Jude – Praying in the Holy Ghost
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 1:20-21)
JUDE TELLS HIS READERS HOW TO LIVE during persecution and false teachers. When false teaching takes the place of truth, it is called apostasy. Apostate teaching, apostate teachers. The result is often an apostate church. If Christians are to avoid being sucked in by apostate teachers and apostate teaching, they must go after the Word of God with a passion. If you are lazy and careless about taking in the Word of God on a regular basis, you are meat for the buzzards. That’s just the way it is. A nice carpet and beautiful stained windows are not enough. You need a heavy diet of the Word of God.
WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO FOUR THINGS to keep ourselves strong: 1. Building up on THE most holy faith; 2. Praying in the Holy Spirit; 3. Keeping yourselves in the love of God; 4. Looking for the mercy of God. I’m going to quote McGee heavily today because I think he says it best.
"BUILDING UP YOURSELVES ON YOUR MOST HOLY FAITH. What does he mean by that? Well, building up yourselves on your most holy faith means that you study the Word of God. It is my conviction that since God gave to us sixty-six books, He meant that we are to study all sixty-six of them—not just John 3 or John 14 and other favorite passages.
“OH, HOW MANY BIBLE CLASSES GO OVER AND OVER THE SAME BOOKS: John, Romans, maybe Ephesians, and they don't miss Revelation. Do not misunderstand me, all those books are very important, but what about the other sixty-two books? Why don't we study all of them? My friend, if you are going to build up yourself on your most holy faith, you must have the total Word of God. You cannot build a house without a foundation; then you will need to put up some timbers that will hold the roof; then you are going to need a roof on it and siding and plaster on the inside. And this is what the total Word of God will do for you. This is what we are to do in days of apostasy.
“BOTH PETER AND PAUL URGED BELIEVERS TO STUDY THE WORD OF GOD in days like these. Paul wrote in his swan song: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed …" (2Timothy 2:15). Then in the next chapter Paul said that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. My friend, the recourse that you and I have as children of God in these days is the Word of God.
“THE REASON MANY FOLK FALL BY THE WAYSIDE IS BECAUSE THE SEED (which is the Word of God) fell among stones. It didn't get deeply rooted. Unless you study all of the Word of God, get down in the good, rich soil, you are not going to become a sturdy, healthy plant. It won't be long until you will be stepped on and the sun will burn you out. You will not be able to stand in days like these.
“PETER IN HIS SECOND EPISTLE, WRITING OF APOSTASY, SAYS, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" (2Peter 1:19-20). You cannot just pull out one or two little verses and think you have a good knowledge of the Bible. It is a tragedy to build a system of doctrine based on a few isolated verses drawn out of the Scriptures.
“MY FRIEND, CERTAINLY THERE ARE PARTS OF THE WORD OF GOD that youu will not enjoy reading. There are sections that will step on your toes, and you would like to avoid that. But today it is necessary to build up ourselves on our most holy faith because these are days of apostasy.
"YOUR MOST HOLY FAITH" does not refer to your own personal faith. Rather, it is the faith, the body of truth which has been given to us in the Word of God. When the church first came into existence, this was called the apostles' doctrine.
“PRAYING IN THE HOLY SPIRIT MEANS THAT WE PRAY BY MEANS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; we are dependent upon Him. Paul wrote in Romans 8:26, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." You and I actually do not know what to pray for. We are like little children.
“WHEN I TAKE MY LITTLE GRANDSON TO THE STORE, HE WANTS EVERYTHING HE SEES. He asks for things that he shouldn't even have because they would not be good for him. Then I think, That's just the way we pray. We are like little children: "Lord, I want this—Lord, give me that." God doesn't always give us what we want. Why doesn't He? Because when we pray like that, we are not praying in the Spirit. We need to learn to let the Holy Spirit make intercession for us." (McGee)
WE END TO SHY AWAY FROM "PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT." In fact, we tend to shy away from any kind of praying unless we need something from God really bad. But, if we have to learn everything we know about prayer in our time of desperation, we may come up short on the best way to go about it. We need to study a lot about prayer and do a lot of praying on a regular basis so that we are familiar with praying.
THE DISCIPLES CAME TO JESUS AND ASKED HIM to teach them how to pray like John taught his disciples to pray. And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. (Luke 11:1)
SOMETIMES WHEN WE PRAY IT MAY BE HARD WORK. We struggle to get through. And sometimes, it seems like prayer just falls out of the ceiling and pushes us along. THAT is praying in the Spirit. We need to pray through the hard times of prayer until our hearts are warm and everything is out of the way that hinders us. Jude tells us to PRAY IN THE SPIRIT.
KEEPING OURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD means that we are to keep ourselves in the area where God’s love is operational. God’s love is constant, but it is not manifested in every place and in every condition of our lives. If we are to keep ourselves in the love of God, we must seek Him, seek His will, and obey everything He shows us. THAT is keeping ourselves in the love of God. It is not a matter of persuading God to love us. He loves us at all times. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
WHEN GOD TOLD ELIJAH TO GO HIDE HIMSELF AT THE BROOK, CHERITH, he said the ravens would feed him there. If Elijah had decided to go to another brook that might suit him better, he would have been hungry soon. The ravens had been sent to a certain place and God’s provision for Elijah was going to be there and nowhere else.
ELIJAH KEPT HIMSELF IN THE PROVISION OF GOD BY OBEYING HIM. We keep ourselves in the love of God by obeying Him. Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. (1Kings 17:3-4)
LOOKING FOR HE MERCY OF GOD UNTO, OR IN THE DIRECTION OF ETERNAL LIFE. False teachers are not very big about eternal life. Not when it gets right down to it. They don’t want anything to do with God in a personal way. Oh, they may lie to you about their walk with God and put on a big front. But, if they don’t love the Word of God, then they don’t love the God of the Word.
ETERNAL LIFE IS PRECIOUS TO THE TRUE BELIEVER IN THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. We are to stay active and vibrant in our looking for the mercy of God that ends up in the other room with God. Life is short. Life is troublesome. Life here is full of grief and pain. We are looking for the mercy of God that will usher us into His presence. Ω
Read Through the Bible in a Year
JUNE 25, 2018 – MONDAY
A.M. Job 4-6 P.M. Acts 7:20-43
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.) If you are behind in reading, read the passage for today and then go back.
●Good Memory Verse:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16) (Write verses on scraps of paper and put in your pocket to memorize.)
●Song for Today:
Pray ‘Till the Light Breaks Through (3:08) – (Man & Woman With Accordion) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9m975_J3Pg You may need to delete an ad or turn off the song when finished to avoid something you do not want to hear.
●Health Hint: Do not use hydrogen peroxide in your mouth for a mouth wash. It will thin the skin in your mouth and make you susceptible to mouth sores. If you get a mouth sore, try applying a blob of Aloe Vera jell in the sore area and close your mouth for a few minutes. (I have had several people ask me about the Health Hint we did some time ago. Will try it again and keep it short. Will still mail occasional page-long Health Hint articles in separate mailings.)
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