How to turn your faith loose ~ 2 ~ Rabqa

Rom 10:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, & with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Notice in the latter part of this verse we see ...with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But that not is only true concerning salvation, it is true concerning anything else you receive from God. Everything you receive from God comes the same way through faith.

Faith is activated by believing with your heart & confessing with your mouth.


Let me explain it this way, it's with the heart that man believes when it comes to healing, & it's with the mouth that confession is made unto healing.


Mk11:23 For assuredly I say to you who ever says to this mountain, be removed & cast into the sea, & does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be
done, he will have whatever he says.


You have so say with your mouth what you believe in your heart, if the Word is to work for you. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that if you just believe in your heart you'll get an answer. But it does teach that if you believe in your heart & say what you believe with your mouth, whatever you want from God's Word shall come to pass in you life. Rom 10:8 tells us the Word is near you, & in your heart (that is the word of faith which we preach)


We all need to have right thinking & right believing & right confessing. What you think & what you believe affects your confession---------that is what you say.


If your thinking is right, your believing will be right because what you meditate on will eventually get down into your heart. & you will begin to believe on what you have been meditating on. If your thinking is right, if your believing is right, then your confessing will be right. But if any one of the three is wrong __your thinking, your believing & your confessing__then all three will be wrong.


God has given us His Word to get our thinking straightened out. & when we think in line with God's Word, our believing will be right. when we are believing right & thinking right then what we say with our mouth will be right.


The Positive side of confession: This is one thing very few Christians have actually realised & recognised the place that confession holds in the scheme of things. & it is to be regretted that whenever we use the word "confession" people invariably think of confessing sins, weaknesses & failures. That is the negative side of confession, but there is a positive side. & the Bible has more to say about the positive side of confession then it does about the negative side.


The dictionary says that to confess means to acknowledge or to own up or to acknowledge faith in. It also means to make confession of ones faults. BUT remember, one definition is to make confession of your faith or to acknowledge faith in God's Word.

If we just live on the negative side of confession I.E confessing our failures, & faults & that's all we ever confess Then we are going to grow up lopsided in our Christian life. consequently this will build weakness & sin & failure-consciousness into our spirits.


Confessing is actually 3 things:
(1) confession is stating something we believe.
(2) confessing is declaring something we know to be true.
(3) confession is proclaiming a truth we've accepted wholeheartedly.

To put it another way confession is a proclamation of what you know to be true. Your confession says what you believe. Your confession declares something you know. &
your confession proclaims a truth you have accepted wholeheartedly.


There are 5 things we are to confess.
(1) What God has done for us through Christ in His plan of salvation.

(2) What God has done in us by the Word & the Holy Spirit in the New birth& the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

(3) Who we are to God the Father in Christ Jesus.

(4) What Jesus is presently doing for us at the right hand of the Father where He lives & makes intercession for us

(5) What God can accomplish through us, or what His Word will accomplish through us as we proclaim it.


Eph 1:7-8 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom & prudence.
Notice it is in God we have redemption &
Thank God we have it's not something we are trying to get... it's ours through our Lord & Saviour.

Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness & conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

We can never win our battles if we fight against the wrong source in a wrong way. we tend to think that people or circumstances are our problem, BUT the source of many of our troubles is satan & his demons. We cannot fight with him carnal (natural) weapons, BUT only with supernatural ones that God gives us for the destruction of satan's strongholds.
his dominion ended the moment you gave your heart to the Lord.


Gal 3:13 tells us that Jesus purchased our freedom & redeeming us from the curse of the law & it's condemnation by becoming a curse for us.


3Jn 2 (Amp) Beloved I pray that you may prosper in very way & that your body may be kept well, even as I know your soul keeps well & prospers.


This verse shows us that God... our loving Father wants us to prosper in every way, He wants us to be prosperous materially, financially, physically & spiritually. Don't take my word for it check it out for yourselves.


The blessings Abraham received are also for all believers they are found in Gen 13:2,15 Deut 28:4,5,8,11,12 These are material or financial blessings. Physical blessings can be found in Gen 13:16;17:16 & Exod 15:26;& 23:25 & 26 Spirtual blessings are found in Gal:3:14.

Deut 28:1-14 is what I like to call a blessing package BUT it is conditional we MUST listen, we MUST listen diligently to the voice of the Lord our God...if we heed is His voice...if we keep the commandments of the Lord our God & walk in His ways, Then all these blessings shall come upon us & overtake us.

