I Want to Believe Part 1

We began discussing the spiritual gift of faith. Before we can get into understanding the supernatural gift that comes through the Holy Spirit, we need to understand a little bit about faith in general and what it is NOT.

 

According to Hebrews 11:1-3, faith is the connection between the unseen promises of God and the "seen" world we live in. But operating and living by faith is much more than just confessing the Word or "naming it an claiming it." To understand what faith is, we need to understand what it isn't. We all speak and create based on what we believe and have faith in, but we need to speak and create what is in the Word.  Many people think they are living by faith, but are actually living in foolishness of presumption.

 

Foolishness would be belief that you can obtain the promises using your own method or that following God’s principles is unimportant.  The example we looked at was of King Saul in I Samuel 13. He set out to do the right thing, but got impatient waiting for Samuel (the man of God)  to do what he promised. So he took things into his own hands and did what he thought was good to do. But it was NOT what he was supposed to do. When Samuel arrives he rebukes Saul and tells him that he has acted foolishly.

 

Presumption is receiving the Word of God but stepping out beyond the faith that is in you (faith in your faith).   Many times it happens because we think we have earned the promises — I've prayed and confessed and I give my tithes and serve at the church, so God will do ________. This is not faith in God, but faith in our own faith.  We forget that the breakdown is not in God not doing things but things hindering us from receiving what has already been done.  We do not earn the promises of God. They HAVE been given. What we do is live by the principles that produce the promised results.

 

The example we looked at was with the Israelites in Joshua 7. They had just defeated Jericho by following God's instructions. God had told them that all of the plunder from Jericho belonged to Him (they would get all of the plunder from all the future victories), but, unbeknownst to Joshua, someone had taken some of the plunder for himself. Then,

Joshua sent a force onto Ai and they were defeated. We can look at that defeat and think that God punished them for withholding something that belonged to Him. However, God did not tell them to go to Ai. Joshua, in his overconfidence from defeating Jericho so easily, went out beyond what God told Him to do.  God does not set us up for defeat to teach us a lesson. He didn't tell the Israelites to go to Ai, but they decided to go. After Joshua dealt with the "sin in his camp," God then told him to go to Ai. This time they routed Ai. In fact, God used the mistake they made the first time to their advantage to bring victory. God uses our mistakes to our advantage if we will allow Him to.  That does not mean that God meant for them to be defeated in order to be victorious later, but instead God used their defeat to bring victory when they operated in and followed God’s direction.

 

So, we don’t want to operate in foolishness or presumption. We want to operate in faith. We began looking at Abraham's faith. He finally obtained the promise when, at 99 years old (and after making mistakes), he came to the conclusion that it was impossible for him to obtain the promise on his own. It was then that he knew that only God could make it come to pass. It was in that same year that he finally had the child God promised — Isaac.  The more impossible the promise became, the greater faith Abraham had to believe God would do it.  Often we do the opposite and let our faith wane when it goes beyond our ability.  When we know we have to do something we can't do on our own, we know God has to do it.

 

 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

How Did You Know That?--Unwrapping the Gifts of the Spirit Part 2

We are continuing our series on the understanding of the gifts of the Spirit — specifically word of Knowledge.   This involves having supernatural knowledge for ourselves or to impart to someone else.  In 1 Corinthians 12:1 Paul exhorts us to not be ignorant of the gifts. Ignorance can be a lack of knowledge and it can also be misunderstanding. Misunderstanding can cause us to shy away from the gifts or it can cause us to misuse the gifts. We don't want to have either type of ignorance.

 

 First we need to understand the meaning of “word of knowledge.”  Word (Logos in Greek) means a word uttered by a human voice, not just a written word or thought.  Knowledge in the Greek means knowledge of the thing.  When we add the gift of the Spirit to it, we come up with this definition “received from the Holy Spirit in you, enabling you to more effectively minister to the needs of people; to know or understand situations, circumstances, and strategies of the enemy; it enables you to know how and what to speak with a knowledge that can surprise, baffle or disarm, bringing answers, healing or understanding.”

 

Keys to Operating in Word of Knowledge:

1. Have a desire to do so--God will not make you do things He wants you to do, but if you are a willing vessel, He will use you.
2. Recognize His voice (which comes by knowing His Word)--If a “Word” does not line up with the Word, it is not God.
3. Understand timing (not all words are for right now but some are).--Pray and find out when to share it.
4. Desire to edify the body through this gift.  Our desire and motivation should always be to edify, exhort, and comfort and never to tear down, embarrass, or condemn.
5. Be open to fine-tuning, teaching and correction from those over you in the Lord (the Spirit is perfect, but we're not!  Sometimes we’ll make a mistake—just apologize, ask for forgiveness, and move on). 

