OUR MOST POWERFUL SPIRITUAL WEAPON

There is a greatly underused tool in our arsenal that has far more impact than most people realize.  Many Christians have NEVER used the tool.  Others have used it – but incorrectly.  Our American culture almost completely fails to consider this tool unless it has to do with weight loss. 

I have recently gone from being retired to being back in the ministry again.  It’s been quite a change!  The last I led a church was in 2016 – at which point I retired.  Actually, the last I led a church as a full time pastor was 2012, when Debbie and I left for China.  I was sixty at that time – I’m seventy-two now. 

Returning to the responsibilities and strains of leading a church has caused me to experience increased stress and a return to that feeling I once knew so well – that one’s work is NEVER done! 

My work week once again revolves around:

• Preparing a message for Sunday
• Leading a weekly staff meeting
• Preparing for and leading a Board of Administration meeting
• Mentoring leaders and candidates for the ministry
• Visitation – minimal since the church has a nearly ordained Pastor of Visitation
• Prayer for the various people and needs represented in the church!
• Meeting requests for personal interventions
• Addressing areas of brokenness within the church in hopes of creating health and effectiveness
• Add to this that the church is nearly an hour-and-a-half from my home!

The last two weeks has brought a rise in my stress level – the kind that’s hard to escape from.  It has the potential to take the joy out of your life.  It’s pervasive.  It preoccupies your mind.  For many pastors, this is a perpetual state of being.  Leading a church - especially a growing church - may look easy from the pew, but it’s a VERY DIFFICULT THING TO DO! 

So, in the last two weeks, I’ve pulled out that old tool!  While I was actively leading churches, I used it a lot!  However, in retirement, I must confess that I haven’t used this tool in quite a few years.  I’m not proud to admit that!  I guess it shows how much I’ve allowed myself to be removed from the fray! 

This tool is – from my experience and perspective – the most powerful tool in our box!  Used properly, it can make a massive difference!  Yet, so many people misuse this tool!  But the problem is that this tool is difficult to teach about and explain.  Doing so can cause people to think that you’re super-spiritual – even when that is not the case!  In reality, this tool requires and creates a great sense of humility.

My study carrel is loaded with various reminders that intentionally catch my eye as I work there.  Back in the corner behind my lamp is one that serves as a reminder from a time when I used this tool. 

The tool – if you haven’t already guessed – is fasting.  Fasting is, of course, going for a period of time without food and focusing your life on prayer instead.  It is a willing deprivation in hopes that you will be able to create a more focused relationship with God!  It is a tool that is to be practiced in private – to the best of one’s ability.  In some sense, it is a ‘trigger tool’ that allows you – every time you feel hungry – to deliberately turn your heart to God! 

I’m dealing with a delicate matter in the church right now.  I don’t have the necessary wisdom to know how best to lead through this situation.  All my past experience still leaves me in significant need of divine guidance and the nearness of my Lord!  So, several times in the past two weeks I’ve returned to using this tool.  I desperately need the guidance of the Lord of the Church!  

Make no mistake about it:  it is a spiritual warfare tool!  My study-carrel poster reminds me [in my own words] of two very important facts:

I believe that fasting is

THE MOST POWERFUL SPIRITUAL WARFARE WEAPON

THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US!

and

I also believe that fasting is the most

UNDERUSED SPIRITUAL WARFARE WEAPON

that God has given us!

TEACH ME TO PRAY, LORD!

I learned my first lessons in prayer from my mother.  She would kneel with me at my bedside every night and help me recite my bedtime prayer:

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

God, bless Mommy and Daddy,

Grandma, Jeannette and Lib,

Tommy and Bobby,

Beverly and Ira,

and everybody in the world.

Keep Harold be a good boy.

Amen. 

Mealtimes were always prayer times as well.

God is good.  God is great!

And we thank Him for this food.

For love and friends,

And all things good.  Amen.

