Are you ‘with it’? Did you ‘get it’ are all questions designed to make us focus on whether we truly understand what is being communicated to us. They determine our ‘inner savvy’ to being in the loop or often getting a joke that has been told. In Matthew 1:23, we see that the Scriptures lead us to the understanding that the Saviour of the world would be called Immanuel, meaning, ‘God with us’. We see the truth of this teaching described over 170 times in the New Testament. We see it from being in Christ to Christ in us like the vine and the branches as so clearly pictured in John 15 and this is just the beginning! We will focus not only on the gift of His presence, but His power, provision, perfection, His resurrection and the comfort of His reigning ascension and His anticipated imminent return.
• His Presence
• His Power
• His Provisions
• His Perfections
• His Resurrection
• His Comfort of His Return
• The Comfort of His Reign
We Give Christ’s Presence
There is a great difference between talking to someone and communicating with someone. Communication can exist without conversation but it is a one-way street and most of us are pretty comfortable with that approach in our spiritual lives. OK, God I’ll do the talking and you do the listening. Talking is a legitimate practice, but it is rarely an intimate one. The children of Israel often were driven to this type of communication. They would say, ‘Moses, you talk and listen to God for us.’ We need a breakthrough!
Two way conversation is communion and it is so beautiful, so strengthening, so full of joy, but why do we seldom go there? For some they still relate to God on a servant / master role; however, he has called us friends.
Revelation 21:3,4 brings to light His ultimate desire for us. What is the desired end? Sweet communion. We talk about longing to be more in God’s presence, but did you ever ponder the fact that He longs even more than we do for that communion with us.
Last week we caught a glimpse of the powerful realization that God through His Holy Spirit longs to speak into our lives.
Jesus personified Immanuel, God with us. The first and most amazing gift is the gift of His ongoing presence with us, in us and through us!
1. Be STILL - Quiet yourself so you can hear God’s Voice. Be Still – David in Psalm 46
2. FOCUS – Fix Your Eyes on Jesus…. Paul in Hebrews 12
3. FLOW- Recognize God’s voice as spontaneous thoughts which light up on your mind. Mark Virkler. Philip in Acts 8
4. JOURNAL – write down what you hear HIM speaking to you, don’t analyze it, that comes later. Every vision that God gave us through His servant….even Revelation from John.
We Give Christ’s Power
Colossians 2:15
When Christ died on the cross at Calvary, He disarmed all the powers and authorities made a public spectacle of them as He gloriously triumphed. It is within that event that He has transferred to us the same power which every day is so hard for me to actually wrap my mind around. The good thing is that I’m not to wrap my mind around it, I was called to believe with all my heart and use that same power in my prayers.
Christ gave us ‘binding’ power in Matthew 18:18
In His powerful Name we can cry out to God to reclaim territory stolen by the enemy in our home, our churches, our neighbourhood, our land!
We have from time to time done prayer walking and I still remember the days with the youth when we would pull off all nighters at an event called ‘Liberate’ and go out and specifically pray all over town from the HS to the perimeter of town.
Jesus has told us that we will have power over all things demonic and that they will flee from us as He promised to His followers in Luke 10:17.
In 1 Peter 2:9, we are called ‘royal priests’ in the NLT The word royal means ruling! We are ruling priests! It is a position of power and a call to bring all things under the authority and in submission to our Heavenly Father.
We are called to speak and confess His Name audibly. Satan is not a mind reader and we push him back when we walk in our God-given authority and confidence.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…
We Give Christ’s Provisions
• We are called to give guidance John 10:11,14 He knows everything and He provides His people with a plan. His plan for others was meant to flow through us. We are His messengers, His ambassadors.
A shepherd provides guidance and he is also called on to give protection. What are the forms of protection we can give to fellow believers?
• We are called to declare He is the only way. Christianity was never meant to be a religion, it is a love relationship John 10:9; 14:6
• We are called to give His bread to others. John 6:35; John 8:32 The gospel!
• We are called to experience fruitfulness. John 15:1
We give Christ’s Perfection
We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
I have been to countries where so much is done to ‘appease the gods’ whether it be in India, Nepal or Papua. The greatest display of this for me to see was in Kolkota where I watched masses of people in procession all ready to bring their sacrifices from flowers to candles. They say that no nation works harder to please angry gods. Every meal, bath, conversation and harvest is all done in a specific way so as not to offend the gods.
