Episodes
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
Sunday Jun 13, 2021
Are You Being Led by the Holy Spirit, or Are YOU DOING WHAT YOU THINK IS BEST? Be filled with the Holy Spirit
MESSAGE SUMMARY: On Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, the Holy Spirit, the third entity of the Trinity, was poured out; therefore, everyone is entitled to have a personal relationship with God through prayer and the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Luke, in Acts 2:38, tells us of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to Christians: “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’". Pentecost changed the previous limited and temporary inclusion of the Holy Spirit into human life relationships with God to a gift from God, as a part of His Grace of Salvation through Jesus, to the Holy Spirit’s availability to all that believe and are Jesus Followers.
In 1900, the world-wide awakening with the Holy Spirit began when a humble Roman Catholic Nun obeyed the voice of the Lord and wrote to Pope Leo encouraging him to pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Based on his concerns with all that was going on in the world, Pope Leo responded to the letter by calling an assembly of the College of Cardinals to a prayer vigil at the Vatican on New Year’s Eve. This beginning spread the same night to Topeka Kansas; and the Holy Spirit descended over the world during the next six years with one revival in California lasting twenty-four hours a day for three years; and the world received a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Today, we and the world need to be refreshed by the Holy Spirit -- this is what Pentecost is all about. The Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus among us. Our being filled with the Holy Spirit is normal Christianity. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to commune with God and to have a personal relationship with Him -- the Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus among us. You cannot live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. Pentecost reminds us that we are given Spiritual Gifts so that we might be a witness to the Lord.
You will be filled with the Holy Spirit every day that you surrender your life to the Holy Spirit. You cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit if you are consumed by sin and the desires of your flesh.
Are You being led by the Holy Spirit, or are you just doing what you think is best? Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM RIGHTEOUS IN GOD’S EYES. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21).
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Acts 2:38; Genesis 1:2; 1 Corinthians 2:1-11; Acts 2:1-13; Ephesians 5:18; 2 Peter 1:20; Galatians 5:16-20; Philippians 4:13-20; Acts 1:8.
TODAY’S PRAYER: Father, teach me to trust you even when I feel like I am alone and that you are asleep in the boat with storms raging all around me. Awaken me to the treasures that can only be found in darkness. Grant me the grace to follow you into the next place you have for me in this journey called life. In Jesus’ name, amen. Scazzero, Peter. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day (p. 82). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
A WORD FROM THE LORD WEBSITE: www.AWFTL.org.
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S DAILY DEVOTIONAL – “Your Sin Is Never Too Great so that You Are Lost to God’s Salvation – ‘Return to Me {God}, and I Will Return to You’”: https://awordfromthelord.org/devotional/
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB
Sunday Jul 26, 2020
Sunday Jul 26, 2020
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
As Jesus commanded us in John 5:12: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”. Also, in John 13:34-35, Jesus commanded us: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”. Jesus’ “one another” is all inclusive and not just those that look like you and/or of your culture.
“The past few months have not only been pandemic, but pandemonium. We have watched evil displayed by fellow image bearers and some police officers in recent weeks. We have heard cries of grief in our own neighborhoods and from all around the world. And the cries have gotten louder. We watched as peaceful protests were hijacked by chaos and violence, destroying countless businesses and property, and injuring not only bystanders . . . In the US we have struggled to overcome the effects of the systemic racism from our founding days, and we now know that changing laws would never be enough. Victories for civil rights, and for the desegregation of our schools would never be enough. For you see we do not have just a ‘skin problem’, we have a ‘sin problem’.”
“As Dr. Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Church in Dallas Texas recently said, ‘The evangelical church needs to speak up where it has been silent on injustice and racism. The biggest problem in the culture today is the failure of the church. We would not even have a racial crisis in America if the church had not consistently failed to deal with racism as the severe sin it is. But because the church has historically ignored and downplayed it, the issue still exists. Where the church is called to set an example, we have cowered.’. . . The Bible makes it unequivocally clear that we are all made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27): ‘So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’. We each bear the image of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Any hostility between brothers and sisters in Christ, especially because of skin color, is an affront to God and damages our souls and the ‘blessed community’ so many of us seek . . .”
“We need God to rend our hearts as a Church. We need the people of Anglican Church in North America to display the kind of tenderness and compassion that is needed in this time. We need listening ears. We need thoughtfulness. We need preaching. We need humility. We need grace. We need to aim for the Anglican Church in North America to look like ‘thy kingdom on earth as it is in heaven’. . .”
“We need to search our hearts and make sure there is no offensive way in us as the Anglican Church in North America. All the words about spiritual renewal and revival in the Bible are not directed to the non-Christian culture, but to the people of God. We need to look within ourselves. And it starts with me. What the Lord has shown me about me in the past few weeks is this – I have failed to understand the incredible burden and pain that many of my black brothers and sisters live with every day. I have not wept with those who weep. And I have not understood the depth of the effect of racism and injustice. I have not understood the burden of living under racist acts, slurs, and systems they must endure every day, nor have I understood the fear with which they constantly live for themselves and their families. It is not enough not to be a racist; we must not be blind to the sin of racism and ignore it in our midst. . . I find myself listening a lot these days. I find myself sad a lot. I find myself angry. I find myself yearning to see ‘all the sad things come untrue.’ And yet I know that none of this is a surprise to our Lord, and He can be trusted . . . ‘Doing nothing is no longer an option for me.’.”
“Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am in no way endorsing those movements that are promoting anarchy, destruction of the family, and the dismantling of our government. Our form of government has brought more freedom, justice, and liberation than ANY other kind of government . . . It will not be through political parties, rallies, slogans, or marches that our attitudes and practices are changed, that the souls of our nations are converted. They may have some impact, but the deep change we all need will be through revival that comes from repentance – turning away from our sin and toward God and his righteous ways in Jesus Christ.”
“You can start right where you are. In your own heart, in your own relationship with God - first. Then, in your own community -- One person at a time. One relationship at a time. One act a time. Reaching out and building a relationship with someone different than you are. One drop of rain may not seem like much, but with other drops of rain it can create a healing flood. . . “
“So, let us pray for one another about these things, and let us get out and make a difference in our local communities. God has placed you and me here for such a time as this . . .”
NOTE: Quotes above are from an address by Archbishop Foley Beach, Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), to the ACNA’s Provincial (i.e. Canada, US, and Mexico) Council. Dr. Beach provides both a context and call to action for all Christian Churches, Clergy, and lay persons to become a part of the solution for America’s “race issues”.
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM FORGIVEN. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Genesis 1:27; Revelation 7:1-17; Ephesians 2:19; John.13:35; Galatians 6:2; Romans 12:15; Psalms 103:12; Isiah 1:18.
WEBSITE LINK: www.AWordFromTheLord.org/
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “Are Both Your Interior Life and the Uncertainties in Your Earthly Life Today Challenging Your Conscience?”: www.AWFTL.org/watch
DONATE: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB
Sunday Jul 19, 2020
Sunday Jul 19, 2020
MESSAGE SUMMARY:
As Americans, we are a privileged people, all of us, to live in a country, relative to the rest of the world, that is privileged. The key element of this privilege” is freedom. However, something has been changing -- we are seeing many of the freedoms and blessings of America changing into curses. For example, our obsession with materialism has put most Americans into the bondage of debt; and our drive to feel happy has led many into the addiction of drugs and alcohol. We must all realize that our freedoms and liberties must be used for Godly purposes, or we will lose our freedoms. As we are told in Psalms 33:12: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!".
Today, through our actions, laws, and the cultural revisions of our founding Christian principles, we have told God that we do not want Him around. While God is love, He is, also, justice. Therefore, God has obliged us; and He has done what He said He would do -- God is withdrawing His presence and His protection and holding back His divine wisdom, which has guided us for so many years. God is leaving us to reap the consequences of our focus away from Him and to lives without Him. The signers of the Declaration of Independence began a revolution which started the United States of America.
The American Revolution was rooted in the belief that all people, even the King and governmental leaders, are subject to the rule of God and not above the law; and everyone is endowed by God, our Creator, with certain inalienable rights.
Many people have tried to deny that America's founders created a country which wove together the idea of self-governance with Christian principles. With God’s Ten Commandments as the cornerstone of our Democracy, most Americans and those others living in our country cannot name even three of the Ten Commandments. If a Christian religious context was assumed, by the founders of America and the government based on the Constitution, it seems we have a significant problem in our culture today. Now, it appears, America’s focus is to get rid of all things relating America to Christianity, the Bible, or anything that smacks of God – and, pretty much, these efforts to remove God’s influence from the public square appear to be succeeding.
Today, we must all Pray for America – to carve out a time each day when we, each and every one of us, prays for America. In our prayers, we must confess our sins as individuals and collectively as a country. Additionally, we must pray for our President, Members of Congress, the Supreme Court, and our other leaders and those others in authority. Our Prayers for America should pray for the moral issues of today; blessings and protection for our leaders that are walking the walk of their Christian faith; and for a Spiritual Revival and Awakening in America.
We will not survive as a nation unless the people of God stand up before God and plead for the survival of America. Spiritual laws are like the laws of physics – they are absolute unless another force intervenes. Therefore, as America increases its violation of God’s laws at an increasing rate, we will face both the implicit and explicit consequences of violating God’s laws unless He intervenes – we must pray for God’s intervention!
Paul instructs us for our prayers in 1 Timothy 2:1-6: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.". We must make Praying for America and, personally, for its leaders a priority in our lives. If we are praying, then God will show us what to do.
Only the intervention of God will change the downward direction of America, and we must ask through our prayers. God has intervened before, and He will do it again. America was built on prayer, as we learn from the writings of Benjamin Franklin, and upon the Christian faith of our founders.
Will You pray for America and take responsibility for the survival America and its blessings and freedoms for our country today and for our children and grandchildren in the future?
TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM A CHILD OF GOD. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. (John 1:12f).
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Psalms 33:12; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; James 1:4; Proverbs 3:5-6.
WEBSITE LINK: www.AWordFromTheLord.org/
WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “Cultural Turmoil and Health Threats Bring Fear, But Your Fear Is Overcome By Following God’s Call and Seeking His Will”: www.AWFTL.org/watch
DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB