God Hears Your Prayers

James 5:16-18

Much ado is made about prayer, with a new book hitting stores seemingly every day on how to have your prayers answered, or how to have a successful prayer life. Of course, much ado should be made, seeing as prayer is communication with God, and what could be more important?

The disciples never asked Jesus to teach them how to teach or preach, but they did ask Him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1). Obviously there was something about the manner in which Jesus prayed, and the results that He reaped that caused the disciples to seek Him for instruction.

Jesus taught the disciples to pray for things, both spiritual and material. He instructed them to pray for God to send workers into the harvest field (Matthew 9:38) and to pray for God to remove obstacles from their spiritual path (Mark 11:23). He also told His disciples about how to pray with faith, not doubting in their heart. This prayer was for “what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24).

James speaks of the “prayer of faith” (James 5:15) which will “save the sick” and is the same prayer that Jesus spoke of in Mark 11. He then informs us that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (verse 16). This verse has led many to believe that there is such thing as “praying hard” or “grabbing hold of the horns of the altar”; and that such prayers are answered quicker. The Greek for “effectual fervent” is one word, ‘energeo’ which means “to be operative, to put forth power”. Fervent prayer has nothing to do with yelling or screaming or “getting serious” as some might say, but it has to do with praying the way Jesus told us to pray: with faith.

The Holy Spirit then does something through the apostle James that speaks wonderful encouragement for every believer. He uses Elijah as an example of a prayer warrior, and assures the reader that Elijah was no different than all of us in that he, “was a man subject to like passions as we are” (James 5:17). This means that Elijah shared the same feelings and affections that we do. How can this be considered encouraging? Observe some of Elijah’s “passions” as well as his successes in prayer:

• Speaks a 3 ½ year drought into existence (1 Kings 17:1).
• He calls down fire from heaven with a prayer consisting of less than 65 words (1 Kings 18:37, 38)
• Calls for rain following the drought, and God sends it (1 Kings 18:41).
• Runs from a woman out of fear for his life (1 Kings 19:3).
• Requests that God kill him (1 Kings 19:4).
• Whines that he is the only one actually doing any good (1 Kings 19:14).

Notice that Elijah has many of the same problems that we have, yet he was a prayer warrior. Jesus speaks nothing of short prayers, but He actually comments on loud, long one’s (Matthew 6:5-7), so please understand that there is no formula for the “perfect prayer”. Communicate with God in an open manner and be prepared to receive from Him. Trust that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him and that it truly is His pleasure to give to you the kingdom. Do not disqualify yourself because of “stuff” in your life. If God will answer Elijah, God will answer you!

The Less is Blessed of the Better

Hebrews 7:7

Any time that someone blesses someone else, the Bible says that without contradiction, the person doing the blessing is better than the one being blessed. When you become the blesser, you place yourself in a position of superiority over those who you are blessing, making it the premium position to be the one doling out the blessings rather than the one always looking to receive them.

This principle begins when Abraham pays tithes to the priest Melchisedec in Genesis 14. Melchisedec was, “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God” (Hebrews 7:3). Actually, Melchisedec is the Old Testament incarnation of Jesus Christ. Without being prompted to do so, Abraham gives a tenth of all that he has gained, establishing the principle of the tithe, prior to the giving of the law. In response to Abraham’s generosity, Melchisedec blesses, “him that had the promises” (Hebrews 7:6).

We see another example of this when the old man Simeon, who had it revealed to him by the Holy Ghost that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ, comes into the temple to meet Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus (Luke 2:26-34). He takes the infant in his arms and blesses God. His blessing of God was not him giving a blessing to God but rather praising him for allowing him to see the Messiah in his lifetime. Notice however, that Simeon does not bless the child, which is an odd thing to leave out. He will not bless the baby, for the less is always blessed of the better, and he realizes that he is not better than this child!

To further the principle, Simeon then blesses Joseph and Mary (Luke 2:34), while still not blessing the child. It is as if the Holy Spirit draws attention to the fact that the parents receiving the blessing but not the child. When we realize that God puts such a premium on the one doing the blessing, it is no surprise to see Simeon’s reluctance.

