Celebrate Pentecost Sunday Today!

In honor of today being Pentecost Sunday I am re-posting the 2nd chapter of the Book of Acts from Acts In The Now. I haven't been working on this project for a while now, but I certainly haven't abandoned it altogether. The Gospels In The Now has been out for a couple of years, and I'm happy (and grateful) to say that it has been very well received. I'm especially grateful that I haven't been burned at the stake as other Bible translators were in the past! TGITN has also turned out to be one of the most successful of any of my books, second only, I think, to A Year In The Now. I'm working on a very different kind of book at the moment, but I still plan on eventually paraphrasing at least the New Testament.

A couple of other things...prints of my painting entitled "PENTECOST" (above) are available at www.churchinthenow.org...and I hope to see many of you today at CHURCH IN THE NOW EAST! I've got a good for you...

I've broken up most of the chapter with an acrostic for the word PENTECOST that I've posted before. Enjoy...



                               PENTECOST IS:



P - ushing limits

(Acts 2:1-4 - Acts In The Now)

For well over a week this group stayed in the Upper Room, praying and communing...connecting...basically, just waiting for whatever, as Jesus had instructed them. Day after day, for hours on end, they had been in the same flow...the same mindset...the same hopeful expectation. So by the time the day of Pentecost finally rolled around, they were all together...all together in one place, physically...all together in one place, mentally…all together in one place, spiritually. Then, suddenly, without warning, a thunderous, earthshaking sound like the blast of a violent windstorm burst out of the heavenly realm, and permeated the entire building where they were meeting.3. And they began to see a manifestation of fire hovering above their heads, which eventually separated into individual flames. Each of these flames somehow resembled a human tongue, and these “tongues of fire” came to rest on each of them. Every last one in the place was filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled him or her.

E - mbracing diversity

(Acts 2:5,6 - Acts In The Now)

Now there were staying in Jerusalem devout Jews, pilgrims from literally every nation in the known world. And when they heard this sonic boom send shock waves through the entire city, a huge crowd of them came together in excited confusion to see what was going on. They traced the sound to the Upper Room, and when they arrived there they became even more disoriented because each one heard their own language simultaneously being spoken.

N - etworking nationals

(Acts 2:7,8 - Acts In The Now)

Utterly amazed, they said "Hey…aren't all these who are speaking Galileans?! How is it possible that each of us hears them fluently speaking in our native language?

T - ranscending culture

(Acts 2:9-11 - Acts In The Now) 

Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs…we hear them declaring nothing but the wonders of God…describing His wonderful works and mercy to all…and we hear and understand what they are saying in our own tongues!"

E - mpowering believers

(Acts 2:12,13 - Acts In The Now) 

Utterly perplexed, they tried to rationalize what it was that they were seeing and hearing, asking one another, "What on earth does this mean?" Some, however, unable to comprehend or accept this phenomenon, simply made fun of them, attacking what they didn’t understand by saying, "Ahhh…this is nothing but a bunch of drunks acting crazy."

C - ommunicating truth

(Acts 2:14,15 - Acts In The Now)

Then Peter, being the first one to speak up, as usual, stood with the Eleven, raised his voice, and boldly addressed the crowd, saying, "Listen, all of you who live here in Jerusalem…and listen, all of you who are here visiting. Let me enlighten you as to what is happening here and now…listen carefully to what I say! You are trying to make sense of this spiritual occurrence with your natural minds, which is why you have opted to believe that these people are just drunk…but you can’t honestly believe that. Not only is it only nine in the morning, but you know full well that drunkenness doesn’t enable anyone to speak fluently about the wonderful works of God in languages that they don’t know!

