The good armor (5)

Truth, righteousness, and the willingness to be a messenger of peace, I mentioned these weapons in the previous blog posts about the spiritual armor.

Let's read a little further in Ephesians 6 until we arrive at verse 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. The TLB translation says: In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan.

Flaming, fiery arrows of the enemy? Faith as a shield? So, how exactly does this work in our daily lives? Faith is the assurance of things we hope for and the evidence of things we cannot see (Heb. 11: 1). Faith basically means that we do not doubt the existence of God, that we accept the Bible as His Word, and that we know He keeps His promises. If we can see that kind of faith (assurance) as a shield, we will understand that it will ricochet everything that brings doubt or goes against God's Word.

Everything yes, because flaming arrows are fired at us on a daily basis; thoughts that suddenly enter our heads or our hearts ... Is it all true? Does God Really Love Me? Have I been forgiven? Is the Bible actually true? etc. etc. We can extinguish those fiery arrows (meant to set our thoughts and feelings on fire) with faith.

The kind of faith that makes us say aloud: Jesus is the truth, God loves me with an everlasting love, Jesus has completely forgiven me of all sin, and His Word endures forever. I dare you to raise that shield when all kinds of lies and doubts about God and His Word are coming your way. Go right against it, proclaim the truth. This is how we fight the spiritual battle.

Wellspring of life

Yesterday a thought came to me. Well, actually it was a Bible verse.

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

You can find that in Proverbs 4:23. Above all else... I find these words intriguing. What else? All else! Yes, as in... everything else. Why? 👉Because a contaminated heart results in a contaminated life.

If we let anger, hatred, bitterness, disappointment, discouragement, fear, anxiety, or worry linger in our hearts, it will contaminate our wellspring of life. It won't take long before dirty water will come out of our mouths, so to speak.

If we let anger in, we become an angry person. If we let worry in, we become a worried person. If we let fear in, we become a fearful person. It is quite simple really.

Guarding our hearts, that is something to meditate upon these days.

Jesus said: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me (John 14:1). Do not let... again, very intriguing words. No one or nothing has the right to trouble our hearts, we are the ones allowing it to happen. Jesus says, do not let it happen. We must, therefore, guard our hearts.

Maybe you think, 'well, that is easier said than done, Marja.' Personally, I speak against negative influences that are trying to settle in my heart. Go away, in Jesus' name. I am not worried, I am not upset, I am not bitter, because I trust in God and His peace sustains me.

Besides speaking against negative influences, I fill my heart with the Word of God, not with the words of the world. The choice is yours.

It is spiritual warfare at the most basic level. Guard your heart!

Prayer for your area

In my previous blog post I wrote about Prayer for the Nations, a prayer group we set up years ago. Besides this group, where we focus on nations and people groups, we have also started a prayer meeting where we specifically focus on our region.

This group came into existence about two years ago when we were praying with a group of family and friends for my brother-in-law, who was very ill at the time. When He went home to be with the Lord, we decided to continue the prayer meetings and shift the focus to regional prayers.

We come together once a month and we pray for towns and villages, for the mayor and political parties, for the churches and healthy leadership.

We are small in number (10-16 per evening), but we pray with people from various denominations (such as Dutch Reformed, Evangelical, Pentecostal etc.). We share communion and we thank the Lord for what He is doing in our region: Alpha courses, prayer meetings, adding new believers, starting up new churches, vacation Bible schools and much, much more.

We thank Him for His healing and saving power and the testimonies we hear in our region. It is so encouraging to come together in this way and focus on His promises. We always get words and impressions from the Holy Spirit to share with each other. I write everything down in a special notebook, so we will know when certain prophetic words will come to pass!

Corporate prayer will not replace personal prayer, but it certainly strengthens the bond we have as believers.

Prayer WILL change this world.

If you're not involved in a specific group, may I encourage you to start a prayer group?

What about a prayer group?

Several years ago we started a prayer group in our house, called Prayer for the Nations. With a group of friends we would come together once a month and specifically pray for our European continent.

There are prayer groups in most of our cities and churches of course, but we noticed that they are often focused on people and personal needs, and not so much on nations. And boy, do we need to pray for this struggling world.

During Prayer for the Nations we focus on God's Word, not on the daily news. We proclaim Psalm 67 over the nations of Europe, May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

We pray for governments, for the church, the economy and the harvests. We pray that God's righteousness and truth will be revealed, that His peace will become known and His love shared. We cry out for God's will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven. The prayer meetings are very encouraging and inspiring.

We no longer meet in our house. We have moved to Twinkeltje, a little 2nd hand shop that friends of us opened up a year ago... with all proceeds going towards our non-profit organization Traveling Light. We often present pictures from the countries we visit during our travels and that really helps to pray specifically. With contacts in more than 30 nations there is always something to pray for!

I am curious about the prayer group(s) you are involved in. Anything you want to share?

If you're not involved in a specific group, may I encourage you to start a prayer group? 

Give me a P

In my Bible Alphabet Blog Series P stands for Prophesying.

Prophesying (the gift of communicating revealed truth) comes from the Greek word προφητεία prophéteia i.e. prophecy.

Prophesying is not so much predicting the future, but more so the expression of the mind of God (as dictated by the Bible or the Holy Spirit) at a given moment.

1 Corinthians 14:1 says, follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. Especially prophecy ... How in the world can we make that practical today?

Prophesying is a spiritual gift which enables the believer to share a word of revelation from God (who is in Heaven) thereto urged by the Holy Spirit (who dwells in us). That word, therefore, is not a sermon prepared at home or a predicting of the future. Prophecy is the proclamation of God's will and the calling and encouraging of believers towards justice, loyalty and perseverance.

Some interesting facts:

• Uttering prophetic words is now something every believer can and should do (Acts 2:17).
• The gift of prophecy is distributed as the Holy Spirit decides (1 Corinthians 12:10-11), but we must pursue it (1 Corinthians 14:1).
• The appointment of a prophet for the edification of the church is done by Christ Himself (Ephesians 4:11).
• Nowadays, prophetic words are no longer infallible (as opposed to the OT), therefore, such words must always be weighed and tested (1 Corinthians 14:29 and 1 Thessalonians 5: 20-21).
• Prophesy is a matter of using our mind. Actually, it is one of the few times (maybe the only time) that the Bible says we must submit the spirit (1 Corinthians 14:32).

How do we strive to prophesy? I strongly believe by asking the Lord for it in prayer and by studying what the Bible says about it. God has always desired and still desires to speak through people like you and me. He wants to speak through His written Word ... but also LIVE!

Those who had been scattered...

'Read your Bible, pray every day, pray every day... and you'll grow, grow grow.' Remember that song? I used to sing that as a child, not realizing the words were/are very prophetic. The song is a payer, a proclamation: read your Bible and GROW!

Currently I am walking through the Book of Acts and I am taking my time to do so. It is not about reading a Bible book as fast as I can, but for me it is all about stopping and thinking about the scriptures I am reading. That way, traveling through the Bible becomes a real adventure. In the coming weeks I will share some of my thoughts on this blog, just for meditation purposes. I have done so before, when I took you all on a journey through the gospel of Luke. The blog posts I wrote then, were short and powerful. I hope you will find inspiration again.

This morning I was reading in the 8th chapter of Acts. It describes how persecution began against the first Christians, On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

That is bad news, for sure. Just imagine that they would come to your house and dragged you off to put you in prison. Such a horrible thought. Yet, it still happens every day in many nations around the world.

Verse 4 of the same chapter tells us how those first believers reacted to this situation, Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Wow! The believers were being scattered throughout the land. Did they give up all hope? Did they complain about their circumstances? Did they feel sorry for themselves? NO! They made good use of the situation, they preached the good news wherever they went. They used their negative situation in a positive way. We can surely learn a good lesson from these first believers.

The question I am asking myself and you, as reader, is: how do we react to negative circumstances? Are we able to use them in a positive way?

GOODmorning!

Hallelujah!

Let all creation testify...

Overflow of the heart

Chapter six in the gospel of Luke.... yeah, I'm still there :) Such wonderful, simple, beautiful and difficult lessons of Jesus. I call it the store room of His teachings.

Speaking about store rooms... Jesus explains in this chapter that a tree is recognized by its fruit. Have you ever observed a fruit tree from up close, before it bears fruit? You have to be a farmer or landscaper to see whether a tree is an apple, pear or prune tree. Once the tree bears fruit it is much easier to name the tree, even for  a layman. So it is with people. A good or bad person is hardly ever recognized by his outer appearance, but by the fruit his life produces.

Back to store rooms... Let's take a look at verse 45 where Jesus is speaking: The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. The first question that comes to my mind is: what is the overflow of my heart? That is also the question I would like to share with you. We can recognize what is in someone's heart by the words he/she speaks. WE will be recognized by the words we speak.

It doesn't matter much whom I encounter on the streets nowadays, at the store, in church, or at work... everywhere I am hearing the same words: financial crisis, failing economy, unemployment, disease, fear, cancer, politics, the weather, the world. Out of the overflow...

