THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY MARCH 14, 2023.

SUBJECT: THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Memory verse: "So that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure,” (Second Thessalonians 1 vs 4.) 

READ: Acts 2 vs 1 - 4:

2:1 When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

2:3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

INTIMATION: 

The power of the Holy Spirit is the power of God. The Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, has appeared throughout Scripture as a Being through and by whom great works of power are made manifest. His power was first seen in the act of creation, for it was by His power the world came into being (Genesis 1 vs 1 - 2; Job 26 vs 13). 

The Holy Spirit also empowered men in the Old Testament to bring about God’s will: “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power” (First Samuel 16 vs 3; see also Exodus 31 vs 2 - 5; Numbers 27 vs 18).

Although the Spirit did not permanently indwell God’s people in the Old Testament, He worked through them and gave them power to achieve things they would not have been able to accomplish on their own. All of Samson’s feats of strength are directly attributed to the Spirit coming upon him (Judges 14 vs 6, 19; 15 vs 14).

Throughout history God has revealed His power through mighty miracles over nature. He promises to continue to reveal His power. The apostle Paul urged us to understand how great God’s power is (Ephesians 1 vs 18 - 23). The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to help us with our daily problems. 

When you feel weak and limited, don’t despair. Remember that God can give you strength. The same power that control creation and raises the dead is available to you. The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God who works in and through Christians in this dispensation of time in order to accomplish the work of God on earth through the church. 

Jesus promised the Spirit as a permanent guide, teacher, seal of salvation, and comforter for believers (John 14 vs 16 - 18). He also promised that the Holy Spirit’s power would help His followers to spread the message of the gospel around the world: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1 vs 8). The salvation of souls is a supernatural work only made possible by the Holy Spirit’s power at work in the world.

At Pentecost (Acts 2 vs 1 - 4) the Holy Spirit was made available to all who believed in Jesus. We receive the Holy Spirit (are baptized with Him) when we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior. The baptism of the Holy Spirit must be understood in the light of his total work in Christians: (1) The Spirit marks the beginning of the Christian experience. We cannot be Christians without His Spirit (Romans 8 vs 9); we cannot be joined to Christ without His Spirit (First Corinthians 6 vs 17); we cannot be adopted as His children without His Spirit (Romans 8 vs 14 - 17; Galatians 4 vs 6 - 7); we cannot be in the Body of Christ except by baptism in the Spirit (First Corinthians 12 vs 13).

(2) The Spirit is the power of our new lives. He begins a lifelong process of change making us more like Christ (Galatians 3 vs 3; Philippians 1 vs 6). When we receive Christ by faith, we begin an immediate personal relationship with God. The Holy Spirit works in us to help us become like Christ. 

(3) The Spirit unites the Christian community in Christ (Ephesians 2 vs 19 - 22). The Holy Spirit can be experienced by all, and he works through all (First Corinthians 12 vs 11; Ephesians 4 vs 4). The kingdom Jesus preached about was, first of all, a spiritual kingdom established in the hearts and lives of believers (Luke 17 vs 21). God’s presence and power dwell in the person of the Holy Spirit. 

The “power” the believers receive from the Holy Spirit includes courage, boldness, confidence, insight, ability, and authority. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can experience the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. 

During His earthly ministry, Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4 vs 1), led by the Spirit (Luke 4 vs 14), and empowered by the Spirit to perform miracles (Matthew 12 vs28). After Jesus had ascended to heaven, the Spirit equipped the apostles to perform miracles, too (Second Corinthians 2 vs 12; Acts 2 vs 43; 3 vs 1 - 7; 9 vs 39 - 41). The power of the Holy Spirit was manifest among all the believers of the early church through the dispensation of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, teaching, wisdom, and more.

Jesus had instructed His disciples to witness to people of all nations about Him (Matthew 28 vs 19 - 20). But they were told to wait first for the Holy Spirit (Luke 24 vs 49). God has important work for you to do for Him, but you must do it by the power of the Holy Spirit. We often like to get on with the job, even if it means running ahead of God. But waiting is sometimes part of God’s plan. Are you waiting and listening to God’s complete instructions, or are you running ahead of His plans? We need God’s timing and power to be truly effective.

All those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately and permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8 vs 11). And, although some of the spiritual gifts have ceased (e.g., speaking in tongues and prophecy), the Holy Spirit still works in and through believers to accomplish His will. His power leads us, convicts us, teaches us, and equips us to do His work and spread the gospel. The Holy Spirit’s powerful indwelling is an amazing gift we should never take lightly.

PRAYER: Abba Father, thank You for the unparalleled gift of the Holy Spirit and the subsequent manifestation of His power in the lives of believers in Christ. I covet earnestly the constant leading of the Holy Spirit in my life at all times and in all things, in the Jesus’ mighty Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD! 