O - vercoming divisions

(Acts 2:16-18 - Acts In The Now)

No, this is what was spoken centuries ago by the prophet, Joel, when he said, " 'In the days of fulfillment, God says, I will pour out of My Spirit on all people…on the entirety of humanity…and when everyone, everywhere, ultimately encounters a revelation and manifestation of My Spirit, both your sons and daughters together will prophesy, your young people will walk in visionary insight, and your old people will dream the dreams of God. In other words, this outpouring will not favor one generation over the other. Neither will this outpouring have any preference for station or status…it will touch the full range of servitude, from slaves, to the totality of the working class…nor will it discriminate because of gender, for it will be equally experienced by both men and women, alike. I will pour out of my Spirit with full abandon in those days, and they will all prophesy...every one of them!’

S - eeing globalism

(Acts 2:19-21 - Acts In The Now) 

Then, speaking in poetic, prophetic vocabulary, or in the symbolic language of prophecy, (Genesis 1:14 - 16; Isaiah 13:9, 10; 34:4; Amos 8:9; Ezekiel 32:7, 8), Joel went on to say, ‘I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, that will appear as blood, fire, and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the full manifestation of the great and glorious day of the Lord.’ In this way He used the same imagery that the other Prophets of old employed to speak of the downfall of earthly authorities and governors. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved from any chaotic fallout that will come as a result of the transition of power, when the earth is no longer ruled by natural thrones and crowns (“suns and moons”), but totally and completely by My Spirit!

T - aking dominion

(Acts 2:22-28 - Acts In The Now)

"People…Israelites and foreign delegates, alike…listen to this…Jesus of Nazareth was a man thoroughly accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God performed among you here in Israel through Him. I‘m really not telling you anything that you don‘t already know. But to give you some context, allow me to tell the whole story. This man, Jesus, was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge…in other words, from the eternal perspective…in the God-reality…it was absolutely the Divine will for it to happen exactly as it did. But here in the natural, temporal realm, you, with the help of manipulative men who found a loophole in the law, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. In this dimension and reality…from the human perspective…it was simply an unjust execution of an innocent man. But, regardless of what it was on this side of these parallel realities, God raised Him from the dead, totally freeing Him from the agony and authority of death. The obvious truth is that, in the grand scheme of things, it was just impossible for death to keep its hold on Him in any way. David had this to say about Him: 'I saw the Lord before me for all time…and because He was and is beside me at my right hand, nothing in the world can shake me.Therefore my heart (my spirit) is in a state of ecstasy…and my tongue (my speech) is overflowing with expressions of joy. And when my physical life comes to an end, my body will rest peacefully in hope, and in confident expectation, because I know that you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead…you will not allow your Holy One to be contaminated with the stench of death. You have revealed to me all the paths of life…you will fill me to overflowing with joy in Your presence."

The Fruit of the Spirit is Kindness (Be Kind to Yourself)

You can't operate in kindness to others until you learn to be kind to yourself...and you can't be kind to yourself until you fully accept the Loving-kindness and Tender-mercies of God toward you...here is the outline from Sunday's teaching on the Spiritual Fruit of Kindness



B - less yourself with your own words
E - xamine honestly your feelings of inferiority or inadequacy


K - now the importance of giving yourself a break
I - nitiate a truce with your internal critic
N - ever let guilt be your motivation for anything
D - are to keep believing in your dreams, even if no one else does


T - ake yourself less seriously
O - wn your successes


Y - ank up hurtful words from the soil of your heart before they take root
O - perate at all times according to the 2nd Great Commandment
U - nderstand that He will always be strong when you are weak

Acts In The Now 2:14 - 21

14. Then Peter, being the first one to speak up, as usual, stood with the Eleven, raised his voice, and boldly addressed the crowd, saying, "Listen, all of you who live here in Jerusalem…and listen, all of you who are here visiting. Let me enlighten you as to what is happening here and now…listen carefully to what I say!

15. You are trying to make sense of this spiritual occurrence with your natural minds, which is why you have opted to believe that these people are just drunk…but you can’t honestly believe that. Not only is it only nine in the morning, but you know full well that drunkenness doesn’t enable anyone to speak fluently about the wonderful works of God in languages that they don’t know!

