Bible Study: A Prisoner of The Lord 12.04.10

King James Bible Study Devotional
Message Title: A Prisoner of The Lord
For: Saturday December 04, 2010
Chapters: Ephesians 4-6.
Click Here to Read Them or Go to: http://www.imfollowingjesus.com/bible-december-4

Details of Today's Chapters: God's calling for the Christian, unity with Christ, the head of the church, the duties of a Christian, and the armor of God.

Hello My Friend/Guest,
The word duty is defined as something that one is expected or required to do by moral conscience or legal obligation. The Bible says, “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13b. The key here is to Fear God, it means to give respect and reverence (praise, thanks) to Him, when we fear God we are better able to keep His commandments. “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:” -Hebrews 12:28.

God gives us all specific gifts that enable us to serve Him effectively, the apostle Paul explains this further, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;..And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” - Ephesians 4:1-4,11-13.

A prisoner of the Lord, means having a perfect and pure heart for God, it is the true elect of God. Remember, yesterday we learned that Jesus chooses you, if you have accepted Christ as your Savior and decided that you want to live your life for Him than you have been chosen to serve Him by teaching others about Him. The job that you have right now has been given to you so that you can teach others about Christ. It is the most important duty that God gives all believers. Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” - Matthew 28:19,20.

Did you ever notice that regardless of what you do the longer you do it the excitement of it wears off and it sort of becomes just a routine and a but boring? I read some where that the average Christian lifespan is about seven years. I do not know about you, but I do not want to be average and God does not want us to be either. “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,” - Ephesians 3:19,20. God wants us to be filled with all His fullness (abundance, wealth). Praise God! Now, this is where many people put a halt to living the Christian life, it becomes routine or boring to the point that they forget they are serving God. I admit I have felt that from time to time, Satan does a good job of trying to get us to think that what we are doing for God is worthless and takes all the joy out of life. But can I tell you, when you fight him off with the power of God leading you there is no better and enjoyable duty than serving God.

How do we keep from being the average Christian? Paul shows us, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” - Ephesians 6:11-13.

Every day we need to arm ourselves with God, He is the only one who can help us overcome Satan and all that he does to pull us away from doing His work. Of course, we are going to have days where we are weak in faith and just exhausted with life, but as long as we arm ourselves with God He can pick us back up before Satan puts a halt to our duties. So, what is the armor of God? “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:” - Ephesians 6:14-17.

The Word of God is the most effective guard we have against Satan, Jesus used an example of seeds planted in different types of ground to explain how we all receive God's Word and or walk away from it, “The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” - Luke 8:11-15.

Some people will reject God's Word all together, some will hear just enough to get saved, some will hear it and live in it for a while until temptation or bitterness pulls them away, and there are some that hear it, stick with it, and hold on to it no matter what is going on in their lives. These are God's elect, the prisoners of the Lord, having a perfect and pure heart for Him. Of course, they will become tired from time to time, but God knows their hearts, He knows your heart and He knows what you are going through. He wants to comfort you and give you peace, but you have to let Him help you. I can not get enough of these verses lately, Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus is right there to give you rest, just give all your burdens over to Him and He will make them lighter. Praise God!

Be blessed, enjoy the rest of your day/night and weekend,
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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