Last month, we looked at how the battle is in the heavenly places. This truth is fundamental when it comes to how we operate as Christians in the marketplace. Our real challenge is NOT that pile of filing on our desk; that brimming email inbox; that cashflow problem on our bank statements; that difficult customer. Rather, remember that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12-13).
Knowing that the battle is in the heavenly places is essential to our understanding of our role as marketplace ministers. It will affect how and why we pray for the lost.
For a refresher on this, see last month’s update. Now, in that context, we move to the next level: our role as peacemakers – a thread running throughout the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, the early church and the New Testament. To get started, watch the 30-minute video below of Ed Silvoso teaching about prayer evangelism. Then read on to apply this here and now.
Watch this 30-minute lesson on prayer evangelism (source: transformourworld.org)
I see two key things standing out from the teaching above, that we can put into practice right now:
1. How we pray for the lost
In 1 Timothy 2:1-8, Paul urges Timothy that prayers be offered for everyone – for kings and all those in authority. This is a great place to start praying if you are in the marketplace, since the sphere of influence God has given you is likely to bring you into contact with, or awareness of the needs of, kings and people in authority.
In Maidstone we start each week with a prayer meeting early on a Monday morning to do just that (it’s open to anybody, so if you’re local and you’d like to join us, get in touch!). You can do it too – with others; on your own; at work; at home; as God leads. Do it in the place He has put you.
2. Being peacemakers
Paul continues in 1 Timothy 2 with his reason for praying for kings and those in authority …that we may live a peaceful and quiet life. There’s a hint here of the theme of peace that is found in the New Testament, and this particular word ‘peaceful’ used by Paul in this passage is often translated as ‘tranquil’, implying that when we pray for people we will create an atmosphere free from commotion.
Now let’s look at something Jesus said about our role in this: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). This phrase, ‘sons of God’, comes up again when Paul says in his letter to Romans, that “creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God”. It’s exactly the same phrase in both passages – the greek huios, a mature son reflecting the likeness of his father, and theou, translated ‘of God’. The phrase comes up several other times in the New Testament to describe those who have received Christ, but Jesus himself made the connection with being peacemakers. Can we conclude that creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the peacemakers, then?
Or let’s look at Jesus’ gift to His disciples in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” Was that peace just for us, or that we might pass it on as peacemakers? It’s worth noting that Jesus then goes straight on to talk about our fruitfulness as branches of the vine in John 15.
Peace: a powerful offensive weapon!
It is easy to think about peace only as a passive, inward-looking state of tranquillity. But I would suggest that peace is in fact a highly powerful and effective offensive weapon against the gates of Hades! We know that the church is to attack the gates of Hades since Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18 “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”; note also that in the next verse Jesus goes straight on to talk about the heavenly realm when he says “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”.
Why is peace such a powerful offensive weapon? I believe it is because peace is all about reconciliation. We’ve already seen that reconciliation to bring unity is at the heart of the Gospel, as Paul explains in detail in his letter to Ephesians.
In Ephesians 2:17-20, Paul says that Jesus put to death the enmity between us and the law to bring us to God, and that “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near… Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.”
So Paul says that part of Christ’s work to reconcile us to God was to preach peace.
Peace to this house
It’s no surprise then that in Luke 10 we see Jesus sending out a team of seventy disciples ahead of him, and the first thing he tells them to do on entering a house was to say “Peace to this house”. His instructions can be summed up in four steps, as outlined in the video teaching above:
- Speak peace
- Eat and drink what they give you – that is, fellowship with them
- Heal the sick there – meet their felt needs
- Proclaim the kingdom of God
A very important question for us to consider is whether Jesus’ instructions to the seventy disciples in Luke 10 were a one-off phenomenon, or do we see the same principles at work elsewhere? Let’s take a look:
Did the early church speak peace? This was at the heart of the gospel. Paul says that we should wear as shoes “the readiness of the gospel of peace” as part of the armour of God in Ephesians 6 – we walk as peacemakers.
Did the early church eat with people who were not yet believers? Certainly, in fact Paul teaches the Corinthian church how to do it in 1 Corinthians 10:27-33.
Did the early church heal the sick, and pray for people? We know that God did extraordinary miracles through Paul (Acts 19:11).
Finally, do we find the proclamation of the kingdom of God in the New Testament? Yes, Jesus himself said that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations” (Matthew 24:14).
The answer then is clearly that we do see the principles Jesus outlined in Luke 10, at work throughout the New Testament and the life of the early church.
Change the spiritual climate
Now, how will you apply this where God has called you to minister? Start by speaking peace, with the assurance that this is a weapon that will change the spiritual climate in your place of work, neighbourhood, school, or city. And then be ready to move in with fellowship, healing, and proclamation.
Our next meeting of Marketplace Ministers is on Tuesday April 17th in Maidstone. You are welcome to come along – contact me to find out more.
