Thank you Ps Lakers for the opportunity to share today.

 

PART 1:

 

What a week we’ve had on MAGH with such powerful messages.  Thank you to each of the men that have moved, inspired and helped grow us this week through your Holy Spirit led messages.

 

This included Ps Chidi’s message on Fri on unlocking the mysteries through prayer. Ps Lakers then added that prayer brings you to the community of the divine. Into contact and access with the spiritual. He said that the mysteries are not hidden any more. God is helping us with the messages and tools needed to become one with God.

 

This week these messages took me to reading the book of James.  I'm not sure why but it did and so I went with it. Perhaps God was revealing a mystery to me...

 

First, a little bit of history on James.  

 

As you will know, James was Jesus’ half-brother and full brother to Simon, Joseph, Judas (author of the book of Jude in the New Testament), and two sisters.  During Jesus’ public ministry, neither James nor the other siblings were followers of Jesus. They had even tried to end his ministry and bring him home to his responsibilities as eldest son (Mark 3:31-35; cp. John 7:3-5). 

 

With this setting in mind, let’s read and meditate on some of the verses that called to me as I read James:

 

James 1: 2-8 and 16 to 18 about trials and temptations:

 

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

 

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”

 

***Let’s pray.

 

PART 2:

 

If these words sound familiar, then it’s because they formed part of the messages we received this week. 

 

For example, we can hear in them bro Eddy’s message this week reminding us that “Prayers are very important and necessary for the multiplication of grace and peace for us, however, a peaceful life is sustained and effective from a position of precise knowledge of God’s will regarding prayers.”

 

I also remember Ps Laker’s words when we said, “Heaven may will something to happen and then waits and encourages us until we pray that it happens.”

 

All of these were such profound messages and all were resonating in what I was reading as a meditated on the verses in the book of James.

 

I then read James 1: 19 to 27 relating to Listening and Doing:

 

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

 

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

 

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

 

Here James calls us to action. To not just listen to the word but to do what it says.  Otherwise it is like looking in the mirror and forgetting what you look like – it’s like forgetting oneself.

 

Again, I’m reminded of one of the messages this week, this time from our brother Minister Mike who, through referencing the story of Abraham, reminded us of the importance of doing – of acting immediately and decisively. 

 

So after reading just the first chapter of James, the Holy Spirit has already reminded me of the messages that we’ve received this week.  

 

This was further reinforced as I read on in James 2: 14-26 on Faith and Deeds which states:

 

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

 

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

 

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

 

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

 

Thank you Holy Spirit for reinforcing our knowledge and understanding as we meditate on your word. 

 

***Let’s pray.

 

PART 3:

 

At this point in my reading of the book of James, I feel that the Holy Spirit is guiding me to meditate more closely on the Word but I’m still not clear on the mystery being revealed to me.

 

But I kept reading and when I finished reading the book of James, I was moved to read up on the history of James in a bit more detail.

 

As I mentioned above, James was Jesus’ half-brother and during Jesus’ public ministry, neither James nor the other siblings were followers of Jesus. They had even tried to end his ministry.

 

But then came the day of Jesus crucifixion. James obviously remained skeptical as he didn’t attend the crucifixion (John 19:25).  Then a week after Jesus’ death James finally overcomes his denial. Jesus appears to him and the disciples as they hid in a room from the Jews (John 20:19; 1 Corinthians 15:7). Seeing his brother alive again compels him to join the disciples and he was with the others in the upper room when the Spirit was given on Pentecost (Acts 1:14; 2:1-3).

 

It was because of these experiences that James dedicated himself even more to the church, but this time in defence of Jesus.

 

James became very well-known and influential in Jerusalem. Some say he was the only one allowed to enter the temple alone to pray, and because he prayed so often, people joked that he had “camel knees.”  Thirty years later when he wrote his epistle, he begins by saying, “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ….” In this way he identified himself more of a servant of Jesus and less as his brother. 

 

James commonly spoke about Jesus when he preached, and the people loved it. But the temple priests did not. They still did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Despite that issue, the early church members promoted James to Lead Pastor of the Jerusalem church. The priests accepted his new position, but they didn’t like it.

 

He became widely known and very powerful in the early church. This made the Pharisees even more upset for they feared they would lose their power and influence from people leaving the temple and joining the Christians instead.

 

So, the Pharisees plotted to kill James just as they did Jesus.  According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, James was summoned by the Pharisees in A.D. 62 and accused of breaking Jewish law at the request of the outgoing high priest, Ananus. No one knows why Ananus wanted James to die other than what Josephus recorded, which was James “was of an exceeding bold and reckless disposition.”

 

James’ punishment was that he be stoned to death unless he publicly renounced Jesus. This was approximately two years after James wrote his epistle.  A fourth-century church historian named Eusebius provides more information about what happened next. According to Ecclesiastical History, he states that the scribes and Pharisees took James to the pinnacle of the temple (the same pinnacle where Satan tempted Jesus) and “demanded that he should renounce the faith of Christ before all the people…”

 

Instead of doing this James “declared himself fully before the whole multitude, and confessed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, our Savior and Lord.” One source states that James said, “Why do you ask me about Jesus, the Son of Man? He sits in heaven at the right hand of the great Power, and he will soon come on the clouds of heaven!”  These are the same words Jesus said in Mark 13:26.

 

And so James was stoned to death, becoming one of the first martyrs.

 

Then it dawned on me the mystery the Holy Spirit was revealing to me all the way along. 

 

This week, we heard Ps Lakers in his Ahab series preach on destroying strongholds and generational altars that are preventing our progress and stopping us from placing God first. These messages impacted me strongly as I have sought to break strongholds in my family.

 

***[Testimony of strongholds in my family – idols in our family and the curses they have brought]

 

The story of James is a beautiful one of a brother who realizes his mistake, accepts that Jesus is the promised Christ, and dedicates himself to defending the early Christian church.

 

It is one of the great examples of how revelation and, in James’ case, witnessing Jesus’ resurrection, broke the stronghold of disbelief that was over him.  

 

Jesus broke strongholds everywhere he went and, through the transformation of James, we see an example of how critical this is for all families, even Jesus’ siblings when He was on Earth. 

 

For me this revelation is such a blessing and I thank God that he has broken the stronghold of disbelief that I held all my life.  Christ has revealed Himself and God’s love for me in such amazing ways over the last 3 years that I know He is with me at all times.  These revelations continue and in many ways these are becoming stronger and more joyful as my relationship and faith in Him grows and develops each day.

 

The other mystery that has been revealed to me is the incredible ripple effect that breaking strongholds can have.  The impact can be much greater than just resolving our own issues and saving our immediate families.

 

The impact of Jesus’ resurrection on the life of James was that he was transformed into one of the first leaders of the Church. But more than this, it led to the salvation of countless lives through his ministry and testimony as revealed in the book of James. 

 

Billions have read the book of James. The ripple effect has been immeasurable.

 

This gives me so much hope for my family.  The strongholds in my family remain but I pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal the mysteries of how these strongholds will burst. I know they will break.

 

What strongholds need breaking in your lives?  

 

***Let’s pray.