When you speak blessings into someone’s life, you are placing yourself in a greater position than they are in. Why deny someone blessings when you know the benefits that you receive by being the minister of grace into their life? I am ashamed to admit that I used to say that you should be stingy with whom you say “God bless you” to, for they may be undeserving. Of course they are undeserving, aren’t we all? Now, I am quick to give blessings out, knowing that if the less is blessed of the better, I want to be the better one.

There is a difference in giving your peace out to everyone that you see and in blessing those around you. Jesus gave His peace to His disciples and thus to us (John 14:27), but He also told us to give that peace out to those who are worthy (Matthew 10:13). They are worthy if they receive us and our words (verse 14). In other words, if they are receptive to the message of God’s grace and goodness, leave them a bit of your peace, speaking that into their lives; but if they are closed to it, “shake off the dust of your feet” (Matthew 10:14).

Find someone to bless today, and remember that when you do, the less is always blessed of the better.

New DNA

Titus 3:5
What separates us from the other religions of the world is the spiritual re-birth of those who are born again. Some try to split Christianity into two camps: the Christian and the Born-Again. They theorize that the Christian believes in treating others well and being a good citizen, tolerant and wholesome, while the Born-Agains are fanatics who evangelize others and take hard-line stances. In truth, they are not mutually exclusive. Jesus said that we cannot see the kingdom of God, “Except a man be born again” (John 3:3). Any separation of the two is a result of man influencing true Christianity with his own devices.

Paul said that we are saved according to the mercy of God, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done” (Titus 3:5). This excludes the idea that true Christianity is found in doing your best or in being your best. He also mentions the “washing of regeneration”, introducing us to a concept that is crucial to the understanding of the transformative powers of faith in Christ.

The Greek word for ‘regeneration’ is “paliggenesia”, meaning, “spiritual rebirth, renovation”. It is the New Covenant version of Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus, “you must be born again”. Nicodemus found the idea impossible, as no one could re-enter their mother’s womb and start over again, but of course Jesus was referring to a spiritual rebirth.

Even the world warms up to the idea of someone being “reborn”. An actor can fall out of Hollywood’s favor, drop to rock bottom, reform and make a comeback picture and the tabloids will say that they have been “reborn”. People love these kinds of stories and they are quite common. While the world has their own version of “born again”, for the believer it excludes trips to rehab, Botox and plastic surgery. For the saint it is being born again “of spirit” (John 3:6).

Paul’s use of “regeneration” speaks of us becoming a completely new person, “by the renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5). The Holy Spirit in us turns us into someone completely different. It could be said that when you are born again, the Holy Spirit gives you a new DNA sequence, one in which you have the desires of your new Father instead of your old.

I am not insinuating that we have an actual new set of DNA when we are saved, but I do believe that all of the old passions and desires that were passed onto us from our earthly families are no longer relevant whenever the regeneration of the Holy Ghost takes place in our life. If your earthly father had a drinking problem, then it is stands to reason that you have a propensity to want to drink and to be dominated by drinking. However, your heavenly Father has no such problem, and He has transformed you and “re-gened” you into the image of His Son. We can no longer blame our heritage for our problems, for we have a spiritual heritage that stretches all the way to Calvary.

If you are not walking in the fullness of your new spiritual identity, then it is because you are not fully awake as to who you really are in Christ. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus, so walk whole and free!

The Dividing Point

2 Timothy 2:15

What would you consider the dividing point of the Bible? You could accurately place it into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, with the understanding that all that the Jews of Jesus day would have had were the writings of Genesis through Malachi. However, if this is the only dividing point, then we must assume that the New Covenant begins with the first word of the first book of the New Testament. If that be the case, then the New Covenant begins with the announcement of John the Baptist’s birth and with the Virgin Mary receiving the news of the impending birth of Christ.

Something is not quite right with that assumption. In reality, this theory makes the dividing point of the Bible the blank page between Malachi and Matthew. When Paul tells the young pastor Timothy to rightly divide the word of truth, he surely means more than “figure out how to find that blank page Timothy”.

