Randy – Page 24 – Wisdom From the Word

Authority in Intercession

Most of us are likely aware that every moment of every day we have radio and TV signals constantly passing by and moving around us. While we cannot see them we do have scientific ways to measure them and know that they are part of the material world. There are also varying degrees of concern around how they affect our bodies.

In a similar manner we have all kinds of things happening around us in the immaterial realm, the spirit realm. For the most part we likely have less concern about this activity even though it has a greater effect on us.

We begin to understand the activity of the invisible realm by highlighting two different prophetic perspectives, looking at what Isaiah and Habakkuk saw as they gazed into the spirit realm. Isaiah preceded Habakkuk in terms of when they wrote (Isaiah roughly 760-695 BC, Habakkuk about 625 BC).

³ And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” Isaiah 6:3 (NKJV)

¹⁴ For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14 (NKJV)

The creatures around the throne see the whole earth as filled with His glory because they see from heaven’s perspective. Habakkuk saw that a time was coming when God’s glory would be revealed to all. This is the prophetic context revealing the nature of God’s kingdom. Jesus purchased our freedom and will return to set up His kingdom, a final removal of evil is assured but in the meantime we need to accept and know how to function in the already/not yet kingdom where evil is still present affecting our daily lives.

The effect of this conflict of kingdoms is evident in scripture. Paul knew the importance of this and let us see that we wrestle with spiritual forces in heavenly places that seek to convince us of our impotence and ineffectiveness in this battle (Eph. 6:12-13, Col. 1:13). Ephesians 6 informs us that we have protection in the battle when we put on His armour. Our primary weapon is the truth of scripture, the sword of the Spirit and our ability to wield it in the places of prayer and proclamation (Eph. 6:17-19).

Paul shows us the reality of the spiritual battle in his own life when he acknowledged being hindered by Satan.

¹⁸ Therefore we wanted to come to you – even I, Paul, time and again – but Satan hindered us. 1 Thessalonians 2:18 (NKJV)

Acts 17:1-9 lays out what happened at Thessalonica. We see opposition to the gospel arising in the form of people’s behaviour but Paul was conscious that their actions were initiated by Satan. He didn’t say he was hindered by people. There is angelic and demonic activity happening around us all the time and we see it manifest in the behaviour of people. Our primary tool to counter this is prayer and the proclamation of truth to people and to the heavenly realm surrounding us.

Let us do our part to see the earth filled with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea.

Your Will be Done

Your will be done. This is a simple statement from Matthew 6:10. Living by it is not as simple. There are many examples in scripture of people who struggled to walk in God’s will. Among them Abraham, David and Jeremiah. We are in good company if we struggle to always submit our wills to His, yet that is our assignment.

Embracing His will means that in difficult situation we need to look to Him for direction. We look to Him because He not only wants us to see with His eyes, He wants us to see with His heart. A great example of this is the well-known Ezekiel 37 passage.

¹ The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. ² Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. ³ And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” ⁴ Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!’ Ezekiel 37:1-4 (NKJV)

The context is Ezekiel being given another prophetic assignment. He had just been directed to prophesy to the mountains and now he gets dry bones! When we read further in the passage we know that the bones represent that nation of Israel and that when Ezekiel prophesies as directed that the bones come to life and take on flesh. An impossible situation is changed when Ezekiel accepts his assignment to release life, a nation is restored.

It is easy to read this, be amazed and keep going. Yet there is a message for each of us. He has given us authority (Matt. 28:18-20). He has told us that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). We carry His presence (Col. 1:27). Finally, He regularly brings us to dry bones to see how we will respond. Our dry bones may not be a dead nation or even a broken city. Our assignment may be the one we run into while shopping, our spouse, our neighbour, the person beside us on the bus. The size of the assignment isn’t as important as our response.