For many years, my mother kept a small plastic loaf of bread in the center of our table that was filled with small cards that included verses of scripture.  She would have Beverly or me pull out a card and read it.  Maybe we would even try to memorize it.

She was a good teacher and a good example!  I still have two of her Bibles.  She created duct-tape envelopes in the front and back to hold her many prayer lists. 

When I went to college, I immediately began getting up around 5:30 AM to read my Bible and pray.  When my roommate protested, I quietly slipped out and went to a rather cold kitchen area to have my devotions.  Eventually, I was joined by a number of other fellows who had a common desire to start the day with God! 

In reflection, I believe my most effective praying has taken place while walking.  I’ve walked miles and miles around the various sanctuaries where I’ve pastored.  In Harrison City, I walked the fields behind the brand new church I was appointed to serve.  In McClellandtown, I walked a lot in the fields behind the church property.  In East Liverpool, I walked in Thompson Park.  In Spencerville, MD, the church had twelve acres with a very private little cove on the back corner.  In Akron, I prayer-walked in Goodyear Park almost every day.  In New Middletown, I walked in Poland Forest.  In China, I walked nearly every day at the Yitong River Park which was two light rail stations away.  Here in Enon Valley I walk our little village.  As a hiker/backpacker, it’s been a most natural way for me to pray.  

[Caveat:  For the last several years I have been suffering from a sciatic nerve problem that severely limits my ability to walk.  This has clearly affected my prayer life as well.]

Yet, I’ve rarely been satisfied with my prayer life.  Too often it has been too self-centered.  Thankfully though, there have been seasons in which I have been outreaching in prayer.  For several years I set my phone alarm for 10:02 AM.  When it went off, I would take several moments to pray Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” 

My three-year China journal [which I’ve been reviewing this morning] is full of scriptures and quotes from books I was reading during that time.  Living in a spiritually lost and confused culture heightened my awareness of sharing my faith and praying for God’s direction in my life.  I needed Him more as a result! 

But, I must confess that many days my prayer life is anemic.  It feels rote and repetitive.  It seems unproductive and ineffective.  I want it to be different, but don’t always know how to get there.  I’m impatient and not always willing to invest the time and focus that is sometimes required to make prayer effective. I get distracted.  I'm too conscious of the time.

I’m so grateful for God’s patience with me!  He doesn’t write me off.  And I’m especially grateful for those rare times when His presence invades my space and my heart.  Old-timers used to refer to those times as ‘praying through’.  I need to explore that concept.  I need to be more persistent in prayer. 

I recently did a seven-day fast.  My prayer life spiked during those days.  Fasting and prayer have always been great partners in drawing near to God! 

I spend a lot of time discouraged because of the deteriorating conditions in our country.  I’ve recently begun limiting my exposure to the news because of the depressing effect it has on me.  I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to watch less news and spend more time interceding for our nation.  I have no doubt that we could turn our nation around if we would invest more in prayer!  The phrase has been around for ages:  PRAYER CHANGES THINGS!  It also changes people! 

Lord,

My mom helped me get started right!  Thank You for her influence.

Throughout my life I’ve had a desire to serve and please You.

At times I’ve felt in stride with You;

other times, I’ve failed You miserably by my inconsistency and rebellion.

I’m getting down to the last years of my life and I want them to count for You and Your Kingdom!

Help me to be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to be a truly godly man.

Teach me to pray, Lord!

For Your Kingdom’s sake.  Amen.

ISAIAH 58 - LIVES THAT GLOW IN THE DARK!

 YOUR PRAYERS WON’T GET OFF THE GROUND

God begins by commanding Isaiah to shout loudly to His people!  He desperately wants to get their attention! 

They think everything is fine!  They go to worship and study about God regularly.  To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people – law-abiding, God honoring.  [v.2]

They even practice fasting, but they’re aware that God doesn’t seem to notice this.  They wonder “Why?”.

