Paul's requests
To commence, let us see what Paul asked. When he wrote to the church at Ephesus, he closed with an exhortation in chapter six to ensure that they were always covered and fully equipped with the armor of God—always praying in the spirit. I recommend that you visit the page, “The armor of God”. Click here. It may surprize you.
He often added a personal request for prayer support and if he considered it so important, I think that we should find out why. Perhaps there’s more to it than we realize and we should do the same.
A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.
Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness.
For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.
In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.
Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.
Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God’s mysterious plan that the Good News is for Jews and Gentiles alike. Ephesians 6:10-19.
Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains.
Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. Colossians 4:2-4
Diversity
I like to encourage everyone in the things of the Lord. I want to see people keen and enthusiastic and on fire for the Lord and keep telling folk that they are special (which they are) who can achieve greatness in God (which they can and should), but I know that we are all different and react to things differently and have different life experiences. Some folk reading this live in hot, equatorial countries whilst others live in cold countries near the Arctic Circle. What happens can thus vary, even if only for this simple reason. Whilst God’s principles remain unaltered and always work when applied in the manner He has prescribed, the way they are put to work may differ slightly as a result.
You can do things that I am unable to do and I can do things you cannot.
This is what makes the Body of Christ so wonderfully diverse. This is a good thing, revealing that God is a God of infinite variety and diversity. Imagine what it would be like if we all looked alike, sounded alike and acted alike. Think what it would be like if every flower and fruit on the earth was identical. I think it would be boring to say the least.
I really believe and am committed to the principles on which Jesus is building His Church, namely on the apostles and prophets and the ministry gifts that He gave to His Church.
We are not all called to be another Peter or a Paul, or a Philip.
In like manner we are not designed to do what another pastor or evangelist does based only on their relative “successes”.
They may in fact be attempting to do things that the Lord did not ordain. Some are! God could have something totally different planned for you and it is up to us each as individuals to find out what it is and do that.
I can say that because in my early ministry days, I (and many others) tried to do what others did and it did not work! All we really knew then was that when one believed he or she had a call of God on their life, they went to a bible college, obtained ordination credentials and were “sent” to a church somewhere, most often as an associate pastor and “proved themselves”. This is scriptural, but often taken to the extreme whereby the keen and enthusiastic young man is often squeezed into the mould of his denomination—and it might not be what God really wanted.
All we really knew were pastors, a few evangelists and even less teachers.
The gifts of the Spirit were restricted to tongues, interpretation and prophecy, but that is only scratching the surface of what He has for the Church. It seems that the Gifts of the Spirit amongst other things are all losing their importance even in “Pentecostal churches” and I’m a “pentecostal”. I’m a “word of faith “ man, love it and want to see more people moving into these things too. If I had continued with my initial plans, I would probably have become hurt and disillusioned and quit. I’ve seen it only too often, even in some “big” churches, some of which are now gone. In our youthful exuberance and zeal, we can come on too strong at times with sad consequences.
Jesus did not tell us to go around witnessing—He told us to Be witnesses. There is a big difference. He did not tell us to Make our light shine, but to Let it shine. If it is inside us, it comes out as if automatically, just like the light of a lighthouse shines out because it is designed to do that. I know this is true because I have often been asked what is different about me by people.
If we have really “got it” they can see it in us. People do watch us.
They came to Philip in John 12:21 asking to see Jesus. Surely, they had seen something.
They saw it in Peter and John in Acts 4:13.
They should see it in us and we really do not have to prove a thing, but act naturally supernatural and supernaturally natural.
They saw it in Paul also.
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. Acts 16:16-17
What this woman said was correct! Paul was indeed one of God’s servants. He was showing people the way of salvation.
Just because someone can “affirm” things, does not mean that they are the real deal. They could be counterfeits like this women who was motivated by a spirit of divination that Paul cast out. One of the gifts of the Spirit is the discerning of spirits. Every one of us needs to know by which spirit anyone is operating, despite their title, if they wear a minister’s dog collar or wear a priestly vestment or not. It could be their own human spirit, an evil spirit or the Spirit of God and what they say can sound great—but not always 100% true. We need to know the truth as we are coming into end time events with increasing momentum. Jesus told us about checking people out so that we could know them by their fruit!
On the Day of Pentecost, when Peter preached his first real public sermon, 3000 souls were saved—and he preached about Jesus—after that crippled man had been healed! Those signs and wonders are supposed to draw people.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed?
Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.
For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’
There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. Acts 4:8-14
Peter preached that day—not John, but John could have. He received the same anointing Peter did and he was the one Jesus loved! Peter was the failure who had denied Jesus, not John and those 3000 people recognized the change in the man. If John had preached that day, I doubt if those souls would have been saved.
Zeal
We just saw a powerful principle of the right person doing the right job at the right time and in the right place for the right reasons.
