The power of praise

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46). So opens one of the greatest expressions of thanksgiving recorded in the Bible. Yet it was spoken by a woman whose circumstances were far from ideal. Mary was living in an enormous tension. She was an unwed woman who was pregnant. Her fiance Joseph had contemplated canceling the wedding, and was only stopped by a dream. The comments of the legalistic religious community they were part of must have been intolerable to bear. She was a woman who had done nothing wrong, a woman with a story no one would believe, a woman in disgrace. And in disgrace for the sole reason that she had obeyed God. She had allowed herself to become the handmaiden of the Lord (Luke 1:38). Elizabeth identifies the one and only thing that kept Mary: she had believed what God had spoken to her (verse 45). No matter what the circumstance or crisis, the way to victory is to believe what God has spoken.

God often calls us to believe him in spite of the circumstances. Otherwise faith would hardly be faith! A sad thing sometimes happens when Christians take bold actions of obedient faith: their fellow believers desert them at the very moment they most desperately need their help. Those who do not walk in a deep and abandoned relationship with the Lord will never understand the motivations and actions of radically committed believers. The hardest thing can be to feel alone even among our fellow Christians. But God does help us by sending those who will stand with us, people who also believe what God has said. Surround yourself with people like that. You may need them some day! Mary had Elizabeth even if she had no one else. Elizabeth and Mary were both women who had experienced the supernatural power of God. We need to find people on the same wavelength, people who believe God as we do, people who are on the same page as we are.

Mary’s response to God was, I think, amazing. She did not complain.  She did not ask God why he had done this to her.  We forget how desperate her position was because we have the advantage of hindsight. We know how  how the story turns out. But she did not! At that point, she was in a place of great pressure and enormous need of faith. And by faith, she found the ability to see the present from the perspective of the future -- from God’s perspective. Faith enables us to see beyond the difficulties of the present to the promises of the future.

And so her response to her suffering, as recorded in the verse I quoted at the beginning, was to exalt the Lord -- and it was, as the Greek word aggaliaso indicates, a wild, unrestrained rejoicing!  Mary's response to trial and difficulty was not the first response I usually come up with.  Her response was praise. “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16). There is power in praise. Praise is not just an emotional response. Praise is an act of our spirit in which we reach deep down into our innermost being where the Spirit of God indwells us to ask God for the resources to release in us an attitude of thanksgiving we could never produce in ourselves. The praise we release toward God can only originate in God.

The decision to offer praise in the midst of suffering releases in us the energy of the Holy Spirit. Somehow, we begin to know deep in our "knower" that even in our present suffering the sovereign refining and loving power of God is at work. Somehow, we know he will keep us. Somehow, we know that suffering that comes as a result of obedience always results in the advance of the kingdom and the manifestation of the glory of God. How and when that happens we must release to God. But happen it will, for God will have his way. Somehow, we know that in the end it will all be worth it.

In the meantime our job, no matter how challenging the circumstances are, is to follow in Mary's footsteps. At a very hard time in his life, David gave you and I an invitation we should be quick to accept: "Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!" (Ps. 34:3).

Changing history through prayer

When I graduated from seminary in Toronto in 1977, God spoke clearly to me about going to England. The immediate purpose was to do a PhD in New Testament studies, but I knew there was more to it than that. The “more than that” turned out to be more than I thought. This is how it happened. For two years, I worked with students in Durham University in northern England, as well as with my local church while working on my degree. The third and final year of my funding approached, and I was faced with a choice. What was I to do and where was I to go if God wanted me to stay in the United Kingdom?

At the same time, I made a good but sometimes annoying friend -- the kind of friend who, like the widow in Jesus’ parable, pesters her opponent until she gets what she wants. The “widow” in my case came in an unlikely form, a very proper upper class English gentleman called Robert Ward. Robert’s “problem” was he was convinced of the need to rise early and seek God. His early morning prayers occasionally aroused some resentment among the slumbering theological students in adjacent rooms, but he persisted.

