Readying Myself...

October 14, 2011

This is a bit of a diversion from my typical posts.  Although this is not exactly about China... it kinda was inspired because of China.  One reason God brought me to China... I think... among many... was to help me find myself and bring me to a place where I can be quiet and listen.  God has been talking to me here in ways I never slowed down long enough before to hear him. 

A few weeks ago I posted a YouTube song on Facebook called ‘Until The Whole World Hears’ by Casting Crowns.  I had made one comment with my post… Ready Yourselves!!!  It is a verse in the song that speaks to me every time I listen to it.

My sister-in-law, Sheena, posted a comment back:  “Wow ... good comment with post... thought provoking and challenging in 2 words.... !!!! Am I really getting myself ready to step up??? Ouch ?!?!?!?”. 

Her comment really got me to thinking about what that really means. I have asked God in my prayers to give me the wisdom to understand.  How do we really ready ourselves for eternity with the Lord our God?  Or the rapture?  Or the ongoing war against Satan?  Or our daily lives?  How do I really make ready???  Living in the word and prayer?   Is that really all there is to it?

Today…like a switch… the light came on with such clarity.  I felt like I needed a sermon from home, so I went to the Prestonwood.org site.  In the archives, you can choose from a number of previous sermon series’.  I picked one entitled ‘Invisible – There is more to life than what you see.’  Not really sure what that would be about, I started the first one… Dark Angel.  That one started talking to me.  Little did I know that I would spend the next 6 hours sitting at the table watching… taking notes… and thinking … and writing.

I finished the first one and started the next one, ‘What to wear in the war’.  The Lord led me to this series to answer my prayer for guidance and wisdom.  Oh my… did he answer my prayers and challenged me in one afternoon of none stop sermons.  I could not get enough.  The book of Ephesians, chapter 6 and then zoom in… verse 10-20… The armor of God!!!  We are the Gladiators for God!!!

The Armor of God

 ¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

 ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

We are spiritual beings living in a human world… experiencing a human life… what a way to look at it… to understand it! 

To ready ourselves… we just need the armor of God to protect us from the evil one… the devil here on earth.  What we cannot see CAN hurt us!  The devil is all around and in a pleasing form… tempting and taunting us… luring us away from the right path… our spiritual path.  And believe me… I know how easy we can be lured if we have not put on our armor and protected ourselves from his temptations.  I spent a great deal of my youth playing into his hands.

How do we resist temptations?  It is that little voice inside our head talking trash all the time… hoping to get a toe hold.  Be realistic… he is waiting for that one moment of weakness when our defenses are down.  No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

We have to be responsible for it… own it!  Don’t blame someone else for our temptations.  God will never contradict what the bible teaches.  It is the devil!

We have to be ready for him to creep in at any moment.  Peter tells us to be on guard all the time.  The devil is not going to tell us when he is coming to taunt us… he is always on the lookout for our guard to drop.  James tells us not to be deceived.  Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed… Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. (James 1:13)

Satan has his tricks… He plants the desire… he gets in your head.  Then he uses deception… like a rabbit in a trap.  He snares us… lures us away. Now we are weakened.  Then  comes the disobedience… ‘after the desire is conceived… it gives birth to sin’ (James 1:15).  Now we really suffer, we are spiritually separated from God… and the ultimate price… death.

We need to wear our armor of God to protect ourselves from the evil one and be a warrior for Christ!!!

The Armor:

1.  The Belt of Truth – The Believer’s Integrity.  This is the core of who we are.  Advance the gospel… preach it… live it… own it!!!
2. The breastplate of Righteousness – The Believer’s Purity.  Live in purity, devotion, godliness, apply it.  It will protect us from defilement and sin.  Share our faith!!  Set an example for all to see.
3. Our feet fitted with Readiness – The Believer’s Stability.  Readiness from the gospel of peace.  Firmly planted in the peace of the gospel.  It will strengthen us against discouragement… grounds us so we can stand steadfast in the word.
4. A shield of Faith – A Believer’s Certainty.  To extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  To resist the temptations of Satan… the anxiety, sinful pleasures, fear, addiction, lust… all planted by Satan to get his toe hold in our lives.  Keep the shield strong to knock the devil down and keep him out of our head.
5. Helmet of Salvation – Believer’s security.  We receive Christ as our savior and the truth will set you free.  It gives us the power to deliver us from every attack from the devil, from every sin.  If we continue to resist Satan, he will flee… this is our deliverance.  Our security in knowing we have eternity.  Satan wants to weaken us with doubt, fears, confusion, despair and all the other tricks he uses. 

