Your Journey Blog

Spiritual Warfare: Unchecked Anger

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

6. Unchecked Anger

Text: Ephesians 4:25-27 - Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. "In your anger do not sin"^: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Problem: “Satan can use anger in a life to gain inroads into a life and eventually control that life through the anger.” J. Robert Clinton

Antidote: “Get help if anger controls you. This may require inner healing. Also recognize the benefits of anger.”  J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:

1. What are the triggers of anger that easily beset you?

• Hurts or Offends?
• Fear or Worry?
• Frustrations or Misunderstandings?

2. What does James say that man’s anger produces? (James 1:20)

3. What are the ways you naturally express anger?

• Do you silently stuff those feelings?
• Do you explosively express those feelings?

4. What can the church do to better protect itself from the grip of the enemy around this issue?

5. List the qualifications of elders and deacon that speak to the issue of emotional maturity in I Timothy

    3:1-11; Titus 1:5-9

6. When is righteous anger warranted and how should it be expressed?

Prayer: Father in Heaven, grant us wisdom to understand the triggers of anger that so easily beset our souls; that distract Your mission and hinder Your church.  Teach us how to appropriately express our anger that leads to emotional health and relational intimacy.  Father, help us to be humble enough to seek help when we are under the grip of the enemy and stuck in our anger.  Teach us to keep short accounts and to speak the truth in love.  Keep our hearts soft in your grace and not hard with anger.  Father, grant us the grace to get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Father, give us the power to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave us.  In the precious name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, Amen.

Next week: Sickness and Disabilities

To view the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare: Deceptive Leaders with Slick Teaching

This week we continue to answer the following question: How does God’s enemy come after His people and His leaders for the sole purpose of distracting, disrupting and derailing them from being involved in God's great mission?

As we survey Pauline literature we will discover fourteen tactical strategies that the enemy will use to come after God's people along with specific antidotes in addressing that problem.  See the introduction to this series to receive an overview of this subject.

5. Deceptive Leaders with Slick Teaching

Text: II Corinthians 11:14-15 - And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Problem: “Satan can counterfeit good things that attract believers (e.g. apparent good teaching; false apostles). Satan can appear like a messenger from God to deceive Christians.” J. Robert Clinton

Antidote:“Get discernment on apparent good teaching, apparent dynamic leaders. This may involve having to depend on people with revelatory gifts (discerning of spirits; word of knowledge; word of prophecy; word of wisdom, etc.).” J. Robert Clinton

Reflective Questions:

• When is the last time your prayed for the spiritual protection of your church?
• Would you describe your church as one with the spirit of the Bereans? (Acts 17:11)
• How dependant are you on the revelatory gifts of Scripture?
• Who in your circles would have those revelatory gifts?

Prayer: Father of Light, protect my life from the deception of the enemy, protect your church from false teachers and hirelings, produce a spiritual depth and a hunger for truth throughout your church.  May we have the noble character of the Bereans receiving the word of God with eagerness and thoroughly examine the Scriptures everyday.  May you grant the church with the spiritual gift of discernment to see behind the slick or even successful teaching.   May we see ‘sound doctrine’ promoted and embraced throughout the church, my we learn to ‘think correctly’ and ‘practice the truth appropriately’ for your glory and honor.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

Next week: Unchecked Anger

To view the entire series of posts on Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Conversations The Book

The Spiritual Journey Guide has sold over 1.2 million and after years of requests I finally wrote a book on my view of evangelism and how to use The Spiritual Journey Guide.

Spiritual Conversations: Creating and Sustianing them Without Being a Jerk! is a quick read and a practical resource that will challenge and give you a fresh perspective for eternal conversations.

You will learn:

• Shifting face of evangelism
• Put confidence in God and not a method
• How to create thirst in your conversations
• How build and sustain relationships
• Jesus' tool for finding highly receptive people
• How lorship and rapport work in our conversations

"The great Apostle asked, "How are they going to hear without someone preaching?" The reality is that the eternal gospel goes forth to people from people. And, by experience, most people "hear" the gospel through a spiritual conversation not a sermon. This book empowers normal people to share the gospel through intentional conversations."

 

Darrin Patrick

Lead Pastor of the Journey Church, St. Louis, Mo

Vice President of the Acts 29 Network

 

More Information

John Piper's Sermons on Fasting: A Hunger for God

John Piper's book on fasting, "A Hunger for God" is a classic resource every serious follow of Jesus needs to read and reread.  This year I come across the sermon series that gave birth to this excellent resource.  Even though these sermons were preached over 15 yearrs ago they are timeless. It is the best series on fasting I have ever heard.  Each is filled with "ahha" moments, incredible insights, sound exegesis and appropriate challenges for application.  I pray that they will inspire a new generation to preach on this important subject.

