Will Davis Jr.'s Blog, page 32

Civil War

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the

members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the

law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7:22-23

I’m so glad this verse is in the Bible. I don’t like what it says, but at least it gives me insight into some of my struggles.

There is a civil war raging inside the heart and mind of every Christ-follower. The war is over control of the flesh—our earthly, carnal instincts that draw us toward sin. It’s the gravitational pull of human depravity, and it’s got one powerful attraction. Paul could not describe the battle in more fitting terms.

In our minds we joyfully agree with God’s law. We love him and want very much to please him. The things he hates we hate. We despise what sin did to his Son and the chaos it brings to our lives. Our minds and spirits are completely aligned with God.

But not our flesh. Paul says there is a different force at work there. It’s the law of sin that holds our “members” captive. It titillates our senses, arouses our base instincts and ignites the fires of selfish desire within us. The result is a massive (and exhausting) civil war.

On the one hand our heart pushes us to take the high road and live fully disciplined and submitted Christian lives. On the other hand our flesh cries out like a spoiled child demanding immediate gratification. And like the mixture of hot and cold air masses, the result is one bumpy and potentially dangerous combination.

Like I said, I don’t really like what this verse says, but I’m sure glad it’s in the Bible. I want to think that I’m beyond sin’s pull. I like to see myself as a super Christian who never stumbles. I want to project the image of the all-together Jesus dude.

Guess what: I’m not. This Jesus dude is frequently a Jesus dud. I succumb to the pull of sin on more occasions than I even realize. What I write off as personality (or lack thereof), Jesus calls sin. I’m in a civil war, and I lose battles daily. The only good news is that I’m in good company. The Apostle Paul had the same struggle.

Friends, there is no ultimate freedom from sin this side of heaven. As long as you draw breath you will battle sin. That fact is not, however, a permit to quit trying.

The command to “be holy as God is holy” still stands. Thank God for the grace that prevails when our attempts to be holy are killed in action. It’s a tough and daily battle. Thank Jesus for his mercy.

 

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Wind, Part 1

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from

or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.  John 3:8

It was a gorgeous day. Early June in the Colorado Rockies is hard to beat; early morning in early June in the Rockies is even harder.

My son and I were on our way up the first of four fourteen-thousand-foot peaks that we intended to climb in one day. Four mountains in a day is an ambitious goal, but with good weather we thought our chances of success were high.

An hour past dawn, as we neared the first ridge in our assent, we noticed the wind. It had been a quiet morning, or so we thought. We had been hiking in a large bowl and had been very protected from the wind.

As we gained altitude and began to climb along the mountain’s ledge, we realized that our day was not as calm as we believed. A strong wind was blowing. At 7 AM the gusts were already strong enough to make us leery of the ledges. As the sun rose and the temperatures increased, we figured the wind would pick up as well. It did.

On the first summit at about 9:30 AM, the wind was blowing so hard my son and I had to shout to hear each other, even from just a few inches away. The wind was consistent and steady. There were no gusts, just a relentless gale that caused the temperatures to plummet and made walking quite a challenge. At one point I leaned fully into the wind to see if I would fall–I didn’t. That’s when I realized that we weren’t going to make any other summits that day. The wind had other plans.

That’s how it is with the wind of God, and that’s what it is like to walk with his Spirit. You never know what God’s wind might do next. Some days God’s Spirit is quiet and gentle, like a barely noticeable breeze. Other days God’s wind blows like an angry tempest, leveling all who try to resist it.

It’s just unpredictable. Any Christ-follower knows that wind forecasts in the Kingdom of God aren’t likely to be too accurate. God would rather you just wake up and see what he’s doing that day.

Christ-following is a wind-driven, wind-dependent life. It’s the great adventure. If you will wake up each day and just raise your sails, then you’ll catch God’s wind, if and when he decides to blow.

Don’t live in the rut of not asking God what he’s up to. Pray, read the Bible, sit quietly and listen to his Spirit. The wind will stir. God may indeed have other plans for you–other summits for you to climb. So be it.

