Jim wanted to convey an idea of the bigger picture of what we are as followers of Christ. - What follows is what I have pieced together from my notes ask Jim spoke this evening.
Matthew 3:1-2 - Here we have John the baptist - A fore runner of sorts to Jesus, announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand, telling the people that were listening to him that something new was beginning and was right there.
The way in which the translation puts it - 'is at Hand' simply meant it was right there within reach.
Just one chapter later in Matthew 4:17 tell us From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Jesus preaching the exact same message that John the baptist was teaching the people.
Now for the Jews, the message was clear, they had been taught their whole lives that a Messiah was to come, and with Him would come the new Kingdom that He would bring with him.
The peace, joy, restoration of the relationship with God. Everything that the Jews had been looking for, both John and Jesus were teaching that it was now available to take hold of.
This is the 'Good News' that we hear about, the good news that the Jews had been waiting for (and still are in their eyes). And its this message that John and Jesus were announcing was here now ready to be grasped and taken hold of.Now if we move on to almost the other end of the bible we have an interesting scripture that may confuse somewhat to begin with until we explore the message further.
1 John 5:19 tells us that the world is under the control of the evil one - The bible in other places refers to the enemy as the God of this world. Earth is controlled and lies under the control of the Enemy - Satan.
Its not all that difficult to see really when you look at the world we live in today - the suffering, killing, etc, just turn on the news, pick up a news paper and its not difficult to see that the world is controlled by Satan.
But wait a second isn't the world owned by God???
Lets look at an interesting scripture in Matthew 4:8-10
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[a]” Notice that Satan offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world, and yet we don't see Jesus correct Satan, doesn't challenge the statement, Jesus doesn't tell the enemy that they are not his to give.
1 john 3:8 - The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work
When Jesus came to earth, He began to invade the territory of the enemy.
Picture it this way, the invasion Jesus began is similar in many ways to the Allied forces landings in Normandy - The aim of the Allies was not just to occupy the beaches at Normandy. But to drive all the way to Berlin and remove Hitler from Europe.
Similarly Jesus began an invasion in Israel, the aim to drive Satan from the earth.
Its started with Jesus in Jerusalem, it spread to Judea, Samaria, Paul took the message and the invasion in to Europe, it moved into North Africa, and Thomas (remember doubting Thomas) even took it into India.
The invasion spreads, and today we are part of that Army.
Every single person is called by God in some way to participate in this invasion - this Kingdom
Ephesians 4:1 - I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called
You have been called by God. You have been called to be a part of this invasion force, the army of God. And your job is to use the gifts and talents and abilities to take back from the enemy the things that are rightfully God's.
Every ones job is important, whatever your role its important. The bible tells us we are a body, that one may be an eye, the other a foot.you might view yourself as simply the big toe of the body of Christ, or something small like the thumb however:-
In Old Testament times, the victorious commander would cut the thumbs and big toes off of the defeated leader, this would leave that commander practically crippled.
You see without the thumb your hand has no strength to it at all. So stability. And without the big toe your balance is gone. You have to re learn how to walk.
So even the small things play a big role in the bigger picture.
As you see then every persons job is important, whatever role yo play - its important, even if you done see it right now. There is something that you can do in the army of God.
(Jim's role is to travel conducting conferences that train pastors and leaders to bring about he great commission, and impart the skills to help these new converts into an impacting life for Christ - Jim's Bio from his website Mission Catalyst International
Part of the teaching that Jim gives is that He feels every Christian should have what he calls and evangelical prayer list. Basically a list of 10 unsaved friends, people that you know locally that do not know Christ and that every time you pick up your bible, you pray for those 10 people until they receive Christ. A simple prayer for two things, that 1) they receive a revelation of who Jesus is and 2)that the Holy Spirit draw them - the basic idea is that everyone can do this, its not expensive, and statistically something like 70% of people that receive Christ do so because someone was praying for them, its the most effect form of evangelism, pray for people and invite them to an event where they can hear the gospel - simple stuff)With this in mind then, something as simple as praying for you evangelical prayer list is part of working in the army
Armies need more than just soldiers, if you look at the structure of any military, its more than just the soldiers in the infantry, armies need logistics people, supplies, leaders, planners, intelligence people, cooks, you name it.
And in praying for your list you are working for the army, and aiding the invasion. you see every time someone on your prayer list receives Christ, that is furthering the invasion, because God invades that life, that family and that persons sphere of influence.
As your pray - and God answers your prayers and invades the life of a person. It brings them out of bondage, out of control of the enemy.
A side benefit of our salvation is that you find peace, joy, righteousness, and the forgiveness of sins never to be remembered by God. All the things that the Jews were and are looking for that both John and Jesus were teaching was at hand.
We pray for others because we want them to to experience these things from God also.
When we pray, we need to remember 3 major things
1) Be Specific - Ask God for certain things, don't generalise, you ask for general things you will get general answers, ask and you will receive the bible tells us, in another place it teaches you have not because you ask not. Be specific with your prayer
2)Be Passionate - We have to be serious with our prayers. The bible tells us the Jesus prayed with crying out and through tears at times, should we not be the same
3)Be Persistent - DO NOT stop praying - every parable that Jesus told that was about prayer was significantly about never giving up, about persistence.
A lot of times, the reason that we don't see answers to our prayers is because we give up asking
1 kings 18:41-45 - the Old Testament story of Elijah praying fro rain, and sending his servant up to look for the rain clouds. And we see he gets on his knees to pray and it takes seven times before a cloud is seen.
Persistence is a key, we are taught to never stop praying.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 - pray without ceasing
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