The division of the Word of God must hinge upon some great event. Something cataclysmic, which is foreshadowed in the Old Testament and expounded upon in the New Testament, must be the dividing point of everything that is preached. That one event is the death of Jesus Christ. The cross is the introduction of the New Covenant, thus it is the division point of all that happens in God’s Word. Everything prior to Calvary is pointing forward to the event, while everything afterwards is hearkening backwards.

Jesus called Himself, “the truth” (John 14:6). When you preach or teach of the truth, you are preaching of Jesus. His day of division came when He was smitten of God on the cross. His punishment was for the sin of the whole world, and He was torn asunder by the righteous anger of God. As Jesus was divided at Calvary, so the preacher should always divide the Word with the cross on the horizon.

When we read the Old Testament, we must read it with the cross in our hearts. No statement or verse should ever again be read as if the cross did not happen. Anytime that you read something that is Old Testament, thus Old Covenant, you should make a habit of asking yourself, “What did the cross do to change this?” To read the Old Testament any other way is to read it out of context and to make a mockery of Christ’s finished work. It essence, to read the Word without taking the cross into account is to say that the cross made no difference at all.

The way to make this sort of interpretation come about is consistent study of God’s Word. When we study we make ourselves knowledgeable of Christ’s finished work and we have no reason to be ashamed of ourselves. As Paul investigated the Old Testament, he saw Jesus, just as Jesus had done on the road to Emmaus, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). When Paul saw Jesus in these Old Testament scriptures, he made a determination, and it is one that we should all determine in our own hearts:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

Old Wives's Fables

1 Timothy 4:1-7

In writing to young Timothy, Paul told him, and us, that “the Spirit speaketh expressly” or ‘pointedly’, “that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils”. Someone asked me recently if I felt that the church was entering a period that could be defined as “the falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) or “the latter times”. I responded that I believe that we are certainly in the latter times, but that we have been in them for nearly 2000 years on God’s time clock. As for the falling away, I do not believe that we are entering that period now; I believe that we are already in it!

When Paul wrote of the falling away from the faith, he was writing it from the perspective of his gospel. What was it that Paul preached? He preached pure grace with salvation coming by faith alone in what Jesus had finished at the cross. Paul never preached the law as a means of salvation or as a means of maintaining or improving one’s salvation. Paul advocated a complete separation of the law from the preaching of grace, claiming that the law would inflame sin (Romans 5:18) and cause saints to fall from grace (Galatians 5:4).

To envision a church that would fall away from the faith, Paul sees one that no longer preaches pure grace. It should be obvious that we are not entering this period of church history, but are already there. The gospel of pure grace has all but vanished from many pulpits, with the hybrid message of law and grace being so prevalent as to be considered the only true gospel. In my part of the world, preachers that scream and yell and condemn people to hell are praised as preaching the “unadulterated gospel”, while they are truly instruments of condemnation and death. Paul would be hard pressed to find the comfort and exhortation being ministered that he personally worked so hard to foster.

He warns of “old wives’ fables” while not actually giving us one. However, the Word does share one with us that is of particular importance. The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel and this “wives’ fable” was confronted:

“What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?’ As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:2-4)

This old proverb in Israel stated that if a man ate sour grapes, his child’s teeth would hurt. In other words, if a man sinned, his son would be punished. This teaching of generational curses passed back from God’s teaching Moses on Mt. Sinai that he would “visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto he third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (Exodus 20:5). God states that it can no longer be used, but why? The answer is found at the cross.

Jesus is thirsty at Calvary, so he asks for something to drink. They fill a sponge with “vinegar” or “sour wine” and lift it to Jesus. After he had received it, he said “It is finished”. At Calvary, Jesus drank the sour wine so that you will never have your teeth set on edge. He was punished so that you can go free. Remove the old wives’ tales and rejoice in a New Covenant!

