The Christian’s Armor: Christian, make sure your armor is on!

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

Christian's armor There’s always a war going on in the heavenly places, and God has chosen us and is counting on us to engage the enemy.  He has appointed us to overcome and cast down the principalities and powers through prayer; then to invade that evil kingdom and to rescue many lost souls. We do it usually through counseling and witnessing, along with prayer, but sometimes just with prayer.

But first, before we engage the enemy, we must be prepared for the battle by making sure our armor is on.  We can’t resist Satan without our armor.  In fact, without it he will overcome us!

And if Satan does overcome you, that is, if you have given into temptation, and you feel yourself sliding even further into sin, this is not the time to pray against Satan in trying to resist him.  No, you cannot.  Your only hope at this point is to repent of your sins and cry out to God for His mercy.  Don’t read your Bible (not yet); don’t go to church (not yet); don’t do anything until you confess your sins.  Then, when you have done that, begin to read your Bible and pray.  And, as you do, you, in effect will be putting on your armor.

I think many of us are not even aware of our sins; consequently, we go into battle without our armor. Then, surprisingly, at the end of the day, we find that we are all beat up and sliding even deeper into all kinds of lustful sins, fantasies, and greediness.  Some of us think we are great servants of God; we have church titles; we go to prayer meetings and Bible studies; but all the while Satan is beating us up and dragging us down.  Why is that?  It is because we have neglected to confess our sins when they first come to us.  Then we let Satan deceive us into practicing more sin.  And so we find that we are in a defenseless and hopeless situation—because we are without our armor.

I think that periodically we should check to see if we have our armor on—to see if we are right with God and prepared for battle.  Ask Him to help you see whether you have sinned or not, and whether you are outfitted with His strength and protection.

Here are…

 

Three Signs That You Are without God’s Armor

1.  You lack passion for holiness and purity.  You are watching things on TV that you shouldn’t watch.  You let enter into your mind things that are impure, and you don’t seem to care.

2.  When you are faced with two things to look at, two things to think about—lustful things or pure things, sinful things or righteous things—you think and ponder the choice too long.  That long, pondering choice is sin.  The choice for God should be instant and with zeal.  Thus you are lacking His righteous Spirit.

3.  You are not angry at sin and zealous for the Lord.

 

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Prayer with No Apparent Answer — from 2 Samuel 12:16

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

2 Samuel 12:16 

David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

 

Possibly the lowest point in David’s life is recorded in the events surrounding this prayer—given that his sin of adultery against Bathsheba and his sin of murder against Uriah the Hittite had been revealed.  Moreover, God told him that his greatest sin was against Him; consequently, He declared to him that because he had despised Him in the sins that he committed, He would raise up evil against him from his own household.  He told him that because he did evil against Him secretly, He would do evil to him before all Israel. (In the rest of David’s life sin and violence in his family abounded openly.)

Well, despite the chastisement he had coming to him, David admitted his sin, and God graciously forgave him and gave him a clean heart.  Then, in the next few days, judgment indeed began, and was especially extreme.  God told him through Nathan the prophet that his new born son, born by Bathsheba, must die so that God’s holy reputation among the nations would be restored (v. 14).

Thus it happened that the child became very sick; and David prayed and fasted for seven days and nights, requesting that God would spare his son.  But on the seventh day the child died.  And David “arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate” (v. 20).  Thus David, by refusing to grieve after his child died, demonstrated to God and to his household that he was not bitter against God, but accepted his punishment as just.

Here we see the lesson that sometimes prayer and fasting is necessary but with no apparent answer.  But I think there was certainly an answer; for during that time of prayer and grieving God was softening David’s heart and bring him to an absolute right relationship with Him.

Posted in Part 3, David to Jehoshaphat, Prayer A to Z Excerpts, Survey of Prayer | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

3 Points of Truth for Every Christian That Resists the Enemy

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

We are all under the attack of our enemy Satan.  But we need not be defeated.  We can have victory if we resist him in Jesus’ name.  Here are three points of truth that I pray will encourage you as you resist Satan’s attacks.

