The church we went to in Raleigh NC, the pastor does a blog and with his permission I am posting this from his blog.......be blessed.........
Friday, May 29, 2009
A Hunger for His Presence
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:1). Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen (James 5:7- NLT) Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone (Zechariah 10:1).I want to bear my heart to you today. I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit now for thirty two years and eight months. When I was first Spirit-filled, there was a great outpouring of the Spirit on the denominational world. A genuine hunger for God was evident. The Charismatic movement was in full manifestation. In the church I attended after being Spirit-baptized, the Holy Spirit would manifest time and time again in the services. Those oppressed by demons would cry out in the service due to the manifest presence of God! Many, many were born again and Spirit-filled. It’s the closest thing to revival that I’ve ever personally been a part of. I long for that again! As Kenneth Hagin said many years ago, Once you get a taste of the Spirit of God, nothing else can satisfy. Now, thirty plus years later, it seems as though we’ve become sated and satisfied. The intense hunger is not what it once was (I’m speaking in generalities here). We’re saturated with teaching, with vibrant Christian music in every genre imaginable. Charismatic churches have sprung up everywhere! Christian programming is abundant on TV and radio, and now the internet is filled with religious content, if you want it! This is wonderful. But, my heart craves the Presence! It craves the deep moving of the Holy Spirit that creates a Holy hush and a deep, penetrating conviction of heart. In the first Bible School I attended, scheduled between some of our classes we would have a devotional time of worship with someone then sharing a scripture. Many times, the Holy Spirit would settle upon us while we were worshipping, and, before you know it, the whole class was prostrate on the floor while the deep, penetrating Presence of a Holy God swept over us. The Holy hush of the moment deeply affect all us former hippies and drug addicts! God was working on us inside and talking to each of us personally in these moments about motives, attitudes, and habits of the flesh and mind. He was moving us towards Himself and creating change deep within.The Father wants these corporate moments with us now where His Presence supersedes everything! Are we willing to change to foster this? The challenge I have is that I preach three services every single weekend because we’ve outgrown our facility. I have to be careful of the children’s workers who are in the back, and of time in general, especially on Sunday mornings. All the while, the Father wants to woo us into deep, heartfelt times of intimacy.Let me suggest some things. If you attend Victory Fellowship, or really, regardless of where you attend church, begin now to cry out for more of God! Ask Him to create in you a hunger for Himself that eclipses everything else in life. Ask Him to breed in you dissatisfaction with everything in your life that has become a spiritual weight. Then, ask the Father to manifest His heavy, weighty, Holy Presence among us in our church services. The truth is, when He shows up in this way, nothing else matters.If you’re attending a church that is not open to the moving of the Spirit, find one that is! If you attend Victory, cry out with me for an all encompassing move of God among us that cuts through the surface things and reaches the heart! As the beginning scripture says, Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. This is asking the Lord for a fresh moving of His Spirit! Then, before you attend a church service, prepare your heart. Get up early enough, or get away enough before a service that you can wait in God’s Presence alone before you come to the church meeting. Ask Him to manifest. Tell Him that you personally long for Him. Ask Him to reveal Himself to each person. Then, wait quietly a while. Then, as you come into the service, expect Him to manifest Himself. I believe He will meet us all in our hunger! Let’s expect Him to do it!
Posted by Pastor Mitch
Monday, June 8, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
1 Peter 5:6-11
1 Peter 5:6-11 NIV
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. AMen.
God is able and willing to bless us according to his timing. Humbly obey God regardless of present circumstances, and in his good time either in this life or in the next he will lift you up. Carrying your worries, stresses and daily struggles by yourself shows that you have not trusted God fully with your life. It takes humility, however, to recognize that God cares, to admit your need, and to let others in God's family help you. Sometimes we think that struggles caused by our own sin and foolishness are not God's concern. But when we turn to God in repentance, he will beat the weight even of those struggles. Letting God have your anxieties calls for action, not passivity. Don't submit to circumstances, but to the Lord who controls circumstances.
Lions attack sick, young and straggling animals, they choose victims who are alone or not alert. Peter warns us to watch out for Satan when we are suffering or being persecuted. Feeling alone, weak, helpless, and cut off from other believers, so focused on our troubles that we forget to watch out for danger, we are especially vulnerable to Satan's attacks. During times of suffering, seek other Christians for support. Keep your eyes on Christ, and resist the devil. Then says James "he will flee from you" ( James 4:7)
When we are suffering , we often feel as though our pain will never end. Peter gave these faithful Christians the wider perspective, in comparison with eternity, their suffering would last only "a little while". Some of Peter's readers would be strengthened and delivered in their own lifetimes. Others would be released form their suffering through death. All of God's faithful followers are assured eternal life with Christ where there will be no suffering. (Rev. 21:4)
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. AMen.
