Biblical Moments with Frank King

In America, we have freedom of religion.  Accordingly, we have countless religious choices. Regardless of what one’s religious beliefs are, he is almost certain to find an accommodating religion. In this episode, Evangelist Frank King addresses the importance of Christians knowing and abiding in the truth found in God’s Word.
Paul wrote to the church at Galatia because after knowing the truth, the local body failed to hold fast to the same. He expressed amazement by how quickly the church’s departure from the truth had occurred. “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel,” he wrote (Galatians 1:6, KJV).
One thing that’s evident in Paul’s words to this local church is that merely knowing the truth does not safeguard you from ending up in error. Hence, the need for a personal commitment to abiding in the truth.
What did Paul advise the church to do? He writes, “But though we, or angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (verse 8).
In other words, shun everyone who comes to you preaching a message that differs from what we the apostles have preached to you. The Galatians knew the truth because Paul had given that to them. In effect, he told the church to use what he had taught them as the basis for detecting false teachings.
Paul goes as far as saying that even if an angel comes and tries to give them another gospel, let him be accursed. Under the OT law, when something was accursed, you were to avoid it like the plague. That’s what Paul was telling the people of God to do about divergent teachings. And that is excellent advice for us as well.
The Importance of Sound Doctrine
Paul’s message to the Galatians underscores how vital it is for those who preach to preach and teach sound doctrine in the church.  In 2 Tim 2:15, he writes, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workmen that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly diving the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, KJV).
This one verse speaks volumes regarding the importance of the ministry of the Word of God. The phrase, “rightly dividing” comes from a Greek word meaning to “cut straight.”
Think about a surgeon. If you were going under the knife for a medical procedure, you want a surgeon with steady hands, one who can cut straight. That’s because during surgery, cutting a little too far to the left or to the right can be fatal. The point is that preachers and teachers must strive to communicate the gospel clearly. They must strive to get it right. Because when they don’t, they leave room for the truth to be perverted by false teachings.
The main point in this episode is that knowing the truth is not synonymous with being anchored in the truth. You can realize the latter end only through a personal commitment to abiding in the truth. The eternal consequences of failing to do so should be your greatest inspiration.

Faith in God is the essence of Christianity. According to the Bible, without faith, it’s impossible to please God. One of the biggest impediments to living by faith, is the presence of fear.
Fear in and of itself is not a sin. All of us will know fear at times. We were born with the capacity to fear. It is what motivates us to take necessary actions to safeguard ourselves against danger. That's the good side of fear. But whenever fear prevents us from living out our purpose for the Lord, fear is a bad thing. And we must learn how to move beyond that kind of fear.
One occasion for experiencing fear is when we face seemingly overwhelming opposition, and we perceive that opposition to be greater than we are. We may be born again and have Christ living inside us, but whenever we have to confront opposition that we perceive to be greater than we are, fear wants to raise its ugly head.
During Jesus’ ministry, He didn’t teach one sermon about how to escape being tested in life. He never promised us that life would be free of challenges. But He taught a lot about the importance of having faith in God. And faith is the biblical cure for overcoming fear.
Overcoming fear in our life is vital because we are called to be people of faith and not of fear. Accordingly, Paul the apostle writes, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:6, KJV).

God primarily speaks to us through His Word. He and His Word are one. That means whatever God says to us through His Word will always agree with what He would say to us if He were to speak to us in an audible voice. Hence, if someone claims to have heard from God but speaks counter to God’s word, he or she has not heard from God.
In this episode, Evangelist Frank King takes the subject of how God speaks to us to another level. He says that if the Word of God is the only way you hear from God, then you are not hearing everything God’s trying to say to you.
Other Ways God Can Speak to Us
A good example of how God speaks to us in ways other than the Bible is recorded in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. During Paul’s third missionary journey, a vision appeared to him at night. In the vision Paul saw a man of Macedonia saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9, NASB). This vision was preceded by the Holy Spirit forbidding Paul and Timothy from going to preach in Asia and Bithynia. Putting these two experiences together, they concluded that God had called them to preach in Macedonia.
We know Paul wrote most of the NT. And we tend to think he always heard a crystal-clear voice from God. But it was not always that way. In the case above, Paul and Timothy didn’t hear a voice from heaven. They had no angelic visitation. Their direction came solely from acts of the Holy Spirit and a vision.
God’s word is the pillar of truth. It is the standard by which all conduct and all so-called prophecies are to be evaluated. God never acts counter to His Word. It is the means by which we can know whether or not we are walking in the lanes of truth.
But within those lanes, God can speak to us through the Holy Spirit, through prophecies, through dreams and visions, and through divinely orchestrated events in our life. It’s important that we have ears to hear what He is saying to us through these means.
Practical Implications
If we limit how God speaks to us to His Word only, we will have to figure out some important things on our own. And we know that’s not a recipe for success.
For example, a pastor can’t find out from the Bible when is the right time to leave a church as its pastor. Or you can’t determine from the Scriptures whether you should leave your job for a new job opportunity. Sometimes, it’s a no-brainer, but what about when it’s not?
If you are single and looking for the right person for a mate, you will find priceless guidelines in the Bible. But you won’t find the person’s name listed in the Bible.  But God has means of speaking to us and giving us more direction in such cases—just as He did for Paul and Timothy.
That’s one of the vital roles of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. When Jesus was about to leave and return to the Father, He said this, regarding the Holy Spirit:
“When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” --John 16:13, NASB