While we want all these blessing we are not always willing to to do what it takes to receive them. Radical & outrageous blessings come from radical outrageous obedience, they come from a willingness to obey God whether tells us to do something in His Word or by speaking in our hearts. We really do not need to complain about what God tells us Because He gives us the ability to do the things He calls us to do. Our part is simply to listen to His voice & do what he says without reservation. THAT'S when the blessings come.



When you meditate on these Scriptures you have just heard & as you confess them in your own life, you will cause these truths to become a reality in your heart & life. Believing with your heart & confessing with your mouth-that's how you turn your faith loose.

The Power & the joy of Victory.

Reading: A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, "I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!" Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, "I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?" Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered. The story of what happened spread quickly all through Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks alike. A solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honoured. Acts 19:13~17

We read this scripture last week.  I am repeating it this week because there is something important here for us to learn & remember.  The first thing I want to point out is that these sons of Sceva were not ignorant men, nor were they scripturally & spiritually ignorant.  Firstly they were Jews.  Traditionally the Jews have always been very well versed in their scriptures.  Secondly they were the sons of a Priest so they knew their scriptures & religion better than most because they belonged to a family that could afford to educate their sons.  Thirdly they knew something of the supernatural because they earnt their living as exorcists. 

Already we should have learnt that being scripturally educated is not enough, being religious is not enough, knowing about is not the same as knowing!

  We have spent a lot of time over the past few weeks discussing the Holy Spirit & there is a reason for this. When we are born again into Christ & baptized into the Holy Spirit we are made a new creation & this has certain implications.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! ~ 2 Cor 5:17

The Sons of Sceva were still operating from a religious viewpoint.  They were not born again.  They did not personally know Jesus Christ & so when they invoked the name of Jesus it was from a superstitious belief but there was no authority behind it because they had no authority in & of themselves & were not backed by the one who did have that authority.

It is not like that for spirit filled born again believers & we need a real revelation in our spirits of the difference the Holy Spirit makes in our lives.  Just stop & think for a minute: exactly who’s spirit is it that now indwells inside you?  It is the Spirit of God Himself, is it not? 1 Cor 2:16 tells us that now we have the mind of Christ.  So we have the mind of Christ & the Spirit of God.  We are a new creation.  If Christ is the head & we are the body then we are one with Christ.

The implication works like this:  remember that little word tov we find in the Genesis account that most translators render good & which actually means functional? When we are saved we are made *functional* again ~ that is, enabled to operate according to the way God originally meant for us to operate.  When we listen to the Holy Spirit & co~operate with Him we can do the good things He planned for us long ago ~ Eph 2:10

2 Peter 1:3-4 tells us:

³ For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life: he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us! ⁴ And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character.

We have everything we need available to live according to God’s will but wait; there is more!

In Matthew 28:18 Jesus says: "I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth… The word is exousia in the Greek & carries the meanings of dominion, rule, authority, power, ability, faculty. This is clarified further in Mark And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;  

Signs = Sēmeion: a sign, a mark, token, by which anything is known or distinguished ~  a proof, evidence,..

The thing is you cannot cast out devils if you have no authority to do so but every believer has that authority because they are part of the body of Christ & Christ already has the authority which comes to us through Him. If the head has authority so does the body because the head & the body are a single unit.  They are not separate.  That which Christ can do His followers can also do because they are His body. They have His mind & His spirit.

Jesus couldn’t be any clearer than John 14:12~ "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father”

What did Jesus do?  He healed.  Thus we have the authority to heal in Jesus name.  He taught. We have the power to teach with authority.  He cast out demons.  We can cast out demons by the authority invested in us through Jesus Christ.  Anything Christ can do we can do also.

James 4:7 says...Resist the devil, and he will flee from you…

Every week when we pray here we crush satan’s head underfoot; we take our God given authority & put satan under our feet because we are the head & not the tail Deuteronomy 28:13 Luke 10:19 verifies that we have all power over the enemy.

Over the coming weeks Rabqa is going to be teaching on faith because without faith it is impossible to please God & we need a revelation of what the exercise of our faith can accomplish!

Ephesians makes 2 statements that are particularly relevant.