Robert got the idea that we should start an early morning prayer meeting on the university campus, and furthermore, that he and I should lead it. That presented a problem for me, as sometimes I didn’t go to bed much before Robert got up! The fact is, and I admit it, I hated getting up in the morning.

But Robert had a plan. I needed a ride from Durham to London, and he was heading that way with space to spare. Once I was aboard, I became captive to a four hour harangue on the necessity of early rising if one was to be in right relationship with the Lord, and that an early morning prayer meeting had to be established, and that he and I had to do it. Like the unjust judge in the parable, I relented. Did I mention that Robert had previously been enjoying his profession as a barrister (a British term for top lawyer!) in London? Now he was also judge and jury. I was placed on the stand, cross-examined, convicted and thrown into the prison of early rising.

At the beginning of the next academic year, we received permission to use the thousand year old Norman chapel deep in the bowels of Durham Castle. It was completely sound proof, and we could pray and sing as loud as we wanted as early as we wanted. What happened astounded me. Within a short time, we had so many young men and women crowding into our meeting at 7 am every morning to seek the face of God, we had to find a second location in another college. The meetings continued six days a week for the entire academic year, with an average of 100 students attending. Many were converted as a result of the change in these students’ lives. God did miracles.

And in the midst of it, something else happened. I began to fast and pray about my own future. And he spoke to me words that changed my life: “I am calling you to stay in this city and found a church.” I can still remember exactly where I was that day in January 1980, when I heard the voice of God so clearly it was like another person speaking to me. What happened after that is another story in itself. Suffice to say that nine months later, Emmanuel Church Durham was born. In the years since, churches all over the world have been planted directly and indirectly from that base. Thousands have come to Christ. Leaders of stature have been raised up. All I did was plant the seed. Through many others, God brought the harvest. I am privileged to visit Emmanuel every year. It is still a dynamic church, for many years led by my good friend Alan Bell, winning people of all types and ages to Christ, and a vital witness in one of the great university cities of England. As this is being written, it is planting out another church just a few miles down the road.  And what about Robert Ward?  He went on to plant a pioneering church called St Luke's at the edge of the university campus in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where prayer is still a prominent part of all that is happening there.

Have you got the important point in all this? History is changed when men and women begin to seek God. I saw that when I visited the Outer Hebrides (again with Robert, and a second time with Elaine). I heard how a small group of Presbyterian folk sought God through the night hours and vowed to stay in his presence till he brought revival, which he did. I have never felt the presence of God more in a geographical location than I felt it there. The agenda of every prayer meeting and church service we attended included beseeching God to send revival again.

Anything can happen when you begin to pray. Prayer is the most important thing a Christian can do. It is more effective than a thousand ministry programs or strategies. It is the lifeblood of the church. That is the testimony God gave me in 1980, and he hasn’t changed his ways since. The most effective way you can change history is the same way I did.  Pray. Why don’t you try it?

Understanding suffering

James tells us that we are to count it all joy when we encounter trials (James 1:2). Trials are things which put us to the test. By testing us, they bring out what is in us, for better or for worse. We could put it this way: Pressure reveals the person. Trials may be difficulties which come from outside, such as the persecution James’ own readers were probably facing, or they may come from our own inner struggles. The trials he goes on to refer to in verses 2-4 (where the testing of our faith produces endurance) are the first kind, whereas the trials (or “temptations”) of verses 13-15 are the second. Both kinds of trials occur when negative occurrences encounter our weak and imperfect human nature.

