1 Thessalonians 5:16-19
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.
Can we quench the Spirit by not praying, by not giving thanks or rejoicing? I think so, but how? When our circumstances or problems prevent us or keep us from rejoicing, praying, or giving thanks, then our problems have become bigger than God’s, and in so doing, we quench the Spirit. Think of dumping water on a fire and quenching the fire; we do the same with the Lord when circumstances become bigger than Him. Lack of faith always quenches the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely (open your eyes and heart to see that through the hardship sanctification, “the making of holiness” is occurring) and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at(till) the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
These verses remind me of what a rock tumbler does to jagged rocks. After a certain and prolonged period of time, the once jagged rocks are now shiny, smooth, and beautiful. That’s exactly what the Father wants to do in us, make us beautiful inside, so outwardly we reflect His person. We are to be a light in the darkness, a city on a hill with the beauty of His Truth, Love, and Grace shining out from us.
What happens when we pray without ceasing?
He or she is different from a believer who does not or prays minimally. The one who prays carries the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the more often we pray, the greater is His presence. I find two types of prayer. The first one is based on Proverbs 3:5&6.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
I stop all that I’m doing, kneel and pray. I acknowledge my way before Him and my need for Him. I do this before I start my day or before I start a new event, “in all my ways.” This is probably the most common type of prayer. The other, and more frequent for me, is an ongoing inner communion with the Lord that allows me to pray while driving, working, in a trial, etc. The best way to describe it is like having a phone conversation, and we never hang up. I hear Him, He hears me, and when I’m not talking to Him, e.g., working on an estimate, answering emails, or talking with clients or my men, I know that He’s there just listening. It has not always been like this. Earlier in my walk, it was the first example.
Depending on the concern, it could be a lengthy prayer or a shorter one, but we hung up. I walked away strengthened and encouraged, but through the course of the week, I felt Him lessening in me and realized I needed to get connected to Him again. Scripturally this is not true, we are “always” connected, but just like a car gets low on gas and needs to be refueled, I felt the same way. I would sense my “tank” on low and would need to “fuel up” again. I didn’t like that. I needed to re-dial and touch bases with Him again. This “always connected” that I experience now is something that He has done in me. It’s such a blessing, but at the same time, it is also the years that I have been in His Word. I always have lunch, which is when I read; even if lunch is at 5 in the afternoon, I have it. When you are tired of who you are and tired of doing things your way, you tend to stay close, very close—King David’s prayer models what I just said.
Psalms 5:1-3
Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning (my absence of Him, or as I am being molded into His image via the trials, I groan)
Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God,
for to you do I pray. O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch (to watch implies expectation or confidence in whom you spoke with).
Psalms 5:7-8
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you ( my response to His Holiness and love)
Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies,
make your way straight before me ( this is a righteous prayer as His son or daughter).
“In the fear of You,” and “watch” are critical parts of our walk with Him. We can never lose this. In fact, we must grow in reverence and watching for Him. He must ever be getting bigger in us, and we are getting smaller. Why, because as He gets bigger and I get smaller, what else happens? My problems and trials become smaller as they become overshadowed by His GREATNESS. I long for a time where His greatness is such that parting the “Red Sea,” would be just a normal day. “Well of course, that is just what He does” rather than, did you see that!
Psalms 5:11-12
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy;
spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.
For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield.
These verses represent the journey of the believer. Trials and hardships and how we are to deal with them. Waiting, patience, trusting, and acknowledging who it is I’m praying to, “My King and my God.” The Christian life is one of total dependency upon Him from our work life to our home life—one continuous walk. There is no time that I say, “I got this God, I can handle it,” NEVER! In this walk of great Grace, I like to repeatedly acknowledge and thank Him for His love, guidance, and lastly, His joy. At times, His Joy doesn’t make sense in light of the problems we deal with, but simply put, “He’s Always Greater.”