A note, with Word of Knowledge, you usually will not know what you are talking about.  It is not wisdom into something you know about, but only God and the person will know what it is about.  We also can’t imitate others.  We need to be ourselves.  We can learn from what others do, but we have to let God flow uniquely through us. 

A major factor in effectively flowing in any Spiritual gift is doing so through love. 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 both deal with operating in these gift. But chapter 13 is all about love and how, without it, the power of the gifts is totally useless.  1 John 4 is another good reference.

 

Remember also that your role in delivering a word of Knowledge is simply that of a postman. You have nothing to do with the message, understanding it, adding to it or taking away from it. You simply deliver it. I find that in almost every case, the deliverer of the message knows nothing about its significance or its meaning. You are simply delivering a message.  We can confuse or delay or cause misunderstanding if we add or take away from God’s clear message.  The errors I have made in this gift has either been not doing it or not telling the complete message I am given.

 

Ways We Receive a Word of Knowledge (not the ONLY ways — just some ways):

1. In your own prayer time (a person or situation comes to mind)
2. You may get a sudden witness in your spirit
3. You are shown something as you study the Word
4. Seeing or hearing something moves you (Jesus was moved by compassion to see a need in people that was not naturally perceivable in Matthew 9:36)
5. In a vision (sometimes a complete picture and sometimes simply a single word)

We must learn to discern when we are receiving a word of knowledge and when it is something else. If you could have perceived it on your own, then it probably is not. Not every random thought or dream is a vision or word of knowledge. They may be, but they may not be.  

 

What to do when you believe you've received a word of knowledge:

1. PRAY – ask God if it is a Word from Him
2. PRAY — If it is, ask Him what He wants you to do with it

                                - is it a simply prompt for me to pray?

                                - is it something to be shared with an individual?

                                - is it something to be shared with the congregation?

 

Finally, what should you do if someone shares a word of knowledge with you — to ensure it truly IS a word from God:

1. PRAY – ask God if it is from Him.  Remember, God, like in the Word will confirm more than once (two or three witnesses often).
2. Does it line up with His Word and His character? (should not be condemning or exposing sin – it should edify)
3. Does it confirm something God has told or shown me or has been trying to tell me? Does it confirm a question I had?
4. Could the individual have known what the significance of what they told me was (were they simply stating something based on what they see) or was it clearly God-revealed knowledge?

Always confirm any word by 2 or 3 witnesses (your own spirit being one). Most times the word is confirming something God has already shown you. Very rarely is it something totally out of left field. If it is, then be very diligent to pray and confirm before acting on that word.

 

There are many great examples of how God uses this gift to do amazing things (John 4:4-42, Acts 9:10-18, Acts 10:1-8, Acts 10:9-17)

 

Understand the gift and allow yourself to be used to be powerful. Remember, Jesus wasn't weird or fruity. He was powerful!

 

 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

A Wise Man Once Said---Unwrapping the Gifts of the Spirit Part 1

Last week, we began a series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts are powerful tools given to us to be able to do extraordinary things. Many believers shun them because they view them as something weird or fruity.  We want to tap into the power Jesus used and which is available to us.  Certainly we have seen good-intentioned believers do strange things with the gifts, but we should not fault the gift or the giver when the gift is used in a way that is foreign to us or which may seem to be a misuse of the gift. Our example for what the gifts are supposed to look like is Jesus. He wasn't weird or fruity. He was powerful. People wanted to be around Jesus because He was powerful.  The enemy has used the strangeness of some uses of the gifts to generally reject the gifts that can allow us to have the power to do the supernatural things He wants us to do.

 

We all are familiar with the story of King Solomon in 2 Chronicles 1. He has the opportunity to ask anything of God. He uses "wisdom" in knowing to ask for wisdom. He knew that leading God's people would require God's wisdom.  Of course, God tells him that since he did not ask for riches or fame, he would get them. It was not as a reward for making the right choice. It was because making wise choices would naturally produce those things. You see, we do not seek God's wisdom so we can be wealthy. We seek His wisdom so we can successfully run our races — the wealth and abundance is a by-product of wisdom.  Romans 11:33 says that if we operate by God’s wisdom, riches are often a by-product….but it is, again, not WHY we do it. 

