Category Archives: Fellowship
First Thing
Ezra 3:10 When the builders completed the foundation of the Lord’s Temple, the priests put on their robes and took their places to blow their trumpets. And the Levites, descendants of Asaph, clashed their cymbals to praise the Lord….” [emphasis added]
Ezra 3:11 With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord: “He is so good! His faithful love for Israel endures forever!” Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s Temple had been laid. 12 But many of the older priests, Levites, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple’s foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. 13 The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance. [emphasis added] Read the rest of this entry
Instrument
1 Sam.3:19 “As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him, and everything Samuel said proved to be reliable.”
Samuel encountered God and the very next day he had to take a stand for God. 1 Sam.3:15 “Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then got up and opened the doors of the Tabernacle as usual. He was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him. 16 But Eli called out to him, “Samuel, my son.” “Here I am,” Samuel replied. 17 “What did the Lord say to you? Tell me everything. And may God strike you and even kill you if you hide anything from me!” So Samuel told Eli everything God told him; God was chastising Eli on his Read the rest of this entry
Over-Turn It!
Gen.32:24 “…But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.””
Joseph had a dream – he saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing to him. Israel said, you mean that your mother and I will bow down to you? And Israel changed it. Check – everyone bowed to Joseph apart from Israel. In fact, Israel lived to bless Joseph and his children. If he did not change it, he would have had to prostrate before Joseph because it had been written. Take the example of Job; there were discussions going on about Job but he could not listen in and so he could not change it. Job cried out, “I wish I had a man Read the rest of this entry
Knowing IX
Prov.22:17–19 [TLB, emphasis added] “Listen to this wise advice; follow it closely, for it will do you good, and you can pass it on to others…”
When God wants to take you into a new experience with Him, what do you do? I would say the only response is to follow Him. And this is the beauty of relationship; the more you spend time with God, the more He reveals Himself to you. Has God not been beautiful beyond description even before you and I were formed? But as you spend time with Him, as you experience Him and tarry in His Presence, these things become real to you. Then you become better equipped to pick out His voice even amidst a crowd.
Knowing VIII
John 1:12 [RSV] “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God”
God is more interested in your character than in your comfort. God is more interested in who you are becoming than in what you are acquiring. And God gives us a checklist in His Word. James 3:14-17 [NIV, emphasis added] “If you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition… such ‘wisdom’ is of the devil… The wisdom that comes from God is pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, impartial and sincere.” Be more like Christ.
Knowing II
Eph.3:10 [NIV] “God’s intent is that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known…”
Test #2 for recognizing Gods voice is: Does my church family confirm this? God wants us to connect to each other. The people that usually get into trouble, are the people who do not want to have anything to do with other people. They feel they are better than everyone else so they do not want people in their business. God did not design us to be silos. God designed us for community. Prov.11:9 [GN] “The wisdom of the righteous can save you.” The correction or guidance you get at your life group meeting can change your life. Read the rest of this entry
Knowing I
Luke 21:33 [TLB] “And though all heaven and earth shall pass away, yet my words remain forever true.”
Over the next few days, we are going to learn six plus one ways of testing a message and recognizing God’s voice. This is not some clever way of getting you to solve a math problem. It is six plus one because the first six ways are indispensable. Every Word from God must pass the first six tests. If it fails even one out of the six, throw it out or keep it in the cooler. The seventh is also very crucial but again it is not. You can authenticate with just the first six. So let us just say the seventh is an added advantage.
Humanness…
1 John 4:1 [LB] “Don’t believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God; test it first to see if it really is!”
God has made it your duty and my duty to test the voices we hear first. Why? It is because even the most well meaning person can be wrong. The best of men is still a man, and men are not flawless; so it is our responsibility to test. Jesus asked a question, “Who do men say that I am?” Peter said, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God”. And Jesus said, “flesh and blood did not reveal that to you”. In other words, this broadcast did not come from yourself, this broadcast did not come from the devil; you received this broadcast Read the rest of this entry
Voice Authentication
1 John 4:1 [LB] “Don’t believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God; test it first to see if it really is!”
Today, we will take off from a thought we touched on yesterday and that is, that there are three sources of voices that exist. The first source is God. Scripture points out in Job 33:14 “For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.” I pray that you will always recognize God, in Jesus Name. The second source is Yourself. Unfortunately, people talk to themselves and say God has spoken to them. No, dear brother or sister; you are the one talking to yourself. I talk to myself, I say “why did you do that?”
Voice Recognition
1 Cor.14:10 [KJV] “There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification”
We are confident that because of the spiritual journey God has taken us on in the past few days, a lot of us now know how to tune into God’s frequency, identify the different channels through which God speaks to us, and how to tune clearly into the voice and expressions of the Holy Spirit. I pray that God will even take us further and higher in Jesus Mighty Name.
So how do we recognize God’s voice amidst the very many voices everywhere? Scripture clearly points out that there are voices in the Read the rest of this entry
