By: Dale Weckbacher
James 5:16
Confess your
trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
NKJV
Communication in our relationship with God, as in all of our
other relationships, is crucial.
According to Emuna Braverman, “If you don’t have a healthy way of
expressing your thoughts and emotions to each other, of speaking and being
heard, then everything else will ultimately crumble.” (1)
Effective communication is equally important when in a
war. At sea during the 18th
century, the British navy developed a system of communication between ships
using flags. Warfare communication took
a leap forward in World War I with the development of the telephone. Radio in the 1920’s led its use in warfare
allowing communication on the battlefield without the necessity of laying
landlines. Today, militaries communicate
through the use of computer and satellite technology. (2)
Communication is equally important in spiritual warfare and
must include the spiritual technology of,
1)
The Word of God – All militaries have some sort
of training and operations manual. In
spiritual warfare this manual is the Bible, the Word of God. In our spiritual war against the enemy,
Satan, God is our general. As such, we
as good soldiers must learn from and listen to our general’s instructions
contained in our manual, the Bible.
2)
Prayer – Communication is a two way street
involving speaking and listening.
However, James 1:19 tells us to be swift to listen, slow to speak, and
slow to wrath. Effective communication
in spiritual warfare therefore involves an eagerness to listen to God through
His word but when it comes to praying, we must insure we pray according to
God’s will and not let our prayers become like some Christmas list of things we
want that may not necessarily be what God wants us to have. Effective prayers like those mentioned in
James 5:16 are prayers in agreement with God’s desires. We also must be slow to act and wait for
instructions from God in order for our actions to be effective.
3)
Fellowship – We as a church body must also
maintain communication with each other (Hebrews 10:25). For persecuted Christians this means risk of
life for if they are caught together worshipping the Lord, they may be
killed. For those of us living in
countries with freedom to worship as they please, it means inconveniencing
ourselves on Sunday morning to get up and go to church. Today we have the convenience of attending
church through the internet. This is
great for those traveling and away from home on Sunday, those unable to attend
services due to illness, and those living where there is no local church. However, we should not allow technology to
replace face-to-face getting together. We
are in a spiritual war and need the strength and encouragement we receive from
being with others who believe as we do.
Unlike most wars where victory is uncertain, the spiritual
war we as Christians now find ourselves in has already been won by our Lord
Jesus Christ on the Cross (1 Corinthians 15:54-58). Satan is defeated and now only resorts to
lies and deception as a means of disrupting the communication lines between our
victorious Lord and us. We therefore
must be on our guard and not allow these lies and deception to separate us from
our God and instead actively keep the communication lines open through study of
the Bible, prayer, and fellowship with other believers.
The war is won but there will still be battles. Critical to victory in these battles is the
maintaining of the communication lines with our God.
1. Braverman, Emuna. Communication - The Key to
a Good Marriage. www.aish.com. [Online] Aish.com. [Cited: December 15,
2015.] www.aish.com/f/m/48938377.html?tab=y.
2. Bennett, Matthew.
Communications in War. www.bbc.co.uk. [Online] BBC, February 17, 2011.
[Cited: December 5, 2015.]
No comments:
Post a Comment