 

 

We began this study looking at the first of these gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12; the gift of wisdom. I believe this one is listed first because all of the others should operate through it (much like love being listed first in the fruit of the Spirit).  Wisdom is a very broad topic, but like all gifts from God, they are designed to help us run our race. Godly wisdom is needed in order to do the things He has called us to do. Wisdom helps us know whether a use of the gifts of the Spirit is from God or not.  Is it giving glory to God and bringing people closer to Him?  Then the answer is yes. 

 

My definition of wisdom is “seeing life from God’s perspective.”  The Greek definition of wisdom in the passage in Corinthians is sophia, which means “broad, full of intelligence, knowledge of very diverse matters.”  It also means “devout and proper prudence in intercourse with men who are not disciples of Christ; skill and discretion in imparting Christian truth.”  If we have the Holy Spirit gift of wisdom, we will be very effective in sharing the truth of the  Gospel with others.  Colossians 4:4-5 says that we start with love and grace and season (not overwhelm) with salt.  We receive righteousness when we are saved, but we grow in wisdom over time.  Luke 2:40 and 52 says this about Jesus as well, and indicates that His stature (influence) grew as His wisdom grew.  Again here, grace and wisdom are tied together.  Perhaps wisdom is knowing when to apply grace and when to season with salt.  A lot of what the church does fails because it is full of the truth of God's Word, but lacks His wisdom in how we present it.

 

 

 

Finally, in Proverbs 4:7 we are told that we should gain all the wisdom we can, but in all that gaining, get understanding. What does that mean? God, by the Holy Spirit, will give you supernatural wisdom. When we get it and apply it we succeed. We also set ourselves for even greater future success when we then seek God for the understanding of that wisdom. 

 

Colossians 2 says God hides wisdom, not to keep it from us, but because it is VERY powerful and can lead people in weird directions if they are not already in Christ.  It also says God reveals it to us by His Spirit.  His wisdom goes beyond our understanding but, if we ask, He will help us understand so that what was to you powerful, supernatural wisdom before can become natural and you can press in for even greater, supernatural wisdom.  Wisdom is knowing what to do (do not confuse this with the word of knowledge, which we will explore later).

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

 

 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

self-control

 

Last Sunday we wrapped up our series on the Fruit of the Spirit with a discussion about self-control. Throughout this series we have discussed the importance of understanding that these are the fruits of the Spirit living inside of you — not YOUR fruit.  We talked about how we have 3 votes for each decision we make…the Spirit, which is in line with God’s word, the flesh, which always votes against God’s word, and our soul, the deciding vote.   So it’s our soul we need to train to choose the things of God and let His Spirit flow through us to move us toward the Spirit in our decisions.  Titus 2:11 is one verse we have been focusing on in regard to this.   God’s grace erases our mistakes and at the same time teaches us to say no to ungodliness so we can experience all the blessings God wants us to have in our lives.

 

The Greek word for self-control (or temperance) throughout the New Testament is engkrateia — which means "virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites. In essence, what it means is that we allow the Spirit to have it's desires instead of the desires of our flesh.

 

When you break down the word engkrateia, you also find it is made of of two Greek words. The first is en, which means "in" and second is kratos, which means "power or strength."  Kratos is also the world used for democracy.  So, from a human standpoint, self-control is inner strength. But we know that God sees it as more than just will power. Your will can't withstand all temptations, but the Spirit can! To be successful your self-control cannot simply be self controlling self. It needs to be Spirit controlling self.

 

Acts 1:8 Jesus tells us that there is a power coming, in the Holy Spirit, when we are born-again. In Acts 2:38 we are told it is a gift that comes as part of salvation. You were unable to overcome certain dangerous temptations in your life before you were born again. But, because you now have the Spirit in you, you DO have the power to overcome ANY temptation.  You may not be tempted by sexual immorality or the love of money. But you may be tempted by the desires of your stomach. Whatever the temptation is, there is power inside of you to say "no" to it (Titus 2:11-13).   Self-control is basically about letting the soul decide to submit to the Spirit’s leading.  The power and all the self-control we need is inside us, but we have to pull on and receive God’s grace to access it.

 

We discussed the three steps to operating in self-control. 

 

1) Take responsibility for your own life, thoughts and actions. Stop blaming everyone else! The devil didn't make you do it. He can't make you do anything. He can make suggestions, but you choose. Exercise self-control and resist his suggestions. God chooses not to make you do anything either. He directs you to His truth, and you must choose to submit to it.  We also don’t want to exalt ourselves and think that because we avoid “big sins,” we have a lot of self-control.  If you don’t have a desire in an area, you are not exhibiting self-control.  Instead, we need to seek to submit more and more to the Spirit each day.

