🌱 Those Hearing Christ's Gospel: Revelation, Faith, Water, Growth, Hunger Protection from evil one Mk 4:15 Jn 10:10 🤺 Angels Guard Ps 91:11-16... 🙏

[Chrysostom]

Your prayer lifts up what is most necessary and we join our voice with yours in giving thanks to God for the gospel. The preaching of the cross seems foolish to the world, yet for those who are being saved it is the wisdom and power of God. We thank Him that salvation is His gift, by grace through faith, and even this faith is not from ourselves but is given when we hear the Word. As you have prayed, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ, and righteousness is revealed from faith to faith.

We ask with you that God would water the seed that has been sown. One plants and another waters, but God alone gives the growth. We can share the message and teach and pray, yet we depend entirely on Him to give life, to grant spiritual hunger as for newborn children desiring pure milk, and to give wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. We pray that those who have heard would not only hear but would continue in the word, turning from sin with true grief and hatred for it and walking in new obedience, trusting Christ who has become for us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

We also pray with you for protection. The Lord taught that the evil one comes to snatch away the word sown in the heart, and that he comes to steal and kill and destroy. So we ask the Father to keep all who have heard from the evil one, as Christ prayed, and to bind the strong man so that his house may be plundered. We ask for the guard of angels whom God has appointed as ministering spirits for those who will inherit salvation, that they would keep watch until salvation is fully beheld.

We give thanks for those who have prayed for evangelists and we join that prayer for bold love in the face of trial and opposition. We ask for wide doors for effective service even where there are many adversaries, and for divine appointments in homes and shops and churches and on street corners and wherever the Spirit leads, that God would give His servants what to say and how to say it. His arm is not too short to save, and we ask Him to remind all who have heard of our need, of sin, of the payment made by the blood of Jesus on the cross when He said it is finished, of His resurrection and appearing to many witnesses, His ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit, and to grant the right response of repentance and continuing discipleship.

We remember before God that Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. He is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world and bore the curse for us, and now as His ambassadors we carry the word of reconciliation that He has committed to us. We trust the Holy Spirit to complete the work He has begun until the day of Christ Jesus.

And we exhort all who have believed to add to faith a life that matches it. It is not enough to say Lord, Lord, for the Lord has said He will not know those who work iniquity, even if they claim faith or virginity or other labors. The virgins who lacked oil were not condemned for gross immorality but for lacking mercy, and those sent away into punishment were condemned because they did not feed Christ in the hungry. So faith must be joined with obedience, with lowliness of mind by which we find grace with God, with love and almsgiving and a clean life. Let us seek grace from God above all, and He exalts the truly humble. Let us also be diligent in prayer and, where needed, in fasting, for these together with faith have great power against the unseen enemy, and virtue itself must be taught and learned.

We pray that God who invented the plan of salvation and gave us any ability to do anything of real value apart from whom we can do nothing, will establish all who have heard, keep them, make them steadfast in the gospel that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and rose again, and bring forth fruit for His glory. We ask this in the name of Jesus, trusting that what we ask according to His will He hears. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer reflects a deep love for the gospel and for people hearing it, and it is right to bring these things before the Lord. The message of the cross may seem foolish to the world, but Scripture tells us it is the wisdom and power of God to everyone who is being saved. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, and righteousness is revealed in it by faith. Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, and salvation is a gift received by grace through faith, not by our own works, so that no one can boast.

You asked that the seed of the word would be watered and would grow. That is exactly how Jesus described the kingdom. The seed is the word of God, sown by the Son of Man. One plants, another waters, but God alone gives the growth. Like a natural seed that carries within it all the information needed to produce life, the word contains life in itself. A person sows and then sleeps and rises, and the seed sprouts and grows in a way he does not fully understand, first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain. Our part is to faithfully sow and water and pray, and to trust God to bring the increase in His time. Part of that growth is the hunger you prayed for, the desire for the pure milk of the word so that we may grow, and the spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing Him.

You also prayed for protection from the evil one who tries to snatch the seed away. Jesus explained that when the word is sown along the path, the evil one comes like birds that devour the seed before it can take root. In the parables birds are consistently used in a negative sense, and the enemy also sows weeds among the wheat to confuse and choke. It is right to pray as Jesus taught us, deliver us from the evil one, and to ask that the Lord would keep those who have heard from the thief who comes to steal and destroy. When a stronger one comes he binds the strong man and plunders his house, and Christ has done this in His death and resurrection. Isaiah spoke of His mission to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, and to open the prison doors to those who are bound. He who ascended first descended to the lower parts, and in His resurrection He led captivity captive and opened the way for those held bound. That same power is still at work to keep and guard those who belong to Him.

In connection with that, you prayed for angelic guarding. Scripture says God gives His angels charge over His people and that they are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. Yet the greater promise is that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and His ears are open to their prayers, and that Jesus Himself prayed not that we would be taken out of the world, but that we would be kept from the evil one.

You gave thanks for boldness to witness despite opposition and for open doors. That has always been the pattern. Those who preach the simple gospel of grace will face adversaries who try to turn people toward other gospels or toward works righteousness, just as some followed Paul to trouble the churches. Still, the Lord sets before His people an open door that no one can shut, and He gives divine appointments as the Spirit blows where He wills, whether at home, in neighborhoods, on street corners, in workplaces, or among family and even enemies. Pray for clear words and for love in how they are spoken, and for grace to continue in the word as disciples who abide in truth.

You remembered the heart of the gospel in your prayer, that Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, who bore the curse for us so that the blessing might come to all nations. He paid the debt in full and said it is finished, He was raised and seen by many witnesses, He ascended and sent the Holy Spirit, and the right response is repentance, turning from sin with genuine sorrow and a desire for new obedience, and trusting Him who has become for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

There is one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, the baptism into Jesus Christ Himself. That unity is the ground of our hope as we pray for others to be brought into Him.

We join you in praying that God would remind each person who has heard, and remind us as well, of our need, of the payment Christ made, and of the call to follow Him. We ask Him to keep watering what has been sown, to grant full repentance and faith, to deepen hunger for His word, to protect what has been heard from being snatched away, and to give more opportunities to speak with boldness and love. We trust the Holy Spirit to continue His work until the day of Christ Jesus, for He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it.