Pray.

Pray.

Friday, June 20, 2025

Destroying Strongholds - By Jim Tharp, 2002

And give no foothold to the devil. (Eph. 4:27, NASB)

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ … (II Cor. 10:3-5)

Why are thousands of Christian congregations in North America locked in spiritual stalemate with boring services and barren altars? It is not due to the lack of sound doctrine, sincere preaching, adequate facilities and friendly worshipers. We have to look beyond the visible for the answers.

Many Christian leaders are so bound to tradition (cultural, denominational, congregational) that they are blind to the nature of the tragedies they face in their ministries. With all their knowledge and training, they remain ignorant of Christ's provision to turn their tragedies into triumphs. The average pastor prays to become a better leader, wants to deliver God's Word to the people, hopes for renewal in the church body and seeks to be open to divine direction for a more effective ministry.

Believe me, it is this great majority that Satan has set out to deceive. He calls their attention to some wild preacher who has a strange fascination with evil spirits, who sees a demon behind every bush or pew or pulpit, and who seeks to identify the unclean spirit attached to every bad cold or sinus infection. With this distraction, skepticism of the supernatural is deepened and it is easier to conclude that the actual work of evil spirits was limited to the times of Jesus and His apostles. Satan will do almost anything to keep pastors, teachers and evangelists from discovering the need for true spiritual warfare. One of his most effective strategies is to simply keep them preoccupied with administration, counseling, meetings, visitation, and putting out fires of opposition so that every week is pretty much a prayerless one. These otherwise intelligent leaders would never dream that they themselves have become casualties in a spiritual war.

Satan recognized that the coming of Jesus Christ into the world represented a challenge to him and his kingdom. He knew that with Christ's entrance on planet earth his domain was being invaded and he knew that the stakes were high. Therefore, Satan attacked Jesus in every way. When he could not buy Jesus, he decided to kill Him. But the enemy never knew until it was too late that his plot to kill our Lord played right into the preordained purpose of the Sovereign God to give His One and Only Son as a ransom for sinners and to destroy the works of the devil. Satan did not know that the voluntary, self-sacrificing death of Jesus Christ on the cross decisively and eternally defeated him and his hierarchy of evil.

Our Risen Christ now calls on His Spirit-filled church to enforce the mighty victory over Satan and evil that He won at Calvary. Until the Lord Jesus returns to actually and finally destroy Satan, we who are filled with the Holy Spirit, we who are clad in His armor, we who are obedient to His commands, are called to resist the evil one, to tear down his strongholds, to order his retreat, to unmask his intentions and to release his captives. Otherwise, it is the nature of Satan to impose, intrude, usurp until confronted by true representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ who know they have the authority to invoke His strong name and see victory replace defeat.
 

A "stronghold" is any condition in the believer or in the congregation or in the ministry that gives Satan an advantage in seeking to defeat the Kingdom of God. It might be an act of disobedience, a mindset contrary to the leading of the Holy Spirit or a state of compromise.

Friday, May 16, 2025

Baptism with the Holy Spirit and Fire - by Jim Tharp, 2008

I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Luke 3:11-12).

John the Baptist had become the most popular preacher in Israel by the time he was to introduce Jesus to the people. He had become the most powerful, because he was filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Nor had he grieved, quenched or disobeyed the Holy Spirit, so he was at his zenith in spiritual power and public influence when it was time for him to present Jesus Christ as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

John humbly presents Jesus by contrasting their respective baptisms. "I have baptized with water," he said, "but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." I don't believe John was denying the importance of his "baptism, a sign of repentance," but was seeking to show the eternal urgency of believers shifting their faith to Jesus Christ and His "baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire!"

I would like for us to consider three effects of the Christian believer's "baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire:" (1) Purification; (2) Illumination; and (3) Radiation.

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

“Called Unto Holiness” - by Jim Tharp, 2009

Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:22-24).

The apostle Paul is writing to Christian believers who have been born again, and in whom the Holy Spirit abides. They have been justified by faith and adopted into the family of God. They have already been counted as righteous in Jesus Christ, who died for their sins. They now have a destiny which they must pursue. They are called unto holiness, not because they are not yet accepted by God, but because they are.

The miracle of regeneration changes our standing with God – we pass from death unto life; we are transplanted from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light; we are transformed from creatures of despair into children of hope with a glorious inheritance.

As lost souls, we responded to the Holy Spirit’s call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. As believers, we must now respond to the Holy Spirit’s call to God’s ordained purpose for each of His redeemed children: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:29). This change from our old sinful corrupt nature of Adam into the new nature of Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, with our consent – with our willingness to die to our selfish desires, our total surrender to the will of God. This change is called sanctification. This sanctifying experience is both a refining crisis and a renewing continuation.

