What is Possible: The Church and Prayer: Sunday April 2, 2017 – Audio
This is a recording of a house church message on the big picture and where the sheep fit in.
Much could be said, but this much came out while trusting the Holy Spirit for the unction. In discussion is the state of Christianity today in light of what Jesus and the first apostles said.
In amongst things said is the “natural man” (AKA “old man” in Adam, or “carnal man”) has capacity and often does presume to try to serve God. This is religious flesh. Mention is made of church history and how this tendency has divided those who named the name of Christ up to this day.
It mentions the Catholics, but Protestants were also guilty of this divisive carnal religious spirit. When it is said in the message that such people may take “truths” to attack others, what was meant is they may take an unbalanced championing of truths as subjectively perceived in their fleshly minds. With that spirit, those who claim to be serving Christ have thought they were “earnestly contending for the faith” in a spirit that was not of God.
Despite a commentor at the end saying Jude 1:19 says this behavior is characteristic of those who are sensual, and lacking the Spirit, that is not the only case (1 Cor 3:1-4). People who have been regenerated may also make their religious carnal side what moves them, so this is an insidious problem whose fruits are plain to see.
Such deplorable behavior has seen them even consent to the persecution of those they disagree with from as simple as verbal attacks up to the point of killing one another for “heresy” perceived – especially in the past.
That is the shameful legacy of the faith Jesus died to provide. Rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater or settling on a lower plane of life in Christ, the message says God who ever lives is always ready to meet us, and give a greater portion of His Spirit. Without Jesus’ Spirit, we can do nothing of eternal spiritual value.
Practical solution is: go to God. Jesus said “come to Me.”
Scriptures and notes
1) Vision for big picture – corporate Bride
2) Vision for each of us – saints, sons, children
What is possible? – Revealed. According to our faith so be it to us.
What should church / individual life “look like?”
Why do we live? – eternal purpose
Free will love offering – seek empowerment from God
Acts 20:29 – For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.
1 Tim 4:4 – Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
Rev 1-3 – Jesus’ rebukes
Eph 1:15 – Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding[c] being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Gal 3:26 – For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
1 Cor 12 – 12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
New Covenant
2 Cor 3
7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
1 Pet 2:4-5 – Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Eph 2:19-22 – Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Become like Jesus – What do you want?
New creatures
Self – lose self in God
Obedience Faith Trust —–> empowered. Moved by love.
Rom 8:29 – For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Hunger and thirst – (seek and find)
Mt 5:6 – Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Jn 6:35 – And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Enter rest
Heb 4 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them,[a] not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:
“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,’”
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
God’s people may limit Him–
Ps 78:40-41 – How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert! 41 Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
Prayer – What did Jesus die to provide?
Enculturated before coming to the Cross in Satan’s system. The old man is our default nature if not actively under the control of the Spirit.
• Centered around God’s will
• Free – from sin, and to worship, serve in spirit and truth
• Abundant life
• In love and unity with Him – abide in vine
• Empowerment for service
Self deliverance – seeking fellowship – Royal Law – empowerment
Valid prayer – prayer of higher value
Pray God’s will back to Him.
1 John 5:14 – “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
James 1:5-8 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Psalm 34:19 – The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Hebrews 4:14-16 – Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
1 Peter 5:6-7 – “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
Deliverance
Ps 139:23-24 – Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
2 Tim 2:25 – “… if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”
1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Jesus is Lord (Holy Spirit)
1 Cor 12:3 – Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
Baptism of Holy Spirit
Acts 8:14-17 – Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit’s empowerment
Luke 11:9 – “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
