As
I was praying this morning, meditating on God’s words to my soul, I continued
to grow in my faith as I considered these words of God: “…and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments
and do what pleases him.”[1] I have already experienced wonderful blessing by considering what
it means that keeping God’s commandments under the new covenant means, “that we believe in the name of his Son
Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”[2]
Since
I have a constantly growing faith in the name of Jesus Christ, and a constantly
growing love for the brotherhood of believers, I know that God has brought me
into this relationship with him where he hears and answers prayer.
This
certainty, or, as John put it, “Beloved,
if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God,”[3]moved me in prayer for people who are hurting and suffering because
of the evils of this world, and the evil spirits who constantly promote evil
actions in people. So many of God’s children are suffering, and there is no way
that we can help each one of them in personal ways, so we turn to prayer as the
means by which we can interact with God in seeking his goodness and grace on
behalf of others.
This
led me back to a scripture that had deeply ministered to me somewhere around
two decades ago. In praying for people who were more broken than I had ever
experienced, and needing to know the hope of Jesus Christ in far greater ways
than I could express, God began teaching me what he sent his Son to accomplish,
and how that presently works out through the body of Christ.
In
particular, I was blessed by this Scripture:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been
brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day,
and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to
him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the
captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to
set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back
to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed
on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing.”[4]
Jesus
coming into the world, including the work of redemption he carried out on the
cross, made him the fulfillment of this prophetic promise of God given hundreds
of years earlier. God had told his people that the Messiah he sent would be
characterized by these things: The Spirit of Yahweh (God) would be upon him, he
would “proclaim good news to the poor…
proclaim liberty to the captives… recovering of sight to the blind… set at
liberty those who are oppressed… proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
When
we look at the way Jesus ministered to people during those few years of his
earthly ministry, we see that he did the things God said would characterize the
Messiah. The scriptures were fulfilled. The Messiah had come. Through his
earthly body he did all the things God said the Messiah would do.
We
know now that Jesus has established his church as his spiritual body. What he
came to do, he continues to do. The gospels reveal what he did through his
earthly body, the book of Acts shows what Jesus continues to do through his
church. The letters to the churches give instruction in how to be the body of
Christ that does his bidding.
Since
Jesus has already brought to fulfillment that he is the Messiah who would do
all that God had prophesied, it must be characteristic of the church that Jesus
continues to do for people today what he did for people then. What he did
through his earthly body in the confinement of space, time, and matter, he now
works to do through his spiritual body that can serve him throughout the whole
world, throughout all time, expressing the accumulated matter of every child of
God to carry out the thoughts of his mind.
Which
brings me back to the quiet of the morning when it is just me and God, and Jesus
has me considering the heartaches and sorrows of his suffering family members.
Whether it be concern for a brother or sister overwhelmed with the pain of
childhood trauma, or the heartbroken helplessness over the young girls and
women who are sold into violent and abusive relationships where their trauma
exceeds the desire to live, there is a Messiah who does today through his
church what he did two millennia ago through his human body.
I
have often been grieved by the so-called ministries that act as judge, jury,
and executioner against anyone who claims that some Christians need far greater
help than others are able to acknowledge. I have been grieved at the trouble
that so-called Christians will cause other believers because they believe they
have the authority to decide what life-experiences are real, and which are
false. It has taken me time to examine my own heart, the claims of Jesus’
critics, and the testimony of scripture, to settle within me that Jesus continues
to do through the church all that he says he came to do, and he will do this
for everyone who comes to him, no matter their life-experience, just as he
received everyone and every life-experience that came to him during his earthly
ministry.
All
that to say that, the ministry Jesus fulfilled as Messiah is still the ministry
he is doing through his church. This requires that we both pray for him to be
glorified in this ministry, and make ourselves available for him to do this
ministry through us who are his body.
It
all starts by praying something like this:
Heavenly Father, we pray that you will work
through us, your church, to proclaim good news to the poor around us, so they
will hunger and thirst for the righteousness of faith.
We pray that you will work through us, your
church, to proclaim liberty to the captives, both in salvation from sin, and freedom
from bondage to sin.
We pray that you will work through us, your
church, to proclaim the recovering of sight to the blind. We pray that you will
demolish Satan’s work of blinding “the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,” and that you will
shine into their “hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.”[5]
We pray that you will work through us, your
church, to set at liberty those who are oppressed by the tyranny of their sin,
from the trauma of the sins of others, and the darkness of this sinful world.
We pray that you will work through us, your
church, to proclaim to the world around us that it is the time of your favor,
the time of salvation, the time of deliverance for all who will call on the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
While
this is just an idea for how to pray that Jesus would apply his work to people’s
lives through our churches, the encouragement for us is to expect Jesus to
continue doing in our day what he began doing while in his earthly ministry.
Since he has now sent his Holy Spirit to be with all believers, in all places,
at all times, we can expect that he will continue setting people free wherever
the church seeks him to do so.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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