Today, we continue our new message series called “Basic Training.” The Bible speaks of every believer being a soldier of Jesus Christ. Each one of us is involved in spiritual warfare, whether we realize it or not. So, we all need to learn spiritual basic training, so we can fight effectively ourselves and so that God can use us to train others.
As a soldier in His army, God calls us to be victorious, to win, not to lose. How can you be a winner in God’s army? Simply by achieving God’s objectives or purposes for your life. To summarize, being a winner is influencing others to become believers in Jesus Christ. There are many ways to let your light shine in our dark world and influence others. That’s where Basic Training can help us be more effective. Jesus said in …
Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV) I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
These verses were written to a church of believers in Laodicea. How is Jesus judging the believers in the church, to see whether they were hot or cold? By their deeds, by their actions, by whether they were being a light in a dark world. Jesus wanted them to be winners, to be red hot for Him. If they were cold and they’re backs were turned to God, perhaps they would repent. But the worst case was that this church was lukewarm. They had a form of godliness, they went through some religious motions, but they were not living for God and making disciples for His kingdom. So, God wants us as well to be red hot for Him, blazing with a zeal to impact our world for Jesus Christ, to be a winner in spiritual warfare.
Today, the next discipline we’re going to learn about is “Talking with God.” Last week we spoke about spending time with God on a daily basis, in our own “tent of meeting.” This last week, our family went to see the movie War Room. It’s all about finding a place to daily meet with God in prayer to win spiritual warfare battles. Today, we’re going to talk more about what we do in our own war rooms, as we do battle.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV) pray continually;
That’s God’s goal for us, to pray not only every day in our tent of meeting or war room, but to pray continually wherever we go in the day. Knowing that God is always with us, ready to strengthen us and give us guidance.
Today, our story is about a leader named Nehemiah. Nehemiah was one of the Jewish exiles who had been taken into captivity to Babylon and Persia. In the previous 100 years or so, several waves of Jewish exiles had returned to Judah to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was a high Persian official and he was a godly man who prayed. Let’s see what we can learn from Nehemiah about talking to God.
Message Audio, Outline & Study Guide
Basic Training Message Series
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