Archive for July, 2006

The concept of good and evil is not a new one, nor is it limited to Christianity. Good and evil has formed the basis of society since the beginning of time and is evident in every religion and the oral histories of hundreds of cultures, many of them dating back thousands and thousands of years.

From modern day fairy tales to pagan based myths in ancient times, societies everywhere are built on the concept of a good and evil.

Interestingly many fairy tales, myths and even secular films take the concept of good and evil a step further and refer quite openly to the concept of a spiritual or supernatural realm.  Demons and Angels. Perhaps these concepts are not spelt out in so many words, but what could optimise demonic forces more than the witch in Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Snow White, Hades the god of the underworld, Jean controlled by phoenix in the latest X-Men movie? The Biblical answer to demons, angels are also subtly inserted into these stories as “the handsome prince charming” or “wolverine”

So why if society is so used to the concept of good and evil, if every child has listened to their parents telling them stories of characters controlled by good and evil, is it so difficult for many Christians to talk openly about angels and demons?  The answer I think is the fear of the unknown.  An unknown we will look at in depth in the coming 8 days and explore the answers as set out in the Bible.

Prayer: Lord open our eyes to the victories you win every day in the spiritual realm on our behalf and reveal your awesome might and glory to us. Amen

When one looks at the world we live in, it is pretty evident that God is not in control. This may sound like a somewhat controversial statement but, if God was in control, do you think that we would be seeing the violence, war, poverty etc that we see each day of our lives.

This is why we as Christians need to take charge and bring into this world God’s grace and mercy. However, in order to do this we need to be confident about the authority given to us by God and we need to be sure on how to use it.

As with most things in life, the art of using the authority given to us by God is something that needs to be practiced. It’s the same principal in that we cannot just pick up a cricket ball and without ever having bowled a ball, expect to be an Alan Donald or a Brett Lee, and once we do become a good bowler, we need to practice regularly in order to stay at the top.

Let’s get one thing clear. As long as we are Christians on fire for God, Satan will always be out to get us. He will always come up with new tricks to trap us, thus we need to be well practiced in using the authority given to us by God so that we can nip Satan’s evil schemes in the bud, before they have a chance to begin.

In everyday of our lives we need to stand firm in the name of Jesus, recognising the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, spending time in God’s word, knowing that we have been bought at a price by a God who loves us more than we will ever know, giving God thanks and praise for all that he has done for us so that his grace may flow freely in and through us.

When we start doing this, we will start to bring peace into this chaotic world.

However, remember to start out small and with practice, God’s authority in you will grow and grow.

And when you pray, if you don’t see results straight away, persist, because God’s work in the spiritual world, which we cannot see would have already begun!

Father I pray that you would give me the persistence to carry on practicing using the authority you have given to me.

It will probably come as little surprise to most to learn that the way in which we exercise the spiritual authority given to us is through prayer.

But now what is it that we pray and what does a prayer of authority look and sound like? This answer I feel may surprise you.

In the words of Mike Endicott, the way in which we excite the Holy Spirit is through thanks and praise. When we start thanking and praising God, we excite the Holy Spirit and he then starts to push the kingdom of God towards and then eventually into the person / situation we are praying for.

What is it that we are thanking God for? We thank God for the cross and the work which he did at Calvary. When Jesus died, Gods hand was taken off of the tap of grace and it hasn’t stopped flowing. We must also understand that when Jesus died he took with him all sickness and heartache.
I think that it was at this point in history too when the evil one realised that he had lost as not even death could triumph over Jesus. Thus, when we thank Jesus for the cross and bless the situation / person into his kingdom, his grace then flows into the situation / person.

But now, what’s the big deal about blessing someone into God’s kingdom and getting the Holy Spirit to push the kingdom into a person / situation?

Well, in God’s kingdom we find things such as love, grace, peace and in his kingdom it is God who reigns, nobody else! Thus where the kingdom of God is things such as sickness and evil cannot exist.

This my friends is how we pray and use our spiritual authority to make things happen.

Take a moment now and during today to thank Jesus for his cross and how it has allowed God’s grace to fill our lives.

Jesus, help me to know the authority I have in you through what you did on the cross.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when one starts to talk about spiritual authority? For most people, it’s probably the image given to us in the book of Mark, chapter 6, where after Jesus has sent his disciples into the community, they cast out demons and heal the sick. However, although there is nothing wrong with this picture, I feel that this is not the ideal way to start practicing spiritual authority.

As we saw yesterday, the best place to start is to start out small, and this is best accomplished when we begin to use Gods authority in our own lives.

