4SpiritualSecrets

“…tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer…” (Philippians 4:6)

The second condition of Paul’s prescription for peace is that we pray about everything! Worry is unproductive and even counterproductive, but prayer is productive. So Paul prescribes that we worry about nothing and pray about everything.

Paul had a physical condition that he described as a “thorn in the flesh.” From some words he wrote to the Galatians I’m convinced he was suffering from a very severe problem with his eyes. In the original language he wrote that when he first visited them his eyes were so hideous to look at they made them want to vomit (Galatians 4). He also suffered from chronic fatigue. I resonate with his weakness. I have had chronic fatigue since 1978.

Three times Paul fervently asked God to remove this “thorn” from his life. And three times God said “No!” But God also responded “My grace is sufficient for you and that is all you need. My strength looks good on weak people.” (2Corinthians 12 LB) His weakness drove Paul to discover the strength of God. When he did, he not only accepted his condition but gloried in it so the power of God might rest upon him.

In his ministry this apostle saw many sick people miraculously healed. He knew God could do that. In his case, three times the answer was “No.” He was not bitter about that. He rather prescribed essentially, “Whether it is to receive healing or the grace to live with a physical condition, pray. Always pray because, unlike worry, prayer is always productive. So, pray about everything.”

“Don’t worry over anything whatever…” (Philippians 4:6)

In the fourth chapter of his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul prescribed twelve conditions for what the Bible calls “the peace of God.” Those who have the Holy Spirit living in them must meet these twelve conditions if they want to live in this continuous state of peace. If you profess to be a follower of Christ and you don’t have this peace, if you didn’t know it’s based on conditions, is it really any wonder that you don’t have this peace?

The first of these conditions is: don’t worry. Paul doesn’t begin his conditions for peace this way because there is nothing to worry about. He prescribes this because worry is not productive. In fact, worry is counterproductive. Worry saps from us the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical strength we need to cope with our problems. If you examine this peace prescription of Paul carefully, you will discover that he tells us to replace our worry with something that is productive.

I once saw a sign which asked “Why Pray When You Can Worry?” I had hitch-hiked from the East to the West Coast of America to transfer to a college in California and I had $23.00 in my pocket. The godly old man who showed me the sign ran the employment office for the college and I desperately needed a job. He saw the worry in my face, pointed to the sign and asked me “Which one is it going to be, son?”

In his peace prescription Paul shows us how all of us must answer that question.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is fixed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)

Isaiah wrote of a state of perfect peace in which God can keep you, continuously. However, he also wrote that this state of continuous serenity is based on two very important conditions: you must keep your mind centered on God and you must trust God. This peace is supernatural because it’s a peace you can have even when the circumstances of your life are chaotic.

Jesus promised that He would give His followers a peace the world would never understand because it comes from Him and could be theirs even in the middle of their storms of life. The early followers of Christ were persecuted. While suffering unimaginable cruelty at the hands of their persecutors many died peacefully because they had this peace I’m describing.

The Apostle Paul believed in this peace. In just one chapter of one of his letters he listed twelve conditions on which this peace is based. In another letter Paul described this peace as the fruit, or expression of the reality that the Holy Spirit lives in the authentic disciples of Jesus. We might therefore conclude that the basic condition of this peace is that the Holy Spirit lives in you.

“Christ in you” is the foundation on which all the conditions of this peace are to be built (Colossians 1:27 LB). Before we look at Paul’s twelve conditions for this peace I have a question I want to ask you. There is obviously something to believe and Someone to receive when you become a follower of Jesus Christ. My question is have you received Him?

“… His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Who called us …”
(2 Peter 1:3)

Peter writes that God has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness. He agrees with Paul that all those things can be ours through the relationship we have with the One Who is calling us to live this quality of life. In another place Jesus described it as “life more abundantly” (John 10:10). Throughout the entire Gospel of John this quality of life is called “eternal life.”

Godliness simply means to live like God or with God-like qualities. Simply ask the question “What is God like?” and you define godliness. When you realize the impossibility of living that way, it’s obvious that we must find the power source to live that way somewhere outside ourselves. Peter tells us where to go with that. According to Peter, that power must be found in the knowledge of Him Who is calling us to live that way. Peter’s word for “knowledge” here actually means “to know by relationship.”

Paul wrote that all spiritual blessings are to be found in the spiritual dimension of life in a relationship with Christ. Peter is writing the same thing here. All things that pertain to life and godliness can be found in a relationship with the One Who is calling us to live His way in this world. In your personal relationship with God you will find the spiritual dynamics that equip you to live a godly life.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ.”
(Ephesians 1: 3)

There is a sense in which the letter of Paul to the Ephesians is the “Joshua” of the New Testament because the theme is the same: possess your possessions. In Joshua 1:3, the possessions were one square foot of the Promised Land of Canaan at a time. In Ephesians, the blessings are spiritual blessings and they are not to be found in a land like Canaan. They are to be found “in heavenly places, in Christ.”

By “heavenly places” Paul means the spiritual dimensions of life. He uses that expression six times in this letter. He uses the expression “in Christ” nearly 100 times in his letters. By this second expression he means that it’s possible for us to be in a relationship with the risen Christ the way a branch is in relationship to a vine from which it draws its sustenance and nourishment.

“In heavenly places in Christ” there are all kinds of wonderful spiritual blessings God wants to give us. But we have to come into that spiritual dimension and into relationship with Christ to get those blessings. In other words, “heavenly places in Christ” is the location of our spiritual Promised Land.

Make a list of all the spiritual blessings you think Paul is referring to in this verse like prayer, the Scriptures, worship and fellowship with other believers. Then apply them and possess your spiritual possessions!

“Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon
I have given to you…” (Joshua 1:3)

God spoke these words to Joshua as he was leading the children of Israel into the promised land of Canaan. They show us a principle used by God as He gives us spiritual blessings, such as the Word of God, prayer, worship, spiritual community and many, many others. When He gives them to us we own them. But, according to the principle we learn from God’s dealings with Joshua, we do not possess them until we use them.

Many people own a Bible but they never read it. According to this principle they own their Bible but they do not possess their Bible. God has given every one the gift of prayer. He has given us access to what He calls “the throne of grace” from which He dispenses all kinds of blessings we do not earn, or achieve, or deserve. All we have to do is ask Him for those spiritual blessings. Millions don’t know about that throne. Even worse, millions who know never approach that throne. James has a word for them: “You have not because you ask not.”

The same can be said of faith, worship, spiritual community with other believers, communion with God, forgiveness, the mercy of God that withholds what we deserve, and the grace of God that lavishes on us all kinds of blessings we don’t deserve.

The application of this principle Joshua learned from God is simply this: possess your possessions.

“… do not be like the hypocrites …” (Matthew 6:5)

When I was a poor college student I saw a sign in a window that read “Shirts Done 20¢.” I gathered up a pile of my dirty shirts and took them into the store. To my utter disappointment I was told, “We don’t do shirts. This is a sign shop. We just paint signs!”

A spiritual heavyweight of another generation wrote that when we read the book of Acts we cannot help but allow the thought that God oversold the product when He wrote the New Testament. Another great preacher told the story of how a cat crawled into a model house in a new real estate development where it was many degrees below zero. It curled up in front of a fake fireplace and froze to death. He then preached that people are doing that when they come to our churches. Looking for warmth, love and Gospel truths that can set them free from their sins, they “curl up and freeze to death.”

Jesus was even more honest and realistic than these two preachers. He called the spiritual leaders of His day “hypocrites.” This was the word used in that day for the play actors who wore false faces or masks that looked like the characters they were portraying.

Rather than decide that you are the true disciple and be judgmental of those who are not, ask yourself some questions: Are you, and the spiritual community of which you are a part, false or true? Are you authentic disciples of Jesus, or are you hypocrites? Are you seeing God’s grace changing lives?

Are you cleaning shirts or are you just painting signs?

He is risen!

What does Easter mean to you, personally? The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the key to making Easter personal. To understand that statement, first learn something from a dragonfly. Have you ever watched a dragonfly move like a helicopter from one flower to another with its two magnificent sets of wings?

The dragonfly actually spends the first one to four years of its existence at the bottom of a body of water. In that form it has a respiratory system that enables it to inhale water through its long narrow body and derive oxygen from the water, as many underwater creatures do. This fascinating creature has a second respiratory system that will one day equip it to breathe air when it enters into its second dimension of life.

One day it rises to the surface of the water, climbs up on the land, dries its wings in the sun, spreads those wings and gloriously begins the second dimension of its existence. The dragonfly is obviously designed by God to live out its existence in two dimensions. The message of Easter is that we too have been designed by God to live out our existence in two dimensions-on earth now and one day, in heaven.

The operative Easter word is “Resurrection.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that He is alive. We can know Him and be empowered by Him today. His resurrection is also a preview of our resurrection. God will one day transition us into the second dimension of our existence through our own death and resurrection.

Learn from the dragonfly and let these two applications of the resurrection of Jesus make your Easter 2009 a personal Easter.

“Yea, though 1 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me …” (Psalm 23:4)

The most important relationship we have is our relationship with God. The greatest description of a relationship we can have with God is the description given by David in his Shepherd Psalm. After explaining how this relationship is established, David tells us how this relationship works out as God leads us through the deep dark valleys of our lives.

He tells us that God is with him, goes before him and prepares a table of provision for him in the presence of all his enemies. He tells us that God is like a cup running over within him and God is like oil being poured upon him. He ends his psalm by telling us the goodness and mercy of God will follow him all the days of his life. This Hebrew word for follow could be translated as “pursue.” So David is actually telling us that God not only goes before him, but pursues behind him with His mercy (unconditional love) and goodness all the days of his life.

By application, this means that when you are going through your deep dark valleys you can believe that God is with you, goes before you, pursues behind you, will provide for you in the presence of all your enemies or problems, He is within you, and His anointing is upon you as long as you can say with authentic faith, “The Lord Is My Shepherd.”

“He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness…” (Psalm 23:3)

Failure is one of the most feared and dreaded experiences in life. The fear of failure drives millions of people all day long, every day. There are many ways to fail. We can fail in our work, in our marriage or as parents. We can fail personally by feeling we’re not living up to our expectations or our potential. We can fail morally. When we fail what do we do about it?

The third verse of this psalm gives us a prescription for failure. David knew what it was to fail. When he needed a restoration he tells us how his Shepherd restored him when he wrote “He leads me in the paths of righteousness.” He had already written that his Shepherd leads him to still waters. When he uses the word “lead” for the second time he uses a Hebrew word that means his Shepherd “drives” him into the paths of righteousness.

What David is telling us here is that when we need a restoration we should not seek a cheap one or an easy one. Rehabilitation means “to invest again with dignity.” He was implying that his restoration was a matter of being driven into the paths of righteousness for some time-perhaps even for years. His Shepherd used those paths of righteousness to restore his soul or to give him an opportunity to invest again with dignity.

By application, when you fail and need a restoration don’t seek a cheap one or an easy one. Let the great Shepherd lead you into the paths of righteousness that will truly restore your soul.