The Messenger 20
Introduction
Years ago, on a flight to Johannesburg, I recall looking out of the window as we approached the city and being struck by the stark contrast between the beautiful, clear air in which we were flying and the smog-laden atmosphere that hung like a cloud over the city. It was enough to make me want to stay on the plane. Why would anyone want to live in Johannesburg if that was what they had to breathe in every day?
The funny thing was that within a short time of our having landed I forgot all about that polluted air I was breathing in. Once I was right in the middle of it I had nothing with which to compare or contrast what I was experiencing. The abnormal had become normal, the unacceptable had become acceptable.
Hope, Riches, Power
We are in a battle every day of our earthly life. It is, as Paul reminds us towards the end of Ephesians, a spiritual battle. It is a battle for the mind.
“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” (Eph 6:12).
“If you think spiritual warfare is irrelevant to you, you may already be losing the battle” warns Pastor Tope Koleoso of Jubilee Church in London. “Demons have a notorious way of acclimatising to where they are” he goes on to say. “And in secular Western society, this means playing right into our neglect and diminishing of the supernatural.”
We may feel tempted to consign Pastor Koleoso and his ideas on spiritual warfare to the fringes of 21st century Christian thinking. To do that, however, would also mean our having to consign Jesus and Paul and their teaching on spiritual warfare to the fringes as well.
We live in a world where the norms of the Kingdom of God and the norms of the secular world are in stark contrast to each other. In our Western world, dominated as it is by secularism, there is enormous pressure on Christians and the church either to neglect or diminish the supernatural. Without Christians even realising it, the abnormal is becoming normal, the unacceptable is becoming acceptable.
Whether we like it or not, whether we agree or not, the reality is in this world we are locked in a “struggle against the rulers, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil.” In this struggle, if we lose sight and all thought of Jesus and His Word as our spiritual reference point, we place ourselves and the Church at risk. We have nothing left by which to compare or contrast what we experience around us with the higher, purer things of the Holy Spirit. What does God expect from us and from His church? Are we falling short of His expectations? And how can we know one way or another until we understand what God’s norms and expectations are?
The church of the 21st century seems light-years away from the church of the 1st century. Tragically so much of the 21st century Western church is filled with moral compromise and spiritual mediocrity. So many in the church seem content with so little. If Jesus chose to absent Himself from their meetings they wouldn’t even know it. What has happened? Those who breathe in this polluted atmosphere of Western secularism have simply become acclimatised to what surrounds them. They no longer have anything with which to compare or contrast their experiences.
We cannot help being in this world, but as both Jesus (Jn 17: 6-18) and Paul (Rom 12: 2) make very clear, we are not to be of this world. In it, but not of it! May I encourage you to take a few minutes of your time to read those two passages.
The spiritual blessings we have received in our union with Christ provide everything we need to rise above this smog-laden world into that purer air of God’s presence. It is only there, in His presence, that we can truly know what God expects from us and from the church.
Now let’s take a closer look at the contents of Paul’s intercession for the saints. Mark well what he prays for:
“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power to us who believe.”
Do you recall how Paul begins his intercession for the saints. Take a look at verse 17 again. “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father…” I keep asking!
If we are not going to lose this battle for the mind then we need to remember there is no quick-fix, no instant solution. If we are going to rise above the polluted atmosphere of this secular world and experience the pure air around the throne of grace, then we, too, need to persist in our praying to the Father. But our prayers need more than just persistence. They require, as we see from Paul’s prayer, a very specific focus. Paul is clear about what he asks of the Father. So should we be.
From the phrases I have underlined you will notice that there are three specific things Paul asks of the Father in his intercession for the saints:
1. He asks that the believers may know the hope to which they have been called;
2. That they may know the riches of the Father’s glorious inheritance in the saints;
3. That they may know the incomparably great power to all who believe.
That is very specific. And if that is what Paul was asking of the Father for the saints in the 1st century church, then we, too, need to be asking the Father for those very same things for ourselves and for one another. In our next session we will be looking at each of those three points in Paul’s intercession.
If you have a question or a comment about this series please feel free to write to me, Brian, at
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