 

2) Permit the Spirit in us to do His work.

 

3) We must do all we CAN do to resist, and let the Spirit do what we can't. 1 Corinthians 10:13-14 (one of the most frequently misquoted scriptures in the Bible) says that God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can withstand. It does not say God will not put more on you that you can handle as is often stated. James 1:13-14 tells us God is NOT the tempter. He is promising us that there is no temptation that will come your way that, if you allow the Spirit in you to work, you can't resist.

 

The other part we should do is FLEE from sinful situations. Don't set yourself up for failure by going where you know you will be tempted, reading or looking at what you know will tempt you, or being around people who will lead you toward temptation. If you are trying to take better care of your body for God's glory, stop going to McDonald's for lunch. Flee those things. Give yourself a fighting chance!

 
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Goodness and Faithfulness

Last Sunday we talked about the "fruits" of goodness and faithfulness. Remember that these are the fruit of the Spirit. By all means, we should exhibit goodness and faithfulness to the best of our ability. But we also know that there is none good but God. What we talked about helped explain why that is the case.

We started at Psalm 23 where it says “Surely goodness and love (mercy) shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord all my life.”  Goodness and mercy have to follow us to clean up our messes and pick us up when we fall.  In the Old Testament, there are two Hebrew words generally that have been translated as goodness. The first is towb and the second is tuwb. In English, the only difference appears to be one letter. In fact, they are both very similar in defining goodness. The biggest difference is that towb defines the good things of this world while tuwb defines the same things, but in relation to God — or God's goodness. Towb can come and go, but tuwb is unchangeable.  In both cases, though, good means good.

In Romans 2: 4 and following, we see the results of goodness in our lives. God does not have a different definition of good than we do. Pain, loss and suffering are not good by God's standards. Something good may come in the end, but that is simply God redeeming the situation when we give it to Him.  This is towb, earthly goodness.  Sometimes it is consistent, but other times strange things happen. We looked at Joshua 23:14, where we find Joshua near the end of his life. Looking back, he is reminded and is reminding the people that God has ALWAYS been faithful and ALWAYS kept ALL His promises. God's faithfulness is what makes Him good.  This is the essence of tuwb.

No man is good because none of us has been 100% faithful. We have all said things that were not true or failed to do what we have promised. But God is always faithful to His Word. Faithfulness is not faithfulness if it is randomly applied. If God was not always faithful to His Word, He would not be faithful at all.  Sometimes we think that some people seem to have hit the lottery of God's goodness that we never seem to hit. But God's promises are not a randomly applied thing. Trust in Him and live by His principles and the promises will come to pass. There are a lot of things in us that keep us from fully trusting in His Word and many areas where we do not live by His principles. God’s grace should be continually teaching us to say no to ungodliness and YES to the His principles, more and more each day.  But He is always faithful and He is always good.

We also looked at the story in the book of Ruth. There are so many amazing pictures in this story that help us understand our relationship with God, through Christ. But what we focused on was that God was faithful to Naomi despite any mistakes her family had made. Her family left Bethlehem and traveled EAST to Moab during a famine (see previous messages for significance). Eventually, what was left of the family returned and found tremendous blessing.  Obedience to God does not guarantee you will not experience times of famine in your life. Disobedience also does not bring famine as a punishment from God. Famine is part of life in this world. What our level of obedience does is determine how hard the road through the famine will be (or IF and when and HOW we get through it).

While man is, himself, not good, we have the Spirit inside of us who is. If we pull on what is inside of us and allow Him to work through us, we can do truly good things. In our own strength we can do what seems good, but in the end can do more harm than good. The Spirit will always lead us to do what is truly good.

 
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.


 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

Kindness

Last week we studied the meaning of Scriptural kindness. Learning to operate in fruit of the Spirit kindness is a major factor in the success of spreading the Gospel. It doesn't take supernatural power to be kind to those "deserving" of kindness — those who are themselves kind. It is also the nature of most decent individuals to be kind to the downtrodden in life. We may not always excel in this area, but it is our natural desire.

 

We started in Colossians 3:5 and forward.  We are still being renewed and are always in the process.  This alone will help us to have more patience and kindness toward others.  Look on your own at Romans 12:2 (we are renewed by changing our way of thinking) and Hebrews 10:14 (we were already made perfect by the sacrifice but we are BEING made Holy).  It is important to note that God sees us the same, since He sees us all through Christ, and that we have to CLOTHE ourselves with patience and kindness…we don’t naturally have it.  Part of patience and kindness is forgiveness (remember God forgave us while we were yet sinners).  This means REALLY letting it go and letting God deal with the heart issue behind their sin (instead of waiting for God to “get even with them”).