Isaiah 1:18 Come let us reason…
Matthew 5:17 do not think that I have come to abolish the Law…I have come to fulfill the righteous requirements.
We could never manufacture our own righteousness and as I have always said there is nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable before God. We find our complete acceptance in Him.
The greatest gift of a mother is her acceptance of her children. It is not necessarily ‘approval,’ but the incredible belief and faith that she can place in her child. It is the same way with God, there are many times that we sin and struggle with sin, being unfaithful. But He is faithful even when we are unfaithful. God doesn’t condone our sin as His children, but He chooses to see us through the perfection of His Son.
We give Christ’s Resurrection
• We are called to bring light into dark places. Spiritual darkness is so fearful and the fear of death can be so crippling in the lives of people. We are called to turn the lights on, to bring hope.
I was on call this week for the Milton Hospital and a call came in late one afternoon. It was a lady we will call Donna. She had requested for a chaplain to come in. I was told that she had cancer all through her body and that she was in the final stages. I came in and she was in and out and just struggling to breathe. She looked like she was so old but I knew that wasn’t the case. I have seen how cancer can steal, kill and destroy. The friends there were telling me, Donna just needs prayers for peace, but as I got to know her, I realized that she had no relationship with God, no idea of the one who can only give transcendent peace. I was honest with her about her situation and challenged her to put her faith in God and there on her death bed she said YES to Jesus!
Then I took the time to read Psalm 23, John 14; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 because now I could read it with authority and with the absolute hope of eternity. Death is not the final chapter for the believer.
We give Christ’s Reign
In a world where we continue to see so much upheaval from the fluctuation of financial markets, to the increase in natural disasters, the latest being the 2,000-kilometre-long cloud that has spread from Iceland to northern Spain as well as man -made disasters in the oil spills. We really are not sure what will come next. We continue to hear stories of greed, ponzi schemes, terrorist plots, persecution of Christians and no we don’t have an answer for every hate filled violence and destruction.
At least 50 Iraqi Christian students are receiving hospital treatment following a bomb attack on May 2 outside the city of Mosul that killed at least one person and has forced nearly 1,000 students to drop classes for the rest of the semester. Nearly 160 people were injured in the blasts that targeted three buses full of Christians travelling to classes at the University of Mosul.
From the Persecution and Prayer Alert, May 6th 2010
Francis Chan tells the story of a visit that he had with some of the 21 believers who were held hostage in Afghanistan already 2 years ago and how they felt a strong presence to Christ that they have never felt since. There were actually those among them who said, `sometimes I wish we were still there in a place where we knew we could lose our lives at any point’ for their faith in Jesus. The fact is that Jesus reigns no matter what happens to our earthly bodies.
For the Christ follower once again we know that the final chapter has not be written. We will join Christ in His glorious reign our questions will be replaced by the awesome sight of His final dominion reign, His love and His justice.
Romans 8:1, 28
Revelation 17:14
We give Christ’s Comfort
Revelation 21:1-4
There are many things in this world that divide and separate us from language, culture, race and nationality and within all that we see how even when we have all that in common, pride, hatred, economic bracket can all separate people as well.
There is only one form of separation that cannot be reversed and that is death
However there is only one union where that all melts away and that is the realization of our oneness in Christ with believers all over the world.
"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. . . . Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (Romans 12:2 MSG)
Recognize the power of prayer. Maybe you aren’t at the place where you can just bring the spiritual right into the conversation, but you can always say, “I will pray for you”…and just maybe, it begins with that. When you start to make prayer a priority first and commit to pray for them regularly, you will be surprised at how quickly God keeps bringing them into your life.
Prayer moves the heart of God.
Jonah 2:10 When God saw what they did and they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.
The Takeaway
When it comes to spiritual blessings…
We GIVE what has been given to us and it all starts with Jesus’ life giving presence.
Questions For Discussion
1. What are some of the ways that God speaks to you?
2. How do you recognize His voice in your life?
3. What kind of thoughts are not from God?
4. Why are we more reluctant to recognize demonic power here than in other parts of the world?
5. Which gift of Christ speaks the most to you in your present situation?
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