The New Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Mentor's Guide, MG13

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T H E N E W T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

What is crucial to emphasize here is that the coming of Messiah was directly related to overcoming the forces of evil, including those effects of the curse and powers of evil which sought to interfere with God’s reassertion of his rule over his creation.

These case studies are designed to evoke open dialogues and conversations about some of the implications associated with modern views of suffering, opposition, conflict, and triumph in the Christian life. What is important to note here is that these issues are some of the most common and pervasive in the Church, especially in the American church which tends to think of the Christ victory in terms of health, wealth, and blessing. This view of the Christian life is so common that many take it to be the only credible reading and interpretation of the meaning of Christ’s life and death for us today. To revisit this question is critical, especially for those planting churches and making disciples in neighborhoods amidst populations which are poor, disenfranchised, broke, and dangerous. Encourage your students to wrestle with these concepts, for they lie at the base of an entire cadre of related issues that arise from the different frameworks of Christian spirituality which believers adhere to today. In this lesson, which highlights the issues of suffering, opposition, and conflict, it should be plain that an emphasis on prayer is appropriate. If you can, seek to spend a good amount of time in this lesson on prayer, especially since this was Jesus’ surest and most common way to receive from the Father the grace, instruction, and leading he needed in order to endure the constant onslaught of his worldly foes and invisible enemies. In this, we ought to model the example of Christ and the Apostles, who made prayer a significant ongoing discipline in their lives. Luke 6.12-13 - In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. [13] And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named Apostles.

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Counseling and Prayer

Matt. 14.23-25 - And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, [24]