Colossians 1:9-14

Struggling

Christians

Robert Pitts – 7/7/2011Upper Springs Ministries.org

9 -

Colossians 1:9-14

“For this reason we also, since the daywe heard it, do not cease to pray for you,and to ask that you may be filled with theknowledge of His will in all wisdom andspiritual understanding;”

Many Christians struggle in their everydaylives because they have no spiritualwisdom nor spiritual understanding

They have only natural, intellectual or onlyhead knowledge of God’s Word.

They do not know who they are in Christ.

They cannot walk worthy of the Lordbecause their knowledge of His Word isclouded with unbelief or mis-belief.

10 - “that you may walk worthy of theLord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful inevery good work and increasing in theknowledge of God;”

They walk only by sight, not by faith asrequired by God’s Word.

11 -

They live their lives trying to be strong intheir own ways instead of being strong inthe Lord.

“strengthened with all might,according to His glorious power, for allpatience and longsuffering with joy;”

Meaning they cannot hear the Lord, norcan they see where He is working.

They only endure for a while, untilpersecution and tribulation arise becauseof the Word and then they fall away.

12 - “giving thanks to the Father who hasqualified us to be partakers of theinheritance of the saints in the light.”

One of the signs that a Christians is driftingaway from the Lord is that they becomeunthankful.

The next step is they become bitter andunforgiving.

Then comes complaining, fault finding andapathy for the things of the Lord.

13 - “He has delivered us from the powerof darkness and conveyed us into thekingdom of the Son of His love,”

Instead of being delivered from the powerof darkness, they become captives asseen in 2 Timothy 2:24-26.

This does not mean they belong to theDevil, but have been begin to obey thelust of the eye, the lust of the flesh andthe boastful pride of life, rather than God.

There are 3 stages to becoming a captiveof the Devil

The first stage is obsession.

While in this stage a Christian can chooseto stop the sin he is involved in. However,can become repetitive, but not too often.

The second step is oppression.

While in this stage the pressure from theenemy is greatly intensified.

The person begins to hate his life andmentally and spiritually continues in adownward spiral.

Though the powers of darkness continue totorment the person, he can still throughmuch prayer and fasting break out of thebondage.

The third stage is possession.

Before we discuss this stage let me set therecord straight, possession does not meanownership.

Once a person has been born into God’sKingdom, he cannot be unborn.

He forever in this life and in eternity is achild of God.

John 10:28 - "And I give them eternal life,and they shall never perish; neither shallanyone snatch them out of My hand.

He can be taken captive by the Devil.

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Mostassuredly, I say to you, whoever commitssin is a slave of sin.

“Do you not know that to whom youpresent yourselves slaves to obey, you arethat one’s slaves whom you obey, whetherof sin leading to death, or of obedienceleading to righteousness?”

The Apostle Paul explained it like this inRomans 6:16

In this stage a person cannot choose tostop the sin in his life.

The sin becomes like an addiction to drugsor alcohol, he has to do it.

The only hope a person in this stage has isdeliverance.

Just as the Lord delivered the demoniacfrom a legion of demons, so much a personin this stage be delivered.

This comes as other Christians fast andpray and listen as the Holy Spirit gives theinformation & directions to break the bondof the enemy.

The bond must be discerned spiritually andbroken spiritually.

14 -“in whom we have redemption throughHis blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

After experiencing the Lord’s mercy andgrace through deliverance, then the personcan feel the forgiveness for the sin thatheld him in bondage.

He can feel it in every area of his life.

This means spiritually, physically, mentally,and emotionally.

It totally refreshes the whole person.

The main problem lies with the leadershipin Christian circles.

Spiritual Warfare and deliverance is nottaught in most seminaries and Biblecolleges.

Not only have pastors not been taught, buthave actually been told it is not Biblical.

We are told in Ephesians 5:11, “And haveno fellowship with the unfruitful works ofdarkness, but rather expose them.”

However, we have not been taught toexpose them nor oppose them, but toignore them and the Devil will flee.

We find in James 4:7, “Therefore submit toGod. Resist the devil and he will flee fromyou.

We find in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be sober, bevigilant; because your adversary the devilwalks about like a roaring lion, seekingwhom he may devour. (9) Resist him,steadfast in the faith, knowing that thesame sufferings are experienced by yourbrotherhood in the world.

Because pastors and teachers have taughtChristians that the Devil cannot botherthem after they are saved, God’s Childrenoften lead defeated lives for no otherreason than lack of knowledge.

They lack the knowledge of Who God is andwho they are in Christ.

They lack the knowledge of what God stilldoes, for instance, miracles and healings,as well as deliverances.

They lack the knowledge that the spiritualgifts of God are still real and available.

Because of things such as these, I hearmany Christians asking, “What is God’s willfor me?”

The question they should be asking is,“What is God’s will?”

In order to focus on God, we must take ourthoughts captive.

We have too many distractions in our livesand if we want to hear the Lord when Hespeaks, we must focus on Him.

We can know God’s will.

Knowing God’s will

Ephesians 5:17 - Therefore do not beunwise, but understand what the will ofthe Lord is.

Many Christians spend their life in theearnest pursuit of understanding theseemingly elusive will of God, but fail.

Some of the causes for the elusion

A lack of understanding of "God’sWill" is shown through in extremesof thoughts and behavior.

Some of the causes for the elusion

Moving without clear understandingfrom God on what is to be done.

