They live on borrowed property and can be removed at any time. They do not belong to a family. They have no roots and no security.

Not so God’s children.

Not only do we dwell in Jesus now, but we also have the assurance of a place in the Father’s house in eternity. David stated with great confidence:

I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psa. 23:6).

On the eve of His death, Jesus promised His disciples:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms’ if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be with me where I am (John 14:1-3).

Amazing as it may sound, not only do we dwell in the Father, but He also dwells in us. So intimate is our union with Him through the Holy Spirit that He has made His home in us.

I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Eph. 3:16-17a).   

  1. We have an inheritance.

We are not only God’s children but joint heirs with His Son. What does that mean? What does Jesus inherit?

In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe (Heb. 1:2).

God appointed Jesus to be heir of everything He created, i.e., the entire universe and everything in it, and He appointed us to be joint heirs with Jesus. How awesome is that! But there is something else we are to inherit. Let me explain.

Firstly, we must understand that we receive an inheritance from someone who has died. It is not we who must die. We do not have to die before we receive our inheritance from the Father. It is ours now and available for us to use now.

To find out what our inheritance is, we must go on a Bible “treasure hunt”. The first clue, as we have already discovered, is in Rom. 8:17 and Gal 4:7 – the Father has appointed us to be His heirs and co-heirs with Christ.

The second clue is found in Heb. 6:12 –

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Aha! We are getting closer. Our inheritance is contained within God’s promises. But how do we gain access to His promises?

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And through Him, the  ”Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God (2 Cor.1:20).

We make God’s promises our own by endorsing what He has said and standing in faith on His Word. We ask Him to make good on what He has promised.

Now we are getting close to the treasure. What has God promised that we can claim as our own because we are His appointed heirs?

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Pet. 1: 3-4).

God made His promises available to us so that we can participate in the divine nature. As we take hold of His promises in every situation, we become more and more like Him, filled with His love, joy and peace. What a life in the midst of our world’s chaos.

Sons and daughters? That is what we are!

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

SOS (Part 2)

Christian Life, , , ,

SOS (PART 2)

Yesterday, we explored the truth that Jesus came to reveal the Father. This has far-reaching implications for us. If God is our Father, it follows logically that we are His sons and daughters. What does that mean for us? How can we be sure that we are the children of God?

In the beginning, God created the first human being to be His son. Luke’s genealogy of Jesus ends with these words, “Adam, the son of God” (Luke 3: 38). Although Adam sinned and alienated himself from the Father, he never ceased to be His son; in fact, the entire human race, born in the likeness of Adam, continues to be God’s family, although estranged, because no one can be “unborn” even though he might reject his parents.

Jesus came to reconcile His estranged children to the Father and bring them back into the circle of His family to share in the life and love of the Trinity. “God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them… (2 Cor. 5:19). Despite those who insist that Jesus only died for the elect, the testimony of Scripture is that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son (John 3: 16), and that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).

Of course, this does not mean that everyone lives as a child of God. The full enjoyment of our status as God’s children depends on our acceptance of Jesus’ death as payment for our sin and our return to Him as our Father to live in obedience to Him. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in us to empower us to be who we are, the children of God.

Before we returned to fellowship with God through faith in Jesus, we lived as slaves – under the usurped authority of the devil whose lies we believed. He kept us enslaved to himself through masquerading as Lord. He lied to us about the Father, insisting that God was out to get us and that our adversities were God’s way of punishing us for our sin. He made us his slaves by keeping us captive to fear.

Satan rules by fear. Every human being has an inborn fear of death and punishment. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus set us free from the fear of death.

Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death, He might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Heb. 2:15-16).

We were all slaves to the fear of death but we are free now to live in the fullness of our position as sons and daughters of God.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love (1 John 4:18).

We were all slaves to the fear of punishment but Jesus paid our debt in full, for all time.

Why, then, are so many of God’s children still slaves to the fear of death and the fear of punishment when His Word clearly states that God did not give us the spirit of timidity (fear) but a spirit of power of love and of self-discipline (2 Tim. 1:7)?

Paul assured his Roman readers:

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’ (Rom. 8:15).

Is it because we have never fully embraced who we are in Christ? Many of the children of God behave no differently from the people in the world. They are touchy, sensitive, defensive, insecure, controlling, and full of emotional baggage.

In Christ, we are a new creation, forgiven, power washed and accepted in the Beloved One. From God’s perspective we are already holy and complete. We have been raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly realms. We are no longer subject to the devil or his lies. We have God’s Spirit within us to reveal Jesus to us and to lead us into all truth. there is nothing more that God can do for us. Jesus declared with His last breath on the cross, “It is finished!”

The biggest problem is always unbelief. The writer to the Hebrews warned his readers:

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first… Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it (Heb.3:12-14; 4:1).

We are not slave but sons. Jesus has redeemed us from slavery to fear by His own blood. We can live fully in the confidence that God loves us with perfect love and will always to for us and in us what is for our best and for His glory.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

 

SOS

Christian Life, , , , ,

SOS

Most of us know that SOS is a distress call, but for me it means something far more important than that.

Slave, Orphan or Son?

For most of my life as a believer in Jesus, I did not know that I had the mind of a slave and an orphan, not a son (or daughter). How tragic that there are many like me who live like slaves and orphans! We do not know that God has adopted us into His family and that we are now beloved sons and daughters of the Most High God.

Why are we ignorant of this important fact of our relationship with the Father? Is it perhaps because one of the central themes of the New Testament has been made peripheral. We have shifted the focus from what God has done in Christ for all eternity to what we think He has done for us now. What I mean by this is that we have obscured God’s eternal purpose for humanity by believing the lie that God wants us to be healthy, rich and famous now.

