- 2 Timothy 2:4
We started a new practice for Teen Night on Friday nights. Come 9 o'clock we pass out tickets for an opportunity to score a free drink (which is nothing new) and offer to pray and counsel anyone brave enough to enter the side room. In the side room they will usually find me with another staff member ready to claim people for Jesus. Jesus heals people. This is the second week of the "routine" and so far we have had a few staff member come in hungry for prayer and a few other usual suspects. A girl came in to discuss her hurting hand and miserable living situation. She told me that a girl at her home needed to be prayed for. That this girl had been swaying backwards and forward, stumbling about, and talking to herself for the past 14 hours. The place where they lives is a slum. It is a broken down house turned into dirty apartments fit only for a close encounter with a wrecking ball. Anyway, this is where they live with about twenty other people who hate both the light of day and the light of Christ. It is a place of utter darkness. When I heard about this request I was rearing to go claim the victory in Jesus. One of the other staff members entered the room before we left and suggested that we pray, asking if God was going to give the enemy into our hands--much like the children of Israel--but the answer was not what I expected. I figured that God would obviously want us to go, charge, and attack the demonic stronghold. However, remember with me now that there was always something that happened before the glorious victories in the Bible. Before these victories you will find a people that have consecrated themselves for the Lord. A people that prepared themselves for battle. Know church that you cannot win battles until you have been trained by the Lord of Hosts, God Almighty. Do not go up unconsecrated or you will lose. What does this look like? How much have you prayed, even wept, because you care for the lost and see the love and glory of God? Have you prepared for battle? Do you know what the battle is? To finish the story: we stayed and prayed. Let us not be arrogant and think that we can enter a situation like the gospel story of the seven sons of the pharisee and cast out demons. Let us humble ourselves before we are humbled by the reply, "Paul I know and Jesus I know, but who are you?" I am grateful for the caution of the other staff member and was challenged to be prepared as a soldier of Christ.
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His Name?
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?
Sure I must fight if I would reign;
Increase my courage,
Lord.I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.
Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar,
By faith’s discerning eye.
When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thy armies shine
In robes of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.
-Isaac Watts
No comments:
Post a Comment