It is a good thing to be zealous, but our zeal must be properly directed and it might not be what we think it is. Paul wrote about the zeal of the Jews (the religious ones), saying-
BRETHREN, [with all] my heart’s desire and goodwill for [Israel], I long and pray to God that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a [certain] zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to [correct and vital] knowledge. Romans 10:1-2
In the original language we find that we can have zeal without knowledge or epignōsis. That word describes recognition, acknowledgment and in particular...discernment. It would appear that what we think is being zealous, is acting without proper understanding and discernment. Sometimes in our zeal to “win the lost”, we can be prone to try forcing issues and get people to repeat a “sinner’s prayer” after us, but actually drive some away. Others could repeat what we tell them simply to try getting us to stop and take the pressure off them. They merely say words to please us and are not really having a life changing experience. It could be best to stop and take a breath and listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice and allow Him to lead us. There has been many a time when He has told me, “That’s enough.”
Zeal is a very powerful force but it needs to be correctly applied. If anyone could be classed as being zealous for God, Saul of Tarsus had no equal. He said-
I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.
I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church.
And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
Philippians 3:5-11
Talk about being able to brag and being zealous, but his zeal was misplaced. The Hebrew word for zeal is qinʾâ.
It talks about ardor or zeal in the way we understand it, but one of the most prevalent meanings relates to jealousy and to a lesser extent to envy. This is especially evident when considering marriage. According to Genesis 2:24, in a marriage relationship, the two become one flesh. Adultery was punishable by death, because it was considered as a severing of the body, thus considered to be a form of murder (see Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22).
God is depicted as Israel’s husband and as a jealous God (Exodus 20:5; Joshua 24:19). Idolatry was viewed as spiritual adultery and merited death. Scriptures like Psalm 79:5 describes God’s jealousy as a burning fire. Conversely, such “jealousy” may result in good and salvation.
His arduous or zealous love led to reuniting us to Himself and we are thus called the bride of Christ. We are being perfectly prepared and preserved for our wedding. God expects us to return his love but love is not simply an emotion—it is a structured relationship in which the two people work together in perfecting it.
Loving God includes obeying Him.
Zealousness thus takes on a totally different meaning. God’s zeal for us therefore includes taking total care and responsibility for our welfare and being extremely passionate about keeping us pure and preserving us from harm. When it comes to “serving” God, we need to be mindful of Saul’s “service”. That service was misdirected. Our “service” for God must therefore be properly directed and motivated.
We also need to consider His zeal for us and not just on our “zealousness” for him. Sometimes God is not as much interested in what we Do for Him but who we Are in Him. It is for this reason, He does something for us that we do not expect that is always in accord with His master plan. There is something about this that I would like to show you that might be a surprise.
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In my opening statement, I touched on the desires to be useful to God. We rightly want to get out there and do something, but often step out prematurely, or presumptuously.
Getting a word from God is great, whether it is by personal prophecy or by scripture but it is often open ended.
A legitimate vision has no expiry date.
Therefore when God calls us to a task of some kind, it behooves us to find out where, when and how, just as much what it is. If it is a “God vision” there is an appointed time for its fulfillment and trying to force it to happen is foolhardy and just as dangerous as lagging behind and missing the day of our visitation.
For example, Saul was on a mission that he thought was a legitimate ministry venture in his persecution of Christians. When the Lord appeared to him, His first command was to Wait for Ananias to minister to him. Waiting is not something we no not like to hear. Paul did not start his real ministry immediately either. He went into the desert of Arabia and was there for 3 years before going to Jerusalem and he did not specifically mention about going to Jerusalem until in Galatians 1:2, he said that he went there—14 years later.
Personally, I have problems with that, because I hate waiting. We all do. I jokingly say that my name is Robert Waiting Carter. I have been waiting for a specific promise, with numerous confirmations, of a ministry vision since the mid to late 1970’s! It is as fresh today as it was when the Lord first spoke.
Even now, I am still learning what it is all about.
The Lord spoke several thousand years ago about the birth, death and ministry of Jesus.
What I will now share could enlighten you and give some answers why zeal is not what we once thought.
One aspect is Exile.
If you think that you have been overlooked or stuck somewhere out of sight and out of mind, seeming to be doing nothing, God could have you there for a specific reason. We do not have to be doing something to be in the middle of the will of God. Thinking that we are supposed to be getting results, can sometimes be counter productive to His plan.
Jesus was always doing what pleased God. He did not do this automatically, but as the son of man who learned obedience according to Hebrews 5:6. We also need to learn real obedience. The bible is full of prophecies about Him but not one took place as far as His ministry went—until the time was right. He never stepped out prematurely, only starting to go about His Father’s business, as and when the Father authorized Him to do so.
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