WHO DOES JERUSALEM BELONG TO?

Both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs claim East Jerusalem as the rightful capital of their nations. 

• As Christians, we have only one Teacher, who is Jesus. 

• We have only one source of Truth, the Bible. 

What is EAST Jerusalem?

"East Jerusalem ... refer to the parts of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Jordan after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War ... and then captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. It includes Jerusalem's Old City and some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, such as the Temple Mount, Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre."

"East Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital of the proposed Palestine although Ramallah serves as the administrative capital. Israel has declared all of Jerusalem, both East and West sections, as its undivided eternal capital."

What does Jesus say about Jerusalem?

“But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Matthew 5:34-35 (NKJV)”

JERUSALEM .... IS THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING.

The apostle Matthew wrote the book bearing his name to present Jesus to the Jews as their heavenly King.

Matthew 1:1 (NKJV)   The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.

Jesus is referred to in the New Testament as the Son of Man, the Son of God and The Son of David. 

• David was the first great King of Israel who conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital city over Israel, reigning from there for 33 years, which is the same time period as the earthly life of Jesus.

• The whole of Israel was given to David by God, including Jerusalem as its capital city.

• God also promised to establish the Kingdom of David as an eternal kingdom that would never pass away.

Psalm 89:3-4 (NKJV)   "I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David:  'Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations.' " Selah

Christian tradition has spiritualised this and robbed God’s promise of much of its meaning. 

• Generations of Christians not understood that Jesus will not only reign has heavenly King of Kings.  

  • We must know Jesus will also rule and reign as the Jewish King of Israel on earth with Jerusalem as His capital city, the capital city of the restored Hebrew Nation of Israel and of the whole world.

Isaiah 2:3 (NKJV)  Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths." 

• For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 

Isaiah 60 speaks of a great spiritual world war in the end times. 

Isaiah 60:1-2 (NKJV)  Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.  

• For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; 

• But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.

Here we see God restoring His people to glory in a time of great spiritual darkness, which is surely today.

The glory of God is not yet seen in the lives of most Israeli Jews or in the lives of a great many Christians but God speaks of a time in which His glory will be revealed on all people who love Him and receive Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).

• We have seen some of this glory already in the great revivals in Azusa Street, Wales, Korea and Latin America. 

  • We have seen hundreds of millions of Africans and Chinese turn to Jesus since the rebirth of Israel. 

  • We see a great Christian Zionist movement rising up to love the Jews and support Israel.

Isaiah 60 also speak specifically of Jerusalem as the centre of God’s End Times plans.

 Isaiah 60:14 (NKJV)  Also the sons of those who afflicted you Shall come bowing to you, 

• And all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet; 

  • And they shall call you The City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

RIVERS OF LIVING WATER

If you grew up after the war in Australia or another English speaking country, you may remember a conversation like this.

“Mummy, where do babies come from?”
“Babies come from Mummy’s tummy.”

• Of course we know that the tummy or stomach is for digesting food and babies grow in the womb, or uterus, a totally different thing. 

  • But in all three languages of the Bible, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, there is an interesting word which can be correctly translated as stomach, belly or womb.

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his BELLY shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:37-38 (KJV)
But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:39 (NKJV)

• The word BELLY is the translation of the Greek KOILIA. 

• The equivalent Hebrew word is BETEN. When Jesus spoke these words in the temple, He may have been speaking Aramaic. 

  • The Aramaic Bible uses the word: K'aRSeH, which can also mean BELLY or WOMB. These words are often interpreted figuratively as HEART or INMOST BEING.

In the flesh, the womb and the stomach are quite distinct and only a woman has a womb. 

But in the spiritual realm it is a different story.

Jonah went down into the belly of the great fish or whale. When he came out of the fish’s belly, it was like a resurrection. The belly of the fish was like the womb giving birth to a new man.
The satisfaction of hunger and thirst sustains life. This is the function of the BELLY, to convert food and drink into life, to keep us alive and refresh us.
But the function of the WOMB goes further. The WOMB is the place where a seed sown grows into new life until a new person emerges. The stomach sustains life but the womb reproduces and multiplies life.
The inmost being of every born again Christian believer is potentially both a spiritual stomach and a spiritual womb. In this spiritual dimension there is no male or female. God desires to fill us with the Living Water of His Spirit to nourish, sustain and refresh us but He desires more. God fervently desires to satisfy our thirst but then to take us further, to make us bearers of new life for others.
To hunger and thirst for new life and refreshment in your own soul is not selfish. It is essential. But it is not enough. God wants his people to be like healthy young mothers, reproducing, multiplying, bringing new born again believers into the world.

• The conversion of unbelievers is the birthing of new life. Nothing is more wonderful than the restoration of a sinner to the heart of the Father in Heaven.

