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But some people have gone beyond this idea of general protection and wondered if God gives a specific “guardian angel” for each individual in the world, or at least for each Christian. Support for this idea has been found in Jesus’ words about little children, “in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10).
Jesus taught that in the resurrection people “neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven”
“Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” (1 Cor. 6:3).
In fact, even now, angels already serve us: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?” (Heb. 1:14).
But God in fact has chosen to do much more than that. He has decided to redeem out of sinful mankind a great multitude, whom no man can number, “from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9).
As angels find it their highest joy to praise God continuously, should we not also delight each day to sing God’s praise, counting this as the highest and most worthy use of our time and our greatest joy?
Praise you Lord!
When a car suddenly swerves from hitting us,
The story of Job makes it clear that Satan could only do what God gave him permission to do and nothing more
Demons are kept in “eternal chains” (Jude 6) and can be successfully resisted by Christians through the authority that Christ gives them
for sin is a weakening and destructive influence.
The fact that sin and rebelliousness persist in people’s hearts apart from the activity of Satan, even during the thousand-year reign of Christ, shows that we cannot blame all sin in the world on Satan and his demons. Even when Satan is without influence in the world, sin will remain and be a problem in people’s hearts.
Rather, Christians just preach the gospel, and it comes with power to change lives!
Though Christians after Pentecost have a fuller power of the Holy Spirit working within them to enable them to triumph over demonic attacks,21 they do not always call upon or even know about the power that is rightfully theirs.
“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life” (2 Cor. 2:15–16).
Nice imagery. Fragrence from life to life.
“I have given you authority . . . over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19).
“For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:3–4).
The lesson of the verse is simply, “Don’t try to go beyond the authority God has given you!”
At the cross God “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him” (Col. 2:15). Therefore Satan hates the cross of Christ, because there he was decisively defeated forever.
“You are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4),
in the world that God has created, he has given us a very active role in carrying out his plans, especially his plans for the advancement of the kingdom and the building up of the church.
in addition to praying and asking Jesus for help in overcoming them, it would also be appropriate for us to say something like, “Spirit of fear, in Jesus’ name, I command you, go away from here and don’t return!”
The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of gentleness and peace (see 1 Cor. 14:33).
But there is no indication in the New Testament that demons are hard of hearing, nor are there examples of such long periods of conflict in order to get a demon to leave.
Jesus simply “cast out the spirits with a word”
to avoid being drawn into a long conversation or battle with the demon itself the Christian counselor should focus not on the demon but on the person being ministered to and the truths of the Bible that need to be affirmed and believed.
So shall it be also with this evil generation. (Matt. 12:43–45)
what is the Bible saying about this generation? That seems to get missed when this passage is expounded on.
A spiritual gift is any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church. This broad definition includes both gifts that are related to natural abilities (such as teaching, showing mercy, or administration) and gifts that seem to be more “miraculous” and less related to natural abilities (such as prophecy, healing, or distinguishing between spirits).
they are given “for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7),
they are all to be used for “edification” (1 Cor. 14:26), or for building up the church.1
We are justified in considering it characteristic of the Apostolic churches that such miraculous gifts should be displayed in them. The exception would be, not a church with, but a church without, such gifts. . . . The Apostolic Church was characteristically a miracle-working church.4
others by cooking meals,
or befriending an older person,
The point of all of this is simply to say that God gives the church an amazing variety of spiritual gifts, and they are all tokens of his varied grace.
The practical outcome of this discussion is that we should be willing to recognize and appreciate people who have gifts that differ from ours and whose gifts may differ from our expectations of what certain gifts should look like. Moreover, a healthy church will have a great diversity of gifts, and this diversity should not lead to fragmentation but to greater unity among believers in the church.
If we do this we will fail to see God’s hand in the working of all the gifts and fail to thank him for all of them.
Scripture says that “all” the gifts are worked in us by the same Holy Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God (1 Cor. 12:4–6).
The worldview of Scripture is one of continuity and continual interaction between the visible world that we can see and touch and the invisible world that Scripture tells us is there and is real.
God works in both, and we do ourselves and the church a great disservice by separating these aspects of creation i...
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Though the lists of gifts given in the New Testament are not exhaustive, they certainly provide a good starting point for churches to ask whether at least there is opportunity for these gifts to be used.
If God has placed people with certain gifts in a church when these gifts are not encouraged or perhaps not allowed to be used, they will feel frustrated and unfulfilled in their Christian ministries, and will perhaps move to another church where their gifts can function for the benefit of the church.
and that we will need continually to depend on others who have gifts differing from ours.
Maturity comes through a close walk with Jesus, and results in obedience to his commands in everyday life: “He who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6).
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know even as I have been known” (author’s translation).
When shall we see “face to face”? When shall we know “even as we have been known”? These events can only happen when the Lord returns.
If the Lord has instructions for you, He will give you a witness in your own heart, in which case the words coming from a friend . . . will be a confirmation to what God has already been showing you. Your guidance must also agree with Scripture. . . .42
An examination of the Scriptures will show us that as a matter of fact the early Christians did not continually receive such voices from heaven. In most cases they made their decisions by the use of what we often call “sanctified common-sense” and lived quite normal lives. Many of our errors where spiritual gifts are concerned arise when we want the extraordinary and exceptional to be made the frequent and habitual.
God is jealous for his works and seeks glory from them for himself, and we must continually pray not only that he would keep us from endorsing error, but also that he would keep us from opposing something that is genuinely from him.
But it certainly is not helpful to the church as a whole for both sides to think they can learn nothing from the other, or that they can gain no benefit from fellowship with each other.
Moreover, Jesus frequently healed all who were brought to him, and he never sent people away, telling them it would be good for them to remain ill for a longer time!
Jesus healed people because he loved them.