The principle of speaking life is not a suggestion to sugar-coat everything and ignore reality, it is a call to walk like Jesus. Jesus confronted sin and evil many times in His earthly walk, but He always kept His focus on the bigger assignment, laying down His life that others may live. He did this daily and finally. In the same way as we pray ‘Your will be done’ each day we are being given the opportunity to release life into situations around us, are we taking them?

Speak Life by Toby Mac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeBv9r92VQ0

Heaven’s Perspective

The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 is one of the most well known in the world. Recited over and over by millions of people. A better description is The Disciples Prayer since it is something Jesus gave us to pray. He wasn’t praying for His sins to be forgiven since He never committed any. Be that as it may the prayer begins as follows.

⁹ In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 (NKJV)

In teaching us to pray Jesus tells us to begin with worship and acknowledgement. He then tells us to pray, Your kingdom come, Your will be done. Jesus is here urging from us a heart cry, a longing to see His kingdom come and His will be done on earth, an agreement with heaven’s purpose!

Some implications flow from these two short statements. One obvious one is that if this is something we are praying then it is a desire we hold. We want to see His rule and reign operating on earth as in heaven. A second one is that we need to understand something of the perspective of heaven. That we have this opportunity is clear in scripture. We have been made to sit with Jesus in the heavenly realm (Eph. 2:6) even while we live our life here on earth. In Colossians Paul is more explicit than in Ephesians 2.

¹ If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 (NKJV)

The language in Colossians is Paul’s challenge to us. He challenges us to recognize what happened at our conversion, being seated with Jesus at the Father’s right hand and from there seeking the perspective of heaven, setting our mind on things above. We are not being encouraged to become as the saying suggests, ‘so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good’ but the exact opposite. We are called to be heavenly minded so that we can be of greater earthly good. That we can look at situations on earth, seek heaven’s perspective then bring it to bear in prayer. Seeking to see His kingdom and will established in whatever we are facing.

So whatever situation we are facing, whether relational, physical, moral let’s seek His heart in the matter and in prayer agree with His desire to manifest His kingdom and will in these situations.

Waking Up

In a number of places in scripture there is an exhortation to wake up!

¹ Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you. Isaiah 52:1 (NKJV)

¹¹ And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Romans 13:11 (NKJV)

¹⁴ Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” Ephesians 5:14 (NKJV)

One reason for the call to wake up is that the Lord wants us to see the bigger picture, to understand that our actions have consequences. Psalm 51 is David’s famous psalm of repentance, probably almost as well known as the 23 Psalm. While most of us could likely quote a portion of Psalm 51 the last two verses are likely not the portion we would quote.

¹⁸ Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar. Psalm 51:18-19 (NKJV)

In the Psalm David acknowledges his sin, asks for purging, cleansing and forgiveness then seems to shift gears in closing off this famous psalm. David’s focus shifts from addressing his individual sin to asking the Lord to do good to Zion and build the walls of Jerusalem because David recognized that his sin not only affected him personally, it exposed Jerusalem to danger. In the same way, all actions have consequences. Whether public or private, if what we are doing is good we are extending His kingdom, if we are engaging in sin we are strengthening the domain of darkness. Hence the closing focus of Psalm 51 and why Paul addressed the issues in the Corinthian church in the following manner.

³⁴ Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. 1 Corinthians 15:34 (NKJV)

So, if we are asleep let’s wake up. If we are awake, let’s remain alert and continue to see His kingdom extended in our sphere of influence.

Find Me Faithful by Jenn Johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPOGEjKuLT4

Joined to the Head Part 3

In my first few years of walking with Jesus I read a lot of A. W. Tozer, a prophetic voice to a generation and a friend of Jesus. In an article where he talked about drawing nearer to the Father in intimacy he said one consequence is, “Others may, you cannot.” The idea being that the closer we draw to the Father the more the ways of the world fall away and our path becomes narrower.

He has built into our relationship with Him a structure that carries weight in the spirit realm. The closer we come the less we care about other things.