When God Takes Us Out of the Way

2 Thessalonians 2:3-12

Can you imagine the arrival of a world leader who rose to prominence with powerful signs and wonders, bringing peace to rival nations and establishing his own universal religion? Surely the church of Jesus Christ would have a little something to say about that! The church is the very thing that holds something, or someone, like that from coming to pass. With the seal of the Holy Spirit and the power of the name of Jesus, the church is the great dam that holds back so many powerful tricks of the enemy.

Someday, we will be removed, taken away to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17), while those left here on earth will suffer beneath that “Wicked” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). Prior to this verse, Paul told the church that “only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way”. The word “letteth” is the word “hinder” in the Greek, showing us that something is hindering the arrival of the Wicked One of verse 8. That someone is the Holy Spirit within the church. When we are gone, the floodwaters can come.

The Tribulation of this world is God’s wrath coming down on a world that has long rejected the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ. You and I cannot experience this wrath because we are spared from that wrath by the blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1, 9). Paul’s confirms this in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 when he tells us that “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ”. We are not appointed to undergo the testing of this earth; we cannot be, for Jesus has already endured wrath for us.

The Wicked One is also called the Anti-Christ, and he will deceive many by using great powers of darkness (verse 9). Notice the terminology of verses 10-12, with all references to believing being in the past tense. Paul is writing of a time when people “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (verse 10). He does NOT say, “They will not receive the love of the truth”, for he is speaking of people who have already had their chance. Many people will be left behind when Christ raptures out His church, and most of them will still not accept Christ because they will live under a strong delusion, believing a lie (2:11).

We have no reason to fear this time period, for we must be removed by God in order for Him to maintain His justice. Paul wrote that in order for God to show forth how righteous that He is, He must justify all of those who place faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:26). If He leaves us here and kills us wholesale with plagues and diseases, then He is punishing us along with the lost souls of this world, ignoring our faith in Christ and His finished work, and punishing us twice for all of our sins. Our God is bigger than that, and He is better than that. Pray that He come quickly and take us out of the way!

Body, Soul and Spirit

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Some doubt the validity of man being a triune being; meaning that we consist of body, soul and spirit. However, if you take the writings of the apostle Paul as being prima facie evidence, then you must acknowledge 1 Thessalonians 5:23 as a description of man.

The body is obvious, as we all have one, whether we are happy with it or not! The soul and spirit are often linked together, but using the Bible to interpret the Bible shows us that these two are not one and the same. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit…” (Hebrews 4:12). The fact that the soul and spirit can be divided shows us that these are two distinct parts of man’s makeup.

We know that there is a difference in the natural man and the spirit man, as should be obvious, since the spirit man goes to be with the Lord upon death (2 Corinthians 5:8), while the body is placed into the ground. When the natural body dies, there is a spiritual body that lives on, as Paul states, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44). To see no difference between the soul and the spirit would be to see no difference between the natural body and the resurrected one.

Our consciousness of God, our surroundings and ourselves are all wrapped up in this triune nature. We share two of these three traits with animals, as they possess a body and a soul. Our body, through the use of the 5 senses makes us conscious of the world around us. Our soul, which is the seat of our emotions and affections, makes us conscious of our self, as shown in Psalms 13:2, “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?”

That which separates us from the animal kingdom is our spirit, which gives us God-consciousness. Christ came as a “life-giving Spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45) for each one of us, which is something that He did not do for animals. He has given us eternal life by His Spirit, placing His Holy Spirit into each one of us who believes by faith.

Paul prays that the church see God’s sanctifying peace at work in every area of their life (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The King James translation then says, “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless”. The words, “I pray God” are italicized in the translation, meaning that the translators added the words to enhance the meaning of the passage.

Unfortunately, sometimes this actually takes away from the intent of the writer. In this case, when you remove the italicized words you are left with, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ”. Without the italicized words, Paul is not hoping that they will be found blameless; he is asserting that they most definitely will be found that way!

Christ’s finished work has assured that you will be seen as blameless and perfect in God’s eyes, not because you are living that way, but because Jesus died that way. You are blameless because Jesus took the blame. Rejoice!