1.  We have authority in Christ over Satan (We are enthroned with Christ, Eph. 2:6).

2.  Satan is a defeated enemy.  Satan knows it (Rev. 12:12), and the demons know it (Matt. 8:29).

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J. Dwight Pentecost

3.  Satan will flee (Ja. 4:7).  According to J. Dwight Pentecost, in his book, Your Adversary the Devil, “When you plead the value of the blood of Christ, Satan cannot pursue the attack.  He can only turn and run…”

My thanks to Dwight Pentecost.  I have two of his books, but he has written many.  I saw him once at a conference.  You owe it to yourself to look him up on Google.

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Reformatting My Printed Book to Make an EBook: Using an 8 Point Check List

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

To make an eBook that will work on an iPad your manuscript needs to be converted to an EPUB format.  If you are not a self-publisher this blog post may not make much sense to you.  But if you are, it may be quite helpful.

I never thought that it would be so difficult to make an eBook.  Lulu (the publisher I’m using) gave me the idea that they would do most of it for me, that if I just follow their 21 page guide (Lulu Complete EBook Creator Guide) it would be so easy.  Ha!  After reading it, it seemed complicated.

But, nevertheless, I set out to do it.  I read the guide through, took a few notes, made the changes on my book that I thought were necessary, and sent it in.  Lulu rejected it! And they didn’t tell me specifically why it was rejected, just that there were some errors in the formatting. So I looked it over, made some more changes, and sent it in again, and again, and again. I think I’ve sent it in at least a dozen times.  But it’s always been rejected.

I was so discouraged, but I decided to keep trying. I eventually decided to read the instructions very very carefully.  I was determined to get it right.  And what do you know, finally I got it right. To tell you the truth, Lulu’s guide wasn’t really that complicated, if I would have just been determined to read all of it thoroughly from the start, instead of just skimming over it and hitting the high points—as I did at first.

Here is a list I made up of things that need to be changed in the formatting process.  I hope someone out there finds this helpful.

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This is my paperback version.

1. Remove headers and footers and page numbers. 

2. Remove all sections breaks.

3. Remove text boxes.  This was the main reason, I think, that mine was rejected.  There was a text box that was hidden to me on the title page. It was a text box that I did not create.  It just appeared there somehow. Strange!  Oh, also, you need to remove all drop caps.  They are considered text boxes too.

4. Remove justification of paragraphs.  Line them up on the left margin.

5. Remove hyphenations of words.

Zenith of prayer as eBook

This is the new eBook version, only $2.99. Click on this image to buy.

6. Apply styles to title pages, chapters, and the main sections.  On your Microsoft Word page, at the top, you will see Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. Applying styles is simply putting your title pages under Heading 1, your chapters under Heading 2, and the main sections under Heading 3.  This will automatically link them to make a table of contents.  As you do this you can click on your Navigation Pane and you will also see the headings coming together.  In fact, your eBook table of contents will look just like the Navigation Pane in Word.

7. Make sure your paragraphs are separated and chose the type of paragraph you want, either the box style or first line indent.

8.  Remove all extra spaces between paragraphs.  If you need more space between paragraphs you can do that by adjusting your settings for paragraphs. But don’t make extra spaces using your Enter key.

The key to this formatting is to simplify your manuscript.  I didn’t mention charts and graphs.  There may be a way to do this correctly, but I may just remove them.  Also remove bullets and numberings that you create from Word.  I just found out that if you have MW and want to use bullets you can use Alt + 7.  Also, use only Arial, Times New Roman, or Garamond fonts.  All others will be rejected.

Well, as I said, I finally figured it out and also put together a cover, as you see above. You can see more details when you click on  the images.

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King David’s Prayers: The Short and Specific Prayers of David Teach us How to Pray

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

Most of the recorded prayers of David, except for his Psalms of prayer, are very short and specific.  They teach us how to pray definitely and specifically.

 

1 Samuel 23: 2-4 

Therefore David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the LORD said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines, and save Keilah.” 3 But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” (Continue reading from your Bible.)

 

1 Samuel 23: 9-12 

When David knew that Saul plotted evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” 10 Then David said, “O LORD God of Israel, Your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake. (Continue reading from your Bible.)

 

In the above prayers David and his men were being hunted down by Saul and his troops, and were in danger of their lives.  Here David demonstrates his humility by putting aside his own fears as he sought to help his neighbors—the people in the city of Keilah.  For the Philistines had attacked their city and were plundering their threshing floors.