This raises some serious questions. For instance, where do trials come from?  James answers by way of a negative. They are not directly from God, he says.  God is the author of every good and perfect gift (1:17).  Sickness and suffering were never in the purpose of God when he placed his creation in the garden. They came as a result of our rejection of God. Our lives and the creation we live in came under a curse from that moment. The curse is lifted in Christ insofar as it pertains to our condemnation as sinners (Galatians 3:13; Romans 8:1), yet both we ourselves and the creation we live in still groan in the reality of the fallenness of this present world (Romans 8:18-23). Trials, in whatever form they come, are a sign of the continuing disorder in the creation. Suffering hits indiscriminately. Jesus said the people on whom the tower of Siloam fell were no more sinful than anyone else (  ). God promises to keep us spiritually in the midst of trial. If we choose to sin, to course, we can bring trouble on ourselves. Smoking causes lung cancer. Yet there are countless people struck by cancer who love the Lord with all their heart. Trials are like nuclear fallout -- they affect everyone. The plagues of Revelation represent the judgments of God on this fallen world throughout the church age, from Christ's resurrection until his return. Christians, along with unbelievers, suffer as a consequence, yet only Christians are spiritually protected in the midst of them. Part of our joy in suffering is the realization that this life is only the doorway to an eternity in God's presence.

But a second question arises. Are trials simply indiscriminate and without meaning? To this the answer is No, certainly for the faithful Christian. James says we are to find joy in affliction because affliction kicks off a process which leads to the perfection of our faith (James 1:2-4). Paul says the same thing. We rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope (Romans 5:3-4). For the unbeliever, affliction becomes a cause of despair, but for the Christian, it leads on to hope. Why? Because God has always has a plan to bring good out of evil and to use everything in a positive, redemptive manner. His ways are always constructive and never destructive. God has the capacity to take the worst possible thing and still bring good out of it. What is wrong is wrong and what is evil and evil, but God can bring good out of anything. Trial in the life of the Christian is often intended to remove the false and unreliable supports of this world. This process can be painful, but in return we gain something far better: the true support that comes with the presence and comfort of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

What should our response to suffering and trial be? We aren't called to rejoice because of the suffering itself. We are called to rejoice because God has a plan to turn our suffering into joy, and in the process draw us closer to himself.  But to see this happen, we must work with Him and not against him. Blaming God is the road to death. Ultimately we have only ourselves and our corporate sin in Adam to blame for any trial. The nuclear fallout of sin may have hit you harder than the next person, and that does not make you any worse than they are. It simply means you still live in a fallen world. But remember this. God himself endured the greatest suffering in all of history in the sending and the death of his Son. Through that suffering, God produced the greatest good -- our eternal salvation.

The fact is God has kept all of us through many difficult circumstances. He has not abandoned us. We have grown through them. I regularly ask people if they have grown spiritually the most in times of suffering or times of ease. The answer is always the same. He who has kept us will bring us safely to his heavenly kingdom, and then our joy will indeed be full.

Seizing the impossible

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for" (Hebrews 11:1). It's sometimes amazing the light a Greek word sheds. One example is the word hypostasis or "substance," which is found three times in Hebrews. I've written about this before, but I'm going to take another stab at it here. In the Greek language, this word originally meant that which supports something, a deposit or sediment in the ground, or even an item of immovable property.  It came to refer in a more figurative sense to the underlying reality behind a thing.

In Hebrews 1:3, Christ is pictured as the exact representation (charakter -- used of the imprint of the likeness of the Emperor on Roman coins) of the “substance” (hupostasis) of God. Christ, in a very exact and accurate way, brought the untouchable substance of the eternal God into this flesh and blood world. The eternal reality of who and what God is in the eternal, unseen realm is made physical, earthly reality in Christ. Then in Hebrews 3:14, believers are said to share in Christ if they hold fast the beginning of their hupostasis -- meaning the substance of their faith -- to the end.

Finally, we come to Hebrews 11:1.  Here it states that faith is the "substance" of things hoped for.  There is a neat parallel here between what is said of Christ in chapter 1 and what is said of faith in chapter 11. And that shouldn't be surprising, because our faith is faith in Christ. The power of faith is in its object. Your old school experiment of a magnet drawing iron filings would be a good illustration of this. In chapter 1, Christ is said to bring the substance or reality of who God is in the eternal realm into this present material, physical and transitory world. Not only that, he does so in an entirely accurate manner (remember the charakter).

