Romans 8:26-28, Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
The suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is revealed in us. But the suffering of this present time often interferes with our prayer life and with our spiritual growth and development. We need help and are not even sure what to ask for. Remember the old saying, "Be careful what you ask for — you may get it!" Sometimes we just don't know what to ask for simply because we can't imagine what the answer would need to be. Thank God, the Spirit helps us in…
Our weakness.
Resulting from our suffering. Read with me, Romans 8:18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us… & 23, And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Without any doubt the apostle Paul understood the problems of suffering. You recall his pedigree found in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 11. There he spoke of imprisonment, beatings, stoning, shipwrecks, being constantly surrounded by danger and physically in need. Along with all this physical and mental suffering he still carried on his heart the daily pressure of anxiety for the churches. Without a doubt he understood suffering. He also knew that every believer will suffer at one time or another because of their faith and this suffering causes us to be weak in faith. We are also weak…
Resulting from our lack of knowledge. We know what we want, but don't know what's really right in any given situation. Our wants, the Bible tells us, are not God's wants! Contrary to popular opinion the world doesn't circulate around us! We are not the center of the universe individually or corporately. Sometimes we don't even know what we want. We only know that we want something to fix the problem. So one of our weaknesses is ignorance.
Ignorance is not a bad thing it just simply means that we do not know. Ignorance can be cured by knowledge. How can we know the will of God? We know the will of God by knowing the Bible. The Bible is God's revealed will to mankind. I know the Bible pretty well, but even with that, I don't always know what to apply in any given situation. I need direction and guidance.
Please, don't just open the Bible and put your finger down and claim a verse to solve your problem. That's nothing but superstition. But please do search the Scriptures for an answer to your problem. Take the time to look and see for yourself. Ask advice from someone you trust who really knows the Bible. And ask God to show you what you need to know. Many times our prayers are not answered because of our selfishness.
Resulting from our selfishness. Look with me at, James 4:3, You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Often times we are very sure what we want and believe that God should give it to us but our motives are wrong and God measures the heart. Half jokingly, someone created a T-shirt that said, "God, let me prove I can be trusted. Let me win the lottery"! That T-shirt prayer reflects the self-centeredness that's part of the human condition. So, often our prayers are not answered because they result from our self-centeredness. God is not honored when we are selfish. He is pleased to reward us when we ask correctly. Jesus himself said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33) Thank God for that and focus on his kingdom and his righteousness. Because of our weakness the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.
Holy Spirit intercedes for us.
Jesus promised the Spirit. Read, John 14:15-17, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. … In his last days on earth, knowing that his disciples would soon be lost without him, he told them what the future plan was. At least three times he told him he would be arrested, beaten, and crucified by sinful men. He also said after three days he would rise again. Jesus knew they didn't understand it so he tried to reassure them in another way. He promised that he would send another helper, the Spirit of Truth, to be with them when he was gone. There is a false teaching in the world today that says a person can be a believer without having the Holy Spirit. I believe in being filled with the Spirit. I believe in many fillings of the Spirit. I have to base my beliefs on the word of God, not on my feelings or my experiences. The word of God says…
The Spirit lives in every believer. Read, 2 Timothy 1:14, By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and causes a person to seek a right relationship with God. The Holy Spirit comes into the life of a person and causes them to be born again into the family of God. The Holy Spirit guides and protects us, sometimes when we are not even aware of it! The Holy Spirit informs us — puts thoughts into our minds that glorify God. The thoughts that come to us come from at least three sources. First, they come from our renewed mind that no longer generates sinful thoughts. (1 John 3:9 and 5:18). Second, they come from the Holy Spirit and those thoughts always glorify God. Third, our thoughts come from the power of sin that lives in our body. Those thoughts never glorify God but often stimulate us to selfish desires! Thank God for the work he does in our lives to defeat the power of the enemy by pulling down every stronghold taking every thought captive to Christ. He sends his Spirit to live in us. That enables us to pray…
According to God's will. Look at what John had to say, 1 John 5:14-15, And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. Even Jesus had to ask "according to the Father's will" when he was in the garden of Gethsemane. You remember he prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." Jesus knew the will of the Father, but his humanity caused him to look for another way. I don't always know the will of the Father. Or, not liking it, still look for another way. Many times people will come to me and ask me to tell them it's alright to do something that's clearly not "alright". How can we really know God's will? Look at what the psalmist said, Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. This is a spiritual IQ test! You're still very immature as a Christian if you take the phrase, "he will give you the desires of your heart" to mean that you could have any desire you want. That can only be true if your "wanter" has been fixed by the Spirit of God who has come to live in you. What this passage really says is that if we will make the Lord God our delight and desire to please him in all things. he will put the desires in our heart. These desires will bring glory and honor to him, and will guide us into a prayer life that will be…
According to his purpose.