So David, disregarding his own needs and fears, thought more about what God wanted him to do—whether he should go and try to deliver the people of Keilah, or not.  And so he inquired of the Lord, saying, “‘Shall I go and attack these Philistines?’    And the Lord said to David, ‘Go and attack the Philistines, and deliver Keilah.’”

Notice how direct and specific David’s prayer was, and also how clear God’s answer was.  But notice also that God did not guarantee that he would be victorious.  He simply directed him to attack the Philistines and deliver (or try to deliver) Keilah.  He gave a direct answer to David’s direct prayer—no more.  In other words, David didn’t ask God if he would be victorious, so God didn’t tell him.

But we see in verse three that when David’s men indicated that they were afraid, David inquired of the Lord again, and this time God gave David assurance that He and his men would be victorious.

Well, as it happened, David went and delivered Keilah.  And when Saul found out that David and his men were in the city, he began to plot against him, thinking that he would trap him in the city.

When David discovered that Saul was plotting against him, he didn’t know exactly what to do, because he didn’t know what Saul was thinking and he wasn’t sure what the people of Keilah would do if Saul came.  So he prayed and asked God the two questions that were on his mind (vv. 10-12): (1) Will Saul come down after me? And (2) will the men of Keilah surrender me into Saul’s hands?

Here we see David’s very direct and bold prayer—for he asked God to tell him the future!  Well, God answered his prayer.  He told him that Saul would certainly come down, and that the men of Keilah were intending to surrender him over to Saul.  So, with that answer, David and his men departed from Keilah and escaped from Saul’s pursuit.

Posted in Part 3, David to Jehoshaphat, Prayer A to Z Excerpts, Survey of Prayer | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Christian’s Armor – The Basis of Our Resisting

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

Christian's armorEvery Christian’s resisting must have a basis or foundation–so that he can be sure that when he resists evil, God will protect him.  Well, God has given us His own set of armor. 

In Ephesians 6:14-17 we are given a list of the armor pieces.  First of all, there is the belt of truth, which girds our waist.  Next, there is the breastplate of righteousness, which covers the chest and all the vital organs.  Then there are the shoes of peace, described as the preparation of the gospel of peace.  In addition to these, we are to take up the shield of faith, by which we will be able to extinguish all the flowing missiles of the evil one.  Then there is the helmet, called the helmet of salvation.  Last is the sword, called the sword of the Spirit.

As we ponder these items, we must ask ourselves, “What do these things really represent?”  “What really is the armor?”  And we must conclude that the armor is the very character of Christ, for the person of Christ, who is God, can be our only source of true protection and strength.  Hence, we must not think of the armor as any list of rules or set of beliefs put before us, but a person of supernatural strength that can protect us and go before us.

Therefore, as one puts on the belt of truth he is really putting on the protection of the truth of Christ, because Christ is Truth.  Likewise, He is Righteous.  When I put on the breastplate I am putting on the righteousness of Christ.  He is Peace.  When I put on the shoes of peace I put on His peace, by which I have peace with God and also the peace of God.  He is my Shield of Faith.  Note that our faith is not our shield; God, who is the object of our faith, is our shield.  As Psalms 5:11-12 states, if we take refuge in Him He will surround us with favor as with a shield.  He is my Helmet of Salvation.  When I put on the helmet I am really putting on the hope of Christ, which gives me assurance of my salvation.  And I am also putting on His protection for my mind—to protect me against all the wrong mental messages Satan feeds me.  He is my Sword.  When I take up the Sword of the Spirit I take up Christ who is the Word of God.

Preparing to resist—putting on the armor.  Yes, Christ is our armor, but how do we go about putting on that armor on a daily basis?  How does Christ become part of our life, our strength?  Is it not by trusting Him?  Is it not by seeking Him out each morning in devoted prayer, and by giving our self to daily Bible reading and reflection?  Yes it is.  Christ will come to us and be strong in us when we submit our self to Him and draw near to Him.  Then we have the promise from James 4:7 that the devil will flee from us.

