What is it that really matters! – BE with the Holy Spirit

Words (Photo credit: sirwiseowl)

In a recent reading of the scriptures and meditation I received what many would call a small revelation. I believe this will change the way you think as well as mine.

The passage I was busy with is the passage where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. Before this we know that Jesus had not performed any miracles. However, in this baptism as Jesus came out of the water, the Bible says that a dove ascended from heaven, which represents the Holy Spirit, and God said that this is His son in which He is pleased with. There are a few things we can learn from this and the rest of the context that follows in the New Testament.

1. Unity in the Trinity

The uniqueness of this passage is that it was only once Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father was connected again in unity through the power of the Holy Spirit could Jesus perform miracles. The Bible says the Holy Spirit empowered Him, thus giving Him the miracle-working power.

2. Jesus’ need

Jesus’ need may sound unbiblical, but the reality is Jesus could not start His ministry on the earth without the working of the Holy Spirit in Him. Yet some how so many times we think we can do it, who are we that we think we are so special to save the world if Jesus, the son of God couldn’t do it without being connected, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

3. Jesus, the Word and the Holy Spirit

Directly after this passage where Jesus was baptized we see the Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the desert, this is where the Devil tempted Him 3 times, and Jesus succeeded in not falling into the temptation. What was the key for Him to stand strong? He overcome the Devil by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit! This is key for us to stand strong in the times we are tempted, we need to overcome the temptations by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. Jesus was in a position to overcome Him by the Word of God, because as with other Jewish boys He was trained in the Word of God. He was prepared to fight with it. Are we prepared to fight? Are we spending time in the Word, that the Holy Spirit might bring it to our remembrance.

4. Just Be

The last key I would like to bring out of this thing I learned is to Just BE! This is very important to understand, because when Jesus was in the desert, the Devil tested Him on His Sonship. “If you really are the son of God”, the Devil would say in each of His 3 temptations. The key was that Jesus didn’t let the Devil make Him doubt who He was, rather because He knew who He was and could just be, He used that understanding of not misusing power when in authority to conquer the Devils temptations.

I hope these few points help you. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment, would love to hear from you.

Here are two books about the Holy Spirit if you would like to do some extra reading:

The Spirit Helps Us Pray: A Biblical Theology of Prayer

What the Bible Says About the Holy Spirit (Revised Edition)

Real Prayer – Andrew Murray

Andrew Murray (naturalist) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This might be a bit of a long read, but I tried to shorten it as much as possible. Enjoy! Recently while reading a chapter in Andrew Murray’s book called, “With Christ in the School of Prayer” I felt I wanted to share what he mentioned in this chapter.

He opens with this verse in John 4:23-24,

“The hour cometh, and is now, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

To add some context to this verse Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well in Samaria, and the Samaritans believed that they worshipped the full God and understood it right, yet they did not have all the knowledge that they Jews had, because they only had “the five books of Moses and some knowledge of God.” Whereas the Jews had the five books of Moses, the prophets books, the Psalms, Proverbs and the history books.

Now Murray explains here that there are 3 levels of worship we can learn from this passage.

1. The ignorant worship of the Samaritans. “Ye worship that which ye know not.” (John 4:22a)

2. The intelligent worship of the Jew. “We worship that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22b)

3. Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth

Now how does these three levels apply to our own prayer lives? Well let’s see.

Level 1: “Some in their ignorance hardly know what they ask for” These are Christians that pray and pray, but don’t receive much for their prayers, possibly because they are praying wrong, or against God’s will.

Level 2: These people pray earnestly to God, but still don’t receive the full blessings of God, yet they have more knowledge of God; as the Jews had more knowledge of God than the Samaritans.

Level 3: This level requires much discipline in learning how God wants us to pray, through the study of pray in the Bible, and the help of the Holy Spirit. Thus people praying on this level articulate God’s will in their prayers accurately. This is not an easy level to be on, but the good news is God has given it for all, and longs for all to be praying and having their prayers answered. Knowing that my next pray will be effective, and nothing will be able to stop it.

What is the key to this level, praying in Spirit and in Truth. Praying in Spirit simply means that we must worship/pray in Spirit. This is vital because God is Spirit. Praying in Truth means that we worship in the truth the Jesus holds for us, for Jesus speaks about himself as, “I am the truth and the life.” The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, so worship in the spirit is worship in truth. Thus when the Spirit dwells in us and we pray what is true according to Jesus and His Word by the Spirit we are worshipping Him in Spirit and in truth.

Now where do we stand? I don’t know if I can say I fully always operate at the third level, I think I might at times be moving all three levels, but this I do know. The more I study God’s Word, and spend time with Him in prayer, the more will I start to operate only in the third level, worshipping Him in spirit and in truth.

