GOD IS CALLING YOU

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. John 1:6 (ESV) 

John was an amazing man, like Elijah in the Old Testament, he stood alone and confronted a nation with the message of God. 

He was the appointed representative of God on earth and huge crowds went out to see him and hear what he had to say. 

His birth was a miracle. 

His parents were an elderly childless couple when his father saw an angel who promised his birth. His calling and task was to prepare a nation for the coming of the Son of God.

What did Jesus say about John?

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Matthew 11:11 (ESV)

But then Jesus said something amazing, something few of us have properly understood.

“...Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” 

How can that be? John was filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb, before he was born! 

John was a friend of God, as were Abraham and Moses. Few of us can claim to know God as well as John did, yet we have a higher privilege than any of the Old Testament prophets.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. John 3:29 (NKJV) 

If you have trusted in Jesus to be your Lord and God, you are a brand new person inside. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. NKJV 2 Corinthians 5:17 

The Bible calls the followers of Jesus the Bride of Christ. This is not entirely new. 

In the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophets and described Himself as the Husband of His people Israel but this was the relationship between God and His nation, not a personal intimate relationship with each believer.

After the death and resurrection of Jesus and especially after the outpouring of the Spirit of God, each believer can enter boldly into the presence of God, as a son or daughter coming to the father or like a wife coming to her husband. 

This is sensational!

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. John 1:6 (ESV) 

Now put YOUR name in this text. 

There is a man sent by God, whose name is ___________________________.

There is a woman sent by God, whose name is ___________________________.

This is your status before God. Believe it and accept it in your heart and you will never be the same. 

Here is a link to an inspiring application of this message especially for women who have been wrongly taught that leadership and preaching ministry are only for men.

YOU WERE BORN FOR THIS

Jesus Makes you Free to be Different, to be You.

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Mt 5:14 (NKJV) 

When you travel through the night, whether by car or by plane, you can see a city far ahead as a blaze of lights.

Jesus says his followers are like a city filled with light. This is a representation on earth of the City of God in the glorious Kingdom of God which is to come.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Rev 21:10-11

What is a city like? It is a community filled with diversity, different kinds of businesses and trades, different kinds of organisations. There are government offices and private companies, big businesses and small family businesses. In a healthy city the government does not own or control businesses and big businesses do not totally dominate small businesses. 

So it is with the people of Jesus. There are big churches and denominations and there are house churches and informal prayer groups. There are fellowships where believing business people meet to pray and bring their faith into their work. There are missions to the homeless and prayer groups in colleges. These are just as important as congregations which meet on Sunday. 

In a secular city there are very creative people who are self employed writers, artists, architects and consultants. No company boss or government official controls their lives. Their free creativity keeps the society open to new ideas. 

So it is in the Kingdom of God. CS Lewis was a great Christian writer but he did not hold a senior position in his church and he did not have a church leader telling him what to write or what not to write. 

Some of the most influential Christian leaders have not been church leaders. 

Bach and Handel wrote worship music that moved the hearts of millions. Bach was a humble church organist and music director in a local church. Handel was a commercial composer who wrote operas and music for public occasions.

God does not want all his people to be the same. 

He wants different kinds of churches, different kinds of ministries, different kinds of people doing different kinds of things to demonstrate His own glorious creativity. 

Maybe you are copying other Christians or trying to fit in with what your church, your leaders or your family expect of you.  

Stop, look around and listen to God. What did HE put you on this earth to do? He will show you and your life will never be the same.

For centuries we have been locked into a narrow stereotyped idea of church and the Kingdom of God. God is now saying: LET MY PEOPLE GO!

WHAT IS SALVATION? JESUS AND YOU.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (ESV)

What is salvation? Is it believing in Jesus as the Son of God who forgives your sins and opens the gates of heaven to let you in? Certainly it is. 
Is it helping you to overcome your sins and helping you keep believing on your journey through this world? Of course it is. 
But has this message stirred the heart of this generation? No, it clearly hasn’t. People of our time are not interested in being sinners struggling to obey God and church leaders as they limp their sinful way to a some mysterious place called heaven.
But salvation is much, much more. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God... Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)

Many of us think we have understood this but we have not. The problem is our limited understanding of GRACE and FAITH.
We think GRACE is the favour and mercy of God to undeserving sinners and that is true but only partly true.
GRACE is the transforming POWER of the Love of Almighty God who is your CREATOR.
God created the world and He created you in your mother’s womb. But that is not the end of your relationship with God as your CREATOR.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) 

When you are truly converted to Jesus, God answers the prayer of King David in Psalm 51.

Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Psalm 51:9 (NKJV) 

But God does not stop there.
God goes on to CREATE new life in you.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

So what is FAITH? Is it religious belief? Muslims and Hindus have religious belief but they have no assurance that they have salvation. Muslims live in hope that they might pass the test of the last judgement based on their works but they also live in fear that they might fail the test and burn in hell. Hindus expect to come back to earth in an endless series of reincarnations, struggling through life after life in a sad and difficult world.
FAITH is something God creates in you that connects you to Father God. Jesus called God FATHER and He taught us to call God FATHER. Muslims consider it blasphemous to call Allah “FATHER.” Muslims see Allah as supreme creator, lawgiver and judge but they have no belief in a loving personal relationship with Father God. 
Nevertheless, many Muslims and Hindus have a deep hunger to know the true God and this hunger is leading millions of them to turn to Jesus in our generation.
What is this FAITH that connects us to Father God? It begins with believing AND TRUSTING in Jesus that He died to pay the penalty of your sin on your behalf. As Jesus died on the cross, a victim of religious hatred and murder, He prayed to the Father:

Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." ...Luke 23:34

Supposing God really is your CREATOR and He made you to be His loving son or daughter in intimate friendship for ever. Supposing you have turned away from this loving Father as we all have. That means you have really rejected the loving source of all life and goodness. If you turn from the only source of all love and life and goodness, there is nothing left but despair and emptiness. Jesus died to save you from death, despair and everlasting emptiness. 
Will you receive His offer of life, the free gift of a new life?

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (ESV)  

GRACE is the transforming power of God that CREATES new life in you, that enables you to love even your enemies, to live a life of miraculous faith, enjoying healing and blessing and sharing this power to bless others.

LIKE JESUS.

When you believe in Jesus as the Son of God who loves you, you can never be the same person again. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

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

When you believe in Jesus and trust him to direct and transform your life, he makes you a son or daughter of the eternal God.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are... Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:1-2 (ESV)

When you decide to believe in Jesus, God changes your whole nature, and begins to transform you into the wonderful person He designed you to be, full of love and goodness like Jesus himself.

JESUS GIVES YOU PEACE AND REST

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 

Jesus promised to give you rest. Are you resting enough?

Recently I have been busy. On Friday after work I have been very tired and then I have spent the whole weekend doing good Christian things. Then I have gone to work tired on Monday. 
The Ten Commandments commanded the Jews to rest from work on the seventh day. Some Christians still observe the seventh day and others keep Sunday as holy but whichever day you keep holy, you can be too busy honouring God but not resting.
One of the great Christian leaders of our time is Yonggi Cho, the great Pentecostal church leader in Korea. He experienced a crisis when his wife became very unhappy. He prayed about it and God told him he was not observing the principle of the Sabbath rest. The issue was not over the correct day, whether Saturday or Sunday. The problem was that he was busy in ministry 7 days a week. 
God told him to relax and spend time with his wife on Mondays. When he did that, his wife was happy and his ministry continued to be blessed. 

You may devote most of your weekend to God but are you resting?

Jesus promised to give you rest but YOU cannot enjoy that gift if you do not spend time just resting. Jesus offers rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:29-30

For many years I was active in churches until I realised that busy Sundays were a burden and not a blessing. I felt bound by duty to attend Sunday services morning and night. 

Then I was convicted by the Holy Spirit who reminded me that I was not visiting my aging father often enough. Church twice on Sunday was leading me into the sin of not properly honouring my father. 

Now I go to lovely Spirit filled meetings most Friday nights and I go to meetings two or three Sundays a month but Sunday church is not a binding law for me.

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. Romans 14:4-5 (ESV) 

And what about your relaxation? Are you really relaxing when you watch TV? So much modern recreation is not rest but restless distraction which subtly takes us away from God. I am not a legalist and I watch funny TV programs quite often but in small doses.
And then there is sleep. Are you tired from lack of sleep? I often am and I am trying to correct that.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Psalm 127:2 

If you sleep enough and you go to sleep in the presence and the love of God, He will supernaturally bless you in the night in your bed. This is how I have received some of my greatest blessings. 

There are even some people who have dreamed about going on missions to other countries. I was told by a reliable friend that one woman visited China in a dream and later she was sent photographic proof that she had actually travelled there by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Growing in Faith

Ephesians 1:3 (NKJV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Colossians 2:9-10 (NKJV)
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
1 Corinthians 2:16 (NKJV)
... But we have the mind of Christ.

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. The church, the body of believers is the temple of the Holy Spirit but in addition to that, YOU individually are the temple of the Holy Spirit. 