But evangelism is not the only way to birth a work of God’s Spirit. 

To sing an inspired song, write a book or paint a picture with God requires a joining together of the Spirit of God with the human spirit in an intimate connection like a husband and wife producing a new person. 

Every work of faith involves the bearing of living fruit, like giving birth to a child.

Have you been feeling tired and heavy lately? Maybe you need to stop struggling in your own strength. Get filled with the Spirit who can produce new life in you and then through you.
Or can it be that you are heavily pregnant in the Spirit?
Do you have a vision for a ministry, a mission, a book, a business, a child, a family revived and restored, a move of the Spirit in your city?
You may feel heavy because the baby is nearly due.
Be encouraged!
Christmas and New Year are seasons of New Birth, New Life, New Beginnings. Some of you are in labour now and your dream or vision is about to be transformed from faith into sight.

THE POWER OF PEACE

James 3:17 (ESV)   But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

The peace of God is a lovely thing. It is full of kindness and understanding. God enables us to be tolerant and reasonable with most unreasonable people. 

Jesus taught us to maintain our dignity when provoked and insulted but not to respond to arrogant aggression in the same aggressive spirit.

Matthew 5:11-12 (NLT)  “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 

• Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

The peace of God is holy. 

When you live and move in the peace of God, you are like Jesus Himself, who was and is gentle and kind but never at the expense of holiness and truth.

• There are Christians who campaign against abortion who have no peace in their hearts. They threaten abortionists with violence and right angry letters to women, accusing them of murdering their unborn babies and condemning them to hell fire.

• There are other believers who minister the peace and holiness of Jesus. 

  • An evangelist addresses women by telling them their aborted babies are in heaven and then tells them how to repent and be reconciled to God and reunited to their own children who have gone to heaven before them.

The peace of God is not weak but strong like the water of a great river, the River of God that flows from heaven and cascades down upon the thirsty earth.

Isaiah 44:3 (NKJV)   For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring;

Revelation 22:1 (NLT)   Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

• In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2 (NKJV)

This River is a manifestation of the Spirit of God Himself who is the Spirit of Jesus and the Spirit of peace.

• Galatians 5:22 (NKJV)   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace ...

John 7:37-39 (NKJV)  On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

• He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."  

  • But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

To understand how the River of Life in you generates NEW LIFE, click on this link:
OUT OF YOUR BELLY WILL FLOW RIVERS ... 

NO MORE LIMITS. EVERYONE A CHAMPION.

Over a hundred years ago, in a grammar school in Europe a wonderful old teacher would walk into his class and bow to his students. 

• He told them he was showing respect because he expected the young gentlemen would one day be very successful and important members of society.

Many Christians have been deceived. We have been taught to believe there are two classes of Christians. 

• The lower class are to be humble, gentle and loving church members.

Ephesians 4:2 (NIV)  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

• The upper class are the leaders and preachers, who are super Christians with supernatural powers.

Ephesians 4:11 (NIV)   It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.

Fortunately, the Bible does not teach this at all.

ALL believers are called to be completely humble and gentle and to treat all other believers with love, understanding and deep respect. Senior pastors and apostles are not a separate class.       

• We are supposed to submit to spiritual authority but ALL believers have been given spiritual authority. If you respect authority, you must submit to all believers.

Ephesians 5:21 (NIV)  Submit TO ONE ANOTHER out of reverence for Christ.

• Remember the schoolmaster who bowed to his students.

Matthew 23:8-9 (NIV)   "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.

• And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

Of course this does not mean a parent, teacher or pastor should let anybody do anything. 

• However, even when a leader corrects or disciplines, the aim must be to raise people up to realise their high potential, never to keep them in permanent submission to the leader.

The New Testament books which chiefly deal with church discipline and correction are  First and Second Corinthians.
A man in the church has been sleeping with his step-mother and refuses to repent. Paul writes to instruct the church to discipline the man. 

• Does Paul address his letter to “The Senior Pastor” or “The Board of Elders” or “The Leadership Group?” No.

1 Corinthians 1:2 (NIV)  To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy...

Few Churches today would even begin to think like this. We have strayed very far from the ways of Jesus Christ.

• And what does Paul say about submission to authoritarian leaders?

2 Corinthians 11:19-20 (NIV)   You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!

• In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face.

Paul describes authoritarian preachers as “fools” and rebukes the Corinthians for submitting to them.

Clearly Jesus does not call preachers to establish a hierarchy to which Christians are supposed to submit.

So why does Jesus give power and authority to leaders?

• It is not to rob other believers of their freedom, respect and authority.

• A leader is called to raise up and equip believers to exercise authority as ministers of Jesus Christ.

• Jesus has gifted apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers...