GOD IS HELPING US BY MINISTER GUC

 

LAW VERSUS THE GRACE OF GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY MARCH 13, 2023.

SUBJECT: THE LAW VERSUS THE GRACE OF GOD! 

Memory verse: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by the faith in Christ and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." (Galatians 2 vs 16.)

READ: Galatians 3 vs 10 - 13:

3:10: For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, “Cursed is every one who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

3:11: But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God, is evident, for, “The just shall live by faith.”

3:12: Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man that does them shall live by them.”

3:13: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”)

INTIMATION:

Law is defined  as a binding decree; a universal principle; governing authority; rule of action established. God gave the Israelites His governing laws through Moses. These laws, and governing principles, and associated blessings, and curses,  are enumerated in the Book of Deuteronomy chapters 5 to 28. However, the study of Romans chapters 2 & 3 teach us that God gave the Old Testament law so that man would try to keep it, find out he couldn't, and realize his desperate need for a Savior.

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul quoted Deuteronomy 27 vs 26, to prove that, contrary to what Judaizers claimed, the law cannot justify and save—it can only condemn. Breaking even one commandment brings a person under condemnation. And because everyone has broken the commandments, everyone stands condemned. The law can do nothing to reverse the condemnation (Romans 3 vs 20 - 24). But Christ took the curse of the law upon Himself when He hung on the cross. He did this so we wouldn’t have to bear our own punishment. The only condition is that we accept Christ’s death on our behalf as the means to be saved (Colossians 1 vs 20 - 23).

Our problem mostly is our trying to observe, and keep the law by our human efforts. In so doing we are unconsciously putting ourselves under the curse of the law. We take the good thing of the Word of God and make a law out of it. We see all that are in the Word as something we have to accomplish rather than seeing them as promises God would fulfill in us as we trusted Him and waited for His victory. 

Any time we put ourselves under the law, we are setting ourselves up for misery, and frustration. This is because the law has the ability to do one of two things: If we follow it properly, it can make us holy. But since no human being can do that, the second thing the law can do is to actually increase sin, which leads to destruction, and hence our desperate need for a Savior. 

How does that happen? We hear or read the law and conclude, "If I don't follow the law, I am going to lose my salvation" or "God won't love me if I don't behave properly, He won't love me if I am not good." We then begin to look at the Word totally opposite from the way God wants us to see it. All He wants us to do is to face the truth and say, "Yes, Lord, You're absolutely right. I need to do that. I need to change, but I can't change myself. Your Word is truth, and my life is not matching up to it. Your Word has become a mirror to me. In it I can see that I am wrong in this area, and I am sorry. I ask You to forgive me and change me by Your power and Your grace."

Most believers don't know how to do that. They don't know anything about the power of God and the grace of God. All they do is trying—trying to be good, trying to do everything that the Word said that should be done, trying to submit, trying to be more generous, trying to be holy, trying to operate in the fruit of the Spirit, trying to pray more, trying to read the Bible more, trying to understand the Bible more when we did read it, trying to be a better person, on and on.

Trying to be right with God by our own effort doesn’t work. Good intentions such as “I will do better next time” or “ I will never do that again” usually end in failure. The apostle Paul points to Habakkuk’s declaration, “...The just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2 vs 4), that by trusting God—believing in His provision for our sins and living each day in His power—we can break this cycle of failure. 

According to Galatians 3 vs 10, we are frustrated—disappointed and actually being destroyed—because we were trying to live by a law that was totally impossible for us to keep, trying to obtain a goal and fulfill a desire that was beyond our ability. It is a vicious cycle, one that can be broken only by a proper understanding of the grace of God which is our only remedy.

Though the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good (Romans 7 vs 12), it can never make us acceptable to God. But it still has an important role to play in the life of a Christian. The law (1) guards us from sin by giving us standards for behavior, (2) convicts us of sin, leaving us that opportunity to ask God’s forgiveness, and (3) drives us to trust in the sufficiency of Christ, because we can never keep the Ten Commandments perfectly. The law cannot possibly save us. But after we become Christians, it can guide us to live as God requires.

Prayer: Abba Father, give me the grace to live according to Your precepts for by my strength I cannot prevail, and without You I can do nothing, in Jesus’ Name I prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Jesus Is God’s Amen

 

All the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Prayer is the place where the past and future are linked repeatedly in our lives. I mention this here because Paul links prayer with God’s Yes in this verse in a striking way.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20, he says (with choppy Greek that comes through in choppy English), “That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” Let’s try to smooth that out.

Here’s what he is saying: “Therefore, because of Christ, we say Amen to God in our prayers to show that God gets the glory for the future grace we are asking for and counting on when we pray.”

