{"id":12092,"date":"2014-12-16T09:55:07","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T14:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=12092"},"modified":"2014-12-16T10:41:21","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T15:41:21","slug":"wrestling-before-god-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=12092","title":{"rendered":"Wrestling Before God"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"entry-title\">Take up the whole armor of God\u2026praying always\u2026 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Ephesians+6%3A13%2C18\" target=\"_blank\">Ephesians 6:13,18<\/a><\/h1>\n<p><!-- .entry-meta --> <!-- .entry-header --><\/p>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9FxqcemvecA\" width=\"620\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nYou must learn to wrestle <em>against<\/em> the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer <em>for<\/em> other people; but to wrestle <em>with<\/em> God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn\u2019t meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Genesis+32:24-25\">Genesis 32:24-25<\/a>). Don\u2019t become a cripple by wrestling with the ways of God, but be someone who wrestles before God with the things of this world, because \u201cwe are more than conquerors through Him\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Romans+8:37\">Romans 8:37<\/a>). Wrestling before God makes an impact in His kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you, and I am not complete in Christ, my prayer accomplishes nothing. But if I am complete in Christ, my prayer brings victory all the time. Prayer is effective only when there is completeness\u2014 \u201ctake up the whole armor of God\u2026.\u201dAlways make a distinction between God\u2019s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives. God\u2019s perfect will is unchangeable. It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to these things allowed by His permissive will that enables us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will for us. \u201cWe know that all things work together for good to those who love God\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Romans+8:28\">Romans 8:28<\/a>)\u2014 to those who remain true to God\u2019s perfect will\u2014 His calling in Christ Jesus. God\u2019s permissive will is the testing He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters. We should not be spineless and automatically say, \u201cYes, it is the Lord\u2019s will.\u201d We don\u2019t have to fight or wrestle <em>with<\/em> God, but we must wrestle before God <em>with things<\/em>. Beware of lazily giving up. Instead, put up a glorious fight and you will find yourself empowered with His strength.<\/p>\n<p>____________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>December 12 2014<\/p>\n<p>Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n<p>Lord, how can I tell if I am engaged in a glorious fight, as Chambers says, or if I am wrestling with circumstances that you have given me for my refining and shaping? Lord I try to wrestle against everything that can or does cause pain, uncertainty, fear or anguish. How can I know when I am wrestling with the right things? How can I know when to put up a glorious fight or to simply accept your perfect or permissive will? The whole permissive will versus perfect will discussion is one that I have difficulty fully understanding as well.<\/p>\n<p>And God says\u2026\u201d<em>Read the verse the way Eugene Peterson translated it\u2026 Romans 8:26-28 \u2026\u2026, \u201cGod\u2019s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don\u2019t know how or what to pray, it doesn\u2019t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That\u2019s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou do not necessarily need to naturally make a decision about what to fight or accept, because you believe one thing is God\u2019s will for your life and another is not. You need not fight against a thought, action, movement or enemy because you believe they are battles against My kingdom.\u00a0 Your certainty that a battle is worth fighting is not the key to making that decision.\u00a0 Your view of the potential outcome does not dictate whether or not you choose to fight a battle. I am God, there is no reason to fight against things that cannot hurt Me, and I do not need help in fighting battles. However, you can be in such close relationship with Me that there is never any doubt about what battles you are to fight.<sup>\u00a0\u201c<\/sup>Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don\u2019t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God\u2019s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He\u2019s the one who will keep you on track. Don\u2019t assume that you know it all. \u00a0Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health; your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take up the whole armor of God\u2026praying always\u2026 \u2014Ephesians 6:13,18 You must learn to wrestle against the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer for other people; but to wrestle with God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12092"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12095,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12092\/revisions\/12095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}