And that is certainly true for me.  After I have had my quiet time in the morning, consisting of Bible reading, some prayer, and some Bible study and meditation, I feel much stronger in the Lord and less swayed by temptations.  I feel that Satan has left the area completely.  Then, sometimes, usually in the evening, when I am tired and get lazy, Satan and temptation will sneak in upon me.  So, in those times I need to come to the Lord in prayer and meditate on His word again.

Yes, we all need a constant supply of the Word and prayer.  Joshua 1:8 tells us to meditate on the Word “day and night.”  Psalms 1:2 says the same thing.  Again in Psalms 119:97, it says, “O how I love thy law!  It is my meditation all the day.”  Then in Psalms 119:165, it says, “Those who love Thy law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble.”  And that is because, when we prayerfully meditate on the Word, we are, in a sense, strengthening ourselves with God’s armor, and Satan cannot touch us.

But take warning my friend: the armor can be stripped off as easily as it can be put on.  As soon as you stop meditating on the Word, as soon as you stop yielding yourself to Him and caring to do His will in obedience, that armor will immediately fall off, and you, as quick as a wink, are exposed to Satan’s cruel attacks and to sin’s evil ploy.

So it behooves us to keep in the Word and in prayer—so that the armor is kept in place.  Then, in Christ, we will have developed a soldier’s mindset, which is vigilance.  With this vigilance we resist the devil, being firm in our faith.

This post is an excerpt from my book, Purpose of Prayer.

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Six Things That Happened At the Cross

Posted on October 13, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

untitledThere is so much that Christ has done for us by His death on the cross.  I suppose all of our life can relate somehow to the cross.  For now, we will focus on how our understanding of His death on the cross will give us vigilance against sin and Satan.  Here are …

Six Things That Happened At the Cross

1.  At the cross Christ took the keys of hell from Satan (Rev. 1:18) that He might deliver those in slavery to sin and Satan (Heb. 2:15).

2.  At the cross Christ paid the penalty for our sins and cancelled our sin debt—having nailed it to the cross (Col. 2:14).  Therefore, by the cross we are justified—completely forgiven and made righteous (Rom. 5:11).

3.  At the cross Christ disarmed Satan and his demons and rendered them powerless forever (Col. 2:15, Heb. 2:14-15).  Thus, it follows also, in the words of Charles Spurgeon, “We conquer because the Serpent’s head is broken [in us].”  Hence, at the cross, the power and dominion of sin is broken in us; and the guilt of sin is also broken.  Therefore, as Romans six indicates, we are dead to the reign and rule of sin.

4.  By His death and resurrection, He demonstrated His absolute authority over death and sin and Satan.  Though Satan and his demons have always known that Christ is stronger than they are, and that He can overcome them at will, they, up to the time of the cross, had claimed absolute authority on the earth.  When Christ came to earth and delivered many from demons he challenged Satan’s authority.  Then when he went to the cross, says Pentecost, “[He,] by His death and resurrection demonstrated incontrovertibly His absolute authority over Satan…The cross stands, then, as God’s basis of deliverance from Satanic power.”

5.  At the cross Christ removed judgment from all those who have believed and who would believe, and it was passed upon Satan and all those who are of the seed of Satan (Prov. 11:8, 21:18, John 3:36, 5:24, 12:31, Rom. 8:1).

6.  By our identification with Christ we enter into all of the work of Christ on the cross.  That is, we are crucified with Him; we suffer with Him; we are raised with Him; we reign with Him; we battle against sin and Satan with Him; and by our suffering and death and resurrection with Christ we help to render sin and Satan powerless.

Now, since we are in Christ, we sit with Him next to the Father, and we reign in victory with Him.  God has put all things under Christ’s feet and under our feet too.  God gave the Son authority over angelic realms and over the realm of Satan.  He has given us, in Christ, that authority too.

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Samuel: He Shared the Burden of God in Prayer

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

1 Samuel 15:11 

“I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night.

Samuel was an enduring, persistent servant of God; he was always busy doing God’s will—praying for people and ministering to people.  I suppose we could say that he was God’s right-hand man.  And, at that time, he probably had more of the mind and heart of God than any other person on the earth.  In this last chapter, when Samuel became distressed and cried out to the Lord all night, he was no doubt sharing the burdens and concerns of God.  For God had told him that he regretted making Saul king.