Don’t resist the wind; you’ll lose every time. Turn with it and let God move you along. Let him carry you. Let him set the pace. Let him pick the direction. Such is the adventure that awaits all who would follow God.

 

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When Does a Verse Become a Promise?

Here is this week’s entry from Pray Big for Your Life.

People often ask me, “How do I know when it’s okay to pray a verse for myself? How do I know I’m not being greedy or self-centered? How can I be sure that I’m really hearing the Spirit and it’s not just my own wishful thinking?”

For instance, in Deuteronomy 28, God gave some tremendous promises to Israel. If they stayed faithful to him, he promised, “The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom,” (Deuteronomy 28:12-13).

It would be very easy for me to read those wonderful promises and want them to be true of me. I’d love to have God bless me with his rich bounty. Of course I’d prefer to be financially secure, and to be in a position to lend instead of borrowing. I’d love to be at the front of the pack, not at the back, and to be the head, not the tail. Who wouldn’t? But can I really pray those verses for my life without being selfish or greedy? How do I know that promise is really a pinpoint prayer that God wants me to pray for my life?

Discovering pinpoint prayers isn’t an exact science. You’re going to have to learn to discern the Spirit’s voice and to humbly approach God’s Word. Here are some questions you can ask as you try to distinguish between God’s promptings about a promise for your life and your own desires and wants.

Will this honor God? This is a great first question to ask before you start praying a verse for yourself. We know that the Holy Spirit’s job is to honor and exalt God, not us. We’re to point others to him, not ourselves. If you can pray a verse with God’s glory in mind, then you’re probably on safe biblical ground.
What’s my motivation for wanting this? If I ask God to give me the wealth of Abraham or the fame of Solomon, what’s my reasoning? Why do I want riches? Is it so I can funnel more resources to God’s work, or is it so I can live a cushy life? And why am I seeking fame? Do I want popularity and fans? Or am I seeking a platform from which to proclaim God’s Word. Your true motives will tell you a lot about whether or not you’ve really heard God in a verse. Do an honest gut-check if you’re not sure.
Is this consistent with what the Bible teaches as a whole? It’s easy to read a verse and to forget to consider it in light of its biblical context. Finding pinpoint promises in the Bible certainly requires you to listen for God to speak to you through specific verses, but it also requires you to use good biblical interpretation skills. Here’s a good rule of thumb: If what you think the verse promises is inconsistent with the whole of biblical teaching, then you’re probably not hearing God. God will not lead you to contradict his Word. So, if you’re not sure that what you are praying is biblical, check it out in light of the overall teaching of Scripture. If you’re uncertain, ask someone who knows the Bible better than you do. Here are a few examples of the Bible being clearly misunderstood and misused in prayer for unbiblical things.


A man, hoping to find justification for his affair, read about King David’s affair with Bathsheba. He used David’s desire for and subsequent tryst with the married Bathsheba as biblical justification for his own adulterous behavior.
In Malachi 3:10, God promised to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing in response to faithful tithing by his people. Many have used those words to pray for and expect worldly wealth as part of the Gospel’s promise. While God clearly honors giving, the promise of material wealth is nowhere connected to the Gospel message in the New Testament.
Some have used God’s Old Testament commands to destroy entire groups of people to justify praying for and promoting physical violence against “God’s enemies,” like doctors who perform abortions. Such prayers are completely inconsistent with God’s prohibition against murder and Jesus’s command to love and pray for our enemies.

In each of those extreme examples, the verses in question were not viewed in light of the whole of biblical teaching. God wants us to scour his Word in search of pinpoint promises, but he expects us to be biblically responsible in the process. We don’t have permission to misappropriate God’s Word for the sake of our own selfish or sinful preferences. God won’t reward, but rather will judge, such misuse of his Word.

