I thank God for the power of the Holy Spirit that believers can have in their lives and wow, what a power we have to be witnesses for Jesus Christ.
Having said that, I like what I read in a recent publication from Tim Enloe called "Divine Order." In the book the idea is introduced that we need the power of the Holy Spirit more today than ever. I don't think anyone would disagree. But the power we need is more than power or ability to speak in tongues....we need the power of the Holy Spirit so we can speak in English.
Is that not profound? We in Pentecostal circles have focused so much on tongues that we missed the important point and that is we can have access to the full power of the Spirit and we need the full power of the Spirit to be effective witnesses for Jesus.
Yes I believe speaking in unlearned languages is still the inital evidence that people have received the Holy Spirit baptism, but that is just the beginning. There is so much more that the Spirit wants to do through a believer and Paul identified gifts of utterances, gifts of power and gifts of revelation that a Holy Spirit baptized believer can uses as the situation demands to the glory of God.
Bottom line .......We need the Holy Spirit baptism so we can know what to say to people in a language they can understand! And the prayer languages of men and of angels is just an added blessing that can help me pray the perfect will of God when I don't know how to pray, or when my English language just isn't enough.
Thank you Jesus for the power we need!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Who Am I That God Is Mindful of Me?
The Psalmist David wrote those words during a time of his reflection of just how majestic God is. In fact he opened Psalm 8 with those words, O LORD, our Lord, how majestic in your name in all the earth..." NIV and then in verse 3 he said, who is man that you are mindful of him...?
In the vast universe we live in, with it's thousands of galaxies, each as crowded as our very own, who are we that God is mindful of us?
That answer can be answered with one simple phrase.....you are part of God's creation.....you are part of His design.
And because you are part of His design, there is a purpose and because you are part of His creation, He will provide for your every need.
In life we need fulfillment in our physical needs, our emotional needs and spiritual needs. I want you to know that God "can" and "wants" to fulfill everyone of those needs. Listen to the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 6:25-33, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the bird of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So don't worry saying, "what shall we eat?" or "what shall we drink?" or "what shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. NIV
You may ask, but why would God do that for me? Because You are His creation! Believe in Him and you will activate his blessings and give him the freedom to engage on your behalf.
In the vast universe we live in, with it's thousands of galaxies, each as crowded as our very own, who are we that God is mindful of us?
That answer can be answered with one simple phrase.....you are part of God's creation.....you are part of His design.
And because you are part of His design, there is a purpose and because you are part of His creation, He will provide for your every need.
In life we need fulfillment in our physical needs, our emotional needs and spiritual needs. I want you to know that God "can" and "wants" to fulfill everyone of those needs. Listen to the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 6:25-33, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the bird of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So don't worry saying, "what shall we eat?" or "what shall we drink?" or "what shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. NIV
You may ask, but why would God do that for me? Because You are His creation! Believe in Him and you will activate his blessings and give him the freedom to engage on your behalf.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
People Need An Audience
As our church prepared for our Missions Sunday, the Spirit of the LORD stirred my heart to bring a message of challenge to our congregation about what the people of our culture really need.
If goes without saying that people need the LORD. But over 40% of our society have never had an adequate presentation of Jesus. So the message to our church was wrapped up in four simple truths;
People need an audience with the Holy Ghost. Jesus said He would send another comforter and that when "He" comes (speaking of the Holy Spirit), "He" would lead and guide us and teach us. But more importantly, "He" would convict the world of sin. The only way people can come to the knowledge of their need of a Savior is through the witness of the Holy Ghost. Therefore;
People Need to Feel The Holy Spirit's Presence In Our Churches. The biggest assault on the modern church is we have become so good at "doing church" that many feel as though we no longer need the Holy Spirit moving in the church. In essence we have programmed the Holy Spirit right out of the church service, with the exception of reaching one or two sinners at the end of "our" services. The tragedy of it all is, if the Holy Spirit is not free to move and stir hearts and set people free, then people will walk into our churches bound by the strongholds of sin and they will walk right back out the doors of the church completely unchanged and then the church will have lost it's relevance.
People Need To Feel The Holy Spirit In Our Lives. We are supposed to be the physical representation of the Holy Ghost in a dark and sinful world. As Spirit-filled believers, people ought to sense there is something different about us. When Moses had spent time in God's presence, his countenance was changed. If people cannot tell any difference in us from the next person, how will they see Jesus in us. We are supposed to be the salt and light of the earth. Salt and light affect their surroundings and as a Spirit-filled believer, we should as well.
People Need to Feel The Holy Spirit Where They Are. If we keep the message of hope and peace to ourselves and keep the work of the Holy Spirit sequestered away within the four walls of our churches, the world will fail to have the witness of the Spirit. Statistics have shown that people are not flocking to the churches therefore we must take the Holy Spirit with us to where they are.
The bottom line is, people need an audience with the Holy Ghost before they will ever feel conviction for their sins and before they will even know they are in need of a Savior.
What are we doing about that?
