Colossians 3:9-12<\/p>\n
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us rot share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paul\u2019s Prayer for the Colossians<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n When: Since the day we heard of it<\/p>\n How and the What: Not ceased to pray for you<\/p>\n Prayer: That you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,<\/p>\n Reason for the prayer: Expected Response to the prayer<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Principle of Prayer and the When<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n There are things about the Christian life that are honestly quite mysterious.\u00a0 Actually, if you think about it, there are a lot of things in our lives that are mysterious to us.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to know how something works to use it. We probably all use cars, but do we understand all the little parts of a car when we first start one up and drive it around the block?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 Cars were made by man.\u00a0 What about the things God instructs us to do?\u00a0 Do we have to know how it works before we can participate in it?\u00a0 There are things about the Christian life that are mysterious. Maybe that is not the best word but what other word would you use to explain why people pray to a God whom they have not seen for people they might have never met, with the expectation that their prayers will be answered?\u00a0\u00a0 Believers have the opportunity to do something that doesn\u2019t require travel, or study but does require discipline.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to have visibility with those we pray for. We don\u2019t have to have verbal contact with others.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even have to know all the details of their life in order to pray for others.\u00a0 We are encouraged or exhorted to pray for people we have not met or know personally throughout scripture.<\/p>\n One other thing remarkable about our prayer life is that very few people know how deeply our prayer life is and it is not one that provides immediate acknowledgement here on earth.\u00a0 Prayer really is one of those investments where we are laying up things in heaven, not here on earth.\u00a0 For example, if I show up and teach a Sunday school, I get acknowledged because you are here and you know (perhaps) that I spend a little time preparing.\u00a0 You get to see the results of my work.\u00a0 This is not the case with prayer since most of the time, we don\u2019t always get to see the answers to our prayers.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have a lot of people who can see the impact of our prayers. And a person who prays has full knowledge that they didn\u2019t accomplish what they prayed for, it was God\u2019s hand that brought this prayer to reality.<\/p>\n One of the practical marks of mature believer is a demonstrated concern for others, shown by their prayers for the saints.\u00a0 In just a few verses before this, we see that Epaphras was this kind of leader and person. \u00a0He was a leader who prayed for the sheep of his flock.\u00a0 This is what leaders should do.\u00a0 Biblical leadership prays for the people under their care and this is also a role for Fathers, who lead their own home grown flocks.<\/p>\n The How and the What<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The how is unceasing.The question might come to a person \u2013 if you are praying all the time, how do you get anything else done?\u00a0 I have been told that prayer is responding to God.\u00a0 For some believers, it is as simple as breathing.\u00a0 Call it spiritual breathing.\u00a0 When you have a sense that things are not going well, you would instead of trying harder, first stop and say a quick prayer that God would give you wisdom to find a solution.\u00a0 When you have a sense that things are going well, rather than continue on oblivious to God\u2019s impact in your life, you would give a prayer of thankfulness to the One who has all things in His hands.\u00a0 And when the Lord brings anyone to your mind, you have a strong understanding that perhaps God is bringing people to your mind because He wants you to be involved in their prayer team and He is giving you the opportunity to have an eternal impact.\u00a0 So although there is a good reason to have a specific time set aside for regular prayer, there is also the commitment we can make to always be ready to respond to God at every moment.\u00a0 That is how we live our lives praying all the time.\u00a0 People who live like this are generally thankful and light-hearted people because they don\u2019t carry any of the normal burdens of life \u2013 they are constantly giving things back to God.\u00a0 They also are generally not a proud person, because they recognize that all they have in their life comes from God\u2019s blessing and kindness.\u00a0 One of the best tools to remind us of prayer that a believer has is what I have called the fruits of the flesh \u2013 in Galatians chapter 5:19.\u00a0 There you have a list of deeds of the flesh.\u00a0 When those things are known to you, you have a stop sign in your life to wake you up and alert you that you need God\u2019s help to live this un-natural life we call Christian.\u00a0 (this list is immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing<\/em>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Emphasis of the Prayer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The next part of this is the central point of the prayers of Paul for the church in Colossae.\u00a0 \u00a0That you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding<\/strong>.\u00a0 Let\u2019s think about this for just a moment.\u00a0 To be filled with the knowledge of God\u2019s will is not the shallow understanding that a person has when they are ready to admit that there might be a higher power in this world.\u00a0\u00a0 I am amazed when someone tells me that they are a believer and then in the next breath, tell me that they don\u2019t care to know some of the most basic doctrines of the faith.