Monday, September 27, 2010

Seeing is Believing

Acts 13:12
When the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord. (NLT)


Have faith you say. Well Dianne and I had faith to go to that meeting the day she was miraculously healed of Crohn's disease. That was faith to go. We had already been praying and had been seeking all the earthly possibilities we could find.

During that morning we saw things happen in front of our eyes. People were coming up on the platform in pain. You could see it on their faces and in their stature. Then with a quick touch and the name of Jesus the pain left and they could do what they were unable to do before. We saw what had happened.

Our housekeeper had told us about it, but we had not seen. We wanted to believe and had just enough faith to go. Sometimes that's all it takes.

Had we seen healing on television we probably would have rationalized them away as smoke and mirrors. You know those weight loss ads? They show you the before person and then the picture of that same person a few weeks later with a new body. Sure you say and somehow know it cannot be that easy.

But we did see it with our own eyes and heard the teachings about the Lord straight from the Bible. It was so simple when we realized what Jesus had told us in His Word. We are all to lay hands on the sick and see them recover!

When we saw what had happened, we became believers. Then when hands were placed on Dianne she was instantly healed. We saw. We believed. We received. Thank you Jesus.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Abba Father

Galatians 4:6
Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." (NLT)


The verses before this tell us that God sent Jesus to redeem us so we might receive the full rights of sons. As sons and daughters, we have varying ideas of what that means.

It depends on the childhood we had. For some of us it was a loving family life with our Dad coming home from work and loving on us. Vacations were fun as we went away to the beach or on a trip to the mountains. Family meant together.

For others, we had childhoods that were well off, but our father was never around. Our mother ruled with the threat of what our father would do if we got out of line. He worked all the time and was out of town often. Vacations, when we got to take one, were times away from home usually without Dad.

And then there were families where the parents split while we were young. We went to live full time with mom and spent little time with dad. Mom would anxiously await the monthly child support check, but that was the bulk of our involvement with him. He was our biological father, but not much of an influence in our lives.

There are many other scenarios we could talk about and yours might be unique. In any case there are two ways we come to Christ viewing God the Father. He is either a loving, caring Father God or one whose love is questionable or perhaps conditional.

The Spirit of Christ lives within us. He is the Holy Spirit. He calls out to Abba, which is Aramaic for Father or Daddy. But do we feel the same way about our Father God as the Holy Spirit does? Do we give the Holy Spirit permission to accept the Father's Love?

Without fully accepting His Love, how can we accept the full rights as sons and daughters?

Monday, September 13, 2010

In the Spirit

Romans 8:9
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (NLT)

Jesus told His followers to gather together and wait. He promised to have the Father send the Holy Spirit to live in all believers from then on. As such, we who believe have been sent the Holy Spirit as well.

Wow! We have the spirit of the living God living in us. That is hard to wrap our human minds around. And yet we still sin. We have been brought up listening to man, learning from man, and doing what man does. Unless we give way to the Holy Spirit and let Him speak to us and guide us daily, it is easy to keep on keeping on just as we have always done.

How do we get the Holy Spirit and how do we know we have Him? I believe it happens as soon as we truly accept Jesus into our heart. The only reasons the first followers had to wait was because Jesus had not gone to the Father yet. Since then, He has continued to sit at the right hand of the Father.

In the Great Commission Jesus tells us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Those who believe will be saved and will be baptized. Jesus baptized by fire-the fire of the Holy Ghost. It is then that the Holy Spirit is activated in each believer with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

Later in verses 26-27 Paul speaks about praying in the Spirit, the tongues He has given us. I believe this opens a direct line between our spirit and the Father's spirit. This is how we receive whatever we need from God. This is how we receive power to do the miraculous.

Paul tells us to pray without ceasing and I believe this is about praying in our prayer language. The more we do the stronger in the Spirit we get. Try it!

Monday, September 06, 2010

Complete Harmony

Romans 15:5-6
May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NLT)


Living in harmony with others seems a day-to-day challenge for most of us. Sometimes we just have to grit our teeth and push through the day. Complete harmony? Are you kidding?

But think about it. Jesus did it. And as His followers we should be able to do the same. So why does it seem impossible?

We are born again but living in this mortal body. As our relationship with God grows and we allow Him to change us, we take on more and more of the mind of Christ. You see, we can try to be that nice person who is in harmony with others, but it is just a mask we wear. We act the way we believe we should while inside we may be screaming. So what others see of us is not who we really are, yet.

It is through quiet time with God that we build that relationship. It is through time in His word and time in prayer coupled with giving the Holy Spirit permission to change us. We can read all we want and say as many prayers as we can, but without giving it all up to Him, we stay the same.

And change does not happen all at once. God changes us over time and in the sequence He knows is best for us. But as the Holy Spirit reveals things in us that may be holding us back from receiving more, we need to give that thing to God as well. When we do, we change a little more.

Did you give something new to God today?