“...to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”  Ephesians 4:12 (ESV)

Jesus did not heal the sick to be admired. He healed the sick and worked wonders and then sent out his disciples to do the same thing.

Luke 9:1-2 (ESV)   And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.

• First Jesus sent the Apostles but then He sent out 72 disciples (believers like you and me) to do the same thing.

Luke 10:1-2 (ESV)  After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.                        

• And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.

HONOUR ONE ANOTHER, HONOUR FOR ALL

Philippians 2:1-2 (ESV)   So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 

• complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

What does it mean: BEING IN FULL ACCORD AND OF ONE MIND?

• Many of us have been told it means that the senior pastor or executive leaders are the source of truth. Unity means you must never question any detail of the preachers’ messages or the leaders’ policies or doctrines.

• Unity is supposed to require of you, that you completely submit your thinking and conversation to the leadership of your church.

• Some people might find it difficult to see a difference between some Pentecostal leaders’ apparent claim of infallible authority and the similar claim of the Roman Catholics for their traditional leadership.        

This begs the question, what does it mean to be “of one mind?”

• The context of this passage seems to indicate a unity of attitude, an attitude of mutual respect and concern for one another.

The emphasis is not on the infallibly superior wisdom of the leaders but on active participation of all believers in spiritual connection with the Holy Spirit and with one another.

In every part of the New Testament, so called ordinary believers are called to scrutinise leaders and doctrines for themselves.

Matthew 7:15-17 (NKJV)   "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

• You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Many of us have been taught to rely on the judgement of the pastor to warn us of unsound leaders and preachers.

• The sad thing is that it is often the senior pastor or the prominent leader himself who can be the source of the problem.

• So many trusting Christians are torn apart when their leaders fail. Congregations are taken by surprise when their church, splits, collapses or is taken over by leaders who behave like dictatorial cult leaders.     

I thank God for the great many pastors and leaders who do not fail. 

• Christians are also often at fault when they fail to realise how much leaders need prayer support to stay on track.

If we consider that some Pentecostal leaders wrongly claim to sit on the seat of Moses or behave like popes, we must not go to the other extreme. 

• There are many who don’t want to respect any spiritual leadership. They will not recognise the amazing gifting that God has clearly given some people. 

  • God does not give people powerful gifts by accident or for no reason.

Philippians 2:3 (NKJV)  Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.         

I am thankful that I am in a congregation with a very gifted but also very humble and kind leader. 

• He has wonderful spiritual gifts of leadership, healing, word of knowledge and wisdom but he also has great respect for others with gifts which he does not have.

This is so important, to honour people who are in some way better or more gifted than ourselves. This should teach us to honour genuine leaders and many of us fail in this. 

• However, it should also teach leaders to respect fellow believers amongst those they lead. In a healthy church, there will always be members who have some spiritual gift which the pastor does not have in the same measure.

We hear much teaching about honouring leaders and there is much truth in this. 

• However, there are churches in which the duty to honour leaders is so unreasonably emphasised, that the honour due to every believer is not given. Jesus saw this danger clearly.

Matthew 23:8-10 (NIV)   "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.

• And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

• Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.

Courage to Live

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 (ESV)  

Your greatest enemy is fear. 

• The birth of Jesus was unique. How many people do you know who chose to come into the world before they were born, or before they were even conceived?

Before His birth in Bethlehem he was happy with the Father in Heaven. 

• The great saints longed to leave the suffering of this life to be happy with God in heaven but Jesus loved you and me so much, that he decided to be born and become one of us.

The Son of God looked ahead and saw the humiliation of growing up in a small minded village community. 

• He knew he would be rejected and ridiculed because he was conceived before His parents were married. He knew many people would not believe God was his actual father.

He knew he would be persecuted by the religious leaders, unjustly arrested and executed in the cruelest possible way.

• He knew all this because he was God in Heaven but he decided to be born. He knew what would happen but he still chose to be born.  

• He natural human reaction to such anticipated suffering is fear but Jesus made a decision not to be afraid.

The Christian life is a supernatural life but it has its natural side as well. We have human feelings. 

• Jesus was sometimes horribly tired. He suffered deep rejection over and over again. Once he wept in public but we don’t know how many tears he shed in private.

He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Isaiah 53:3 (NLT)  

Jesus was often rejected and it hurt deeply but he decided to love anyway, to love the very people who hurt him.

• If you decide to follow Jesus, you will also suffer rejection and heartache. It will hurt. 

But God will be with you with the same miracle working power which he demonstrated in the life of Jesus.

YOU HAVE A FUTURE

No matter how dark your situation might be, you have a friend who can turn on the light and show you the way.

I was 24 when I faced the reality of this life. I had only 50 or 60 years left on this earth before the lights would go out for ever. 

There was no consolation on earth that could make up for this grim fact.

