Grace Fellowship Church Pastor/Teacher Jim Rickard Thursday, July 26, 2012

Doxology Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.— Amen.

Spiritual Initiative Part 3

Taking the Spiritual Initiative Against Despair! “Rise, let us be going” Matthew 26:46

Luke 22:45, “When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow.”

“Sleep” here suggests spiritual laziness and laxity, because the person is operating under their own human power and resources.

Luke 22:46, “Rise (get up) and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

The believer should lead a victorious life by praying habitually which results in the strength of the Lord.

“Rise” (ANISTEMI) has spiritual implications and means to “wake up!” or as we might say, “repent”, that is, “change your way of thinking!”

The benefit of prayer is given in: “that you may not enter into temptation.” (i.e., to give in to temptation and sin.)

Jesus is saying, “Stop having a self pity party, get on your feet, and stand up like men in view of what is coming.” “Change your way of thinking!”

Principles: 1. Life is filled with periods of inactivity and then suddenly a lot of action. The inactivity is very important because it determines the nature of your future action.

2. During inactivity, we have the opportunity to prepare ourselves with Bible doctrine and learn about inner happiness, +H.

3. And then comes the action, pressure, and determining factors. Did we during the periods of preparation take in the doctrine we need?

4. When you have periods of calm and peace that is when you should be preparing, not sleeping.

5. When the crisis comes it is too late. You do not have time to cram all the doctrine you need into your soul.

6. Preparation in times of peace and prosperity is when you get the doctrine so that in time of warfare you have all the power you need to win the day!

7. This preparation means that you make God’s Word the number one priority in your life, versus it just being just a detail of life.

Despair comes from the fact that we have lost an opportunity and as a result the guilt overwhelms our soul, we feel sorry for ourselves, and believe that we are failures.

In the phrase, “Let us be going” Jesus is teaching them to meet the next challenge head on and to forget the past, Phil 3:13.

We must keep our eyes of faith on Christ and forget the past; past sins and failures, and also past successes.

Yet, too many Christians live divided lives. One part enjoys the things of the world and the other part tries to live for the Lord.

1. Our past failures are never to be a deterrent in our spiritual advance; including sin, carnality or reversion.

2. Carnality is handled by the rebound technique. Then forget it and move on.

3. Reversionism is handled by persistent positive volition (+V) toward God’s Word related to the daily function of GAP.

4. The recovery is completed when the believer has reached the maturity barrier and breaks through into super-grace.

5. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the key to avoiding the trap of being held up by past failures resulting in despair.

6. Never let your failures keep you down. All believers have failed, but not all believers have recovered and moved on to tactical victory.

7. If we are inspired by God, what is the next thing? It is to trust Him absolutely and to pray on the basis of His redemption?

Heb 2:18, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”

When we “get up and get going” by means of the Spirit and Doctrine in our souls we will forget what lies behind and reach forward to what lies head; present and future spiritual victories!

Grace Fellowship Church Thursday, July 26, 2012 Tape # Spiritual Initiative, Part 3 The Spiritual Initiative Against Despair Mat 26:36-46; Mark 14:42; Luke 22:45; Phil 3:12-14 James H. Rickard Bible Ministries 2012