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to be able to use the fancy theological terms because those are only to make the topics easier to discuss, but you should know about God\u2019s holiness, God\u2019s justice, God\u2019s grace and God\u2019s Sovereign knowledge.\u00a0 But to be filled with the knowledge of God is the idea that signifies the absence of anything else.\u00a0 Another way to look at this idea is the idea of being dominated.\u00a0 That is not a word we like to use, but listen to the prayer with that word:\u00a0 That you may be dominated<\/span> with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding<\/strong>.\u00a0 If someone is dominated by a thing, it has taken over control of their life.\u00a0 It is what they always come back to.\u00a0 We have probably all known someone who has been dominated by drugs or alcohol. \u00a0When they with people, they think about it. \u00a0When they are alone, they think about it.\u00a0 It is their friends when no one else will be. \u00a0It is their comfort, when comfort is needed.\u00a0 And it often becomes their habit, even when it doesn\u2019t seem that they would need it. \u00a0Think if that were how you and I were with the Lord. \u00a0Always thinking about Him, always running to Him, and always needing Him. \u00a0This is being dominated by the knowledge of His will.<\/p>\n To be saturated, dominated, totally under the control of the knowledge of His will.\u00a0 Guys, how many of you here understand your spouse completely? \u00a0Probably not too many.\u00a0 But how many of you here know more and more what she wants in her life? \u00a0It seems the longer you are married, the more you grasp what it is that your wife wants if you are pursuing that knowledge. \u00a0It is not all that different for a believer, as they spend time serving the Lord, they will understand more and more what God\u2019s will is and how it looks in each believer\u2019s life. \u00a0Because God made us so different, God\u2019s will for my life will look very different than God\u2019s will for your life.<\/p>\n There is often a question or two that pops up in my mind when I come across a passage like this. \u2022 The first one, how do I acquire this knowledge of His will?\u00a0 I think it is a pursuit or a journey, not a destination that we arrive at. \u00a0Proverbs 1 tells us: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction<\/strong>. James 1 tells us: But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him<\/strong>.\u00a0 There has to be a desire to know more about God, an understanding that it is God\u2019s to give, and an understanding that most often it is acquired through God\u2019s word and by God\u2019s Spirit.\u00a0 Don\u2019t think that you are going to find God\u2019s answers without God.\u00a0 This is not the SAT test, where the smartest are the ones who get into the best college.\u00a0 This it God\u2019s wisdom, and there are not many wise, not many rich and not many famous who come to Him.\u00a0 The reason there are not many of those people is because they can\u2019t humble themselves enough to seek God\u2019s will by God\u2019s means.\u00a0 They are often too busy to spend time on something they can\u2019t touch, taste, smell or spend. Next, Paul gets qualitative when he describes the kind of filling he is praying for this church. \u00a0In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is an indication of the change that Paul expects to see in the lives of the church members. \u00a0Spiritual wisdom only has one source.\u00a0 True, you might get it from the Bible, or a Bible study, or a book, or a discussion with someone else but the true source is from God. \u00a0Sometimes the biggest challenge is discernment to tell what is truth and what is for the \u201cpoubelle\u201d or garbage.\u00a0 That is where the Scriptures are so important.\u00a0 We hold truth up to the Bible to test and see if it is God\u2019s truth or not.<\/p>\n Note also that there is the expectation that the knowledge of His will is going to shape and build your smarts and your behavior. \u00a0Being dominated by the knowledge of His will is going to so shape your life that everyone around you is going to know it is there. \u00a0They may or may not admit it to you, but it is going to impact how you behave and others will see it. \u00a0Earlier I referred to the addict, who thinks of nothing but getting in touch with their addiction. \u00a0Do you think that people in that person\u2019s life know something wrong is going on? \u00a0Of course they do.\u00a0 And so will people know that something is up in your life when you are filled by the knowledge of His will.<\/p>\n Be careful of the other things that might not want to be left behind when you are filling your life with His will. \u00a0The distractions around you are like the little two-year old who is screaming for attention. \u00a0They will seem to get louder and louder without warning. \u00a0What are those things that want your attention?\u00a0 Maybe we can list them in the class, so that we can talk about how to move from them in our Christian life?<\/p>\n May the Lord fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Colossians 3:9-12 9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[83],"tags":[86,85,84],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1531,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n\u2022 The next question that might come up:\u00a0 How is this different than being saved?\u00a0 It is true that God had to open up our minds to know more about Him in order for us to come to a saving knowledge of Him. \u00a0Without His help, we wouldn\u2019t know that we were sinners and we would have a very hard time understanding how one man could give His life a ransom for many. \u00a0But having enough knowledge to come to God for redemption is very different than being filled by that same knowledge. \u00a0I wish it would have all happened at the same moment, but it did not.<\/p>\n