Fasting To Grieve Before The Lord

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

May we be careful of not trying to add fasting to times of the motions of drama where we might be prone to exaggerate our cries to God. I have been prompted to sort out my own emotions looking for signs of drama in my requests to God as I have taken on a long-term substitute teaching assignment in my community and I daily encounter the occurrence of drama and of over-realized “sensitive-trigger buttons which the students become overly vocalized about”. And I know at once it should not be something I let sway me as I realize that there can be floods of “whims” of students that may be unaware of the temptations pushing them to leverage control over the direction of the class. OOOh, how this renews my perspective of the carefulness of Our Loving Heavenly Father who must daily weigh what is best for us when it might or might not be a “virtue producing thing” for Him to answer our many rivers of egocentric prayers, and discern the best times for an optimum approach of His to produce more fruit in us even when He says “No!” Even in his “Nos” when he chooses them he is building in us a confidence that we can know he has our best interest in His mind. As I am in position to promote my hopefully healthy response to the flood of requests in my class, I need to use discernment and guard against forces who may try to veer my tasks off course in my teaching and building the classroom into a healthy environment.

God is in the salvation business so to speak, and God saves us by grace through faith—but not by our prayers exactly. God can clearly save people who can’t talk—so the verbal measure of prayer is not as important as the faith measure of a prayer because prayer can be done in the heart. Mourning over sin can be done in the heart as well, and yet in our running to God, let us remember that we need not to have every request heard by those around us nor every motion of fasting noticed by others! Public fasting and prayer is definitely not a bad thing, because we can see it OFTEN presented corporately in the scripture, so we know corporate fasts are something God uses in the Old and New Testaments, but let us also remember it can be done as a show, and people of faith should avoid that. But on the days we might slip in our footing and go sideways into “having too much of our prayer and fasting noticed by mere flesh and blood”– we may realize then that the power is not solely in the corporate fasting and praying we do with others or even with spouses, but truly having to do with the measure of our faith in God.

Isn’t this folly also in us at times? Is it not also a natural temptation for Christians to get tempted toward narcissism when offered free “asking privileges”, and shouldn’t the awareness of this really cause us to seek to make our requests do the opposite of narcissistic motions? May we seek to discern more greatly about “any drama or narcissistic tendencies” in us, and may we push vigorously away from them, and discern more greatly our true needs for real and fitting motions of mourning, grieving, and fasting, and seek to sorrowing over different categories of things in our lives worthy of our mourning, grieving and fasting…Have we freely found the right temper and persistence for….

Grieving over our sins, our lost ground, our missed chances for carrying out a prompting of God?

Grieving over our loved ones’ losses, or grieving about how distant we or they are from God?

Grieving over the lost on a larger scale, in our communities, in our nation, grieving over our lack of having a voice in our school board meetings, or over the missing power in our voice to prompt the legal system in our governments towards more righteous law making?

Grieving over the broken state of our churches, our missing times of “repairing the broken walls (as Nehemiah did)” or that we are missing the very “Nehemiah—like Leaders” who will bring a cry to the nation for our participation in the corporate need for spiritual building, fortifying, and healing?

Grieving over our callousness, blindness, coldness, too thick-skinned-ness, our roughness, sharpness, failures to say the right thing at the right time, our failures to aim to “seek and save the lost”, for the feeling others may have had about us as in perceiving some “seeming deadness or insensitivity”, or in having an unawareness to the true needs out there, our denial, minimizing, living as if nothing is wrong, our justifying sin, our rationalizing, our spiritualizing, failure to grieve over holes and cracks in the broken walls, our failure to grieve thoroughly over the harvest that we are not just sure we may have seen falling to the ground, grieving over not crying out for needing more workers in the harvest fields, grieving over our failure to pursue a steady flow of steady spiritual growth if called to a long term many years of this and we have gotten tired—-and drifted from our calls, or to grieve because of the presence of more of these kinds of failures we tell ourselves aren’t happening—because no one ELSE is grieving about these things, that come to mind except maybe a few…

Is it that we believe too heavily in the Sovereignty of God that we convince ourselves our “fasting can’t add another person to the kingdom that God has not already predestined to come to Him?” If people believe this last statement, then I would say, “it must be you shouldn’t pray either then because if God uses NOTHING of the faith of people to get his will done, then, you must be saying our prayers to Him are meaningless!!” Didn’t Jesus demonstrate the very OPPOSITE belief and works of power throughout his ministry? We should never MINIMIZE our role in fasting and prayer or the use God may choose to put our fasting and prayer to.

It is a strange kind of thing that God does in his validating the faith of Ahab, in 1 Kings 21:25-29 in his remorse, prayer, fasting, and humility after saying he previously “SOLD HIMSELF TO DO EVIL”. Could it be that by the mourning, grieving, fasting, and sorrow of one of the most broken sinners, who was so unique in all of history that GOD Himself first says in 1 Kings 21:25-26 “Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife incited him. 26 He acted very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the sons of Israel.” —then later, how did this Ahab discover through fasting, mourning, grieving, and humbling himself, that he could receive some amount of God’s mercy, enough to save his life after God said he should die, even after being called so evil and “abominable” by God, that God made mention of him to the prophet Elijah after his repentance that his going about meekly, and remorsefully caught His attention so that He even spared his life? It is worth repeating even if to ourselves alone that God makes mention of the formerly evil person’s humbling himself with prayers and fasting even to the prophet, that God changes his plans for Ahab!  It says in 1Kings 21:27-29 “It came about when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about despondently. 28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying 29 “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil upon his house in his son’s days.” That is a good place to pause and meditate!

Prayer: Oh God our Gracious Heavenly Father! How deep is our need for you! How slow is our believing! How broken our lives and cities, and of the nations of the world! How dull we have been to hearing you! How slow we have been to keep in step with You! How many are Your mercies! How real is the hope that lies before us to grieve for the lost for their salvation! How entreatable You ARE! How quickly we forget we are in a war over our hearts! How much we need to do regular re-adjusting of our spiritual trajectory to fulfill all Your good will for our lives and to be fully shaped by You to bear the fruits of our ministries! Oh God! Please forgive us, renew us, grant repentance, faith, hope, grace, perseverance, pure motives and help us with walking daily as we should to reflect in our actions what we believe about you in our hearts! I pray Oh Lord, may Your mercy prevail! And please grant good fruit through this time of seeking You with prayer and fasting Oh Lord! May we truly be able to stretch forth our tent straps and may You fill our tents with more brothers and sisters in the Kingdom and may the fruit be to the praise of Your glory Oh Lord! I ask dear Lord in Your Name Oh God! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

In Our Fight Against Our Sin, We Do Not War With Carnal Weapons

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Prayer and devotional blend

Lord, by your good grace, may I and others lose our appetites for anything that is not like you Lord Jesus. As we fast, I pray you would help us deal with our sin habits, so that we can nip our sin habits in the bud. You have given us the directive in the word to leave our lives of sin, and to come follow you, but have not left us like helpless orphans! Help us to lose the enjoyment of indulging in excess because all sin is a snare! Help us to not justify our sins, or excuse them because of the “pluses” we think they add to our lives, or to love the things that snare us! May we hate the things in our lives Oh God that you hate Oh Lord! May we look squarely at the word Oh Lord, and pluck out of our lives the things that we are discerning that offend you Jesus! Dear Jesus, your word tells us that people can become sick with pockets of sin in their lives if that sin is not dealt with! Isaiah 1:5-7 reads, “Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.” This sounds so much like our lives in America!

