Monthly Archives: June 2021

SHOULD WE PRAY FOR REVIVAL?

Apologetics, ,

SHOULD WE PRAY FOR REVIVAL?

“The word “revival” is from the Hebrew word chayah and means “to bring back to life,” to “restore to consciousness,” or to “restore to a previous condition.” As stated in the Bible, it means a restoration, rejuvenation, or renewal of interest after spiritual neglect, oblivion, or obscurity.” 09 Jan 2018

There are many references to and prayers for revival in the Psalms and Prophets, eg,

“Won’t you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you?”
Psalms 85:6 NLT

‘Zion will be restored by justice; those who repent will be revived by righteousness.”
Isaiah 1:27 NLT

but we must remember 2 things:

1. The Israelites in the Old Testament were still dead in their sins and under the Law. Revival relates particularly to what is dead or dying. The Israelites, in the main, were still spiritually dead and it was then, therefore, legitimate to pray that God would revive them.

However, Isaiah’s prophecy above relates to new birth in the New Covenant.

We live under the New Covenant and must therefore be guided by the writings in the New Testament Scriptures.

2. God’s people are spiritually alive if they have been born again by God’s Spirit. We cannot ask God to make them alive if they are already alive.

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:4‭-‬6 NLT

Let’s look at the writings of the Apostles in the New Testament. How did they pray for the church?

Paul based his prayers for the churches on who God is and what He has done for us in Jesus.

1. There is not a single prayer for revival in the New Testament.

The Apostle Paul in particular, often recorded his  prayers for the churches.

2. Paul prayed for God’s people, that they would have spiritual wisdom and insight, enlightenment and understanding about what God had done for them in Jesus.

“Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him… “
Ephesians 1:15-19a NLT

3. Paul prayed that God’s people would know God’s love in all the fulness of its dimensions.

“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,  the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
Ephesians 3:14‭-‬19 NLT.

3.Paul prayed and encouraged God’s people to grow in love for one another.

“We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 1:2‭-‬3 NLT

4. Paul exhorted the people to continue to grow in their walk with the Lord.

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Colossians 2:6‭-‬7 NLT

5. Paul encouraged the people to move on to maturity through the gifts and ministries of teaching, training and equipping.

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:11‭-‬13 NLT

A mature church is a group of people who are

A. Secure in the knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is and who they are in Him so that they can fully trust Him in every circumstance no matter what life throws at them.

B. Doing life together, caring for and serving one another out of, and expressing their love for Jesus by being givers and not takers.

We are mature, then, to the extent that we know God through Jesus and live out in our everyday lives the love and trust that we have in Him.

We express that love and trust by the way that we relate to one another through humility and mutual submission, honouring one another and meeting each other’s needs at our own expense.

Therefore, we all need teaching, correction, encouragement and fellowship to become a fully mature body in the body of Christ. According to Jesus, this is the greatest demonstration to the world of His life in us.” (Taken from my notes on   “Fully Mature”)

7. The Book of Hebrews is full of warnings about turning back to Jewish legalism or falling away through neglect or unbelief.

“So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?”
Hebrews 2:1‭-‬3 NLT

“Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.”
Hebrews 3:12‭-‬14 NLT

“For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.”
Hebrews 6:4‭-‬6 NLT

8. Jesus (and Jude, His brother) taught His disciples how to live our Christian lives so that we never fall away.

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me… When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
John 15:4‭, ‬10 NLT

“But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,  and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.c
Jude 1:20‭-‬21 NLT

This short note should help you to understand that God’s people who have been made alive by the Holy Spirit when they believed in Jesus, do not need revival. We need to grow in faith and obedience through prayer, exhortation, encouragement, warning, teaching, training and equipping.

We are in a partnership with the Holy Spirit who teaches us about Jesus, leads us into all truth, enlightens us through the Word, strengthens us to obey and matures us in our faith and love.

