THE PROMISES OF GOD APRIL 2021 APRIL DEAL AT REFLECTIONS KENBOA.ORG/SHOP AUTHORITY TO RESIST A teaching letter encouraging believers to develop a clear mind and a warm heart Read James 4:7 THE TRINITY: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” A JOURNAL United States embassies represent safety for around and leave us alone!” The command the persecuted all over the world. Headed lacks authority and strength. by an ambassador and his or her staff, an The believer enters God’s protection by embassy is an arm of the U.S. government repenting of pride (James 4:6) and putting and represents Americans’ values: freedom, on all of the armor of God (Eph. 6:10–18). safety, and shelter. Once a person gets In a sense, a humble Christian wholly on the grounds of an American embassy submitted to God is like a persecuted for- compound, that person is protected in the eigner standing inside the locked gate of same way as if he or she were in America. an American embassy—“No evil will befall Famous moments in history illustrate you, nor will any plague come near [you]” the power that an embassy has to resist (Ps. 91:10). Make sure you have taken up oppression. In 1978, a group of six Siberian residence in God today. Pentecostal Christians asked for asylum in the basement of the U.S. embassy in GOD’S PROMISE: Moscow. Claiming religious persecution, they lived there until 1983, when they The devil hears you when you were allowed to emigrate. In 1975, at the speak from God’s perspective. end of the Vietnam War, thousands of South Vietnamese citizens fought to get through the gates and onto the grounds of the American embassy in Saigon to escape approaching North Vietnamese armies. Evil forces of oppression can be resisted, but they are resisted most effectively from the vantage point of a “safe place.” God is to the Christian as an American embassy is to a persecuted person in a foreign land—a A NEW QUALITY OF LIFE place from which the enemy can be resisted and turned away. Lord, I give thanks to You for the new life You have given me in Jesus. When I reflect ONLY $5 Many believers can quote the second half of James 4:7: “Resist the devil and he on His life as portrayed in the Gospels, I see an entirely new quality of life, a new way Regular price $10 will flee from you.” But to separate the RIES of being, thinking, and acting. And although He is fully God—the second person of second part from the first part—“Submit the divine Trinity—He is the most fully human being the world has ever seen. I ask therefore to God”—is to strip the verse of that, as I learn more about Him through the renewal of my mind with the Word, I MINIST its power. It is while taking refuge in God— would also know Him more in an experiential way so that I will become more like Using the four-step process of submitting wholly to His authority—that NS Him. And now that I am in Christ, You have given me the holy commissioning to reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation, the devil’s power is turned back. To resist spread the gospel of the kingdom in my time and through my arena of influence. May walk through 90 Scripture passages the devil without submitting to God would I be faithful to this heavenly calling so that I will go into the world where You have be like a Saigon citizen brazenly yelling at FLECTIO sovereignly placed me and be Jesus’ witness in word and in deed. RE that will give you a deeper knowledge Reflections Ministries GA 30305 130 • Atlanta, Suite Center, One Piedmont REQUESTED ADDRESS SERVICE the entire North Vietnamese army, “Turn of each of the persons of the Trinity. H YHW WWW.KENBOA.ORG WWW.KENBOA.ORG REFLECTIONS | The Teaching Letter of Dr. Kenneth Boa One Piedmont Center, Suite 130 • Atlanta, GA 30305 | [email protected] KENBOA.ORG MODERN PENSÉES FROM KEN BOA STRESS MANAGEMENT, PART 1 with Laura Banning STRESS: A PREVALENT PROBLEM “ “The highest form Richard Swenson, in his book Margin, the average person slept nine and a half hours ministry will sometimes say, “I’d rather flame of special revelation “ describes the society in which we live as per night. Thanks to electricity, that figure out than rust out.” The problem is, either way, is the revelation of God’s Son.” “troubled.” He writes: “We have more is now seven hours per night and declining. you’re out. questions than answers, more problems than According to CDC data, 35 percent of Much of the stress in our lives comes solutions. Few know where we are headed, American adults get insufficient sleep each as a result of our insistence on maintaining but universally acknowledge that we are night, and about 70 million Americans suffer the illusion of control. We so desperately 1 There are two forms of revelation. General revelation careening along at breakneck speed.” from sleep disorders. Screen time is known want to be strong enough to handle the trials reveals God’s power through creation. It points to Swenson’s bestseller was first published to worsen sleep quality, and yet many of us and tribulations of life that we literally drive the astonishing ingenuity of the mind of the Maker. 25 years ago, but it remains even more continue scrolling away on our devices right ourselves into the ground rather than admit But what we could never know from creation is relevant today—perhaps beyond the author’s up until bedtime. our desperate need. Often God allows us to 2 that the One who made all things is also the lover own original imagining. Swenson goes on reach the breaking point for our own good. of our souls. This requires special revelation. The to cite various statistics about how stressed Only in those moments of rare clarity that Holy Spirit draws us to Jesus, the highest form out Americans are. Some of his figures come from bottoming out will we allow of special revelation. Scripture affirms that Jesus are now out of date, but most are simply It is in vain that“ you rise up early ourselves to admit how little control we is not merely part God and part man, but wholly astronomically worse in our smartphone era. actually have. In those moments, the only and go late to rest, God and wholly man. He takes on humanity with Even in the mid-1990s, he noted, a middle thing we can do is throw ourselves headlong undiminished deity and lives and walks among us. manager was interrupted an average of 73 eating the bread of anxious toil; into the grace of God. In these moments, the To see, know, and love Him is to see, know, and love times a day; can you imagine how high that pain and suffering actually drive us to Him. for he gives to his beloved sleep. the Father. He opens the gates to heaven and to the number must be today?! The amount of Although it would be much better to knowledge of God. We wouldn’t know how humble, time we waste is also astounding. Did you (Psalm 127:2 ESV) realize our dependence on God before we approachable, loving, and good God is without know you will spend an average of one year reach the breaking point, if such a moment Jesus. Without Jesus, we would have no forgiveness, searching for misplaced objects, when the comes, we should embrace it as a gift. We no hope, and no understanding of the true nature average misplaced object has been moved We live in a society that is “fried by work, should thank God for the chance to see of God. But in Him is “hidden all the treasures of only 10 inches from its original place? frazzled by the lack of time.” Hancock quoted our true condition and rid ourselves of the wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3), and He fills us At the time of Swenson’s writing, more one woman, a mother of four from LaGrange, foolish notion that we are autonomous and with this knowledge as we abide and grow in Him. than 18 million Americans were on Prozac Illinois: “I am so tired, my idea of a vacation independent creatures capable of navigating (around 6 percent of the population). That is a trip to the dentist. I just can’t wait to sit through life on our own. number has since soared, with the CDC in that chair and relax.”4 When society has If your successes and achievements are APPLICATION reporting over 13 percent of the population reached the point where people start looking completely due to your own strength, stress using antidepressants in the 2015–2018 forward to getting their gums scraped and is the only possible outcome. You can never Are you in awe of the general revelation of the period. The figure surged even higher in the teeth drilled as a refreshing activity, something relax. There can be no Sabbath rest for you. If, Maker of all things—His created works? Have you past year amidst the coronavirus pandemic. has gone terribly, terribly wrong. however, God is the ultimate source of every responded to the Holy Spirit, who is drawing you One source indicates that close to one-third good gift you receive, then you can afford to to Jesus through special revelation? Will you ask Him to open and enlighten the eyes of your heart of Americans showed signs of clinical anxiety MAINTAINING AN ILLUSION relax and trust the outcome of things to Him.