 

God is concerned with the heart. He is not looking to punish our sins. He wants to help us overcome our sins. There are people who are "unredeemable" but God is the one who knows that — not you. We must find ways to look at people as God does — beyond the faults and into the heart. Most unkind people are acting that way because of heart issues that only God can fix.

 

In Luke 10 Jesus shares a parable about a man who had been robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite (temple worker) walked right past him and did nothing. Contrary to what we expect, one who not only went and cared for the man, but also went above and beyond the call, was a Samaritan.  When Jesus chooses to make a Samaritan the hero of the story, He makes a profound point. The Samaritans were vehemently hated by the Jews based on a story that goes all the way back to the Old Testament in 2 Kings 17. They were seen as half-breeds and illegitimate children of God. In fact, Jesus had just had a run-in with them in the previous chapter — which makes His choice to use them in His parable all the more illustrative of Biblical kindness. Additionally in John 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well.  Jesus used kindness by waiting for her to tell Him rather than calling her out on all the junk in her life.  This results in many people believing in Him.  She is also the first person Jesus told He was the Messiah.

 

In the end, we find that there is a deep need for the world to see kindness operating both within the church (because we can be so unkind to fellow believers simply because we have theological differences) and in the world. The sinners of the world (those who do not yet know Christ) need us to spend a little less time pointing out their sin (they already know what we think!) and more time showing kindness and extending grace.  This doesn’t mean we say sin is okay, but that we show the heart of Jesus about their sin.  God sees the reason behind the sin and wants to deal with that.

 

Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness — not overzealous Christians screaming "you're a sinner." Extend to others the same grace that God has extended to you. Let grace do its work. This is illustrated in Proverbs 3:3. We must bind both truth AND kindness around our necks. We seem to have no problem bringing the "truth" about sin, but we must also join it with kindness. We never want to approve of sin, but we do love people through it.  THEN we will have favor in the eyes of God and man.

 
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

 

Are We There Yet?--Patience

Last week we studied the topic of patience. As one of the fruits of the Spirit, it is something we need to operate in to drive the enemies out of the Promised Land (which is our hearts).   We looked at the story of Abraham, since he is credited in Hebrews 6 as a man who, through faith and patience, obtained the promises.

 

Throughout Genesis, from the end of chapter 11 to chapter 21, we see the progress of a man from receiving a word from God to fully realizing the promise of that word. We found that God reaffirmed the word to him nine times in various different ways before it actually came to pass.  At various times, He followed God’s direction only partially and got delayed in realizing God’s promise while he continued to develop faith and patience.

 

God makes a Covenant with Abraham…He uses a method Abraham will understand.  He has Abraham use a list of animals that are never used anywhere else in scripture. Other people in Abraham’s day would use these animals when a covenant was made, and the people would walk a figure 8 around the halves (infinity sign) to show it would last forever.  A firepot with a torch goes between the pieces.

 

When God’s promise finally came to full fruition, it was because Abraham had truly connected in faith. Along the way he made MANY mistakes — some of them huge (disobedience, fear, lying, adultery, laughing at God—which results in their son being named Isaac which means laughter…).  He renames Abram and Sarai along the way to add the name of God to each of their names.  When we read Paul's words in Romans 4 we see this story of a many who, without wavering and without considering the impossibility of God's promise, obtained all that was promised. As we read what Paul said, we have to wonder if he had read the same story we read. In fact, he did. He read the story from God's point of view. In the end, God is not concerned with all the mistakes we make along the way. He focuses on the moment where we persevered and obtained the promise. 

 

What does this have to do with a lesson on patience? Well, Abraham obtained the promises through faith and patience. Certainly his own faith and patience were instrumental. But, what I see in his story is the power and the depth of God's patience with us. He did not move on to someone else to fulfill His will when Abraham blew it. As long as Abraham continued to get back up, it did not matter how many times he fell.  God is truly patient with us, just like God was with Abraham, allowing him to sometimes make the same mistake more than once.  Yet, God still fulfills His word to Abraham.

 

But then how does this relate to us displaying the fruit of patience? Remember that the fruit of the Spirit is just that — of the Spirit. YOU don't have that kind of patience with yourself, with others, or with the Word of God. However, if you are born again, HIS patience is inside of you waiting for you to give it permission to do its work in you.

 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.

 

 

To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.