We all need to be encouraged at times. Believers attend church regularly to be encouraged through the good news of the gospel. In this podcast episode, Evangelist Frank King says it’s also important to be able to encourage yourself.
Sometimes, your need to be encouraged can’t wait until the next time the church doors open. Or the kind of encouragement you need to hear may not be the message for the day at church. Your best friend may not be available to talk to or come by. If you don’t know how to encourage yourself in the face of circumstances that threaten to overwhelm you, you will have a problem standing in times like that.
A time occurred in King David’s life when he had to encourage himself. While he and his army were out at war, the Amalekites came into their city and burned it and took their wives and children captive.
When David and his men returned home and saw the destruction, they were emotionally devastated. “David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep” (1 Samuel 30:4, KJV).
As if that was not enough, the men of David’s army talked about stoning him! Now David did not burn down their city. He did not take their wives and their children captive. He was one with them. He’s feeling the same loss they were. But the men were grieved.
David could have lost it at this point. He could have wallowed in self-pity.  But “David encouraged himself in the Lord his God” (verse 6).
Your Relationship with the Lord
Anyone subjected to what David experienced would be emotionally distraught. No matter how spiritually mature you are and how much you love God, a button exists that life can push and bring you to a low point in your life.
But David was able to overcome by encouraging himself in the Lord. No other source of encouragement existed. His entire world had fallen apart.
It’s moments like this one that we find out what we are really made of. All of us know how to thrive when all is well. But what about when the bottom falls out of life? David challenges us in that regard. When he had lost his possessions and his wife and his children, and his own army wanted to stone him to death, he encouraged himself in the Lord.
The key to David’s success was his relationship with the Lord. David was the one God had sent Samuel the prophet to anoint with oil as king. After that divine experience, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward” (1 Samuel 16:13, KJV). As it was with David, before you can encourage yourself IN the Lord, you must first have a personal relationship WITH the Lord.
Several ways exist for you to encourage yourself in the Lord. For instance, you can sing songs of praise and worship. Or you can read the Scriptures to build yourself up in faith. You can even speak the Word audibly to yourself. Tell yourself that with God on your side, you are more than a conqueror. And that He is faithful and will not allow you to be tested above what you can bear. Also, that He will never leave nor forsake you.

In this podcast episode, Frank King challenges believers to learn to see some good even in bad times. But oftentimes, seeing good in your bad is not an easy thing to do. Too often, when bad times come in our life, all we can see and think about and talk about is what we are going through. God, however, can take those situations and use them for His glory.
One purpose of the gospel is to change our perspective on life and on the challenges we face in life. Since God is with us, even our bad times are seasoned with some good. According to the Bible, God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him. That’s a good reason to believe that even when things are bad for us, God is causing them to trend toward something good on our behalf.
Seeing good in your bad is an act of faith. You must be able to look beyond what you see and believe the hand of God is working on your behalf. Sometimes, He is working out His best in you through the bad things He allows you to endure.
Every one of us is going to be tried in this life at one time or another. That is true even when you faithfully serve the Lord. Paul writes, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12, NASB). “All” means no exceptions.
Paul Sees Good in His Imprisonment
One reason Paul the apostle was such a dynamic servant of God was because he understood that his life was not just about him. What God was doing in his life was bigger than he was. Even when life was difficult for him, he saw good things happening.
Paul’s love for the Lord, reflected in his letter to the church at Philippi, should challenge all of us. While in prison in Rome, those who heard of his afflictions were emboldened to preach. But not all of those preachers had the right motive for preaching. “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will,” Paul says (Philippians 1:15). He could do nothing about how others were exploiting his imprisonment. He was confined to jail.
But Paul could look beyond the bad and see the good. “In every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I will rejoice” (verse 18)!
Put yourself in Paul the apostle’s shoes. You are the world’s most influential Christian leader. But now you are in jail for the cause of Christ. You are no longer free to go about preaching and defending the gospel. Others are using your affliction to exploit the gospel. What would your state of mind be in a situation like that?
Of course, a difficult time in your life is bad--period. The message in this episode is not an appeal to deny that fact. But the question is, are you capable of seeing good in your bad?

