Watch & pray - Your enemy roams like a lion to devour

1 Peter 5 : 8 - 9

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

The devil has all his arsenals against the people of God for one major reason: to shame God and prove that he is God. He has his point to prove against God and for that reason he fights us with all strategies he can gather. The bible describes him as a roaring lion walking about, seeking who to tear apart (devour).

The bible warns us to therefore be vigilant (or watchful) in soberness not because we

should fear but because the same devouring devil is cunning and his roaring are not as it may appear. Hence, the need to watch.

The apostle Paul puts it this way ...Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices (2 Cor 2:11).

The roaring lion is also a cunning lion and as much as he is seeking who to destroy, he is also

seeking where to take the advantage, creeping in right into our hearts, feeling, emotions, habit

s, families, friends, career, e.t.c. He likes to go unnoticed and destroy irrevocably.

His fight is not against those under his captivity but against those under the covering of the Lamb of God. He is against us. The devil comes against us most times as though he is for us. He is almost everywhere now. Video, audio and print media, fashion, music and trend.

Therefore, we must be watchful to identify him, resisting him at the slightest sense of him.

Now I hope we can hear Jesus the more louder when he says "And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."

Watch & pray: We don't know the hour

"When the rapture happens I want to see you up there with Christ... not left behind on Earth."..Daniel Sweet

One simple truth that smoothly leaves the mind of Christians today is that one day, our Lord will come for us. We are sure he will. His Word will surely come to pass. But when? Peter thought it was his generation, James thought same and every generation since the ascension of Christ has expected his coming. And so we are. But the cares of the world and distraction of "making a living" has taken this care from us. But what does Jesus say?

No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don't know, and the Son himself doesn't know. Only the Father knows.
So watch out and be ready! You don't know when the time will come.
It is like what happens when a man goes away for a while and places his servants in charge of everything. He tells each of them what to do, and he orders the guard to keep alert.
So be alert! You don't know when the master of the house will come back. It could be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or in the morning.
But if he comes suddenly, don't let him find you asleep.
I tell everyone just what I have told you. Be alert! Mar 13:32-37 (Contemporary English Version)

That day will come. Men, women, boy, girls and babies(a lot of them) will be missing. It will certainly happen. And there is nothing I so pray for than that you and I will be counted as one of those considered missing. So Jesus advises,

Be ready and keep your lamps burning
just like those servants who wait up for their master to return from a wedding feast. As soon as he comes and knocks, they open the door for him.
Servants are fortunate if their master finds them awake and ready when he comes! I promise you that he will get ready and have his servants sit down so he can serve them.
Those servants are really fortunate if their master finds them ready, even though he comes late at night or early in the morning. Luk 12:35-38(CEV)

For each day therefore, let the word of Christ echo in our mind so that our disposition is to look forward to that day and look after (watch) over our soul with fear and trembling so that we may be worthy of his appearing. It will be more devastating for people like us (who are called Christians) if we are caught unguarded.

Like people watching out for movie release, we should watch out for his day even till death because He that will come will come and will not delay, so WATCH.

Happy new month

Watch & pray - The Spirit is Willing

Watch and pray: that you enter not into temptation..... the Spirit is Willing

Have you ever wanted to do right and yet there was no strength to do it? Jesus was once in that position. He needed to face the cross but somehow in the garden of Gathsemane, he asked God to perhaps consider another alternative. Thank God, he saw himself in the picture and added "Not my will, but Thy will be done".

On checking on his disciples, he exhorts them the same thing that just occurred in his place of prayer saying

"Watch ye and pray, that ye may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is forward, but the flesh weak" Mark 14:38 (YLT)

the 1969 Bible in Basic English version (BBE) puts it like this:

"Keep watch with prayer, so that you may not be put to the test; the spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is feeble."

With a totally malfunctioning society, there was never a time that the flesh has more resources to increase its weakness and lead us to death and total enmity with God - Romans 8:5-8. We are bombarded daily with information that we kill our spiritual nature and open up death in the flesh. Therefore the call, Watch and pray.

You have done well to have a willing spirit but it will not suffice if you don't watch over your spirit.

In Malachi 2:14-15, God instructs the Jews to WATCH OVER THEIR SPIRIT. Because it has more enemies on the outside than friends.

Beloved, the instruction is still the same. Watching unto prayer. Keep vigil over your soul that we may be presentable to our God any day, any time under any condition.

http://www.gracevalley.org/sermon_trans/2002/Watch_and_Pray.html

God bless.

Watch & Pray

In recent times, I have been made to focus on the commandment of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 26:39-41 and Mark 15:32-38. The two stories say the same thing as

And they come unto a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith unto his disciples, Sit ye here, while I pray.

And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly amazed, and sore troubled.

And he saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death: abide ye here, and watch.

And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from him.

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt.

And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest thou not watch one hour?

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (American Standard Version)

A study into this commandment opened up a lot that would not fit into one article, hence I have decided to discuss this as sub-topics of "Watch & pray" in upcoming articles.

One thing surely we should know is that this command is more than asking and supplication, his children should be likened to those heavenly creatures, having eyes all over (Ezekiel 1:18) - watchful and always alert. Jesus said "Blessed are you eyes for they see..." (Matthew 13:16).

Have we ever wondered while the ministry of seers kind of waned in the new testament? Or that the five-fold ministry first displayed by Jesus and then taught by the apostles never had a place for seers?

Because we all need to walk in the light. And have sight.

Joh 8:12 Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life. (American Standard Version)

There are a lot of reasons for this but we will get to see them one at a time in further articles.

Note a good number of references to this topic that I found on the internet and indeed we are all saying the same thing with different words.

http://pastorlenandfriends.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/take-ye-heed-watch-and-pray-by-brad-n-michelle-wright/

http://watchandpray.com/

http://www.gracevalley.org/sermon_trans/2002/Watch_and_Pray.html

This one is the famous hymn: Watch & Pray

God bless Us.