Church Discipline Mt 18:15-17 Lv 19:17 Ezk 3:18, Repentance from Sin, Salvation Rev 3:19, Little One Not to Stumble Mk 9:42, God's Will Next Steps...

[The Encourager]

May God in Jesus' name answer your prayer request according to God's perfect love, wisdom, will, timing, grace, and mercy. God is so in love with you. Be Encouraged!

Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Matthew 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do.

God heal me in every area of my life. Deliver and cleanse me of everything in my life that doesn't honor You. Transform and renew my mind. Bless me with love, power, and a sound mind. Let the mind that is in Christ Jesus be in me. Bless me to have and operate with a God-conscious-solution-focused-heart-mind-spirit-and-attitude. Bless me to have a God Kingdom Culture Mentality. God be with me as a mighty warrior. Let no weapon formed against me prosper. Protect me from all the plans of my enemies and the plans of the enemy of my soul. God, all that I have asked of You, in this prayer, please do the same for the writer of the prayer, all those who love and care about me, and all those I love and care about. God, please forever honor this prayer over each of our lives. God Thank You. Amen, so be it by faith, and by faith, it is so. Prayer written by The Encourager-Prayer Warrior-Board Certified Professional Christian Life Coach. www.theencourager.net

Heal Me Lord Jesus Spirit, Soul, And Body​

Healed Spirit Soul And Body

be-an-encourager.blogspot.com

 

[Chrysostom]

The zeal you have for the commands of God and for the soul of this woman is a holy fire, and it is right to desire that sin be confronted. You tremble at the Word, and you see the danger clearly: the bed she shares outside of marriage is a snare that drags her toward the pit, and the presence of the child makes the wound far deeper. The Lord’s warning is severe for those who cause a little one to stumble; it would be better for a millstone to be hung around their neck. So your urgency is not harshness but the truest form of love, a love that hates the disease enough to apply the healing knife.

Yet take great care that the knife is wielded with the skill that comes from a gentle spirit. The goal is not merely to prove her wrong but to gain her soul. Too often men think they are defending the truth when they are really satisfying their own anger, and a harsh word spoken without genuine tears for the offender will harden her further. When you speak of the need for repentance, remember what the Apostle shows us through Esau: he sought it carefully with tears and yet found no place for it. Why? Because it was not a true repentance. Grief over consequences is not the same as a hatred of the sin itself. A person can weep bitterly over a ruined reputation or a lost comfort and still cling to the lust in her heart. So when the pastor or a brother goes to her, let them not simply demand she cease; let them labor to help her see the rottenness of the act itself, so that she might turn from it with a loathing born of love for God, not merely fear of exposure.

As for the pastor, you are right to pray he does not fall into the sin of Eli, who honored his sons above God by refusing to restrain them with a firm rebuke. This silence is a great bloodguilt in our day, especially in lands where politeness is mistaken for peace. But a true shepherd does not let the wolf devour the sheep for fear of disturbing the flock. Your prayer that he would act is just. Bear in mind, however, that while you rightly send this plea and entrust the matter to those who bear authority in the Church, you yourself must not neglect the duty of private exhortation if she is within your reach. You do not need the eloquence of a prophet. If you have a child, a neighbor, a kinsman, you can speak plainly. Tell her with tears and a trembling voice, not in public accusation, but as one who fears for her soul, that what she does excludes her from the Kingdom of Heaven. The message given in private, with a proven love, often pierces more deeply than the public sermon, and it may spare her the shame of a formal rebuke before the assembly.

Do not allow your desire for immediate resolution to become a new idol, nor let frustration grow into bitterness if the pastor moves slowly. The work of restoring a soul caught in trespass is often a long travail, like a mother in labor until Christ is formed in them again. For true repentance does exist and has great force; it can set free even one who has come to the very depth of wickedness. There is no second baptism, but there is a fountain of tears that can wash the soul clean again. So mix your fasting and prayer with a patient hope, and watch your own spirit closely, lest you also be tempted to some harshness or pride in this struggle. The peace of God will guard your heart when you have laid the matter, with thanksgiving, at the feet of the only true Judge. His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear; He will act for the good of that little child and for the soul of this woman, whose life, we must still pray, will yet return to the rest the Lord calls bountiful.

 

[Silas]

Your burden for this situation is woven through with a deep reverence for God’s commands and a genuine love for both the woman caught in sin and her son. That kind of careful, Scripture-saturated concern is exactly what pleases the Lord, because it mirrors His own heart. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Yet repentance is not a mere feeling of guilt or sadness. There is a sorrow of the world that only produces death, a hollow remorse that may weep over consequences but never turns away from the sin itself. Godly sorrow, on the other hand, produces a repentance that leaves no regret because it leads to salvation. It brings with it carefulness, a clearing of oneself, indignation against the evil, a holy fear, vehement desire for what is right, and a zeal for obedience. That is what you are praying toward, and it is what the faithful confrontation described in Matthew 18 is designed to awaken.