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NKJV)
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

So if GOD Himself lives in you, you need have no lack. Only believe. 

So if you need to know anything, just ask and the ONE who lives in you will show you.
It seems so easy. He can do anything. He is almighty and all knowing and He lives in you. He can give you all things and He desires to give you all things. 
But remember the God who lives in you also has a mind of His own. You also have a human mind of your own. Even Jesus, though He was God, was also a human being with a human mind and His human mind was limited, otherwise it would not have been human.

Luke 2:52 (KJV)
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. 

The word FAVOUR is the Greek word CHARIS which is often understood to mean “undeserved favour.” But Jesus was the perfect Son of God. We often overemphasise the idea of undeserved favour. 
The word GRACE also means SUPERNATURAL DIVINE EMPOWERMENT. 
As Jesus grew physically, his mental capacity also increased and he learned knowledge and skills as we do. 
As his human capacity increased, His Heavenly Father also increased the level of DIVINE EMPOWERMENT and SUPERNATURAL WISDOM in His Son.
If we want to understand how we can be endowed with everything God has and is and yet need to grow in faith and spiritual gifting, we need to carefully consider our example, Jesus of Nazareth. He is our model.

“JESUS IS PERFECT THEOLOGY.” Bill Johnson

So Paul urges believers to humbly acknowledge their present limitations but to press forward in faith to grow into the perfect image of Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:9-10 (ESV)
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
Philippians 3:12 (ESV)
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  

WHAT IS THE GREATEST MIRACLE?

WHAT IS THE GREATEST MIRACLE OF ALL?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (ESV) 
WHAT IS THE MOST AMAZING MIRACLE?
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2
AND...
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy ...Jude 1:24 (NKJV) 
BUT DOES THAT MEAN WE SHOULD NOT DESIRE LESSER MIRACLES LIKE HEALING AND PROPHECY?
The Bible teaches us we should earnestly desire God's supernatural blessings here and now!!
In Matthew 17, the disciples of Jesus failed to heal a sick boy because they could not cast out a demon. Jesus was not pleased. JESUS thought healing was important and HE has not changed.
WHAT IS THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD?
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 
1 Cor 13:13 
If LOVE is the supreme good, what value should we place on miraculous gifts? 
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV) 
A COMPLETE AND BALANCED CHRISTIAN LIFE IS A LIFE OF LOVE AND PRACTICAL KINDNESS BUT WE MUST NOT FORGET THAT SALVATION IS SUPERNATURAL FROM START TO FINISH. 
We must not and dare not neglect to manifest the supernatural power of the love of Jesus. 
Miraculous spiritual gifts are not necessary for salvation. All you need is to trust in the love of Jesus and the message of salvation. BUT in another sense, supernatural Charismatic gifts are ESSENTIAL for salvation, for the salvation of others.
Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." John 4:48 
...AND SO IT IS TODAY. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL NEVER BELIEVE UNLESS THEY SEE OUR FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE CONFIRMED BY MIRACULOUS SPIRITUAL GIFTS, SUCH AS PROPHECY AND HEALING.

UNDERSTANDING SIGNS AND WONDERS

"JESUS IS PERFECT THEOLOGY" Bill Johnson

Many Christians insist that supernatural prophecies, revelations and supernatural events must be judged and we must base our discernment on the Bible, which is the Word of God. Of course they are right. But HOW should we apply the teachings of the Bible to the task of discernment? 

Test all things; hold fast what is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NKJV) 

If gold dust or jewels miraculously appear in a worship meeting, people say it is against the Bible because no such manifestation is recorded in the Bible. The Bible says that the character of God does not change but it does not say that God is obliged not to express Himself in new ways.
In our generation MANY Christians are experiencing miracles which do not replicate Bible stories. In South America a multitude of people have reported having tooth decay miraculously healed with supernatural gold or enamel fillings. 
A small army of zealous believers has risen up to condemn this on the internet. 

But I believe God is deliberately doing things which He did not record in the Bible. WHY? He wants to destroy this false mindset, that we should only expect God to do exactly the same things that HE has done before.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV) 

The Bible narrative shows us that God delights to surprise both His own people and His enemies with miracles that defy their expectations. God is now challenging a false notion of Biblical correctness. HOW? He is dramatically defying the expectations of the most pious Bible teachers and students. 

But is this the character of GOD? Why not read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? You will see that Jesus challenged the most devout Bible teachers of His time with deliberate confrontation over and over again. 

JESUS OF NAZARETH WAS SENSATIONALLY UNPREDICTABLE. THIS IS THE NATURE OF GOD.