In the same way, the exercise of faith brings the things that exist in the eternal realm --  the “things hoped for” -- into flesh and blood reality in the lives of individual believers. As Christ himself brings the invisible substance of God into this physical world, so faith in Christ brings the things we hope for, the things we do not yet possess, into our possession.

This is an incredibly powerful statement about faith. Our faith in Christ reaches out for and secures what is real in the invisible world and brings it into the physical reality of this present world. The outward realities of this world, which sometimes seem to us insuperable obstacles, are in fact only passing shadows. What is real in the eternal world but has no substance in the material world gains substance through the exercise of our faith. It is this substance which enabled the heroes of faith, whose lives are recorded as chapter 11 unfolds, to conquer everything the world threw against them, and still emerge victorious, whether in life or in death.

It's time for us to be men and women of substance, who dare to seize the impossible by faith and change the world.

The surprising results of God's rest

In the last two posts, we highlighted two things. First, we enter God's rest by faith. Second, God's rest is actually his rule and reign. Please take a moment to read these two posts first if you haven't yet and then come back to this one! You'll get a lot more out of it that way.

But how do we fit into this picture? Well, to begin with, we saw that to rest means to reign and rule. A significant truth is revealed about this by understanding something you may not have known about the tabernacle of Moses. God deliberately designed the whole camp, centering upon the tabernacle, to mimic the pattern of Egyptian military encampments of that same period of time. Egyptians camps had the same three-part structure, the same measurements, were oriented toward the east, and in the innermost chamber had an image of Pharaoh, which rested with two winged creatures on either side. The Egyptians believed that the soul or spirit of Pharaoh resided in the idol, so that Pharaoh was with them, whether he was physically present or not. Their camps were surrounded by troops divided into four units.

What was the point God was making? He was sending a message to the Egyptians as well as trying to give a revelation to his people of who he was and what he was going to do for them. Even as the idolatrous Pharaoh led his troops from his innermost chamber, so the God of Israel led his troops from the Most Holy place, which contained no Egyptian idol but the majesty presence of Almighty God himself. Israel’s tabernacle was a travelling war headquarters from which God, in his place of rest, directed his troops until they achieved total victory. This shows us that God’s people are meant to exercise his authority on earth.

God’s rest reveals his sovereign power. God’s rest is not his retirement -- it is his reign! It is the place of rulership where all his enemies have been defeated. Why does Scripture say repeatedly of God that he is “enthroned above the cherubim” (2 Samuel 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; 1 Chronicles 13:6; Psalm 80:1, 99:1)? God did not go into the tabernacle or the temple to sit down and retire. He went in to sit down on his throne and reign!

So if the Israelites were meant to rule and reign, what about the church? Because of what Christ did, what is true of Israel is even more true of the church! In Ephesians 2:5-6, Paul makes three amazing statements. We may have read them so many times they no longer seem amazing to us, but they should. He uses three compound verbs, all beginning with the Greek preposition sun, meaning “together with,” to describe what God has done for us. He made us alive together with Christ, he raised us up together with Christ, and he seated us in heavenly places together with Christ.

These three verbs express an astonishing truth which, if we comprehend it not just in our mind but in our spirit, will change the way we look at everything. And this is the life-changing truth: what God accomplished in and for Christ he accomplished also for us. God made Christ alive. He has done the same for us. He raised Christ from the dead. He has done the same for us. He seated Christ in heavenly places. He has done the same for us.

You and I, who just an instant ago were lost sinners enslaved to the world, the flesh and the devil, now share in the destiny of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are taken up out of our despair, our darkness and our depression into his life, his glory, his power and his authority. We are taken into his very throne room to sit beside him, to reign and rule. What God gave to Christ, he has given to us. What God purposes for Christ, he purposes for us. The authority God gives to Christ, he gives to us.

Where the devil seeks to blind us to our authority, Jesus gives his truth to set us free (John 8:32). Take your place of rest, and begin to share his rule!