Genesis 2:18-25: Eve Revealed

Our Refuge

Down to the Bare Rock

Covenant Blood

The Lifeboat

Knowing and being known

Implications of New Testament teaching (Part 2)

The importance of staying close to the Lord.

Clifford Denton reviews ‘Beloved Warrior’ by Gail Dixon (ICT Media Tech/Print, 2019)

Gail Dixon has been in Christian ministry and missionary work for nearly 40 years, first with World Horizons and more lately leading its sister organisation, Nations Trust. This inspiring devotional book emerges from her wide-ranging experiences and is based on personal reflection over a long life of discipleship.

One imagines her sitting before the Lord, after all these years of walking with him and praying to him, and being inspired to share the most central aspects of her relationship with him. What has resulted is a book is about the covenant love of Jesus within the battle for the salvation of many - hence the title, Beloved Warrior.

The Battle and the Warrior

Gail includes some remarkable accounts of the intensity of this wider battle, which have resulted in fruit being borne for the Kingdom in lives saved and transformed by Jesus’ love. The accounts draw on both scriptural examples, of those who have gone before, and a multitude of modern-day examples.

But even though the book is about the battle for salvation, the book is structured around and focused on Jesus, the Beloved Warrior. Each of its ten chapters focus on a different characteristic of our Saviour and our relationship with him, including prayer, worship, rest, perseverance, faithfulness and surrender.

Beautiful Writing

Gail seeks to draw the reader into experiencing the Lord’s love and sharing it with others, whatever the commitment and cost. Her writing is scriptural, tender and powerful:

His warfare is full of mercy, full of healing, because the weapon is love. He woos us, through our bruising, and breathes onto us when our flame is dying. He longs for us to know that we are His beloved. He is never discouraged, and as we stand into His love, so we too will discover that we are warriors. His love, His power, flows through us. (p271)

All income from the book will be donated to the work of Nations Trust.

Beloved Warrior (158pp) is available from Amazon as a paperback (£10) and on Kindle (£2.65).

Faith: The means by which we get to know God.

Last week we examined the foundational principle of faith. This week we turn to how faith is put into practice in our daily lives.

1. The Word of God

The main means of acquiring knowledge is through the Bible, the word of God. This includes:

(a) Hearing God’s word: Paul wrote, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). Every time the word is read we should attentively listen, expecting God to speak to us.

(b) Reading God’s word: Paul wrote to Timothy, “…give attention to reading” (1 Tim 4:13). It is important to have a reading plan. Remember the purpose is not merely a knowledge of the Bible, but the knowledge of God himself.

Although it is a well-known cliché, it is still true, ‘you can know God as much as you want to’. Here are some interesting facts: if you read the Bible for 15 minutes each day you would read the whole Bible in less than a year; for a normal reader the whole Bible could be read in 71 hours; the Old Testament in 52 hours and the New Testament in 19 hours. If you read ten chapters a day, in 18 weeks you would have read the whole book. By coming to know God’s ways and works through reading, faith in him is encouraged.

(c) Studying God’s word: This involves taking a book of the Bible, or a doctrine, subject, or character, and collecting all the information you can to learn of him.

(d) Memorising God's word: Many times in Scripture we are exhorted to ‘remember'. The first essential is to receive truth in our hearts - and it is also profitable to have it in our memories.

Although it is a well-known cliché, it is still true, ‘you can know God as much as you want to’.

(e) Singing God’s word: So much Scripture has now been put to music. There is nothing better to offer to God than that which God himself inspired. We have available a whole book of Psalms.

(f) Writing God’s word: The kings of Israel had to write out all God’s instructions. Sometimes we learn more from verses by writing them because you note every word.

(g) Meditating on God’s word: Of all the ways of approaching the word of God, meditation is the most rewarding. Meditation is the practice of pondering, considering and reflecting on verses of Scripture in complete dependence on the Holy Spirit to give revelation of truth. When there is obedient response, the word is imparted within. This will bring forth worship, or praise, or thanksgiving, or prayer, or intercession to God. The more we inwardly receive from him, the more we have to give to him.¹

2. Prayer

Obviously we can never get to know someone without communication. By prayer we speak to God, thus increasing our knowledge of him. Through answered prayer our faith toward God is strengthened and increased. Our prayers are not dependent on eloquent speech, but on the honest outpouring of our hearts and love to him. Thank God, heaven is always open to us and we can speak to him at any time of day or night.

Through the word we discover the will of God, and when our desire is, “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” then, as John wrote, we have confidence in prayer, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).

3. Experience

Our trust in God is enhanced by many experiences, either our own, or those of others. The remembrance of the past faithfulness of God is often an incentive to trust him for the present and the future. The old hymn encourages us, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one; And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

How faith-building it is to read of God’s faithfulness to his people down through the ages. There are so many stories to thrill us: the walls of Jericho falling; the deliverance of Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah; the many miracles of Jesus; Peter's deliverance from prison, etc. All these stories, and some from your own life, prove that God can be trusted as the reliable, promise-keeping One.

Thank God, heaven is always open to us and we can speak to him at any time of day or night.

It is also refreshing to read the biographies of God’s servants who have proved God in so many circumstances: people like William Carey, David Livingstone, Madame Guyon, Corrie Ten Boom, Brother Andrew, and the work of Open Doors, Operation Mobilisation, Youth With A Mission and so many others who had faith in God.

4. Through the Church

By good teaching and pastoral care in our local churches we learn more about the greatness and goodness of God. Here, too, we rub shoulders with our brothers and sisters in Christ from whom we can learn so much.

We can share our joys and our sorrows, our victories and defeats, our needs and his supply. Here we can experience the support of one another in prayer and action and serving one another. We can learn much of the ways of God through other members of his body.

5. Miracles

When Jesus performed his first miracle in Cana of Galilee by turning water into wine, the faith of the disciples was greatly increased. “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him” (John 2:11). How wonderful it is to witness the supernatural power of God, proving that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”.

The Lord never did any miracle merely to attract crowds or satisfy their curiosity. His one purpose in all that he did was to bring glory to God that people might learn about him and, in learning, believe in him. One day Jesus was asked the question, "’What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent’” (John 6:28-29). One of the greatest things we can do is to trust him.

Questions

1. As the Bible is the main means of getting to know God, how are you fulfilling this in your daily life? Are adjustments needed?

2. What is your most recent answer to prayer? How did it affect your faith in God?

3. How has your faith in God increased through your local church?

4. Reflect on God’s goodness to you. When did you last count your blessings? Why not do it now, and worship him.

Notes

1 For a detailed study of this important subject, the author has written a book: The Practice of Biblical Meditation (1982, Marshall, Pickering). The American title of the same book is Alone with God (Bethany Publishers).

This article is part of a series, re-publishing a booklet entitled 'The Biblical Basis of First Principles'. Click here for previous instalments.