16. No, this is what was spoken centuries ago by the prophet, Joel, when he said,

17. " 'In the days of fulfillment, God says, I will pour out of My Spirit on all people…on the entirety of humanity…and when everyone, everywhere, ultimately encounters a revelation and manifestation of My Spirit, both your sons and daughters together will prophesy, your young people will walk in visionary insight, and your old people will dream the dreams of God. In other words, this outpouring will not favor one generation over the other.

18. Neither will this outpouring have any preference for station or status…it will touch the full range of servitude, from slaves, to the totality of the working class…nor will it discriminate because of gender, for it will be equally experienced by both men and women, alike. I will pour out of my Spirit with full abandon in those days, and they will all prophesy...every one of them!’

19. Then, speaking in poetic, prophetic vocabulary, or in the symbolic language of prophecy, (Genesis 1:14 - 16; Isaiah 13:9, 10; 34:4; Amos 8:9; Ezekiel 32:7, 8), Joel went on to say, ‘I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, that will appear as blood, fire, and billows of smoke.

20. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the full manifestation of the great and glorious day of the Lord.’ In this way He used the same imagery that the other Prophets of old employed to speak of the downfall of earthly authorities and governors.

21. ‘And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved from any chaotic fallout that will come as a result of the transition of power, when the earth is no longer ruled by natural thrones and crowns (“suns and moons”), but totally and completely by My Spirit!'

Acts In The Now 1:4 - 11

4. On one particular occasion, while He was eating with them in one of these meetings, He spoke very directly to them, saying, "Don’t leave Jerusalem…wait there for the gift that My Father promised you…the gift about which you've heard Me speak several times…do not leave there until that promise is fulfilled for you!

5. You all know that John baptized with water…well, in the same way, and in a few short days, you will all be baptized with the Holy Spirit there."

6. But when they met together, they had no response to His insistent instructions about their introduction to the other Comforter. Again, as they had done every time He had broached this subject with them, they just seemed to ignore His words. Instead they asked Him, "Lord…now are You finally going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

7. But He said to them: "Stop being preoccupied with trying to figure out natural things about a natural nation…things like times or dates. The Father has taken care of all that by His own authority.

8. Focus instead on this…on the promise that you will receive dynamic power and inherent ability when the full revelation of the Holy Spirit dawns on you…and then you will be able to be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and ultimately to the entirety of the earth."

9. After He said this, He was engulfed in a cloud, and completely disappeared into it from their natural sight.

10. So they looked up into the sky, gazing intently at all the clouds, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them on the ground.

11. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking up into the sky? You will not see Him there. Look around you here on the earth…be His witnesses here, as He commanded you. As He was taken from your physical company into the heavenly realm, so He will return to you shortly in this dimension, according to His promise!”

Acts In The Now

From the introduction to The Gospels In The Now:

I love Luke’s Gospel…the Gospel of the fully evolved Man…sophisticated…elegant…educated…intelligent. Luke is a physician with an excellent bedside manner, who writes a thoughtful and lovingly detailed letter to the young Greek, Theophilus, about the amazing God-Man. But in reality, it is written to all the Greeks, who would, in theory, appreciate the culture and refinement of its author, and the miracles and philosophy of its Main Character. Luke gives the most attention to the Nativity, because it is the most biographical of the four Gospels…it was also originally combined with the Book of Acts. It brings the Synoptic Gospels full circle, showing us the complete spectrum of all that was and is the Son of Man. Luke…the Gospel that cares!

Acts In The Now I, Verses 1 - 3

1. As you know, Theophilus, in the first installment of this book I wrote to you about all that Jesus began to do and teach while He was manifested in this physical dimension,

2. right up until the very day that He was received back into the heavenly realm, having given specific instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had personally chosen.

3. After His intense suffering and very public death, He presented Himself to them in a resurrected state, in various settings, over a period of forty days. In these meetings…this series of convincing demonstrations and irrefutable proofs of His post-resurrection reality…He spoke to them of one thing, and one thing only. His focus during these encounters was entirely on revealing to them the inner workings and new order of the Kingdom of God.

