eNews | Prayer & Fasting Day 2 | 23rd Nov 21'
Dear Church Family,
Often the second day of a fast can be the toughest, so don’t give up, keep going!Today as we call on God we should:
Learn how to discern
The whole world is divided. Across the world, polarisation is taking place, and then sub splits within that.We are hearing of it multiple times a day in our news feeds, and consequently, riots and protests were taking place across Europe over the weekend.The issues of our day are massively compounded by Covid and are forcing people to take sides. Which side are you on? On many factors we can agree to disagree, very many Christians are fully vaccinated and very many are not.Very many Christians eat meat, and many do not.Some resolve the problem ‘of sides’ by sitting on the fence. But when it comes to good and evil you cannot sit on the fence. You will have to align with one side or the other. In another place in Hebrews, we are told that the word of God is a sword, and it divides, (Hebrews 4:12) the thoughts-intents-and motives of the heart. The key is to always remember taking a position on good and evil is not the same as taking a hateful attitude towards people on the other side.We are called to love all, especially our enemies. Since our real enemy is the devil and not the individual who is standing in front of us.This word ‘discern’ from today’s verse, is diakrises in its original Greek, and very quickly you can see ‘di’ and ‘krises’. In other words, we must learn how to separate that which is true, right, and godly in the crisis’ moment. According to our key verse, it takes maturity to be able to do that. Jesus taught the exact same principle in a different way when He taught us to pray the Lord’s prayer, He said that we should pray, "thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That kingdom coming must start in me and roll out into my family and church and beyond.God’s kingdom is diametrically opposed to all the world stands for. Paul told us that being friends with the world = being enemies with God. (Romans 8:7). Which side are you on?How do we decide what is right or wrong? Is it friendships or personalities?Is it our culture or upbringing? It’s none of these things, it must be the word of God.What does God say about it?What does He say is right and wrong?And how does His word teach us to then align our behaviour and practice as a result? And as we heard on Sunday last, the Bible teaches us that the attitude we carry whilst we do this discerning is all-important.
Today as we pray, let’s pray for:
- God’s will and word to be fully manifested in my life
- For God’s will and Word to be fully manifested in the Church, and invite Jesus to walk through our church, all of it, just as He did in the passage we looked at last Sunday.
- Let’s pray for the supernatural enabling of the Holy Spirit to help each one of us change and transition as we move into the next chapter God intends for our lives.
All 7 churches in Revelation were commended by Jesus for some amazing things, but all needed to change somewhere.We will all need to adjust and change somewhere.
May God graciously help us discern where and what today, and then give us the will, courage, and power to do it. Have a blessed day discerning. Andrew