Luke 20:27–40 (ESV)
There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
This passage says something interesting about heaven, but it says something more important about angels. Angels don’t reproduce. Despite all the artwork depicting little cherubic baby angels, there are no baby angels. Every angel is thousands of years old. This applies to demons too.
Christians ignore angels and demons at their peril. They’re incredibly powerful. This passage shows another important trait—they are incredibly experienced.
Think about the difference between someone who has six month’s experience in a field versus someone who has 50 years (100 times as much). Night and day, right? So multiply by 100 again and try to imagine experts with 5,000 years of experience.
The forces of evil are not only smart and powerful, they have tried every trick in the book countless times and have figured out what works and what doesn’t. They know the ideal time to try something. They know what situations are best. They have experienced every form of failure, and have learned how to avoid the pitfalls. Someone with just a hundred years of experience is a neophyte in their eyes.
We can be tricked in ways we could have never imagined. A recent mistake involving someone holding a Post-it note up to a camera is a terrifying case in point.
Who could have seen that one coming?
We don’t just need to pray; we need hearts of prayer. If prayer is something we do for a few minutes and then hang up, we’ve missed the point. Sure, we do other things, but our hearts and our minds should never be totally disconnected. We need to learn to always be plugged in to God.
This leads to a curious prayer request. We need to pray about how to pray. A life of constant connection (constant prayer) should feel different. It is different. Ask God to teach you permanent prayer.
The Holy Spirit is your connection. Invite Him to have total 24/7 control.
