“Get to the 7” #gettothe7 You’re going to hear a lot about 7 from me in these days ahead. Why? Because it’s an incredible prayer principle. Remember Joshua marching around Jericho? How many days did he march? 7. How many times did they march around the city on the seventh day? 7. (we practice this weekly in our church by urging people to pray 6 days about your “walls” and then joining others on the 7th, on Sunday, and crying out to God) Remember Elijah sending his servant up to the mountain to see if the prayed-for rain was about to happen? How many times did he go up? 7. Naaman was told to dip in the Jordan seven times. 7. And I could go on and on. 7. I’m going to be challenging you in learning to pray in a life-changing way in the series I’m beginning. It involves getting to the 7. Enduring. Following through. Forgiving. Seeking. Asking. Watching. Then seeing the power of God. When you get to the 7, you are carrying through in prayer – asking and expecting God to work – and He will work supernaturally on your behalf. 7 is a number of completion. A number that signifies a journey to completion. Take the prayer journey with me in the 7 series. Get ready for a ride. Get ready for the time of your life. #gettothe7
0 Comments
Resting Under His Sovereignty
Sickness happens. We’re sure of that. The question is, “At whose hand does it happen?” Is sickness merely part of the human condition in which all of us are potential victims? Is my sickness from sin, present or past, and a consequence for what I’ve done or failed to do? Is it Satan whose diabolic cursing bring us into physical ruin and weakness? Or is sickness from God, in whose Sovereign purpose and plan it is brought for my good and His glory? The answer is, “Yes.” Of course, that requires an explanation. Truth is, I’ve been working on this question for quite a while. When I was a six year old boy, I contracted rheumatic fever, and in the midst of that had a chemical reaction that resulted in a fever reversal – and inner ear nerve damage. I’ve had profound deafness in both ears since that day. At whose hand did that happen? And why? As a pastor, I’m acquainted with many who face critical and debilitating illness. I’ve seen cancer in far too many people, horrible automobile accidents that bring permanent injury or death, and children born with severe defects. Recently I spoke with a young mother who lost the baby she’d only been carrying for a few weeks. At whose hand does all this take place? There are several truths that guide me as I seek an answer to this. The first is simply that God is Sovereign. He is the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and according to Scripture “…upholds all things by the word of His power.” Heb. 1:3 My answer must take this into account, but I’m also aware that how God exercises that Sovereignty is beyond our ability to comprehend. I’m left to simply ponder His revelation and allow my answer to fall within what He tells me there. Other truths are indisputable. Sin is present in the world, and from the very first day of the sin in the Garden of Eden, death made its presence known. The serpent was there in that garden, and from that day forward has been known as one who is able to exercise his ability to rob, kill and destroy. Free will is plainly present alongside all these things. Man’s free will is limited to the boundaries a Sovereign God allows, but is there nonetheless and undoubtedly complicates the picture of human events. One of the ways I am able to picture all these elements operating in our world is to envision a huge umbrella overshadowing every created thing. That umbrella would represent God’s Sovereignty, and beneath His Sovereignty are all the above mentioned elements. God is assuredly in control and there is no question that “…God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God…” Rom. 8:28 This means that all those factors that are present in the world we live in aren’t randomly running amok, hurting and maiming all those in their path. God has not allowed the universe to simply move in whichever way it will, and He, in response, does not have to scurry about fixing things that get broken because of sin, Satan and natural calamity. And yet, at the same time, the Bible steers us away from believing that God directly sends all sickness, directly commissions Satan to create havoc and directly crashes two cars into one another resulting in tragic consequence. There are those whose view of God’s Sovereignty causes them to struggle with this. “How can God be in control if He did not directly decree something?” they say. In my view, God’s Sovereignty is even more amazing in that He is able to take all He has allowed to be freely active and cause it all to work toward His purpose. There are times when God directly declares and decrees what we would consider to be bad. Moses protested God’s call on his life to be a spokesman for Israel by saying, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent…for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” God’s response? “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who make him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Exodus 4:10-11. Here, God sends both the stuttering and the purpose for it – so that Moses will depend more upon the Lord. In Genesis, Joseph is sold as a boy into slavery by the hatred and selfishness of his brothers. God, however, works so powerfully in his life that the curse of sinful brothers becomes the catalyst for an amazing set of events that would provide rescue of God’s people from famine. At the end of the astounding story, Joseph affirms to his wicked brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” Genesis 50:20. We’re left to marvel at the hideously wicked nature of man (selling your younger brother into slavery) and the amazingly redemptive purpose of God. The evil may have been sent from men, but the purpose comes from God. Another incredible event is the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Having lied to the Holy Spirit, they dropped dead when confronted by the Apostle Peter. Clearly, their death was brought on because of sin, yet God brought a ripple effect out of that event, as we’re told, “…great fear came over the whole church.” Acts 5:11 Sin brings the death, God brings the purpose. When Paul speaks of His “thorn in the flesh” he calls it a “messenger from Satan to torment me…” 2 Cor. 12:7 However, in the same verse he affirms that it was sent for a very God-like reason, “…to keep me from exalting myself.” The messenger may be from Satan, but the purpose is from God. When Paul prayed for relief, God in His goodness actually gave him something better than healing – grace! So the answer is, “Yes.” Sickness, pain, and heartbreak come from all directions, but are ultimately resting with the purpose and the plan of God. They sit under that great umbrella of Sovereignty, whether we can see it or not. I’ve learned over the years to look at two things, in order to see both the immediate source of events, as well as the Ultimate Source for those same events. I should have an eye on earth and an eye in the heavenly places. It is that perspective that is echoed in the life of Joseph and others. “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” And it is that perspective that guides me through life’s issues. In the end, I can rest assured that God’s purpose is brought about in every single thing that occurs in my life. Without doubt, many good things are brought to us through hardship, yet the gift is not in the hardship, but in that God meets me there to bring about something glorious. “Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission.”
