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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that’s what He’s getting.”-Jack Handy

We Christians believe in spiritual things. At least we are forced to since God is Spirit. We even claim to be both body and spirit. But how much do we really accept the spiritual world? Do we even consider the spiritual world as we go about our daily existence? We accept the Bible’s teaching on the spiritual world, but in daily life we exist almost entirely as if the spiritual world doesn’t exist. This is to our peril.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12). Name your struggle. Now do you believe in the spiritual source of that evil? Perhaps the reason you haven’t overcome that struggle is because you are using non-spiritual weapons to fight it. After this statement by Paul, he talks about spiritual armor (truth, righteousness, gospel of peace, faith, salvation) and weapons (the Word of God and Prayer).

Every time we enter into prayer, we engage in spiritual warfare. Satan knows this and will do everything in his power to distract, discourage, and frustrate our time with God. It is on our knees where we most engage in this battle of Good and Evil. We don’t fight it to gain the victory, but we fight because we already have the victory. Our desire now is to see the Kingdom come; God’s reign extended to every soul on the planet.

Where should we start in warfare prayer? No matter how ignorant of the spiritual world we are there are a few things that everyone can do to drive back the work of the Devil on our world.

The first type of prayer is worship. Worship is our primary activity as God’s creation. It is for worship that we were created and it is in worship that we find our meaning of existence. Satan’s pride wanted this worship for himself. His hatred of God wants to steal the rightful praise of God from our hearts. To do that he tempts our fallen nature which is in rebellion against God. The sinful pride we so naturally carry with us is put aside when we worship. In worship we declare the greatness and glory of God. We declare him as holy and nothing compares to him. The Lord’s Prayer begins with worship and flows into God’s will being done on earth. It is the proper progression once we first recognize God in absolute wonder.

The second type of prayer that has powerful consequences in the spiritual realm is repentance. We rarely feel comfortable in this kind of prayer because it means confronting our sin. Guided by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word the depths of our unrighteousness is brought to the surface. It is here where it can be dealt with. Confession is an appropriate step at this point. Repentance affects the spiritual realm because it removes the strongholds of Satan in our lives. Every sin that we hide and hold on to is a place where Satan can attack. It is through these broken walls where he gains access and plunders

our faith, hope, and love. If you consider the Armor of God, the most essential is the Helmet of Salvation. Second in importance is the Breastplate of Righteousness. These guard the vitals on a soldier and are vital to our spiritual life. Proverbs 15:29 says, “The Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” If any of our other prayers are to have an effect in the spiritual realm we must go through the process of repentance. Only when wickedness has been rooted out of the heart are we in a position to pray with power.

It is hard to remove selfishness from our prayers. However, when we pray for others those prayers are much less likely to have a selfish motive. It is this third type of prayer that has great affect in the spiritual realm. It is right after Jesus presentation of the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11 where he teaches on intercessory prayer. It is the persistence of a friend that gets the need met for another. God longs for these kinds of prayers because they are motivated by love. It was love that motivated Jesus to die on our behalf. Love is the persuasive power that gets intercessory prayer answered.

Enter into the battle that rages invisible around us. Shake the foundations that Satan has established in our world. We know that it stands on nothing but sand. Praise the name of the Lord who is our strong tower. Rebuild the walls that have crumbled down from sin. Stand firm and fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” (Matthew 11:12). We are more than conquerors…we are liberators.

I have been convicted lately of the amount of violent TV/Film I watch. Being a pacifist, it is a bit hypocritical of me to be against violence in any form, yet feed on it from an entertainment standpoint. So in an effort to cut out the adrenaline rush movies, I’ve put together a short list of movies I’d like to see in 2009.

• Ghost Town
• Slumdog Millionaire
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Synechdoche, NY
• Juno
• American Splendor
• Trade
• Amelie

Which aspects of what God has done for us in Christ are most important to you?

This question went along with the reading of Ephesians 1:1-14 which is full of blessing.

• “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” v.3
• “He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world” v.4
• “That we may be holy and unblemished in his sight” v.4
• “Adoption as sons” v.5
• “Grace that he has freely bestowed on us” v.6
• “Redemption through his blood” v.7
• “Forgiveness of our trespasses” v.7
• “Lavished on us all wisdom and insight” v.8
• “Revealed to us the secret of his will” v.9
• “Marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit” v.13

Which of these movements best describes where you find yourself right now?

