Can Jesus Radically Change a Person's Life?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, open our eyes that we may see the wonderful things that are found in your word; remove from us arrogance and contempt for your word so that we may hear it and keep it for your glory; in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Introduction
It's official: We're hooked to makeover shows.
Whether it requires radical surgery or a new set of threads, Australians love to see the magical turnaround from plain to primped, dump to dream home. Whether it's Ten Years in Ten Days; Backyard Blitz, or What Not to Wear.

The website for the last show summarizes the trend well:
Model Lisa Butcher and singer Mica Paris take style-challenged individuals on a journey towards tailored self-esteem.

Generally speaking, these shows don't deal with people with genuine need, those whose lives have been severely hampered by physical limitations. Most of these shows hunt for the 'best' people, the ones who will keep viewers' attention for the longest time.

Underneath our obsession with a makeover is the reality that many people measure self-esteem through appearance. Our infatuation with magazines and the lives of the rich and famous also reveals how obsessed we are with externals and how little we care for those things that bring about lasting change.

I want to suggest to you today that radical and lasting change won't come about through the kinds of things we see portrayed in magazines or reality TV shows. Rather, radical change comes about through faith in Jesus Christ.

Where our culture says that happiness and fulfilment increase if we change our appearance, our house, our car, our job, our partner, etc., etc, the gospel says that Jesus and Jesus alone brings lasting and satisfying life.

'I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly' (John 10:10);

When the Gospel of Luke speaks of radical change it speaks of salvation. As Jesus said to Zacchaeus, 'The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost' (Luke 19:10).

Salvation refers not only to the initial and dramatic change from spiritual death to spiritual life, from guilty to not guilty, but also to the restoration that that takes in the present. The 'good news' is intended to bring about regeneration or renewal; not just in little ways, but in dramatic culture-shifting ways.

I wonder if we really believe this. Do we really believe that God can make a radical difference in a person's life and cause them to bring a radical change into their environment? Can whole families be influenced by the gospel? Whole streets, whole suburbs?

Last Sunday evening I spoke about the nature of faith; what it is. We saw that true faith looks to Jesus alone to save us from God's judgement; Jesus will not let us perish, he is in our boat.

We also saw that faith is not strengthened by looking to itself or summoning courage from within. Faith is only strengthened from outside, by holding fast to Jesus about whom we can know more and more in the Bible, and by applying that faith in daily obedience.

Today I want us to consider what faith does, what it accomplishes; what changes should and will come about in a person's life. If faith leads to salvation, what can we expect?

The Story
This episode is one of the strangest in the gospels. Jesus and the disciples leave the Jewish side of Lake Galilee for the gentile region of Gerasa (or Gedara). There they meet a man possessed with demons, a crazy man. Jesus permits the demons to enter a herd of pigs, who are destroyed. The townsfolk are stunned at the event and request Jesus to depart; Jesus orders the man to return to his village to proclaim what has happened.

There are more questions here than we can poke a stick at, but let's try to get to the bottom of the story by looking at the two main characters in more detail.

The Demon-Possessed Man
The man that confronts Jesus as he steps ashore is not the man as he always was. We get a hint in verse 27 that he grew up in a nearby city (see v. 39, εἰς τὸν οἶκόν σου). The townsfolk tried many times to control the man with metal chains and lock his feet in fetters. His demonic strength was so great that he ripped these off himself and now lived in the deserted regions, sleeping in tombs—carved in rock faces or caves used as burial sites.

It's a pitiable and hopeless sight. The evil spirits had so invaded the man's personality that he no longer knows his own name; he has adopted their name. Without family or friends, he loses all awareness of his own well-being and wanders through the tombs naked and screaming out loud.

The hideous condition of the man is only fully revealed when Jesus arrives. The man falls down before Jesus screaming, desperate to drive Jesus away from him because of the conflict about to take place. They recognize Jesus' divinely-given authority as the Messiah and they are afraid.