Speak, Spirit...

Wow...what a week...so much to tell you all...but I have 35 Bibles to sign (we're giving one to each of the candidates for ordination in the morning), and we're leaving right after the service (remember there is a seven hour difference between home and here) and I haven't even started packing yet...

So I'll just say this...today wasn't technically a ministering day, but it may have been the most profound so far on this trip...I'll tell you all about it when I get back to CITN...

I don't use the 1611 KJV very much, but there's a phrase in that translation that just keeps rolling around in my spirit tonight, and it really summarizes this whole week for me: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly..." (1 Timothy 4:1)...

Don't know how to explain exactly why I can't let go of that phrase...don't know why I'm drawn tonight to the Elizabethan English word "expressly"...but I know that that's how the Spirit is speaking here in Uganda, and there at home...

I also don't know what my computer situation will be for the next 2 days of traveling, so this may be the last post until I am on Georgia soil...

If my phone gets back in the zone, I'll tweet as much as I can...

In the meantime, go ahead and post any comments you may have...I can put them through on my Blackberry at certain points...

I'm hoping we can stream the Sunday service from the Entebbe airport, and if we can, I hope to see a full house ITB @ CITN...

PEACE...

MEDITATIONS ON HOLY SPIRIT

However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].
(John 16:7 - AMP)

"Some souls think that the Holy Spirit is very far away, far, far, up above. Actually he is, we might say, the divine Person who is most closely present to the creature. He accompanies him everywhere. He penetrates him with himself. He calls him, he protects him. He makes of him his living temple. He defends him. He helps him. He guards him from all his enemies. He is closer to him than his own soul. All the good a soul accomplishes, it carries out under his inspiration, in his light, by his grace and his help".

-Concepcion Cabrera de Armida

"Man's good opinion of himself makes him think it quite possible to win God's favour by his own religious performances; his bad opinion of God makes him unwilling and afraid to put his case wholly into His hands. The object of the Holy Spirit's work (in convincing of sin) is to alter the man's (sinner's) opinion of himself and so to reduce his estimate of his own character that he should think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by any excellency of his own. The Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make him see that the God with whom he has to do is really the God of all grace".

-Horatius Bonar


"You look back on your life. You may be disappointed in many ways with your part in the business. You may be able to see many falterings and blunderings and mistakes that you on your side made. You may have sometimes felt that you were not the person for that job; God had made a mistake. Some of us have felt like that. And yet, as we look more deeply into God's ways with us and know God's principles, we see a wonderful logic in it all. You and I are called for something, laid hold of by God for something, put by God into something, and we feel, God has made a mistake: I am not the person for this, I ought never to have come into this, I have no qualifications for this, I am altogether the wrong peg here! And yet, somehow or other, God does it. He enables you, He carries you through, He accomplishes the work to your own surprise and wonder As you lay hold of the Holy Spirit, it is done that is, if you do not sink down into yourself and give up and draw out because of what you are but you lay hold of the Holy Spirit and you get through and marvel that you have got through, that the Lord has done this thing through you, through me."

- T. Austin Sparks

HOLY SPIRIT NOW

Hey Bloggers...I'll back to writing ASAP...I'm really looking forward to doing Mark (Mark In The Now/MkITN), Chapter 11...there's some really good stuff in that chapter. The next couple of days are going to be really busy, so I don't know how much I can get done until after Debye's grandmother's funeral. I'm still thinking a lot about the things we've been discussing concerning (the) Holy Spirit over the last several days at CITN...so much is being said about God, the Spirit..."Parakletos" (The Paraclete)...the Helper...the Comforter...The Spirit of Truth...thinking about why Jesus said, "It is necessary that I go away, because if I don't go, He can't come"...thinking about what could possibly be the full implication of that very startling statement. The picture above was taken last summer in the Upper Room in Jerusalem...

