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Join Wayne Burger each week as he explores various topics and scriptures and challenges listeners to meditate on God's Word more deeply.
The life of a Christian is a battle. Of course, we recognize the physical, and there's the spiritual. There are things that are seen, and there are things that are not seen, and we struggle with those things.
The Christian life is a struggle to cause their opposition to our progress.
I want us to begin by looking at Ephesians 6, verse 12. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Notice what he says.
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Sometimes we think maybe we have opposition from people. In reality, they're just agents.
They really are battling the spiritual forces behind those people. It's really Satan that is our opponent, not really the people around us. He says here that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
The heavenly places doesn't mean in heaven. It really means the spiritual realm. The battle for the Christian is between the flesh and the spirit, between the physical and the spiritual.
There are great battles going on, and we need to strive to overcome those spiritual forces of wickedness. I want us to talk about some help that we get. The unseen help is what I'm going to be looking at.
It is interesting that Paul in 2 Corinthians 4.16 said, We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Yes, the things that are seen are temporal.
They're not going to be here long. But the spiritual realm is going to be here. That which is not seen is more important than the things that are seen.
What is seen will be destroyed. What is not seen will not be destroyed. We must prepare our souls, which we cannot see, for the eternal life, which at this point we cannot see.
It's a struggle because our physical life requires so much time and effort. Our out of sight, out of mind fits this situation. It's surely a true statement with regard to this.
The physical things around us kind of consume us, but we ought to concentrate on the spiritual. As we enter into this battle, a spiritual battle, with Satan and all of his allies and all of his enticements, I want us to be assured that God gives us help. And what I want to think about is, there is some unseen help that God gives us.
We cannot see it with our physical eyes, but God helps us with those things we cannot see to fight against those things we cannot see, those spiritual forces. First, we'll say the Holy Spirit cannot be seen. The Holy Spirit is given to us to help us.
By faith, we understand that we receive the Holy Spirit when we're baptized. Remember that Peter in Acts 2, when the people said, what have we got to do to be saved? He said, repent and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He said, you will receive forgiveness of sins and you'll receive the Holy Spirit.
There were two commands, repent and be baptized, and two blessings, forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is spoken of in several other places, as our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, we know that we have the Holy Spirit by faith.
The Holy Spirit does not give us a special kind of feeling. We don't know that we have the Spirit because He leads us miraculously. No, we know that we have the Spirit, just like we know that we have forgiveness of sins.
When you're baptized, how do you know you're forgiven? Because God said, when you're baptized, I'll forgive you of your sins. You accept that by faith. How do you know you have the Holy Spirit? Not by the way you feel, but because of the promise of God.
And so, the Holy Spirit is an unseen help that God gives us. Paul discussed this in Ephesians 3. Let me read some verses here. In verse 16, he said, he, that is God, would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.
He says the Spirit is going to strengthen our inner man. We may not fully understand all of the ways that the Spirit strengthens us, but he does go on to explain about some of that power in verse 20. Now, to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.
He said that power that's within us is the Spirit. The Spirit we cannot see. But the Spirit is an unseen help in our spiritual battles against those spiritual forces that we cannot see.
Again, in the book of Romans, Paul talks about this unseen help. He said, in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
In this context, the weakness seems to be our weakness in knowing what to pray. You know, there'll be a situation that we really just don't know what to pray for. We don't know what's best.
We don't know what to ask God. We may not even know how to express this in the best kinds of words. Well, he said, when we pray in those kinds of situations, the Spirit is going to intercede for us.
The Spirit is an intercessor. We need to understand two words, intercessor and mediator. An intercessor stands beside somebody and pleads that person's case before somebody else.
The mediator stands between two parties, trying to bring them back together. Well, there's only one mediator, but there are many intercessors. The one mediator, of course, is Jesus Christ.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 2.5, there's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He said there's just one God, there's just one mediator. That mediator is Jesus Christ, who's still a man.
He's the perfect mediator because a mediator, the best mediator, is going to be equally related to both parties he's trying to bring back together. Jesus is the perfect mediator because he's fully God, so he understands God's perspective. He is fully man, so he understands man's perspective.
He's that mediator, but Romans 8 verse 26 says that the Spirit is our intercessor. He stands with us. He takes our prayers and presents them to the Father.
