What Hinders God's Word In Our Lives?

Scripture

1Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, 2and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith. 3But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-3

Observation

The word of the Lord is powerful and transforms lives. It makes sense the enemy of our souls would do everything he can to distract, dilute, or dissuade the dissemination of God’s word. As Paul closes his second letter to the church in Thessaloniki he makes it clear that are two tactics the devil uses to trip up the effective spread of the word of the Lord to those around us. Prayerless saints and unreasonable people play right into the enemies plans. Paul makes sure we understand the Devil is no match for the faithful Lord who holds us and guards us. That doesn’t give us an excuse to be passive about these two hindrances to God’s Word in our lives.

Application

Prayerless Saints: Look at how often Paul prioritized asking other Christians to pray for him (Romans 15:30, 2 Corinthians 1:11, Ephesians 6:18–19, Philippians 1:19, Colossians 4:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:25, and Philemon 1:22). Paul knew that the success or failure of his ministry in some measure depended on the constant prayers of God’s people. Spurgeon put it this way, “You cannot tell how much God’s servants are helped by the prayers of his people. The strongest man in Israel will be the better for the prayers of the weakest saint in Zion.”I am so grateful for our Head Deacon Barbara Christiansen who continues to call the leaders of The Father’s House to prayerfulness. Every week she gathers the prayers of the leaders and the members of the church and we all pray over them together. We have see countless prayers answered as a result. Just this past Sunday 3 answers to prayer walked in the door- Belen, Janice, and Nick. All of them are fighting massive health challenges and all them walked in with God’s strength. I could feel the faith level rise in the room! Even as I preached the word of the Lord I could sense a greater prophetic freedom and authority then I have sensed before. Why? I have so many praying for the message and for me.  I spent a good amount of time myself in praying through what God wanted to say and I saw God’s word running swiftly through the room! God is on the move at The Father’s House! Let’s pray more, not less as we come into agreement with what He wants to do next! We are prayer partners contending for the next move of God! We want the Word of God to spread rapidly so let’s keep praying for those who need to hear it.

Unreasonable People: ...God says, “Come, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18), but that’s an invitation reserved only for the reasonable. I recently heard a minister describe it this way, “Sometimes evil takes on an unexpected form. This is why Paul didn’t just ask for deliverance from spirits, but he pleaded for prayer to be delivered “from unreasonable and wicked men” (2 Thessalonians 3:2). These aren’t just difficult people; they are unreasonable, meaning logic and truth have no place in their judgment. You may be tempted to explain, to reason, to correct the narrative, but they have already written their own version of your story, and they prefer it over the truth…”. There seems to be two types of people here. Those who are in the church and are never happy, always complaining, stirring up arguments and drama and opposed to reasonable conversations and reconciliation. Then, there are those who are outright wicked, have no faith, and are looking  for ways to tear down the saints, discredit ministries, and contradict the Word of The Lord.  How do we deal with such people. Well, like Paul just challenged us, we pray the Word of the Lord would transform their hearts and move them to repentance. What if there is no change. The rest of the chapter goes into the need for fierce conversations and compassionate confrontations to see that person corrected or removed from the church gathering. This may seem harsh in our modern day sensibilities but it’s not for the purpose of punishment as much as for restoration. The goal is that this person who once hindered the spread of God’s Word would now, like the Apostle Paul himself, be the one running with it!

Payer

Jesus, I love what You are doing at The Father’s House! This is first and foremost a House of Prayer. Where we want to go in person we must first go in prayer. Show us any place where we have been passive in prayer and in the relationships in our lives that have caused us to “grow weary in doing good.” (Vs. 13).