Let us note three conditions on the part of the believer in order to experience the sanctifying crisis as well as the purifying process: ask, obey, believe.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

New Testament Praying - by Jim Tharp, 2002

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full… In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father. John 16:23-24, 26-28

Jesus’ final discourse on prayer took place within the context of the Paraclete Passages (John 14:15-21; 14:26-27; 15:26-27; 16:7-15). These promises concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit had to do with many things in the lives of Christ’s followers, not the least of which would mean a new economy of prayer. I want us to consider at least four components of New Covenant praying as emphasized by Jesus in His final message on prayer.

Approaching the Father

"In that day," said Jesus, "you will no longer ask Me anything." The phrase "in that day" appears twice in this context, referring to the time when the Holy Spirit will come and influence the praying of believers. When Jesus said, "You will no longer ask Me anything," He was reminding them that He would no longer be with them physically and visibly. But with the Holy Spirit indwelling and illumining and guiding them, they would have no need to ask Him anything. So it would be to their advantage that He depart in the flesh in order to return to them in the Spirit. With the Holy Spirit abiding in their hearts, the Father and the Son would be approachable at all times and in all circumstances. "The Father Himself loves you," Jesus assured them, "because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God." 

No apologies would be necessary in approaching the Father. As His redeemed children, purchased by the precious blood of His Son, we are not intruding or interrupting Him when we come before Him in prayer. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:14-16). The inspired writer here argues for an approach to the Father that is one of confidence because of our standing in Christ. We are not approaching the Father as a stranger but as a blood-bought child who is in favor because of Jesus and what He did for us. Christians, think of it! We are invited to share in that holy intercourse between the Father and the Son and to participate in the intercession of the Son before the Father. Our relationship with the Holy Spirit can be such that we are assured an understanding of how to pray in unity and in sympathy with our interceding Lord. In so doing the will of God is prayed to pass here on earth even as it is in Heaven.

In the Name of Jesus

"I tell you the truth," Jesus said, "My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name" (v. 23). 


All true believers are given the name of Jesus. What a powerful name! In commissioning His Church to go into the world to carry His message and work His works, Jesus wanted His followers to realize that He was not leaving them powerless; they would invoke His name and the Spirit would release His power in and by and through them. Jesus intends us today to operate in the power of His name, just as any company executive would delegate authority to go out and conduct business for his enterprise. The members of the Jewish Sanhedrin and the people of Jerusalem soon learned that the same power by which Jesus had conducted His ministry was present with His disciples for continuing His work. It was "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" that Peter and John ordered the crippled beggar at the temple gate to rise up and walk (Acts 3:6). May a Spirit-cleansed, Spirit-filled Church today return to the same precious understanding and reverent use of the name of Jesus. When it does, we will learn that "the kingdom of God is not in word but in power" (I Cor. 4:20).

Friday, December 13, 2024

A New Thing - By Jim Tharp, 2002

Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18-19)

The God of Israel had a long history as a God of power. The God of the Exodus from Egyptian bondage was determined to be the God of the Exodus from Babylonian bondage to His people Israel. But the human factor had to be reckoned with. The people of Israel must prepare for their deliverance from captivity. A part of their preparation was to let go of the old in order to have faith for the new.

So today, the God of Pentecostal revival is determined to be the God of Last-days revival. But the human factor is still a part of the equation, so that even our Sovereign God cannot give revival until His people have met His conditions. While His great loving heart yearns for the salvation of the lost billions of earth, that same loving heart must be grieving deeply over the deadness and disobedience and bondage of His Church. But let us not mistake His purpose – He will build His Church; He will produce a Bride for His Son; He will yet prepare His people for the revival that will cover the earth with His glory as the water covers the seas and reap an evangelistic harvest unparalleled in the history of His Church.

How will He do this? By drawing His people back to His ordained age-long plan of intercessory prayer. For as His people pray, they will be delivered from the bondage of the world and the flesh and an anointing will be released upon them for the spiritual harvest that is more than ripe. Oh, let us allow the Holy Spirit to align our hearts with God’s purpose at this very hour to do a new thing and break us out of our carnality, our unbelief, our paralysis, our spiritual pride, our division, our irrelevance, our indifference!