Being a Christian does not automatically make you strong in the Lord. You can be a Christian and not be strong in the Lord, but you can’t be strong in the Lord without being a Christian. Moreover, being strong in the Lord does not automatically come with the duration of time you have been a Christian. You can be a Christian for 50 years and still not be regarded as being strong in the Lord.
In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul writes, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10, KJV). Every Christian has what he or she needs to become strong in the Lord. That’s because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Admittedly, some believers have more challenges to becoming strong in the Lord than others do. But the fact remains that every Christian has been endued with the wherewithal to realize that end.
But how do we become strong in the Lord, and why is that important? Paul writes, “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (verse 11). The first part of this verse reveals in a nutshell, HOW to become strong in the Lord. We accomplish that end by putting on the whole armor of God.
The second part of the verse reveals WHY we need to be strong in the Lord. It is so we can stand against the wiles—the schemes, tricks, or attacks--of the devil. It stands to reason that if we must put on the whole armor of God so we can stand against the wiles of the devil, then we won’t be able to stand strong if we don’t do that.
The Enemy Determines How We Must Fight
In this episode, Frank King underscores the point that we don’t get to determine how we must fight to win against the devil. Rather, the enemy determines that. Why do you think our nation has intelligence agencies? It’s because we must know what works against adversarial nations and what does not. If we ignore the intelligence and we just do what we always do, our warfare will not be effective. The same thing is true about our enemy, the devil. It is the nature of the enemy that dictates the kind of warfare we must fight in order to win.
In our own strength, you and I are no match for the devil. The only way we can win against him is by donning ourselves with the armor that comes from God.
The components of the armor of God are listed in verses 14-17 of Ephesians, chapter 6. There, Paul uses the symbology of armor. He talks about the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Then he says praying always (verse 18). In other words, put all these components on, praying always.
But how do we put on these components of the armor of God? We do that by applying those components to our life. In other words, by walking in truth or integrity, walking in righteousness, living by faith, obeying the Word of God and praying always. That is how we become strong, not in our own strength but strong in the Lord.

God’s love for the lost is perfectly summed up in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Hence, when we say God loves us, it’s not just because He says so in His word. But He demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son to die on the cross for a world of sinners.
Sometimes, though Christians may not actually say it, they convey the message that God loves them, but He is mad with those who have not accepted Christ. The truth is that God’s love for the lost is the same as it is for Christians.
Jonah the prophet experienced this truth after God sent him to preach a message of destruction to the people Nineveh. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” Jonah said (Jonah 3:4, KJV). But after the people repented and turned from their evil, God had compassion on them and spared them (verse 10).
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry” (Jonah 4:1). This was not the response Jonah wanted to see.  He wanted God to destroy the people of Nineveh. What kind of preacher was Jonah that we wanted to see people destroyed and not saved?
Emulating God's Love for the Lost
After we accept Christ as our Savior, our goal should be to become more like God and more like His Son. God so loved the world that He gave His Son. His Son so loved the world that He gave His life. If we are going to be like the Father and the Son, we must reflect God’s love for the lost in our life.
Jonah knew the heart of God. He referred to Him as being “a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Jonah 4:2). Accordingly, Jonah should not have been surprised by God’s show of mercy. But Jonah’s problem was that he didn’t embrace the heart of the God He was serving. This is also true about many of God’s people today.
All of us can talk the talk. But God wants us to walk the walk. In his first epistle, John writes, “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18, KJV). That’s what God is calling us to do today. Not to merely talk love but to show love--in truth.

Most religious people know or have heard of the story of the Old Testament prophet Jonah in the belly of the big fish. Initially, Jonah did not want to preach to the people at Nineveh, as God had told him to. What ultimately happened is a reflection of the power of preaching. Accordingly, this episode focuses on how lives can be impacted by a word from the Lord—when those who hear it open their heart to God.  
When Jonah finally went and preached to the people at Ninevah, they believed his preaching. They repented and covered themselves in sack cloth and ashes. When God saw how they repented and turned from their evil ways, He changed His mind, and did not destroy the city.
From what we can see in the Scriptures, Jonah’s sermon was only one verse long. He said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4, KJV). The power of his message was not in how long or how short it was. Rather, its power resided in whose message he proclaimed and in who was with him when he preached it.
Contrary to the thinking of many today, the power of preaching is not rooted in the length of one’s sermon or the communication skills of the minister. Neither in how loud or how energetic the message is delivered. But its power is rooted in whose message the preacher proclaims and in whether or not the preacher has been sent by God. Only by the latter can one’s preaching have power to impact and change lives.
Anyone who preaches the gospel should find much encouragement in Jonah’s preaching experience. Similarly, God has given us His Word to reach the lost. Through the preaching of the gospel, we can change the world, one life at a time. That’s if we dare to believe in the power of preaching.