Eph 2:6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

Eph 1:22-23 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

Paul makes it very clear that we were buried with Christ in baptism & as we were buried we are raised.  Being raised we are seated & the Greek makes it clear we are seated in the company of Christ & the heavenly realms.  We are sons, heirs, friends & as such operate in exactly the same way as Christ.  I am NOT saying we are Christ.  I am NOT saying we are gods.  I am saying that the Spirit of God operates in & through us in exactly the same way He operated in & through Christ & because that is so we can operate in exactly the same way that Christ does with exactly the same authority.

Now the Spirit & the Word are one & because they are one they will always agree.  Therefore we need to be firmly established in the word because the word is our fighting sword according to Ephesians & praying in the Spirit is our secret weapon.  When we employ both we position ourselves in a position of power.  When we know who we are in Christ & what belongs to us we don’t quibble with the devil.  We tell him to git ~ & he has to go!  He is under authority & he knows it!

Philipians 2:10 says at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Now some Christians get around to telling the devil to git but don’t exercise their faith.  They don’t really believe he has to do what they tell him because they are using a formula without understanding, rather like the sons of Sceva. Not only is satan sneaky, he knows our weakness, so he will try & convince us  that he doesn’t really have to do what he’s told & if we buy into that we give him permission to go right back to doing what he was doing ~ laying sickness on us, meddling in our finances & our relationships, creating havoc, death, destruction, decay.  That is what he does & if we don’t exercise our authority he will continue to do it in our lives & the lives of our friends & family.

1 Peter 5: 8 tells us Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  The thing is, we don’t have to be devoured.

Kenneth Hagin, the founder of the Word of Faith movement, tells what happened when he began getting scriptural.  He talks about praying for people for years with no results ~ & who knows what that’s like?  Then he began praying Ephesians 3:14~19, firstly over himself, then over his friends & family. 

When we line our mouths up with God’s word & exercise our faith we can access all the *spiritual blessings* that Ephesians has in mind. See our faith is based on what God says in his word because God cannot lie.  If He says a thing will be so, then it will be so.

Hebrews 11:1 is the definitive verse on faith: Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

We speak the word.  God will always honour His word but we must not doubt just because we may not see immediate results in the physical.  Things will always be dealt with in the spiritual first, & we can’t always see what’s going on in the spiritual.  We have to trust that not only has God heard, He is quick to answer.  He says He is.  He tells us we have been blessed.  He tells us we have both power & authority.  He says we are to rule.

My friends, I encourage you to talk to the Lord & ask for greater revelation in this area.  It will indeed bless us but the even more wonderful thing is it glorifies the Father. 

Look what the Lord has done for me! We can exclaim. And the thing is our circumstances no longer dictate our outcomes.  We have been raised with Christ so whatever the devil throws at us we are already victorious & he is a defeated enemy.  This is a truth, not just something Christians say but don’t necessarily believe.

He has been paraded through the realms of heaven & hell & throughout the earth as a defeated foe.  Why on earth would any Christian give him even a vestige of power or authority over or in their lives when Christ has made it very plain he is defeated, we are victorious.  We need to live in the power & the joy of that victory!

The Pentecostal Power.~ Rabqa

Today's Bible Reading is Acts 19:1-17. This is such a wonderful reading. It has many things in it which indicate to us that there was something marvellous about it, when we think about Pentecost we should be astonished each day because of it's mightiness, because of it's wonderfulness & how the glory overshadows it.

When We should think about these things they should make us feel that we have only just touched it. We must thank God that we have touched it. Whatever God has done in the past, He is still the same today, when our hearts are burdened & they come face to face with the needs of the day, we should look into God's Word & it will bring a power or anointing that makes you know He has truly visited us, That is to say that He is with us always.


It was a wonderful day when Jesus left the glory of heaven. I can imagine the angels & God the Father & all of heaven so wonderfully stirred up that day when the angels were sent
to tell that wonderful story: "Peace on earth & good will to all men" It would have been a glorious day when they first saw the Baby for the first time & God His Father was looking on.

Jesus came to earth for us to show us how he wanted us to live, to follow His example, & then, then He died He went to the cross for us so we might live eternally in heaven with Him.

Pentecost in our lives should be something that is working up to be a climax, it's not something that can all be done in one day. We go through trials & tribulations but the power of God is always there to help us. God is with us.


The mother of Jesus hid a lot of things in heart. The time came when it was made manifest at the Jordan that Jesus was in fact the Son of God. It had to be made known first to one that was full of the vision of God.

The vision comes to those who are full. Did it ever occur to you that we cannot be too full for a vision, that We can cannot have too much of God? The more of God, then the visions begin.

