Heavily Defended Territory
Many Biblical historians say that the church at Colosse was founded by Epaphras. Paul wrote to this church because Epaphras reported that false teachers were infiltrating the church saying that other laws needed to be added to the truth of the gospel of the grace of God. According to Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
We’re called alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ to minister to one another with words of comfort, encouragement, and edification through the power and love of the Holy Spirit.
In Colossians 1:9-12 Paul wrote by God’s inspiration:
9. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11. Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
12. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:”
Paul prayed for their knowledge of God’s will and that they would be filled with God’s wisdom and spiritual understanding. He specifically asked for spiritual knowledge, not worldly knowledge. To know spiritual understanding means that we must first be born again of God’s spirit. Then we can see the world from God’s perspective. Only then can we see according to the spirit with Christ’s eyes behind our eyes.
Pastor Eugene H. Peterson said, “the kingdom of self is heavily defended territory.” However, when we give up our so-called rights, forsake our pride, and surrender our will to God’s will, then He will work in us and through us to will and to do of His good pleasure. He will give us the desires of our heart when we intentionally delight ourselves also in the Lord… when we actively align our desires with His desires.
Oswald Chambers prayed in his devotional My Utmost for his Highest, “Lord, Even if I am called to offer my own self in sacrifice and service to your faith, I will be joyful and rejoice. If your plan for me is to be a doormat underfoot so that others can trample on, then thank you Lord for this calling.” Jesus Christ himself has taught us to know how to be abased. Are you willing to seek not to be ministered to but to minister? He has called us to forsake our so-called earthly dignity in order to give up the over-desires of our sinful flesh. Until we empty ourselves of ourselves then he cannot fill us with his will and the desire of His heart.
Mother Teresa said, “God works best with nothing.” In order to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not unto our own understanding, we must approach his throne of grace with empty hands. Then the Holy Spirit can fill us and will teach us His wisdom.
Regardless of the trials and tribulations of this world, God said, in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness..”
To love God above all is the first and great commandment. Jesus said in The Sermon on the Mount, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these other things shall be added unto you.” We cannot obey the second command, to love our neighbor as ourselves, until we obey the first command to love God above all.
The best way to love your children is to love your wife. The best way to love your wife is to love God above all. Loving thy neighbor as thyself depends on Loving God first. Then we can serve others with Christ’s heart behind our heart. Then we can understand Jesus’ words of wisdom: “In that thou has done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Warren Wiersbe said Christian service is a result of Christian devotion. God must make the worker before he can assign the work. Jesus doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
As Christians, our responsibility is our response to His ability. Therefore meditate on these things, (the word of God), commit thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear unto all. As we meditate on His word, he will weave into our hearts the fabric of his will. The wisdom and understanding of the Lord will be manifest in our lives when we make his will our will and his purpose our purpose.
According to 1 Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”
We’re called from the darkness of this world to declare the excellency of God’s grace, mercy, and peace….for he alone is worthy to be praised. The purpose of his calling is that we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace… for He alone is worth of all glory and honor and praise.
He gave us his power so that we could attain patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. The patience is in abiding with and within our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 15: 5 Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
The devil attacks men of God so that they will forget the reason for their calling. To make it as God’s man, we must spend time in His presence and in His word. To hunger and thirst after righteousness is an acquired taste. According to proverbs, taste and see that the Lord is good. The prophet said, I found thy words and I did eat them. And they became unto me the joy and rejoicing of my soul. When we deliberately delight ourselves in the Lord, making his desire our desire and his delight our delight, then he will give us the desires of our hearts.
The warfare is not against sin. The battlefield is for hearts and minds. It begins in our own hearts. The spiritual battle is the battle to turn our natural mind into the super-natural mind of Christ. A man of God’s heart’s desire is to spend the rest of his life learning to become just like Jesus. It’s not done easily. It’s the result of deliberately choosing the right moral choices according to His word. The prophet Isaiah said, “as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, so shall my word be that proceedeth out fo my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing where unto I sent it.”
Jesus said, “If my word abides in you and you abide in me, you shall bear much fruit.” According to Psalm 1, “blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the. Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree that is planted by the rivers of (living) waters. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
We must give up the rights to ourselves in order to obey his command… trust in the. Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and men….
… That we may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