May we not be like the people of Isaiah 5:18 who drag sin along as with cart ropes! We notice they were deceived in that verse, and notice that sin is heavy—like the weight of a cart that horses or multiple people would pull around! Or at least that would take the strength of two hands to drag along! May we count the cost of what sin habits rob us from and count the cost of what we might be losing by keeping sin habits in our lives! Even our complacency is a sin Oh God before you! And if we are not the deceived ones, is it not right and fitting for us to help others to become UNDECEIVED who are yet in the muddy swamp of deception?

Lord we are given evidence to believe in the scripture which tells us that you grant your people an inner holiness and to approach you in the same attitude of holiness poured into us from you, and this speaks of your Spirit alive in us having made us born again. Yet simultaneously you call us to chasten our souls with fasting! And we know this is not a work of asceticism! Asceticism is powerless in itself to do the work only grace can do in us as we see we are enabled by another (by God) to live out Philippians 2:13 –to desire and to act according to your good purposes! You call us to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit, and to live in the grace of the Spirit, and yet it is a chastening lifestyle led by your Word for the holy crucifying of the flesh! We tell ourselves that grace should make it “easy and comfortable” and “easy to agree with!” But sometimes it seems I am far from the pure work of agreeing with your will for a flawless and undisturbed crucifying of the flesh, and how far I feel at times from boldly shouting “YES LORD! Your will and NOT MINE!” But I want to GO there! I want to be more willing and ready to run unhindered with you in the pathway of your commands Oh God! (Psalm 119:32)

Sometimes when spending a long time in one place, the scenery all begins to look the same, and we can lose track of the lessons God is giving us in life and the things we are positioned by God to remember. The scripture is the gift that is available 24 hours a day to remind us of what God has done throughout his plan of redemption. To know we have the benefit of God working in our hearts is a tremendous strength when battling the flesh. What God does in our hearts once we have been born again is to flood them with his Spirit and light. Thankfully this positions us for God to win the war in our hearts when we begin to separate from our idols. Looking at Galatians 4:6, and 2 Corinthians 4:6, we read, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” and, “ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

When struggling with the tool of fasting to crucify our flesh we are never expected by God to put confidence in the flesh, but we can put our trust in the Lord, so that through His Spirit we can crucify the flesh! Oh God, you put your light in our hearts for so many reasons but clearly to show us what we are, and who we are, to give us strength to live for you, to motivate us to strive to be like you and to leave our old lives of sin behind!

Even given our Biblical model, we are shown we cannot do the crucifying in our own strength! Jesus clearly carried his own heavy cross, but he did not nail his hands or feet to the cross! This tells me that some other factors Our God might allow in our lives to indeed help us “crucify” our flesh. That reality is both scary and relieving at the same time. Notice the purpose of suffering in 2 Corinthians 4 (beginning in v 7)But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. The purpose of enduring these painful motions and means of crucifixion is SO THAT THE LIFE OF JESUS ALSO MAY be manifested in our body!

Oh Lord, how encouraging it is for us to read the scriptures declaring the provision you have given for putting off the flesh and crucifying it and for seeing the reality of Jesus at work in our personalities! And we so much want to keep away from religiosity, legalism, and asceticism and the motions of works-righteousness, enduring a cold heart! On the other hand, we also want to stay away from laziness, slothfulness, gluttony, impulsivity, and a lack of self-control which springs from us doing our own things and keeping our own will in the center of our mind as if we were our own God or as a people who serve mainly themselves. Please may we take the next step in the journey you are taking us on, for sanctification, living in the spirit, pursuing holiness, pushing away from sin, in going the other way and in crucifying sin. We can do this successfully only by your Spirit at work in our hearts, and are empowered and led forth to obey you oh God, and this is a great and beautiful mystery! Praise to you Lord, for truly setting us up for victory in Jesus, gracious Lord! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

“Getting our Worship Right”

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

Lord, I am reminded today that “Unless the Lord builds the house the workers labor in vain who build it.” Lord we ask that our hearts would be pliable moldable and our mouths yours and yours alone. My prayer is Lord, show me what I don’t see about myself that is keeping me from serving you more fully—wholeheartedly. Show me if I have any hidden sins that I need to surrender. Help us to count the cost that it takes to serve you at the level you have called us to so far, and Lord please forgive us for any way we have been lagging behind the leading of your Spirit.

By nature we are worshippers. Our hearts were designed by You Lord to long for something or someone to worship. Help us Lord to not make the false assumptions that what I long for in the here and now is as good or better than the goal Paul speaks of to lay hold of that to win the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phi 3:14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Help us not to worship the goal of worshiping itself. Help us not to be in love with the idea of having “awesome friends” or for that matter, having “great ministries” or even having some spiritual mileage and think we “know our way around the mountain” because by those acts and presumptions we cloud our own vision and secondly we abort the very work we thought was being done “by your Spirit” Oh God!

Prayer: We ask to be cleansed from entertaining temporal loves. We ask to be freed from the delusions of the false promises by people and plans we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to that at times ended up dragging us and them along in directions that neither we nor they needed to go! Forgive us when our pious grandiosity about our fitness for “the job” ended up doing more harm than good! Forgive us for playing with the false promises this world offers. Forgive us for our pride and self-love, and forgive us for eating it up when people we know may seem to point to that as a viable option about ourselves Oh God! Turn us forever away from the creeping slime of filthy pride that like sewage spreads out along the gutter and seeks to fill our lowly places like water draining into the sewer vents that are open to the world above ground! May we spit out the poison if it has gone past our lips and may we vomit forth a thrust of air and may we reject it with the rejection of evil that Jesus cultivated with firmness and conviction even as a toddler in Isaiah 7:15 which reads “He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right”. And so you had REAL power to reject evil even as a toddler which is clear that you cultivate in your people Oh God before it comes near us or touches our lips again! Oh God! May you give us courage to warn others, and may you touch us to cleanse us as we seek your cleansing, and may you purify our tastes as we commit again our whole beings again to you Oh Lord that we may truly and forever “Taste and see that the Lord is Good! Oh God! Help us! Cleanse us and purify us oh Lord for pure fellowship with You, in our seeking you, and in your love eternal Oh God! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Learning the Fear of The Lord as Mentioned in Psalm 34:11

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Unpacking Scripture

According to Britannica.com, post-modernism is “… a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; … (objective, natural) reality as there is, according to postmodernists, is a conceptual construct, an artifact of scientific practice and language. …the rejection of an objective natural reality—is sometimes expressed by saying that there is no such thing as Truth.”