If goes without saying that people need the LORD. But over 40% of our society have never had an adequate presentation of Jesus. So the message to our church was wrapped up in four simple truths;
People need an audience with the Holy Ghost. Jesus said He would send another comforter and that when "He" comes (speaking of the Holy Spirit), "He" would lead and guide us and teach us. But more importantly, "He" would convict the world of sin. The only way people can come to the knowledge of their need of a Savior is through the witness of the Holy Ghost. Therefore;
People Need to Feel The Holy Spirit's Presence In Our Churches. The biggest assault on the modern church is we have become so good at "doing church" that many feel as though we no longer need the Holy Spirit moving in the church. In essence we have programmed the Holy Spirit right out of the church service, with the exception of reaching one or two sinners at the end of "our" services. The tragedy of it all is, if the Holy Spirit is not free to move and stir hearts and set people free, then people will walk into our churches bound by the strongholds of sin and they will walk right back out the doors of the church completely unchanged and then the church will have lost it's relevance.
People Need To Feel The Holy Spirit In Our Lives. We are supposed to be the physical representation of the Holy Ghost in a dark and sinful world. As Spirit-filled believers, people ought to sense there is something different about us. When Moses had spent time in God's presence, his countenance was changed. If people cannot tell any difference in us from the next person, how will they see Jesus in us. We are supposed to be the salt and light of the earth. Salt and light affect their surroundings and as a Spirit-filled believer, we should as well.
People Need to Feel The Holy Spirit Where They Are. If we keep the message of hope and peace to ourselves and keep the work of the Holy Spirit sequestered away within the four walls of our churches, the world will fail to have the witness of the Spirit. Statistics have shown that people are not flocking to the churches therefore we must take the Holy Spirit with us to where they are.
The bottom line is, people need an audience with the Holy Ghost before they will ever feel conviction for their sins and before they will even know they are in need of a Savior.
What are we doing about that?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Relying On The Power of Prayer
The Holy Spirit has certainly stirred my heart regarding the Days of Harvest for this year. We started the year with a week of prayer and thi spast Wednesday night I shared a message that the Spirit stirred my heart about and I felt it was worthy to repeat in this blog.
We've all heard messages and sermons about prayer and the importance of prayer, the only thing we are lacking is praying.
I say that because prayer is more than just words. Prayer is one on one communion in the presence of our Creator. Having said that some points the Spirit quickened me about are;
1) We cannot pray effectively unless we have a desire to pray! Simply put, if we do not have a desire to be in our Creator's presence, then we will not pray. Oh we may bring a wish list from time to time but I'm talking about "being in His presence.' You see our desire for prayer will be birthed out of our desire to be in His presence, not just to bring a wish list.
2) We cannot pray effectively without the help of the Spirit! We need the mind of the Spirit because sometimes we do not know how to pray and the Spirit can pray through is in our prayer language. If you want to pray effectively then pray "in the Spirit." Use your prayer language. Some call it "tongues" but it is simply a prayer language and when you pray in that way the Apostle Paul says our spirit is speaking mysteries to God.
3) We cannot pray effectively unless we allow ourselves to be broken! I'm not necessarily talking about tears, although I have experienced God so real that way, but what I am talking about is having our pride broken. Pride will keep us from having a desire to move into our Creator's presence because in His presence our pride will be exposed. We have to allow that human pride to be broken and recognize we need our God engaged in our lives.
4)We cannot have the power without the Spirit and we cannot have the Spirit without prayer! If you want power in your prayer, then you need to seek the Baptism of the Holy Ghost that Jesus spoke about in Act 1:8. The early disciples received this infilling on the Day of Pentecost and they were refilled a few days later and the Gentiles were filled, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues some 8 years later in Cornelius's house and some believers in Ephesus received the same experience another 8 years after that. This experience is still available to you and I and it will give you power in your prayer. But you have to get into His presence in prayer and He will not withhold anything good from His children.
We've all heard messages and sermons about prayer and the importance of prayer, the only thing we are lacking is praying.
I say that because prayer is more than just words. Prayer is one on one communion in the presence of our Creator. Having said that some points the Spirit quickened me about are;
1) We cannot pray effectively unless we have a desire to pray! Simply put, if we do not have a desire to be in our Creator's presence, then we will not pray. Oh we may bring a wish list from time to time but I'm talking about "being in His presence.' You see our desire for prayer will be birthed out of our desire to be in His presence, not just to bring a wish list.
2) We cannot pray effectively without the help of the Spirit! We need the mind of the Spirit because sometimes we do not know how to pray and the Spirit can pray through is in our prayer language. If you want to pray effectively then pray "in the Spirit." Use your prayer language. Some call it "tongues" but it is simply a prayer language and when you pray in that way the Apostle Paul says our spirit is speaking mysteries to God.
3) We cannot pray effectively unless we allow ourselves to be broken! I'm not necessarily talking about tears, although I have experienced God so real that way, but what I am talking about is having our pride broken. Pride will keep us from having a desire to move into our Creator's presence because in His presence our pride will be exposed. We have to allow that human pride to be broken and recognize we need our God engaged in our lives.
4)We cannot have the power without the Spirit and we cannot have the Spirit without prayer! If you want power in your prayer, then you need to seek the Baptism of the Holy Ghost that Jesus spoke about in Act 1:8. The early disciples received this infilling on the Day of Pentecost and they were refilled a few days later and the Gentiles were filled, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues some 8 years later in Cornelius's house and some believers in Ephesus received the same experience another 8 years after that. This experience is still available to you and I and it will give you power in your prayer. But you have to get into His presence in prayer and He will not withhold anything good from His children.
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