Jonathan Edwards was one of the leading American thinkers, theologians, and pastors in the 1700’s. He once said, “When the church is revived, so it the devil.” His point, of course, was that then God begins to move in powerful ways on the earth, the enemy doesn’t just role over but doubles has efforts to oppose the work of God – in a nation, a community, a church, or an individual’s life.

When a believer who has been casual about his or her relationship with Jesus begins to get “seriously serious” about Jesus, it is not uncommon for “all hell” to break loose in his or her life. We typically expect God to smooth the road for us when we truly start pressing into our relationships with him and truly start serving him, so when everything starts blowing up we may begin to believe we were better off as a casual follower of Christ. Of course, that is exactly what satan is hoping for.

The problem is that, in most cases, believers have not been taught about spiritual realities or trained in spiritual warfare. We should all know that we will endure seasons of battle with the enemy throughout our lives because that is the nature of war and we are in a war. Instead of “throwing in the towel,” mature believers simply dig in and begin to exercise the divine weapons God has given them (2 Cor. 1:4-6). They also know that the battle will be theirs in time if they simply remain in Christ, persist in faith, and battle the enemy with prayer and the authority of heaven. Paul reminded the church in Rome of the same truth when he said, “Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom.16:19-20).

If you have gotten serious about your faith lately and things have started to blow apart around you, don’t be surprised. And don’t be surprised if God allows that to go on for a while. If you are going to live a committed Christian life you will need to get into shape spiritually. If you have been sitting in the stands for a while and then decide you want to get in the game, the coach is going to put you through some hard workouts to build muscle and stamina in your spiritual life so that you can walk off the filed a winner. Paul often compared the believer’s life to an athletic contest. Athletes have to train and training is hard…even painful. Not only do you have to get in shape but you also have to develop skills and learn strategies. It is no different in the spiritual realm.

When you decide that you want in the game and that you want to be an impact player in the kingdom of God, the devil will show up. When he does, things will get crazy but God has not abandoned you. Rather, he is using that difficult season to train you. Let me tell you from experience, that you do not want to learn how to fight those battles through trial and error nor do you want to go it alone. You will need others to fight along side you and spiritual mentors to teach you how to wield divine weapons.

Remember that great verse from James where he tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us (Ja.4:7)? Sometimes we will have to resist for a season, not just a moment. But as you resist you grow stronger and wiser. You also gain more authority in the spiritual realm as you engage in the battle. At some point, the enemy will know that he is beaten and he will flee.

God is moving in amazing ways alI across the planet. At the same time, the persecutions of Christians is at an historic high. When the church is revived so is the devil. I also believe that God is preparing a great offensive in America because the enemy has been stirred. Even in the Bible Belt” of West Texas demonic activity is noticeably increasing – so much so that even those who don’t believe in the demonic are asking questions. Children and teens are manifesting demons in ways we haven’t seen before, people are sensing evil in their homes and asking believers to come and pray for their houses, the marriages and health of church leaders are under extreme attack, and so forth.

God’s people need to learn how to fight in the spiritual realm. We need to learn how to put  on spiritual armor and wield spiritual weapons.  If you have not been trained, find someone to train you. God has left it to us to drive back the enemy and this season of warfare is not going away for a while. Read books, get involved with credible ministries in your area that know how to pray, heal, and minister deliverance. Get in the word more than ever and build up your faith. Learn to fast and ask God for the spiritual gifts needed in this season. We do not need to fear but we do need to fight. Its time for every believer to get in the game! Be blessed and victorious in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 20-21)

He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself…(1 Cor.14:4)

These are two interesting verses form the New Testament that both relate to a believer’s prayer language or praying in tongues. The phrases “build yourself up” and “edifies himself” are the same word in the original language.   The word means “to increase the potential of someone or something, with focus upon the process involved—‘to strengthen, to make more able, to build up.’”

The above scripture taken from Jude suggests something very important. Jude suggests that our capacity to grow spiritually, to increase in our spiritual potential, and to be made stronger and more able in spiritual matters is directly proportional to the time we spend praying in the Holy Spirit.   Paul confirms that principle by telling us that when we speak in a tongue we edify (build up and strengthen) ourselves. That is why one of the normative experiences in the New Testament after being baptized in the Spirit was speaking in tongues. If you just received the power of the Spirit, you need maturity to govern the power you’ve been given. Praying in the Spirit accelerates our maturity.

The counter-intuitive part of that process is that when we pray in the Spirit or in tongues, we have no idea what we are praying. “For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit… For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind” (1 Cor.14:2, 14-15).