The thinking habits produced by postmodernism—skepticism, subjectivism, relativism, and the rejection of truth are traps that can become direct assault weapons used against a person’s faith, or at a minimum can handicap it—unless those same people learn to stand up with effective thinking habits that can keep our mindsets healthy and free from error.

There is a general reluctance of certain groups of society to have an interest in cultivating an environment in which the fear of the Lord is treasured. There is also in our world today a famine in knowing what the fear of the Lord is–and in knowing what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord.  To try to start a conversation with your unsaved loved ones about the importance of revering God if you have not done so lately, will quickly bring about question marks, and other un-sought-after results! Reactions you might get could range from people getting offended at you for suggesting they need to fear The Lord, because it is a common belief that “God is only loving and does not want us to be afraid of him—he just wants you to feel good vibes from him!” Or you may get people thinking you are some kind of zealous religionist who is in love with the idea of religion and doing religious things with no particular purpose, and who wants to breed a suspicious paranoia of doing “bad things”, to gain control over society or over themselves. You might get the reaction of someone thinking you have more in common with a Martian who recently landed on earth than a citizen of today’s America, which ironically used to be a Christian nation. Or, you might get a reaction of someone thinking you have some kind of strange archaic tradition that is understood to have been outdated simply because they think that you also are behind the times because of your fashion or the age of your car or of your hairstyle and the idea that modern people understand God far better than the uncultured people of Bible times.  Modern people are in touch with their true selves and believe that fear in any relationship is harmful and have the unspoken question rolling around in their minds —“Who out there actually believes God COULD EVER or WOULD EVER WANT us to fear him?” He is after all the big Santa Claus in the sky, giving out hugs and marijuana to smoke—right?” So how do we begin that conversation about the importance of walking in the fear of the Lord—and how do we let them know the fear of the Lord is healthy and keeps our relationship with God healthy?

We must recognize ourselves and so live as ones who know there is a good use for the fear of the Lord as it produces a good posture for us to be able to approach God in the right spirit. It has a function for everyone and can produce benefits in our lives ranging from keeping a person alive and not burnt to a crisp when in communion with The Holy God, (Lev 10:2), to ranging to keeping a person from sinning (Exodus 20:20), and numerous other functions. It enables one to take the right approach in prayer for communion with God (Psalm 22:23), and for possessing a good understanding of people and life (Psalm 111:10), to God ever having his eye upon us for protection (Psalm 33:18). Because of the fear of the Lord we reap the benefit of having the angel of the Lord encamping around us (Psalm 34:7), and because to have been given the benefits of life and peace from God which are catalysts that can also produce the fear of the Lord (Mal 2:5) so God’s goodness is a circular cycle; as we receive God’s goodness it produces the fear of the Lord, and as we are given and live in the fear of the Lord, it positions us to be recipients of God’s goodness. (Ps 112)

Simply having skepticism or unbelief in God are two of the foundational reasons that much of our society is not recognizing or valuing the treasure of the fear of The Lord. Simply having subjectivism—thinking a person’s truth is only true for the person, and having relativism—thinking truth is a moving target, we can never know it–are two reasons we doubt the existence of solid Bible truth today. Yet it is only in the Bible that we are told of this glorious gift that does so much for God’s people and goes along with explaining the identity of our God and creator because by telling us to fear him is actually demonstrating to us the personality of one who is worthy to be feared.

In our world today, now that we live in a postmodern society, many have lost the ability to think through objectively that which for centuries past was believed by ancient Israel. They believed sin was sin because God said it was sin, and they believed sin had consequences, because God said sin had consequences and because of many graphic consequences that followed the warnings  But we fail today  sometimes to get the whole picture of the fear of the Lord as presented to us in the Bible, because we think “those were the sins of those people—I don’t do those sins! Nothing bad will happen to me! No reason to fear God! A proper response to this is that God is worthy of our fear regardless of anyone’s having sinned. On our BEST days God is worthy of our fear. When we read about Moses who went up to Mount Sinai to receive instruction from God in Exodus 19, it is plainly written that “Everyone in the camp trembled.”, and Moses was one of them. How did we get from there, to where we are today? We need to go back and look at the elements that surround a relationship with God based in a healthy fear of God.

Here we will look at the prospect of “learning the fear of the Lord”: Psalm 34:9-11 O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. I firmly believe the more we study the works of God, the more that the fear of the Lord will be implanted within us, and the more we will have a good root system of the fear of the Lord in our hearts, and minds and in our consciences.

Proverbs 19:23 reads, “The fear of the LORD leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.” So, if people are lacking in the fear of the Lord, it can send them AWAY from life, possibly touched by evil, and to places they really and truly are not prepared to go. We must learn from Old Testament examples in which the fearfulness of God has been made known, and one of these examples is in the account of the sin of Nadab and Abihu.

Leviticus 10:1-3 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.’” So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

There were more warnings from God in this chapter towards his righteous servants, warning that they WOULD DIE in verse 6, and to prevent the outcome of God’s WRATH BEING POURED OUT on the congregation -MEANING DEATH FOR THEM even though it would be only a priest who’s sin God gave preventative warning about in verse 6, telling them how they should not mourn for the evil priests, or they WOULD DIE another way in verse 7, and that the priests were not allowed to drink strong drink, nor any of their sons or they WOULD DIE in yet another way in verse 9.

Leviticus 10:4-11 Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.” 5 So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said. 6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the Lord has brought about. 7 You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.” So they did according to the word of Moses.

8 The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying, 9 “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations— 10 and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean, 11 and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”

God gives us the medicine of demonstrating his fearful acts “so as to TEACH THE SONS OF ISRAEL ALL THE STATUTES WHICH THE LORD HAS SPOKEN TO THEM through Moses.”

By the fear of the Lord leading us and giving us understanding about these things we are allowed to see God as both the ferocious and terrifying Lion of the Tribe of Judah but still the altogether Good Aslan.