Perhaps to avoid punishment in the abyss the demons make a strange request: to be released instead into a herd of pigs. Jesus holds them—and therefore the man—in his power. In releasing them into the pigs they do not avoid their peril but hasten to it, taking with them even more destruction.

If we seek a reason for Jesus acceding to this request, we have nowhere else to go but to the value of the man whose whole personality had been all but destroyed. When we come to the end of the story the man is completely restored. At the start of the story the man is naked, crazy, and perpetually wandering. After Jesus' drove the demons out he is clothed, sane, and seated at Jesus' feet. More importantly, the man is instructed to go to his family to tell them what the Lord has done. I'd like to have been there when they opened the door!

Here we have a complete reversal; a total transformation of a life.

But there is another character; the people of the region.

The People of the Region
It's a sad fact that when Jesus brings radical change to a person's life, their family and friends often distance themselves from them. You'd think that people would be overjoyed at seeing this man made well and want the one who saved him to join them to celebrate.

But that's not what happens. Their world has turned upside down and they don't like it one bit; they are afraid of what else might happen. Even though they see a man sitting at Jesus' feet, clothed, and sane, they preferred the way things were before. And it's not as though only one or two powerful people want Jesus to depart. Look at verse 37. The cost of this man's salvation was too great for them to bear. The Jewish Messiah was not one they wanted.

Conclusion
We're looking at this episode to answer the question: What does faith do? The observant among you will already notice that the word 'faith' is not even found here. That's true. But although we don't know what drove the man to Jesus, we see that even the demons in him forced him to fall at Jesus' feet. The man had no control over his personality, but submits to Jesus. Here we must see the hidden hand of God at work; faith is not something that we muster up within ourselves, but is always God's gift to us.

Let's turn for a moment to think through some of the consequences of this story of salvation.

What would it mean for God to bring about radical change through faith in Jesus Christ? What would it look like? Three things come to mind:
For all of us. The hallmark of a changed life from this episode is someone who sits at Jesus' feet and does what he says (cf. v. 21). That's the problem for us. We're looking for the wrong things. We are caught up in external, showy demonstrations of faith; we're looking for impressive results that the world will recognize. Do we think that the man went back to his home town and entered into a successful evangelistic ministry, started his own media network, etc.? No, the man wanted to get into the boat with Jesus. We must look for the true marks of faith: sitting at Jesus' feet, clothed in his righteousness, with minds freed from the clamouring idols of our culture. Is there a crazy man or woman in your neighbourhood? Can you imagine them turning to Jesus Christ and sitting at his feet? We must stop looking on the outside.
For leaders. We must be prepared for rejection if we are to see the fruit of the kingdom of God. God's kingdom is counter-cultural, it operates in unexpected and at times demanding ways. The whole region rejected Jesus' rule over them. We should not expect families, streets, suburbs and cities to just roll over; even with prayer. In the present age, Jesus will not enforce his rule; if people do not want him, he will get in his boat and sail away.
For some of us. Last week and this we've looked at two storm episodes. In the story of the disciples in the boat the storm that threatened was on the outside; here, in this story, the cyclone is on the inside. Jesus brings God's order, God's kingdom rule, to bear on all chaos. These stories threaten the things that control us and cause us chaos, our secrets. Perhaps you have resisted Jesus Christ's right to rule over your life; or perhaps you are in the middle of a storm and afraid to call upon him for his saving help because you fear he will turn your life upside down. Let me pray for you as I close.

Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, you know us better than we know ourselves. Others know our lives, but you, Lord, you know our hearts. Lord, in our midst today will be those who desperately need your help; remind them of your Son's atoning death and mighty resurrection, of his power and his love. Others resist the rule of your Son, fearful that they will lose out, lose control. Remind them that without you our lives are out of control and careering towards an eternal abyss. All of us need your forgiveness and the assurance of your love. Remind us all that salvation is life-long and is found at Jesus' feet. Amen.

