Charles H. Spurgeon- "All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit. Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies dormant except He worketh in you to will and to do of His own good pleasure.
Do you desire to speak for Jesus — how can you unless the Holy Ghost touches your tongue? Do you desire to pray? Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you!
Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality? Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardour for the Master's cause? You cannot without the Spirit.
O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the sap! O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the life which God gives thee through His Spirit! Then let us not grieve Him or provoke Him to anger by our sin (Eph. 4:30). Let us not quench Him in one of His faintest motions in our soul; let us foster every suggestion, and be ready to obey every prompting.
If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing without Him; let us begin no project, and carry on no enterprise, and conclude no transaction, without imploring His blessing.
Let us do Him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from Him, and then depending alone upon Him, having this for our prayer, 'Open Thou my heart and my whole being to Thine incoming, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward parts.'" Charles H. Spurgeon
Let's pray-
Father, help us realize that all blessings and enablement come from Your Holy Spirit. We can accomplish no good thing without His being within us. May we welcome Your gracious acts to sanctify us for devout worship and godly thoughts and actions!
If Your Spirit is indeed so mighty, may we not attempt anything without Your help.
In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
My weekly advice from the book, "We All Married IDIOTS, by Elaine W. Miller:
(p. 98) "God's plan for a happy marriage is that love and respect grows. This should be the norm rather than the exception. As we practice cheerleading skills, our marriages become stronger. Each esteeming building block piled on top of the other is building a fortress that stands against the world's pressures. Yes, cracks will appear, but love matures as couples work and repair them together." (See Phil. 2:3, 4)
The Holy Spirit has power to guide. "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 'Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them'. And when they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed unto Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus." (Acts 13:2-4; of 8:29).
The Holy Spirit also guides in the details of daily life and service, as to where to go and where not to go, what to do and what not to do. It is possible for us to have the unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit at every turn in our lives.
The Holy Spirit teaches to render thanks. "Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father . . ."
Eph. 5:18-20).
The Holy Spirit has the power to give abiding and everlasting satisfaction.
"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."John 4:14
1671-1675 One-line Scriptures for those of you who want to learn some more verses this week- or to review them from when they were first posted-
1671- Ps. 107:6a "Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble."
1672- Ps. 84:2b "My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God."
1673- Jer. 29:20a "Hear ye the word of the LORD."
1674- Is. 2:10b "For the glory of his majesty."
1675- Pro. 25:8a "Go not forth hastily to strive."
#125 Hymn- Christ the Lord is Risen Today
John and Charles Wesley soon found themselves out of favor with many fellow anglican ministers who spurned their fiery evangelistic preaching. Many pulpits were closed to them.
George Whitefield, 22, who was having the same trouble, began preaching in the open air. In London, he asked Charles to stand with him as he preached to thousands in the open air at Blackheath, and Charles, too, got a vision for reaching the multitudes.
Charles still preaches in the same way through his ageless hymn which are sung around the world each Sunday. Perhaps his most exuberant anthem is the one he simply called, "Hymn for Easter Day," published in 1739. It originally consisted of eleven stanzas. The "Alleluias" were added later, but appropriately for this is a hymn one never gets tired of singing. "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today."
Encouraging words:
"When we look at the impossible situations of our lives through the lens of self-reliance, we will either hustle harder or give up in defeat. But when we look at the impossible circumstances of our lives through the lens of God's power and strength, we will stop measuring our likeliness to accomplish the impossible by our own strength." (p. 170 in The WAY OF THE WILD FLOWERS." Gospel Meditations
Church Notes: FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT
We live in a world of 'power in the air.'
Evil is after us to destroy us!
We're to take captive our thoughts as we're attacked in our dreams, thoughts and bodies.
We can be overcomers through Jesus!
When we're attacked by a tormenting spirit of death at times, we're to remember the Words spoken over our lives through prophetic words of trust.
We're to obey the Lord's commands and trust in the stewardship of our church leaders to evangelize and to call on our lives to take care of our faith in Jesus.
Prophetic words are to build and strengthen our faith to stand on God's Word and to fight to obey it.
We're to test the word of prophecy, to see if it will strengthen our faith.
Bringing the word of prophecy to our pastor is the best way to test it. He'll give direction and keep us from getting shipwrecked on bad directives.
They'll help us look to Jesus!
Upcoming posts:
2/14th- Part 1 of THE CHRISTIAN'S DNA- Richard Sinclair and friends
21st- Part 2 of THE CHRISTIAN'S DNA- Richard Sinclair and friends
3/7- OUR TRUE REFUGE IS GOD- Karen Huang
Jean's blog (Click to see snippets of the 7 recent posts)
No comments:
Post a Comment