How do we win?  Well, 2 Corinthians 10:2-5 tells us:

² I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. ³ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

He, Satan, wants a stronghold, a mental fortress to control our ideas… get ideas stuck in our heads.  We just cast out Satan in the name of Jesus Christ and banish him from our lives.

Satan gets in our thoughts… once in our thoughts, he gets our actions and reactions… once there our behaviors… once in our behaviors they become habit.  We have to repent… tear down the walls.  Identify and repent to find our way to sanctification.   The devil wants to remind us over and over of what we have done in the past… taunting us with things we have done.  I know this tactic all too well.  These are sins that we have already asked God for forgiveness and received… we should just need to remind the devil of what his future looks like… cast him out!

 ²³ May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.  1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

               

6. Sword of the Spirit – The Believer’s Roadmap… our guide.  James 1:19-27 teaches us:

¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

 ²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

 ²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Open your heart to receive the Word.  Pay careful attention…focus on the word.  As Sheena says… ‘be quiet and listen’.  Allow God’s word to speak to us.  Find an inner calm, relax and receive the word. Clean your mind… make a confession, clear out the emotional clutter that will distract you from hearing and drinking in the word.  Be compliant… be open to the word… be willing to be changed… be humble and teachable.

Reflect on God’s word.  Read it and study it… don’t just glance and forget.  Focus on what it says to us.  Research the word of God.  Rick Warren uses these tips to help.  Here are the things to look for as you gaze intently into the Word of God:

The S-P-A-C-E P-E-T-S acrostic is a useful aid to meditation. Each letter represents a question that can help you apply the passage to your life. If you memorize the nine questions which this acrostic represents, you will have them available every time you want to meditate on a passage. This acrostic asks: Is there any…

Sin to confess? Do I need to make any restitution?

Promise to claim? Is it a universal promise? Have I met the condition(s)?

Attitude to change? Am I willing to work on a negative attitude and begin building toward a positive one?

Command to obey? Am I willing to do it no matter how I feel?

Example to follow? Is it a positive example for me to copy or a negative one to avoid?

Prayer to pray? Is there anything I need to pray back to God?

Error to avoid? Is there any problem that I should be alert to, or beware of?

Truth to believe? What new things can I learn about God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the other biblical teachings?

Something to praise God for? Is there something here I can be thankful for?

Review it and meditate on it.  Joshua 1:6-8 tells us,  

⁶ Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

 ⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

And remember the Word… don’t just read it and forget… hold on to it.  Don’t live in self-deception.  Thinking… I read this so I am studying it… if it doesn’t move you… change your character… make a difference in your life, then we are fooling ourselves.  Hebrews 2:1 tells us to write it down.

Prayer is our warfare.  Prayer will activate our armor of God!  Pray in the Spirit, with the help of the Spirit, with the power of the Spirit.  Prayer will deliver us from the enemy.  The devil dreads prayer and prayer advance the church... which is what the devil is fighting.  We must be prayer warriors for the Lord.

We must to be ‘DOERS’ of the word.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. John 13:17.  We must do what we say we do!  We want to be genuine believers who control our mouths, have a caring heart, and clean minds. 

Through all these things, I believe we can truly ready ourselves.  I would like to think I am this insightful, but the truth is… I have received these words from God leading me to different sources in answering my burning question… how do I really ready myself?  So through the insights of brilliant men of God, pastors Jack Graham and Rick Warren and the women that I have met here in China and call my sisters in Christ, I have been given my roadmap.  Am I completely ready today?… probably not.  Will I be ready in the coming months?… I will be working deliberately and diligently to get there!  And I just praise God I can!