We don’t know exactly how Samuel prayed, but we may speculate that while he waited quietly before the Lord, God shared with him His regret and sorrow; and then Samuel in turn expressed his regret back to God while crying out to God for answers.

Here we have demonstrated before us, and in the sad scenario that follows (1 Samuel 15:12-35), the fact that the ministry of intercession is not always glorious.  It carries with it all the sorrows that sin brings, and also involves sharing the grieving heart of our Lord.  My friend, are you sure you are ready to give your life to prayer?  There are sometimes burdens and regrets in the ministry of prayer that are almost unbearable.  If you want to be a prayer warrior like Moses or Samuel, or like Daniel, God may call on you to spend many nights crying out to Him and bearing burdens in prayer for lost souls and insubordinate ones such as Saul (v. 23).

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Seven Bible Characters Who Got a Glimpse of Heaven

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

Last night I was struggling to keep my thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure.  I asked the Lord what to do in order to get my thoughts back on track.  I believe He led me to read from the gospel of Mark.  I was intrigued by Mark 1:10.

 And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him. NASB

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 I thought about what it must have looked like—for the heavens to open.  At first I pictured it merely as clouds parting and the Holy Spirit coming down to Him as a dove out of the sky.  Then it hit me, as I read verse eleven—“And a voice came out of the heavens…”—that Jesus actually saw into the seventh heaven, that heaven where His Father was, was opened to Him.

Praise God! My thoughts began to be on heaven.  God had answered my prayer.  The next morning (this morning) I did a little study of this subject.  I found seven Bible characters, including Jesus that saw into heaven.  I will give them to you in chronological order.

 

1 & 2.  Elisha and his young servant saw horses and chariots of fire—a heavenly army—all around them that were protecting them.

 

2 Kings 6:15-17.

Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. NASB

 

3. The heavens were opened to Ezekiel as he was by the river Chebar, and he saw visions of God (Ezek. 1:1).  Much of the entire book of Ezekiel records what he saw in these visions.  We can learn a lot about heaven from the book of Ezekiel.

4. After Jesus was baptized he saw the heavens opening and He saw the Holy
Spirit like a dove descending upon Him.

 

Mark 1:9-11. 

And it came about in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; 11 and a voice came out of the heavens: “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased.”  NASB

 

5. Stephen, as he was about to be stoned, saw into heaven.

 

Acts 7:55-56

But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; 56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”  NASB

 

6.  God allowed John to see through a door into heaven.  And he was supernaturally translated out of the physical realm into the spiritual realm, where he saw things as they are in heaven (I got this from John MacArthur).

 

Revelation 4:1-11

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. 3 And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. 4 And around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. 5 And from the throne proceed flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; 6 and before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. 7 And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. 8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

9 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.”  NASB

7.  Paul was caught up to heaven and heard wonderful words.

 

2 Corinthians 12:2-4

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago —  whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows —  such a man was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know how such a man —  whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows —  4 was caught up into Paradise, and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.  NASB

 

Well, this was quite a good study for me, and has really helped me to think on heavenly things.  Paul tells us in Colossians 3:1-4,

If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.  NASB

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Three Secrets to Satan’s Strategy

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Stephen Nielsen

1.  The devil doesn’t care much about you; his battle is against Christ in you.  He hates to see people coming to Christ and people growing in Christ.  On the one who is seeking salvation Satan will bring the worst doubts.  He will attack him with accusations and judgments and say to him, “What, you be saved?  Think of your past life.”  Then, to the newborn, he will tempt him to lose hope, disbelieve the inspiration of scripture, the deity of Christ and his salvation.

 2.  Satan hates those who are righteous and prayer warriors.  If you are righteous and a prayer warrior, like Job, he may hinder you and try to get an advantage over you by afflicting the ones you love.  Remember, he killed all of Job’s children and servants and turned his wife against him.

 3.  One of Satan’s greatest tactics is to leave us alone for a while.  Then when we think we are so righteous and strong we get lazy and think we don’t need to be vigilant. Consequently, Satan catches us sleeping and he gains victory over us. Spurgeon writes, “A roaring Devil is better than a sleeping devil.  There is no temptation much worse then that of never being tempted at all.”

 

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