Therefore, true prayer in the New Covenant is not about praying for revival but praying that God’s people will grow in their understanding of who the Father is, what He has done for us through the Son, who the Holy Spirit is and what He does in us through our faith in Jesus so that, we can become mature in faith and love.










FULLY MATURE

Christian life, ,

FULLY MATURE

Spiritual maturity, like holiness, is one of those Bible “goals” that we often dodge or ignore because we don’t know what it means or how to get there.

The Apostle Paul often wrote about being “complete” in Christ, or “fully mature”. He expressed, as his goal, the desire to present his beloved saints across Europe and Asia Minor…little pockets of believers who came to Christ directly or indirectly through his ministry… fully mature.

Paul was not content to make converts. His goal was to make disciples. He wanted his converts to be so connected to Jesus that they would, like newborn babies, thirst after and grow into mature believer in Christ.

How would he achieve his goal?

“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”
Colossians 1:28‭-‬29 NIV

Paul worked with the Holy Spirit to achieve his goal. It was a divine/human partnership led and energised by the Spirit and carried out by Paul.

There were many obstacles to overcome on this journey to maturity – false teachers sowing seeds of deception, fallen human nature demanding to gratify the desires of the flesh, power struggles and conflicts among individuals and groups wanting their own way, baggage from their pagan past that kept reappearing, etc.

Paul was patiently sowing truth into the minds and hearts of people whose life philosophies were formed in a godless environment. What an impossible task… if he had to do it alone.

What are the elements of spiritual maturity?

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Colossians 2:2‭-‬3 NIV

The Apostle John, in his first letter, gives us the two commandments of the New Covenant.

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”
1 John 3:23 NIV

So, essentially, Paul and John were in agreement regarding the goal of the Christian ministry.
Believers learn to live out in practice the life of Jesus in them through teaching and admonishing, ie, the tools by which every believer is rooted and grounded in “the faith” – who Jesus is and who we are in Him. By guiding them through teaching and example, into expressing their new life in Christ by loving one another, they grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus.

So, that’s, what it means to be fully mature.

“So, Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach UNITY IN THE FAITH AND IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD AND BECOME MATURE , attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Ephesians 4:11‭-‬16 NIV

Do you get the picture of maturity now?

A mature church is a group of people who are

1. Secure in the knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is and who they are in Him so that they can fully trust Him in every circumstance no matter what life throws at them.

2. Doing life together, caring for and serving one another out of, and expressing their love for Jesus by being givers and not takers.

We are mature, then, to the extent that we know God through Jesus and live out in our everyday lives the love and trust that we have in Him.

We express that love and trust by the way that we relate to one another through humility and mutual submission, honouring one another and meeting each other’s needs at our own expense.

Therefore, we all need teaching, correction, encouragement and fellowship to become a fully mature body in the body of Christ. According to Jesus, this is the greatest demonstration to the world of His life in us.

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
John 13:34‭-‬35 NLT

” I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”
John 17:21 NLT

NAOS – THAT PART OF THE TEMPLE WHERE GOD RESIDES

Christian life,

NAOS – THAT PART OF THE TEMPLE WHERE GOD HIMSELF RESIDES.

Right from the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus made His mission known. To the religious leaders, who challenged Him, He responded….

… “Destroy this temple (naos), and in three days I will raise it up.”
John 2:18‭-‬19 NLT

Jesus specifically used the Greek word, “naos” for “temple” which John interpreted to mean His body as the “naos” which, according to Strong’s concordance, means ‘the shrine… that part of the temple where God Himself resides.’

What an awesome thought! From the moment of His conception, Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, took on a body which became the temple in which God resided. He took on a human name, Jesus, as well. Now both His body and His name are part of His human identity forever.

When Jesus ascended into heaven in His resurrected body, He did not shed that body and become pure spirit again. Paul tells us that it is “the man, Christ (His official title and office) Jesus (His human name which means  ‘Saviour’),” who is the Mediator between God and man.

