Missions Paul

YES HE CAN CHANGE YOU!

My God always can do what I sometimes think cannot be done.

You may be the person waiting for the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:30-37.
This person is always left with enough life to be revived again, v30.
Your enemy would love to do the last rites over your faith. Some of you may have wept over what has been robbed from you, such has been your grief, that you have forgotten what is left.
Your joy, passion, power and boldness. Stop the pity party. Grab a hold of what is left and be what God says you can be. How?
Your miracle is not in what you lost but in what is left.
Think of creation.
Adam was a man but until the breath of God came upon him he was not living, Genesis 2:7
Potential is not enough. We need the power to reach our potential.
We need God to breathe upon us so that we can live. So that our ministry, gifts, calling, relationships can thrive and be. That they move further than being a form of what they could be.

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

A potential army but not a working one. What good is this?
v1-2 you must be willing to confess your situation, “I am bone dry!”
v4 you must again turn to God’s Word.
v5 you must hear your potential.
v7 you must be ready for some uncomfortable shaking and rattling to get you free from complacency.

But God can get you into being what you can be, v10.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John 3:8
Has the Holy Spirit blown on you?

HE CAN CHANGE ME!

HE CAN CHANGE ME

My God always can do what I sometimes think cannot be done.

Whenever God speaks, breathes or touches then the person or their problem is never the same again. There is an immediate change.

Whether it be for God to bring into place what is not …
“And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light” Genesis 1:3

Or to get a demonic oppression off you …
“With the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.” Isaiah 11:4

Or whether it be to change you into a person of courage …
“Saul accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched.” 1 Samuel 10:26

… God can do what sometimes you think cannot be done.
God can work a miracle in your life today.
He can bring about change in your service and situation.

HE CAN CHANGE ME
You may be the prodigal son/daughter, Luke 15: 11-32
The prodigal is someone who knew God, who worked for Him, used of Him, spoke with Him, lived closely with Him but chose to leave all that for a life away from Him.
Within that prodigal the gifts of God and God’s call for that person to become all that they can become, though now weakened, pressed down and held back is still there.
The prodigal always knows the way home. Along that path back home they will meet, ‘My God always can do what I sometimes think cannot be done’.
He will restore them, change them, bring them back into service, equip them and cause them to become all that they can become.

God can do this for you.

It’s not over

2 Samuel 4:4
(Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.)

I was dropped.

I didn’t fall on my feet like others do.

I was overlooked by man.

But it’s not over …

What an encouragement!

The dove

An American newspaper asked, “what in your opinion is the chief danger, social or political that confronts the coming century?”
The reply came, “In answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers that confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without hell.”
The question came in the Salvation Army’s newspaper, War Cry. It was replied to by the founder General William Booth on the 5th January 1901.

John 1: 32-34
Have we lost what the General thought we were in danger of losing?
What has happened in some places is that the Church has continued without the dove.
To remain means not just staying but to endure and to stand against opposition.
The dove remained on Jesus.
The fact is a Church can continue whether or not the dove leaves or remains. The Christian can also.

Is the dove remaining?
(Found within a 15th century French book)
God be in my head and in my understanding
God be in my eyes and in my looking
God be in my mouth and in my speaking
God be in my heart and in my thinking
God be at my end and in my departing.

Make sure the dove remains.

Can people see the Spirit in us?

I am being reflective this morning. I have more questions than answers.
I’m thinking about the Holy Spirit.

John 1:32-34

Can people see the Spirit in us?
I recently asked someone if I could trust a certain leader in a certain country. “Oh yes, he is baptised in the Spirit and speaks in tongues” was the reply.
Is that reply meant to put my mind at rest?
Can I trust that person now?
What did the reply really mean?
How has the experience changed them?
Do they know God more?
Have they come to understand who they are?

Can people see the Spirit in us?
How do we become truly spiritual people?
Is that what we are?
If we are spiritual then why is so much centred on things? On stuff? On improvements to our life and what we want?
How can we be spiritual and superficial at the same time?
We proclaim one thing and behave another.
We search after dramatic spiritual experiences but we are apathetic to daily spiritual experiences.
That search has meant we have travelled across the globe through our TVs, books, CDs and the Internet …. The presence of God is OUT THERE.
BUT if we are baptised into the Holy Spirit then surely that is a journey of going WITHIN?
The dramatic spiritual experiences are found in the health and wealth that God brings. But it produces apathy in worship and discontentment in what we have and who we are.
Those with the least in terms of health and wealth seem to be the most joyful. They have something of heart not head.

Can people see the Spirit in us?

But still …

Judges 8:4
This is a short word to inspire you to have ‘but still’ or a ‘yet’ in your life.

