PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 12:6–9 (NIV)
The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.
CONSIDER THIS
We must begin today with the closing words of yesterday’s text:
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
In today’s text, we witness an unprecedented miracle with Peter’s supernatural deliverance from Herod’s dungeon. It’s astonishing really.
The church prayed. Peter was miraculously delivered from prison and sure execution. But then we compare our own impossible scenarios and the apparent failure of our own prayers in the face of them. We face situations like terminal cancer with great faith and when our prayers are not answered the pendulum swings back to, “Why?” and “What’s the point?”
No one ever points out the unanswered prayer of deliverance for James. Don’t you know the church prayed just as hard for James as they did for Peter? The big takeaway in the apostolic school of prayer is this one: Do not give up! Ever! Just because we seem to lose badly on one battlefront does not mean we should give up on the other ones. Sometimes it will feel like God is not home. Other times it will feel like he does not care. Faith is unwavering confidence in God no matter what.
We need to remember—before it is all said and done—all twelve of the apostles will meet their death as martyrs, and Peter’s will be the worst of them all. And this despite all the prayers of the church to deliver them.
There’s something we need to remember about New Testament life in the kingdom of God. THIS IS WAR. Yes, we are at war. Though our quiet small towns, peaceful suburbs, or sequestered urban neighborhoods may tell another story on the surface, beneath it all a massive war is being waged against us and the whole creation by the rogue enemies of sin, darkness, evil, and death. Wake up sleepers! We are in a war of epic proportions. We will win in the end but it does not change the fact of where we find ourselves in the present. In a war, you win some battles and you lose some battles.
I love how Martin Luther put it in v.3 of his celebrated battle hymn:
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
The church must sing and shout and declare and cling to and never let go of that most powerful little word: Jesus!
No matter what you are facing today, put your hope in God. Do not give up. Even if you lose the present battle, do not give up. James may fall, but Peter is still depending on your prayers. Keep on keeping on! And never forget verse 4:
That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE QUESTION
Does the concept of being at war with its many battles help give you perspective on why sometimes our prayers are answered and sometimes not? What would it mean for you to step out of casual religion (i.e., churchianity) and get on a war footing?
THE HYMN
I think you know what we are singing today. Yep, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” It is hymn 35 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
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3 Responses
Today, we, the heirs of the Protestant Reformation, have cause to celebrate the recovery of the doctrine of “salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone, understood by Word alone, for the glory of God alone.” But the battle is far from over. These vital Biblical doctrines have been perverted in such a way by the enemy of our souls as to fragment the Body of Christ into thousands of pieces. What Jesus said about Satan’s kingdom applies as well to His own; “A house divided cannot stand.” We should, in addition to celebrating the recovery of true salvation doctrine, also be praying and striving for the ultimate reconciliation of the fractured Body of Christ. Jesus prayed “that we all be one, just as He and the Father are one.” Paul wrote several of his epistles to deal with this same subject. It will require a unified, well disciplined, blood bought army to overcome Satan and his hoard of devils in the land. The battle will not be easy, but to quote Paul Harvey, “Now we know the rest of the story.”
Aren’t all prayers answered, some just not as we wanted them answered?
Though Jesus rose up Lazarth, he died one day.
One of God’s most crucial acts of mercy and grace was placing a Cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the Tree of Life. It kept Adam from eating its fruit after sin corrupted humanity. Which, I believe, would’ve kept us here on earth forever. Ug!
Death of the body, then, is a hidden blessing.
Unfortunately, many seemingly leave too soon. And evil horribly takes many away prematurely, as with the Apostles, except for John.
I’ve always wondered if John was spared martyrium because he was the only Apostle at the Cross.
I don’t know, but this I know…
Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Staying 💪’n Christ
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Stepping out of casual religion and into spiritual warfare:
Routine religion gently rocks the spiritual cradle, but radical obedience to the risen Jesus will turn the world upside down! In spiritual warfare we must first win within before we win without. We must overcome our inner enemies, by casting down imaginations and bringing every our every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Soldiers that harbor disobedient thoughts, feelings, and desires are never very effective. God’s goal for you is that you not allow even one thought that is disobedient to Christ to be in your mind. (1 Corinthians 10:5.)
Fight the faith fight. Constantly and aggressively resist every bit of demonic activity that the devil stirs up within you. Surrender no space in your mind, heart, and life to the devil and his demons — not one compulsive thought, not one foul word, not one wrongful desire, not one tormenting feeling, not one ungodly movie or show or song or book or game or party.