That's an unseen help. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can bring our unseen souls to an eternal reward in the day of judgment. God wants us to be saved eternally and has given us help to be successful.
The angels are an unseen help. When talking about the work of angels in Hebrews 1, the writer makes an interesting statement. Are they angels, according to the context? Not all ministering spirits sent forth to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation.
That's Hebrews 1 verse 14. Today we hear a lot of stories about angels. I've got a book written by a good friend called Angel Stories.
Most of these of which are simply figments of one's imagination. Something happens and they think it was an angel. They didn't really see an angel.
They just thought they saw an angel or they thought this was an angel in a body form. All we know from this text is that angels are ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. Christians are scheduled to inherit salvation.
God says, I've got my angels that are going to help you do this. They're going to minister to you. He does not say how that's done.
Since he didn't say, we cannot say. If he did not explain it, we cannot explain it. This is simply a promise of an unseen help that God has provided to help us live the Christian life, to help us overcome our spiritual battles against those spiritual forces.
I usually say, I don't know what the angels do, but whatever help they give, I won't. I need all the help I can get. And that's what we need to realize here.
We don't have to see it. We don't have to fully even understand it. It's just a promise that God has made that says those angels are ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit.
And so we need you simply to accept that. Let's just trust God. He said they were going to help us.
Let's believe that. Without trying to figure out how or when or who, let's just accept the fact he said angels were going to help us. Whatever help they will give us, I will accept.
Another unseen help is the fact that God answers our prayers in an unseen way. The Bible does not explain how God answers our prayers, but he does. Here's a statement.
This is the confidence which we have before him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from him. First John 5, 14 and 15.
Notice this unseen help. We do not always maybe ever fully understand how God answers our prayers. We ask him for things.
We ask him for help in various situations, and we trust that he's going to do it. We don't know how he does it. He's not going to work against our will.
He's not going to perform a miracle, but he can work. And again, John explained this and gave us such great hope when he said this is the confidence which we have before him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from him.
That is a great unseen help. Of course, we have several important factors so that God can answer our prayers. We must pray through our mediator, Jesus, 1 Timothy 2.5. We must have faith that God is going to answer our prayers.
That's James 1, verse 6. And we must pray with the correct motives, James 4, verse 3. And here in 1 John 5, it says we must pray according to his will. We can be thankful that God has given us some unseen helps. We might even include in this also not only the help of the Holy Spirit and the help of the angels and God's answer through our prayers.
We have the confidence that we need to pray. We need to come before the throne of God. He said that we can come before the throne of God with confidence and boldness that God will help us.
We have to have faith that God will. We may not understand how. We may not ever know.
It may be something that we come to understand a little later rather than at the moment. But we trust in God. Be anxious in nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving may the request be made known to God.
And the peace of God that brings salvation and brings peace will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That's all in Philippians 4. Peter does say, casting all your cares on him, for he cares for you, 1 Peter 5 and verse 7. So as we live our Christian lives, we are struggling against unseen forces. Satan has all of his angels.
Satan has a lot of power. But Satan cannot overpower us. James reminds us in James 4.6, resist the devil and he'll flee from you.
Satan cannot overpower us. Satan cannot be everywhere at the same time. He is simply roaming the earth.
We need to have confidence that God will be with us and that in these forces of unseen forces we face, God has some unseen helps to enable us to live the Christian life. Are you struggling? Have you given up on God? Don't. God understands your situation better than anyone else.
He knows you better than you know yourself. We need to trust in God that God loves us and wants us to be saved. He's not anxious to catch us in sin and kick us out of the kingdom.
No, he wants us to be saved and he's done all that he can to save us. We are in a battle. It is between what we can see the world around us and what we cannot see.
The unseen is eternal while that which is seen is only temporary. Let's not let the physical demands of life keep us from focusing on what is really important. God wants us to be saved and he offers us unseen help.
Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God's Word. Special thanks to Matt Graham, John Kachelman, and LightWay Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible. If you're ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we'd love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at 4 at the Senior Center.
You're always welcome. For more information about this podcast, visit LightwayMedia.com slash meditating on the Word and find the link there to email me to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter with more information you can use in your personal Bible study. Be sure to like, subscribe, and follow us on your favorite podcast app so that you never miss an episode.
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