His full name is “the Lord Jesus Christ”, signifying everything that He is now, in His glorified person – the Lord (Supreme Authority), Jesus (the Man) Christ (Messiah, the Anointed One).

Who Jesus is now, the God/man in a resurrection body, acting for us as mediator and high priest, has huge implications for us as believers.

Firstly, according to Paul, we are now the “naos” in which God resides in the person of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit lived in Jesus here in earth, so now He lives in us.

“19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple (naos) of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19‭-‬20 NLT

Secondly, Paul made it clear {to the Corinthian Church} that Jesus rose from the dead as the firstfruits of the resurrection, guaranteeing the full harvest of all who believe in Him when He returns. His resurrection is the victory over the last enemy, death, and spells the final judgment and punishment of Satan and his demons in the lake of fire.

Not only does Jesus’ resurrection guarantee ours but His resurrection body is also the blueprint for our resurrection bodies. John tells us…

“Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”
1 John 3:2 NLT

How do we know that our resurrection bodies will be exactly like Jesus’ body?

“35 But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?”… 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man (Adam) , we will someday be like the heavenly man, (Jesus) …

51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.”
1 Corinthians 15:35‭, ‬49‭, ‬51‭-‬53 NLT

The writer to the Hebrews assures us that God’s plan is to restore the family likeness to Jesus, the Son in all God’s children…

“10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”
Heb. 2:10‭-‬11 NIV

During  the time of the Old Covenant, no one was able to see God’s face and live. God shielded Moses from the sight of His glory by hiding him in the cleft of a rock.

“20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Exodus 33:20 NIV

However, in the New Covenant, we shall see Jesus face to face, we shall see and hear with heightened awareness all the sights and sounds of God’s realm. It will be quite a noisy place according to John’s visions in Revelation!!

Look at what Paul has to say about “now” and “then”.

“12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
1 Cor. 13:12 NIV

There are also implications for us in this life because we have this hope of resurrection bodies and perfected minds and senses and the likeness to Jesus as perfect sons. Our time on earth and the lives we live now are an  “apprenticeship” for the life to come.

1. We are to honour God with our bodies.

… “God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19‭-‬20 NLT

2. We are to purify ourselves

“2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
1 John 3:2‭-‬3 NIV

“Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”
2 Cor. 7:1 NIV

3. We are to persevere…

“23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful…”

4. And we are to encourage and build one another up…

“… 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Heb. 10:23‭-‬25 NIV

Not even our wildest imagination will be able to conjures up what God has in store for us.

“9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
1 Cor. 2:9‭-‬10 NIV

In response to all the glorious  promises God has given us and the changes that await us, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul burst out…

“33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Romans 11:33‭-‬36 NIV

And with David, we respond…

“17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.”
Psalm 139:17‭-‬18 NIV

“20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20‭-‬21 NIV


THE KINGDOM OF “PAY IT FORWARD”

Christian Life, ,

THE KINGDOM OF “PAY IT FORWARD”

Many of you have watched the movie “Pay it Forward” and were moved by the idea and the sacrifice Trevor made to carry out the idea that cost him his life.

Did you know that “pay it forward” is built into the very fabric of our lives as believers in Jesus?

God’s people in the Old Covenant were constantly reminded to show their gratitude to God by ‘paying it forward” to their fellow Israelites and the strangers within their borders in response to God’s mercy to them.

Jesus confirmed the same principle in the New Covenant when He gave His “new commandment” to His disciples shortly before His death. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

However, it must not stop there.

God’s love is a giving love. He gave us Jesus and, with Him, everything we need for this life and the next. We show our love and gratitude to Him when we “pay it forward” by taking care of the needs of His children.

Let me share a testimony with you. As the Holy Spirit began to impress on me the responsibility of being a faithful steward of God’s goodness to me, He identified a little family that was in great need of help. I began to give towards the support of a precious little girl whom a dear granny had been given to care for and raise.