- John Piper Life is war. Have you discovered this yet? If not, you’re in a losing battle already. Like the German citizens who ignored the horrors of Nazi Germany, who chose to look the other way when all the signs of atrocity that accompanied the Holocaust were evident – we are in danger of missing the huge kingdom conflict all around us, living outside of reality. Our casual praying is the evidence of our disengagement. New Testament Christianity was birthed in persecution and cultural conflict. The early followers of Christ were aware of the life-and-death stakes of the Gospel message. They saw the blood of Christ, then the blood of the early martyrs, their friends and brothers. Many of them shed their own blood. Inseverable from the reality that war were passionate, desperate, battle-cry prayers. I see this in the Scriptures. I see this in my brothers and sisters battling for the Gospel in India. I see this “life is war” mentality in Cuban pastors and their wives who struggle from birth to death with how to live as followers of Christ in a communist country. I see their tears, their prayers, their dependence on God and their desperation for God’s powerful hand. I’m beginning to see it, ever so slowly, in my life. I see it unfolding in my family and my church. When the enemy inflicts injury, when spiritual opposition rises up with ugly power, when those we love the most are dragged downward with selfish decisions – we taste this war. It’s evident in the tear-stains on the faces of the people in our church as they cry out to God for personal victory in their lives every Sunday morning in full view. I know it’s real when I see our staff crying loudly for God to bring the break-through we desperately need. I see it in the yearning for victory to occupy our city with the Gospel, that He might knock down the walls that still stand, when we pray for an Unreached People Group to get just a simple opportunity to hear about Jesus. I smell the scent of war in the air and feel the thrill of advance when we charge together like an army. On the other hand, I know we’re sometimes on the losing end of this conflict when the vast majority of churches have completely given up in the battle for the Gospel. Completely given up. No plan. No leadership. No charge to go the fields with the Gospel. No desperate praying. Just surviving. When war is not part of our conversation, and when it is not evident in our prayer, we are missing the huge kingdom conflict we are emphatically called to. We are missing the incredible promise of victory that comes from our Commander in Chief. Get in the battle! Learn that life is war. Cry out to God for assistance and wisdom and courage. Then advance into the fray with bold, audacious praying – expecting that God will come to your aid in the battle He’s placed you in. When I was skiing years ago, I’d decided to jump off an incline and go airborne. What I didn’t know, however, was that the slope I was about to land on was closed off by a large rope that stretched across the place where I was supposed to land. 5′ high and 50′ across, this rope became my destiny. I went into the air, saw the rope, tried to clear it, failed and went into an unexpected downfall. It was as the rope became entangled within my feet and skis and I was pulled back to earth. In that moment, I prayed an instantaneous SOS prayer.
As I remember it went something like, “Oh, Lor…” SPLAT. He answered me, but not in an audible voice. It was kind of like, “Don’t you ever do that again.” Sometimes prayer is a kneel-on-the-floor and spend time with God kind of thing. Sometimes it’s a briefer – and very, very desperate. Nehemiah prayed this kind of prayer in Nehemiah 2:4. It was short, and his boss, the king asking him a question and him needing to know the answer. Some people have called this “arrow” prayer, as in shooting off an arrow toward God that says, “Help!” Some have called it “faxing” a prayer – and now, “texting” a prayer to God. Whatever you call it, it is the same principle. When we think things are going well, God is there. But when the chips are down and we’re out of our minds with desperation and fear, He’s still there. Call on Him. |
John MeadorThoughts from John Meador and insights from God's Word. Archives
November 2023
Categories
All
|