Inspired Word - January 30, 2008

INSPIRED WORD

January 30, 2008

EXHORTATION / SCRIPTURE

“… more of Your power, more of Your Spirit in me. Change my heart, change my life, and manifest Yourself in me.” Tonight we asked God for more glory, we asked Him for more power, for more of His Spirit. What if He manifests Himself in you tonight? Are you going to sit there and not speak up? What if He manifests Himself in you and says, “Speak these words to My people.” Are you going to say, “Is this You, Lord? Are these really Your words?” Are you going to come up and really speak the words? What if He manifests Himself in you in a thought, in a mind vision, and He asks you to share them? Are you going to keep them to yourself? I know and I believe in my heart, that sometimes we do get touched when we are sitting here. But that manifestation is overcome by fear, by doubt, or by embarrassment, and we don't come up and speak what we have been given. Dan just read to us, from Isaiah (Chapter 61:1) , the opening passage that says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” If you accept that Spirit of the Lord in your heart, you cannot remain silent!! You have to speak what He asks you to speak.! I encourage you to do that tonight.

PRAYER

Lord, we are baptized; we are Your people; we are Your army. Even though we might be weak, broken, wounded and sometimes sinful, we are Your people. Help us Lord, that we may proclaim Your glory to this nation, and to this world. We say, “Yes, Jesus! Yes, Jesus!”

SCRIPTURE

Dan referred to Revelation when he was giving his talk about the garments of praise. It says in Revelation 7:9 – 17: After this I looked, and there was an enormous crowd – no one could count all the people! They were from every race, tribe, nation, and language, and they stood in front of the throne and of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They called out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, Who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. Then they fell down on their faces in front of the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever! Amen!” One of the elders asked me, “Who are these people dressed in white robes, and where do they come from?” “I don't know, sir. You do”, I answered. He said to me, “These are the people who have come safely through the terrible persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the Blood of the Lamb. That is why they stand before God's throne and serve Him day and night in His temple. He Who sits on the throne will protect them with His Presence. Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them, because the Lamb, Who is in the center of the throne, will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of life-giving water. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” And we join those people who are singing praises before the Lord right now! The reason we join them is because we know that that very same Lamb Who dried all the tears from their eyes is the One Who is here with us right now to address us. In Romans (Chapter 8: 35 - 39) He has told us over the last two weeks “What can separate us from the love of God? For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, neither the world above nor the world below, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is ours through Christ Jesus, the Lord.” That is why we join those in heaven who are praising the Lord because nothing can separate us from His love!!

SENSE

As I was sitting here, I was kind of mesmerized by the flame on the candle behind the altar. The sense that came to me was that, like the flame that is burning on the candle, Jesus wants to be the oil, the never-ending oil, in our lives which keeps our candles burning. So then other people can see Him in us, and then we can use that light to do what He wants us to do in this world. When people see that light in us, they will also want to have what we have – the light of Jesus!

EXHORTATION

We are getting ready to leave here tonight. We just sang the song, “How Great Is Our God.” Are we going to hang up that garment of praise when we walk out the door, knowing that it is going to be here next week when we come back in? Are we going to keep it on and carry it out to the world? Did we gain strength tonight from the things that were said, and the songs that we sang here tonight, and from what the Lord had placed in our hearts? I say that seriously! I am going to try to relate it to an incident that happened this week. I lost a very good friend of 50 years. This was different from other people that I had known who had passed away. In my life, the people that I have known who have gone home to the Lord had been ill. But John was not ill. He was here one day and gone the next day. Tonight when we sang: “All honor, praise, power and might belong to our God”, the thought came to me that my friend John was now up there singing to the Lord. When Barbara had shared the Scripture with us from Romans (Chapter 8: 35 – 39) that said: “What can separate us from the love of God?” I felt very strongly that either my friend John or the Lord was placing in my heart the words: “What else do you need to know?” If nothing can separate us from the love of God, is that enough to give us strength, trust and courage to take this mantle of praise to where we know it needs to be? That is a question that each of us has to answer. If nothing can separate us from the love of God, should that give us enough joy, enough hope, enough courage, enough trust, to take the mantle of praise out there? Absolutely! We all need to answer that question. Do we have the trust and the courage to surrender to this God when nothing can separate us from the love from Him? We need to take that mantle of praise and wear it all week and to joyfully come back here when we meet next week. Praise God! Amen!

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