One habit that we can learn from Moses in his search for nearness to God and to hear direction from God for himself and for all of Israel, that showed he possessed the fear of the Lord was that he persistently fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. I believe long-term fasting helps us put our flesh down and put on humility which cultivates a healthy and deepened relationship with God. Numbers 12:3 reads “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any person who was on the face of the earth.)” We see that Moses was counted by the God the narrator in Numbers to be humble. God wanted this to get our attention. Moses would not have bragged about this himself.  We can observe from the many different successful occurrences of fasting in the Bible, that fasting helps our minds wrap around the acts of God, and thus CAN develop in us a deepened exposure to God, a deepened understanding of God and deeper fear of God. Because Moses met with God in his fasting and prayers, I believe it bolstered his spirit and submerged him in the Spirit of God to know what to do and what to say in all his leading Israel, when Nadab and Abihu sinned. I believe it enabled him to keep the right reverent attitude in what must have been a terrifying crisis for Israel, and which we can believe it provided the right example for the rest of Israel to follow to keep reverent as well, in the midst of witnessing the wrath of God.

The bottom line is sometimes you will need to fast to navigate successfully around the sins of other people without getting sucked into their sins along with them when the wrath of God falls.

We should be encouraged about Jeremiah 32:40b “…I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from Me.” This gives us the view of the reality of God letting us see the tender desire he has for us in his heart —that He is making us his own and keeping us for himself, so he and we can enjoy a deeper and abiding fellowship of nearness, all simply with his putting the fear of the Lord into our hearts.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, when we look at the vast difference between ourselves and Moses, we can be encouraged about the sustained trait of meekness. Meekness was preserved in the life of Moses, although the people he led were under a covenant of sacrifice. And that meekness you used Oh God was part of what you used to make Moses powerful and successful in his day.  May our hearts be open to cultivating a nearness to you facilitated by fasting and prayer so we may also benefit from the strength that comes with stripping the flesh of indulging pleasures. For we know that if we were to leave our flesh alone and not bother with attempts to crucify it, it would drag us away in ungodly directions! We know that you keep us, and yet there is a mystery in our responsibility verses your sovereignty, and we must be led by you in these areas of growth and sanctification by your Spirit, otherwise if we do it in our flesh power, we gain nothing. Please Lord, guide us in what you see is our responsibility, help us to see it too, and to receive the grace we need for putting off the flesh, and help us to put on the strength of humility, to walk in meekness and gentleness, because I believe it carries the power to draw people to follow you. Preserve us in the attitude of your Spirit, so we can be fruit bearers, if need be among acts of your wrath being poured out, big or small in our days, but may we ever keep our eyes on you Oh God our Heavenly Father, and glorify you forever through our love for you and through our right approach to draw near to you! Oh God, we don’t deserve these things, but you said we could ask and when we seek the kingdom, these things would be added unto us oh God! May your Kingdom come, and may your wonderful will be done Oh God in our midst! Blessed be the name of the Lord! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

My Sermon Review, Comments, and Prayer after Hearing John Piper’s “Fasting For the King’s Coming”

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Sermon review

“Let fasting be a declaration and demonstration of your hunger for God –a type of worship, that seeks nearness to, and fellowship with God Himself”—my paraphrase of the audio message “Fasting For the King’s Coming”, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/fasting-for-the-kings-coming sermon by John Piper.

I can honestly say, I have looked for scriptures commanding New Testament Christians to fast, looking to give my devotionals more authority, bite, and chutz·pah, but interestingly, the Lord leaves this to us as much more of a choice, and unspoken strong admonition for certain desired outcomes. Interestingly, the closest thing to a command to fast is in Mathew 9:15 (also in Luke 5:35) where we see something that seems like a command, but with a closer look at the text, we find it is not a command to fast–“In those days they WILL fast”. The sentence structure of a command we find in the ten commandments—“Thou SHALL have no other Gods before ME…Thou SHALL not steal…” So why is “They WILL fast” different and not a command? “You WILL do something” and you “SHALL do something” are VERY close according to Wikipedia, the etymology of the words “will” and “shall” BOTH are from similar root words and meanings, “representing either simple futurity, (future event) or necessity or obligation.” For the future event to happen, those desiring the future event must necessarily do or be obligated to do thus and so. So, although the Bible doesn’t say we MUST fast, it is understood that to obtain some desired “state”, the answer is to fast!  In Matthew 9:15 we find ourselves looking at Jesus giving a prophecy about a “solution” for the attendants of the bridegroom to bring them near to Jesus, in the absence of Jesus, springing from the catalyst of the absence of Jesus, which reads, “And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Jesus was speaking of their future demonstration of the New Testament believer’s longing for the Lord’s presence and His Kingdom, which has the implied meaning that they will have success in coming near to God by this means…(paraphrased Richard Foster’s “The Celebration of Discipline”) But today –do we hear much of this in our churches?

John Piper in his book “A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer” asks the probing question, “When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology-but rarely of their daily experience of God. …much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service— but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God. …Where are the passionate conversations today about communing with God through fasting and prayer? We seem to find it easier to talk much of plans and principles for proclaiming the gospel and planting churches, and to talk little of the power of God that is necessary for this gospel to be proclaimed and the church to be planted.” (John Piper. A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer (Foreword, pages 1-2, Kindle Locations 98-107). Crossway.)

Again, it is strongly implied in Piper’s work that communing or drawing near to God is a truly viable outcome from fasting.

I will conclude this devotional today with what Piper says so well on his website page’s introduction to download his free book “A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer” (retrieved from https://www.desiringgod.org/books/a-hunger-for-god” on January 13, 2022).

He writes

“There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry, and to say with some simple fast: “This much, O God, I want you.”

Our appetites dictate the direction of our lives — whether it be the cravings of our stomachs, the passionate desire for possessions or power, or the longings of our spirits for God. But for the Christian, the hunger for anything besides God can be an arch-enemy. While our hunger for God — and him alone — is the only thing that will bring victory.

Do you have that hunger for him? As John Piper puts it, “If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.” If we are full of what the world offers, then perhaps a fast might express, or even increase, our soul’s appetite for God.”

Amen!

Prayer: Oh Lord, how much a God of grace you reveal you are toward us, in the way you can and do accomplish your purposes for the kingdom without rigidly commanding us that we fast and devote ourselves in self-inflicted discomfort to seek you wholeheartedly. Yet, ironically those sacrifices when engaged in are not bad things for us!—they are even good for us!! Yet, your grace of these unmerited realities of your presence without our “works” and your faithfulness when we are weak are the very things that melt us and call us to draw near to you, get rid of our hesitation to come to you, enable us with more firmness of resolve, with more strength of action, to find your grace to seek you and to fast! Your Sovereign grace shows itself to operate perfectly without your “anchor” (if you had an anchor) being in us– such creatures of fickleness, but anchored in your own unchanging nature, and goodness and kindness! And we can see these Sovereign graces of yours that are truly illuminated by your supreme transcendent “better than we can imagine” approach to us, are enabling us to flourish in our lives through your Spirit!