I just finished two articles for Streaming Faith which will be posted in a few weeks...one is on the Power of the Spirit, and the other one is on the Gifts of the Spirit...both subjects are very strong in my own spirit right now...I can't predict, exactly, what is going to happen this coming Sunday at CITN, but I can definitely say that I am open to a "Now Pentecost"...in the meantime, stay attentive and receptive to what God is saying (and feel free to post it in a blog comment), and remember...regardless of what may be happening in your life, currently...It's NOT BY MIGHT, NOR BY POWER, BUT BY(MY)SPIRIT, says the Lord!

Nothing Can Separate Us

Romans 8 - The Message

The Solution Is Life on God's Terms

1-2. With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.



3-4. God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.



5-8. Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them — living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.



9-11. But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!



12-14. So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!



15-17. This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!



18-21. That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.



22-25. All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.



26-28. Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.



29-30. God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.



31-39. So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.



None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.





SELAH

The Glory of the Lord Shall be Revealed

And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

(Isaiah 49:5 - TNIV)

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

(Joel 2:28, 29 - TNIV)

Hey bloggers,

As has already been observed, today is BLOGINTHENOW's 8th monthaversary...a big thank you to all of you who are a part of this cyber-community...

We are currently in a great move of the Holy Spirit, and are beginning to fully understand now why Jesus said, "It is necessary that I go away, for if I do not go, He cannot come..."

In the same breath, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth (The Message says "into all the truth that there is"), and would testify of Him...so now we can rejoice that the glory of the Lord is being revealed to all flesh...all humanity...all people...and that His Spirit is being poured out on all mankind, as the prophet foretold.

Here are a couple of messages that I received about the GPF that I wanted to share with you...


The Global Peace Festival in Atlanta was yet another
breakthrough in this exciting global movement that is
hastening the full blossoming of the Divine spirit and
light around the world. Abraham set out on a mission
over 3000 years ago to fill the spiritual void of his
homeland in present day Iraq, but by leaving his own
family, he came to Israel incomplete, and that lack of
wholeness in himself led to conflict, jealousy, and
strife between his progeny that ultimately became
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The Atlanta festival was a symbolic welcoming home of Abraham and a fulfillment of his mission as people of all faiths,cultures, and nationalities were welcomed in a
celebration of faith and spiritual completeness.

The husband and wife team of Bishop and Pastor Swilley
made everyone feel part of this global family and at
home in the south.

Moshe Landman, Washington D.C.

_________________________


Bishop Swilley - I am sitting here on my computer reading the anointed comments about the GPF from your congregation - and all sorts of watery stuff keeps pouring out of my eyes.

I praise God for the work He is doing in Conyers, in America and across the globe.

The Spirit of the Living God was present with us Tuesday. One member of my congregation said he was "breathless" the entire program. Another said the program started with engines running hot and strong and it kept going from one crescendo to another until the finale.

God has been preparing you and your lineage for hundreds of years for just this moment. It was beautiful to hear your father say how proud he is of his son. We all long for dad to say, "I am proud of you, my son."

We have embarked on a project - working with the Living God - to establish His Kingdom of Heaven on this very Earth.

I praise God and thank Him for Bishop and Pastor Swilley. And I thank Him, too, for my beautiful brothers and sister of Church In The Now....for we are truly "One Family under God."

Tom Cutts, District Director
Universal Peace Federation

________________


I have a great word for you tomorrow, and gospel recording artist, Ted Winn, will be ministering in the service, as well. Hope to see you ITB...

Peace

So...What Did You Think?

(click to enlarge)

Groanings Which Cannot Be Uttered

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, MAKING A PRAYER OUT OF OUR WORDLESS SIGHS, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
(Romans 8:22-28 - The Message)

________________________________

As you can see, I changed the article for today. Well, really, all that was here earlier was a quote (with no title), and at the time of this addition there are 10 comments posted, which I am leaving. I just wanted everyone to look at this passage from Romans 8, my favorite chapter in the Bible. The 26th verse in the KJV talks about praying with "groanings which cannot be uttered". Here in The Message it says it this way..."making a prayer out of our WORDLESS SIGHS"...