• I knew what Jesus said and it was Jesus who offered eternal life, a life with a future and a hope.

• The words of Jesus had thrilled me.

John 11:25-26 (ESV) ...“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

• I did believe this but still I resisted the call to faith and commitment.

My uncle and aunt had been converted through Billy Graham years before and I somehow knew they had found the answer.

Then something happened that made all the difference. 

The Charismatic movement arrived. 

The way of salvation was no longer a matter of Biblical correctness. It was a living reality. 

• The supernatural glory the Bible spoke of, was something you could experience right now in our generation. This was wonderful. I could experience the presence of God in a warm and wonderful way even before I took the step of committing my life to the Son of God.

I could see that the Holy Spirit was not just the One who made it possible to believe and live a good life. 

• The Holy Spirit was the wonderful person you could experience and know personally, God living inside you, not as a doctrine but as a living experience that changed everything.

That was many years ago and I am now 63, with grey hair and getting older. The presence of the Holy Spirit in my life is more exciting than ever. I never get tired of knowing God.

• I have experienced deep darkness and been close to despair a number of times. I know this truth for myself.

Psalm 73:26 (NKJV)  My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

I know with God I have a future and a hope, with God. That is the what makes all the difference, with God. 

 I wrote this message 7 years ago, and I am now 70. I still enjoy the adventure of knowing and experiencing the presence of God in a way that goes far beyond mental understanding or blind faith.

WHAT IS GOD REALLY LIKE?

What is God really like? 

We can so easily get confused about this. 

• You look at your life and you match what you see against the high standards of religious virtue. You start to think of God as a fearsome judge and you hide from Him.

• Or you look around and you think, if there is a God, how could he be good, to make a world so full of cruelty and suffering?

• Or you look away from humanity in horror and see the glory and beauty of nature, so you long to be in harmony with the mysterious spiritual essence permeating all that beauty. 

• Love and relationships always disappoint you, so you despair of finding a personal God. Often people let you down and sometimes the church that preaches a personal God is no better, sometimes but not always.

With the limitations of our faulty human nature, there is no way out of this confused mess.

As children we enjoyed the love of our mother and father, or if not we longed to have such a love. We heard stories where people lived happily ever after and we wanted them to be true.

There is no way out and no way home to the dreams of our childhood.

But as I grew older, I found there were at least some people who had found love and peace and a heavenly hope that was not just shallow religion. Of course I was confused and disappointed by much of what I saw in Christian churches but I longed for something better. 

• I didn’t find it in the worship of natural beauty or in yoga or poetry. I didn’t find it in psychology or religion.

I found it in the lives of some people who followed Jesus. 

They were full of love and they accepted me. When I was with them, I felt a warm glow like an aura, a spiritual fragrance in the atmosphere. 
I felt a spiritual presence far warmer and sweeter and more comforting than the spiritual atmosphere around New Age people. There was a comfort that was real and inviting far better than anything I had ever known.

• 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (ESV)    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 

  • who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

THE NEW WORLD IS COMING. ARE YOU READY?

Mark 1:14-15 (NIV)  After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

• "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

The time had come. The Kingdom of God was really near. 

• The King of the Universe had arrived on earth. 

• He had started to proclaim His mission, to win back the earth from the power of darkness and to restore the rule of heavenly goodness.

This was Good News and it still is today.

• When Jesus died on the cross, He defeated the power of evil and opened the door of Heaven for all to come in, all who would receive Him as the Son of God and the King and Master of their whole life.

• All who are willing to be adopted as Sons and Daughters of the Heavenly Father can come into the Royal Family of Heaven with amazing eternal privileges.

When Jesus died on the cross, He suffered the full penalty due to you and me for our faulty and selfish lives. 

• When He rose from the dead, He did not return immediately to heaven but spent 40 days with His disciples, teaching them to lead as pioneers of the New Heavenly Order.

The two qualifications for entry into the Kingdom of God were these:

• REPENT and BELIEVE.

• REPENT is a translation of the Greek word METANOEITE, which means to change your mind, let your whole way of thinking be transformed, so that your attitudes and your way of living cannot help but be changed.

• REPENT means to enter into a relationship of FAITH in God which transforms your heart, you mind and your life.

Once more we are at a strategic turning point in history. 

Many events around us indicate the time prophesied in the Bible is very near, the time when Jesus will come again. 

This time He will not come as a humble servant but as the Lord and King from Heaven.

• To be ready for His return, we need to be transformed in our thinking and believe with a deep, God given trust in His love. 

• We need to go deeper in our faith and be open to change our entire way of thinking because these are increasingly troubled times.

  • We are coming into times where old traditional ways of thinking will not work for us, where good Christian living will not be possible without living in very close communication with our heavenly King and His Spirit living in us.