May we keep in mind your grace as we approach you in prayer, and if led to do so in our fasting, and may our minds be focused on your supreme kindnesses in drawing near to us, in our broken states, even as we look to you, to seek you, and adore you Lord. May our minds truly be renewed in your Spirit oh Lord, and establish us as we commune with you, Lord, and make us all you want us to be in you, to the praise and glory of your Name Oh, Lord, and forever! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Fasting as a Way to Improve Spiritual Eyesight and Turn Away From Carnal Indulgence

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

If any of us happen to consider fasting today, we can be sure that The Lord will use it in some way for His Kingdom if He leads us to do so.

As young or as old as I am I have gotten to the point of having this pervading thought–When you get older you generally get less excited about things. You also get excited less often about things. This may be because we feel like we have seen it all, or we tell ourselves it will take too much energy to get excited or passionate, or we convince ourselves that if you’re smart you can just end up getting the best things in life coming to your door through Amazon without needing to get very excited. We might tell ourselves that getting pumped up or zealous about something is for the young and naïve and foolish. Everything we do as we get older is about saving our energy, or saving ourselves some trouble or making our schedules run as smoothly and conveniently as possible. Life becomes a lot about what we like and what we have a taste for and what we think will make us comfortable. We need our favorite drinks or teas, our favorite foods when we go shopping, our favorite kinds of books or bicycles, our favorite cookware, clothing, soaps and toothpaste and our favorite pastimes. (Notice I didn’t even get to the topic of electronics—I made this list true even if one doesn’t have a plethora of money, even true for people living in third world countries) Our lives smell heavily of the smell of “ME, MINE and MY, what I like, what I want, what feels good to me, smells good to me,, tastes good to me, relaxes me, what makes me look good, what keeps people liking me, and what KEEPS ME HAPPY!

And although all that is unfortunately true we can all say that if we were honest, I’ll bet each of us could easily think of 3 or 4 big areas in our lives that if God had absolute control of, or to put it in a theologically more correct way—if we absolutely and completely surrendered those areas to the absolute control of our Sovereign and deeply good Father of pure love and lights, then, our lives and potentially the lives of all of those around us would be radically different from an eternal rewards perspective or at least would be taken up several notches spiritually speaking! But, we think what we have is good enough!—“What more do I need!?”, we tell ourselves! I am comfortable, I am warm, I have nice cologne, I look good in my clothes, my car doesn’t need any repairs, my shrubs are well manicured, my home is well furnished, my vacation is planned, and my hotel booking is paid in advance for the holiday coming up, that we forget what it’s like to be cold, to be poorly dressed, have leaky roofs, and holes in our shoes, to have an infestation of insects eating our garden but our garden was all we had to eat from, to have to walk 5 miles for some medicine that our relative really needs or they will die, to be inconvenienced for one entire day to take someone to the doctor, but not too many days out of the year, because we have to get back as quickly as possible to our wonderful lives, and because we can’t afford to take a day off work without pay too often regardless because we have no PTO and no sick pay on this job!!

Now, to use your imagination, if every physical comfort I just mentioned in the comfortable scenario was a metaphor for a spiritual comfort and spiritual health provision, does that mean that if you have all your physical comforts in place we’d automatically be supplied with just as many spiritual provisions and spiritual comforts from God to match all of our material comforts? The answer is an obvious NO! But, I dare say it is soo easy to respond to a spiritual emergency in a “comfortable way” when we have physical comforts. Would you RATHER do the spiritual work with spiritual zeal and spiritual persistence to get rid of the spiritual poverty and spiritual holes in your shoes, or to obtain by spiritual efforts the rare and distant spiritual medicine that you or a family member needs even if you might be saddled with physical poverty, or would you do the spiritual hard labor so to speak that it would take with passion for a whole day if needed to get an enduring spiritual roof with as much zeal and gusto and passion as you would the physical roof in the rainy season of Africa?

Part of the issue I dare say is that when we get comfortable and lose our zeal a lot of times we lose our desperation for change. Nothing is “REALLY THAT BAD!! I LIVE IN THE NICEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD AND I DON’T HAVE TO BE DESPERATE ABOUT ANYTHING!!” we tell ourselves. But can you see properly whether your spiritual roof IS leaking? Can you see properly if you have spiritual holes in your shoes? Can you see properly if you have spiritual insects raiding your spiritual garden on a continual basis? Can you see properly if you have a desperate need for spiritual medicine that is so deep of a need that you might die if you don’t obtain it and that you must compel yourself to go track down that distant rare medicine by walking five spiritual miles because no one else will walk it for you? This physical world BLINDS us with physical comforts and we don’t even perceive WHAT OUR SPIRITUAL NEEDS ARE much of the time even when our spiritual needs are desperate. But we have been called to walk by faith and not by sight!!

Rev 3:14-22 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Origin of the creation of God, says this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have no need of anything,” and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to apply to your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline; therefore, be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 The one who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne. 22 The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

In the passage above the elements are in verse 17 that they first said they had become rich and wealthy, then the people grew comfortable and had become lukewarm, then they also said they had no need of anything. Now it is true that not everyone who is rich, wealthy, or comfortable is lukewarm and in danger of being spewed out of the mouth of God. But we must ask ourselves why Jesus warns us that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, (Math 19:24) but no evidence of Jesus saying, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a poor man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Don’t think that I am necessarily against money; I, just like any number of persons (and it should be no surprise) have no doubt found numerous benefits can be had when money is had. But all Christ followers and even the unsaved should be aware of and alarmed about the blindness that wealth can bring when the wealth is gazed at too long. Could it be part of the cost Jesus speaks of in v. 18 “…to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich…white garments..and eye salve…” might be accessed as we draw near to Jesus more fervently, or to draw more closely to Him? Isn’t prayer along with fasting a proven and effective way to draw near to God and to pursue the Lord? Isn’t fasting a discipline we can apply to become spiritually sensitive? We need to be able to see our condition before God in order to “wash and make ourselves clean” (2 Cor 7:1), to cleanse our hands when we are double minded, (Jam 4:8) to cleanse ourselves from common purposes to be a vessel fit for a noble use (2 Tim 2:21). And it’s plainly true, what we gaze at we become like. (Gen 30:38-39, Heb 12:2) When gazing at the natural world, we lose our spiritual awareness, and lose sight of our spiritual optimum and what we should aim for in our spiritual shape, sensitivity, spiritual liveliness, and spiritual virtues. I Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” May we seek you for the spiritual vision we need for walking closely with you Oh Lord. Amen.