The Spirit is our guide. Jesus explained to his disciples what the Spirit would do for them, John 16:13-15, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare to you.
The Spirit of God comes to live in every believer when they are saved. He's there to guide us into all the truth. The Spirit, as part of the Godhead, will only instruct us in the things that please the Father. Sometimes, he will reveal to us the future to protect us from bad decisions while guiding us to right decisions. But always the Spirit of God glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He reminds us of what Jesus taught. He shows us how to obey Jesus and how to encourage others to obey Jesus. The Spirit guides us and our renewed mind receives that guidance. We know that's true because…
We have the mind of Christ. Read with me 1 Corinthians 2:16, “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. … I love it when the Bible is very clear. There should be no debate about the presence of the mind of Christ in the believer. We have his mind and are able to think his thoughts.
Why don't we do that all the time? It's pretty simple. We also have all our past experiences and habits resident in our body. I assume that the power of sin is resident in our brain as part of our memory. We learn how to tell the difference between the mind of Christ and our old habits as we grow in grace and the knowledge the Lord . You know the old saying, "Live and learn"? Some of us are pretty thick. One day I heard someone use that phrase in my dad's presence. Dad responded, "Some folks just live". If, as a Christian believer, you "just live" rather than "live and learn" you will be confronted again and again with the same problem until you "get it". We should look at everything in life as part of our spiritual education — I am sure that God does. Having the mind of Christ does not mean that everything we do is according to God's will. We are still subject to the world, the flesh and the devil. Eventually, we will see that the same problem continues to confront us and we will desire to "get it right" so we can go onto the next thing, whatever that is!
I'm so glad that God is patient and long-suffering with us. With his patience and the guidance of his Holy Spirit we develop the ability to think his thoughts because we have the mind of Christ! That guides us into…
Not our will but his wisdom. This is a long reading. Bear with me, 1 Corinthians 1:18-30, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,…
We need to take this passage apart and see what it says. Too often we read Scripture and it seems to go into our eyes and out somewhere without having much effect on our mind. Or, we hear Scripture and it just goes in one ear and out the other! The world considers Christian teaching to be foolishness or folly. Well I have news for the world! God has made foolish the wisdom of the world. Unbelievers seem to be desperate to prove that God does not exist. Billions of dollars are spent in an effort to discover the origin of the universe. All the while ignoring the truth that "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Some will say, "They are only trying to discover how God created." If you watch the news, you know that on July 4 scientists in Switzerland announced evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson. This is a subatomic particle that will explain for them how things hold together. It is been popularly called "the God particle". Paul wrote to the Colossians the following words: For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:16-17) Nothing discovered by science has ever disproved the existence of God.
Dr. David Wilkinson, Principal of St John's University of Durham,England, wrote: "When I was a physics student, the then retired Professor Rochester became a friend and we would sit together in our local church. I asked him once why he thought God had made a Universe with so many strange and exotic particles, to which he replied ‘Of course all particles are God’s particles. The really amazing thing is that he gives us the gift of science to discover them’."
My observation is that many scientists are clearly trying to teach that there is no God. The Bible has an answer for that, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'.” I understand that a better translation might be, "No God for me."
Paul's preaching was pretty simple. "… We preach Christ crucified" and that message is a stumbling block to the world. For those who believe, that message is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The Spirit of God has come to live in us, the mind of Christ has been given to us and Christ has become God's wisdom for us. We are able to pray with confidence because we know without a doubt that God causes all things work together for good for those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.
We are in desperate need of the power of God in our day-to-day lives. In our human abilities and strengths we "get by" until things get tough. We don't know how to pray or what to pray for. Oh, we have lots of opinions on the subject but no real knowledge. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and he gave us the model prayer call by many "the Lord's Prayer ". Even in that we only have a form with little knowledge of how to fill in the gaps. We need to remember that prayer is not a "shopping list" of wants and desires. Instead, prayer is communion with a Holy God. His first purpose should be getting into God's will. Then, when he gives us desires we may ask for them and he will answer according to his purpose.
All Scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
No comments:
Post a Comment