Jim Wilson's Blog, page 42

Why Pray?

 

Why pray?

Christians do not pray enough. “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:7–8).

Why do we need to pray when God already knows what we need?

First, we should pray because God commands us to. We are to obey Him. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16–18). “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Eph. 6:18). The quality of our obedience is inextricably linked with the closeness of our walk with God. A major component of that walk is prayer. For a strong Christian life, look to the Lord continually. Seek His face. Pray the prayers of Scripture.

God has chosen us to fulfill His will. He taught us to pray for this fulfillment. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

The Bible is the story of God reconciling us to Himself. He wants to have a relationship with us. When you are in a relationship with someone, you talk to them. If we want a healthy relationship with God, we need to talk with Him, too. It is not enough to relegate prayer to church and our prayer group.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight” (Prov. 3:5 RSV, italics mine). We are absolutely dependent on God. “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Many Christians forget this. God gave us brains, but not so that we could trust them. We are to trust Him. Make it the habit of your life to be constantly looking up to Him for guidance. Don’t let that be just a special event when you are in trouble or trying to make a big decision. “If you really believe in God, He will put all things right. He is both willing and able. Stop expecting the solution from yourself…and just yield yourself unreservedly to God to work in you. He will do all for you” (Andrew Murray). “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you” (Ps. 32:8).

Nothing is too big to ask God, and nothing is too small to ask Him. If it is big enough to concern you, it is big enough to concern Him.

If there is anyone we might think wouldn’t need to pray, it is Jesus. He is God! But what do we find in the Bible? Jesus was constantly going up on a mountain or off into a deserted place to pray to the Father. Read through the Gospels, and you will find that He spent many late (or early) hours in prayer. His earthly ministry began with forty days of fasting and prayer (Mark 1:13). Before choosing His twelve disciples, Jesus spent the entire night in prayer (Luke 6:12–14). He gathered His disciples to pray with Him the night before His death (John 17). After His ascension, the disciples continued to meet regularly for prayer (Acts 1:4).

If you want the Lord to be more and more precious to you, start praying for His coming. In the next-to-last verse in the Bible, Jesus said, “I am coming soon” (Rev. 22:20). John replies, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” For the next few days, pray every day, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” “But I don’t want Him to come; I’ve got things to do!” Begin praying for His return, and see if it cleans up your act. It will! “He who has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).

John Owen, a great Puritan theologian, found that “many saints have no greater burden in their lives than that their hearts do not…constantly delight and rejoice in God—that there is still an indisposedness of spirit unto close walking with him…. So do this: set your thoughts on the eternal love of the Father and see if your heart is not aroused to delight in Him. Sit down for a while at this delightful spring of living water and you will soon find its streams sweet and delightful.”

Unless you have a delight and a desire to follow Jesus, nothing else you learn about being a Christian is going to work. It will just be mechanics. Get into the habit of praying. You may be surprised at the results. When I think about all the answers God has provided, I wonder that I am not praying every minute of the day.

This is the first chapter of my book Answered Prayer: The Faithfulness of God Made Manifest, which is available on Amazon, Audible, and at ccmbooks.org. 

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Principles of War: Mobility, part 4

 

All of this so far has had to do with the mobility of our firepower, or, in other words, our witnessing. But from the chapter on the offense we recall that our offense is directed with prayer in addition to preaching. We must be mobile here, also.

Like the Word of God, prayer has no limitations. The limitations are in us. Prayer of intercession has greater range, accuracy, speed, and power than the greatest intercontinental ballistic missile we will ever produce. The prayer of intercession is one that agrees with God in His desire and purpose to win men to Himself. We can use as our guide the prayers of Jesus and of the apostles, both for Christian brethren and for those who are still under the command of the enemy.

Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Let us ask for big things, things that we have never previously experienced.

Mobility serves no purpose if we have no intention of going anywhere. Do not stay at home in your intercession. Be mobile. It costs nothing to go to Africa via God’s throne in prayer, except time and a concern for people in Africa.

