Jesus, teach me how to take...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and use it with great skill and success. Teach me that like the shield of faith, this is a mobile item. Show me that it isn’t worn; it is used. Make it clear to me that in most aspects it doesn’t do much defending. It is mostly for the purpose of attacking. Also teach me that it is best to only use my shield to block off satanic attacks. Because, when I take up the shield of faith, I can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one; and, my sword of the Spirit doesn’t do that. As I take a look at how to use the sword of the Spirit to defeat three major life-issues Christians typically face, help me to win over these spiritual diseases. But, while I am doing that, help me keep my final exam in mind and the exam that You will give me as a Christian.

Jesus, the more I learn about this final exam, the more I realize that there are great and wonderful opportunities for me right now. Help me not only get involved in fulfilling this assignment, help me do it with great excitement, compassion, and commitment. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me (Mat 25:35-36). Since this exam decides WHERE I will spend eternity, help me fulfill it with great training and power.

Jesus, teach me that if I build on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, my work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of my work (1 Cor 3:12-13). Now that I have become a Christian, help me not just desire, study, pray, believe, love, and take faith-action fulfilling the basic minimum requirements. Help me put everything I have into the Christian life. Help me not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14).

Jesus, You have made me a good-soil person. But, I want to excel in my production as a good-soil Christian. As other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown (Mat 13:8), teach me how to be the very best Christian in You. As You help me see that this hundred-sixty-or-thirty-times-what-was-sown issue has to do with the three things that kept other people from passing Your final exam, help me learn how to fight these spiritual diseases with my sword of the Spirit.

1. Set me free from The Path Spiritual Disease where some fell along the path; these are those who hear the message about the kingdom and do not understand it. Give me great spiritual knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.
2. Set me free from The Rocky Spiritual Disease where some fell on rocky places; these are those who have no root because the rocks keep them from developing. Help me not try to choose which truths I will accept; help me accept them all and then empower me to live every one of them by putting them into practice.
3. Set me free from The Thorn Spiritual Disease where other seed fell among thorns; these are those who allow the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the Word of God. Help me use my sword of the Spirit to defeat the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.

Teach me that these things were so severe in the first three types of people’s lives that they failed Your final exam. Also teach me that there are people who pass Your final exam who have varying degrees of these same problems. And it is sad but these spiritual diseases keep these Christians from producing a hundred times what was sown. Help me to learn how to use my shield and sword to get rid of these diseases and keep them out of my life.

Jesus, help me understand what the person with the path spiritual disease looks like who fails Your final exam and show me how to not be one of them. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14). Thank You for setting me free from that condition by giving me Your Holy Spirit. Now help me understand what a Christian looks like who has varying degrees of this same disease but passes Your final exam: Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are STILL not ready (1 Cor 3:1-2). Open my heart, mind, will, and brain and help me mature in You.

Jesus, show me what is causing these people to not grow. Reveal to me how the mistreatment of people caused their hearts to become so hard. Let Your great love soften my heart so I can be totally set free from any hardness that has developed in it. We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Heb 5:11-14).

Jesus, teach me what the person with the rocky spiritual disease looks like who fails Your final exam and show me what caused it. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (2 Tim 4:3-4). Keep me from trying to pick and choose which Bible truths I agree with and like and which ones I don’t. Keep me from doing this so I won’t gradually turn my ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Keep me from being a Christian who is picking and choosing which truths I like and accept. Help me to not try to do this while only pursuing You in some areas. Keep me from being like the foolish Galatians! Keep me from being bewitched. Before my very eyes You, Jesus Christ were clearly portrayed as crucified. Help me consider and properly respond to this question, Did I receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what I heard? Am I so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, Am I now trying to attain my goal by human effort? (Gal 3:1-3)

Help me with Your very good example that shows how this effects my rewards: If I break one of the least of these commandments and teach others to do the same I will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but if I practice and teach these commands I will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Mat 5:19). Jesus, these two people pass Your final exam; but, they obtain very different positions and rewards in eternity. Help me see that there are a lot of things that have an effect on my eternal rewards.

Jesus, help me understand and properly respond to the two aspects of this one; it includes the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth. Show me what the person with the thorn spiritual disease looks like who fails You final exam and what all causes it. Jesus, when You answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me,” show me what it takes and empower me to not walk away. When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth (Mat 19:21-22). Help me turn to You and ask for Your help to obey Your instructions. Keep me from being a person who hoards, is greedy, is selfish, and loves money. Keep me from being like a lake that allows wealth to flow in but won’t allow it to flow out.

Now help me take a look at a person who was starting to win over greed, love of money, selfishness, and hoarding: But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. Luke 19:8-9 (NIV) Show me that to the degree that Zacchaeus followed through on this commitment is the degree of a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown flowed out of his life. Then help me not just make promises to You; help me use Your Six Biblical Principles to empower me to keep my commitments.

Jesus, if I build on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, my work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of my work. If what I built survives, I will receive my reward. If it is burned up, I will suffer loss; I myself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames (1 Cor 3:12-15).

Jesus, help me not allow any of the above spiritual diseases to be mixed into my Christian life. Help me keep them from becoming so severe that all my deeds on earth are burned up, I will suffer loss; I myself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. Give me the desire, objective, and plan for my earthly life to keep them out. Help me commit myself to being the very best there is in You. Rather than just trying to do the least I can get by with, help me use my sword of the Spirit to win over every spiritual disease.

Help me know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. Empower me to run in such a way as to get the prize. Help me be one of those who compete in the games and goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but I do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a person running aimlessly; I do not fight like a person beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize (1 Cor 9:24-27). Make this true in my life, I pray.