• Jesus told a parable referring to exactly the time we are living in.

• Matthew 25:1-13 (NIV)  "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  Five of them were foolish and five were wise.

• The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.

• The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

• "At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' "Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.

• The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' "'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

• "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. "Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'

• "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

For hundreds of years, many Christians have lived with second hand faith.

However, we are living in dangerous times. So many preachers have failed. Not only the world but the church is shaking.

Each one of us needs to have a personal love relationship with Jesus.

• What was wrong with the foolish virgins? They depended on blessing from other Christians, from ministry.

The wise virgins were personally and individually filled with the Holy Spirit.

LIBERTY IN THE LOVE OF GOD

There are two kinds of ministry. 

• The kind that God likes is encouraging and comforts the heart.

Isaiah 40:1-2 (NKJV)   "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" Says your God.

• "Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins."

The Good News of salvation must always be GOOD news. 

• Jesus preached against sin but He always attracted sinners with his genuine love and encouragement. 

• Jesus was a nice person to be with. 

• The religious leaders despised him because he associated with sinners. He was known as the friend of sinners.

John 3:16-17 (NKJV)   For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

• For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

• The other kind of ministry is judgmental and controlling.

Matthew 23:4 (NKJV)   For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we see both kinds of ministry contrasted.

Paul shows us the best kind of ministry in Chapter 1.

• Firstly Paul directs his readers to focus on God and particularly His love, grace, mercy and peace.

2 Corinthians 1:2-3 (NKJV)   Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort..

Certainly God wants us to be virtuous and moral but He is not interested in virtue that is not motivated by a heart of love and mercy.

In 1999 there was a day of public prayer organised by Christians in Argentina. Homosexuals responded by organising a protest march. 

• The hostility was defused by the believers who went to the homosexuals and asked their forgiveness for the cruel judgment they had suffered from Christians. 

• They blessed the homosexuals. Some of them left the protest to talk to the Christians and nine accepted salvation.

A young homosexual man was dying of Aids in a Chilean hospital. 

Cold hearted people went the hospital like visitors at the zoo but one Christian grandmother visited to show love and mercy. 

• She prophesied over the young man that his next blood transfusion was to be his last and God would heal and save him. 

• The young man believed and was transformed by the love of God. 

• The change in the young man’s life impacted the hospital. Doctors and nurses were converted. A new church was established based on the miracle power and love of Jesus.

The second kind of ministry is controlling, based on authority, titles and positions. Paul deals with this very directly but sadly we often don’t take any notice.

2 Corinthians 11:19-20 (NLT)   After all, you think you are so wise, but you enjoy putting up with fools!

• You put up with it when someone enslaves you, takes everything you have, takes advantage of you, takes control of everything, and slaps you in the face.

There are Christians who base their Christian lives on the ministry of preachers who control them. 

They are deceived by pride, by the pride of the preacher who takes the place of Jesus in the life of the believers. 

• The followers of these preachers also can become infected with pride. They imagine they are superior because they follower the superior doctrine of their chosen leader.

If you pastor discourages you from visiting other churches or listening to other preachers, don’t be intimidated. 

• Exercise your God given freedom.

We are ONE BODY in Christ.

Galatians 5:1 (NKJV)   Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

EXPECT GREAT THINGS, MESSIAH IS COMING

As we draw near to the end of history as we know it, we see amazing events looming up not far ahead. 

For centuries theologians has supposed the restoration of Israel as a Jewish nation might be some kind of mysterious symbolic message in the Old Testament. 

• Some have speculated that the Old Testament prophets were talking about the Church. 

  •  Others have thought the prophecies would not come to pass because the Jews rejected the Messiah.

• However they were missing the point. 

In Romans 9 to 11, the Apostle Paul discussed the very problem of Israel’s rejection, Israel’s rejection of Yeshua Messiah and God’s rejection of Israel.

In Romans Chapter 11, Paul makes it clear that the rejection is partial and temporary. 

• Not all Jews rejected Jesus. If fact the first Church and the Apostles were Jewish. 

• Secondly, Israel’s unbelief is neither total nor permanent. Consequently, God’s rejection of Israel is neither total nor permanent.   

Romans 11:1 (NKJV)  I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Romans 11:13-15 (NKJV)   For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,

• if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.

• For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

Romans 11:25-27 (NKJV)  For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

• And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

• For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."

As the Jewish nation of Israel has been dramatically restored and miraculously protected in our time, so we have also seen two other amazing developments.

• There is a rapid multiplication of Jewish believers in Yeshua Messiah around the world and in Israel itself.

• There is a rapid growth of Christian Zionism based on belief in literal Bible prophecies.

Disasters multiply around the world and especially in the Middle East where hatred of the Jews is strongest. 

But we must know that God is not the author of evil. 