In the New Testament the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle points to the throne of grace in the New Testament and the main theme of the book of Hebrews is explaining Jesus role as priest of the heavenly tabernacle compared to the earthly one of the old covenant. The invitation of our new High Priest is to come boldly.

¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)

We are called to come boldly because we come in Jesus righteousness, not our own. At the same time while the writer of Hebrews again talks about our freedom to boldly enter in because of Jesus sacrifice (Heb. 10:19-22), he also warns us of the danger of presumption (Heb. 10:26-27) and says further.

³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:31 (NKJV)

In the encouragement to enter in, something we can do at any time, there is an encouragement to be more sensitive to His presence in the call to serve Him (Heb. 12:28-29).

One way we serve, as we are joined to the head, is pursuing a growing and deepening sensitivity to His presence. This is something we can regularly pray for and pursue. For example, a fruit of pursuing this sensitivity it that while writing this there was a sense of a call to simply sit with Him and experience His presence so I stopped writing and did that. No flashing lights, no great emotional experience, just a deep awareness of His refreshing presence.

This past Sunday at church there was a sense in the spirit of a prophetic mantle hovering over the congregation. I came into agreement with His purpose and prayed for it to be released. Perhaps others did as well. At the end of the service the pastor had an altar call for people to lay things down that were getting in the way in their relationship with Jesus. An unusual event there and it did not happen in the second service. This is shared simply to illustrate what can happen when we recognize we are joined to the head and seek to walk in that reality.

A key to this is pursuing His face and asking Him to deepen our sensitivity to His presence and calling and believing that He will. This is how He has structured our relationship with Him. He has much to share but wants us to value and pursue it. Let us come boldly with a sensitive heart!

Jason Upton captures something of this call in the first 3-4 minutes in this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Y3RDwzzIE

Joined to the Head Part 2

When we are rightly joined to the Head we learn to live from His perspective rather than ours. We are sensitive to hear what the Spirit is saying and live from heaven toward earth. One way to assess our adherence to living from His perspective is whether we are following the guidelines of His word. Yet, there is more than the letter of the law.

When we go beyond the letter of the law we learn to assess both what we are doing and why we are doing it. A simple example. Recently I saw a post on Facebook and the poster was referring to poor customer service at a well-known store. While the complaint was real and appeared justified when I went to comment on the post I felt a check in my spirit. My comment would have been true yet and it would likely have been appreciated. My comment would have also helped entrenched the poster and other commenters in a negative mindset. Which is not what we are called to do as an ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). We are called to represent Jesus not our opinions.

One way to embrace Jesus perspective and represent Him is to embrace the twofold injunction in Philippians 4. ⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. ⁹ The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9 (NKJV)

Paul says think this way and act this way. If we are thinking about things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely and the like then we won’t participate in some types of talk even though they may be true. This isn’t about degrees of harm, it is about obedience to the Holy Spirit as He leads and guides.

Joined to the Head Part 1

We are likely familiar with the idea of Jesus being the head of the body.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Colossians 1:15-18 (NKJV)

In the above passage it is clear that all things point to Jesus. Everything was created both by Him and for Him. This includes the visible and invisible. While we may recognize that the creatures in the spirit realm are part of the invisible, another aspect to consider is that the structure of relationships is part of the invisible realm Jesus created.

While not obvious or visible Jesus in fact created the ways we can relate to Him. Look at what He says. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 (NKJV)

Here Jesus is speaking to the 11 (Judas has left to betray Him) and He identifies a change in His relationship to them. What is clear in the text is the relationship changed over time. I believe this is Jesus desire for all of us and it is not automatic, particularly given His warning in Matthew 7 that people could appear to follow Him but not really know Him (Matt. 7:21-23).

Jesus has built into the structure of relationships that when we seek Him and choose to spend time with Him we have the privilege of becoming His friend. I think if we could see in the spirit realm we would be able to see a change in us, we would know when we moved from servant to friend.