When God has you in His plan, what a change in how things operate. You wonder, you see things in a different or new light. & how God is being glorified as you yield to Him from day to day, & the Spirit seems to lay hold of you & He gives you a touch of His wonderful power, manifestations of the glory of these things & indications of great things to follow, & these days which we are living in speak of better days to come. Pastor Margaret Court in Perth at Victory life always says "the best is yet to come".


Where would we be today if we had stopped short, if we had not fulfilled what God had predestined for us? I'm thinking about when God sent the Holy Spirit to Paul, he didn't know how much his spirit was stirred up, his eyes were dim, but Jesus was there, He was looking on, we most certainly can't understand the whole process, God always is there, He shows us what to do, His Spirit is working in us, His plan works with us little by little.

Some of us would never have been in this Word of faith movement had we not been drawn, But God has such a wonderful way of drawing us. Paul never intended to be among the disciples, Paul never intended to have anything to do with this Man called Jesus, but the Spirit of God was working. & He has been working with us & has bought us to this place.


God's plan for us & all His Children is that we see that Jesus Christ is the greatest manifestation in all the world, & His power is unequalled, there is only one way, you must notice that after the people saw the working wonders by this power of the Spirit in Paul began in the natural realm.


It is necessary if we want to do anything for God we must get the knowledge of God, we must get the vision of God, we cannot work on our own, it must be a direct revelation that Jesus is the of the Son of God. I can see that Paul in his mad pursuit had to stopped & after he was stopped & had a vision from heaven & that light from heaven, revealed he had been working in the wrong way. As soon as the power of the Holy Spirit fell on him he began to go in the way which God wanted him to go. He had to suffer first, it is usually broken spirits, tired lives, & being driven into a corner as if some strange thing had happened that gets us where God wants us.


Paul didn't have any power to use the name of Jesus as he did, only as he went through difficulties, God was there, He stood by Him, & let him know that He would always be there to carry him & bring out that for which his spirit was longing for.


The people around had been watching & they
thought that it was only the name that was needed, so they thought that they could do the same. Those vagabond Jews, those seven sons of Sceva, were determined, they came to the place where that man had been demon possessed for years, possessed with evil power as they entered they said I demand you come out in the name of Jesus. The demons said "Jesus we know, & Paul we know, but who are you?" This evil power leaped upon them, tore there clothing, they went around naked & wounded (Acts 19:13-17) It was the name they not understand. But you must understand the name, there is something in the name that makes the whole world charmed, it is the Holy Spirit, it is the knowledge of Him that we understand that we want to speak about the ministry of salvation; it is important. We must be satisfied with the knowledge of the blood of Jesus Christ & the knowledge of His perfect holiness. & know that we are cleansed from all sin & made holy or set apart in the knowledge of His Holiness. We need to be
satisfied that we know Him & the knowledge of His power, & that the power of the Holy Spirit is in us enabling us to do all we have been called to do.


The difference between the sons of Sceva & Paul is this- "they said it was only using the "name" How many people only use the name? How many times are they defeated because they think it is just a name? How many people have been broken hearted because they did not get answer when they used the name?


When you read he that believes shall speak in tongues, he that believes shall cast out... demons..., he that believes shall lay hands on the sick,... reading this it seems all to easy but you must understand there are volumes to be applied to the word believe. To believe is to believe in the majesty & glory & the power which is all power, which bring other powers into subjection.


To believe is to have knowledge of Him in whom you believe, it is not to believe in the word Jesus, but to believe in His true nature, to be believe in the vision, for all power is given to Him, & greater is He that is in us then he that is in the world.
We Need to know Jesus so much that he shines out of us that even every demon must go when we command them in the name of Jesus, they know who He is so when they see Him in us they must go.


This leads me to the question of unity/ fellowship In Eph 4:13 Till we all come in to the unity of the faith & the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

The Greek word for unite is Kallao It is used in reference to God's activity, the relationship is one of spiritual intimacy. The believers spiritual union with God is one of permanence & closeness. For this reason Paul warns the Corinthian believers not to unite themselves with a prostitute, or they will become one with her, likewise be careful with other Christians you think you may want to have fellowship/ unity with some have controlling spirits, a Spirit of witchcraft & so on, so having unity or fellowship with them you will become one with them. As A husband becomes one with his wife, we are to be one with God, it would be unthinkable to involve Him in immorality, I can't emphasise this enough He who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.(1Cor 6:16;17)

This serves as a remember that God is married to His covenant people. If they indulge in immorality in any area, they will defile the sanctity of such a relationship. They are to remain pure as they await the return of Christ, their Bridegroom.
Acknowledgement Smith Wigglesworth.