The message of salvation for the most part has been reduced to “come to Jesus. He will forgive your sins so that you can go to heaven when you die.” This leaves would-be believers thinking that they can continue to live as they always have, with the added benefit of a passport to heaven.

What the Bible actually says is a far cry from what many of us have been taught and what we believe. Why did Jesus come to earth? Many will reply, “To save us from our sins,” and they would not be wrong. However there is much more to His coming than just dying for our sins.

I believe that there are three main reasons why He came and everything He did falls under one of them. He came to reveal the Father, to reconcile us to the Father and to take us to the Father. The Apostle John got it right! After years of study, prayer and meditation, he wrote the Gospel of John, which the early church fathers called “the spiritual gospel”. It was his purpose to present Jesus to his readers as the Son of God.

John begins his story at the same point as Moses did in Genesis 1 – “In the beginning…” Just as God was in the beginning, so Jesus was with the Father in the beginning, fully involved in the work of creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He revealed Himself throughout the Old Testament era through His Word and His works but the people did not understand Him. Then He came in the flesh to be the perfect expression and revelation of the Father in a way that human beings can understand.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

The disciples were puzzled by Jesus’ words:

If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him (John 14: 7).

Philip’s response reveals the depth of his misunderstanding.

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” (John 14:8-10a).

On the eve of His death, He prayed, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of this world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word (John 17:6).

Why did Jesus come to reveal the Father? Throughout the history of God’s people, they had missed the heart of the Father. They needed to see Him in person, to hear Him, to watch Him, to recognise Him as their loving and perfect Father. They had so misunderstood who God was that their leaders killed Jesus for showing them the true nature of the Father. They knew God by many different names but the one name by which they did not know Him was “Father”. It was this name, representing the nature of God that Jesus came to reveal.

Tomorrow, we shall explore the implications of the name, Father, that was most precious to Jesus and by which He wanted us to know Him.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

 

 

Relax – Respond – Rest (Part Three)

Christian Life, , , ,

RELAX – RESPOND – REST (PART THREE)

Today we get to the third and final phase of our exploration of holiness.

We have learned so far that, although holiness is a non-negotiable requirement of the Father if we are to enjoy fellowship with Him and the Son through the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for us to meet the requirement on our own. As with salvation, so also holiness is a work of God. The Holy Spirit in us makes us holy according to God’s promise.

Many Scriptures confirm that, from God’s perspective, we are already holy through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. However, from our point of view, we are still on the journey to becoming holy. God calls us to respond in faith and obedience to His work in us. He uses His Word, and our response to His Word to cleanse our hearts from the false notions about Him, about us and about His attitude towards us that we have gathered over the years. He calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we can both know and do the will of God.

God also allows us to experience hardships in order to train us to live in His righteousness. As we go through the ups and downs of life, He uses our struggles to bring to the surface those areas of doubt or unbelief in the Father’s perfect love that rob us of His peace. He wants us to reach the point in our trust in His love that we are not moved by any adversity, no matter how tough or devastating it might be. He calls us to a rest of faith that lives in His supernatural peace in the midst of any storm.

Jesus calls us to take His yoke and learn from Him so that we will find rest for our souls. His way of living is absolute confidence in the perfect love of the Father, without the fear of punishment because our debt of sin has been fully paid once-for-all. Doing the right thing in every circumstance according to God’s Word, acting in mercy towards all people, loving others as we love ourselves, brings us the rest of a conscience free of guilt.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).

God’s rest also includes the rest of faith in the finished work of Jesus. Even as believers, we are strongly inclined to think that we still owe God something. Despite the reassurances of His Word that He has accepted us in Jesus and that there is nothing for us to do except believe His Word, we still try to earn points with God by doing “good works” in the hopes that we will please Him.

There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his works just as God did from His (Heb. 4:9-10).

How subtle is the enemy’s lie! From God’s perspective, anything we do to earn “Brownie points” that is not of Him, He regards as “filthy rags”. It is impossible for us to “work” for Jesus. He has done all the work the Father needed to make us acceptable Him. As much as we are to rest from our labour to try to save ourselves from the penalty of our sin, so we must rest from our work of trying to make ourselves clean from the sins that still cling to us. Our role is to separate ourselves from the filth of the world, to fill our minds with God’s Word and to live in the love God through the Holy Spirit moment by moment.

However, there is something even more wonderful beyond being holy for the sake of being holy. God has a twofold purpose for His children. He desires fellowship with us. He is passionately devoted to His children. He has included us in the intimate circle of fellowship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He desires that we be one with Him just as the Trinity is one, in perfect submission, harmony and love.

He has a reason for His passion for oneness with us. He gave His original pair the mandate to subdue the earth and manage it for Him. However, Adam rebelled and changed allegiance from God to Satan through Satan’s deception. Man still tries to manage the earth but has failed miserably without the wisdom of God and obedience to Him to guide him.

Jesus is the perfect example of a son who lived in close fellowship with the Father so that the Father could impregnate His spirit with His Word. Jesus only said and did what the Father told Him. God’s Word in His spirit bore the fruit of perfect obedience even to death on the cross.

The Father’s desire is to plant His Word in our hearts as we live in fellowship with and obedience to Him so that He can fulfil His purposes for His world through us. Just as the intimate union between a husband and wife produces the fruit of that  union, so our union with the Father and the Son through the Spirit produces the fruit of spiritual offspring and the fulfilment of God’s will

Can you now see how futile it is to try to make ourselves holy by our own efforts? Holiness is the work of God’s Spirit in us, completing in us what is already complete. However, the Spirit’s work in us is only effective as we respond in faith to His promptings. He wants us to live in union with Him, set free from our sinful ways and our doubts and fears to live in such close union with God that He is able to impregnate our spiritual “womb” with His Word to produce the offspring of our union, His plans being fulfilled on our “world” through us.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available