For those of you who are really connected here, I want you to know that I believe I feel where you are today. I hear you in the spirit-realm, but I understand why it's hard to express in natural words what's going on inside all of us right now. I understand it because it's hard for me to use words today, myself.

In fact, I am making the conscious effort today to allow the sword of the Spirit to divide my own spirit from my soul (Hebrews 4:12), because my soul, frankly, just needs to be quiet today. There is a time to speak, and a time to keep silent, and I need to keep silence in the material world...

For whatever you may be going through right now (the best of times and the worst of times?)...let not your heart be troubled. Many of us are in a death process right now...a process that brings us to the point where we can say, "It is no longer I who lives, but Christ Who lives in me..."

If that bears witness with you on any level, just post a little confirmation here (in the mouth of two or three witnesses...)...something like "Bishop, I'm out here...it's all good...just need to make a prayer out of "wordless sighs" today"...

If you want to say more than that, feel free to do so...

The bottom line is that today there is a "quiet" before the storm in the heavens that is coming this weekend...

And the good news from this promise in Romans 8 is that the prayer of v.26 causes the results of v.28, where all things work TOGETHER for good!

Be still and know that He is God...

Peace to all...

The Holy Spirit In The Now!

The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and cried out, “See, recognize, discern and perceive the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world! “This is He of whom I said would come after me in time, but is actually superior to me because He existed, as He is, in the now. He was before me, because He is before me.“I myself did not recognize Him at first, but now that I can see who He is, I am baptizing with water as a means to reveal Him to the nation of Israel.” Then John went on to say, “I saw the Spirit come from the eternal realm, like a dove that appeared to fly down out of the limitless sky and light on Him. And it, or He, remained on Him and filled Him, making His home in Him. “And that is how I recognized Him, because the One who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’"
(John 1:29-33 – JITN)



But on the final and most important day of the feast, Jesus just stood up right where He was, and without any timidity or self-consciousness at all, began to yell out at the top of His lungs these words: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink! Whoever believes in Me, as the Scriptures have stated, living rivers of life will continuously and freely flow from within their inner beings!” This was His way of introducing them to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in Him would later receive. The era of the Holy Spirit had not yet begun at this time, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
(John 7:37-39 – JITN)


“If you really love Me, keep these commands of mine. And I will ask the Father to send you another Helper, just as He sent Me to you. And this Helper will be your Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor, Standby, and He will never have to leave you as I have to leave you now. He will be with you indefinitely…forever. He is the Spirit of Truth, and the world at large cannot comprehend or accept Him at this point, because it has no perception of His reality. But you already know Him, because He has been living with you, and as soon as I am released from this physical manifestation, He will begin to live in you. Just because I will no longer be seen by you in this incarnation, does not mean that you will be orphaned by Me. I will come right back to you as My Spirit-self. In a few hours the world will no longer see this flesh-man, but you will still see Me with your spiritual eyes. You will not be limited any longer to only seeing this Jesus, but you will be freed and released to see this Christ! And because I will transcend and outlive the physical, you will also transcend and outlive the physical. When all this comes together for you, you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you…all together…all connected…all one! And whoever holds on to My commands and does them, proves that they love Me. And those who love Me will experience the reality of the Father’s love for them, and it will ultimately reveal to them who I really am and who I have been all along.”
(John 14:15-21 – JITN)


“I have told you as much as I can while I am still with you in the physical realm. But this Advocate/Helper that I’m telling you about – the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My behalf – will teach you all of this. He will remind you of everything that I have said to you and will make it all make sense to you. So don’t be unsettled about these mysteries. I don’t want to leave you in a state of turmoil."
(John 14:25,26 – JITN)


