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"The Gospel Faith Messenger" Ministry Barnabas Bulletin No. 116 A
MINISTRY OF ENCOURAGEMENT
and challenge to Christian
Workers and Christians generally, inspiring YOU to rise to greater
heights in God, Who is for YOU! He wants to use you more and more! WELCOME to “BB” No. 116! May you know tremendous and continued blessing, enlargement of vision and purpose, and real encouragement as you open your heart and life to JESUS and His mighty Holy Spirit ~ and BELIEVE all that He has for you. Let the challenge of His conditions for loving and serving Him teach you more and more each day of the importance of His Spiritual Gifts operating through your life!
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Scripture Readings:
Pray
This Prayer: “Dear God, I come to You in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and I ask You to help me to get serious about “signs and wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit” operating more freely out of my life. Your Word tells me that I should be demonstrating the evidence of a Supernatural God in my life, and so I ask You to stir and liberate me to be able to be the man/woman of God you have called me to be. Help me to deal with all those negativities in my life which are not allowing me to function in Your divine will and purposes. I really do want to be an effective and fruitful minister of Your Supernatural Gospel in my day and generation. In Jesus' name, I pray these things. Amen."
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GOD
BEARS WITNESS TO HIS WORD
Over
recent times we have been looking at the importance of Spiritual
Gifts and especially The Gift of Prophecy (see back issues on
our Web Page). Spiritual Gifts are very important, so much so
that they are part of God confirming the truth of His Word when
it is preached. In Hebrews 2:1-4 we read: “Therefore
we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard,
lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved
steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a
just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a
salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord,
and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing
witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and
gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?” What
a challenging portion of Scripture! It is warning us to give “earnest heed” to what
we have heard of the truth of the Gospel. To be “earnest”
means to be “1. serious in mind or intention 2. showing or
characterized by sincerity of intention 3. demanding or
receiving serious attention” (Collins
Dictionary). To “heed”
means to give “close and careful attention.” Putting those
two words together is giving us the message that we need to pay
close attention to what has been said ~ otherwise we will drift
away into carelessness, forgetfulness and passivity. When that
happens there is no longer any supernatural confirmation from
God to the preaching of His word. The
Scriptures teach us that God does confirm His word with signs
following (Mark 16:15-20). It happens when we, His people,
demonstrate that we believe the importance of what He says to
the point that we commit ourselves totally to it. What God says
must be “Number One” in the life of a Christian! When we
drift away from giving “earnest heed” to what we have heard (from God), then there
is a process that sets in that robs us of the power and impact
of the Gospel. When the word of the Lord is preached and heard,
then we are told that God “bears
witness” with “signs
and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy
Spirit.” This is supposed to be “the norm” for
Biblical Christianity. Why is this so important? The reason is
that Christianity is a supernatural Gospel, inspired by a
Supernatural God, Who wants Christians and the world to know
that He is alive today to back up what He says. Because He is a
Supernatural God then it is obvious that He works in
supernatural ways, leaving people in no doubt as to His presence
being there to back up what is preached and spoken! Did
you notice that the “gifts of the Holy Spirit” functioning through Holy
Spirit-filled people are one of God’s ways of confirming His
word to those present? When we give “earnest
heed” to the teachings of New Covenant Christianity,
then we will come to realize that “signs
and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy
Spirit” should be a joyful part of our walk with
Jesus. If there is no supernatural evidence of God in our
preaching, then there will be no conviction of the necessity to
treat such in the way the Bible exhorts us. Today God is looking for people who will dare to believe what He says, and to so believe what He says that they are willing to put their faith into action and demonstrate that “God says what He means and means what He says.” We cannot be passive hearers of His word and then expect supernatural results! We have to stir those gifts that are within us and allow the Holy Spirit to speak and act through us to demonstrate to an unbelieving world that Jesus is alive today. We are His representatives (“ambassadors” – “people invested with power and authority to speak and act on behalf of the King of the Kingdom we represent” – 2 Corinthians 5:20) and that means there is to be some supernatural evidence of that privilege we carry. God wants to back up His word with “signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit” through His ambassadors. May we all be challenged afresh of our responsibility to “give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” ~ Rodney W. Francis. “Dear God, I come to You in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and I ask You to help me to get much more serious about Spiritual Gifts operatinout of my life. Your Word tells me that I should and can prophesy, and so I ask You to stir and liberate me to be able to minister this beautiful gift to build uplowing me to function more do want to be an effective and fruitful minister of Your Gospel in my day |
(August 2010). "The GFM" BARNABAS BULLETIN is a monthly communication sent into over 100 nations. Previous issues are available on our Website. Please feel free to forward, photocopy and/or post this Barnabas Bulletin to your Friends. You may be the very means God uses to impact someone else's life with the reality of the love of Jesus. If you wish to be on our regular E-Mailing list, please contact us at the addresses above. If you would prefer to receive this E-Mail in Plain Text, please inform us. If you no longer wish to receive from The GFM Ministry, please send us an E-Mail with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line ~ Thank you. We're
Believing . . . Equipping For Leadership In The Nations Through The Power Of The Holy Spirit
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18/08/2010