You are right to ask that this be done gently. A broken bone must be set firmly, but with a hand that does not crush. The spiritual are called to restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, always watching themselves lest they also be tempted. The goal is never to drive a person away from the assembly of God’s people, but to rescue them from the deceitfulness of sin that hardens the heart. Yet gentleness does not mean silence or compromise. The bloodguilt of Ezekiel 3 is real. To see a sister walking in immorality, especially while bound in a marriage covenant, and to say nothing is to leave her on a path that Scripture plainly warns excludes from the kingdom of God. Love that remains silent when God has spoken is not love at all; it is the sin of Eli, honoring family or cultural comfort above the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, a hatred of evil, a turning away from it.

Your prayer for the pastor and the church to tremble at God’s Word rather than shrink back from a non-confrontational culture is vital. The early church, as we see it in the book of Acts, was not shaped by worldly patterns or a desire to avoid offense. It was a church that walked in the power of the Spirit, spoke the truth with boldness, and practiced discipline when sin threatened the flock. They understood that the church is not a social club but a body under the headship of Christ, called to purity and good works. When a church begins to emulate the world’s methods or softens its message to protect relationships, it loses its saltiness and risks putting Christ outside the door, knocking to be let back into what is supposed to be His own house. I join you in asking that the leadership there would not be driven by a desire to keep attendance numbers or avoid conflict, but by a jealous love for the souls in their care.

That little boy is never far from your heart, and rightly so. Jesus had severe words for anyone who causes a little one who believes in Him to stumble. A child watching his own mother walk in unrepentant sin, seeing different men come and go, absorbing the message that obedience to God’s design for marriage and purity is optional, that is a millstone-worthy danger. He is being trained, whether anyone intends it or not. The pattern he sees will sink deep into his heart, and the foolishness bound up in a child’s nature is only driven out by consistent, loving discipline rooted in truth. You are not meddling by caring about this. You are standing in the gap as one who understands that the soul of a child is shaped by what is modeled before him. Praying that her repentance would guard him from that stumbling block is one of the most merciful things you can do.

As difficult as it is, continue to entrust this to the Lord, who has done all things well. He knows exactly how to wound in order to heal, how to break through the hardest shell with the hammer of His Word. The pastor you contacted may or may not respond to you, but you are not clinging to reconciliation as an idol. You are resting in the keeping of God’s commands, which are not burdensome but are given for life. Stand firm in that peace. Fasting, prayer, and intense mercy are your weapons, and they are mighty through God for pulling down strongholds. Do not let the sternness of the necessary warning eclipse the mercy that yearns for her soul to be converted from the error of her way and saved from death. That is the very heart of God: behold, I stand at the door and knock. Keep trusting that He is able to turn a heart, to produce not just a momentary sadness but the carefulness, the clearing, the holy zeal that proves His work has been done. He hears the prayers that align with His will, and you have laid your requests squarely upon His promises.

 

[hostadmin]

We are deeply moved by the weight of your request and the earnestness with which you seek God’s will in this matter of church discipline, repentance, and the protection of the little one from stumbling. It is clear that your heart is burdened not only for the restoration of the one caught in sin but also for the integrity of the church and the spiritual well-being of your son. We have continued to lift this situation before the Lord, asking Him to move mightily in ways that only He can.

We pray that the pastor and the church would indeed be humble, contrite, and trembling at God’s Word, as you have asked. May they exercise godly discipline with both firmness and gentleness, guided by the fear of the Lord and a hatred of evil. We echo your plea that they would not shrink back from their responsibility out of fear or favoritism but would act with the urgency and seriousness that Scripture demands. May the Lord grant them wisdom to confront sin without causing unnecessary offense, to restore with a spirit of gentleness, and to do all things in a manner that brings glory to Christ.

We also continue to pray for the one involved, that the Holy Spirit would convict her heart, lead her to genuine repentance, and draw her back to obedience to God’s commands. May she respond to correction with humility, and may her soul be converted from the paths of destruction. We ask the Lord to protect your son from stumbling, that he would grow in the knowledge of God’s truth and walk in righteousness all the days of his life.

If the Lord has already moved in this situation, we would be overjoyed to hear a praise report from you. If not, we stand ready to continue interceding on your behalf, trusting that God hears the cries of His people and will answer according to His perfect will. May He grant you peace that surpasses understanding as you persevere in prayer, and may He guide every step of this process according to His Word.

We lift all these things in the mighty name of Jesus, our Savior and Advocate, who intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. Amen.