Would Jesus himself pray for this? This may be the best question to ask when discerning the appropriateness of a pinpoint prayer. Simply ask, would Jesus agree with this prayer? Would he put his seal of approval on it?

In John 14:13-14, Jesus encouraged us to ask for things in his name. But the in Jesus’s name phrase we use in prayer isn’t just a rote expression we tack on to the end of our requests. Praying in Jesus’s name means that we are praying for something that Jesus himself would pray for. It means that our request is consistent with the heart, passion and mission of Jesus and is in agreement with the Kingdom-building work of the Holy Spirit.

As I feel led to pray verses for my life, marriage, ministry or family, I always pause to see if I can biblically and with confidence say that prayer in Jesus’s name. Am I sure that Jesus would agree with me on this one? If I’m not, then I typically rethink what God may be saying to me in the verse. You can do the same. Be mature and responsible enough to run your pinpoint prayers through the in Jesus’s name filter.

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Less is More

The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’” Judges 7:2

It seems that God doesn’t like to fight fair. I mean, why send an army of thousands to fight another army of thousands when you can send an army of 300, defeat them, and get the glory in the process?

God called Gideon to lead Israel into battle against the Midianites. According to the biblical writer, the Midian army looked like a swarm of locusts and were as numerous as sand on the seashore. Gideon, even on his best day and with all the men of Israel armed for battle, couldn’t contend with those numbers.

But God ordered Gideon to trim his troops to a mere 300. That way, when the battle was won, they’d know Who had really secured the victory.

That seems to be God’s modus operandi. Win a battle with 300 men, or feed a multitude with a little boy’s lunch. He likes the odds to be stacked against his people (at least from the earthly standpoint) so that they won’t get all cocky and think that they are actually the source of their successes.

This is one of the reasons God commands us to pray for daily bread. He doesn’t want us relying on our own (perceived and fleeting) riches. He wants us looking to him.

One of the biggest enemies to our relationship with God is pride. When God gives us favor, when we are successful at making money or have great gifts and talents, we need to be careful that we don’t start believing our own headlines.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above (James 1:17). I think the key word there is every.

So, do you have a huge task ahead with only minimal resources? Don’t fret it. That’s exactly where God wants you.

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Flesh and Spirit

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:5-6

The differences between living in the flesh and life in the Spirit are obvious. Jesus wants us, while still being mortal, to not be defined by our mortality. He wants us to be defined as people who walk in his Spirit.

Jesus’ reference to water isn’t a reference to baptism, as that is a symbol of the second birth. Being born of water is a reference to the natural process that happens in a woman’s body before she gives birth. Her water breaks. That’s the beginning of the final stages of physical birth.

But as we have seen, that doesn’t make us fully alive. We also must be born of the Spirit.

Jesus’ distinction between the two couldn’t be more dramatic. Flesh yields flesh. You can’t be alive spiritually if you’re only born of the flesh. You must be born of the Spirit. You must be born again.

One of the major purposes of the Christian life is to help people understand the differences between the two. We get to point out the difference between flesh and Spirit and encourage people to be born of the Spirit.

That’s not the same as forcing our religion on people, as that is impossible for us to do. We simply get to tell them how Jesus has given us life through his Spirit, and then encourage them to receive his Spirit and be born again.

Let’s not let our friends and loved ones be stuck with mortality. Jesus died to give us full, rich eternal life. And it begins the moment one is born again.

 

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Will’s Letter to ACF, May 21, 2014

Hey Church, how are you? Are you ready for summer? We’re gonna blink and it’ll be September, so enjoy it while it lasts!

 

Prayers for Rain

Tomorrow, May 22, is a day of prayer and fasting here in Austin. We’re praying for rain and for spiritual awakening. If you want to read the blog I wrote about this yesterday, click here.

On Thursday, there will be a city wide prayer service at Hyde Park Baptist Church at 7 PM. Will you please come and bring your friends and family? Will you fast and pray with me for rain and revival in Austin? We need God to heal our land. Pray!

