Tricks and Lies

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.”
‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This verse starts with a “then”. So we have to look to the previous verses to pick up the thread of what Paul was saying to his friends in Ephesus. He had previously encouraged them with the thought that Christ cared so much for them that He had sent to them “gifts” – men who would equip them with all they needed to grow in their faith, bringing unity and maturity to their lives, individually and corporately. Paul then follows on with the thought that being “immature like children“, at least in the context of their faith, was not a good place to be. But the next sentence exposes and highlights a potential and very real danger for Christians, especially new believers. It is the impact that “new teaching” can have, potentially leading them into error. 

 For example, a church I read about some years ago, took the verse in Mark 16:18 which starts, “They will be able to handle snakes with safety….” consequently introducing poisonous snakes into their services. It is very easy to lift Bible verses out of their context and start to make a doctrine or custom from them, ending up being “tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching”. That is why the church has always needed the wisdom of the five-fold ministries described in a previous verse. Paul, from his prison cell, could see the dangers and snares that could potentially bring chaos and ultimate destruction. He cared deeply for his friends. But we should never forget that God Himself cares very deeply for each one of us. Not only is He always there for us, but He has put in place a safety net to protect His people.

“…lies so clever they sound like the truth”. This is a problem that has always been with us. Why is it that people generally lack the discernment needed to expose trickery? In modern parlance we call it “scamming”. I read yesterday that a man lost his entire savings – hundreds of thousands of pounds – because he believed “lies so clever they sound like the truth”. But in the church we need to be aware of spiritual scamming. The internet is awash with off-the-wall beliefs and recommendations. The “God” channels on television sometimes provide opportunities for fringe preachers to scam their watchers with incessant appeals for money.

But how does the Christian pilgrim continue through life, free from the pitfalls of error? How can we avoid being “tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching”? There are some simple steps that we can take to stay on the “straight and narrow”. One of them is to get plugged into a church founded on the Word and the Spirit. There is safety in being with other pilgrims in a Godly church, where the leaders are Spirit-filled men and women grounded and obedient to God’s Word, the Bible. On our own we are in danger of being picked off by the devil. 1 Peter 5:8 reads, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” When we meet with other Christians we can encourage each other, pray for each other, help each other, and have the opportunity to warn those in danger of taking a wrong spiritual turning. 

Another way to protect ourselves from error is to ensure the church that we are a part of is accountable to other church leaders or apostles. Established denominations are not necessarily free from problems –  depressing errors include spiritual apostasy, liberalism and worldliness. Spiritual accountability is essential in bringing security to the congregation and their leaders

Another way to prevent being “tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching” is to emulate the Berean Jews. In Acts 17, Paul and Silas found themselves preaching in a synagogue in Berea. And we read in Acts 17:11, “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth”. If someone brings teaching we haven’t heard before, check it out in the Bible. If what is said, no matter how plausible it appears to be, can’t be verified by God’s Word, then discard it.

Although today’s verse has negative connotations, we mustn’t forget our loving Heavenly Father. He cares for us. He loves us. He is with us every step in our pilgrimage through life. Jesus said in John 15:4, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you…”. In the end, that is the key.  We pilgrims will find peace and security, as we remain in Him.

The Gifts (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:11-13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is an important part of Paul’s letter, both to his readers in Ephesus and to Christians today. The first thing is that Christ, through His love and concern for His followers, gave important “gifts” to resource His future Bride, the church. These “gifts” for the Ephesian church were Spirit-filled men who each had a specific job to do in building up the church. The job titles listed – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers – dovetailed together to form a support and training function, not just a leadership structure, for the health and development of this body of believers. But these “gifts” are timeless. They were not just for the early Church but instead portrayed a model for all the churches that were to follow in the ages to come. And so we Christians, regardless of where we are in our spiritual pilgrimage, should prick up our spiritual ears. We should look out for these special people, who Christ, in His divine wisdom, could see would be required. And while we are looking around us, we should take careful note of verse 12. These five “gifts” – the men and women who were and are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers – were not supposed to do the work of the church themselves while the punters sat in the pews. Their role was to train up the church members to do the work God was asking them to do. You see, we each have a role to play in building up the church, “the body of Christ”. We cannot abdicate our own responsibilities and expect the minister to do everything.

So what is our role in building up the church? It is the same for us today as it was for the Ephesian church all those years ago. We all have a job description, which involves outward-looking responsibilities for evangelism and making disciples (Matthew 28:19), and also involves being unified with our fellow believers and the Christian community as a whole, as we can see from several verses in this Epistle. We must spend time reading the Word and praying, for our own spiritual health. Spending time with our wonderful Heavenly Father, sharing and communicating. Enjoying His presence in our lives.

But why do we need these “gifts” of men and women, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers? Paul suggested they are there for “equipping” and “building”. Their individual Holy Spirit – led giftings are necessary to train us well for our roles. These men and women are pilgrims with a specific calling. Men and women who are further down the road of life than us, and who have many things to share for our benefit. We’ll look at their particular roles on another day. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people by giving them the tools and training they need “to do His work”. Our responsibility is to gain, through them, maturity, measuring up to Christ’s standards.

It is sad that after two years of lockdowns and social restrictions, many churches, at least in the UK, have become much smaller, dwindling in membership. Some people in these congregations have become used to attending virtual meetings on-line, or have decided that they prefer to spend their Sabbaths doing something else. But we cannot be Christians in splendid isolation; Jesus’ plan was for His followers to meet together. “They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—” (Acts 2:46). Two key words here in this verse are “together” and “shared”. Through meeting together we encourage one another, but we can also enjoy the input from Christ’s “gifts”, training and helping us. Cheering us on as Christ’s representatives for the work of His service.

God in His love and wisdom gave gifts to the church. We need them to equip and encourage us in our spiritual pilgrimage. And as we do God’s work in this sad, sinful and war-torn world we bring our messages of hope to the hopeless, communicating Christ’s concern for the lost all the better because of His gifts. Worth a big “thank You, Jesus”?

A Special Gift

Posted on by korgrocker

“However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.””
Ephesians‬ ‭4:7-8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus, the Son of God, is generous. I would say infinitely generous. There is no limit to His generosity. We read in our verses today that each of us has been given a gift through the generosity of Christ. But can you imagine being given a gift-wrapped package? Straight away, you notice that the wrapping paper isn’t that cheap stuff so thin that it tears as you look at it. This wrapping paper is of a quality fitting for a royal person. It looks as though it has been made of pure gold, sparkling with precious stones. But then you notice that in places on the package there are drops of blood. Before I get carried away any further with my analogy, Jesus’ generosity started with the greatest gift of all time at Calvary. There He gave His life for me, the very Son of God dying a horrible, blood-soaked death for the forgiveness of my sins. What a gift! What a Saviour! But I now stand before God as His child. A royal child of a Royal King. And I have this package in my hands. Jesus has just given it to me. Tremblingly, I start to open it, knowing that within is something special. It has to be so, because Jesus’ first gift was infinitely precious. Surely this gift will be something equally mind-boggling. And it is. 

I should say straight away, that this is no worldly gift. It’s not a gift-wrapped Rolex watch. Or some other such trinket. This is a special spiritual gift that dovetails into my natural giftings. What is it? Well, in three places in the New Testament there are lists of spiritual gifts.  Romans 12:6-8 lists prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, and mercy. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 contains wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. 1 Corinthians 12:28 includes a few more – healings, helps, leadership, speaking in other tongues. And for good measure, there are gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11, gifts given to the church including the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers, but more about them in a future blog.

When we open our package, what do we find? Perhaps our expectation is to find a golden key and a box marked “Spiritual Gift”. Opening it will tell us what our gift is. Or perhaps we hope to find something like a spiritual cheque book, with blank cheques signed by Jesus Himself. An impressive gift enabling us to go out and do amazing things for God. Or perhaps we open it and find nothing there. Disappointed, we turn to Jesus and ask the question – “Where is my special gift”? 

Spiritual gifts are distributed by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:11 says, “It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have”. However, it is no good sitting back waiting for our spiritual gift to arrive via some Heavenly postman, spending our time unproductively complaining that we can’t serve God because we don’t have the right gifting. We all have a primary calling, which is to serve God in the ways He has ordained. And strangely, as we faithfully and willingly serve Him in every situation that comes our way, He will supply the gifts we need. So if we find ourselves in a situation where someone is sick, we can in faith reach out to God for the gift of healing. If we find someone in a quandary about an important decision that has to be made, we can in faith reach out for a word of knowledge, or wisdom. At other times, as we faithfully use our natural gifts to do what we do well, He will supply that additional spiritual tools we need. 

Let us be a thankful people, thanking God for all He has given us. The unlimited gifts of a generous and loving God, so freely given to those with the faith to ask.

Making Every Effort

Posted on by korgrocker

“Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.”
Ephesians‬ ‭4:3-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If there is one feature of the world in which we live, it is a lack of unity. I’m not just talking about those of us who claim the title of “Christian” – more of that in a moment – but I’m mentioning the desperate condition of a lack of unity between nations, between people groups, between political parties, even in our own families. One thing our enemy, the devil, excels at is the art of inducing disunity. He will sow seeds of division at every opportunity. So before we know it, a husband and wife will find themselves arguing over the most trivial thing. Family members will stop speaking to each other for years, often over no more than a misunderstanding. Or at the other end of the scale a nation will go to war with another, for a reason not immediately clear, or lost in history. And even within a country, cultural and racial differences can seriously divide a nation. We live in a world where unity is a rare quality, a dream from a fantasy world.

Christians seem to be no different to anyone else when it comes to unity. Strife builds up within a church congregation over their liturgies. Over which hymns or songs are to be used. Over which version of the Bible is the most suitable. Even over, as in the case in a local church, how the chairs are put out – some want the chairs set out in rows, others in a more intimate semi-circular configuration. And all of that is before we start on the lack of unity between different denominations. Even in the early church, sectarianism had to be dealt with – we see a hint of this in Paul’s writings in 1 Corinthians 3. I wonder sometimes if God throws up His hands in horror at the behaviour of His children.

In our verse today, Paul wrote about the importance of unity. And he said we would have to work at it. Why?  Because we have no choice – Jesus is coming back one day for a holy and united Bride, the Church. Note the word “united”. That is because Jesus Christ is monogamous. He won’t be doing a Solomon, having so many wives that he almost lost count. The Bride is us. We are His unified Church, with everyone bound together in peace. This is our “glorious hope for the future”. Jesus said He will build His Church, and the “bricks” He uses will be us pilgrims, held together by peace.

So we make every effort to be unified and at peace with everyone. Not just when we feel like it. It may be hard work some days. Dealing with the sinful thoughts that rise up within us, not allowing them to be verbalised into disruption. Pride and other negative qualities can spring up within us like mushrooms and before we know it we’re involved in another schism. For today’s pilgrim, facing into another day on the road of life, making an effort to be at peace with those round us can be an insurmountable challenge. Particularly as many we meet, in our schools, workplaces, communities and families, won’t have the same desire. How many times have I thought that the person before me is “looking for a fight today”? We ask the grumpy amongst us, “did you get out of bed on the wrong side this morning?”. Sometimes we despair as we all lapse into an uneasy silence, peace an illusion, unity below the horizon of our expectations. But making an effort means loving the unlovely, issuing a kind word to the unkind, not answering back to a verbal tide of abuse, not reacting to a bad driver, allowing God to deal with unjust situations, and so on. Will it mean that we might find ourselves trodden on, or put down? Patronised or overlooked? Possibly. But as we “make every effort” God will do amazing things. Both in us and in others.

Being Humble

Posted on by korgrocker

“Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.”
Ephesians‬ ‭4:2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Being humble. If there was ever a life-condition that is truly counter-cultural then this is it. We live in a world where self is king (or queen!). Where we are told it’s all about “me”. Companies run courses in “self-assertiveness”. Children are encouraged to “stickup for themselves” in the classroom and playground. We’re told not to let people “trample all over us”. We score points if we get “one over” someone else. Our politicians look for opportunities to further their own ambitions, if necessary to the detriment of their colleagues. “Ruthlessness” is a quality often revered in others. But Paul says, “Always be humble and gentle” – living life the Jesus-way involves a lifestyle of humility. 

Jesus taught us how to be humble. In John 13 we read how Jesus, the disciples’ Lord and Master, did the most menial of tasks – He washed the dirt and grime from His disciple’s feet. This was almost too much for Peter – he couldn’t understand how Someone he looked up to, who he recognised as the Messiah, who he had placed on a pedestal occupied, in his mind, by the greatest Person who had ever lived, could wash his feet. This amazing Person kneeling before him, taking each foot in turn, washing away all the detritus from his feet and between his toes, wiping over the corns and callouses, and then drying them carefully on a towel. But that is what Jesus did in an eternal act of humility that was just as counter-cultural in those days as it would be today. Throughout His ministry, Jesus confronted those who were proud and arrogant; the door into the Kingdom of Heaven will be closed to such people.

Paul picked up this theme again in Philippians 2. We read, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had“. (Verses 3-5). 

So why is humility so important in the lives of Christians? And what does a humble lifestyle look like? The very essence of the Gospel is looking out for the needs of others instead of our own needs. We have a message of hope, a message that is counter-cultural in a war-torn and unhappy world. But to be delivered effectively it has to be supported by the right attitude. An attitude of love. An attitude of grace. An attitude of acceptance. An attitude of humility. We must always deliver our message gently and respectfully. Not rising to insults and rudeness. 

We all have faults. Don’t believe it if someone says they don’t. But we have a tendency to ignore our own faults and only see those in others. Paul reminded us in the second part of today’s verse that we must overlook the faults we see in our brothers and sisters in the faith, because we love them. Humility and gentleness leads the way in all our relationships, both inside and outside the Church. We pilgrims must remember that we are all “damaged goods”, damaged by sin, damaged by negative influences, damaged through contact with those in the world around us, damaged by our own misguided mistakes and choices. But, thanks be to God, He hasn’t finished yet in rebuilding our lives. We are being reborn and in the process we are becoming more and more like Jesus. And underpinning it all is love. Through our love for our brothers and sisters we must always treat them with humility and respect, mentally washing their feet every time we meet them.

The Fourth Dimension

Posted on by korgrocker

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.”
Ephesians 3:18 NLT

Another verse with that “power” word. Some would question how a helpless prisoner could write about power. But that would be because they don’t understand anything about God’s power and what He had planned for Paul’s life. In this verse Paul was praying that God’s people would grasp how extensive and complete God’s love is, but Paul thought that God’s power would be required to help them understand.

We live in a three-dimensional world. If we pick up any object we can see that it has length, height and depth. Three dimensions. If we consider our homes, they have three dimensions – length, height and depth. We have transport systems that switch between two-dimensional and three-dimensional travel, for example an aircraft. And in this technical age we have very clever computer apps that are able to design three dimensional objects and then we have 3D printers that will manufacture them. Amazing! But our physical world is just how God designed and created it, in three dimensions. 

But in our verse today, it was as though Paul was introducing a fourth dimension. He wrote about width, length, height and depth. So what did he mean? Was it just a repetitive slip of his pen? Or did he have something else in mind, in his thoughtful prayer? Something else relevant and to do with God’s love? 

I’m sure the theologians have their answers, but for me I believe Paul was saying something significant about God’s power. Whatever we think, or the Ephesians thought, there is something about God’s love that is, well, just complete. It is so extensive that we will never totally understand it, and then by a huge margin. It has depths that we will never be able to plumb. It has height that is unmeasurable. It has width that extends across every human being who has ever lived, or who is yet to come. Our world is permeated by God’s love. But this fourth dimension? I believe that this is eternity. For me, Paul was describing a love that was not only unmeasurable in our three dimensional space, but was with us for all time, for eternity. 

And so it is today. We pilgrims are traveling through an amazing cosmos. We have all that we need for physical life – air, water, food etc. – but we also have all that we need for our spiritual life. And it starts and ends with God’s love. I imagine it to be all around us like oxygen but for our very spirits. It is there all around us, but we cannot see it with our physical senses. It’s not something we can measure. But God’s love is so extensive and complete that words cannot describe it. Was that Paul’s difficulty as he wrote this verse from the confines of his mind, from the confines of his prison cell? We received a glimpse of God’s love at Calvary, when His Son, Jesus, gave His life for us, for the redemption of our sins. And the same love is still around us today. Seasoned with God’s grace. Disseminated by the Holy Spirit. Covering us day by day. And all we have to do is take deep spiritual breaths to receive it. No wonder in that prison cell, as the enormity of God’s love suddenly hit him, that Paul fell to his knees. What else could he do before our truly loving God? And the same for us. What else can we do? And on our knees we humbly express our praise and thanks, worshipping at His feet. 

In our pilgrimage through life, we do so, rubbing shoulders with our fellow members of society, with our family, with our friends. But do we individually bask in a God-love-bubble? In splendid isolation, keeping His love just to ourselves? There’s something about God’s love that has to be shared. We are wired to spread this love to those around us, the unloved, the lonely, the weary, the spiritually starving. There is something within us that bursts to tell others. We can’t keep it in. So in our war-torn world, we do what Jesus said, we love our enemies. We love the unlovely. Warts and all. And perhaps, through us, they too will feel the love of God in all its width, its height, its length, its depth; the oxygen of God’s Spirit infusing into their very own souls as well as ours. Jackie Pulling is quoted as saying, “God wants us to have soft hearts and hard feet. The trouble with so many of us is that we have hard hearts and soft feet”. She explained that we need to have soft hearts to love people, and hard feet to keep on loving them. Let us pray that we too have soft hearts, with the power to understand “How deep [God’s] love is“.

Christ In Our Hearts

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.”
Ephesians 3:17 TPT
“Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”
Ephesians 3:17 NLT

We’re going to camp for a second day at Ephesians 3:17, and look at a second Bible version, the New Living Translation. Paul prayed that through their faith, Christ would live within the hearts of his friends in Ephesus. That through their faith, His life would be present and active in their lives. This was life-changing stuff for a people steeped in the religions of their day. The Jews didn’t believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Christ. The Gentiles in Ephesus lived in a religious world dominated by the Roman and Greek god-pantheons and in particular worshipped their very own Artemis. But through Paul’s ministry, both the Jews and Gentiles had come to accept the truth about the saving grace of God and had taken the step of faith, repenting of their sins and accepting that Jesus was the Christ and was their Lord and Saviour. 

In the previous verse in this chapter, Paul prayed that the Ephesians would experience the power of God’s glorious riches in their lives. And he then adds a joining word introducing us into verse 17, the word “Then“. The NIV starts this verse with “So that“. Was Paul therefore saying to the Ephesians that, because they have all this power, explosive and supernatural power at that, potentially available within them, that they in effect could provide a home for Christ? There are many verses in the Bible about Christ living within us. Here’s just two of them from the Epistles. Romans 8:11a “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you…” And Galatians 2:20a, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me….”. And Jesus said in John 15:4, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.” And in case we doubt the power that is available to us, how much power do we think would be needed to raise someone from the dead into eternal life? And it lives within us, just waiting to be “unveiled“. 

So today, is it realistic for us pilgrims to expect to have Christ live within each of us, as it was in the Ephesian church? What Paul was saying was that we can enjoy an intimate relationship with Jesus, as He lives within us by the power of the Holy Spirit. A relationship of love and trust. A relationship where Jesus can lead and guide us in our daily lives. So, for example, faced with a situation that perhaps would have at one time invoked a negative response, we now respond with compassion and grace. Increasingly, we see Jesus moulding and transforming our lives, making us more like Him. And over time, our love of Jesus will increase more and more, keeping us strong. Not forgetting, of course, that we have this “explosive power” waiting to be revealed.

This power that we have implied within us, has to be released through faith. Jesus living within us  directs and focuses the power in many different ways, and it becomes more apparent and effective as He works through us through faith. In the Ephesian church, in that society and culture, the early Christians needed the power to stand firm in the face of intense persecution. And the evidence for that power was shown through the growth of the Christian Church, that turned the world of that time upside down, in the process resetting history into His-story. I am writing this blog post just having heard that Russia has invaded Ukraine. The same power that impacted the First Century world is still available to us in the 21st Century world. Jesus is the same “yesterday, today and forever”. He is the Prince of Peace. So we pray for our leaders, for world events, for our persecuted brothers and sisters, in faith that the power within us can make a difference. And as we pray God is listening.

One last thought, for pilgrims, from this verse. We read that “Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” The picture is of a tree, which has a root system that provides nourishment and stability to the trunk, branches and leaves above the ground. The nourishment, in the form of water and minerals, combines with the chemistry that goes on in the leaves, to provide all that is needed for growth. And the stability comes from having roots that go so deep, and are so resilient, that no matter what storms are present, the tree stands firm. As the tree grows, so does its root system. In my local woods several trees have been uprooted by the recent storms, victims of an unstable root system that could not support them. The picture is clear – through our faith, we grow taller and stronger day by day. Our roots in Christ also grow to keep us stable and nourished, no matter what the storms of life throw at us. Without faith, we won’t have the resilience to stand firm in the face of adversity, and will end up like the fallen trees in my local woods – dead and decaying. So we pray and invite Christ to make His home in our hearts. But are we making room for Him?

Faith

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.”
Ephesians 3:17 TPT

The Passion Translation of our verse today picks up the theme of faith, which we looked at in yesterday’s blog post. We build up our faith muscles “by constantly using [our] faith“. Day by day, as we continue through life, we encounter situations that need the grace and love of God. And through faith we reach out to our loving Heavenly Father through prayer. For His answers, for His remedies, for the “supernatural strength” and “explosive power” that we read about in Ephesians 3:16. Through prayer we enter into God’s presence and bring before Him the needs and situations before us. So we pray for guidance when making a difficult decision. We pray for a sick friend or relative, for healing. We pray for all sorts of things. So we, in faith, leave the situation with our Heavenly Father, who knows what is best. And “by constantly using [our] faith” we will become more and more in tune with our Father in Heaven, and able to look at the situation before us through His eyes. There are times when the situation before us is beyond what we have faith for. We pray anyway, and also pray for the gift of faith, so that the outcome is as God wants it to be. Jesus reminded us of the importance of faith in the outcome to our prayers. He said in Matthew 9:29, “Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith let it be done to you’”. (Emphasis mine). 

There is a discipline that us pilgrims would be well advised to follow. That is to keep a journal of our prayers. A notebook where we can write down our prayers of faith. And then keep them updated with God’s answers to our prayers. When we realise empirically that God answers prayers it is very faith building. I look back over my life and see many occasions where God has answered my prayers of faith. The answers might not have been what I had hoped, but answered they were. The Godless cynic might have put down my experiences to coincidence. But there have been too many “coincidences” for me to accept that. Instead I call them “God-incidences”, because they are so real to me. To me, they are obviously answers to my prayers from my loving Heavenly Father. And I am so grateful to Him for His care and interest in me and my prayers.

One of the most misunderstood topics of prayer is the prayer for sick people. In my personal experience this is a place where ordinary pilgrims like me fear to tread. A complex area where we find answers to prayer often don’t deliver what we would perhaps expect, or hope for. We scrutinise the Scriptures and particularly the Gospels where Jesus healed so many sick people, to see if there is a formula or methodology we could adopt. But there isn’t of course. God is never bound by human thinking. There are many complex issues involved. For example, some people don’t want to be healed – Jesus asked the disabled man at the Pool of Bethesda just that question. We read in John 5:6, “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”. Another situation might have involved sin. In Matthew 9:2 perhaps Jesus discerned that the more important issue was forgiveness for the man’s sins. “Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”. Note that in this case the man’s friends had faith that Jesus could resolve their friend’s problem. But regardless of what the issues are, we still pray for the sick. There are two verses in James 5 that are often quoted, “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.“. Another key verse is from Isaiah 53, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”. Jesus took on our infirmities, sicknesses and sins so that we are healed, body, soul and spirit.

One last thought about praying for healing – we are blessed by an incredible Health Service here in the UK. Many complain about it but behind the scenes dedicated men and women are compassionately using their skills – personal, medical and technical – to dispense God’s healing power. And we have faith in their abilities, and thank God for them. 

Let us never give up praying. And praying with all the faith we have, to a loving Heavenly Father who cares for us. One last Scripture about faith, from that great faith chapter in Hebrews. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.“. God loves it when we pray in faith. I want to please Him, don’t you?

Explosive Power

Posted on by korgrocker

“And I pray that He would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.”
Ephesians 3:16 TPT

Paul continues to pray for his friends back in Ephesus. And this is not a prayer along the lines of “Please bless Aunty Mary…”, good though that is sometimes. This is a powerful prayer. A prayer that is tuned into the God-zone. A prayer for a life-changing transformation to take place in lives that were perhaps not fully aware of what was within them. Now imagine a room with a door that has never been opened. In fact, a room where the door blends into the surrounding walls to the extent that most of the time its existence is hidden. But one day, someone detects that the door is there and opens it to find an amazing treasure trove behind it. Perhaps Paul had a picture of a similar door in the hearts of his readers, a door that they were only dimly aware of. A door that they had timidly opened just a crack, and had peeped in to see what was there. But they had ventured no further. Well, Paul was praying that they would grasp the door handle and yank the door open to expose “the unlimited riches of [God’s] glory”. And he prayed that they would keep it open until what was behind the door could flood out into their lives.

So what were these “unlimited riches” hidden within them? And how will a knowledge of them help today’s pilgrims in their life journeys? The Passion Translation which I have used today mentions God’s “glory and favour“. Paul prayed that “supernatural strength floods [our] innermost beings“. And he doesn’t stop there. He mentions God’s “divine might and explosive power”. If true, this verse has to be transformative for our lives. For our pilgrimage. If true, where is this power? Where are the lives being impacted by it? 

On my pilgrimage through life, I have come across Christians who deny that the power Paul wrote about was applicable to today. They claim that the work of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity who delivers God’s “divine might and explosive power“, stopped when the Apostles finally all died. Sadly, I think they worship a limited God who I don’t fully recognise. I worship Paul’s God, the Almighty Being who has made His “unlimited riches” available to me. Why would He say to me that He has all this power, that He has put it within me, but then say He was sorry but He only allowed those first Apostles to use it? 

So back to my question. What is this power? I suggest that the only limitation to what God can do in our lives is our faith, or lack of it. Matthew recorded Jesus’ words about faith – he wrote in Matthew 17:20, “He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” I think we can all agree that telling a mountain to move, and seeing it happen, is a pretty convincing demonstration of God’s power. Jesus also said, as recorded in John 14:12-14, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” There doesn’t seem to be any limit to what God can do. 

So there is only one answer to my question. It is an answer that starts and finishes with God. I have to tune into my own God-zone, with faith that He is who He says He is – the Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient Almighty Creator God. And so we take small steps of faith in our life-pilgrimage, building up the spiritual muscles that will enable God’s “explosive power” to impact our lives and the lives of those around us. In my life there have been occasions when God’s power has been indisputable. And I continually thank Him for making His resources available to me. He truly is a God of power, and love, and grace. We worship an exciting God, who only waits for willing servants to share in His exciting plan for mankind.

For This Reason

Posted on by korgrocker

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”
Ephesians 3:14-15 NIVUK

“Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’”
John 3:5-7 NLT

For this reason … what reason? Perhaps Paul considered the Ephesian church, that body of believers, as his “baby”, an infant birthed from his diligence in preaching the Gospel in a city dominated by its own particular deity, Artemis. A fellowship of baby Christians who he desperately wanted to be with, personally nurturing them with the love and grace of God. But they were having to stand firm on their own, dependent on God and His Spirit for all they spiritually needed. He couldn’t be with them, but he could pray. And there in that prison cell, Paul fell to his knees, to pray for the folks back in Ephesus. 

Paul knelt before his Heavenly Father. Humbly and fervently praying. And he went on in his prayers to think about the huge family God has. Every person in every family who call upon His name. All those who claim the surname of God. All those who have a “born again” birth certificate. And there in his attitude of prayer, Paul felt a glow of encouragement about how many there were in this wonderful family. There may have even been a faint sense of pride, quickly extinguished, as he went through the names of all the friends he had made, remembering the times when he introduced them into the Kingdom of God, right into God’s family. 

Nicodemus came for a cosy chat with Jesus, but right at the start, Jesus pointed out to him that we go through two birth experiences. A natural birth from our parents, a man and a woman. And a spiritual birth through the Holy Spirit. Jesus was quite explicit. He said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again“. We have no choice in being born naturally. But we do have a choice, sadly rejected by most people, of being born again of the Spirit. Something amazing happens, beyond natural, worldly comprehension, when someone is “born again“. But when it happens, through faith we are immediately adopted as a new member of God’s family. We read before about how we came to be members of God’s family. In Ephesians 1:5 Paul wrote, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” So there you have it – through Jesus and His sacrifice for us sinners, we have, through faith in Him, been adopted into God’s family. The entry on our earthly kingdom birth certificate might be something like “John Smith”. But on our spiritual Kingdom birth certificate it might be “John God-son”. We have a dual nationality. One will end when we leave this world. The other is eternal; we will be in God’s family for ever. When we look at it in that way, perhaps we should be more attentive to the responsibilities of being a part of God’s eternal family. Hmmm…

There may be readers of my blog today who haven’t yet taken that step of being “born again”. If that is you, please get in touch. I would love to help you fill out your application for a new birth certificate.