“If you find that the promoters of this world-system hate you, don’t take it personally. Remember that they hated Me first, and their intense dislike is more about Me than it is about you. If you blindly followed the rules of the religious world-system, its proponents would love you. But you are non-conformists and iconoclasts like Me, so the people who feel threatened by you will hate you. People who do not walk in the light always hate and fight what they don’t understand. So don’t forget this: A servant is not greater than his master. If people mistreat Me, they will mistreat you. It comes with the territory. But if they have done what I told them, then they will do what you tell them to do. Basically, people will do to you exactly what they did to Me, because you belong to Me and they don’t know the One who sent Me. If I hadn’t been so open and candid with them, they would not be guilty of the sin of closed-minded unbelief. But now they have no excuse; from now on there is no excuse for anyone refusing to walk in the light. But the bottom line is that whoever hates Me, hates My Father, also. You surely must realize that I have done things that no one else has ever done, and I have done them right before the eyes of the general public. If I had not been so visible – if I had not made the truth so accessible – they would not be guilty. But many of them have seen and heard it all and still hate both Me and My Father. That is why the Scriptures are true when they say, ‘The people hated Me for no good reason.’ But when The Helper comes, whom I will send from the Father, He will be revealed as the Spirit of Truth, and He will tell you all about Me. He will fill in all the blanks for you and will make all of this make sense to your spirit and to your mind. Then you will be empowered to also easily tell others about Me, because you have been with Me from the beginning and you will know exactly what to say." (John 15:18-27 – JITN)



“But you need to realize that this is really a new beginning for us all! It is to your advantage that I go away, because if I do not leave this fleshly incarnation, the Holy Spirit cannot come to you. But if I leave this realm, I will personally be able to send Him to you. And when He comes, He will show everyone around the world the truth about sin and God’s justice and about how judgment works. The Spirit will show them that they were wrong about Me – that it was a sin to reject Me and not believe in Me. He will show them the truth about righteousness, and they will be able to understand it then, because I will be with the Father and you won’t see Me in this present incarnation again. And He will show them the truth about judgment, because God has already judged the so-called ruler of this world. I really have so many more things to say to you, but I think that you are already saturated and a little overwhelmed with all this. But don’t worry about it. When the Spirit of Truth is finally revealed, He will guide you into all the truth that there is. He will not speak on His own and tell you something different than what I have told you. He will only tell you what He has heard from Me, and He will give you the insight to know what is ahead so that you can actually see into the future. The Spirit will glorify Me, because He will take My message and make it global and universal. And He will declare it to you, directly. Everything that the Father has is mine. That is why it is so important that the Spirit takes My message and integrates it into your consciousness. In just a short while you will not be able to see Me with the natural eye, but then you will be able to perceive Me by the Spirit, because I am returning to the Father in the now.”
(John 16:7-16 – JITN)



Once again He said to them, “Peace be to all of you; just as the Father sent Me into this dimension, now I am sending you to all the people of world.” Then He took a deep breath and began to breathe and blow on them, and into them, in the same way that God had breathed into Adam in the creation. As He continued to blow on them, He began to say, “Receive…receive…receive the Holy Spirit. Receive the power to forgive sins; if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven. You now have the same power and authority on the earth that I have had, not just to heal diseases, but to forgive sins, as well.”
(John 20:21-23 – JITN)



Be filled with the Spirit today!

The Spirit is Moving!

"Yes indeed, it won't be long now." God's Decree. "Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won't be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings! (Amos 9:13 – The Message)

When I preached from this verse a few weeks ago, I didn’t realize how personally prophetic it was going to be for me. I am literally living out this Scripture right now, so it’s kind of ironic that the reading for AYITN today is Slow Down! Then again, it’s a good word for me, and for us all, because it helps to bring some balance to the fast pace at which we as a people seem to be progressing here of late. The Spirit is moving, and we are moving with the cloud.