 

This Weekend @ ACF . . . 

We’ll be worshipping and celebrating Communion at all Communities. Memorial Day weekend is a great time to remember through Communion what Jesus did for us. Please join your fellow Christ-followers at your respective ACF Community and pay tribute to our Lord through Communion.

 

Help Wanted @ ACFNE

We’re looking for a few families who attend 4 Points, NW or Brushy to commit to worship and serve at ACFNE through the Fall. NE is a thriving congregation that is still very much in its infancy. They don’t have a lot of critical mass yet, and it’s all hands on deck every weekend. You would please consider moving you and your family to NE, to serve in hospitality, load-in/loud-out or prayer, and to support that fledgling and very strategic congregation? I’m asking for only a 3-4 month commitment.

Interested? Contact Pastor Shawn Weekly for more info.

 

This Summer @ ACF

Beginning May 31/June 1, we be in a John series called Unfiltered. We’ll be looking at those rather controversial comments of Jesus recorded in John. You know, the good seven second delay kind of stuff. Here’s the summer topic schedule:

5/31—6/1: Crucify me, and I’ll Change History.

6/8-9 (family Worship). I have Overcome the World

6/15-16: Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood . . . . Seriously.

6/22-23 –Kill Me and Bury Me, and I’ll be back in Three Days.

6/29-30 (Fifth Sunday Serving!!!!) Contact Michelle Briggance for more info. 

7/5-6 Let me Set You Free.

7/12-13 (family Worship) Keep My Words and Never Die 

7/19-20 Who’s Your Daddy?

7/26-27 Receive the Holy Spirit.

 

And Finally . . . .

Summer is notorious for church giving, or rather the lack thereof. People get busy, go on vacation and just stop giving. Let’s not do that this summer. OK? Stay faithful to your giving. June-August may be our highest ministry output season of the entire year because of youth camps, Mega Camp Fun and mission trips. And those ministries we support in Austin and around the world don’t go on vacation. They still need our support.

So please, give!

 

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Incorruptible Love

Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love, Ephesians 6:24

In a day and age when love has all kinds of definitions, many of them that cheapen its real meaning, this description of love is very encouraging.

It’s incorruptible. The standard by which all forms and expressions of love must be judged is this one—the love that Jesus’ followers have for him.

It’s easy to misread this verse and think that this incorruptible love describes how God loves us, and that is certainly true. God’s love for us is indeed incorruptible. But that’s not what Paul says here.

The incorruptible love he describes is from those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. How beautiful is that? We don’t just want to love Jesus, we want to love him incorruptibly.

The word incorruptible means two things. First, it means sincere or pure. It’s the kind of love that never cheapens, never has impure motives or any duplicity attached to it. It’s 100% pure love. Second, it means immortal. It means that our love for Jesus won’t fade over time. Rather, it will increase as we lose the encumbrances of sin and flesh and are freed to love Jesus face-to-face in Heaven.

In the meantime, we get to learn how to love Jesus incorruptibly here on earth. We get to be faithful to him, to worship him, to be humble before him, to boast about him and seek his glory, and to lay our lives down for him, just as he did for us.

The good news is that we don’t have to wonder what an incorruptible love looks like or try to make it up as we go. Jesus has already shown us what it is.

 

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Praying for Rain. Praying for Awakening.

This Thursday, May 22, 2014, is a day of prayer and fasting for rain here in Austin.

The drought that has ravaged Texas and many other parts of the country these last several years grows more extreme and dangerous with each passing day. If the weather patterns don’t change soon, this country will be in serious trouble.

You think importing oil is expensive, try importing water.

Beyond that, drought is often a sign that God is trying to get the attention of his people.

Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands. Haggai 1:10-11  

I don’t think it’s ever good when God says On account of you . . . . Perhaps God is trying to humble us. Perhaps God wants to unleash a wave of blessing on us and he needs us to step up.

Perhaps.

Either way, we’ve grown way too comfortable with half-empty lakes and half-lives. We need God to fill both. We need God to send his rain.