Faith When It Counts (Luke 8:20-25)

Luke 8:22–25 – Faith When It Counts

Prayer
Heavenly Father, your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths; it is our true food, bread from heaven. Please nourish us now and cause us to not only receive your Word but to apply it to ourselves as well. Amen.

'Faith' is an idea with a lot of currency. School mottos and motivation statements frequently include the word 'faith'; corporation mission statements also speak about what 'we believe'. In the moment of crisis a movie hero might say something like, 'trust me' or 'I need you to believe in me now'. And footy coaches, when things are down at half-time, can urge the fellas to dig deep, saying 'you guys just need to believe in yourselves'. And how many times have you heard the call to 'back yourself', which really has the same meaning.

For many people, then, faith is an inner strength or courage that rises up when things are on the line, it's something that breaks through the barrier of fear. Faith for many is a kind of inner strength that's always there but we don't use it. It's what we see on Heroes or in quest movies like Lord of the Rings.

But when this understanding of faith is transferred over to Christianity – which it often is – we end up with a confusing mess. This is because faith in ourselves or being courageous makes us the object of our faith rather than God or God's Son.

Tonight and next Sunday morning I want to look at two stories in the Gospel of Luke that provide different angles on faith. Tonight's story focuses on Jesus and his disciples and helps us think about the nature of faith, what it is. Next Sunday morning we'll look at another story, about a man who is completely turned around by Jesus and restored to his true self. This story addresses the question of what faith does, what its impacts are.

The story of the disciples in the storm on the sea is quite simple.

After teaching in parables on the western side of the lake of Galilee, Jesus,
with his twelve disciples, boards a fishing boat—probably belonging to one of
them—and instructs them to head for the other side.
Jesus promptly
falls asleep.
A severe and dangerous storm erupts, so dangerous that
seasoned fishermen are crying out for help to Jesus.
Panic-stricken,
they wake Jesus up.
Jesus commands the wind and the waves to be still
All
is calm.

Two questions then follow, one from Jesus and one from the disciples.
Jesus' question is: 'Where is your faith?' The disciples' question is: 'Who is this that he commands even winds and water and they obey him?'

These questions are not accidental to the story and its purpose. If we want to know what faith is about—indeed if we want to know what a Christian is—we must answer these two questions. I'll spend most of my time tonight on the first question.

Let's think about the first question, 'Where is your faith?'


1. Where Is Your Faith?

Was Jesus a bit harsh in asking this question? I mean, have you ever been on a boat in the middle of a storm, or in treacherous circumstances when your life was in danger? What else were the disciples supposed to do and what is it that Jesus is looking for?

Here we must remember the three rules of reading and understanding the Bible: context, context, and context.

To get the point of Jesus' question in verse 25 we need to look back into the whole of Luke chapter 8 and see where we've come from.

Earlier in the gospel of Luke, Jesus has chosen the twelve disciples and commissioned them as his apostles (6:12–16). They are now in the privileged position of seeing at Jesus first hand. They've heard Jesus teach about discipleship in chapter 6 and seen him perform miracles in chapter 7; they've seen the Messiah in action, breaking spiritual oppression and setting people free.

Luke summarizes this for us in 8:1-3.

Beyond Jesus and the twelve are the crowds, which vary in their response to Jesus. The parable of the Sower depicts the various responses to Jesus' ministry (8:4–8). After Jesus has told the parable of the Sower, the disciples request a master class to explain it to them (8:9–10). He says to them that they have been given the secrets of God's kingdom; others do not have this knowledge and remain unaware of what it is that Jesus is on about.

From all this we must conclude that the disciples should be out in front, but they're not. What's going on? Well, the parable of the Sower not only describes what takes place when the word is proclaimed to the crowds but to everyone, even to the disciples.

Read Luke 8:11-15.

Did you notice how often the word 'faith', 'believe', receive, etc., occurred and how often it is connected with 'hearing'? Vv. 12, 13, 15.