The first line in Pastor Piper's book sums up the series well: “The birthplace of Christian fasting is homesickness for God”

A Hunger For God

• Prayer, Fasting, and the Course of History - Acts 13:1-4
• When the Bridegroom Is Taken Away, They Will Fast—With New Wineskins - Matthew 9:14-17
• Man Shall Not Live on Bread Alone - Matthew 3:16-4:4
• Fasting for the Safety of the Little Ones - Ezra 8:21-23
• Fasting for the King's Coming - Luke 2:36-38
• Fasting for the Father's Reward - Matthew 6:16-18
• A Fast for Waters That Do Not Fail, Part 1 - Isaiah 58:1-12
• A Fast for Waters That Do Not Fail, Part 2 - Isaiah 58:1-12 (HT)

Additional Written Resources:

• Crossway Books Interview with John Piper on A Hunger for God
• Revival and Fasting
• A Call to Fast for Humility and Power

Source: www.desiringgod.org

A Quick Study on Spiritual Fasting

"Fasting is not about changing God. It is not a mystical exercise to gain God's approval. Fasting is not about changing my world, but about letting God realign my heart toward his purposes."  Alex Gee

Introduction:

When is the last time you entered into an extended spiritual fast?  Fasting is ultimately an expression of humility and dependence on God.  Fasting is more about replacing than it is about abstaining.  It is about replacing the daily intakes of food, entertainment, and human contact with focused times of prayer, feeding on large amounts of the Word of God and spiritual listening. One of the great benefits of spiritual fasting is a heightened awareness of God's presence and power in our lives.  It is not that God has moved but that we have.  Fasting has a great way of moving us towards a deeper spiritual dependency away from willful self-dependency. Take a few minutes this week to read through the Scriptures, insights and reflective questions to sharpen the spiritual discipline of fasting in your life.

Scripture:

"Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD."  Joel 1:14

"So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer." Ezra 8:23

“They repay me evil for good and leave my soul forlorn. Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered, I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother." Psalm 35:12-14

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."  Mathew 6:16-18

"While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'"  Acts 13:2

“Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.”  Acts 14:23

Insights:

“Like all the Spiritual Disciplines, fasting hoists the sails of the soul in hopes of experiencing the gracious wind of God’s Spirit.  But fasting also adds a unique dimension to your spiritual life and helps you grow in Christlikeness in ways that are unavailable through any other means.  If this were not so, there would have been no need for Jesus to model and teach fasting.” ~ Donald Whitney

"Fasting, if we conceive of it truly, must not. . . be confined to the question of food and drink; fasting should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of itself for the sake of some special spiritual purpose. There are many bodily functions which are right and normal and perfectly legitimate, but which for special peculiar reasons in certain circumstances should be controlled. That is fasting." ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"Fasting is calculated to bring a note of urgency and importunity into our praying, and to give force to our pleading in the court of heaven.  The man who prays with fasting is giving heaven notice that he is truly in earnest....Not only so, but he is expressing his earnestness in a divinely appointed way. He is using a means that God has chosen to make his voice to be heard on high." ~ Arthur Wallis

Reflective Questions:

• When is the last time you called your family, staff, leaders or congregation to a time of spiritual fasting?
• What in your life keeps you from practicing spiritual fasting?
• What else could you fast from beside food?
• How does fasting humble a person?
• Do you have a fasting testimony?

Types of Fasts:

• The Normal Fast: In this type of fast the person abstained from food but not water. The duration can be that which the individual or group feels led to set. Jesus fasted for 40 days (Matthew 4:2). However, the more common practice of a normal fast appears to be from one to three days.
• The Partial Fast: In this type of fast, the emphasis is placed on restriction of diet, rather than abstaining completely from eating. Examples are: Daniel, Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego eating only vegetables and drinking only water (Daniel 1:15) and later on when Daniel alone practiced a partial fast for three weeks (Daniel 10:3).
• The Absolute Fast: An absolute fast is one in which the person refrains from both food and water. This type of fast is not to exceed three days. Exceptions to this three day limit (1 Kings 19:8; Deuteronomy 9:9-18 and Exodus 34:28) were based upon direct, divine guidance and care. Examples of the absolute fast are: Moses (Deuteronomy 9:9-18 and Exodus 34:28); Elijah (1 Kings 19:8); Ezra (Ezra 10:6); Esther and her household (Esther 4:16); and Paul (Acts 9:9).

Resources:

• The Power of Prayer and Fasting: 10 Secrets of Spiritual Strength by Ronnie W. Floyd
• A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer by John Piper
• The Transforming Power of Fasting: Personal Accounts of Spiritual Renewal by Bill Bright
• Fasting for a Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide To Nine Biblical Fasts by Elmer Towns
• Free Guide to Spiritual Fasting