Okay, so this
morning’s time with God was an embarrassing and exhilarating combination of “slow
learner” and “eureka, I get it!”
On the slow learner
side, I am often blown away with how little I know about walking by faith. In
short, my teenage modus operandi of relying on words to self-talk myself into
thinking I wasn’t hurting, or to try stopping someone from hurting someone else,
is part of the sark[1]
that I now understand will be with me until I die, or Jesus comes.
The Romans 7 lesson
about the sark doing what I do not want to do, and failing to do the good I do
want to do, applies to me in this area, that my sark will keep trying to rely
on its own words even though I don’t want to do that any longer, and it will
keep failing to rely on the words of God even though that is what I desperately
want to do all the time.[2]
On the
eureka-I-get-it side, I was so excited yesterday as God reminded me once again
that Paul’s prayers in Ephesians and Colossians are there to teach me to pray
for people instead of relying on sarky “talk”.
Paul had said that, “the kingdom of God does not consist in talk
but in power”,[3]
and I need to stop relying on talking to people, and pray for them instead.
However, that does not help me with my responsibilities in
relation to the personal ministry relationships in our church. What our church
has been looking at regarding spiritual gifts requires us to minister to each
other. How do we do that without “talk”?
I mean, Paul’s letters are all talk and words. When Paul was in person, he
preached and talked so much that people were known to fall out of windows and
die of tiredness, so to speak.[4] He
told pastors to “preach the word; be
ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete
patience and teaching”,[5]
which requires talk.
So, obviously, praying and talking must go together, but not
as though the kingdom of God consists in talk. What does that look like?
The
eureka-I-get-it lesson came from this Scripture:
“take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”[6]
Paul’s “talk” was
taking up “the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God”. It was not Paul relying on words, but using the breathed-out
words of God[7]
that were filled with power because of the Holy Spirit. When Paul took up the
sword of the Spirit, and he prayed at all times in the Spirit,[8] he
modelled how we are to do the same.
The conclusion is that, I must constantly rely on the
breathed-out words of God by taking up the sword of the Spirit, and I must pray
at all times in the Spirit myself, combining the words of God and prayer into
the best thing I can do for myself and the church.
However, today’s really eureka-I-get-it lesson was, I must
lead others to take up the sword of the Spirit with me, and to pray at all
times in the Spirit with me. Or, to say it from the other side, my ministry to others
must be to help them take up the sword of the Spirit, and to pray in the Spirit,
but in person with the body of Christ. In other words, together!
What will this look like? It will look like the church
getting together, whether it be in our church gatherings, or smaller settings,
opening the breathed-out words of God, and praying for the fullest possible
experience of what God has written. This may include a group going through a
book of the Bible together, or each person coming to prayer meeting with the
Scriptures God has spoken into their hearts during the week, and praying back
to God whatever words he has ministered to us.
Along the way, God will keep stomping on my youthful
temptation to rely on words, and will keep reproving me in my dependence on
talk, and will correct me into a ministry of helping others take up the sword
of the Spirit and pray at all times in the Spirit, using the fellowship in the
word and prayer to train us together in the righteousness that is by faith, and
for faith.[9]
So, on a purely practical note, please pray for your pastors
(me included, if you will), that we would all be men who take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication,”[10]
and that we would do this ourselves, and with others, for the building up of
all the saints.
At the same time, there is likely something you are getting
out of the word of God right now that is what you need to take up as the sword
of the Spirit for yourself and all those in your fellowship, and to pray in the
Spirit as part of the intercession the rest of the church needs from you.
Then, let your pastors know what you are praying from the
word for both them and the rest of the church. You can be sure it will be
appreciated.
© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, 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.)
[1]
A transliteration of “sarx”, the Greek word translated “flesh” (see Romans 7
for Paul’s description of the flesh, and Romans 8 for his description of life
in the Spirit).
[2]
Again, God’s children are not at the mercy of their sarks/flesh even though the
sark/flesh will be with us until we die or Jesus returns. We just need to
accept that the sark/flesh operates just as Paul describes in Romans 7, and our
victory over the sark/flesh comes by setting our minds on the Spirit the way
Paul describes in Romans 8.
[3]
I Corinthians 4:20
[4]
Acts 20:9 (context ~ Acts 20:7-12). Don’t forget, Jesus’ disciples fell asleep
on him while he was praying in Gethsemane. Sometimes we just can’t help it
that, “The spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
[5]
II Timothy 4:2
[6]
Ephesians 6:17-18
[7]
II Timothy 3:16-17
[8]
As his recorded prayers reveal.
[9]
Romans 1:16-17
[10]
Ephesians 6:17-18
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