For many years I have used the SOAP (Scripture- Observation-Application- Prayer) method for my devotional reflections. This has been good, but I have lately felt the need to embrace dialoguing with God in my devotions. For decades I have regularly listened to the Holy Spirit using Mark Virkler’s “4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice”. These are

Stop – still your mind

Look – visualise Jesus with you. Where is He? What is He doing?

Listen – tune into the thoughts in your mind that flow from the Holy Spirit

Write – write down what you believe the Lord is saying to you.

Later- check that what you write lines up with Scripture, and if necessary, seek counsel from trusted christian friends.

For further thoughts on hearing God’s voice check my blog article. https://newlifenarrabri.blog/2024/12/09/how-to-hear-god-mark-virklers-4-keys/

Reflection on Colossians 4:1-6

Scripture

Live wisely among those who are not believers and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive, so that you will have the right response for everyone.

Observation

Paul encourages us to devote ourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. He urges the Colossians to pray for him also so that he will have many opportunities to proclaim the message about Christ.

We must live wisely among unbelievers, using the opportunities God gives us. Our conversations. must be gracious and point people to Jesus.

Application

It’s not enough to have the right answers or the slick gospel message. We are surrounded by people who’ve heard the message and either not understood it or else have not believed it.

The answer is not just to rehash the facts about the gospel. We must live out the gospel by allowing God to transform our hearts. Then we will be able to, with gentleness and joy, touch the heart of our neighbours.

That is not to say there is no place for words. If we do not give people a reason for the hope that we have they will just assume we are “nice” people or “religious” without wondering why.

There will be conversations, but they should be gracious and not badgering.

Journalling

Lord. What do you want to say to me about this passage?

Keith, the power of my Spirit alive and active in my followers is the source of graciousness and power in witnessing.

Some people assume that my word is sufficient to bring people to repentance No, repentance, is a gift of my grace and of my Spirit. You cannot evangelise effectively without the Holy Spirit. This is why every Christian needs to be constantly full of the Holy Spirit and listening carefully to me.

Scripture

Make allowances for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.

Observation

Because we belong to God we must clothe ourselves with qualities like humility, kindness and patience. We must make allowances for each other’s faults and forgive those who offend us.

Above all, we must close ourselves with God’s perfect love.

Wives must submit to their husbands, and husbands must love their wives. Children must obey their parents, and fathers must not aggravate their children.

Slaves should obey their earthly masters in everything. They are to please them all the time and not just when the master is looking, as if they are working for Christ. Masters must be fair to their slaves, for they themselves have a master in heaven.

Application

The hard part of being in community is that every single christian is different. We all have different gifts, interests, and levels of spiritual maturity.

The command to love my brother and sister in the Lord means that I must not judge them or take offence at them. I must recognise that I, even I, have faults, so I must not be too hard on a brother or sister whose faults annoy me.

Paul tells us to forgive everyone who offends us. If we decide to forgive people even before they offend us, if forgiveness becomes a preemptive policy, then we become unoffendable.

In this way, the church family becomes a holy and loving community of faith.

Prayer

Lord, please make me more accepting of my Christian brothers and sisters, Help me to be truly unoffendable. Amen.

Scripture

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

Observation

We have been raised to new life with Christ, and so we need to fix our eyes on Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God. Our thoughts should be about heavenly things not earthly things.

We have died to the earthly life, and our real life, is hidden with Chris We will share in his glory when Christ is revealed to the world.

So we need to get rid of the sinful things of the world, like lust, greed, and evil desires. Anger, rage slander, and dirty language must also go.

We must put on the new nature letting God renew us.

Application

When I gave my life to the Lord, I took on a new life and a new nature.

Now, I am seated in heavenly realms, although my body remains anchored in this world.

Instead of letting my body and my old nature dominate my spirit, I must allow my spirit in partnership with the Holy Spirit, to,direct my body.

This means taking a stand against my sinful desires, and allowing God to purify me. When my body is allowed to call the shots sexual desires become disordered. When my body calls the shots, I become greedy rather than trusting the Lord to supply my every need. When others offend me, I can become angry instead of forgiving.

The way of Christ is all consuming. He demands everything. But as I yield it all to him, he makes me different.

Prayer

O Lord help me to surrender my sinful desires to you and trust you to refine my soul. Amen.

Scripture

You have died with Christ and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep following the rules of the world such as Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch?

Observation

We should not let people condemn us for not obeying rules about holy days and Sabbaths. These rules are shadows of the reality that is in Christ.

We should not let people guilt us into fasting and other self-denial, or the worship of angels. These people are not connected to Christ and are speaking from sinful pride.

We have died with Christ. He has set us free from the spiritual powers of this world. We do not need to obey these rules because they are merely human teaching. They may seem to have value, but they provide no help in conquering our evil desires

Application

We have died with Christ and he has set us free from the demonic powers of this age that seek to trap us in sin. If they can’t get us with sin, they will lay guilt on us with religious laws and demands.

Christ has set us free from all forms of legalism. There are people who want to take on again the burden of the Law that Christ died to free us from.

We are not saved by the law. We are not saved by following any rules. Long fasts, and vows of celibacy or poverty will not set us free.

The root problem of every person is there evil desires of their heart. We can train the outward person to be good on the outside, but only Christ can set us free from the evil desires of the heart.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I surrender my heart to you. Change me from the inside so that I will be truly holy and righteous. Amen.

Scripture

He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Observation

When we came to Christ, we underwent a kind of circumcision. This is not a physical process done in the flesh, but a spiritual process by which our sinful nature is cut away.

In baptism, we are buried with Christ and raised to life in Him, because we trusted the same God who raised Christ from the dead.