To those who might be asking what does pray have to do with worship, pray and worship go hand in hand. You can’t pray without worshipping God in your prayer. Yet you can’t worship without it being a pray unto God as well. Most of what I shared came out of Andrew Murray’s book for those worrying about plagiarism, so no claims to myself for this.

Here is a link to the book of Andrew Murray if you are interested in buy it for yourself. With Christ in the School of Prayer

Why all the dead religion? – Part 1

Sunday (Photo credit: Greything)

In my previous post I referred to how churches has been shrinking and I gave two reasons.

1. God wants to have a pure bride.

2. We have become internally focused in the church and the vision we are focusing on, if there even is a vision at some churches.

Today I would like focus a bit on why church life seems to have gotten to where it is presently. I would like to use some verses out of Ecclesiastes 7 for this mostly.

Aspect 1: “A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool only thinks about having a good time.” – Eccl 7:4

At first reading of this verse I was confused as to why Solomon would say that a wise person thinks about death a lot. However, after a short meditation of it I realized it is not so much that he thinks he is going to die, but rather of how to protect himself against death.

For instance, a safety belt is an invention by someone who thought about death, realizing how many people were dying because they didn’t have any protection. Thus the safety belt…

The same should be true in the church, and is not always. In the church, the pastor, elders and members should all be thinking about what needs to be continually taking place in the church of God that it doesn’t die out to be a religion alone, like any other religion out there.

However, when we take a look at the church we see they are more focused on the B part of the verse which says a fool only thinks about having a good time. For instance the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a Sunday services, which is not bad at all, but if that is your only focus it will destroy the vision God has for the church.

Another Biblical example of this can be David having a passion to see more of God and His future plans by wanting to build a temple and also David bringing back the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.

Aspect 2: “Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride.” – Eccl 7:8

The second aspect is that the disciples started out in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them, yet they were not able to see the completion of the work of Christ on Earth in their time. Now most churches sit and wait for the rapture or second coming of Christ and this is their main focus in everything they do, speak and teach.

This is wrong, we should focus on the second coming of Christ, just like Paul did, as a matter of fact I don’t think we even realize that every 25 verse in the New Testament refers to the return of Christ. The problem though is we tend to forget at times that there are actual verses with words in-between that also need our attention, not just skimping over. Furthermore, we should also do what Paul did in evangelizing the unsaved, discipling new churches, and raising up true sons in the ministry to continue his task that was uncompleted.

What is happening to what we know as Christianity?

 

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Fort Wayne, Indiana 2011 (Photo credit: mutrock)

 

The last view years we have seen a dramatic drop in church attendance, especially in Europe, and a bit in the USA. Churches of 6000 members has grown to 600 members in months. What is happening? Has God left His church or have we left God?

 

 

 

I believe that the latter is true, we have left God, we have chosen to accept what a post-modernist, and relative society is telling us, “You believe what makes you feel good.” Thus if we don’t feel like God provides the answers we just trust to believe in ourselves, how foolish I think that we would choose our own wisdom over the wisdom of the one who created us. That is if you are able to come to believe that there is a God. If you don’t believe there is a God, please keep reading these blogs, I would still love to hear your views on what I write.

 

 

 

From a viewpoint of a “Christian” for the lack of words I believe church membership is shrinking for two reasons.

 

1. God is purifying His bride

 

I recently heard that research shows that up to 70% of the members in the church is in some way involved in pornography. This great evil has crept into our society and is now everywhere we look. The Bible is very clear when it says that Jesus will be returning for a pure and spotless bride, thus I say that Jesus certainly will not be returning for a church consumed by lust.

 

 

 

2. The church has become nothing more than a religion!

 

In the early years of the church, church services was a celebration service where the body of Christ came to celebrate His goodness and be equipped. The time they were not together at a service they were out in the world doing God’s work. However, this has changed, the church has now be come nothing more than a building with a message that might get you into heaven if you say your pray just before you die. It is full of programs with no purpose, and if these programs do equip the saints in the church the church just wants those become to get out of the world and into the church. An “escape before you die” syndrome I guess.

 

 

 

What is the church’s goal then?

 

Easily said, according to Ephesians 4, to equip the saints for the work of the Lord and the building up of the church. This is done through the ministry of the offices God has appointed in the church, Apostle, Prophet, Pastor, Teacher, and Evangelist.

 

After you are equipped your will be better able to ministry in your work environment than you have been before and right there you will be building God’s kingdom.

 

 

 

I know there might be more than these two points concerning why churches are declining in membership and influence, but this is the two points I felt needed to be mentioned. Do you agree? What other points do you think could be added? I would like to know….