1 Peter 1:3-7
Born Again to a Living Hope
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
If we are living for this world, then there is not much consolation. However, if our hope is in Christ, then 1 Peter brings much joy. None of us know the future, but suffering in one form or another is definitely part of the picture, and we can’t fear suffering. Daniel didn’t fear the lion’s den; he could have avoided it by simply not praying to the Lord. Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego could have avoided the fiery furnace if they had just bowed to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol, but they refused to. The consequences didn’t sway them or Daniel. In both cases, God delivered these men, and society was changed. We will always be delivered, either from the trial or grow through the trial. I am confident that as Jesus interceded for Peter, He intercedes for us as well.
Luke 22:31-32
Jesus Foretells Peter’s Denial
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter was going to have a rude awakening. This is a great example of the permissibility of God allowing satan to affect a necessary end, which was the crushing of Peter’s identity and ego—allowing someone who He loved to be utterly crushed so as to now rebuild him in humility and righteousness. I can attest to this crushing. It is so painful you become “damaged goods.” It can be for life unless you let the Lord begin to rebuild you. If you allow the lie of satan that says God has failed you or is punishing you, or worse yet does not love you despite the undeniable testimony of the Cross, you will struggle. And for years, you will live a defeated life and be miserable. Just like the Jews in the wilderness were.
I can tell by a Believer’s walk if they have become damaged goods or not. If they say, “I don’t have time to pray or read the Word etc.” they are either damaged goods or have not gone through the crushing of their ego yet. If they say, “Oh I wouldn’t miss a day,” they were damaged goods but are now being rebuilt. When you are being rebuilt, you don’t miss a day if you can help it. We start out as “God’s mess,” but through time and process, we become His workmanship. I am learning all the time to yield to His workings in us. The prayer I prayed in my earliest days was a very simple prayer, “if you want this mess, this mess desperately needs you,” Amen. If you have gone through this “damaged goods process,” then you understand what I mean. The destruction of the self is so complete that it never again arises to its pre- crushed status. When the carnal man attempts to take credit or find some action or deed to be prideful over or gloat about the colossal failure of the past only has to be recalled. Peter’s denial of Jesus was never too far from his thoughts.
This whole process reminds me of “throwing,” as in spinning clay on a potter’s wheel. It was one of my favorite classes. I learned to make bowls, pots, vases, etc. However, there was one aspect of working with clay that was critical regardless of what was going to be made. It was the least enjoyable part of it but was the most important. Before one could place the clay on the wheel, the clay had to be thrown multiple times through a wire that cuts the clay in half, called “clay wedging.” Each time that was done, I would look at each half of the clay for air pockets, and I continued to throw or wedge the clay until I saw no air pockets. It took time, especially if you got a bad batch of clay. However, imagine spending all afternoon creating a beautiful bowl for a friend or family member; you painstakingly shape it and then add your underglaze and begin the firing( putting it in the oven for hardening), and then in the process of firing, the bowl blows up! Why, because the clay wedging was rushed, and an air pocket remained. If the clay could talk, the most painful part would be the wedging. We are God’s clay, and the clay wedging He does to rid us of our “air pockets of pride and ego.” It is a most painful process but a very necessary one. Imagine what would have happened to Peter if this humbling experience had never happened? If in the process of God using him to heal people, raise the dead and preach the gospel, he would have blown up with pride. Ultimately he and the gospel would have failed. “Life Wedging” is painful, no doubt, but it keeps us from serious failure.
Let me ask an intimate and maybe painful question. Are you sidelined because of a failure? Do you carry your failures, and do they cause you to either consciously or subconsciously doubt God and hence to not seek Him? If this is you, then you also struggle with believing that He loves you. As soon as a pastor told me that, I immediately disagreed with him. I thanked him for his time, and we left. I figured the following day that after this failed marriage counseling session that Lisa was going to file for a divorce ( we were 3 yrs. married, now 42 yrs. Amen). On the drive home from Napa to Vacaville, about 45 minutes, the silence was deafening until the Lord broke the silence by simply saying, “you know he’s right.” His voice crumbled me. It was quiet, loving, but firm. There was no debating. Do you remember the story of Saul getting knocked off his horse and hearing the Lord say, “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?” For three days, he neither ate nor drank. Do you ever wonder what he was thinking? I know because that was me. Thinking that I was absolutely right, serving the Lord with fervor, and then realizing that the most basic truth I didn’t even know, that He loved me. It was shattering, and I was broken inside. Hearing His voice and never knowing this about myself, along with all the struggles I put my wife through, was crushing. As painful as that was, that was my beginning of understanding His love for me. God was in this and was going to use this to change me.