Solomon's Song of Songs.~ Ganeida

We have been looking at the Holy Spirit.  Today's message looks at the love relationship between God & His people because the first thing the Holy Spirit wants to do when we believe is draw us ever closer to the one we claim to love.

During the days before the protestant reformation when John Huss led his small bands of Christians into Albania & the Covenanters were being persecuted in Scotland, one bible book was read, referred to, memorized & loved more than any other. No, not psalms. That book was Solomon’s Song of Songs.

Why this book? Why a book that is a blatant love song, sensually delighting in love & the things pertaining to love? Why is this book even included in the cannon & part of our scriptures? It is short, only about 117 verses. It is the last of the 5 wisdom books: Job, proverbs. Ecclesiastics, some of the psalms & Song of Songs. That it is listed among the wisdom books should immediately tell us that it contains gems of wisdom we would do well to heed. In a wider sense it belongs to a far different theme that runs throughout scripture: the marriage agreement between God & his people.

In Deuteronomy we have the marriage contract. In Hosea we see the adulterous, unfaithful wife & in the Song of Songs we see the fulfilment of love in marriage.

This book is usually attributed to Solomon, David’s Solomon, the live born child of David & Bathsheba. He was not the oldest son. His parents’ relationship was conceived in great sin but he is the first Jewish ruler to inherit the throne of Israel as a birthright. His name is related to the Hebrew word for Peace, Shalom ~ peace arising from harmony with God & man. David chose him to be king over his older sons despite what the Mosiac law said.

Solomon came to the throne in 961Bc, before his father, David, died & reigned for 40 years. It was during his reign the Jewish monarchy gained its highest splendour.Now the seeds of Solomon’s destruction are inherent in his choices. The child of a polygamyous household (David had 18 wives) Solomon took for himself 700 wives & 300 concubines (1 Kings 2:1~3. )I think it is fairly safe to say Solomon liked women. He liked Moabites, & Ammorites. Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites & definitely Shulamites! Famous for his wisdom, he is notorious for his polygamy.

Solomon’s wisdom seems to have been a worldly wisdom. He was aggressive in his foreign policy ~ hence the number of women in his life (he married them to seal arrangements with other rulers) ~ & it was not all plain sailing in the Solomon household. This was the man who said better a dry crust on the rooftop than a brawling woman in a wide house. Perhaps he was something of a henpecked husband & a coop of hens can be particularly vicious. In Deuteronomy (17:16~17)we also find the law explicitly saying not to multiply horses, silver & gold or…wives!

Solomon’s sin in this area lead to his apostasy. His rule was dominated by the conflicting tensions between faithfulness to God & yielding to the foreign influences his marriages brought into the kingdom.The bible is particularly explicit about sexual sins. Solomon’s sin in this area destroyed the house of David. He forsook his first love for God & under his wives influence followed after other gods. I find this particularly interesting scripturally because it is Solomon who built the temple to the Lord to house the ark of the covenant & when we come into the New Testament the scriptures say 1 Cor6:18 shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you that you have from God. From old testament to New God’s temple has been defiled by sexual immorality.

When we read through Solomon’s song of Songs we read a love poem that shows us how to love in a morally correct way on the human level & the spiritual level.That is all background information but bear it in mind as we come to the song itself. Let’s face it, in the area of love Solomon had some idea of what he was talking about.

Kings also tells us Solomon wrote 1005 songs; this is the only survivor. It is, unashamedly, a love song: sensual, sensuous, the portrayal of a man & a woman falling deeply, passionately, irredeemably in love. In the rabbinical view it is a portrait of Gods love for Israel. It was meant to be performed, perhaps something like an ancient musical or opera, theatrical in style, an Eastern love song between bride & groom, God & Israel, Christ & his church.

Now when we come to the scriptures we bring our cultural biases with us so I’d like to pause here & just clarify by giving a little background material on how a traditional Jewish wedding occurred because the song of songs arises out of this Eastern tradition & we miss many of its subtleties if we ignore the Eastern traditions which have little resemblance to our Western ideas of love & romance. Many of the Parallels with our relationship to Christ I’m sure you can draw for yourself. There are 7 main points to consider.

