Before I went to France I wrote a few messages from Joshua and Mark during Lent 2016 and I revisited them to see whether I was on the right track! I realised there was two messages from Joshua I had missed and that was unity of the people and the presence of God. Last week we talked about how Joshua had entered the Promised Land but there were still the Canaanite, Amorite and other tribal nations to be defeated. God may have made us a promise, but it still requires faith and courage to obtain it!Jesus travelled all through Galilee teaching in the Jewish synagogues, everywhere preaching the Good News about the Kingdom of Heaven. And he healed every kind of sickness and disease. The report of his miracles spread far beyond the borders of Galilee so that sick folk were soon coming to be healed from as far away as Syria. And whatever their illness and pain, or if they were possessed by demons, or were insane, or paralyzed—he healed them all. Enormous crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, and the Ten Cities, and Jerusalem, and from all over Judea, and even from across the Jordan River.
Matthew 4:23-25
Go For 100%
People today aren't interested in just words. They want an experience, they need to know it's real. That's going to take some courage on our part but Jesus has said he will do it, just like God told the Israelites!
Jesus healed them all! Like Joshua many years before, Jesus was on the march throughout the Promised Land and instead of defeating tribal kings, he was defeating the spiritual kings that held dominion over Israel. We know our enemy will not surrender. We must go for total victory. Remember from last week that there is a tension between what we believe and reality but we should not lower our expectation!
At PCC we have both Communion and the Sharing Time to pray for healing. Let's be encouraged to maximise this time when we're in need!
"Is anyone among you suffering? He should keep on praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually be singing praises to the Lord. Is anyone sick? He should call for the elders of the church and they should pray over him and pour a little oil upon him, calling on the Lord to heal him. And their prayer, if offered in faith, will heal him, for the Lord will make him well; and if his sickness was caused by some sin, the Lord will forgive him. Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results."
James 5:13-16
The Whole Army - Unity
For 400 years the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt but then God sent them Moses who led all the tribes out of Egypt. In order to have victory and freedom there must be unity. A house divided against itself will fall.
These tribes had quite a lot of reasons to hold things against each other but they marched forward together as God went before them. Pillar of cloud by day, Pillar of fire by night. Giving them complete victory in their mission.
The message of unity is not an easy one to preach I think. Since the reformation, the Church has been divided and especially in our time. We have our reasons - the differences are quite marked. Truth is important. Where would we be if people didn't stand up for truth? The world really hates to hear a message of truth when it confronts the way they are living. But in the Church we are also fighting over the truth. We have fought against each other in places like Northern Ireland because of it. And we are a divided church.
There is a time for war and a time for peace. At the moment, the World is being lost and the church is divided on how to save it. But I hope that all of us agree on saving the world.
There are major doctrinal differences between the denominations but it's getting us nowhere when we fight over them. We need to lay aside our other differences, stop fighting each other and go and win the war. Catholic and Protestant churches can agree on the Apostles creed.
Jesus second to last command for winning the World was to love one another. The last was to go and make disciples, knowing that he will be with us until the end of the age.
So the Catholic and Protestant Churches that are prepared to move in the presence of God are having great victories in Europe.
In the passage above, a distinction is made between 3 different types of healing
- Body
- Mind
- Spirit
How do we get there?
“Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing. If anyone separates from me, he is thrown away like a useless branch, withers, and is gathered into a pile with all the others and burned. But if you stay in me and obey my commands, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! My true disciples produce bountiful harvests. This brings great glory to my Father."
John 15:5-8
We need to connect with God first. We need to be connected to the Vine. Without a daily discipline of getting filled, nothing will happen! And as a church, this also needs to be a primary objective - to meet with God together each week - we all need to press in.