Dawson Trotman recounts a personal experience in the booklet Born to Reproduce. He and a fellow worker in the Navigators, when that organization was still very young, decided to pray for the development of their work in every state of the union:

“So we made a list of forty-eight states, and we prayed. Morning after morning in these little prayer meetings we would look at our list and ask God to use us and other young fellows in Washington, in Oregon, in California, and in all other states of the Union. Five weeks went by, and we did not miss a morning. We met at four o’clock on Sunday morning and spent three hours in prayer. During the sixth week the Lord put it on our hearts to get a map of the world, and we took it up to our little cave in the hill. We began to put our fingers on Germany, France, and Italy. We put them on Turkey and Greece. I remember looking at one little island near China—you had to look closely to see what it was—and we prayed that God would use us in the lives of the men in Formosa” Dawson Trotman, Born to Reproduce (Colorado Springs: Navigators, 1960).

If you know of the worldwide ministry of the Navigators today, you know that this prayer has been answered.

The united witness of which we are a part is also the result of the prayers of many Christians. Let us not stop now; let us individually and together pray to take the objective for Jesus Christ. Pray that we will be used in the lives of others.

The effectiveness of our ministry in the spiritual war largely depends upon the individual mobility in the use of our capabilities: the Word and prayer. We must know something of the range and depth of the word of God, and we must experience the range and accuracy of intercessory prayer.

“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isa. 65:24).

*Excerpted from Principles of War. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Principles of War: Mobility, part 3

 

Another important means is the mobility gained through Christian books and literature sent via mail or passed from hand to hand. The ministry of moving Christian books, magazines, booklets, and Bibles is hardly being used at all. The Christian may be physically immobilized because of his profession or state of health, yet if he used Christian literature, he would not find the Word of God limited just because he himself was immobilized. The objective would be taken in near or distant places, though the Christian was absent.

The giving and sending of books is just the beginning of fast mobile communication of the gospel. The internet can bring to anyone’s living room the most powerful preaching and teaching that is available today. Christian leaders are broadcasting the gospel of Jesus Christ on hundreds of radio stations and podcasts weekly. But this does not guarantee that people will be listening. A phone call, an emailed link, or a blog post to our friends would greatly increase the listening audience.

Then too, we should consider mobility with the use of the weapon itself. If a weapon has a 360-degree field and the soldier keeps it trained in one direction only, then he is not using the weapon’s inherent mobility.

Our weapon, the Word of God, “is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). We must use it to the maximum of our capability. It has no limitations. The limitations are in us. Let us learn to use the Word as a defensive-offensive weapon. It is a tragedy to see Christians immobilized in a specific witnessing situation because they do not know how to use a very powerful and effective weapon. If we are versatile in the Scriptures, we can strike an effective blow at the place of our choosing. Continual personal study of the Bible is the only adequate preparation for use of the Word.

*Excerpted from Principles of War. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Principles of War: Mobility, part 2

 

The British Army was defeated in France in 1940. If it had reached the coast and found that it was immobilized, it would not have suffered defeat only; it would have been annihilated. It was the British mobility at sea that saved the army at Dunkirk. If the Germans had been as mobile at sea as they were on land, they could have followed the British across the Channel. In this case the defenders were mobile, and the victors became immobile.

In World War II, mobility was demonstrated in the existence and actions of the U.S. Third and Fifth Fleets. One component of the Third/Fifth Fleet (Under Admiral Halsey it was the Third Fleet. When Admiral Spruance was in command, it was the Fifth Fleet.) particularly exemplified mobility. This was the Fast Carrier Striking Force, Task Force 38 (or 58, under the Fifth Fleet) under the command of Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher. This force could move hundreds of miles overnight in any direction and strike hundreds of miles farther with the Air Groups. It consisted of fifteen or sixteen carriers and scores of screening ships.