Before we came to Christ, we were dead in our sins. Then God made us alive in Christ. He cancelled the record of the charges against us and nailed it to the cross. By doing this He disarmed. the spiritual rulers and authorities.

Application

When Christ died on the cross, it was not just a transaction of one life taking the place of many lives. Jesus’s death, and resurrection also represents God’s total victory over all the forces of evil. He disarmed them forever.

More than that, God took the record of our sins and nailed it all to the cross. When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” He was saying that all of our sin was gone and the record was destroyed.

In our legal system, there is a term used for this – expunged. That means that not only is a conviction overturned, the records are deleted and trashed so that it is as if the person never came to the attention of the legal system.

When we come to Christ, and receive his forgiveness, the records are expunged. When we try to remind God of the past, He says, “I have no record of that.”

We have a clean record with Christ because it has all been nailed to the cross.

Prayer.

Thank you, Lord, for such a thorough forgiveness. I am washed clean by the blood of Christ. Amen.

Scripture
And now, as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built in on him.

Observation
When we accept Jesus as Lord, it is the start of the journey, not the end. We must continue to follow Him and put our roots deep into Him, building our lives on Him.

We must avoid the empty philosophies and other nonsense that come from human thinking and from satan.

All we need is Christ. He is the fullness of God in a body. When we are joined to Christ, our lives are complete.

Application
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we start a lifetime of going deeper into God’s grace.

To follow Christ suggests that we are on a journey with Him that does not end.

Too many people think that Christianity is just about getting to heaven. They tick salvation off the to-do list and continue living in their customary way.

To follow. Jesus means we must constantly grow in our understanding of His ways. We learn to obey his commandments and to model our own lives on His life.

To let our roots grow down into Christ means that over time, He becomes the focus of our lifestyle, our choices, and our thoughts.

This is a big task, a lifelong journey.

We are allowed to take baby steps, but we must keep walking. Jesus is the way not the destination.

Prayer
Lord, you have called me to a life where your will comes first. Please help me to walk with you in all of my life. Amen.

Scripture

I am telling you this, so that no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments.

Observation

Paul has agonised for the believers at Colossae And nearby Laodicea, as well as many others whom he has never met. He wants them all to be encouraged and knitted together in love. He wants them to understand God’s plan of salvation through Christ.

Paul does not want them to be deceived by well-crafted arguments. Even though Paul is far away from them, his heart is with them.

Application

Paul is determined that the Colossians understand their hope of salvation in Christ and that nobody should come and snatch them away with arguments, lies, and deception.

At the time that Paul was writing, there were many alternatives to Christianity and the new churches being planted were seen as potential sources for new converts to these deceptive religions.

The two biggest threats to the church at that time were from Jewish believers who wanted to bring back the Law and from gnosticism,

In gnosticism, salvation comes from knowledge of secrets or mysteries. They would mix together all kinds of religions and set up a ladder of knowledge that would lead to salvation. This is one reason why Paul uses the word mystery so much. He is trying to oppose the gnostics by saying that Christ is the mystery and we can only be saved in Him.

We face different arguments in our day, whether from atheists who refuse the whole idea of faith, or modern gnostics who want to add things like Hebrew feasts and calendars or secret prophecies to the work of Christ.

We must still make sure that we avoid these deceptive well-crafted arguments and stay close to Christ.

Prayer

Lord, please help me to stay in your truth through your Word and Spirit. Amen.

Scripture.

For God, wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.

Observation

Paul says, he is glad when he suffers for the church in his body. He is participating in the suffering of Christ for the church. God has given Paul the responsibility of proclaiming the entire message. This mystery was kept secret for generations, But now is openly proclaimed.

The mystery is that the riches and glory of Christ are for the Gentiles, as well as the Jews. The secret is that Christ is alive in us.

So Paul tells everyone and warns everyone with all the wisdom he has. He wants to be able to present them, the Colossians, to God perfect in their relationship with Christ.

Application

What seemed amazing at that time was always God’s plan for the world.

Salvation was never meant for the Jews alone. It was a corruption of their revelation that led the Jews to believe that they were special to the exclusion of Gentiles.

The fact is that God loves the entire world. Jesus came to set every person free from satan’s clutches and from the bondage of sin. In him, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, just people needing salvation.

Now Christ lives in every person who receives Him. The Holy Spirit is Christ in us. This is a profound mystery.

From the beginning, humans were meant to live in close and intimate relationship with God. Sin took this away. Now in Christ, that relationship is restored.

Every single person who says, “Yes” to Christ has God’s Spirit living within them.

How awesome is that?

Prayer

Thank you, Lord, for releasing me from sin’s power and for dwelling in me. Amen.

Scripture

As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

Observation

The words of the preceding hymn apply to us. We were once far away from God, enemies even. Our evil thoughts and deeds alienated us from Him.

But God has reconciled us to Himself through the death of Christ. We stand in God’s presence, holy, faultless, and without a single sin.

As for us, we must cling to the truth by faith. We must not drift away from the assurance that came with the Good News. This Good News has been preached to the whole world.

Application

My standing before God is entirely by grace.

I was in the darkness, but He shone the light. I could never repay the debt I owed him. Even eternity is not enough time to pay for the crime,

Here is Grace. I was a sinner lost in sin, deserving punishment and condemnation. But God reached down, shared His Good News, and then gave me the faith to believe it. He lifted me out of the mud and set my feet on the solid rock.

He calls me holy and blameless. It is not because I am perfect. No, the blood of Jesus covers every sin, past and future. There is no record.

Love does not take offence. God loves me so, He is not offended when I fail to act appropriately.

Because I know His love and want to love Him back, my motivations for thinking, speaking, and doing change. God says I am without fault and I am growing into His declaration.

Prayer

Nothing I can do will earn your favour, Lord. Thank you for loving me, regardless of my sin. Amen.