According to the parable of the Sower, Jesus says that there are several kinds of responses to the word, several kinds of faith, but only one kind brings the final fruits of salvation.

The first kind, the hard soil, misses the opportunity of the Word altogether,
perhaps because it is already calloused and the Word bounces off.
The second kind of faith is initially excited, but under stress looks to other sources of help and loses its nourishment in the Word.
The third kind looks good, but it never really gives up the old life with its worries, wealth, and delights; these weeds eventually choke the plant of faith.
Only the last kind survives trials and produces fruit. Three things appear crucial in this soil: It hears the Word; It holds the Word fast with pure intention of heart; and
It endures in bearing fruit.

Clearly it is the last soil to which the disciples are meant to belong. The disciple is one who hears the Word, who holds fast the Word, and who bears fruit from the Word.

If we cut back to the disciples in the boat and ask which soil they are closest to we'd probably guess they are still in soil No. 2.

Listen again to their cry for help.

'Master, Master! We are perishing!'

Really?

'Perishing', perishing is to be 'lost' or 'without hope'. Can anyone who has Jesus in their boat perish? This is the very opposite of what Jesus has come to do.

Later in Luke, Jesus says to Zacchaeus the tax-collector, 'The Son of Man came
to seek and save that which is lost/perishing.' (Luke 19:10)

Later still, Jesus says to the criminal on the cross, 'Today, I promise you, you will
be with me in Paradise'. (Luke 23:43)

In the opening chapters of Luke the angels tell the shepherds, 'Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.' (Luke 2:12)

Jesus did not come so that the disciples would perish but so they would be saved. They had witnessed the salvation of God—God's power in Jesus towards those who believe—but they have not let the reality of God's power in Jesus grip their hearts and change their lives.

The disciples in boat are afraid of dying, with Jesus in their boat! Jesus reveals God and God is a rescuing God; that is what Psalm 107 is trying to tell us. No matter what the turmoil or trouble, his arm is not too short. We humans give up on God way too early.

True faith, faith in the fourth soil, is faith that holds on: believing that his Word is true and that he will never forsake us.

But faith is not only about holding on but about bearing fruit; it is also obeying God. Look at the story just before the one read for us tonight (8:19–21). 'Blessed are those who hear the word of God and do it.'

Look back even further to Jesus' teaching in chapter 6:46.

Faith and obedience are not two steps. We cannot call upon Jesus for salvation without also repenting of our sin and following Jesus; we must bear fruit in our characters and lives.

Faith, then, has two enemies: fear that we will not be delivered from harm and sinful desires that oppose God's way; frequently these two work together. Think about these possibilities as litmus tests of faith:

Is it the fear of loneliness that leads people to marry nice non-Christians rather than to let God be the one who fulfils their deepest longings?

What about the desire for worldly goods and the lifestyle of the rich and famous that drives the quest for wealth? Pretty soon we're working 60 hours a week, have no meaningful times with God or other believers but have found a new set of friends who fit with our new life-paradigm.
All Christians possess sinful desires and we are all surrounded by opportunities. Rather than give into them, faith endures them and looks to God to supply meaning and satisfaction.

But healthy faith requires more than calming our fears and checking our desires; it needs renewing. How is faith renewed and strengthened?

Faith is renewed by giving attention to its object, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

This brings us to the second question, the one the disciples asked: Who is this?


2. Who Is This?

Remember that I said that we need to hold both these questions together. You won't be able to answer Jesus' question to the disciples about their faith without also answering their question about who Jesus is.

From the disciples' question we know that he broke boundaries and expectations, even for those who knew him. To answer this question would take more than one message, but let's try to boil it down to a couple of things for tonight.