Prayer: Lord I pray for five simple things today—I pray for the spiritual vision so we can see our spiritual health for what it really is, I pray for the spiritual vision to see what spiritual shape we should take as well, and I pray for the spiritual zeal and fervency to respond to the truth whether it is, either mild or needing our passion that we may respond rightly regarding it. I pray that the kind of change spoken of in 2 Corinthians 7:11 would unfold in whatever way may be necessary in our lives—that we would embody earnestness, godly sorrow, vindication of ourselves, indignation at our own wrongs, fear of doing anything unholy, longing for change and righteousness in our hearts and deeds, zeal and energy and all the sister adjectives that go along with those for the purpose of our needed changes, and avenging of the wrongs we have done! In everything may we demonstrate ourselves to be innocent in these matters, Oh God!

Amen and Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

24 Biblical Blessings From Fasting for Today

Author: Lisa Groen

Why did OT believers or I, myself have to do anything to “get” God’s presence? As fasting is an approach that is taken by some to draw near to God, we can see similar postures of heart comparable to fasting were prescribed and even ordained by God in the Old Testament. Fasting goes hand in hand with mourning or taking a heart posture of sorrow, self-denial and self-control. Are developing these truly a good work for the believer? This sorrow of fasting is not a type of play acting that God is telling us to do like a child play acts sad and cries with fussy “tears” to manipulate their parents. Fasting is not a process comparable to the “refusal of food” a child might do to try to get the parents to do something the child wants in order to make the child happy. Biblical fasting is for “the believer” (at a minimum) because fasting isn’t needed by God to help God hear us more effectively. There is nothing deficient in God’s hearing. God is not dependent on us, but he does enable pathways by which the believer can draw nearer to God. But let’s examine how is it used to help a believer draw near to God.

Let’s first read how God addresses the lack of self-denial, entitlement, and several other self-gratifying attitudes spoken of in Isaiah 58:

Isaiah 58:3 Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’—-this is entitlement
Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, —-this is entitlement
And oppress all your workers. —-This is an absence of self-control
4 Behold, you fast for contention and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist. —-This is an absence of self-control
You do not fast like you have done today to make your voice heard on high!—maybe they were fasting physically but in their hearts they had wrong attitudes.
5 Is it a fast like this that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?—short lived “humility” or “an outward spiritual show”
Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed— short lived “humility” or “an outward spiritual show”
And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? —this is all outward show but doesn’t mention heart attitudes changing.
Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?

God’s fast appears to be the solution God gives for breaking the entitlement attitude off of us (vs. 3) and appears to be God’s solution for breaking off of us the menacing lack of self-control.(behold…you find your desire, vs 3), and appears to restore back godly self-control. Fasting appears to deal with getting rid of the wrong attitude of the heart, like the heartless using physical force against people. (vs. 4) Fasting deals with getting rid of the wrong belief that just bowing yourself to God like a reed for a day (the pride of a spiritual appearance) that related to the idea they will get noticed by God for their spirituality. They were wanting their voices to be heard on high, and Isaiah doesn’t say that that was a bad pursuit, but just that the way they were going about it was bad. A list of actions in Isaiah 58:1-5 were fruitless, or wretched, and self-indulgent and fasting is shown to be the hatchet that would cut them away. Fasting can build the discipline of maintaining a longer-term posture of humility instead of just humbling yourself for a day (vs. 5). Next, fasting can make our prayers more effective in causing or letting the oppressed go free (vs 6) undoing the bonds of wickedness (vs 6) and undoing the bonds of the yoke and that every yoke of wickedness would be broken (vs 6).

Let’s look at a more extensive list of 24 direct blessings from fasting:

6 Is this not the fast that I choose:
To release the bonds of wickedness,  —blessing 1
To undo the ropes of the yoke, —blessing 2
And to let the oppressed go free, —blessing 3
And break every yoke? —blessing 4
7 Is it not to break your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, —blessing 5
And your recovery will spring up quickly; —blessing 6
And your righteousness will go before you; —blessing 7
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. —blessing 8
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; —blessing 9
You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ —blessing 10
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
10 And if you offer yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the need of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness, —blessing 11
And your gloom will become like midday. —blessing 12
11 And the Lord will continually guide you, —blessing 13
And satisfy your desire in scorched places, —blessing 14
And give strength to your bones; —blessing 15
And you will be like a watered garden, —blessing 16
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. —blessing 17
12 Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; —blessing 18
You will raise up the age-old foundations; —blessing 19
And you will be called the repairer of the breach, —blessing 20
The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. —blessing 21

13 “If, because of the Sabbath, you restrain your foot
From doing as you wish on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a pleasure, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And speaking your own word,
14 Then you will take delight in the Lord, —blessing 22
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; —blessing 23
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, —blessing 24
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

God shows us He is truly responsive to a mournful heart, and tears of repentance and sorrowful seeking of Him, as people knew their brokenness and need for Him. In Isaiah 58, God gives at list of 24 spoken blessings God that come with the right heart attitude of self-denial that goes with fasting and does not  take away these 24 promises for the believer after Jesus went to the cross. The promises of Isaiah 58 are still active and alive today. Isaiah 58 seems to be about the theme of self-denial and self-control in seeking the Lord, and the lack of self-denial and self-control. The desire to build these back again and making room for self-control and self-denial leads were possibly the singular cause and best reason today in the New Testament for God’s people to resort to fasting.

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-4

For Those With Covid:

