Welcome!
Date: Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Today: Winning battles, loosing the war
Passage: Matthew 4:17 NIV
17From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Jesus started preaching when John the Baptist was killed
His topic of preaching was repentance, the same topic as John
He preached repentance not to the gentiles or the pagans, but to those people who were calling themselves “people of God”
That was the hard part
People who never knew Christ, people who never worshipped Christ will come to repentance
But those who claim to be God’s people – never want to repent
That is why Jesus himself addressed the seven churches, in Revelation 2 & 3, through John the apostle and told them basically, “repent”
We will not accept the fact that we need repentance
The disciples once asked Lord Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray”
We never asked such a question to Jesus, because we feel that we pray right!
Are our prayers getting answered?
Are there deliverances happening to others when we pray?
If not, may be we don’t know how to pray right
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus did not get upset with them
Instead, he taught them how to pray!
There are many examples of men of God who prayed right, in the bible
Elijah brought fire from heaven, by a prayer
What the Christian believers need these days is an attitude of humility
We are not teachable. If anyone corrects us, if any one tells us not to do a certain thing in a certain way, we are ready to show our real color!
How can we get blessings from God?
Without a willingness to change the way we do many things, without a willingness to ask the Lord about the right way of doing things, we cannot see God at work in and through us
If we repent and then pray, God will answer our prayers in a way we cannot even believe!
We will see things taking place in a miraculous way, right in front of our eyes!
We will not have to go after “this prophet” and “that preacher”
But we need to repent and admit our mistakes
We need to admit that the walls of our prayer life are broken
We need to admit that we do not spent time meditating His word
Christian life is warfare
We may be winning some battles here and there, in our spiritual life
We got some answers to our prayers. That’s right
We can win battles, yet loose the war
A very good example is the church in Corinth
They were winning battles. Some miracles were happening. The church looked all right
But Apostle Paul looked at the church and found out that they were loosing!
We may win an argument with a person and loose that person from accepting Christ
On the other hand, we can become humble and win a person for Christ
Our ego and pride must die, and Christ should be lifted up
We need to take off our masks and be real!
Then we can see God at work!
Many a time I see believers and even leaders telling lies!
They will act like they don’t know things that they know and like they know things they don’t know!
If we repent, God will come to our help. He will use us and lift us up
Let God get the glory
Be blessed
BG
Prayer: Lord, forgive me my pride and ego. There are many basic things in spiritual life, which I don’t yet know. Teach them to me Lord. Amen