Model the Heart of Jesus

Imagine a soldier heading into a battlefield to fight an entire army by himself. It would be ridiculous. A suicide mission. Yet, many of us head into a spiritual battlefield every day, completely alone.  Ephesians 6:12 says, “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” (NIV). This is why Paul tells us to put on the armor of God. In order to fight a spiritual battle, we need spiritual armor. In order to win a spiritual battle, we need each other.  When we surround ourselves with a community of believers who love and serve one another, we can be sure we will win the battle. We can help each other put on the armor of God. We surround ourselves with people who speak truth and remind us of truth when we fall prey to the lies of the enemy. We walk in righteousness together and hold each other accountable to staying obedient. We link arms and carry the gospel of peace to those who are far from God. We walk in faith together. We read the Word together to use it as a weapon against the enemy’s lies. And we continually pray for one another. When God asks us to obey his commands, he does so knowing that he is asking us to do it together. When we invest in real community with other believers, we experience God’s love, joy, and peace through those people. Our community becomes a tangible expression of Christ because of the Holy Spirit in each of us. We don’t have to battle Satan, the world, or our own flesh by ourselves. In fact, to do so would be to disobey Jesus’s command to love one another as he loved us (John 13:34-35). Instead of submitting to our pride and trying to do life on our own, we can submit to Christ and head into the spiritual battle with an unbeatable army. Reflection/Discussion Questions: Are you heading into the spiritual battle alone? If not, who is with you?

Tauren Wells sings a song called “When We Pray” and these are the first lines of the chorus: “All the world starts changing when the church starts praying. Strongholds start to break, oh, when we pray.” It goes on to say: “Nothing stays the same, oh, when we pray.” As the people of God, we have the opportunity to make these lyrics a reality.  When the church unifies in one Spirit under one God in prayer, nothing stays the same. The whole world starts to change when we live a lifestyle of fervent, faithful, consistent, and unified prayer. What gets in the way of this kind of prayer is doubt and isolation. We doubt that prayer can work this way whether we acknowledge it or not. We reveal our doubt by our lack of prayer. We cannot believe in the world-changing power of prayer and choose not to pray—it’s completely contradictory. Similarly, we cannot pray solely in isolation. Personal prayer is important, but never praying with other believers or never sharing burdens in prayer or engaging with the church is detrimental to the the church body as a whole.  We are called “the Body” for a reason. Imagine if your foot decided to do its own thing. Your entire body would suffer. The same can be said about the Body of Christ. When one part decides to act in isolation, the whole body suffers. We will not see the world-changing, kingdom-advancing work of God if we do not unite in prayer. When you do start to engage in this kind of prayer, expect to see the impossible take place right before your eyes. Reflection/Discussion Question: How can you become more united with other believers in prayer together?