So, what is the most important part of our lives which needs to come under God’s authority? Our mind!

So how do we do bring our minds under Gods control?

Philippians 8 says “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.

Joshua 1 : 8 says “ Do not let this Book of the law depart from your mouth: mediate on it day and night …”

We begin to bring our mind under the authority of Jesus when we begin to meditate on his word ( which is the sword of the Spirit ) and things that are pure etc. This for me is one of the reasons why quiet times are so important. When we spend time in God’s word, we begin to give our minds food for thought. Its always a good idea to meditate on either a passage of scripture, words to a Christian song etc, as often as we can. By doing this don’t leave any room in our minds for Satan to pop a thought or two in. Thus, without realising it, we have begun to take authority over our mind. We also begin to learn more about the mind of Christ and how he used the authority given to him by God, and in so doing, this will teach us even more on how to use the authority given to us by God.

When this starts to happen you will slowly be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is because your mind is under the authority and guidance of Jesus Christ and will no longer conform to the ways of this world.

Try to meditate today as often as you can on the word / things of God.

Jesus, may my thoughts today and forever more be filled with things of and from you.

In Matthew 25, from verses 14 – 30, we find a story about a master who goes on a journey. Before he goes, he calls three of his servants before him. To the one he gives 5 talents of money, to the second he gives 2 talents of money, and to the third he gives one talent of money, according each of their abilities. After this the master then sets off on his journey. The servants who received the 5 and 2 talents of money both put the money given to them to work straight away. The end result being that they both received 5 and 2 more talents respectively. The servant who received only 1 talent went off and buried his talent.

When the master arrives home from his trip, he calls his three servants before him. The servant who received 5 talents gave back to his master another 5, plus the 5 talents he received in the beginning. The second servant does likewise. In response the master praises his two servants and tells them that he will put them in charge of many things. However, the servant who only received one talent, gives back to his master this talent, have earned no more. In response to this, the master becomes angry. He scolds the servant, takes away the talent given to him, and gives it to the servant who now has ten talents.

Now I have heard a few interpretations of this story, but with regards to spiritual authority I think that it teaches us another valuable lesson.

You see, before we can start using God’s authority and power to calm the big storms of life, God needs to know whether or not He can trust us with His power and authority. Once He sees that he can trust us with His authority to calm the smaller storms of life, He will then slowly give us more and more of His power to use.

Can you think about someone whom you know or have met who is able to use the authority and power of God to do amazing and spectacular things? Chances are that this person has been in a relationship with Jesus for a lengthy period of time, and in this journey God has most probably seen that He can indeed trust this person to use His power and authority correctly, and that is to further His kingdom and bring glory to Him.

The lesson here friends, is that it’s about starting small and working our way up!

Take a moment now and during today to think about the small things in your life in which you can use God’s authority and power to make a difference.

Jesus, help me to see the small things in my life which I need to bring under your authority and give you power over.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what does your image of God have to do with spiritual authority. This, my friends, is a good question.

Let’s take some time now to look at some ‘not so good’ images of God that the world tries to paint for us every day.

God is a god who is out to get us. He keeps with him a little black book and every time we mess up, we get a black tick put next to our name. We cannot escape from God because he keeps a constant eye on us, waiting for us to get it wrong, and boy, when we do get it wrong, heaven help us as he is a god who will punish us with sickness, hard times and persecution when we mess up. This is to teach us a lesson and to bring us back under his will. He may at times also allow bad things to happen to us just to test our faith. If we don’t have faith that can move mountains, then sorry for you, but you’re going to have to work on your faith a little before we can approach him. God is very busy, and if our problem isn’t big enough, we really shouldn’t bother him with it, and actually, God only helps those who help themselves. He is also not all that reliable and only delivers sometimes on what he promises.

Some of this may sound harsh, but its scary what some people will believe. If any part of your image of God looks remotely similar to what I’ve just described above, please delete it from your mind right now.

Hebrews 4 : 16 says “ Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

How, I ask you, would you be able to approach Gods throne, if your image of him looks anything similar to what I have just described above? Let alone asking for his authority to use his power!

Our image of God need to be one of Love, of a god who loves us so much that he was prepared to send his one and only son to die for us, of a god who comes alive for us as Jesus in the gospels who healed people and set them free, who is alive today, who keeps his promises and is 100% reliable.
If this is the God we believe in, how much easier would be to come before his throne of grace, and how much more confidence will we have when we need to use the power and authority given to us by him?