1.The groom’s father made & approved the choice of bride. God has made & approved us as His choice of bride for his son.

2. A contract was drawn up (remember Deuteronomy) & wine was drunk to seal the covenant. The groom pays a price to show his intent is serious & promises his bride he will come to claim her soon. I think we all get the parallel for that one!

3. The groom prepared a bridal chamber where he & his bride would stay for 7 days. He works until his father releases him to go & claim his bride.

4. While the groom is busy preparing the new home the bride waits wearing a veil. This shows she belongs only to the groom. She prepares for her wedding by making blankets etc, shows her family her gratitude for raising her, mends damaged relationships. She had to be ready for whenever her husband came to claim her. Her groom would come for her at night & she would not be told the hour of his coming.

5. Unmarried friends would attend the bride & provide light for the groom when he came.

6. Groomsmen would run ahead of the groom & shout that he was coming. While the father’s head was turned the groom would steal the bride & the wedding went back to the groom’s house to meet the guests.

7.The bride & groom enter the bridal chamber & the marriage is consummated. The party waited outside for this announcement & the guests celebrated for 7 days.

I have spent a lot of time on the background because what I want to discuss with you today is not the Song of Songs per se, though I love the song & think it one of the most beautiful of the many lovely scriptures. It’s central theme is far too important for us to dismiss this book as merely a very lovely love poem, exquisite, but not overly important. Rather by asking ourselves what this theme is we begin to grasp why it has been so loved & why it has remained in the cannon all down the centuries.

The main theme as I see it is loving God. Now scripture says over & over we are to love God. We are to love God first. We are to love God with Heart & mind & strength. We are to love God before mother, father, sisters, brothers, children, husband. I think many of us struggle in this area. We know what we’ve been told to do but we do not know how to do it. How do we love God with all our heart & all our mind & all our strength?

Scripture begins with the heart so that is where we will begin too. Scripture says to guard our hearts with all diligence because the heart is where the issues of life (thoughts, emotions, desires) originate. Proverbs 4:23 There are 4 types of hearts ~ the unregenerate, the hardened, the clogged & the pure. The pure heart, the one God desires for us & for himself, is attuned for the faintest promptings of the Holy Spirit. Sin makes us insensitive & resistant to those promptings.

There is a whole list in Galatians 5:19~21 of the sins of the flesh & I am betting most of us would run down that list going nope, nope, nope, not guilty of that one either. But what about a list like this: grumbling (philipians2:14 do everything without grumbling), self~seeking (phil2:3 let each esteem others better than himself) criticalness, disorderliness & being busybodies ~ There are some who walk among you disorderly, being busybodies (2nd Thessalonians) ….You get the picture I am sure. Sin is pride & put simply pride is not loving God; it is loving ourselves first ~ & that my friends is idolatry!

The word for mind is dianoia. Translated literally it means willpower or volition. When we are born again in the Holy spirit we are enabled to will as God wills. Aligning with the Greek word dianoia is the word exousia ~ it is permitted. That is, it is permitted for us to override our natural desires & inclinations & act in accordance with the spirit of God. It is not permitted for the unregenerate heart to do this. The unregenerate heart is governed by the sinful lusts & desires of the flesh. We are not. We can choose to act in a Godly way because the spirit of God resides within us.We are made in the image of God.

God has 2 sorts of will, the emotional (thelo) & resolve (boule). Our natural inclination is usually to go with the emotional but it is the disciplined choice based on the known will of God as revealed in his scriptures that God desires of us. That is the love response. Ephesians: grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. We grieve the spirit by not following His promptings to walk in the Godly pattern he enables us to walk & instead following after our own desires. When we choose our own way we choose to be ruled by the sin Christ died to free us from.

Lastly there is the soul. I think many of us in the West confuse spirit & soul. Our soul is our conscious thoughts, emotions, desires. Here we see why obedience is of such vital importance. There is a line of progression here. Guard our hearts ~ the things we put into ourselves. Bring captive every thought. Give authority to the Holy Spirit to exercise God’s will in our lives. No matter how we feel, act in accordance with what scripture says & lastly believe that God is acting in our lives as he has promised!

We have been made in Gods image to be an exact likeness of his son, Jesus Christ. We have been given free will which gives us the choice to choose to love & obey God. To do this we need to catch negative, ungodly thoughts before they stir up our emotions, catch negative, ungoldly emotions before our fleshly desires are stirred up, catch our desires before we are stirred to action, catch our actions before we do indeed act upon them in the flesh!