The nuclear submarine and the Strategic Air Command are probably the most mobile of present- day combat units. In the infantry the Army’s Airborne Divisions and the FMF of the Marine Corps are probably the most mobile. One of their characteristics is their ability to strike a decisive blow at any place of their own choosing. The offense could never be mounted in concentration without the ability to move. An army must be mobile.

Jesus Christ said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). From this command and other texts in the New Testament we, in previous chapters, drew the conclusion that “every creature” is the objective and that preaching and prayer were our two main means of offense. From the same text we see that mobility is a requirement if we are to carry out Christ’s command to “go.”

Within the church, there must be an ability to move to the place or to the people where the offense will take place. We must convey our firepower where it will be used. Securing this mobility is simply a matter of obedience to the command, “Go.”

We can move our firepower in many of the ways that physical weapons of war are moved. We can walk. Philip left Samaria and was, in obedience to God, crossing the desert when he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip taught Christ to him from Isaiah 53, and the man believed. David Brainerd moved on horseback and led hundreds of American Indians to Jesus Christ. In jungle camp the Wycliffe Bible Translators are trained to move by foot, raft, and dugout canoe. Missionary Aviation Fellowship provides mobility superior to that of the enemy in territory that is otherwise inaccessible.

There are other ways of delivering the Word of God besides taking the messenger to the physical location. One is correspondence. God put His stamp of approval on this means of mobility when much of the New Testament was given to us in letters, this being necessitated in part because the messengers, Paul and John, were immobilized as prisoners. Praise God, His Word is not bound (2 Tim. 2:9).

*Excerpted from Principles of War. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Principles of War: Mobility, part 1

 

“And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.” —Exodus 12:11

“But God’s word is not chained.” —THE APOSTLE PAUL, 2 Timothy 2:9

After four hundred years, some of which had been spent in slavery, six hundred thousand men of Israel, besides women, children, and possessions, moved out of the land of Egypt in one night. That is mobility! If we undertook the same feat today, we would use trains, planes, trucks, and ships. We would have better equipment, but we might not prove as mobile.

Mobility as a principle of war is not absolute. It must not be measured against how fast we could move yesterday; rather it must be compared with the enemy’s mobility. We must move more quickly, farther, and for a greater period of time than the enemy. Mobility was defined in the statement of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, “I git thar fustest with the mostest.”

The French of World War II could move their armies, but they were not as mobile as the armies of Hitler. Hitler’s lightning warfare (Blitzkrieg) was mobility in action. The early successes of the Japanese in the same war were largely dependent upon the mobility of their striking and invasion forces. The political and military surprises of both Germany and Japan could not have been effected without military mobility.

The opposite of mobility is immobility. To be immobilized is to be at the mercy of the enemy. An army or any other unit that is immobilized is incapable of attacking, evading, or retreating. It can only defend until surrender or to the end. The American defense of Corregidor is an example of immobility.

In the Gulf War in Kuwait, the Iraqi army was effectively immobilized for three reasons:

• They were dug in.

• They were fearful.

• They were finally surrounded.

In Christian evangelism, the greatest cause of immobility is fear. Fear is not a principle of war, or it would get a long chapter in this book. Fear is not bad, if we are fearing the right one. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28), and “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16). It is fear of those who can kill only the body that immobilizes Christians.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Answered Prayer: The Faithfulness of God Made Manifest

 

In February, my book Answered Prayer: The Faithfulness of God Made Manifest was released. Here is the introduction I wrote for the book:

"As I am writing this book and meditating on the Bible’s commands to pray, to thank God, and to intercede for others, and on the promises of answer to those prayers, I look back at my own history of answered prayer, and I wonder why I am not praying all the time, especially when I get such wonderful answers when I do pray. The answers are so good—I am just amazed.