God tells them why!

God tells them that the bottom line on their ‘fast’ days is their own benefit.  They drive their employees too hard.  They bicker and fight.  They put on a pious face and show off their humility.  They parade around solemnly in black.  [v.5]

God makes it clear to them that this is not the kind of ‘fasting’ that He desires. 

Rather, God says:  

This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.

What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, GOD will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ [vs.6-9]

A FULL LIFE IN THE EMPTIEST OF PLACES

“If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again. [vs.9-12]

Then God delivers a final word about observing His Sabbath day:

“If you watch your step on the Sabbath
    and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
    God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
    making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!
    Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
    Yes! God says so!  [vs.13-14]

DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH FAITH?

 I have been reading and re-reading Matthew 17:14-20 in my New International Version Bible for the last hour.  In this passage, a man brings his (probably) epileptic son to Jesus to be healed reporting that His disciples weren't able to do so.  After a short rant about people - apparently including the apostles - not having enough faith, Jesus heals the boy.  When the disciples seek a private answer from Jesus as to why they couldn't heal him - although they had clearly healed others - Jesus simply tells them:

I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.'  [v.20]

By the way, an average sized aspirin bottle will hold about 180 mustard seeds!  One of these miniscule seeds, when planted in fertile soil, can produce a 10 foot bush within three months!  

My initial response was to feel badly for the disciples.  After leaving everything to follow Jesus and after already healing many people, they are reprimanded for not having enough faith?  Somehow, it just doesn't seem fair to me.  But, remarkably, there's no indication that they were frustrated or angry over this situation.  They simply took it in stride.  

After several read-throughs, I noticed a footnote.  Verse 21 was not included in the text but had been printed in small type as a footnote:  But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

So, Jesus did give them a hint of direction.  Apparently to have more faith and be able to accomplish the truly challenging, we must be more dedicated to prayer and fasting.  

Mark Batterson writes, 

“Faith is not logical.  But it isn’t illogical either.  Faith is theological.”     [Wild Goose Chase, p.79]

Prayer and fasting bring us into a closer connection to God!  He's the One that does the healing and transforming!

As I raise my eyes to the wall above my desk, I read a printout from my memoirs that I posted there as a daily reminder:

I believe that fasting is the most powerful spiritual warfare weapon that God has given us!  I also believe that fasting is the most underused spiritual weapon that God has given us!

I have fasted many times over the years, but not recently.  Fasting is hard, and yet when I do it - I often don't want to end the fast because I know I'll lose the closeness that I've developed with God!  

I'm a bit ashamed that with all the crisis of CoVid-19, I've never seriously considered fasting.  C'mon, one has to wonder what would happen if hundreds or thousands of believers worldwide would suddenly begin to fast and pray about this global pandemic or the horrible rioting and racial problems in America?  

 In the book, A Simple Path, John Cairns tells how (Mother) Teresa’s desired culture for her life and order was once printed on small yellow cards.  She called these cards her ‘business cards.’  Here’s what was printed on the cards:

            The fruit of silence is PRAYER.

            The fruit of prayer is FAITH.

            The fruit of faith is LOVE.

            The fruit of love is SERVICE.

            The fruit of service is PEACE.

Maybe you should read that again?  What is the initiative for PEACE?  

Yep!  SILENCE!  Waiting humbly and expectantly before God!   

Have you ever read Habakkuk 2:20?

The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

Maybe we need to start silence meetings?  Groups of people who gather - not to eat, but just to wait quietly before the Lord!  I'm quite confident that the fruit of silence would be prayer.  Then, increased faith!  Then, a spurt of love!  That might lead to an increase in service, which could lead to increased peace!

I suppose our faith would be strengthened.  It might not take long - if a mustard seed can reach ten feet in three months, maybe our faith can grow just as quickly.  

I'm going to rededicate myself to the practice of waiting respectfully before God regarding these crucial issues.  Will you join me?