Life in Christ (2)
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The Power of Prayer
The Power of Prayer
Why pray?
What’s the point of prayer?
James, Jesus 1/2 brother said this,
James 5:16 (NIV)
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
For many of us, we like the second half of this verse, but we don’t like the first half.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NIV)
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Catholics are more open to this than most other Christian churches.
We might say, “There is only one mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.”
Most of us are open to confessing our sins to Jesus, but to each other is off limits.
I do think that James had something here that can be helpful and beneficial, but I don’t believe that he would call us to share our sins with a gossip, or to someone that would mock you or hold your sins against you.
He said,
James 5:16 (NIV)
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed...
When we think of our healing, we usually speak about physical healing, but healing includes the emotional scars, and broken hearts.
Steps to Freedom deals with many areas where we can be and need to be set free. Freedom comes from renouncing our sins, giving God His rightful place to work in our lives, and having the support of each other.
Let’s read today’s Scripture.
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,
so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Church family, we need to be praying for each other…And we need to be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ all around us, whether or not they are a part of this body or not.
Prayer is a powerful weapon.
After Epaphras told Paul about the Colossian believers’ faith,
He said,
We have not stopped praying for you...
You may have a list of people you pray for.
Others may feel a nudge that somebody needs prayer. You may wonder if it’s God or not.
It’s probably God, because I don’t think that the devil would encourage you to pray.
It pleases God when we pray for His children.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
As Paul writes this letter, he’s sitting in a jail in Rome, it’s like a house arrest. They allowed other believers to visit and even stay with him, and they’re praying for the churches, some in which Paul had been to, and even planted, and some that he had only heard about.
Whenever you think of somebody or even a church, please pray.
What did Paul pray for?
What did Paul pray for?
1. That God would fill you with the knowledge of His will...
1. That God would fill you with the knowledge of His will...
Colossians 1:9 (NIV)
...We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,
How can we do the will of God without knowing what His will is?
We have the whole Bible: Old and New Testaments. The people in Colossae, would have had the Jewish Scriptures or the Old Testament, but much of the New Testament was still being written.
The 27 books that we call the New Testament weren’t compiled yet. Colossians is a letter that was written to this group of believers that has been passed down to us.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
My prayer is that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will. I pray that you would know Christ and the power of His resurrection. I pray that you would be conformed to the image of Christ, and that you would know the love of God.
The knowledge of His will comes from the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.
Isaiah prophesied about Jesus in Isaiah 11:1-5
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
We need to pray for each other that we would have the mind of Christ.
Wisdom and understanding go hand in hand. It’s one thing to have knowledge, but it’s another thing to know what to do what that knowledge .
Wisdom and understanding give us the ability to tell the difference between the truth and lies.
Today, we are bombarded with information. The access that we have to information is mind boggling. It’s almost impossible to comprehend, everything that is at our fingertips.
Don’t believe everything that you hear or read. Test everything that you hear. If someone is teaching you a new doctrine, test it. See if it lines up with God’s word.
If it’s taken out of context, it might sound appealing, but pray for discernment.
If it’s another gospel. Reject it!
Why?
Why?
Why did Paul “continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives”
The New International Version (Col 1:9). (2011). Zondervan.
so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
I pray that this would be our earnest prayer.
Oh that we would
Live a life worthy of the LORD...
Live a life worthy of the LORD...
and
Please Him in every way
Please Him in every way
What’s your reason for living?
We often talk about plans and goals. We may use words like destiny, or desires.
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
I believe that this means that as we set our hearts to delight, to seek after, to desire the LORD,
He will give you, He will place desires in your heart.
We can’t read and apply this verse from a worldly perspective or a carnal mind.
So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
As we look at “live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way comes as we delight in Him.
But if I do this, God is going to send me to Africa… He may send you to Africa, but it will be the desire of your heart.
So quickly we can forget that
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
God desires to bless you and not harm you. He wants to give you a hope and a future.
When we look at things from a worldly mindset, or to be carnally minded, we might think that God wants to ruin all my fun.
Ask the drug addict that has nothing left. Ask the person who is incarcerated with no hope and no future if their desires got them everything they needed.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
What happens when you submit your will to the Lord’s?
You bear fruit in every good work, and grow in the knowledge of God.
You bear fruit in season. You grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Do you want God to answer your prayers?
Let’s pray prayers that are according to His will.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
God answers the prayers of the righteous.
James 5:16 (NIV)
...The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
James 5:16 (KJV 1900)
...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
If we want to pray prayers that avail much, we must not only know the will of God, but we must do the will of God.
Paul prayed that they would have knowledge of God’s will, wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit gives so that they could live a life worthy of the Lord and do what pleases Him.
Now...
2. he prays for strength…
2. he prays for strength…
We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,
always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might…
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
We need God’s power, His dunamis, in our lives.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We need His power so that we can have endurance and patience, with joy.
The joy of the Lord is our strength. God has promised that we will have trials of many kinds, but He has also promised that His power is made perfect in weakness.
If we are strong in our own strength and abilities, we don’t need God’s strength.
Here’s what Paul says in
even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
So may you be filled with joy.
always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.
Let’s never forget the cross. Let’s always give thanks for this inheritance that we have received.
You are a son, you are a daughter of the Most High God.
Where there was no way God made a way.
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Because of the cross, we are no longer in the kingdom of darkness. You are light in the Lord. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
We have redemption. The price has been paid so that we can walk in fulness of life.
We have the forgiveness of sins.
To close, my prayer is that your love will grow more and more for the Lord and His church, His body.
May you be filled with the knowledge of His will and spiritual wisdom and understanding to live a life worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and please Him in all you do.
May He give you strength from His mighty power to have endurance and patience with all joy. May you always have a thankful heart to God for all He has done in Christ.
Let’s always thank the Father for the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
May you love God more and more every day.
Let’s pray!