• Not all disasters are the work of the Divine Judge. 

• There is a lot of demonic activity and a lot of human sinfulness involved.

God is love and He remains as He was in the Bible, the Great Worker of Miracles.

• As Israel is once more the central focus of world events, know that the Times of the Gentiles are drawing to a close. 

• Know that you are called to rise and shine in the miraculous power and love of Jesus to love the Jews and to provoke them to jealousy for the sake of Yeshua Messiah.       

• Expect God to do amazing things even this year and next year, not only in the mighty underground church in China, not only in Africa where tens of thousands of people are sometimes saved in a single day. 

• Expect God to do amazing things in your life and in the countries we have written off, the so called Post Christian nations of old Christendom.

• Expect miracles in your family, breakthroughs in your ministry, turnarounds in your health and finances. Expect God to act and He will act as YOU act in faith.

BROKEN LIVES RESTORED

In cities around the world, small groups of Christian women visit brothels, showing genuine love and concern to prostitutes. 

• In Germany one of these women took a prostitute to Sunday morning service in a quiet, conservative Christian church. 

• In the middle of the service, the prostitute jumped to her feet and shouted,” Now I believe in Jesus! Can you baptise me now!?”

I was a guest at a graduation ceremony at Teen Challenge in Australia. Over 30 young men and women had spent over year in intensive rehabilitation with strict discipline including counselling, prayer, Bible study, domestic work, exercise and retraining for life. They had all had serious drug problems before going to the isolated Christian boot camp. 

• Over six years later, I see some of them progressing very well, living good Christian lives in normal society. After the graduation, one girl said to me: “See those girls. About half of them were involved in prostitution.”

  
  

GOD IS RESTORING BROKEN LIVES.

David Wilkerson (1931 to 2011) was a Pastor in a small town in Pennsylvania. In 1958 he saw a news report of violent gangsters in New York. He felt the broken Father heart of God for the lost young people. 

Called by God, he drove to New York and established contact with young gangsters. With the help of a Hispanic Pentecostal church in the area, he reached out and preached to the gangsters. They could see the love of God in the preacher and amazingly a group of them responded and many were converted to Jesus.

• The book and the movie, “The Cross and the Switchblade” became international best sellers. David Wilkerson set up Teen Challenge, which now runs intensive rehabilitation programs in many countries.        

• Nicky Cruz was a gang leader who was converted to Jesus in “The Cross and the Switchblade,” later became a famous preacher and wrote his own best selling book, “Run Baby Run.”

   

   WERNER NACHTIGAL  

  A teenage boy in Hanover, Germany was staggering home from a party one night, blind drunk as usual. Suddenly he heard the voice of Jesus: “You will be an evangelist!” 

Some time later some Christians told him about Jesus and the message of salvation and he believed. He had grown up in an unchurched family without any Christian faith. 

• Later his mother told him about a strange experience when he was three years old. Little Werner pointed across the room and cried out, “Who is that man wearing a white robe? His eyes are so bright!”

Werner Nachtigal did become an evangelist and now preaches to large crowds around the world. Many people find faith in Jesus and many sick and handicapped people are miraculously healed.

• Once he was in his home city of Hanover and the Holy Spirit spoke to him. He was shocked. God told him to go to a brothel. He was reluctant but he took a group of believers with him and asked if they could go in “only to evangelise.” 

• They were allowed in and he met a woman from the Dominican Republic in the Carribean. She said she had a husband and two children in her home country. She had been tricked into going to Germany to get a job and earn more money for her family. When she arrived, they took away her passport and put her to work in the brothel. She had no choice and there was no way out. She became one of millions of sex slaves around the world. 

• Werner told her about Jesus and she was converted to faith in Christ. He also organised help to get her out of the brothel and she returned home to her family.

  Around the world the Spirit of Jesus is touching lost and broken lives and setting people free.

• What Jesus said 2000 years ago is still true today.

Luke 4:18-19 (ESV)  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

• Whether you are a prostitute, a drug addict, a preacher, a bus driver or a housewife, God has a plan for your life and it is a wonderful plan.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NKJV)  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Doing it Like Jesus

And the LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, See that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. 

But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. NKJ Exodus 4:21 

• God is calling the followers of Jesus of this generation to exercise All the charismatic gifts found in the New Testament. 

Is this to make ministries look good? 

Sadly the gifts are often misused for this purpose but it is not the purpose of God. 

• God wants to make known to all people His supernatural power, love, reality, presence, wisdom and knowledge, so that many will believe and be saved through faith in Jesus.

Are charismatic gifts necessary for salvation? 

• Yes and no. You can go to heaven if you don’t pray in other tongues, if you don’t heal the sick, if you don’t prophesy and you don’t cast out demons.

