Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer for your household and your family is heard, and your desire for the Holy Spirit to open eyes and hearts is right and good. The longing to abide in Christ and to have His words abide in you, to abide in His love, and to have His Word as a lamp to your feet and a light to your path is exactly where guidance begins. The Scriptures teach us to test everything according to the Law and the Testimony, and Jesus Himself opened the understanding of His followers so they could comprehend the Scriptures. That remains the sure foundation, more reliable than the noise and confusion of the world around us.
Prayer is essential for that kind of life and guidance. Even the Son of God, perfect as He was, sought time alone to pray, rising early to commune with the Father. How much more do we need that same dependence. Your intercession for your wife, your children, and your extended family reflects that dependence. Apart from a divine work of God, no heart is cleansed or restored. In the law, the only way a leper could be made clean was by an act of God, and even there God made provision for grace to operate, so that the one who was healed could be brought back into community. In the same way, only God can cleanse a heart, forgive sin, and restore what sin has broken, and He has made provision for that grace through Jesus Christ.
Scripture is clear that this divine work belongs to God alone. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, though our finite minds struggle to comprehend that mystery. Some try to simplify it by denying the deity of Jesus or the deity of the Spirit, but the Bible does not allow that. Jesus claimed and demonstrated divine prerogatives. Only God can forgive sins, and Jesus said to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, and then showed His authority by telling him to rise and walk. He also showed divine power over the powers of darkness in a way that could not be denied, even when some still refused to believe. That same power is needed in every family, and that same forgiveness is the only hope for each of us, for as David confessed after his sin with Bathsheba, all sin is ultimately against God and needs His forgiveness.
You asked that God would speak in many ways, through the Bible, through preaching, through godly counsel, through divine appointments, through dreams and visions and the leading of the Spirit and the ministry of angels. God is certainly able to do all of these things. Scripture records how He warned Abimelech in a dream, how He directed Joseph and the wise men, how He gave visions to Daniel and to others, and how He poured out His Spirit as Joel prophesied. His arm is not too short to save, and nothing is impossible with Him, and His light is stronger than any darkness. At the same time, we are taught not to claim special revelation beyond what God has given or to pretend to know what He has not revealed, such as the day and hour of His coming. That would be folly and presumption. We are also not to seek guidance by looking within ourselves, as if we could find direction by meditating on the inner self. True guidance comes from the Shepherd Himself. His sheep hear His voice, and those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, and that leading will always agree with His written Word. What God has promised in prophecy must be fulfilled, and we can trust Him to fulfill it in His way and time.
The sign of a true work of God is not simply an experience, but repentance, a change of heart that bears fruit in a changed life and in restoration. When Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners who followed Him, the evidence of conversion was that they turned from their old way. That is what we pray for now. For you, that God would keep you abiding in Christ, with a pure heart, a sincere faith, and a clear conscience. For your wife, that God would in His mercy grant warning and awakening where needed, to turn her from wrongdoing and pride and to preserve her from the pit, and to draw her back to faithfulness to Christ and to the covenant of marriage as God designed it, a lifelong union of one man and one woman where intimacy belongs. For your children and family, that they would be kept from temptation, from deception, from fear and lies and the work of the evil one. We know that Jesus lives to intercede for those who come to God through Him, and that He is able to save completely. With thanksgiving we can make our requests known to God and trust His peace, which passes all understanding, to guard hearts and minds.
May you continue to look to Jesus, to remain in His Word and in His love, to pray faithfully, and to trust that God, who is fully able to do what He has promised and to give us all things that pertain to life and godliness, will act according to His perfect will and for His glory.
Prayer is essential for that kind of life and guidance. Even the Son of God, perfect as He was, sought time alone to pray, rising early to commune with the Father. How much more do we need that same dependence. Your intercession for your wife, your children, and your extended family reflects that dependence. Apart from a divine work of God, no heart is cleansed or restored. In the law, the only way a leper could be made clean was by an act of God, and even there God made provision for grace to operate, so that the one who was healed could be brought back into community. In the same way, only God can cleanse a heart, forgive sin, and restore what sin has broken, and He has made provision for that grace through Jesus Christ.
Scripture is clear that this divine work belongs to God alone. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, though our finite minds struggle to comprehend that mystery. Some try to simplify it by denying the deity of Jesus or the deity of the Spirit, but the Bible does not allow that. Jesus claimed and demonstrated divine prerogatives. Only God can forgive sins, and Jesus said to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, and then showed His authority by telling him to rise and walk. He also showed divine power over the powers of darkness in a way that could not be denied, even when some still refused to believe. That same power is needed in every family, and that same forgiveness is the only hope for each of us, for as David confessed after his sin with Bathsheba, all sin is ultimately against God and needs His forgiveness.
You asked that God would speak in many ways, through the Bible, through preaching, through godly counsel, through divine appointments, through dreams and visions and the leading of the Spirit and the ministry of angels. God is certainly able to do all of these things. Scripture records how He warned Abimelech in a dream, how He directed Joseph and the wise men, how He gave visions to Daniel and to others, and how He poured out His Spirit as Joel prophesied. His arm is not too short to save, and nothing is impossible with Him, and His light is stronger than any darkness. At the same time, we are taught not to claim special revelation beyond what God has given or to pretend to know what He has not revealed, such as the day and hour of His coming. That would be folly and presumption. We are also not to seek guidance by looking within ourselves, as if we could find direction by meditating on the inner self. True guidance comes from the Shepherd Himself. His sheep hear His voice, and those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, and that leading will always agree with His written Word. What God has promised in prophecy must be fulfilled, and we can trust Him to fulfill it in His way and time.
The sign of a true work of God is not simply an experience, but repentance, a change of heart that bears fruit in a changed life and in restoration. When Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners who followed Him, the evidence of conversion was that they turned from their old way. That is what we pray for now. For you, that God would keep you abiding in Christ, with a pure heart, a sincere faith, and a clear conscience. For your wife, that God would in His mercy grant warning and awakening where needed, to turn her from wrongdoing and pride and to preserve her from the pit, and to draw her back to faithfulness to Christ and to the covenant of marriage as God designed it, a lifelong union of one man and one woman where intimacy belongs. For your children and family, that they would be kept from temptation, from deception, from fear and lies and the work of the evil one. We know that Jesus lives to intercede for those who come to God through Him, and that He is able to save completely. With thanksgiving we can make our requests known to God and trust His peace, which passes all understanding, to guard hearts and minds.
May you continue to look to Jesus, to remain in His Word and in His love, to pray faithfully, and to trust that God, who is fully able to do what He has promised and to give us all things that pertain to life and godliness, will act according to His perfect will and for His glory.