What would others see if they could look at us?

Walking in the Word

We are likely familiar with the exhortation to walk in the Spirit yet there is a need to see the link between walking in the Spirit and our walk in the word, the scriptures.

¹ I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You. ² I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name. Psalm 138:1-2 (NKJV)

Here we are told that the Father has exalted His word above His name. Many want to be led by the Spirit, as do I, yet our walk in the Spirit needs to be anchored in His word. To use an analogy think of our walk in the Spirit like a kite flying high in the sky. The kite can soar, dip, flutter, swing, all because it is anchored by the person flying it, in this case, the scriptures. Release the kite and it will soon crash.

In a similar manner many have crashed over the years because they exalted their experience over the scriptures. The scriptures do not tell us whom to marry nor what house or car to buy. They do however give us principles by which to weigh what we are hearing or sensing in our decision making.

There is an expression, ‘you can’t give what you don’t have.’ I have learned some things over the years and can share them with others. In terms of our individual walk it is harder to be led by the Spirit if we have not taken the time to sow the scriptures into our lives. The Spirit says to us;

¹⁷ Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your heart to my knowledge; ¹⁸ For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; Let them all be fixed upon your lips, Proverbs 22:17-18 (NKJV)

¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:15-16 (NKJV)

So, as we seek to soar in the Spirit may we deeply value first being anchored in His word.

Do You See What I See?

There is an expression used in relation to positions in conflict resolution, ‘Where you stand depends on where you sit.’ In essence, how we see things depends on the perspective from which we are looking at them. Jesus addressed perspective on many occasions and we will look at one example.

The context for the passage below is Jesus being tired and hungry, resting at Jacob’s well while the disciples headed to town for food and Jesus then ministering to the one who has become known as the ‘Samaritan Woman.’ The disciples return as Jesus is still talking with the woman.

³¹ In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” ³³ Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘’There are still four months and then comes the harvest?’ Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” John 4:31-35 (NKJV)

The disciples misunderstood a few things here, as I suspect most of us would have.

Since culturally they didn’t associate with Samaritans the disciples were experiencing an internal conflict. From where they sat Jesus should not be talking to the woman, yet He was their leader and they were being discipled by Him so they didn’t challenge what He was doing. They had experienced enough to know He was up to something but they didn’t see it.

Jesus informed them that His encounter with the woman strengthened Him because she responded to truth. There was spiritual food and natural food to draw from. I’m sure Jesus still ate later on. Jesus then used another natural event, harvest time to make a further point. While naturally they were not in harvest time Jesus was telling them to see differently. There was a more important harvest, one that harvested people for His kingdom, and it was ready to be reaped.

It is clear that Jesus intent in this brief encounter was to teach them rather than confuse them. He highlighted their internal conflict to broaden their perspective. So when we see something in His kingdom that doesn’t align with how we think and see perhaps where we stand is connected to where we are sitting and we need to ask Jesus if He wants us to change chairs.

There Stands One Among You

The source of this phrase is John the Baptist speaking of Jesus.

²⁶ John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.” John 1:26 (NKJV)

The word translated ‘know’ is the Greek verb oida and means to, “Know fully; understand, recognize (The Complete Biblical Library Greek-English Dictionary).

The reality here was that Jesus was walking among the people unnoticed. While He was publicly identified when John baptized Him a short time later, even after this only a few recognized who He really was. For example, long before Peter had his experience (Matt. 16) Nathaniel declared His deity.

⁴⁹ Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” John 1:49 (NKJV)

Like Peter, Nathaniel received this by revelation. In minutes he went from sarcastic doubter (Can anything good come out of Nazareth?) to believer and follower. He now knew the one John had referred to and his heart had shifted.

In a similar manner One is walking among us all the time, walking in our culture, walking in our days, walking in our relationships. As we go about our daily lives He desires to be involved in our daily decisions and actions. Do we understand, recognize and follow Him?