God is able and willing to bless us according to his timing. Humbly obey God regardless of present circumstances, and in his good time either in this life or in the next he will lift you up. Carrying your worries, stresses and daily struggles by yourself shows that you have not trusted God fully with your life. It takes humility, however, to recognize that God cares, to admit your need, and to let others in God's family help you. Sometimes we think that struggles caused by our own sin and foolishness are not God's concern. But when we turn to God in repentance, he will beat the weight even of those struggles. Letting God have your anxieties calls for action, not passivity. Don't submit to circumstances, but to the Lord who controls circumstances.
Lions attack sick, young and straggling animals, they choose victims who are alone or not alert. Peter warns us to watch out for Satan when we are suffering or being persecuted. Feeling alone, weak, helpless, and cut off from other believers, so focused on our troubles that we forget to watch out for danger, we are especially vulnerable to Satan's attacks. During times of suffering, seek other Christians for support. Keep your eyes on Christ, and resist the devil. Then says James "he will flee from you" ( James 4:7)
When we are suffering , we often feel as though our pain will never end. Peter gave these faithful Christians the wider perspective, in comparison with eternity, their suffering would last only "a little while". Some of Peter's readers would be strengthened and delivered in their own lifetimes. Others would be released form their suffering through death. All of God's faithful followers are assured eternal life with Christ where there will be no suffering. (Rev. 21:4)
The time is coming......
God has been preparing me and my heart for what is about to happen for several years now. God has taken me back through my past and has healed me from so many things. During this time I have been through alot and learned alot. I went through a Celerate Recovery Class and then ended up teaching the Celebrate Recovery class with my husband. Along with counseling and parenting classes at the Christian Home for Troubled teens where my son was for several years. I had the most amazing counselor, he helped our marriage and with healing of old wounds. He is an amazing man of God. I told my story of my life to the group of ladies in the class that I was teaching. It was very hard because I was opening my whole life up to be judged by them. I shared with them the good, bad, ugly and the things you do not want anyone to know about you. God had put it in my heart to share that because I really wanted these ladies to experience the freeing God can do from your past.......the healing that He can do, no matter your past. I wanted them to get real in their recovery process and I had to be bold and go first. When I did that it opened up doors and they got it. I was still a work in progress and I felt like God wanted me to do a Bible study group at home with some ladies from church. But I had never been to a bible study before what do I know about doing one. But because I was working on things of my past and feeling more and more alive I wanted to share that and help others experience the same freedom from the bondage. I had so many different ideas of what I wanted to do and things to say, but I never pursued it. Then we moved and I had to change churches and I did not know anyone, so how could I have womens group and I did not know anyone. Then we moved to Raleigh NC, then we moved to Salem Va, then we ended up back in Florida because our house flooded. I was staying with a lady that would never come to our class and I wanted to reach out and a few others that had left the church, and I had heard of Breaking Free by Beth Moore, and I thought I was suppose to get some ladies I knew and do that study. But not only was it too expensive for me to buy at the time, I did not have that kind of time and weeks to spend in Florida to do that. So I just forgot about it. Then I was blessed to spend some time with an old dear friend and go to church with her family and fellowship with her. Then something told me, maybe it was there in Augsusta I was suppose to do this, but what can I do in a day, I dont live here and I can't stay for weeks to do an actual study. I just put it in the back of my mind and went on. Then we are back in Virgina getting settled in our new home. I talked with several people and still going through some healing of old wounds that I did not know was there and one night it hit me like a ton of bricks. I finally knew the answer after over 2yrs of being prepared by God.
It was not the place I thought it was suppose to be, it was not the bible study I thought it should be, it was not with the ladies that I thought it was suppose to be............it is suppose to be in Augusta, my story, with people from my past........................at first I did not know whom I was to invite and still not fully sure of all. These people were a part of my past, but they were not a part of the pain or heart ache. They knew me then, and they know me now or a little bit of me now.
When God is in control things fall in place. My plan.......said "ok, Augusta, ok ladies, NO WAY TO THE SUBJECT"..............some know part of my story, some know none, and alot I have never ever told. There is healing when we bring those things out of the dark and expose them to the light. The more you tell the more healing. God has not called us all to go public with our life story. But if he calls you do to it, you better get prepared.
It was not the place I thought it was suppose to be, it was not the bible study I thought it should be, it was not with the ladies that I thought it was suppose to be............it is suppose to be in Augusta, my story, with people from my past........................at first I did not know whom I was to invite and still not fully sure of all. These people were a part of my past, but they were not a part of the pain or heart ache. They knew me then, and they know me now or a little bit of me now.
When God is in control things fall in place. My plan.......said "ok, Augusta, ok ladies, NO WAY TO THE SUBJECT"..............some know part of my story, some know none, and alot I have never ever told. There is healing when we bring those things out of the dark and expose them to the light. The more you tell the more healing. God has not called us all to go public with our life story. But if he calls you do to it, you better get prepared.
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