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For The Church
- Thread starter Warrior FC
- Start date
"FOR THE CHURCH"
The organic, apostolic, communal gatherings featured in the book of Acts have been replaced by ones run by suited professionals with stopwatches. Highly structured. Highly cerebral. Highly sanitized. Featuring a God whos understandable and safe. Everything org-charted. The congregation knows whats going to go on in this kind of church this week, next week, next month, and next year. Predictable and comfortable. Whats wrong with this picture? Welcome to the machine (Religion and Traditions of Men)! Whatever happened to the Holy Spirit? These kind of church meetings bare little resemblance to anything in the Bible, but everything in our faster, better, cheaper business world. The consequence? It is largely devoid of Life and Power of the Holy Spirit !
Alot of churches today are very strong on the Word, and are sound on water baptism, and they do not neglect the breaking of bread service. These people seem to have everything except the match. They have the wood, but they need the fire and then they would be all ablaze. Because they lack the fire of the Holy Spirit there is no life in their meetings.
*Read Acts Chapters 1 - 4:
When people go to the church gatherings and pray and yield themselves as did the early disciples there will be something happening! Then, new people who come will catch fire and they will want to come again. But they will have no use for a place where everything has become formal, dry, and dead. Men and women are tired of imitations; they want reality; they want to see people who have the living Christ within, and are filled with Holy Ghost power.
*Power & Demonstration Of The Holy Spirit :
This power of the Holy Spirit was not only for a few apostles, but even for them that are afar off, even as many as our God should call (Acts 2:39) even for us in this century. Some ask, "But was not this power just for the privileged few in the first century?" No. Read the Master's great commission as recorded by Mark, and you will see it is for them that believe. Wherever the Holy Spirit has right of way, the gifts of the Spirit will be in manifestation; and where these gifts are never in manifestation, I question whether he is present. We want none of the entertainments that the churches are offering. When God comes in He entertains us Himself. Entertained by the King of kings and Lord of lords!
*The power of God is just the same today as of old. Men need to be taken back to the old paths, to the old-time faith, to believe God's Word and every "Thus saith the Lord" therein. The Spirit of the Lord is moving in these days. God is coming forth. If you want to be in the rising tide, you must accept all God has said.
*Do Not Grieve Or Quench The Spirit :
We have to look to God for wisdom that we do not interfere or dampen the Spirit or quench the power of God when He is manifested in our meetings. If you want to have an assembly full of life you must have an assembly full of manifestation. Nobody will come if there is no manifestation. We need to look to God for special grace that we do not move back to looking at things from a natural viewpoint.
*How it is that the moment you are filled with the Holy Spirit persecution starts?
It was so with the Lord Jesus Himself. We do not read of any persecutions before the Holy Spirit came down like a dove upon Him. Shortly after this we find that, after preaching in His home town, they wanted to throw Him over the brow of the hill. It was the same with the twelve disciples. They had no persecution before the day of Pentecost; but after they were filled with the Spirit, they were soon in prison. The devil and the priests of religion will always get stirred when a man is filled with the Spirit and does things in the power of the Spirit. And persecution is the greatest blessing to a church. When we have persecution we will have purity. If you desire to be filled with the Spirit you can count on one thing, and that is persecution.
* God Is Waiting -- So ACT!
If I could only feel the power, we say.
We have been too much on that line. God is waiting for us to act; to be like Jesus. Jesus had perfect activity; He lived in the realm of Divine appointment with the Fathers acts ever coming forth.
* Word And Spirit :
When the new church phase is on the wane, there will be evidenced in the churches something that has not been seen before: a coming together of those with an emphasis on the Word and those with an emphasis on the Spirit. When the Word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest movement of the Holy Spirit that the nation, and indeed the world, has ever seen.
*Be filled with the Spirit,' ie., be CRAMMED with the Spirit, so filled that there will be no room left for anything else.
*You must every day make higher ground. You must deny yourself to make progress with God.
*You must refuse everything that is not pure and holy. God wants you pure in heart. He wants you to have an intense desire after holiness.
*The Bible is the most important book in the world, but some people havent spent time in it. We need to PRESS IN before we press on!
*Get your eyes off men, keep your eyes on Jesus!
*Every thought of advantage for ourselves must be on the decrease in order that Christ may increase, that we may live in another state, where all things are under the power of the Spirit.
*A Note Concerning The Gift Of Prophecy :
Many picture satan as a great, ugly monster with great horns, eyes, and a tail; but the Scriptures give us no such picture of him. He was a being of great beauty whose heart became lifted up. He is manifesting himself everywhere today as an angel of light. He is full of pride, and if you don't watch he will try to make you think you are somebody. This is the weakness of most preachers and most men -- the idea of being somebody! There are none of us who are anything, and the more we know we are nothing, the more God can make us a channel of His power. May the dear Lord save us from all these pride side-lines -- they are the devil's traps. True prophecy will show you that CHRIST is all in all, and that you are in yourself less than nothing and vanity. False prophecy will not magnify Christ but will make you think that after all you are going to be some great one. You may be sure that such is inspired by "the chief of the sons of pride."