Lord, we come to you with humble and contrite heart, you alone have all authority and all power to answer our prayers. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you that one of your Hebrew Names is Jehovah Rapha “I am the LORD, who heals you.'” Exodus 15:26, I thank you that Lord you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. I thank you that your desire is for us, and that Mathew 10:30 says, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” I thank you that you grant us everything we need for life and godliness, and that we have grace from 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 which gives us eternal encouragement and good hope. I ask Lord that you’d encourage the hearts and strengthen those who have Covid with your word. We ask you would be the glory and the lifter of their heads, and that their hope would be fixed in you and that you would grant them strong consolation and the joy of the Lord, and give them the grace to rest in you and find your arms of love and safety surrounding them with help in this time of need. We ask that this would be just a light and momentary trial working in them a glory that far outweighs all the trials they go through and that you would fix them with deep roots in your peace and joy. We ask for their spiritual nourishment and that you would grant their minds to be at peace and that you would take away the sharp pains in the lungs and chest and the fever and the cough and that you would remove all the bacteria and virus populations from their systems and open the alveoli in their lungs. Open up the bronchial passages to where they need to be for safe, peaceful, relaxed and undisturbed breathing. Lord, please watch over them and raise them up from their sickbeds and bring them to yourself. May you do something in this time of recovery that would make the most of this time, and that there would be a drawing near to you and a deepening of awareness of your presence, and that they would lose nothing of value in this time. May they find that you are a fountain of life welling up to eternal life, and may they sing and make melody in their hearts if it is too much for them to sing with their lungs at this time. May you renew their minds, and give them understanding in the word, and may their meditation of you be sweet. May your words and grace be ever speaking to them giving them life and sweet meditations, may you cheer them up with your kindness, and hope. Grant thee doctors the knowledge and know how to deal with specific situations that may require added medical provisions, and grant them to focus, and carry out the safest protocols and best practices that are out there. May you restore them in your care, physically, mentally, emotionally, and grant them to trust in your grace and goodness. Restore to them what the enemy is trying to steal, Oh Lord and may you be their governor and umpire and advocate through this trial. Please remove from them all forms of worry and anxiety, may they remember Lord that you are the God who heals all our diseases and the God who routes the enemy for our sake and that you are the One who grants the promise in 1 Peter 5:10 which says, “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.” Please grant that your peace would override every form of doubt, angst, and frustration and please renew in them the relationship that will establish them in love and contentment, hope, and strong faith by your spirit. Lord, may you use what the enemy meant for evil for the good of these folks and bring a blessing out of this time of need that they have. May you teach them you respond to faith, and that you hear their prayers. May you encourage them by growing them up in the faith in your timing and in your care. May you soon crush the enemy underneath their feet.

We ask these things in Your Name Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Revision to “If Christians Are Free From Condemnation, Why Do Many Struggle With It?”

Author: Lisa Groen

Through my interactions with other Christians over the years I have noticed a deep need. Many times, a person who is dealing with shame may be battling it because it has stemmed from a history of abuse suffered in childhood or later in life. If the abuse was long term or serious, the shame may be deep rooted. This shame can be heavy and even paralyzing for some.

The source for much and even most healing for our emotional needs will come to the Christ follower through the word of God. I have experienced this both personally and seen it in the lives of wounded friends who have received healing over the years. The word of God heals us through the very things it says to us about The Lord, about our faith and what our faith brings us, and about our progress in the faith. We will end up through the perseverance God provides, looking like Jesus in our spirituality. God means for us to be whole, stable, fruitful, and to be filled with Jesus.

If we have repented but still feel guilty, shame indeed can be exclusively an attack from the forces of darkness. The believer just like Jesus was, is equipped by with the word of God to fight against lies the enemy tried to send us and by believing the word of God we fight the good fight of faith.

What hope can we find in the scripture that leads us out of the bondage of shame? We first must look to who Jesus is and see plainly in scripture what he has promised the believer and intends for the believer to possess. We possess traits from the Lord because of our faith in Him that work themselves into our personality, emotions, our motives, and thinking. Embracing who the Lord is through our worship of Him is a normal way of life for the Christ follower. Seeing and looking into His traits brings freedom to us one scripture at a time, and we will look more and more like Jesus.

A great statement that John the Baptist made to his disciples in discussing how Jesus was baptizing more followers than he, is found in John 3:27 “John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.”” If we truly think about this statement, we can know the Lord would not have his people holding onto anything unless it has been given to them from heaven. The statement by John the Baptist was referring to the ministry that a person receives can only come from heaven. But in the broader application of the scripture, I think this would include that a person can receive only what heaven would have us to receive, and this includes food, shelter, clothing, friendships, love, purpose, work, spiritual strength, truth, etc.., but also would mean that it is not within the will of God for his people to receive any thing of any sort from the kingdom of darkness. That would mean it would not be right for us to receive lies, oppression, or faultfinding attitudes, fits of rage, backbiting, or other types of “equipment” from the enemy.

Even if the scripture John 3:27 was meant to have a very narrow context, it is still correct to say that it is not God’s will for his people to carry around a shame-based nature. We know this because of the promise of Romans 8:1 which says “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

The very first thing we should ask is “do I know of any sin in my life I need to repent of? “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17. The good thing regarding this is that God will give a person the grace to repent of their sins. Sin can and must be dealt with in the life of the Christ follower. God does provide help for us to become free from sin.

Romans 6:18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Romans 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.I

Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

If sin is not the reason that is opening the door to the shame or guilt we may be dealing with, why do we struggle so long with it at times then? If we have repented of all known sin, there may be a spiritual attack of condemnation or accusation from the enemy. A demon of shame or condemnation could be at fault. Our enemy would like to send lies and accusation our way to get us to doubt the truth about the Lord and our Christian identity. The enemy wants us to doubt our faith, he wants us to doubt our relationship with the Lord, and he wants us to doubt the faithfulness of our God.

God’s work in a Christ follower is powerful. Since there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1 a relevant question to ask is “how does one get into Christ?” This question is about salvation. We must learn about the work of Jesus and what he has called his own people to. To simplify the question of election and predestination, let us assume a person is a seeker of the Lord. Seek, ask, and knock, and it will be opened to you is what the Lord Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7-11  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” I believe a person who seeks to be saved will be saved. I believe the Lord is the One who gives a person the inclination to begin with to seek salvation in the first place.

There seems to be a tension in our walk with The Lord to keep fighting the good fight of faith, and to keep our hearts pure before The Lord. We are commanded to abide in Him. He expects us to go about our daily lives doing and being led by Him to take care of our affairs. Right along with the normal every-day work, relationships, housekeeping, care for our belongings, etc.. we are concurrently responding to The Lord. He is looking for those who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. This is the place a believer abides in the Lord—in a place of respect for what the Lord has done for us where we take those realities into our minds and hearts which helps us to be in a place of worship of Him as we go about our days.

The second big part of abiding in Him is to be ever mindful of His word, because His word is truth and His word has much to say about the new nature of Christ followers that we received as a gift when we became born again. We are told in Proverbs to listen to the teaching of the Lord to gain wisdom. Here is a small sampling of just 3 verses with a blessing and/or benefit as a result attached to the command to listen:

Proverbs 1:33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

Proverbs 8:32 “Now therefore, O sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways.

Proverbs 8:34 “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.