From living and studying the scriptures so as to GAIN His approval to living and studying the scriptures BECAUSE OF HIS APPROVAL WAS A COMPLETELY different approach to LIFE. He has paved the way via the Cross, and in that way, I am already approved, forgiven, and loved. Such a huge change. I would liken it to a heart transplant, and now I understood and was set free from the constant need of having to prove my worth before Him. I finally had His peace, Amen.
It was a long ride home, and I’m not talking about arriving at our home, but reckoning with all the wrong I did and asking for forgiveness from a wife who could no longer feel, forgive, or believe was the hardest part. Her hope of ever having a marriage or a husband that loved her was gone. Her eyes were dead along with her soul, and I did that. Had God not met me that afternoon, filling me with His love (which gave me hope), I would not have had the ability to move forward. Peter needed that same hope, and Jesus was about to do that.
.
John 21:9-11
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
John 21:15-19
Jesus and Peter
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you (the tense of love Peter used means “fond of you” not Agape, God’s love, the word that Jesus used) Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
End of story, no more self-pity or rehearsing his failure over and over in his mind. Peter had a job to do. His failure and my failure became the launching pad of our walk with Christ. The questioning of Jesus to Peter was necessary so that Peter would be honest with himself. If he truly loved Jesus, as he said, he would not have denied Him. Peter needed to see that he loved himself more. However, Peter will grow to truly love Jesus and one day will be more than willing to die for his Lord. The story has it that Peter was crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy of being crucified like his Lord.
There are many things to note in this dialogue between Jesus and Peter, but the most striking is despite Peter’s glaring failure and an overwhelming sense of unworthiness, his call did not change. We always want to minister or act from a position of worth, strength, and self-confidence. However, that is not how the King or His Kingdom works. God’s men and women do His work from a position of need or depletion that there is absolutely nothing in me or us that we bring to the table. We can only bring a yielded heart. He must fill it with His Holy Spirit if any good is to come from us.
All that comes from you or me comes because He chooses to use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (foolish because we believe in a Crucified and Resurrected Savior, to the world that’s foolishness).
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Yet His truth is proven as we pray and seek Him. To not pray is akin to not breathing. As breathing or breathe is to our physical life, so is a prayer to our spirit man. It’s that critical. Our salvation was and is costly. Let’s not make it cheap. Let’s put forth the effort knowing that we are not saved by our works. It’s strictly by faith in the Cross of Christ However, by our choices and effort to deny the flesh, redemption and His work on the Cross is honored in us. Let us be men and women who honor what has been gifted to us. Amen
Father,
Thank you for the “life wedging of our soul.” It is most destructive to our carnal man, but it becomes the catalyst or the metamorphosis of our soul as it breaks out from the cocoon of the flesh into a NEW LIFE. If we have become damaged goods but have not come to You for healing, let’s now do so repenting of ever thinking you meant us harm or failed us in any way. If we are still trying to prove our self-worth to You, let us understand that that will only end in failure. You have called us to absolute Holiness, which is unattainable in our own strength. Let us humble ourselves before a MIGHTY, OMNIPOTENT BUT LOVING AND KIND GOD who wants nothing more in all the universe ( literally) than to dwell in us and go through life together as Your Word says. Amen.
Chuck Colson kept a plaque on his desk that read: “Faithfulness, not success.” Having climbed the heights of worldly success, he knew that nothing in this life could ultimately satisfy. Forced to reckon with how empty it all was, he encountered Jesus. As he wrote in his book Loving God;
“God doesn’t want our success; He wants us. He doesn’t demand our achievements; He demands our obedience. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of paradox, where through the ugly defeat of a cross, a holy God is utterly glorified. Victory comes through defeat; healing through brokenness; finding self through losing self.”
We will let Your Word have the last word.
James 4:4-10
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Amen
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
Mystery and Victory
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.