(The Jordan river was the largest watercourse in Palestine. It was a psychological barrier for the people as it was a huge risk in crossing it. It spoke of a transitional move from one experience to another).

Gideon refused to be discouraged by the people of Succoth and Penuel who refused to give him and his army food.

Instead he stayed focused.

Crossing the Jordan, exhausted, in fear, maybe sickness, disturbed by many questions perhaps.
But it does not matter how you are when you cross, what matters is this: are you still in pursuit?
Are you still becoming all that you can become?

BUT STILL …

Though the fig tree does not bud, but still I will rejoice in the Lord. Habakkuk 3:17

JESUS CHRIST DID NOT ENTER ….,

Hebrews 9

v11 …. a man-made tabernacle but a perfect one.
HE AVOIDED THE POLITICS OF RELIGION AND SMALL-MINDEDNESS.

v12 …. through the way where others bore the sacrifice.
HE AVOIDED THAT WHICH COST HIM NOTHING LESS THAN HIS ALL.

v24 …. a copy of the real heavenly place but he entered Heaven itself.
HE AVOIDED REPLICAS OF THE REAL THING.

v25 …. into repeated actions but a once and for all act.
HE AVOIDED REPETITIVE DUTIES BASED ON DRY RELIGION.

What are you avoiding?

I commit …

I have tried to live by these 8 promises. I have often failed in them, I will no doubt fail again. But I keep getting back up and along the way I look back and thank God for the successes. Maybe you also have a similar list?

1. I commit myself to experience God that I may be continually transformed by Him.

2. I commit myself to be the next generation and to affect the next generation. The effect will be in that of honour, imparting confidence and setting an example to others.

3. I commit myself to be a man who speaks up. To be a mouthpiece for God’s message. I will not join the silent majority but will speak out against ungodliness and negativity that destroys the Church.

4. I commit myself to not hiding from being identified with Christ. I choose to deny myself, take up the cross and follow Jesus and in doing so tell others about the gospel.

5. I commit myself to pleasing God by not letting go of faith.

6. I commit myself to believe in God even when circumstances suggest He is not here.

7. I commit myself to walk with God and in doing so I am prepared to be out of step with the world.

8. I commit myself to seek after God pursuing His presence for every area of my life.

This is my promise, my commitment and covenant.

Joshua 22: 5; 24: 14, 24.

The realignment

Hebrews 13:7-8

Jesus plus is not the real Jesus.
Jesus plus other faiths is not the real Jesus.
Jesus plus riding roughshod over people to get to the top is not the real Jesus.
Jesus plus abuse
Jesus plus violence
Jesus plus selfishness
Is not the real Jesus.
If you want to get to the top get to the bottom.
If you want to conquer die on a cross first.
If you want to rule then repent for all your unruliness.
This is Jesus Christ.
Every generation needs to realign itself to Him.
How is always more important then when in relating to people.
How is always more important then when in being successful.
How is always more important then when in knowing God.
There is a move growing that will try and destabilise Christ in the life of the Church. It will not destabilise Him. He will remain.
The move is not new, it is this: all roads lead to God.
They do not.
There is only one way.
It is through Jesus Christ. We must be realigned to this truth.
It is only through Jesus that we can be known by God.
The way we come to God is the same path God takes to meet us. Through Jesus.
He speaks, heals, blesses, provides, encourages, comforts, challenges, promises, leads us, through JESUS!

The soldier’s uniform.

Anyone like me growing up in the Salvation Army as a child knew the challenges of wearing the ‘uniform’ as a witness to Christ. I knew early on the experiences of being laughed at. However, it was hardly an interpretation of the verse:
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24-25

We have not yet had the experience of inviting people to come to Christ and have to tell them that they will probably be persecuted, lose everything, be tortured, imprisoned and perhaps die.

One Christian friend working in the most insecure of places told me, “We are careful, but we are not afraid.”

A soldier wears their uniform with pride. They are not afraid of being identified with the army. We need this same fearlessness today.
Apostle Paul was arrested, beaten, whipped, mocked, called crazy and stoned.
John Wesley was pelted with rocks, rotten fruit and dead cats!

Don’t be tempted to play it easy.
Hebrews 11:27 and 12:1-2; let us persevere.

“Let us all be of one business. We live only for this, to save our own souls and the souls of those who hear us.” John Wesley.

When his wife pleaded with him to get some sleep, “How can I sleep when my land is not saved?” He would often pray all night in agonising tones, “Lord, give me Scotland or I die!” John Knox.

“O Lord give me souls, or take my soul!” George Whitfield.

“On to Calvary! On to death for the world! Let us not refuse the smiters! No halting! No rest! On, suffering, sorrowing, weeping, dying for God and man, till the hosts of hell fly from their last defence and we march on over a burning world into everlasting glory.” William Booth.