Jesus said in John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

When we listen to the words of God and we abide in the word of God, we let it be what we listen to and hear, and it inspires our faith. We can then ask for whatever we wish (as long as it is within his will) and it will be done for us. God’s will for us includes to think the thoughts the Lord thinks about us as forgiven and redeemed. This would include having our hearts made sure with confidence of being rooted and grounded in him. Isaiah 45:17 says of Israel representing all of God’s people: “But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.” We can then ask in faith to have untrue condemning beliefs about ourselves removed (if we have repented) that may be there not from the result of our sins, but from the attacks of the devil. When we get forgiven by God, we get washed by God, and the guilt and shame he removes from us. A big reason to seek God for this if you do struggle with condemnation, is that condemnation is not part of our God-given Christlike identity we received at salvation. The Lord does not mean for us to carry condemnation because Christ bore our sin and shame. Some believers may struggle a lot less with it and some may struggle a lot more with it than the average Christian.

The Lord has designed the identity and nature of His followers to be one that does not get its definition from or partner with shame. Lets look at the following scriptures which mention shame or reproach to understand what we have been delivered from in Christ:

We are to abide in Him so that we will not be put to shame at His coming:

1 John 2:28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

We renounce hidden sins:

2 Corinthians 4:2 but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

We presently have hope the Lord will be exalted in our bodies with the mindset to not be put to shame:

Philippians 1:20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

We are to be sensible, pure in doctrine, dignified, and sound in speech so as not to be put to shame:

Titus 2:1,6-8 But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.  6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; 7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.

We are to keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which we are slandered those who revile our good behavior will be put to shame:

1 Peter 3:16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

Proverbs says that sin causes a reproach.

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

If a person’s sin was deep, or they fell out of fellowship with God, they may sense a need to get back into fellowship with the Lord and to believe in his atonement through faith in Christ. Then God’s grace is applied and the person in need is moved by God out of a state of condemnation and into a state of righteousness.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But, if we walk in the light (in Jesus) we will can get free from sin and not stumble (sin):

John 11:9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, (sin) because he sees the light of this world.

1 John 1:7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

How do we keep walking in the light? Keep going to Jesus and abide in his light.

What happens in the born again life is that the believer is brought from darkness to light, from the state he was in before being born again–spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ. Those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus for salvation are positionally no longer in a state of condemnation. The believer is positionally in a state of righteousness. This free gift of righteousness and state of being righteous is not earned nor maintained by the good works of the believer. God has changed the believer’s heart to love God and love his righteousness. The unbeliever however is in a state of condemnation already. God is the keeper of his people, and keeps them in a state of righteousness. The presence of the Holy Spirit is given to the beliver and abides in him and if the believer sins, he will likely have a sense that he has sinned and be moved by God to seek forgiveness, and cleansing, and to turn from that sin.

However, when the believer has sinned, he does not slip into positional condemnation. Positionally, the believer although he has sinned is still positionally righteous by faith in Christ. At that time the Holy Spirit prompts the believer to repent of their sin and seek cleansing. To contrast the unbeliever is positionally in a state of condemnation.

When the Lord may be working to bring about the salvation of the unbeliever they might either sense their need for God or might not sense their need. God might allow the unbeliver the awareness of their state of condemnation and along with that, God might grant them faith in the Savior. God is at work to draw people to himself.

If a believer is experiencing a sense of guilt, and they have already repented of their sin, it might be that they are experiencing some level of spiritual warfare. In that case, the believer can simply ask God to remove the feeling of condemnation because they are in a state of positional righteousness.

In the Bible we see the Lord has provided the believer the spiritual disciplines to strengthen them in the faith. We must remember that the Lord said “My yoke is easy and my burden is light”. To keep condemnation out of our minds might need some healthy Spirit led work. This is a work of God’s grace when he strengthens the believer. With the help of the Spirit we are told to renew our minds by meditation on the word of God. We do our part and God will do His part in renewing our mind so then we are able to be more set free from old carnal mindsets. Definitely, through the process of God at work in the heart and mind of the Christian, leading them in sanctification, they will become free from mindsets or thoughts that are of a condemning kind.

Our part in renewing our mind:

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Ephesians 4:23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

More details are written about renewing the mind in Ephesians 4:19-22:

19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind…

God’s part in renewing our mind:

Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

The Lord has set the renewal in motion!

Titus 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Again, the renewal he has set in motion is done by the Holy Spirit.

Condemnation is part of the old man that we were delivered from in Christ. Laying aside the old man and its thinking is simply what we have to do. We must be aware that many of our battles are won through the help of the Holy Spirit, and through believing God’s word. The main point I am sticking to is that through a born again relationship, our following the Lord by faith, repentance, and forgiveness, we close the door on positional condemnation. We receive righteousness from God through faith in Christ, and this is what God’s forgiveness supplies us with in a positional sense. Now, because of what the Holy Spirit does in renewing our minds we make progress in our security and intimacy with God and stand firm in faith against the lies and fiery darts shot at us from our enemy the devil.

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-3

Author: Lisa Groen

The title of the song is a good one to follow to draw close to God-“Come ye Christians poor and needy”. With that posture let us look to the Lord in prayer:

Dear Lord, as we look about our country and see the brokenness, the abominations that the government is “forcing” us to accept as a freedom of choice, as we see the racial conflicts and the legalization of marijuana, the limiting of the police force, the harassing of children, and multitudes of other national grave problems, these things are a tap on our shoulders that our country has forsaken its first love. We need to look to the church to see if there is a weakness in us that may be a crack in our foundation. There is a cry from our children who know something is not right with society, and we along with much of the church have slipped in our opportunities to stand up and speak truth in the midst of these situations.

Lord, we know that you must prepare the soil of people’s hearts for the Word that is sown to go down deep into the soil, and for it to grow well and for the soil to be rich enough to sustain the healthy growth of the seeds of truth. As we fast today may you prepare the soil of the hearts of our loved ones, the hearts of the lost in our neighborhoods, and cities and in our governments, at a local and national level. We pray for hearts to be made ready to hear truth, and to hear just what you would speak to people from your Word dear Lord. We pray for hearts to be hungry for truth, and for people to seek to read the Bible. Oh Lord, may the fear of God grip people enough for multitudes in America and in our spheres of influence to seek, read, absorb, and look to your Word for direction and to honor Your word. May people think about your Word, and seek truth in the midst of our dark society. And with these prayers for the spiritual hunger for truth in the lives of people in our spheres of influence, we seek that our hearts too would be prepared with your truth, hoed, and weeded and cultivated with your Word, as we take in your Word and as it satisfies the spiritual hunger in us. Lord, may you open the right doors for ministry at the right time. May your love be in us to share and encourage others with, and may your light be in us as we seek you for spiritual life- that we may have life abundantly, nourish it in our hearts and protect it, and that our hearts would be a fountain welling up to eternal life and ready to be salt and be light and a fountain to the world around us that You alone are the giver of spiritual life and abundantly give us Eternal Life. 1 John 5:11, John 17:3

Amen.

Keep growing in the Word! LG