We've already seen that essentially Jesus is the Saviour; what kind of Saviour is he? Three quick points:

He is the Messiah, the appointed king, who brings release or freedom from bondage in the here and now (Luke 4:18–21; cf. 7:18–23; 9:1–3; 10:1–20)

He is the one who exercises power over human enemies because he has authority over them through the divine Spirit. E.g., note how he rebukes demons (4:35, 41), sickness (4:39), and storms (8:24). His authority also extends to his words, both his commands and promises. He is the Son of Man who will return and search out our faith (18:8)

The third thing, and something we'll focus on a bit more next week, is that Jesus is the one who shows and teaches that the kingdom of God is present in ways opposite to that expected (e.g., he touches the unclean and heals them, they touch him; the poor are blessed; and, death leads to life). If we are to understand Jesus we must understand how counter-cultural he is

Our faith will grow in knowing Jesus as he really is; to do this we must read and reflect on our bibles and we must do that together as well. Is it possible that although we are plagued with bibles—on the net, on ipods, on CDs, and in dozens of translations—we actually don't know our Bibles. Can we recite the whole of a recent video clip or Beatles song, but not 10 bible verses?

Let me wrap up.
Firstly, faith is the knowledge that Jesus will not let you go, no matter what storm you are in. He has the power and the authority to keep you safe.
Secondly, faith develops through knowing Jesus more and more through the gospels and the bible as a whole.
Thirdly, faith requires obedience to and service of Jesus. If he has been appointed as Lord then we owe him our very existence and life.

Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, your Son Jesus Christ displayed all your kingly power and has conquered every enemy that can oppose us; you have guaranteed this by raising him from the dead. Remove from us fear of abandonment and rejection and draw us near to yourself through the gospel of your Son. Make knowing him our first priority and thereby give us deep assurance of your love and forgiveness. Forgive us for seeking satisfaction in the world's empty and false promises and in our rusting and moth-ridden possessions. Help us to build our house on the solid rock of your Son rather than shifting sands. Lord, at this time many in our world need a firm anchor in the storm; please help us to point to your Son as the only sure stronghold. Amen.

Welcome to the blog

Just a quick note to any FB folk who've come over to the blog. Today--Saturday--I'm working on a sermon on Luke 8. It's my second Sunday at Willeton Christian Reformed Church. I've got a mini series on faith going. Last week I looked at the disciples in the boat (vv. 22-25) tomorrow it's on the Gerasene/Gadarene demoniac (vv. 26-39). I'll put last week's message up now and tomorrow's next week.

Why 'Thorn-in-the-Flesh'?

In 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, the apostle Paul relates two visions. In one (vv. 1-6) he tells of a 'man in Christ' being caught up into the 'third heaven' where he heard things 'not permitted to be told'. Attractive as such an event would have been to his Corinthian readers Paul declines to go into details. Rather, he tells them of a related occasion where to keep him from becoming too elated, 'there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me' (v. 7).

Despite many guesses, some of them educated, we don't finally know what the 'thorn' was of which Paul speaks, but we can conclude it had both physical and spiritual elements and that it probably restricted his apostolic ministry. In spite of much pleading to the Lord Jesus, the thorn remained. Instead, Paul received a second 'vision', in the form of a message, which became for him the touchstone of his ministry:
My grace is sufficient for you
for power is perfected in weakness (v. 9a).

The thorn in the flesh is not only a cipher for those who have severe limitations in ministry of the Word (often in ways invisible to others) but also links prayer to suffering and limitation or lack of success. For it is often only when we have run out of resources that we really begin to pray and God really begins to answer our prayer, and not always how we would wish.