Forgetting The Old

Our churches across America and Canada are filled with members fattened on biblical truth but starved for life and power in the Spirit. So many can cite the time and place of being born again but they

Monday, November 25, 2024

Aglow with the Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2008

Let your love be sincere - a real thing; hate what is evil (loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from all wickedness), but hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection - as members of one family - giving precedence and showing honor to one another. Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice and exult in hope; be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of God's people - sharing in the necessities of the saints - pursuing the practice of hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you - who are cruel in their attitude toward you; bless and do not curse them. Share others' joy, rejoicing with those who rejoice; and share others' grief, weeping with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty (snobbish, high-minded, exclusive), but readily adjust yourself to people and things, and give yourselves to humble tasks. Never overestimate yourself or be wise in your own conceits. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is honest and proper and noble - aiming to be above reproach - in the sight of everyone. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

(Romans 12:9-18, The Amplified New Testament)


I believe the most continual emblem for the Holy Spirit throughout both Old and New Testaments has been that of fire. Moses' initial personal experience with God began with his interest in the burning bush. Throughout the wilderness pilgrimage the children of Israel were led by a pillar of fire. Jesus told His disciples, "I have come to bring fire on the earth" (Luke 12:49). Jesus burned with the fire of the Holy Spirit in His praying, preaching, teaching and working of miracles. After His death and resurrection, and just before His ascension, He cited John's prophecy that Jesus would "baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11), urging His apostles and believers to return to the city of Jerusalem to pray and "wait for the promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4-5). As Luke would record it, Jesus said to them, "but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:48-49).

The Pentecostal outpouring marked a profound historical moment - the beginning of the Age of the Spirit, the birthday of the Church, the establishment of the New Covenant. Authors W. T. Purkiser and William Greathouse agree that Pentecost "proclaimed the Church as the Body of Christ and the perpetuation of His incarnation in the world" (Exploring Christian Holiness, Vol. I, pp. 116-117).

We must not ignore the historic signs that accompanied the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit: wind, fire and tongues. The violent blowing of the wind represented the breath of the Holy Spirit as the very life of God poured into the 120 believers. The Church was not stillborn! The tongues of fire that first filled the room and then separated and came to rest on each of them signified the purifying power, the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit in personal relationship with each believer. The miracle of these tongues was both in the speaking of all the languages of the Mediterranean world by men and women who had not learned those languages and in the hearing of the thousands of pilgrims who were hearing the praises of God in their own mother tongues. The Pentecostal languages are not to be confused with the gift of tongues mentioned in I Corinthians 14. Pentecostal tongues carried their own interpretation by the Spirit; the "un-known tongues" of I Corinthians must be interpreted to save worshiping believers from confusion and distraction.

Dr. Robert E. Coleman notes, "The Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit marked the beginning of this new era of ministry. It was the culminating step of the descent of the divine into the human. Jesus as an external Presence now became the enthroned Sovereign in the allegiance of His people. His Word became like fire within them, and with hearts burning with the love of God, they went on their way with gladness and singleness of desire, praising their Lord."

But I must remind us that we have been warned by the apostle Paul, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" (I Thes. 5:19). The Spirit within us can be grieved, quenched, disobeyed and ignored until He is forced by our free agency to slip into an inoperable mode, awaiting our repentance and hunger for His stirring Presence.

But the smoldering flames can be rekindled. Suffering alone in Rome's Mamertine prison, the apostle Paul had more to think about than his own personal needs and approaching execution. He longed to see the face of his spiritual son Timothy, who was in charge of the church at Ephesus. The Spirit stirred in Paul a deep concern for this one upon whom the apostle had lavished his prayers and envisioned as his successor in the coming years. Paul discerned that the fire was burning low in the younger man's heart. So Paul puts it straight to Timothy in a letter, "I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control" (II Tim. 1:5-7). If it could happen to Timothy, it can happen to you and to me. Just as Paul directed Timothy, so we too are called to brush off the ashes of our traditions and routines and acknowledge coldness of heart. In brokenness and humility we must ask the Lord to pull together the dying embers and fan them into red-hot flames. It is surely His desire to make his servants "flames of fire" (Heb. 1:7).

Friday, October 25, 2024

Resisting the Slumbering Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2008

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' (Rev. 3:l-6).

Many churches, as well as individual Christians, are afflicted with the Sardis Syndrome today. They have a reputation of being alive, but their inner life and strength do not match their claims to know the Lord. Their talk is full of Scriptures, but their walk is weak and wobbly.

The church in Sardis is called to repentance. It is called to an awakening. Awake (v. 2) is a command. God is calling the Sardis church to revival. A minority is walking in the Spirit of holiness - they have not soiled their garments - they have not compromised with the world, nor have they succumbed to the gravity of the flesh. They have resisted the temptation to join the majority to succumb to spiritual drowsiness, which leads to slumber.