"The stories in this book reinforce the biblical teaching on prayer, the commands to pray, and the explanations of prayer. As you read these stories, you might apply them by praying for the believers in your city, that they would be convicted of sin and confess their sin to the Lord. I keep a list of all the churches in the two cities nearest me in my Bible. I regularly pray for the Christians in those churches. When Christians get back into the love and the joy of their salvation, unbelievers get convicted of sin and are converted to Christ.

"My prayer is that this book will help you get into the habit of praying. You may be surprised at the results. As I look back at my own history and all the answers God has provided, I wonder that I am not pray­ing every minute of the day."

If you would like to read the book, it is available on Amazon, Audible, and at ccmbooks.org.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

The Sins of Nations

 

The Bible speaks of the sins of whole nations in many places. Here is one of them: “This is what the Lord says: For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath…” (Amos 2:6).

Scripture also speaks of the sins of cities (e.g., Amos 1:3, 6). Jesus spoke of judgment on Chorazin and Bethsaida in Matthew 11:21 and of possible judgment on five of the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2 and 3. The collective sins of the people brought about these judgments.

The people of the Church today are not known for confessing their sins. We are even less known for confessing the sins of the whole church or city or nation as Daniel did in Daniel 9:

“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. 

"Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. 

"Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

"Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

“Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name” (Dan. 9:4-19).

As far as we know, Daniel was not personally guilty of the sins he confessed.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Evangelism: Our Orders

 

The Scripture says there are certain gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. I am a teacher and an evangelist—but I am an evangelist by obedience. I may have the gift also, but it is certainly obedience. The Great Commission says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).

Just by being a Christian, I am an evangelist. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me,” and He said, “Make disciples of all nations.” That means all Christians who obey Jesus Christ are evangelists. They are to make disciples of all nations. They are also to teach these disciples to obey everything that Jesus commanded. Just by obeying that, I am an evangelist and a teacher. If you are an obedient Christian, you are also called to be an evangelist and a teacher.

“I’m not gifted as an evangelist.” No, I suppose you aren’t—but you are commanded to be one. Not being gifted doesn’t mean you get to slide out from under the command; you have orders to make disciples of all nations.

I have written three books on this subject: Principles of War, Weapons and Tactics, and Taking Men Alive. These can help you learn how to evangelize. They have been in print for some years, but we have just released a new edition of Principles of War. It is available at ccmbooks.org and Amazon.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Fear of Man or the Praise of God

 

“Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:42-43).

There seem to be two reasons for this unwillingness to confess Jesus Christ: fear and love. It is the fear of men instead of God and love of the praise of men instead of the praise of God. The fear anticipated something bad happening in the future, i.e., being “put out of the synagogue.” The love is past tense. They already knew what it was like to be praised by men, and they liked it. they wanted the pleasant things from men and did not want the unpleasant things from them. In other words, they were concerned about the opinions of the world and, in this particular instance, that part of the world that controlled the existing church.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

The Bible vs. Today's Culture

Many years ago, I was talking with a young woman, and I asked her what she thought of Jesus. Her reply was a good answer but qualified with this phrase, "but I don't think he was very polite."

The more I read the Gospels, the more I am convinced that her qualification is a true one. The problem was that, to her, politeness was a high virtue, and since Jesus was not polite, He was not perfect.

Many of us, like this young woman, interpret Scripture in the light of our cultural mores. We do this because obedience to the text as it is might mean crossing or offending our Christian and secular friends.

The issue is clear in a place like India or Japan where the religious culture is so opposite to the claims of Christ. If a person does not follow Christ there, he knows he does not, and he knows why. In our society, we have compromised for so long that we think we are following Christ when in reality we are only following the evangelical American culture.

One good way to be sure you are following Christ and not the culture is to be in the Word daily. Read the Word. Read allof the Word. With that in mind, I would like to invite you to join the To the Word Bible reading challenge. You will read through the entire Bible through the school year, along with thousands of other Christians in this country and around the world. You can find the details at totheword.com. The plan has already started: do not try to catch up - just start with today's reading. You can catch what you missed when the plan restarts next year.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships