There Is Something Even More Important Than Reading Your Bible

When I was teaching in school one of the more difficult classes I taught was Algebra. It wasn't that algebra itself is difficult but that there was a lot of resistance from the students. The reason they resisted was because they saw no practical use for it. History is full of interesting stories so most students don't mind learning it. English is very practical. Science is fun but Algebra seemed to them to have no purpose. It only makes sense that we would want to use our time and effort to gain skills that we can apply daily. So why do we fail to do this with the Word of God?

First, let's just repeat : It is the Word of God. It needs to be respected so when we approach it there should be a sense of awe and wonder as we open the words that reveal Father's heart to us. These are his words that he has given to us so that we could understand the history of our situation and his love for us. It is filled with inspiration, direction and instructions. It gives us many sign posts, measuring rods so that we can do self evaluations to know where we are in our relationship with Jesus and how far we are coming along in our growth. This is important stuff.

The Word is not theory but a practical guide for living. We are to hear it, read it, meditate on it, study it, memorize it but especially apply it. When Jesus was told his family was waiting for him his response was important:

My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it. (Luke 8:21, NKJV)

Not just hear it but do it. We all know what James had to say about it:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25, NKJV)

But this is not an original thought from James. The Spirit is only reminding us through James what Jesus has already told us. In fact, there is one verse that I find essential for every believer to grasp:

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." (John 14:21, NIV old version))

It is impossible to argue against the words of the one who showed his love to us by going to the cross for us. We have his commands by hearing and reading, but it is the obedience that is essential for the full revelation of Jesus. In our obedience we will know that we are loved and Jesus will show himself to us.

Obviously we can't obey the commands of Yahweh in our flesh. If that had been possible Jesus would not have had to die for us. However, what is impossible for man is possible for Yahweh and is the reason why we have the Holy Spirit. Salvation has been won for us by Jesus but our maturity comes about by our cooperation and obedience to the Spirit. He is with us to empower us to grow in our obedience. I so enjoy Ephesians 4 for its explanation of the process:

His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. (v. 12-13, CEB) 

We are suppose to be growing in order to reach spiritual maturity. Hearing, reading and doing the Word of God is essential to this growth. The doing is possible through the Spirit in us. This maturity is important, especially in these end days for in this same passage we read:

 As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ,  who is the head. (v. 14-16, CEB)

People are confused today because they don't know the Word so they can't obey the Spirit. People are going by their emotions and rational thinking. Because it makes sense in this world they assume it is what Yahweh wants. We don't have to guess or assume at what Yahweh wants, he has already written it down for us. We just need to obey in our relationship with Jesus and by the power of the Spirit in us.

Yes, stop reading this and go read your Bible. Then get up, go out in the Spirit and do what Jesus has commanded. In this way you will demonstrate that you are part of his family and you will receive even greater revelation of him as he reveals himself to you. More importantly, Jesus will be glorified through you.

"Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?"

"Why doesn't God answer my prayers?" Have you ever been asked that question? Have you ever asked that question? I have a wife who has a great relationship with Father. Whatever she asks for she receives. People have started asking her to prayer for their needs because they recognize that Father responds to her. Why does he seem to answer some and not others? It really comes down to relationship.

A lot of people who ask me this question have no relationship with Jesus. They are using the question to justify their position as a non-believer. Others are so steeped in sin, they may believe in Jesus but they certainly are not following him in obedience. Isaiah answered this question by first stating that Yahweh is more than capable of answering so there should be no doubt:

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear. (Isaiah 59:1)

So with that established we consider what the problem is:

But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear. (v. 2)

Your sins are separating you from Father. The relationship was established through the sacrifice of the cross. From here we were adopted so that we could call Yahweh Father. It was sin that separated us in the first place, our acts of rebellion. Sin can hide Father from us again. Refusing to obey, refusing to live by the words of Jesus is rebellion and Father will close his ears to us. Repent.

Doubting the goodness of Father will also prevent him from answering. Why bother praying in the first place if you doubt he will respond. That's crazy. Doubt kills faith and without faith we cannot please Yahweh:

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:6-8)

Selfishness is also another thing that prevents us from receiving in prayer. We have this mistaken notion that Jesus planned a perfect, happy, rich life of abundance for us. But Jesus' treasures are different than our idea of treasure. James states in his characteristic blunt fashion:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

Jesus did tell us that we can ask for anything of Father in his name, in our relationship of oneness with him, and we would receive it. But what we fail to remember is that a Christian life is far from self-centered and our primary focus is on the things of the Kingdom. We fail to keep the things that Jesus taught in the context of all his instruction and his instruction was plainly to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. Ours is a sacrificial life in this place as agents of the Kingdom. When we ask anything for ourselves it will always be in the context of seeking the things of the Kingdom. If Jesus told us not to chase after the things the pagans do, why would we think we can chase after them in prayer? Jesus told us we don't need to worry about the basics because Father has us covered.

My wife possesses a pure heart. She isn't perfect and sometimes her desire for the best for others sometimes gets her in trouble but her motivation is pure. She desires to see Jesus glorified in every person she knows. I have the privilege of praying with her daily and I am telling you her prayers are powerful. They are powerful because they are focused on the Kingdom. She has no problem asking for things that are absent from her life that she needs for the Kingdom work, and she gets what she asks for.

There is also the matter of Father's will. Our relationship is an intimate one which allows us to become aware of his will. So often I have had people ask me to pray with them on certain matters. They have expressed what they wanted but as I began to pray the Spirit showed me that it was not Father's will, that he desired something different for them. In our prayers our priority must be what Father wants and submit ourselves to his will. This is vital as a servant of Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is one of reflection; reflecting on the goodness of Yahweh but also on our own spiritual condition. We submit ourselves to examination all the time, asking the Spirit to reveal our heart to us so we can confess anything that does not belong to Jesus. We are concerned about such matters because we want to walk like Jesus, we desire to live by his righteousness. If we check ourselves, believe Father desires to respond, make sure we are not asking selfishly for our own pleasures, that we are focused on Kingdom matters, understanding the Father's will, we will see all our prayers answered. Sounds more complicated than it is. Simply make Jesus your everything, take him by the hand and take joy in the relationship. Prayers will be wonderfully effective in such a relationship because it is all about relationship.

The Practical Side Of Faith

Sometimes we struggle in our faith because it wars with our flesh. We are very capable people. We can make decisions and live by them. We can plot a course for our lives and live by it. We can choose a career and be successful in it but it doesn't mean that Jesus is in it or that it belongs to the Father's will. Our flesh can desire a lot of things that look legitimate and honouring to Yahweh but that are actually contrary to the Holy Spirit.

The Law of Yahweh is holy and perfect but impossible for us to live because we are far from perfect. The Law, as presented by Moses, was an attempt to live in the flesh what first had to transpire in the heart. Its purpose was to reveal to us the righteousness of Yahweh and how much we have fallen short of that righteousness. It was to show us how much we need Jesus. Romans 10 says this:

Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: (Romans 10:5-6)

Now here Paul quotes Moses so I want to go directly to that passage as Moses speaks the prophetic word:

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)

Now back to Romans where Paul explains:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

This applies to every promise ever uttered by Yahweh, through prophets or his Son. Salvation is just one of a long list of promises that we are to live by every day of our life. Whether we see the end from the beginning or we seem lost on a dark path, we know the promises. In knowing them we declare with our mouth and we believe in our heart that we possess them and it will happen. It is not a magic formula, it is the practical act of faith.

Our flesh wants to tell us to live by what we see, act upon what we are experiencing, but faith says trust Yahweh. However, Yahweh gave substance to our faith by filling his Word with promises for us and then he gave us his Son to open the way to those promises. He sent us the Spirit to empower us to live those promises and it is by his strength that we can declare with our mouth and believe in our heart, and walk in faith.

A cautionary note though: Scripture warns us that a double minded man cannot receive from the Father:

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:6-8)

I realize our spirit and flesh war with each other but it is time to put that war to rest. The flesh belongs under the spirit and our spirit must have control. We live by faith not by sight. Remind yourself of that a hundred times a day. Whatever you are going through find a promises of Yahweh to apply to it, confess it and believe it and you will possess it. Deny yourself and desire above all things the will of our Father.

Knowledge, Wisdom, Gifting (2)

So you are a person filled with knowledge. You have studied hard, filled your brain, impressed a lot of people; now what? Now what are you going to do with all that knowledge? What is it good for? How are you going to apply it? There are a lot of smart people in the world. There are a lot of people who love to read. There are a lot of information junkies but very few do anything with it. It's like they think it's just about them so they keep that knowledge to themselves, nullifying its purpose.

Gaining knowledge, kept in the context of our relationship with Yahweh is excellent, but it is useless without the wisdom to know how to apply it. But wisdom is not something that can be learned as it's source is Yahweh. Wisdom is only found in our LORD.

Here is the thing about wisdom: You need to know you need it. Second, you need to desire it, to seek for it. Third, you need to ask for it.

Solomon, in his instructions to his son, emphasized the great importance of wisdom and described it as honey:

My son, eat honey because it is good,
And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste;
14 So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul;
If you have found it, there is a prospect,
And your hope will not be cut off. (Proverbs 14:13-14)

Wisdom is a sustaining thing of life and he describes the lack of it like death:

The lips of the righteous feed many,
But fools die for lack of wisdom. (Proverbs 10:21)

We need to know that we need wisdom in order to honour God and fulfil our purpose.

In knowing that we need it we will begin to desire it, to seek for it. But we don't seek as the world does, because we seek only in the LORD who is the source of all wisdom:

For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
8 He guards the paths of justice,
And preserves the way of His saints. (Proverbs 2:6-8)

But we must seek it. It doesn't just happen. It's like Solomon told his son, he has to "get" wisdom:

Wisdom is the principal thing;
Therefore get wisdom.
And in all your getting, get understanding.
8 Exalt her, and she will promote you;
She will bring you honor, when you embrace her. (Proverbs 4:7-8)

The world tells us that wisdom comes from years of experience but that is wisdom as measured by the world. The wisdom of value is a gift from our LORD.

We know we need it, it is something we desire, so how do we obtain wisdom. James told us simply to ask:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:5-6)

Of course when we ask of our LORD the things he desires for us to have, they are ours. We act in faith that we have them and it is amazing what the LORD is able to accomplish through us. Don't expect it to look like it does in the world and don't expect the world to agree with you. The wisdom of the LORD is not based upon the principles of this world but upon Yahweh himself. It is amazing though the difference it makes when the LORD's wisdom is used to apply our knowledge.

You know you need it, you desire it, you have asked for it, now walk in it. Tomorrow we look at the third element of success: God's Gifting.

Are You In Need Of More Energy?

I am interrupting my regularly scheduled blog to bring you what is on my heart today. I was at prayer meeting last night and as I prayed the Spirit put words in my mouth that I began to listen to. That's the funny thing about prayer, if we really listen to the Spirit we end up being a mouth piece for what God wants released in prayer instead of our own thoughts.

I had a young man write me once to ask me what he should do. He was finding he had no energy or drive to do anything. My response was simple: Get off the couch. Sounds dumb but it isn't. Physically the best way to gain energy is to spend energy. The more you are inactive the less energy you will have. If you want to increase your energy start a walking routine. The more you put out the more you gain. The same holds true spiritually.

We have an obesity problem in the Church and it is causing a lack of energy. We have a lot of people sitting around on the couch, being entertained. We fill ourselves up on the Word but we never do anything. We gain a lot of knowledge but we don't do anything with it. We are much into the theory of Jesus, we couch others from our armchairs, we are great at calling the game, but we do not get up and participate. We go to the stadium every week to sit in the stands and act as a roaring and excited crowd but we never get out on the field. We lack spiritual energy and intimacy with Jesus because we have no exercise routine. We have to spend energy to gain energy.

There is nothing more energizing than leading someone to Jesus. When we are actually living our faith, trusting God to give us the words to talk to people about Jesus, we grow in our intimacy with the Lord. When we are living with the purpose of being sensitive to the Spirit we come alive in our own spirit. Suddenly we are a lot more aware of what God is doing around us and we want to be even more involved. Suddenly we are constantly aware of his presence, his will and desire for us, his call for us to take action. We are moving from cheering fan to full flung player with a desire to pour all of our energy into the game.

Of course it isn't a game. This is about life and death for people lost in a dying world. We seem to lose sight of the fact that this is not about us and everything about them. We are not here to gain all the "toys" or build our own little kingdoms. We aren't even here to have a comfortable life. We are here to tell others about Jesus. We are here to work out our salvation daily and this is done as we do the Word of God. We are participants in this war, not spectators.

It is great that people have a hunger for the Word and that they want to gain knowledge, but there is more to it than that. The Word of God must be put into action in our life and to do that we have to get off the couch. This world has a lot of distractions, some of which are interesting and attractive, but it is not for us to step aside from our calling and rest for a while. James says it best:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)

So, it's time to get up off of that couch and gain some spiritually energy. It's time to get into the game. It's time to come alive in Jesus. Put into action all that knowledge you have gained. Just do it.