This is what I saw in Lausanne. The worship team led the people in song and encouraged praying and singing in tongues and it was loud enough that you didn't feel embarrassed to try. People had theirs hands up and open expectantly not in their pockets! A prophetic word was sometimes given but there was an atmosphere of peace. You can't create something artificially but you can try to go a bit further! To kiss the feet of Jesus. To spend some time and not be in a hurry. In that atmosphere, I think partly because the worship was in French which was so great for me, I had tears coming down my face quite a few times! But mostly you could notice the peace. And once that was there, the faith was high and people were getting healed. Once they were healed they would get the person to pray for others in the audience who had the same problem. So the effect was multiplied because the faith was at a high level. I think that it is the benefit of church worship and we have it at PCC but we can go further and see more!
Ok so we can have a wonderful time in Church every Sunday but come Monday we have to go into the world. Going into the week, we need to get ourselves fully armed each day. The Devil is going to have a go at us if and when he can!
We can start each day with a small scale version of what we do in Church. Worship, hands open, prayers, word of God. We should start the day like this and wait for his peace to come, our days are going to go much better! Even a few minutes is going to be of benefit. We're such busy people we think we haven't got time to do this! The Presence of God is the first thing to seek in order to do what Jesus did.
Connecting to the Vine protects us from Evil and equips us
But where the Presence of God is so strong, we will find a reaction from darkness. The youth experienced this at an Easter camp a couple of years back where some people were screaming out, same again in Lausanne. However, because of the atmosphere of peace there was no fear and people were easily set free.
All the soldiers need to be fully armed with the armour of God as in Ephesians 6. We are soldiers for the King and we're on duty.
- Helmet protects mind from confusion and doubts by reminding devil that we are saved forever
- Shield of faith is needed to protect us as we advance as the devil will cast many doubts our way
- Belt of Truth holds up the other pieces of armour and allows us to move freely and quickly
- Breastplate of Righteousness protects the heart from sorrow
- Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God which is for defence and attack (needs a strategy/objective for use!)
- Shoes of the Gospel of Peace. Please note the Gospel is a message of peace offered with God but it needs to be received
- Doubt, fear, temptation, lies
- Build up our imaginations, pride, sins (our weakest points)
- Suffering when allowed (need to be careful when teaching this - reference Job/Jesus)
- Results of sin are sickness, addiction, punishment, loneliness, regret, ultimately death
2 Corinthians 10:5
Fear Not
Once we crossed the Rubicon, there is no going back. This could get scary!
So at last Pharaoh let the people go. God did not lead them through the land of the Philistines, although that was the most direct route from Egypt to the Promised Land. The reason was that God felt the people might become discouraged by having to fight their way through, even though they had left Egypt armed; he thought they might return to Egypt. Instead, God led them along a route through the Red Sea wilderness. Moses took the bones of Joseph with them, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel vow before God that they would take his bones with them when God led them out of Egypt—as he was sure God would. Leaving Succoth, they camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness. The Lord guided them by a pillar of cloud during the daytime and by a pillar of fire at night. So they could travel either by day or night. The cloud and fire were never out of sight.
Exodus 13:17-22
- The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire were there 24/7. Jesus has promised he will never leave us not forsake us. The pillar was there day and night so the people could move at their own pace. God is faithful through all our circumstances. He is ready and with us even if we aren't ready.
- The Lord led them on an indirect route because he knew they would become discouraged by having to fight the Philistines on the direct route. Jesus knows the reality of us! If things are taking longer than we'd like, it's because the Lord knows we're not ready and he's preparing us!
- We have to move forward, we have to go to where he's calling us, even if we move slowly.
Extra: Upcoming Fiji Mission
- The Elders have had a word from God on mission and PCC are acting on that word, in the same way I am acting on France
- We are not going to stop until we have received from God everything that he has promised
- 7 people have expressed interest - Ela, Va, Deborah, Nicole, Vinze, Macgyver and Tala
- It is a good opportunity to test our faith and grow, if you feel this is for you, please let me know
- Very soon we begin to plan for the mission to Batiki Island ⁃ I can promise you it won't be easy, it will be a battle, I can promise you
No comments :
Post a Comment