Going on mission is good

Well, it's been over a week since I got back from the Geraldton mission. Loved it. Here's a few thoughts on why mission--as in going somewhere with a team and focussing on evangelism for a week--is good:
1) Going on mission is good for the church. The church folk become willing to take risks to bring people to hear the Gospel; e.g., invite 30 friends to afternoon tea to consider how "fires and droughts" square with the gospel; turn the monthly fundraiser to an outreach event, risk the enterprise on a Korean Bible College student, and then deliver a follow up push on filling in a form so "we can get help to you if you've have a fresh start with Jesus today".
2) Going on mission is great for students and their teachers. Going country is best since you are with each other all day--and night! I get to see what they're ade of and vice versa; I get to help them close up (scary!) and feel proud when they are doing a talk. It's good for the confident and the not-so-confident.
3) Going on mission is good for the soul. You read the Bible and pray together, you meet non-Christians on their turf, you support the brother or sister who's day it is not, you go out past the comfort zone--where God is suddenly more needed! Also, you have fun with other believers--no internet, telephone, house maintenance issues, transport snags, etc.
4) Going on mission is good for the bible college. The rest of the staff see the lecturers doing evangelism not just talking about it; they get caught up in the enthusiasm that breaks out as students go through the four phases of mission preparation: a) where is X (the place we are going)?, b) you want me to do what!, c) hey, can you help me with this talk, and d) I can't wait till mission.
Of course, we did go to a seaside location and were fed way more than we should have been (did I tell you about the double headed espresso machine from Italy that the church had?!) and it was a lot of work, but...more than worth it from any angle. While we can still knock on doors and ask people what they think Easter is about (or whatever question you think is worth putting out there), we should keep doing it.

Friendship and Forgiveness

To do a PhD on a wide topic (like 'Promises to and Limitations upon Petitionary Prayer in the NT: A Study of Their Relationship') you have to make some sacrifices of depth. I guess that's what a PhD is for (among other things), to teach you how far you can and can't make a case. In the work I did on petitionary prayer in the NT I tended to see where the ideas had come from and not where they were going to. So, it was the Jewish background of many of the sayings took my attention rather than the Greco-Roman readers' context. But to be completely honest, I was never really convinced about the latter approach. I could see Paul treading both sides of the street called Context, but John or Matthew (or James) how would their readers have resonated with the rhetorical handbooks or Homerian sagas?

Now I've started to look at Luke-Acts--not a big focus in my research--my convictions are a little more shaky. I'd gotten into this method of reading when I read Jerome Neyrey's Give God the Glory. But the very intriguing little book by Mikael C. Parsons of Baylor U ("Luke: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist" [Hendrickson, 2007]) pushed me a bit further. I don't buy everything Parsons says, but the examination of the text in the light of classical rhetoric and the Greco-Roman values of its likely readers does provide new angles worth pursuing, perhaps with a pinch of salt.

A good example is the prayer text of Luke 11:1-11. Here Parsons focusses on the idea of friendship in antiquity and shows how it is used as a topos in verses 5-8. Friendship in antiquity came at several levels and was always reciprocal (contractual). Friendships had certain standards and expecations and could be dissolved only for certain reasons. One of the reasons was if one party would not come to the aid of the other. The well-known example Parson's cites Aesop's fable of "the wayfarers and the bear".

Two friends are walking together when confronted by a bear. One friends leaps up a tree but the other is stranded; he decides to lie down and play dead. When the bear approaches the man holds his breath; the bear sniffs right up at his face and then moves on. The first man climbs down from the tree and asks the other man what the bear said to him. "Do not travel from now on with the kind of a friend who does not assist in time of danger" (p. 59).

When a friend comes from out of town and you need help to supply food and you go to another friend and that friend refuses to get up to help you, then that friendship is strained to breaking point. Kenneth Bailey had noted this from a modern Palestinian context as well, but Parsons argues because of persecution (11:4, "trials"/"temptations") Luke's "audience" had begun to see God as distant and needed this parable to show them that God will not break the mores of friendship (pp. 60-61). God will give as friends should.

The danger of this reading is that God appears to be "obligated" by external pressures rather than to give from his own generous nature, the thing that I reckon is amazing about Luke 11:1-11. But if we take this topos of friendship and apply it to the parable of the good Samaritan or the people who come alongside Jesus throughout the Lukan narrative (the women of Luke 7, 8), the theme of friendship becomes more powerful still.

