23 August

‘Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence,’ as Charles Spurgeon famously said.

The resurrection body and the spiritual body are the same substance, though that substance is transformed. Resurrection is creation ex vetere (from old), rather thanex nihilo (from nothing). The plant comes from the seed. Our current bodies will not be replaced with new bodies, but will be transformed into our resurrection bodies.

Jesus was still recognisable to his followers (with some help!). There was continuity and discontinuity in the resurrection body (Jesus could walk through walls, but still eat fish). What happened to Jesus will happen to you; you, like Adam, have a natural body. One day, like Jesus, the second Adam, you will have a spiritual body (vv.44–48): ‘Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly, so shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly’ (v.49).

What battles are you facing in your life? Jehoshaphat had his battles to fight. He was facing various ‘–ites’; ‘Moabites, Amonites and Meunites’.

But with us, as Joyce Meyer writes, ‘It is the ‘fear-ites’, ‘disease-ites’, ‘poverty-ites’, ‘bad marriage-ites’, ‘stress-ites’, ‘grouchy neighbour-ites’, ‘insecurity-ites’, ‘rejection-ites’ and so on.’
They began to praise the Lord, singing, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures for ever’ (v.21). Worship is a weapon. As they praised, the Lord delivered them (v.22).