The family went through very difficult times during lockdown. By God’s grace, I continued to have enough and to share. We limped through the hard times and, when lockdown was eased, a new opportunity opened up for this loving granny, together with a new home and a lifting of the financial burden.

I wa delighted, when I received confirmation of my latest contribution, that this “pay it forward” principle is now a part of their lives as they share their blessing with another family in need. This news made me even more determined to continue my support because it frees them up to help another family by paying it forward.

“Paying it forward” sets up a current that keeps God’s provision flowing and opens the way for more of His goodness to come back to us so that we can continue to share our resources with others.

So, no matter how tough life is at times, we always have something for which to be thankful. As we express our gratitude to God in tangible ways, the current of God’s goodness will carry on and will also come back to us and enable us to keep that current flowing.

Apart from our tangible gifts to bless others, what is the greatest treasure we can share that costs us nothing in rands and cents but cannot be measured in terms of eternal value? God’s Word is that treasure and the insights the Holy Spirit gives us to put that Word into practice.

God’s Word is a seed. As we give it away, it takes root and bears fruit in the good soil of those who believe. What greater blessing can we impart as, we “pay” God’s Word “forward” and nourish the souls of those around us!

WHAT’S THE KEY?

Bible Study, ,

WHAT’S THE KEY?

“‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.

“‘Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.’

“‘Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.'” John 4:34-38 (NIV).

Jesus had just had an astonishing encounter with a Samaritan woman who had been married and divorced five times and was now shacked up with a sixth man to whom she was not even married. That says something about the woman, doesn’t it? There could not have been a worse candidate for a response to Him! At least that’s how we would have judged her.

But Jesus never viewed any person as too far gone. Underneath her hard exterior was what He saw – potential. One just had to know where to find the weak spot to gain access to the heart. This woman’s weak spot was her longing to be loved. She tried five times and five times it didn’t work because she was being used, not loved.

Perhaps marriage wasn’t even an option any more. Just shack up and, if it didn’t work, move on and keep searching. But the problem was that the only ones who wanted a soiled garment were those who were soiled as well. By this time she was so hardened that she expected to be used and abused because she was worth nothing more than that in her own eyes.

To be treated with respect by a Jewish man brought her up short and got her attention, and we know the outcome. Jesus broke down her wall and touched her heart. When the disciples returned and saw Him in conversation with her, unheard of for Jewish man, they could not fathom what was going on. They saw her joy when she abandoned her water jar and rushed back to town and their eyebrows went up!

Jesus had to straighten out their thinking once again. Using imagery with which they were familiar, He challenged them. ‘You guys are thinking, ‘It’s too soon to start harvesting these Samaritans for the kingdom of God. They aren’t ready for it yet. Sometime in the future we’ll preach to them.’ This woman’s response is proof that it’s time for the harvest right now.’

‘I have harvested this woman in a very short time, but there’s a huge harvest out there waiting to be reaped and I can’t do it alone. We have to work together. It’s not important who does the planting and who does the reaping. It’s team work and both sower and reaper get the wages for doing the job.’

What was Jesus getting at? Was He saying that it was not important who did the work but rather that it was important to get the work done. Those who worked together to sow and reap were guaranteed their share of the profits. There were many who had already done the sowing. How else did this half-breed woman know that Messiah was coming? She may not have had it all straight but she was not entirely ignorant of God’s Word.

In the natural world, there is a time lapse between sowing and reaping but, in the lives of human beings the time for harvesting is always now. Like Jesus and the woman, it’s a case of finding the soft spot. Why did she have this emptiness in her soul which she tried to fill with human love only to be disappointed again and again?

Although she did not know it, she had a craving for a father’s love. We know nothing about her father, and she knew nothing about the perfect Father. He was the key to unlock her heart. Jesus was the mirror of the Father to her. When He introduced her to the Father, everything fell into place!

Only the Father’s love that can fill your empty heart.

Acknowledgement

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