The organic, apostolic, communal gatherings featured in the book of Acts have been replaced by ones run by suited professionals with stopwatches. Highly structured. Highly cerebral. Highly sanitized. Featuring a God whos understandable and safe. Everything org-charted. The congregation knows whats going to go on in this kind of church this week, next week, next month, and next year. Predictable and comfortable. Whats wrong with this picture? Welcome to the machine (Religion and Traditions of Men)! Whatever happened to the Holy Spirit? These kind of church meetings bare little resemblance to anything in the Bible, but everything in our faster, better, cheaper business world. The consequence? It is largely devoid of Life and Power of the Holy Spirit !
Alot of churches today are very strong on the Word, and are sound on water baptism, and they do not neglect the breaking of bread service. These people seem to have everything except the match. They have the wood, but they need the fire and then they would be all ablaze. Because they lack the fire of the Holy Spirit there is no life in their meetings.
*Read Acts Chapters 1 - 4:
When people go to the church gatherings and pray and yield themselves as did the early disciples there will be something happening! Then, new people who come will catch fire and they will want to come again. But they will have no use for a place where everything has become formal, dry, and dead. Men and women are tired of imitations; they want reality; they want to see people who have the living Christ within, and are filled with Holy Ghost power.
*Power & Demonstration Of The Holy Spirit :
This power of the Holy Spirit was not only for a few apostles, but even for them that are afar off, even as many as our God should call (Acts 2:39) even for us in this century. Some ask, "But was not this power just for the privileged few in the first century?" No. Read the Master's great commission as recorded by Mark, and you will see it is for them that believe. Wherever the Holy Spirit has right of way, the gifts of the Spirit will be in manifestation; and where these gifts are never in manifestation, I question whether he is present. We want none of the entertainments that the churches are offering. When God comes in He entertains us Himself. Entertained by the King of kings and Lord of lords!
*The power of God is just the same today as of old. Men need to be taken back to the old paths, to the old-time faith, to believe God's Word and every "Thus saith the Lord" therein. The Spirit of the Lord is moving in these days. God is coming forth. If you want to be in the rising tide, you must accept all God has said.
*Do Not Grieve Or Quench The Spirit :
We have to look to God for wisdom that we do not interfere or dampen the Spirit or quench the power of God when He is manifested in our meetings. If you want to have an assembly full of life you must have an assembly full of manifestation. Nobody will come if there is no manifestation. We need to look to God for special grace that we do not move back to looking at things from a natural viewpoint.
*How it is that the moment you are filled with the Holy Spirit persecution starts?
It was so with the Lord Jesus Himself. We do not read of any persecutions before the Holy Spirit came down like a dove upon Him. Shortly after this we find that, after preaching in His home town, they wanted to throw Him over the brow of the hill. It was the same with the twelve disciples. They had no persecution before the day of Pentecost; but after they were filled with the Spirit, they were soon in prison. The devil and the priests of religion will always get stirred when a man is filled with the Spirit and does things in the power of the Spirit. And persecution is the greatest blessing to a church. When we have persecution we will have purity. If you desire to be filled with the Spirit you can count on one thing, and that is persecution.
* God Is Waiting -- So ACT!
If I could only feel the power, we say.
We have been too much on that line. God is waiting for us to act; to be like Jesus. Jesus had perfect activity; He lived in the realm of Divine appointment with the Fathers acts ever coming forth.
* Word And Spirit :
When the new church phase is on the wane, there will be evidenced in the churches something that has not been seen before: a coming together of those with an emphasis on the Word and those with an emphasis on the Spirit. When the Word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest movement of the Holy Spirit that the nation, and indeed the world, has ever seen.
*Be filled with the Spirit,' ie., be CRAMMED with the Spirit, so filled that there will be no room left for anything else.
*You must every day make higher ground. You must deny yourself to make progress with God.
*You must refuse everything that is not pure and holy. God wants you pure in heart. He wants you to have an intense desire after holiness.
*The Bible is the most important book in the world, but some people havent spent time in it. We need to PRESS IN before we press on!
*Get your eyes off men, keep your eyes on Jesus!
*Every thought of advantage for ourselves must be on the decrease in order that Christ may increase, that we may live in another state, where all things are under the power of the Spirit.
*A Note Concerning The Gift Of Prophecy :
Many picture satan as a great, ugly monster with great horns, eyes, and a tail; but the Scriptures give us no such picture of him. He was a being of great beauty whose heart became lifted up. He is manifesting himself everywhere today as an angel of light. He is full of pride, and if you don't watch he will try to make you think you are somebody. This is the weakness of most preachers and most men -- the idea of being somebody! There are none of us who are anything, and the more we know we are nothing, the more God can make us a channel of His power. May the dear Lord save us from all these pride side-lines -- they are the devil's traps. True prophecy will show you that CHRIST is all in all, and that you are in yourself less than nothing and vanity. False prophecy will not magnify Christ but will make you think that after all you are going to be some great one. You may be sure that such is inspired by "the chief of the sons of pride."
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