I find myself being reoriented in my relationship with Christ. The book, “The Divine Conspiracy” by Dallas Willard, is helping me see the Kingdom of God and how to live in it in a new way. I feel that I am being reoriented to the way God wants me to live in relation to him and his Kingdom. I wouldn’t say that it has moved from my head to my heart and will yet, but it is stirring in me the desire to draw near and live under his kingship.

When in your spiritual journey have you felt restored in your relationship with God?

I wouldn’t say that there are any major times when I have been away from God so long that there was a restorative event, but there all the more frequent times of restoration. Sometimes in worship I feel more connected with God then normal. It is then that I realize that I haven’t been as close to him as I have been. It is in the heights of worship that I realize that I haven’t been walking closely with him and return refreshed. Also, I would say that celebrating the Lord’s Supper also serves to restore me to him. Our church celebrates communion once per month. There are times when preparing my heart that the burden of sin is lifted off and I feel lighter and joyous again.

Identify a stage in your journey when you were spiritually thirsty, discouraged, or empty? What happend? What brought you through the desert?

Interestingly enough, I think I was spiritually thirsty the year I was in seminary. This might be shocking, but you can spend a lot of time in the Word, studying it in depth and not connect to God. I think what also made this a spiritually dry time was that I wasn’t connected to close friends and particularly Samantha. We were engaged, and distance doesn’t promote intimacy. I attended classes with many great Christians, but they lived an hour away, so spending time with them wasn’t feasible. And although I took advantages of opportunities with the Young Adults Group I didn’t make any great connections. It wasn’t a desert the whole time, there were oases God provided–all-seminary spiritual retreats and God speaking occasionally to me in my studies–but overall it wasn’t an easy time.

The question for today is where would you marvel, like Jacob, that “Surely the Lord [was] in this place–and I did not know it” from your personal history?

Right now I am coming to the realization that God is in every place at all times. Yes, that is his omnipresence. But all too often we don’t really believe it. How could we boldly sin if we believed he was right there with us at the time? It’d be like cheating on your wife in her presence. Beyond sins, I feel that most of the time I don’t believe he’s right here. Certainly much of my past was the same way. I do know that in the times I really needed him to be there–when I felt the most alone and hurt–I was aware of his presence. For that I give thanks. My prayer is that I would come to the everlasting awareness that God is with me at all times and that I would live my life accordingly.

My small group is working through a series called “Companions in Christ.” A part of the process involves journaling our reflections on various Bible passages and questions. I have decided to record them here.

What marked the beginning(s) of your faith journey?

I would have to say that my faith journey is closely tied to my heritage and godly family. Yes, God calls individuals, but often we find him doing so to establish a people who are faithful to him. Certainly I have seen this in my family. So many of my relatives and ancestors walked closely with God. My own journey has benefited from the knowledge of God passed on to me. I consider this a blessing and as I now have children, seek to continue the legacy. 

The milestones of my personal journey:

• January 1984 – Accepted Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of my sins
• September 1989 – Baptized
• June 1995 – Made a commitment to go into full-time ministry
• February 1997 – Mission trip to Honduras
• 1997-2001 – At Crown College
• 1999 & 2000 – Camp counselor at Big Sandy Camp
• 2001-2002 – At Canadian Theological Seminary
• 2002-2003 – First ministry position at Hope Church in Apple Valley, MN
• 2006-present – Current ministry position at Faith Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, MN

I had to smile at this interpretation of the message of Christianity:

The belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

In geek-speak in sounds crazy, yet it is close to the truth. Here’s the translation from geek-speak to Christianese:

cosmic: from beyond earth, outside our galaxy/universe, transcendent God

zombie: body returned to life, resurrection

cosmic Jewish zombie: Jesus Christ, 2nd Person of the Trinity

live forever: eternal life in heaven

symbolically eat-flesh: eucharist, communion, Lord’s Supper

telepathy: prayer

accept as master: accept Jesus as Lord & Savior

evil force in soul: original sin

rib-woman: Eve

talking snake: Satan

magical tree: Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Complete Translation to Christianese:

The belief that the transcendent God, incarnate in Jesus Christ, was raised from the dead can give you eternal life in heaven if you remember his sacrifice in partaking of the Lord’s Supper and pray, telling him that you accept him as your Lord and Savior, so he can remove original sin from your soul that is present in humanity because Eve was convinced by Satan to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.