If you’ve ever wondered why Christians say Amen at the end of our prayers, and where that custom comes from, here’s the answer. Amen is a word taken straight over into Greek from Hebrew without any translation, just like it has come into English and most other languages without any translation.

In Hebrew, it was a very strong affirmation (see Numbers 5:22; Nehemiah 5:13; 8:6) — a formal, solemn, earnest “I agree,” or “I affirm what was just said,” or “This is true.” Most simply, “Amen” means a very earnest Yes in the context of addressing God.

Now notice the connection between the two halves of 2 Corinthians 1:20. The first half says, “All the promises of God find their Yes in him.” The second half says, “That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”

When we realize that “Amen” and “Yes” mean the same thing, here’s what the verse says: In Jesus Christ, God says his Yes to us through his promises; and in Christ we say our Yes to God through prayer.

THIS IS THAT BY PASTOR TOURE ROBERTS

 

BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY MARCH 12, 2023.

SUBJECT : BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT! 

Memory verse: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." (Romans 8 vs 14.)

READ: Romans 8 vs 1 - 7; 

8:1: There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

8:2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

8:3: For what the law could not in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin; He condemned sin in the flesh,

8:4: that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

8:5: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

8:6: For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

8:7: Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 

8:8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

INTIMATION:

The passage we read today shows that there are two minds; the mind of flesh and the mind of the Spirit of God. But that does not mean you and I have two brains, it simply means that we receive information from our natural mind (which operates without the Holy Spirit), and we get information from our spirit (through which the Holy Spirit communicates directly to us).

Now the mind of the flesh which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit is death; death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter. But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and peace both now and forever. As children of God, we are not to be led by our carnal mind, but by the Holy Spirit Who indwells us. The Holy Spirit is the only One who knows the mind of God, and is the revealer of the truth. (John 16 vs 13). 

In First Corinthians 2 vs 16, the Bible says, 

"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ." This Scripture tells us that because the Holy Spirit lives in us, you and I have the mind of Christ. The problem is that although we have the mind of Christ and know the Word of God, we don't listen to our spirit which is being enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Instead, we listen to our natural mind, which relies strictly on sense and reason without the Holy Spirit.

In every situation of life, our head will be trying to give us information. It will be yelling at us so loudly that if we don't turn our attention to our spirit we will never hear what the Lord is saying to us in that situation. That is why we must learn to live out of our spirit and not of our head.

You see, evil spirits constantly bombard us with negative thoughts. If we receive them and dwell on them, they become ours because the Bible says that as we think in our heart, so are we. (Proverbs 23 vs 7.) If we accept the lies of the devil as reality, then they will become reality to us because of our "faith," our belief in them.

That is why in moments of worry, stress and turmoil we have to simply take the time to turn to our inner man, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and say, "Lord, what do You have to say about this?" If we listen in faith, He will speak to us and reveal to us the truth of that situation.

You and I have two huge vats of information within us. One is carnal information that comes off the top of our head. The other is spiritual information which wells up out of our heart. One is muddy. polluted water, and the other is clean drinking water. It is up to us to decide which source we are going to drink from.

Some people try to drink from both sources. That's what the Bible calls being double-minded. (James 1 vs 8.) Do you know what it means to be double-minded? It means that your mind is trying to tell you one thing, and the your spirit is trying to tell you just the opposite. Instead of saying, "I'm not going to believe that because it's a lie," you get in a cross-fire, going back and forth between the two thoughts.

If you and I are ever going to live the happy, victorious and successful Christian life the Lord wills for us, we are going to have to decide which fountain of information we are going to drink from. We are going to have to learn to live out of our spirit and not out of our head.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for the gift of an Helper, the Holy Spirit.Give me the grace to seek the guidance and counsel of the Holy Spirit at all times in my life’s journey and His empowerment to lead my life in accordance with Your will, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

When the Potter Is for Us

 

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?” (Isaiah 45:9)

The majesty of God is magnified when we see him through the lens of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing). He commands nothingness, and it obeys and becomes something.

Out of nothing he makes the clay, and out of the clay he makes us — the pottery of the Lord (Isaiah 45:9) — his possession, destined for his glory, in total dependence on him.

“Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3). It is a humbling thing to be a sheep and a pot that belong to somebody else.

This morning I was reading in Isaiah and found another statement about God’s majesty. When I put it together with God’s absolute power and rights as Creator, there was a combustion that went off in my heart. Boom!

Isaiah 33:21 says, “The Lord in majesty will be for us!”

For us! For us! The Creator is for us and not against us. With all the power in the universe and with absolute right to do as he pleases with what he made — he is for us!

“No eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4). “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

Can you think of anything (I mean anything) that is more comforting and assuring and delighting than that the Lord in his majesty is for you?