  • But the salvation of others can often depend on believers who release the saving power of Jesus by using gifts like these. 

Moses was not sent to work miracles in Egypt to be delivered himself but to secure the release of a captive people.

• Does this mean that every believer must be constantly exercising all the nine Charismatic gifts on a daily or weekly basis? 

• If you are not operating at the same powerful supernatural level as Benny Hinn or Reinhard Bonnke, should you feel a failure?

• Of course not.

Of course we can all receive the gift of praying in tongues and use this for our private devotion, prayer, praise and intercession.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:4 (NKJV)   

• Praying in tongues opens your spirit to the supernatural moving of the Holy Spirit in a new way. This can and should lead to a deeper experience of God’s gifts which God wants to give you to bless others.

Dear brothers and sisters, if I should come to you speaking in an unknown language, how would that help you? 

But if I bring you a revelation or some special knowledge or prophecy or teaching, that will be helpful. 1 Corinthians 14:6 (NLT) 

 

• The supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are intended to be used by all believers in all places in all kinds of situations.

When Moses delegated some of this leadership authority to 70 elders, God gave the gift of prophecy to all of the 70 and they began to prophesy in the meeting, with the exception of two who were not there. 

However, these two began to prophesy where they were, outside the meeting. Moses received a complaint about it but he dismissed the objection.

• Then Moses said to him, "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!" NKJ Numbers 11:29 

Jesus is our role model.  

When the Son of God lived as a man, he remained God but he laid aside his unlimited divine powers and relied on the Holy Spirit to supernaturally reveal information as and when He needed it. 

In his wonderful book on marketplace Christianity, Ed Silvoso tells how a newly converted Filipino taxi driver was led by the Holy Spirit to begin a personal mission to a bar called Sweet Moments.

• “Every day he would go into the bar, order a soft drink and pray peace over the place, its employees and customers. After a few days of doing this, he befriended the manager, Brian, who was a homosexual, a gambler, a drug user, a drug dealer and a pimp to 35 prostitutes....

This friendship grew. After a few days Joe was able to lead Brian to the Lord and baptise him at a nearby beach. 

• As Brian emerged from the water, the power of God came upon him and he experienced an instant transformation. All his homosexual drives disappeared. 

• He was also freed from gambling and drug addiction. He was delivered from all his vices and stopped being a pimp, which had supported his sinful lifestyle.”

• Soon the 35 prostitutes became Christians and then the lawyer who owned the bar was also converted. The bar became a dynamic Christian church and the newly converted taxi driver was the pastor and leader.

THIS IS A TIME FOR COURAGE

This is not a season for business as usual but for courage in a crisis.

Here is a copy of today's facebook post by my good Facebook Friend Philip Lye in Queensland Australia.

• Word for the Day - Be Courageous: 'Be strong and of good courage...' Deuteronomy 31:6 NKJV

On the morning of September 11, 2001, United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco was hijacked by terrorists who claimed to have a bomb. 

When they received telephone confirmation that other planes with terrorists on board had hit the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the passengers understood the hijackers' intent. 

Todd Beamer, a 32 year old businessman, picked up a seat-back phone and reached Lisa Jefferson, a Verizon Airfone supervisor. He told her that he and others were going to 'jump on' a hijacker who was guarding the passengers in the rear. Beamer asked her to pray the Lord's Prayer with him. He also made her promise to call his wife, Lisa, and tell her that he loved her and their two little boys. 

Dropping the phone after talking with Jefferson, Beamer said, 'Jesus, help me.' Then, after reciting Psalm 23, he said, 'Are you guys ready? Okay, let's roll.' Those were the unforgettable last words Beamer said before he and others rushed the hijackers. There were screams, then silence. 

• That day brave civilians, complete strangers, rose up against impossible odds and tried to save the aircraft. In doing so, they made the ultimate sacrifice. United Flight 93 crashed into a large field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 on board. Of the four hijacked planes that morning, theirs was the only one that failed to hit its target. 

 Those heroes showed courage - at the highest level. Whatever you are facing today, be courageous, 'for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you'.

CAN YOUR HEART THINK?

Supposing it were technically possible, would you want a brain transplant to save your life? 

But who would you be? 

• Would you be the person died and gave the brain or would you be the person who received a new brain?

We believe the brain is where you think and which therefore defines who you are. But the Bible never says that. In the Bible it is the heart which defines who you are.

• Proverbs 23:7 (NKJV)   FOR AS HE THINKS IN HIS HEART, SO IS HE. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his HEART is not with you.    

• Proverbs 14:10 (NKJV)  The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.

• Luke 6:45 (NKJV)   A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Over 40 years ago a South African heart surgeon named Christian Barnard transplanted a heart and saved a life. Now it is almost a routine operation. 