When we choose our own fleshly desires we are allowing Satan to use us to take revenge on God. This is not the action of a loving child of the father’s. If we delight ourselves in the Lord he is able to give us the desires of our hearts because they are the desires he has placed there & they will be in accordance with his will.

Most of us know something of love ~ the desire to be with the beloved, the way our thoughts return again & again to those treasured memories of times we’ve spent together, the anxious waiting for our beloved to be with us again, the way we know their thoughts without speaking, the hours we have spent peacefully in each others company without words. We know what it is to love our partners & our children, our siblings & our friends but far to many of us don’t know what it is to love God ~ to love as the Shulamite loves. And this is why this little book, Solomon’s glorious Song of Songs, is so important & why it has been so loved.

Let me paraphrase for a moment:

Jesus, your love is more delightful than wine.

The fragrance of your perfume is intoxicating;

Your name is perfume poured out.

No wonder we adore you.

Take us with you~Let us hurry.

Oh, that the king would bring us to his chambers!

Or this...

Jesus, You have captured my heart,

my brother, my groom.

You have captured my heart with one glance of your eyes.

With one jewel of your necklace.

How delightful your love is, My brother, my groom.

Your love is much better than wine

& the fragrance of your perfume than any balsam.

Your lips drip sweetness ...

And so scripture comes full circle for psalm 119 verse103 says; your word is to my taste ~ sweeter than honey to my mouth. Friends, let us keep our hearts with all diligence & bring every thought captive that the words of our mouths & the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to the Lord our God & our lives, pure & holy, be reflections of His love that resides within us.

references: Song of Solomon: a love song & a hymn ~Ray C. Stedman
The Way of Agape ~ Chuck & Nancy Missler

The Weight of His Glory ~ Ganeida

On Saturday the 23^rd the omer ended.  Today is Shavuot, the day of Pentecost.

Two thousand years ago a small group of men & women who had studied under an unknown rabbi waited in prayer in an upper room in Jerusalem. They had been waiting for some time, about ten days if we take Acts literally, because Jesus was with them for 40 days before returning to the father. They were waiting in obedience to Jesus instruction to not leave Jerusalem until the Father sent the Gift He had promised. [Acts1:4]  That gift was the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  It was a gift that shook the nations & changed the world as the disciples knew it.

The Holy Spirit was given on Shavuot, a festival which celebrates the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai & ends the festival of First Fruits with the wheat harvest. We have seen that Jesus is the Living Word of God & as such becomes the Living Law.  We understand that the word Torah, which we translate as Law, would be better rendered Instruction. Thus Christ was the living instruction that showed us how to walk with God.

He is also the first fruits of the resurrection: 1 Cor 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.

Now this is a Holy Spirit Church.  We believe implicitly in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including speaking in tongues, the living presence of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  Without Him we have religion but no life.

Over the past few weeks we have looked at different aspects of the Holy Spirit, His work & attributes.  Today I want to explore with you the heart of God for greater & greater intimacy with those who are called by His name.

We are going to start in Exodus 20:18~21 When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram's horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear. And they said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen. But don't let God speak directly to us, or we will die!" "Don't be afraid," Moses answered them, "for God has come in this way to test you, and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning!" As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.

Twice in this passage the word *fear* is used.  The Hebrew is yirat.  Yirat has a variety of meanings & 3 different levels of meaning.  It can mean wonder, amazement, reverence, worship, awe, mystery, astonishment. In its deepest sense it can mean to see something as it really is.  When we are talking of God it means to really see God for who He is.

At its most basic yirat refers to the fear of consequences.  This is perhaps the most common way westerners would view this word.  The 2^nd type of yirat concerns anxiety about breaking God’s law.  The 3^rd type is the reverence that comes from rightly seeing the presence of God in His whole creation, beholding His glory & majesty in all things.

We see all 3 types of yirat at work in this passage but note something ~ perhaps the greatest indictment ever uttered of the Israelites in the Old Testament: God has manifested Himself.  He wants to speak to His chosen people & what do they do?  They draw back!

Why?  Because they were conscious of their unholiness, their lack of righteousness.  They did not rightly understand or know the heart of God & so they were unable to approach Him.  Moses however drew near & entered the dark cloud where God was.