Yesterday was a very busy day… lots of “taking care of business”…a series of fires to be put out…lots of intensity and drama. Through it all I had to make the effort to stay focused on the big picture, and to walk out the theme of my Carpe Diem article. But it’s all good, and throughout every conversation there was a theme of reconciliation running.

By the way, the choral program last night was really impressive and beautiful…and it was cool to see and hear orchestral instruments played on our stage like that. They didn’t have quite the turnout that they expected, but I’m still glad that we hosted it because I believe that it’s always a positive thing for us to support education in our community.

I’m home all this week, but the schedule is still super full. Tomorrow is Body Builders and Dr. Lovelace is coming in from Alabama for it, Pastor Harrell is coming in from Virginia, and bringing with him a guest minister from another state…and who knows who else might show up…maybe the Dalai Lama…these days nothing surprises me.

Those of you in Indiana and North Carolina, don’t forget to vote today…



Be at peace...walk in the Spirit today...remember that love is the more excellent way...spend some time in His presence...and if God is speaking something to you on this beautiful Tuesday, share it with us...

He Will Pour Out His Spirit On All Flesh!

Hey bloggers,

We’re home now…had a wonderful time in NYC…

Every time I’m there I stop in for a few minutes of reflection at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue. I don’t know why exactly, but I always sense a strong presence of God in that place, and He speaks to me there, usually through some confirmation in the daily prayer book that they use in the Mass.

Today was no exception. Deb and I had lunch and then we walked over to the church before leaving for the airport. I sat down in a pew and began reading what I thought was the selection for today, but she came over to where I was sitting and asked if I had read the liturgy for tomorrow, 4/13, which I hadn’t…but it was all out of the
2nd chapter of Acts about the coming of the Holy Spirit, which is what I had just told her over lunch that I was going to talk about tomorrow! Confirmation!

I was going to wait until Pentecost Sunday to bring this message, but I think that I’ll begin a new series on the Holy Spirit tomorrow because I have a sense of urgency about this word.

I’m sure that I’ll mention all of this in tomorrow’s service, but if you read this tonight it will help prepare your heart for an outpouring in the next few hours…

In Job 33:4 the Holy Spirit is referred to as the "Breath of the Almighty"…
In John 14:16, 26 and in 15:26 He is called "The Comforter"…
Hebrews 9:14…The "Eternal Spirit"…
Psalms 51:12…Free Spirit…
In Acts 5:3, 4 He is simply called “God”…
…"Good Spirit" (Nehemiah 9:20; Psalms 143:10)…
…"Holy Spirit" (Psalms 51:11; Luke 11:13; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30)…

Unless there is a change of plans, I will observe all of the titles/names of the Holy Spirit in the sermon/series…if you are a part of CITN or cyber-CITN, go ahead and begin meditating on these things so that you’ll be on the page with me…

Also, be in agreement for us to have the mind of the Lord on this…Deb and I have been invited to Israel the second week in May to engage in some peace talks with Muslim leaders…trying to work out all the details…I confess that our steps are ordered of the Lord…

I love you all…

Pentecost In The Now!

When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.

There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn't for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, "Aren't these all Galileans? How come we're hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?

Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and ASIA, Phrygia and Pamphylia, EGYPT and the parts of LIBYA belonging to Cyrene; Immigrants from ROME, both Jews and proselytes; EVEN CRETANS AND ARABS!

"They're speaking our languages, describing God's mighty works!"

Their heads were spinning; they couldn't make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: "What's going on here?"

(Acts 2:1-12 - The Message)


In my "Pentecost" painting at the top of the page I connected three powerful images...the Holy Spirit...the world...the Tower of Babel...what's your take on that?

...and here's an acrostic I just wrote...I may use it for a sermon outline next month on Pentecost Sunday...


PENTECOST IS ABOUT:

P - ushing limits

E - mbracing diversity

N - etworking nationals

T - ranscending culture

E - mpowering believers

C - ommunicating truth

O - vercoming divisions

S - eeing globalism

T - aking dominion


...All over the world, the Spirit is moving....are you ready for it?