Tonight at table we read Luke 6:37-38:
"37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

The passage is eschatological in outlook as it motivates kingdom behaviour. It also has a chiasm!
a not judging
b not condemning
b' forgiving
a' giving

The opposite of condemnation is forgiveness and (by analogy) the opposite of judging is giving. I then recall that Jesus says in Luke 11:11-13 that God's generosity is far greater than that of human beings, he gives even his Holy Spirit to those who ask. "You, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children." There is the less than subtle reminder that any gift from God is the opposite of what we deserve, being evil. But more than giving gifts, God forgives and does not condemn. He is not under obligation to us but loves us.

What Is Prayer and Why Does It Matter?

Prayer begins with God because it is a response to God's invitation to come to him and to acknowledge him. Prayer is talking to God, either aloud or in your head, in one of two ways: (1) asking him for your needs (i.e., petition, e.g., forgiveness, rescue, material lack, companionship); (2) praising him for his character or action (this includes thanksgiving, which is acknowledges his answering of our prayer).

The Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13//Luke 11:2b-4) shows us these three elements. It begins by addressing God as 'Father' (or, 'our Father in heaven'), a name we can only use because it has been given to us by Jesus. God has taken the initiative towards us in his Son and we are now his dear children (Gal. 4:4-7). Three petitions are then addressed to God about his name, kingdom, and will. While these necessarily involve us in their compass, they ultimately point to the supremacy of God and our complete dependence upon him. That is, they function as praise. The final three petitions (bread, forgiveness, temptation/evil) summarize the three areas of life in which we constantly need God's aid: sustenance, community, and resisting evil.

Why is prayer important? Prayer is nothing other than a personal expression of faith. We pray when we turn to Christ for salvation (Rom. 10:13), when we are in trouble and when we are happy (Jas 5:13). Prayer's importance is found not in its results but in the wonder of God revealing himself to us as our God and in his not treating us as we deserve.

Writing about prayer, talking about prayer is no substitute for prayer itself. In the end, lack of prayer is not due to a lack of knowledge about prayer--I've just completed a PhD on petitionary prayer in the NT but remain a prayer pigmy--but to a lack of faith in God and love of God. That's why this blog is called 'Thorn in the Flesh', named after the incident in 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul senses his ministry is restricted because of a physical/spiritual impediment. He pleads with the Lord three times and found no response to his prayer (see 2 Cor. 12:7-10). But prayer is more than what I obtain.

The amount of 'wonky' teaching about prayer in recent literature, conferences, etc., moves me to go into the blogosphere. Let me pick out one observation as I close this post. Last year I was asked to give a paper on 'Prayer and the Powers'. I went down to the local Christian bookstore and decided not to look at the books on prayer--I had a pretty good idea what was in that section--but in the marriage, children, and Christian living section. In book after book, writers advised readers to deal with demons that were preventing their progress in this or that area of their lives.

The influence of the theology of territorial spirits upon modern Christianity has a lot to answer for. For one thing, I don't find it in the NT (or in the OT for that matter). For another, it locates problems in places that Scripture does not. Scripture asks us to face our own sins and pasts (individual and corporate) with the aid of God's Word, prayer, fellowship and godly counsel. True, we are to '(with)stand' and be 'alert' to the shinanigans of our Foe (Eph. 6:10-17), but we are to do this through prayer for ourselves and others (Eph. 6:18-20).

What are we to pray? Paul requests prayer for boldness in proclaiming the good news. We should also pray that we will deploy the 'armour of God', which includes passive (belt) and active (sword) elements. What was it that the Enemy sought to destroy according to Paul? Ephesians 4 and 5 direct attention to the unity and mutual submission of the church under its head. Earlier he had spoken about the 'secret' he had been given to announce, that the Gentiles had become fellow heirs with the Jews in Christ, that there were no longer two but one.

The more we focus on Satan and his minions the more we become entangled in the web of his lies, which is, after all, his main 'gift'. Prayer that is directed towards the digging out of Satan's tentacles or resisting this or that 'spirit' overlooks the fact that we have a defeated foe and an exalted Saviour.