Wednesday – February 17, 2016
Praise the Lord for the opportunity to consume God’s Word. Thank you Jesus for hump day, a day that is precious in your sight. A day when your children, your sons and daughters advance the Kingdom as you lead for the glory of God the Father. Please recall that we are continuously in Spiritual Warfare and that is our topic of study. Let us remind ourselves of our primary text.
Colossians 2:1 (KJV)
1 For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
The Apostle Paul is telling the saints and faithful brethren at Colossae and Laodicea that he is engaged in Spiritual Warfare on their behalf. Spiritual Warfare is all about ideas; whether we have full faith in Gods ideas or whether the enemy can convince us to compromise Gods ideas, the Word of God. Perhaps the compromise will seem inconsequential at first but it will drive a wedge between us and God bringing us into increasing darkness with increasing stealing, killing, and destroying in our lives. Now let us go to our new secondary text.
James 4:3-10 (KJV)
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Let’s initially focus on verse three. As you study the following verse you will come to realize that we are not necessary asking for something that is wrong but for the wrong reason. Intent, motive, is everything with our Heavenly Father.
James 4:3 (KJV)
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
This Scripture is telling us that the whole focus of our prayer request is not spiritual at all, not Kingdom of God promoting at all but is solely aimed at satisfying the flesh (physical body and unrenewed mind). Let’s take a look at the Amplified Version of the Scripture.
James 4:3 (AMP)
3 [Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.
The Prophet Isaiah wrote about this as well right in the middle of a prophecy about our Messiah, Jesus.
Isaiah 53:6 (KJV)
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
For the most part, most of our lives are very compartmentalized with our religion relegated to certain times or days and everything else is something else. God through the Prophet Isaiah calls it having gone astray, turning to our own way, which is sin and puts us in need of repentance and forgiveness, in need of Jesus. The verse we like to quote from James is the one immediately preceding James 4:3.
James 4:2 (KJV)
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
We all like the later part of the verse and you hear this quoted much but it is not the whole verse and the context is left out entirely at least 99% of the time in my experience. Now remember the Apostle James here is talking to Christians. Do you suppose the “lust”, “kill”, and the “fight and war” are signs of the flesh or signs of righteousness? Let’s take a look at the next verse which gives us lots of insight into the mind of Christ concerning these things.
James 4:4 (KJV)
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
I will pick it up right here tomorrow, in the meantime remember God is good, we are to be His sons, and as such we are builder of the Kingdom of God and the family name. We are not primarily aiming for our own aggrandizement which is to satisfy our flesh.
By Pastor David R. Wood