Seldom, very seldom do I speak with someone who utters words of encouragement, trust and faith in God. Are there still people out there whose heart is a store room of joy about God, His Word and Jesus? I do not mean on the internet, but in daily conversation. Maybe this is not a nice question to ask, but if we truly confess that we have a heart for God and His Word we have to speak likewise. Our words can build up or beak down.

Knowing is not enough

As I wrote in my previous post, I am reading through the gospel of Luke at the moment. What a delight to read that book word for word once again, and to marvel about the lessons Jesus taught while He was here on earth.

I keep reading chapters and sometimes a single verse that needs more pondering. I will share some of my thoughts and questions with you on this blog, in the hope that it will inspire you to take a fresh look at the old stories. Maybe you can invite someone to read together and meditate on His words.

In Luke 4:38-44 we can read how Jesus healed and delivered many people from diseases and demons. In verse 42 He rebuked the demons and did not allow them to speak. Luke writes that they were silent because they knew He was the Messiah. I had to read that over and over again. If demons know that Jesus is the anointed one, the Christ, the Messiah ... then how is it possible that many people do NOT know this? There are many so called Christians nowadays that have doubts about the identity of Jesus. Was He really the Son of God? Was He the promised Messiah or not?

At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

What I have learned from this passage is that in the unseen world there is no room for doubt: angels know who Jesus is, the devil knows it and the demons know it. In the visible world many people are openly doubting His identity. Well, that is quite a dangerous thing to do, don't you think? One sentence only... and I encountered a question and a point to ponder:

QUESTION: How is it possible that demons know who Jesus is, and many people don't?

POINT TO PONDER: Knowing who Jesus is does not make us a Christian, for the devil and his demons know this too. Knowing who He is, is not the same as walking like He did. In 1 John 2:6 we can read: This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Knowing and doing are two different things.

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning,his command is that you walk in love (2 John 1:6)

Blessed woman

This past week I decided to read the gospel of Luke once again. I do not follow a certain Bible-reading-plan, but try to mix Old and New Testament as much as I can. And I keep learning new things :)

This time I discovered a beautiful verse that must have skipped my attention during previous reading sessions. Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, is having a conversation with Maria, the mother of Jesus, and she says: Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! (Luke 1:45). Blessed is she...

Elisabeth spoke those words to Maria and I never noticed the prophetic meaning before. Her words are so much more than a common pleasantry, they are applicable to my own life. Actually, I believe every woman can adapt them: Blessed am I who believes that the Lord will fulfill His promises to me.

We can find many tools and promises for a blessed life throughout the Bible, for example:

• Psalm 1:1, Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers
• Psalm 41:1, Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble
• Romans 4:7, Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered
• James 1:12, Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him

And of course we have the Beatitudes! But for now I want to leave you all with the words as written in Luke 1:45, Blessed are you who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to you.

PS: Is there a certain promise or word you want and need to hang on to?

Maintaining our freedom (2)

Each time I start a new series on this blog it is exciting to see whether a subject has the reader's interest. Curious as I am, I checked the blog statistics after my previous post and I am thankful to see that many are reading with us.

We will take a closer look at freedom as the Bible mentions it. What kind of freedom is that and, to make it practical, how do we maintain that freedom in our daily lives? The basic scripture I am using for this series can be found in Galatians 5:1, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

It is very clear from this scripture that it is Jesus Christ who offers us freedom. Not our relationships, not money, vacation, therapy or medication. Nothing or no one can give it like Jesus does. It doesn't really matter which subject is being discussed, everything starts and ends with Him. Everything starts with putting Jesus in the center of our lives, our thinking and acting. Therefore it will be useful to start this series with a proclamation, a statement, of who He is. Feel free to read aloud the following:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:15-20).

Jesus is not just someone we talk about or read and sing about. He is the Son of the living God and He wants to live in us with his Holy Spirit. In that way making our body his temple, his home... a place where He loves to live. Now, no one in his or her right mind wants to live in a prison, not us, not the Holy Spirit! That is why Jesus offers us freedom, real freedom, and He wants us to keep living in that freedom. The reality is, that maintaining our freedom does not come automatically. Often we find ourselves (sometimes without realizing it) again enslaved by sin, sickness and/or worries... Maintaining and enjoying our freedom starts with understanding what that freedom is all about.

If you sincerely want to think about this subject it might help to write down, for yourself, what real freedom means to you.

In the next post I will write some more about worldly freedom versus biblical freedom.