Not moving — instances driven bylack of faith and lack of experiencein a God that really does workdirectly in one’s daily life.

How to correct the elusion

Come to know the Lord intimately.

Heart knowledge, not intellectual.

How to correct the elusion

“Correct" Christian thought and theactions that flow forth from therelationship

Praying confidently that you "mightbe filled with the Holy Spirit".

Then act upon God’s direction

The moment God speaks is yourinvitation to join Him in what He isdoing.

This word "filled" means: from Strong'sConcordance 4134:

(literally) to cram (a net), level up (ahollow), to influence, satisfy,execute (an office), finish a task, tobe complete, fully preach, perfect.

Paul understood that we are powerlesswithout the indwelling power of Jesus inour lives. He prays that we might havespiritual wisdom and understanding,thereby coming to an understanding of"Gods Will" and our lives fit in.

Spiritual wisdom and understanding arenot the same as earthly wisdom orunderstanding.

Ephesians 1:8 - He made to aboundtoward us in all wisdom and prudence,

This is spiritual wisdom and spiritualunderstanding.

This spiritual wisdom and spiritualunderstanding conferred to us bywalking as led by the Spirit.

Ephesians 1: 16-18 -

(16) do not cease to give thanks foryou, making mention of you in myprayers:

(17) that the God of our Lord JesusChrist, the Father of glory, may giveto you the spirit of wisdom andrevelation in the knowledge of Him,

(18) the eyes of your understandingbeing enlightened; that you mayknow what is the hope of His calling,

There is a spiritual gift of wisdom found in1 Corinthians 12:8 -

for to one is given the word ofwisdom through the Spirit, toanother the word of knowledgethrough the same Spirit,spirit of wisdom and revelation inthe knowledge of Him,

The skills needed to survive in life, tomaintain a job or to run a corporation are(or at least should be) vastly different fora believer than an unbeliever.

But most believers have learned to usethe skills taught to us through seculareducation.

We have learned to survive, like the restof the world, living by sight and not faith.

This is one reason why there is not muchdifference between the church and theworld.

Without faith in a God who really doeswork in our daily life with the result beinga life lived empty.

What do we do if we don’t seem to havemuch wisdom?

James 1:5 -

There are two kinds of wisdom and we asGod’s Children must know the differenceand seek after and use divine wisdom.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let himask of God, who gives to all liberallyand without reproach, and it will begiven to him.

James 3:14-15 & 17 -

(14) But if you have bitter envy andself-seeking in your hearts, do notboast and lie against the truth.

(15) This wisdom does not descendfrom above, but is earthly, sensual,demonic.

(17) But the wisdom that is fromabove is first pure, then peaceable,gentle, willing to yield, full of mercyand good fruits, without partialityand without hypocrisy.

When we look around us, we see manyspiritually dead Christian men or women(i.e. they are lacking fruit).

We ask why God has chosen to stay silent,

We all believe in a God that wants tohave a relationship with His creation, yetfor many Christians, God is like anabsentee father, He exists, but they donot know him.

Has God changed? Absolutely NOT!

We often wonder why God is not movingin our lives or our culture.

The problem is:

As a people, we are so drawn into aculture of affluence and power; and weare upside down in our thinking.

The solution is:

To set our minds on things above.

We seek worldly things instead ofheavenly things.

To do so we must have the mind of Christin all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The result will be:

We will see God move in our lives becausewe would have the spiritual eyes to seewhen He is moving.

It is imperative to us as believers tohave such wisdom and understanding.

We must be able to discern the spiritualtimes, not just the worldly.

Many times, He is moving and we just donot have the eyes to see it.

Paul tells us about walking a worthy lifebefore God.

1 Thessalonians 2:12

Ephesians 4:1

I, therefore, the prisoner of theLord, beseech you to walk worthyof the calling with which you werecalled,

that you would walk worthy of Godwho calls you into His ownkingdom and glory..

You should

You would

Galatians 5:16

Colossians 1:10

that you may walk worthy of theLord, fully pleasing Him, beingfruitful in every good work andincreasing in the knowledge ofGod;

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, andyou shall not fulfill the lust of theflesh.

You can

You will

Indications of problems with our walk:

Do you struggle with your walkwith God?

Do you struggle with your place inlife?

Is your heart troubled by the lackof a relationship with God?

Are your relationships troubled?

Does the Lord seem distant?

Is there a gaping hole in your life, something missing, but you don’t know what it is?

Does temptation keep calling yourname?

Has it been longer that 6 monthssince you have heard the Lord?

Do you have a hard time prayingand/or reading your Bible?

Do you share your testimony with others?

Have you separated yourself fromthe Body of Christ?

Do you find yourself being reallycritical of others?

Have you become resentful towardother people’s success?

Do you find yourself making excusesfor your misdeeds?

Jesus came that you might have life andlife more abundant.

If you have several of the symptoms inyour life, you need to re-evaluate yourwalk with Christ.

You need to pray for the filling of yoursoul with God's spiritual wisdom andunderstanding.

You need to ask someone involved in adeliverance ministry for help.

Jesus said in John 17:3 "And this iseternal life, that they may know You, theonly true God, and Jesus Christ whomYou have sent.

Jesus said in John 8:32, "And you shallknow the truth, and the truth shall makeyou free."

The Truth in not a concept, but instead is aPerson, Jesus Christ!

Christians want and expect eternalthrough Jesus Christ.