Watch and Pray
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. - Matthew 26:41
Have you ever been frustrated with the weaknesses of your flesh? Have you ever resolved never more to yield to a particular sin, yet when the temptation came, you fell right back into it?
It's happened to all of us. Even the disciple Peter. He swore he would never deny Jesus...but he did it anyway, time and time and time again.
There is, however, something we can do to keep from falling prey to temptations like that. We can "watch and pray." That's what Jesus told Peter and the other disciples to do in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew they were about to be tempted, and He knew that the weakness of their flesh would overcome them if they didn't strengthen their spirits through prayer.
That's true for you and me too. That's why in Jude 20 and 21, God tells us much the same thing that Jesus told the disciples that night. He says, "But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith... praying in the Holy Spirit: Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God" (The Amplified Bible). God knows even better than we do that our flesh has been trained to flow with the world's stream. He knows that even though our born again spirits are reaching for God, our untrained flesh will always have a tendency to fall into sin.
So, He's given us the ability to pray in other tongues, to strengthen our spirit and build it up until it takes ascendancy over our flesh. As we pray in the Spirit, Romans 8:26 tells us, the "(Holy) Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf" (The Amplified Bible).
Is it any wonder the Apostle Paul said, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all!" (1 Cor. 14:18). It is one of the most powerful tools God has given us.
So don't neglect to use it. Follow the instruction in Ephesians 6:18 and pray "always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit...watching thereunto with all perseverance."
Don't make the mistake that Peter made. When temptation comes to your door, don't let it catch you sleeping. Be prepared. Make sure your spirit is strong enough to rise above it.
FRUITS OR GIFTS?
Whenever people try to choose between the Fruit of
the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22 – 23) and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 12: 6 – 8;
1 Cor. 12: 8 – 10) they are absolutely wrong.
The Fruit of the Spirit develops the character of Jesus in us so that we
can do the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit using the Gifts of
the Holy Spirit. To think that a
Christian can be satisfied with only the “Fruit of the Spirit” is a completely
false understanding. That is what James
is trying to get people to understand when he wrote, “So faith by itself, if it
has no works, is dead” (Jas. 2: 17). We
cannot have one without the others.
For instance, people who say that it is not
necessary to speak in tongues (Acts 2: 4) , have no self-control over their tongues
(i.e. their mouths and their human tongues) and what they say (Jas. 3: 1 –
12). The Gift of Tongues (languages)
gives the Holy Spirit some control over what we say when we are witnessing
(Acts 1: 8) and delivers messages from God to His people when used with the
Gift of Interpretation of Tongues (languages).
The ignorance of the Fruit of the Spirit is unbelievable. For instance, the Fruit of the Spirit which
is translated as “meekness” or “gentleness” in Greek the word is “prautes” is
describes a person who is 1. submissive to the will of God, 2. teachable in all
things, 3. considerate of people’s
needs, 4. it describes a person who gets
angry at the right time and never at the
wrong time and then takes the appropriate action to change the situation. It describes the cheetah which, when it has
been fully trained for hunting acts on command of its master. The best example of that was when Jesus
entered the Temple and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer;
but you have made it a den of
robbers.” He then drove out all of the
people who were selling the animals and the money-changers and upset their
tables and prevented anybody to carry anything into the temple. Jesus was demonstrating that we are supposed
to get angry at sin and then take the appropriate action to change the
situation.
Paul never acted in sin. He acted under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit and he had the authority to curse his enemies and get angry with those
who opposed the Gospel and challenge them with the Scriptural Truth. We are told that Paul “argued” with those who
opposed the Gospel (Acts 17: 2, 17; 18: 4; 19: 9) or another word is to
“contend” (Jude 1: 3). It is interesting
that there are some ignorant people who would accuse Paul of sinning, when he
is used by God as an example of a person who demonstrated “meekness/gentleness”
in his ministry. His so-called critics,
interestingly, do not have their names or their wrong judgements recorded in
the New Testament.
We are supposed to get angry at sin and take the
appropriate action to correct the sinful actions. This is the reason why we are told by no one
other than Paul, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your
anger, and give no opportunity to the devil” (Eph. 4: 27). He wrote to Timothy, “By rejecting
conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith, among them
Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to
blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1: 19 – 20). In other
words, using his authority, Paul revoked the salvation of these two men. That is the ultimate result of Paul
exercising his authority in Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament refers to “the anger of the Lord” (Ex. 4: 14 and 101
other places). We are supposed to get
angry with sin and offer salvation, healing, deliverance. We are supposed to get angry with sin and use
the “Signs Following” to deal with sin.
We are supposed to get angry with sin and use the 15 Gifts of the Holy
Spirit to change the situation of sin.
But many people try to use the
Bible to excuse themselves from coming under the authority of Jesus Christ and
telling us that the ministry works that we read about in the Scriptures are
either not for them or for the church of Jesus Christ today. They are rebellious people who do not like
the work of the Holy Spirit and are living in denial. Their end will be as Jesus describe the
penalty for acting like goats instead of faithful sheep (Matt. 25: 31 –
46). We are told by Jesus, “Do not judge
by appearances; but judge with right judgment” (Jn. 7: 24).
Sin is supposed to make us angry and then with the
Holy Spirit’s guidance we are supposed
to take the appropriate action to correct the situation. To even suggest that Paul was sinning when he
dealt with people who were in sin is completely false. But, it does tell us something about those
who would attempt to disregard his teaching.
It tells us that they, themselves, are in rebellion against the Gospel
of Jesus Christ and have proven that they are out of God’s will. For you see Peter referred to Paul and
commended his teaching. He wrote, “So
also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
speaking of this as he does in all his letters.
There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and
unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (2
Pet. 3: 14 – 16).
THE SOLUTION
Turn Your Cares Into Prayers & Pray in the
Spirit
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
Philippians 4:6
My friend, God doesn’t want you to be fearful,
fretful or anxious. Instead, He wants you to “be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God”.
So when you have a care or worry, straightaway, turn
that care or worry into prayer. That is supplication. And when you are troubled
by a care or worry that you don’t know how to pray for, pray in the Spirit or
tongues. And in the midst of that prayer, thank God that He is already your
healing, provision, prosperity, good success and victory. That, my friend, is
thanksgiving.
“Pastor, if I am worried about something, how long
should I pray?”
Keep on praying. Pray in the Spirit until the worry
lifts or dissipates, “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 4:7)
This was what one of our church members did when he
found himself anxiously trying to access some important data in his USB flash
drive. After a whole day at it with no results, he finally stopped himself from
being anxious and instead, turned his worry into prayer, asking the Lord to
settle it for him. As he prayed in tongues, he was also thankfully repeating in
his heart that having the Holy Spirit — the Helper — with him was to his
advantage. (John 16:7)
Later that evening, using his wife’s computer, he
succeeded in accessing the data in his flash drive after a few attempts. He
quickly backed up the data. It was only when subsequent attempts to use the
flash drive on his wife’s computer failed did it suddenly dawn on him that God
had “resurrected” his flash drive that one time, just for him to recover his
data!
Beloved, I believe that we would all worry a lot
less and enjoy our lives a lot more if only we realized this truth: Our Abba
Father is so strong that there is nothing He cannot do, and He is so loving
that there is nothing He will not do for us!
Thought For The Day
Our Abba Father is so strong that there is nothing
He cannot do, and He is so loving that there is nothing He will not do for us!
Make Your Temple A House Of Prayer
Then He
taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house
of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’.” Mark 11:17
It would be great if every time we prayed, the
answers came quickly. Thank God for immediate results, but what do we do when
the results are not immediate? The promises of God are there for us, but when
they have yet to manifest in our circumstances, what should we do in the
meantime?
Jesus showed us what to do. After He had cursed the
fig tree, the tree did not wither immediately. (Mark 11:14) What did He do
then? He went to the temple in Jerusalem and cleansed it, saying that it should
be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves. (Mark 11:15–17) After cleansing
the temple, when the disciples saw the same fig tree the next day, it had dried
up from its roots! (Mark 11:20–21)
Today, you are the temple of God. (1 Corinthians
3:16) And your temple should be a “house of prayer” or it becomes a “den of
thieves”. These thieves, or powers of darkness, will steal and rob from your
temple, which is your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19) They will steal and rob you of
your strength, health, youthfulness, wisdom, hopes and dreams.
So make your temple a house of prayer by praying in
tongues frequently. (Ephesians 6:18) When you pray in the Spirit, you are
praying perfect prayers. This is because the Spirit Himself makes intercession
for you when He prays through you in tongues. (Romans 8:26)
WALTER KAMBULOW
FACEBOOK:
WALT KAM
Gordon
Williams http://gordwilliams.com/
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