Yesterday was a great day in our group. I really felt the presence of the Lord in our discussions. This group has been so precious because you all love the Lord and are so vulnerable and open with each other. I always look forward to Mondays.
We finished our talk on prayer yesterday. We learned that God is personally committed to revealing Himself to you. As we spend time in His presence, our questions about life and our circumstances grow dim in His glorious light. We are changed when we stay there in the light. Our circumstances may not ever change, but our perspectives will because of time spent with the Lord. Your solitude with the Lord directly affects the ministry and service that you are able to do. If you have not met with the Lord, your ministry will be full of your flesh. We need to be filled up with the Holy Spirit so that we will overflow into the lives of others.
Solitude qualified several heroes of the faith for service. Moses was in Midian for 40 years before he encountered the burning bush. Joseph was is Pharoah's prison for years before he was called up to interpret a dream. David was annointed to be King as a shepherd boy and was not appointed king until he was 40. In their times of solitude, they learned that they were to be led by the Lord and not by their own agendas. Their calling (just like yours) was too great to be left to their own agendas. Solitary time with the Lord readies us for all the chaos of life.
Here are some verses on solitude in scripture:
Prov. 8:34-35
Ps. 25:9
Ps. 73:24
Ps. 32:8
Ps. 46:10
Is. 30:15 (one of my faves)
As you meet with the Lord, He is committed to counseling you, Spirit to spirit, based on the following verses:
Jer. 6:16
Ps. 91:1
Matt. 11:28
Mark 6:31
Is. 50:4
Jer. 1:12
Ps. 23:2-3 (A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller is a great book!)
The key to hearing from the Lord is to quiet your heart, be still and listen. Read gently with no agenda. Clear your mind and don't be anxious. Just listen with your spirit. Ask the Lord to show you and He will. Write down what he says.
John 16:14 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the teacher in the lives of Christians. Under his guidance, the words of biblical revelation become a living word for each of us. As we study the scriptures, the Spirit gives us insight into their meanings. The Holy Spirit is with you every time you study the Word leading you into all truth.
We had a really thorough discussion of spiritual warfare prayer based on Eph. 6:10-18. It is crucial to make much of our Lord and little of our enemy. Satan is real and his m. o. is to kill, steal and destroy, but everything that he brings against us MUST bow to the name of Jesus, Phil. 2: 9-11. Here are some good books on spiritual warfare:
Prayers that Outwit the Enemy Chuck D. Pierce This book is very good
Prayer and Spiritual Warfare E. M. Bounds Every book by Bounds is outstanding
So, over the last few weeks, we have learned that a true disciple of Christ:
*enforces the victory he has on a consistent basis
*lives in the presence of God through the Holy Spirit, and
*prays intentionally
Next, we shifted over to a quick study on our words!
You create your world with the words that you speak. 2 Cor. 5:20 tells us that we are Christ's ambassadors. That is a very huge deal. We speak for the King of Heaven...we let Him speak through us.
God SPOKE creation into being. Jesus changed lives with just a few words: "Lazarus, come out!", "Be clean", "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk" just to name a few!
Our words are of utmost importance because we either speak life or death every single time we open our mouths. We can change lives with our words, just like Jesus did. He said in Jn. 14:12 that we are going to do even greater things than he did because we have the power of the Holy Spirit. Here are a few scriptures on the power of words:
Prov. 18:21
Rom 4:17
Matt. 12:34
Prov. 4:23
Prov. 12:18
Prov. 31:26
Eph. 4:29
Matt. 12: 36-37
James 3: 9-10
Words and conversation reflect the spiritual condition of the speaker. A sin-dominated person will utter evil; the good person devoted to and saved by God will utter good. On judgment day our words spoken in our lifetime will truly reflect who we are. Nothing should escape our mouth that is not praise to God in some way. Once a word is spoken and heard, it cannot be retrieved. Its effect will run its often destructive course. I highly recommend The Power of Your Words by Robert Morris.
Next week, we welcome Rachel Stafford of Hands Free Mama as our speaker. Her blog can be found here. She is going to bring us a great word! If any of you want to stay for prayer ministry after any of our meetings, Connie and I would love that.
In closing, I want to bless you with victory over the enemy, from Sylvia Gunter's Blessing your Spirit book.....
Sweet girls of mine, I bless you with the joy of regularly seeing Satan's plans to destroy people turned upside down and God bringing good out of painful circumstances. I bless you with seeing the problems Satan brings into the world used by God to reveal new wisdom, grace, strength, and freedom , as God makes a public spectacle of his enemy and yours. I bless you with God's perspective on pain and suffering. I bless you with partnering with God for his purposes, using problems as a platform to see him work in ways that are unmistakably God. I bless you in the name of the One who triumphed on the cross.
Have a wonderful week! J
Great teaching!
ReplyDeleteThis week I am meditating on what you said about seeking the Holy Spirit first before going to a friend. I couldn't find it in my notes but I'm pretty sure you said something like this.
Steve and I have been struggling a lot with how to discipline Samuel. There are so many books and methods and then all the advice from friends that it just gets jumbled in my head. But when I sought the Lord about it, He reminded me to come to Him first for parenting advice before any other person or book. He reminded me that He made Samuel, so what better person to explain him to me than his maker. Just like if I found a tool that had been invented. The maker of the tool is really the one who can best explain what it is to be used for and how it is to be used.
I have learned this lesson even with my personal mentor. That she is not the Holy Spirit and that I need to go to Him first with my issues and then let my mentor be a confirmation and encouragement to me regarding those issues. No one person can tell you everything you need to do and be in life. That's the job of the Holy Spirit and we need to allow Him to do His work until it is finished and completed.
Thank you for encouraging us to stay in the Word! That has been so powerful for me. Instead of looking to directions, strategies and such to being a better Christian and running a better home, I'm turning inward and allowing God to refocus me and realizing that I'm the barometer and I need to let God shine through me in all my circumstances of life.
Thank you! Have a great week!