Paul encourages us to pray both “with the understanding” and “with our spirits” but he tells us that praying in the Spirit has the effect of increasing our spiritual strength, enhancing our spiritual gifts, activating our spiritual senses, increasing revelation, and developing the fruits of the Spirit. Every part of the ministry of the Spirit in our lives can be enhanced when we engage with the Spirit allowing him to pray through us.

The great advantage of praying in the Spirit is that the Spirit prays for the things we need most to thrive spiritually and lifts those prayers up to the throne room of heaven with an eloquence and familiarity we could never achieve. Not only that, but the Spirit is quite aware of God’s will for our lives – his purposes, plans, and desires. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Rom.8:26-27). The Spirit then prays things for us that we are yet clueless about so that God’s purposes can be perfected in our lives.

I believe the Spirit prays for us even when we are not praying in the Spirit but God always likes to partner with his people and accomplish things together. Praying in the Spirit helps to align our spirit with God’s Spirit. In doing so, I believe it also plays a key role in renewing our minds so that our intellect is submitted to the Spirit of God so that we can truly be led by the Spirit.

So…here is the point of all this. If you have your prayer language but just use it occasionally, begin to pray in tongues on a daily basis. Many of us only pray in tongues when we worship or when we are about to minister healing or deliverance to someone. But praying in the Spirit has a cumulative affect and, like physical exercise, needs to be increased for us to get stronger and go longer. Many of us have prayed and asked God for certain spiritual gifts we desire or to strengthen us is areas of our lives where we are often tempted and, perhaps, have not yet experienced the growth that we desire.

We can accelerate the process and fine-tune it by choosing to pray in the Spirit a significant amount of time each day. The testimony of many is that after choosing to pray in the Spirit daily for an hour or more they eventually realized that their spiritual lives had moved to new dimensions. Sometimes God is waiting to see how much we want him, his presence, his Spirit or the things of the Spirit. How much do you want it? Now much do I want it? Carving out time to let his Spirit pray through us and trusting the process – even though we don’t know what the Spirit is asking – is one clear measure of that desire. If you don’t have a gift of tongues for personal prayer, then pray for it, seek it, and ask others to help you receive. If you have it, use it as an exercise to become powerful in the Spirit. It is a gift unlike any other.

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.           Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. (2 Tim.2:2-7)

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul is alone and writing from a Roman prison. He assumes that his time of execution is near and so what he shares with his young protégé in the faith are essentials and, perhaps, his most important final declarations. The Holy Spirit called Timothy to a significant role of leadership in the church and yet it appears that Timothy didn’t see the greatness in himself that Paul or the Spirit saw. He often hesitated as a leader and, as a young man, seemed to avoid confrontation even at times when it was needed. As a result, Paul attempted to encourage Timothy to step up and fulfill the call that was on his life. Many of us struggle with the same hesitancy when it comes to fulfilling our destiny in Christ so, perhaps, Paul’ words might be helpful for us as well.

First of all, in his letter Paul reminded Timothy to be strong in Christ’s grace. Grace is God’s enabling power to fulfill the life he has assigned to us. Strength does not come because we have it all together. If we did, we wouldn’t need strength from God because we would possess it ourselves. Grace is given because we lack some quality or capacity and are desperate to receive it from God so we should ask for it often and expect to experience God’s strength in the moment of need or battle. As you scan the exploits of the Old Testament heroes of faith you see that strength came on them when they were already engaged in battle rather than before. They began with their strength but ended with God’s. We will need to accept the challenge God has given us before he will equip us for it. By faith and God’s grace he will strengthen us as we begin to move in the calling he has placed on our lives.

Secondly, Paul charged Timothy to entrust to others what he had learned so that they would also entrust the truths of the kingdom to others. Leadership is not just about doing something yourself but about equipping God’s people to take the baton, run the next leg of the race, and then pass it to another. Historically, great moves of God have died out after one generation because leaders did not equip the next generation or pass the torch to them. Sometimes leaders do not pass on their skills and experience to others or help others succeed because they enjoy being “the man” or because they actually fear their students will surpass them. The Spirit, however, is like a river that flows to us and then desires to flow through us. When we are conduits for the kingdom, more strength and capacity will be given to us.

Paul went on to adjust Timothy’s expectations for leadership. It will not always be easy, convenient, or popular. There will be times of hardship that require endurance. No leader in biblical history had a cakewalk. Each of them endured danger, risk, opposition, soul searching, betrayal, and attacks from the enemy. To expect less is to give up at the first sign of hardship. We are in a war. We have been dropped into enemy territory and must fight our way out. Soldiers expect hardship, cold nights, hunger, and even wounds. It goes with the territory. We will experience the same hardships from time to time.   In addition, we must maintain our focus. If we allow ourselves to be distracted from our primary mission we will fail. Satan loves to spread God’s leaders thin. He loves for us to get involved in more and more good things so that we loose focus and impact for our primary mission. Paul warns us to keep an eye on our primary mission.

As a sports fan, Paul suddenly draws another analogy – the runner. In order to win a runner must wait on the starting gun, stay in his own lane, and cross the finish line. He can’t compete by his own rules but must compete according to the rules of the Master of the Games. Too often leaders try to succeed in their mission by using worldly principles rather than kingdom principles. Worldly principles are shortcuts and draw the applause of men. Kingdom leaders can’t take shortcuts and must seek the applause of God rather than men.

Finally, Paul reminds Timothy that he must work hard, understand that there is a gap between planting and harvesting, but also remember that God will be faithful to reward him when the harvest comes. We live in a microwave culture. We want instant results and often jump from one ministry to another, one strategy to another, and one vision to another because we don’t see instant growth or the outcomes we expected. There are times to change but patience and hard work are also virtues in the kingdom. Great churches and ministries are built in years and decades not months. Great gifts are developed over time as well. To forget that sowing and reaping come in seasons and that the greatest trees take hundreds of years to grow rather than a few seasons sets us up for discouragement.

Paul asked Timothy to reflect on these things and to be blessed by doing so. You may want to do so as well. Be blessed.

“We have two types of relationship with the Lord.  First we learn to live before him as a much- loved child. We practice a childlike faith and innocence.  We learn to simply relax and trust his greatness.  When under utmost pressure, we know we can lift up our arms and expect his greatness to overwhelm us and lift us up into a higher place. Children are uncomplicated, simple and trusting. Second, we learn to say “Father” as an adult in the Spirit, to speak out of a place of growing maturity in who the Lord is making us to be.  “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God”(Rom.8:14).

A significant difference exists between being a child of God and being a son of God.  We are all children of God, but not all of us, yet, are sons or daughters of God.  The difference between the two is “learned” experience. As we grow in Christ we experience the other side of the relational paradox.  We learn how to move from a different place of relational anointing. We do not outgrow the childlike stage so as to discard it. Rather we move across the range of relational power from Abba to Father. We need both.”  (Graham Cooke, Approaching the Heart of Prophecy, p. 220-221).

I ran across this section in Cooke’s book and thought it was an interesting point.  He goes on to say that in one sense we never lose the wonder and innocence of a childlike faith and relationship with the Father but on the other hand we must grow up into a spiritual adult who walks in the authority and power of a “royal” ruling over parts of the kingdom for the King who is also our Father.  Paul himself spoke about putting away childish things and growing up into spiritual maturity.  (See 1 Cor. 13:11ff).  There is an infant stage in our spiritual life but then we are called to grow up and become adults in the spiritual realm.

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Heb. 5:12-14).

I think many of us fail to grow up in our spiritual lives because we fail to take on roles in the Kingdom that require more maturity.  We tend to sit and watch others take on those roles as if that kind of maturity is for a few but not for all. That is like believing that adulthood is for a few but not for all.  God has given all of his children areas of the kingdom over which they are to exercise authority and stewardship.  Most of us will be given the role before we have fully grown into it. The demands of the position cause us to grow. If we wait until we are fully qualified to step into our role as a “son” or “daughter” we will always wait for another class, more training, or a more convenient time and life will pass us by.

Our goal then must not be just to get to heaven but to also serve God as mature sons and daughters on the earth who understand the kingdom, understand the mission, understand who we are, understand our authority, understand how to govern and understand how to fight.  Anything less leaves the church as an institution of children rather than a kingdom of mighty men and women who are royals in the household of God.

Paul underlines this principle with a kind of rebuke to the church at Corinth. He discovered that members of the church at Corinth were having disputes and going to secular courts of law to resolve their issues.  His response is interesting.  “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers” (1 Cor.6:2-5).

God has called his saints (that is you and me) to great things that must be managed by mature adults rather than children. You will judge the world.  You will judge angels. The expectation to mature and become strong is not for a few but for all. Perhaps, we haven’t thought about our own maturity and our God-given roles in the earth and have felt satisfied with just keeping the sin out of our lives.  That is a great start but it is only a start. God has much more for you in this world and the world to come.  He has given you great standing and wants you to step into that standing. Let’s get busy taking on the responsibilities of being God’s powerful, wise, holy, and authoritative representatives on the earth and grow into those roles as fast as we can. Let’s get busy moving from being a child of the King to honored sons and daughters of the King. Food for thought today.