The Bible says we think with our heart, meditate in our heart, love and hate with our heart and we believe or doubt with our heart but we know better. 

• That is just symbolic language. A heart transplant is just a technical operation involving a muscular organ that pumps blood. OR IS IT?

•  We have become accustomed to seeing science exposing and correcting naive literal interpretations of the Bible. 

Of course we all know that the brain in our head is full of nerve cells which enable us to think. When we read in the Bible that our heart thinks, we assume this is an old fashioned and symbolic use of language. The best Bible dictionaries and commentaries agree with this view. We have come to think that heart is a powerful muscle that pumps blood and nothing more. 

But then something very strange happened.

In 1988, Claire Sylvia, a 47 year old American woman had a successful heart and lung transplant. After her recovery, she unexpectedly remarked to an interviewer: “I’m dying for a beer right now.” This astonished her because she had never liked beer but the 18 year old boy whose heart she received was definitely a beer drinker. 

 

• She also discovered she had acquired a taste for Snickers Bars, green peppers and Kentucky Fried Chicken, which she never liked before. It turned out the dead boy also loved these foods. Then her daughter observed she walked like a man and she was more assertive than before. 

• Claire traced the family of the boy who gave her his heart and wrote a book about her personality changes. This opened a new field of research which is still in its early stages. Other amazing stories emerged.

A little girl received a new heart from another girl who had been murdered. She had vivid nightmares about the murder of the other girl. A psychiatrist took her stories seriously and the police were called in. The detailed account of the murder led the police to find and arrest the killer.

You can find a number of similar stories on the following web pages.

• DOES THE HEART REMEMBER? PEARSALL

• STORIES OF HEART AND PERSONALITY TRANSPLANTS

You can also find a good introductory article on the following web page.

• DOES THE HEART HAVE A BRAIN?

Relatively new research is telling us that there are many that the heart has a huge number of nerve cells and the heart includes a second brain, possibly over half the size of the brain in your head.

Now read these Bible texts and see what they say to you.

• Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)  ... if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your HEART that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the HEART one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 

  • Psalm 51:10 (KJV)  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

  • Ezekiel 11:19 (NKJV) Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,

  
  

A NEW START FOR DISAPPOINTED BELIEVERS.

God is calling failures...

• Hebrews 12:2-3 (TLB)  Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards; and now he sits in the place of honor by the throne of God.

• If you want to keep from becoming fainthearted and weary, think about his patience as sinful men did such terrible things to him.

In this life we need courage. A life without courage can only be full of disappointment and mediocrity.

Jesus was the Lord in Heaven, the Eternal, Holy, Almighty Son of the Heavenly Father.

• He dared to come into this world as a human being, to be born as a baby boy.

• He dared to grow up in a village of small minded gossips where he was tormented because they thought he was an illegitimate child.

• He dared to preach the truth and provoke the religious leaders, knowing this would lead to his arrest and cruel execution on the cross.

• He dared to trust a small group of followers to be the founders of a new movement which would transform the world for God.

• He dared to choose you and me before the foundation of the world, so that as Christians we would be His representatives on earth.

• He knew we would often fail but in spite of that he dared to entrust us with His name and His mission.

  We must not let Him down.

But you can trust Him, that He will not let you down. He was the originator and creator of your faith, not you. He called you and you responded by receiving Him.

• John 1:12 (TLB)  But to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God. All they needed to do was to trust him to save them.

Then you probably made a wonderful discovery, that the love of God was a great liberation, that you experienced a wonderful personal closeness to the Spirit of God, something you had no idea of before you knew Jesus.

But then you encountered hard tests and disappointments. You may have been badly misunderstood by friends or family or you had bad experiences in church or you experienced deep rejection from people you expected to support you.

You may have set out to do something for God but failed or other Christians let you down, perhaps even betrayed you. Perhaps you made some really bad mistakes. You may have chosen the wrong job, the wrong church to join or the wrong person to marry.

You husband or wife may have betrayed you or you were badly mistreated by you church leaders. Perhaps your parents or your children turned against you or it may be that your life is in ruins because of your own sins.

You may have struggled for years with failures and disappointments until you seriously doubted if you would make it to heaven. 

Or you may have lowered your expectations of success and fulfilment in this life while you grimly waited until the time when death would open the door to a merciful release into heaven.

But right now God wants to speak to you. He wants you to know that He still has a plan and a purpose for your life on this earth.

God wants to raise up and restore His disappointed children to a new life of blessing and breakthrough enabled by His power and perfect love.

Jesus suffered and died on the cross to save you from your disappointment. Jesus is right with you now, calling you to believe and hope again, to dare to love again.

He is calling you, as He called His beloved Peter long ago, to rise up from his shame and defeat to become the first great preacher of the Good News in the early church in Jerusalem.