Take a moment now to and during today to think about your image of God. ( it may be useful to read Psalm 139 and Romans 8 : 37 – 39 )

Jesus, I pray that I would learn to know you more and more as a loving, gracious and merciful god.

The other place that our authority comes from is when we do something in the name of Jesus. How is this you may ask?

Philippians 2 : 9 -  10 says “ Therefore God Exalted him ( Jesus ) to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

Remember the story in Acts chapter three, where Peter and John were going to the temple to pray. A man who was crippled from birth sat outside of the temple gates begging for money. When he asked Peter and John for money, Peter looked straight at him and said “ Silver or gold, I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” The story goes on to tell how the man jumped to his feet and began to praise God.

Why does the name of Jesus carry so much weight?

John 1 : 1 – 3 says “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

In and around the 1400 – 1600’s, when someone wanted to send an important letter, they would painstakingly write the letter with ink, and then seal it with wax. Just before the wax hardened, they would make an impression in the wax with their signet ring. You see, a signet ring was and is unique to the person to whom it belongs and was very difficult to copy. Anyone could forge a letter and make it look as if it came from an important person. However, the proof that the letter did in fact come from the person from whom it said it did was if the mark of the signet ring was clearly visible in the wax. The letter was then treated with the respect and authority it was intended to bring. Without this mark, the letter was treated as just a piece of paper.

Thus, when we go forth in the name of Jesus, it’s as if we go forth with his mark / stamp over our lives. The stamp of Jesus’ name over our lives shows to all that the message we bring or action we are doing, if in accordance with his will, does indeed come from the creator of all things, to whom every knee shall bow.

Take some time out now and during today, to concentrate on the stamp of approval of Jesus’ name, stamped across your heart and life.

Jesus, I pray that today, the you would start to reveal to me, the wonders of your mighty name.

Calling all revolutionaries.. come along to Gallagher Estate in Midrand this Saturday for live music featuring Innervision, Melanie, the Metanoya Rockonfusion, C-Jay, Réana, Sense, Mack, One80, Blue House, Rofhiwa and international act the Continental Singers.

Saturday, 22nd July 2006 17:00 - 23:00

Tickets (R40) available from Radio Pulpit, Cum, Lux Verbi and Impact bookshops.

The Authority of a Believer

Friends, as you should know by now, this month we are looking at Spiritual authority and this week, we carry on with this theme by looking at what authority do we as believers in Jesus Christ have.

Romans 8 : 17 says “ …then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ …”

When we give our lives to Christ we become joint heirs with him, heirs to his kingdom. Thus, we become princes and princesses in his kingdom.

Ephesians 1 : 13 says “ …Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, he sends his Spirit to live inside of us.
On the day of Pentecost when all the disciples were sitting in the room the Holy Spirit came to rest upon each one of them, as tongues of fire. It is this Holy Spirit resting upon our head as a tongue of fire that forms our crown, which in turn makes us a prince or princesses in the kingdom of God.

Thus, our authority comes from the Holy Spirit living inside of us, sent to us by Jesus Christ.
Remember, that this is the same spirit that God used to raise Christ from the dead, so not only do we have Gods Spirit which gives us authority to do things in his name, but a Spirit who carries with him, the power of God

Take some time out now, and during today, to focus / concentrate on what it means for and too you that Christ has chosen to have his Spirit dwell within YOU!

Jesus, help me to become more aware of your Holy Spirit living inside of me.

The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God!

The sword is our main weapon; it is a close proximity weapon, hand to hand stuff! It’s a fairly heavy piece, and you gotta know how to use it!

Hebrews 4:12

‘ For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.’

You cannot go into battle for your mind or even souls, if you do not have a sword, or know how to use it. The bible in its physical form cannot help much. It is the word that you have meditated on and can speak out aloud in a situation that is living and active and double edged, and fight for you!

Meditate on the word day and night it says in Joshua. It must become your food , your flesh, constantly on your mind and tongue! Read Romans 10: 8-10, 17 and Joshua 1 :8

‘Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world!’
‘I am more than a conqueror through him who loves me!’ Rom 8:37
‘No temptation has seized me except what is common to man and he will provide a way out so that I can stand up under it!’ 1 Cor 10:13
‘I am in Christ , I am a new creation’ 2 Cor 5:17
‘I can do everything through him who gives me strength!’ Phil 4:13

How is your sword looking?
Do you have the word of God to take captives those thoughts and arguments that you wrestle with?

God has spoken to you, he has given you what you need to be victorious, he has even told you to write them on your heart.
What else do you need to be a Warrior of God?