In the picture below, Pastor Trey Kent and I are standing in what used to be Lake Travis just west of Austin. Trey is the Pastor of Northwest Fellowship and the author of the amazing book Revival Cry. We’re standing on what is affectionately called Sometime Island, only now it is just a regular feature of the barren moonscape that used to be Lake Travis. Were the lake full, we would be under twenty feet of water.

 

 

This picture also represents many of our lives. We’ve grown way too comfortable with limited blessings, with no real power, with no miracles. We think we’re blessed because we live “rich” lives, but in reality we’re poor. God has called for a drought, and instead of humbling ourselves we’ve settled into a cheap, anemic and poor version of Christianity.

We need rain–soaking, sustained, fresh rain.

So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth. Hosea 6:3

Will you join us in praying for rain–the physical and spiritual kind. Will you pray that God will fill Lake Travis in Austin to 681–its full elevation? And will you pray that God sends his healing rains to our cities and country, and that a true generation-changing movement of his Spirits erupts in our land?

This Thursday, May 22, hundreds if Austin Christians will fast and pray and gather to pray for rain. Will you join us?

Here is the video Trey and I shot promoting prayer for rain and revival.

 

 

 

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Happy Birthday Two You

Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is

born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3

We need to talk a bit further about this whole notion of being born again. It really is an amazing concept, and one that is completely unique to Christianity.

The Bible teaches that we are born into the world only two-thirds alive. We’re alive physically and psychologically. We have functioning bodies and we have an alert consciousness.

But we’re still one-third dead. We’re dead spiritually.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2:1.

The curse of sin has executed the spirit that God placed in every one of us. That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus that he couldn’t yet see God’s kingdom—his dead spirit wasn’t able to.

But when we believe in Jesus all that changes. The Holy Spirit comes rushing into your life and resuscitates your dead spirit.

Even when we were dead in our transgressions, (God) made us alive together with Christ, Ephesians 2:5.

We’re born again—born from above—and are suddenly fully alive—alive in body, soul, and spirit. Then we’re able to have a relationship with God. Then we’re able to see the workings of God’s Kingdom, his spiritual Kingdom.

And then, we have two birthdays.

When you’re a Christian you have two days you can celebrate your birth. You have the day you were born physically and entered this world. And you have the day you were born spiritually and entered God’s Kingdom.

The first is temporal, the second eternal.

The first is physical, the second spiritual.

The first is finite, the second infinite.

Are you a Christian? Then you’ve got two birthdays. Celebrate them both, but maybe celebrate the second one a little more.

 

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Too Numerous

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, and Your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count. Psalm 40:5

In a moment of sheer spiritual rapture here, David gets real honest about God.

It’s easy to stay mad at God and blame him for all that’s wrong in the world. It’s easy to gripe and complain and yell at God for doing such a poor job of governing the universe. And David certainly did his share of that.

But there were other moments in David’s life when peace and spiritual sanity prevailed. And in one of those moments David came to this conclusion: God is really good. In fact, the good he has done is too much to grasp.

. . . the wonders you have done . . . . are too numerous to count . . .

Maybe they are. But don’t you think we should try?

I can’t tell you how profoundly game-changing it is to simply stand and begin chronicling the great things that God has done for you. Thanksgiving is the quickest way I know to adjust my attitude to God’s, to set my earthly thermostat on Heaven’s.

And even though the great works of God are indeed far too numerous to count, just trying to do so will absolutely revolutionize the condition of your soul.

So give it your best shot. Plant your feet firmly on this God-blessed tera firma and begin recounting all the great things that God has done for you, your family, your friends and your community. Thank him for the promises he has kept and for all the ways he has come through for you.

Thank him for his Word, his Spirit, his Church, and precious blood of his Son.

And somewhere along the way, somewhere in the process of trying to recount the great works of God, you’ll find yourself in worship, focusing even more on who God is and less on what he has done.

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