Remember when we quoted James last week from chapter 4:8~9…& it says Cleanse your hands you sinners ; & purify your hearts, you double minded… It is talking to believers, not unbelievers.  The word for sinner is harmatolos, literally one who misses the mark.  If our thinking about God is wrong our whole theology will be askew & we will quite literally miss the mark.

Moses however drew near.  He had cultivated a heart for God.  Proverbs 4:23 says to Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.  We guard what we value.

Here is the first key.  So many Christians do not guard, treasure, protect what Christ died to acquire for us.  We accept it far too casually, almost as if it were our right. We come to church if we feel like it, having been up too late the night before, our hearts unprepared for worship, our minds distracted & then wonder why we have so little of God’s presence.

In many synagogues, inscribed over the Ark, are the words, Da Lifnei Mi Attah Omed, “Know Before Whom You Stand”. Do you know before whom you stand?

Again & again we see in scripture God coming in his glory.  The Hebrew word kabowd means the weight of splendour, abundance, honour… In Exodus 33 Moses asks God to show him His glory & God replies that He will…Make my goodness pass before you… Tuwh, goodness, implies that nothing is being withheld.

It is very easy to acquire a distorted image of the Lord & remake Him into what we consider is more

acceptable. Sometimes we do it through ignorance.  Sometimes by attempting to reach others by watering down the truth & some do it quite deliberately.

Now we want to see God’s tuwh in operation.  It implies that His presence has manifested & where His presence is there is the glory of the Lord.  So we need to guard our hearts & develop a correct understanding of who God is.

I am not going to go into great depth.  I am merely going to touch on those things that can hinder a greater understanding of who God really is.

·       A religious spirit.  There is no true freedom in religiosity. Religion always manifests in rules & regulations & they cannot save anyone.

·       Thinking we can change His rules to suit ourselves ~ especially when it comes to worship.  We are to worship Him in Spirit & in Truth.  It does not matter what men have decreed in the matter of a church service.  What matters is what God deems acceptable & much of what passes for church has never been ordained of God.

·       Thinking you’re being obedient when you’re not.  This happens when people step out of the place ordained for them & try to take a place not meant for them.  It can look good.  Their motive can seem good but if it is not God’s will if will never be blessed.

·       An idolatrous heart.  We are not to covet anything.  It steals our peace, makes us dissatisfied, makes us discontent with what God has supplied. Just look at the story of Israel!

·       Drawn away by our own desires [James 1:14] According to Ezekiel 14:4&5 we can become estranged from God by our idols.

·       The worst scenario is to get what we have coveted.  Israel wanted a king so God gave them one.  They were taxed, lost their sons & daughters & eventually were led into captivity by their kings.

·        

I remember the first time I heard the following story because it struck a chord.  A visitor attended a Quaker meeting for worship, ignorant of the fact Quaker worship is traditionally silent.  After enduring the silence for some time he turned to his elderly

neighbour & enquired: When does the service begin? After some thought the Quaker replied, The Service begins when worship ends.

Here is the core.  In the west we tend to compartmentalise our lives.  You know: work, home, family, church… we do not think holistically but God does think holistically.  Our entire being is to be consecrated to the Lord. True worship is how we live our lives & our lives are to be one of self~sacrifice & dedication.

If you are like me you have no idea of whereabouts in the bible the term worship is first used.  It is Genesis 22:5

"Stay here with the donkey," Abraham told the servants. "The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back."

Yep, when Abraham sets out to sacrifice his son.

I have gone this circuitous route to point out that The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously… James 4:5 Love of God is the first commandment but how can we love Him whom we do not know?

Everything we have discussed over the previous weeks about partnership, fellowship, communion with the Holy Spirit is to bring us to that place where the presence of God can manifest in our lives & His glory engulf us!

According to the amount we honour & reverence the Lord our God will be unto us the glory of His presence.  It is not in the music.  It is not in our prayers.  It is evidenced in our obedience.  It is not about what we can get from God~ health, wealth & happiness ~ but about aligning ourselves with His known & revealed will & doing what He says.  We do not want to be a people who worship the Lord with our lips only while our hearts are far from Him. Matthew 15:8 Rather we want our hearts of stone replaced with hearts of flesh, tender & sensitive to the whispered seeking of the Holy Spirit.  It is as we lose ourselves for His kingdom’s sake that we enter most truly, most deeply into the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God wherein no man can stand & the weight of His Glory falls.

Acknowledgements:  I am grateful for the insights of John Bevere for some of this sermon.