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Abandonment

1)

 

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

Philippians chapter 3 verse 10

Is there a greater privilege whilst we are on earth than to know Him, that is, our lovely Jesus. There is no one like Jesus as all we need in life is to be found in Him. Unlike those who are bankrupt because they do not know Jesus we will receive everything appertaining to life when our spiritual eyes have been opened and through faith we drink at the fountain of life itself, that is, the place where true joys are to be found. Everyone and everything which is outside of Jesus is empty, dry and dead. Those outside of knowing Jesus as Saviour and Lord have a form of life but lack the vital ingredient of the author and satisfier of life, the one who said:

I am the way, the truth and the life.

St John chapter 14 verse 6

Reader have you come to the fountain of life and been reconciled to the only God who is holy and unless you have been washed in the blood of Jesus are eternally cut off from God as you are spiritually dead and hell bound unless you repent of your sin and receive eternal life. Sinner repent before it is too late. Let all your filthy rags of self righteousness go to the cross and leave them there. Come to God through the God given way and have all the old life of sin go to the cross and in its place receive the risen life of Jesus. This is a new life as it is His own resurrection life which will transform you as it replaces your old life of sin and self with the life of Jesus Himself. This is life at the deepest level as it is no longer lived with the limitations of self but lives for Jesus and because it lives for Jesus will always live for others.

Paul shows us in Philippians chapter 3 that as far as was possible from the human point of view he had everything which this world could give. When Jesus made Himself known to Paul the life of limitations on the human scale came to its end. Paul had all he could have but compared to the life which Jesus gave him his previous life was empty and unfulfilled. This is just like lives in our own day. There are millions of people throughout the world who have everything which the world can give them but deep down in the depths of their being they are empty and unfulfilled. Why otherwise is there a seeking and searching for anything and everything which will never satisfy. Fascination with the occult, haunted premises, witchcraft, free masonry, alcohol, drugs, sport, leisure and anything other than seeking after God and finding Him in the person of Jesus has been used by the god of this world to keep souls from experiencing life as God wants each and every person to receive.

Paul having received Jesus realised that this new life was all he needed. Everything which had gone before, he was prepared to lose in order to win Christ. In verse 7 of Philippians chapter 3 Paul in his own life was what the majority of Christians in our own day fail to see or if they do see fail to embrace.

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

This is one of the greatest hindrances to meeting the conditions to be fulfilled if we are once more to have the Holy Ghost come down in revival. Self centred Christians who act as God rather than being submitted and letting God in the person of the Holy Ghost do God’s work through them as only God can do the work of God.

Paul cries out to us across the centuries as his words in the text studied need to be applied by all Christians at all times. Does every breath within you long after God. Do you want to breathe in the rarefied air of heaven whilst still upon earth. If you do you will continually seek only to know Him, that is, Jesus in all His loveliness and at whatever cost. We can only know His resurrection life working in us and through us as the Holy Ghost lives and works through us as God when We accept death to self and the life which goes the way of suffering because it has gone the way of the cross. Death to us means life to others. All on the altar is laid when we see Jesus and realise that if we had been the only sinner on earth He would still have left the glory He shared with His Father in heaven and laid His life down in death on the cross in order to reconcile us to His Father by shedding every last drop of His blood. 

Death in us does bring life to others but it also brings us into the riches which are to be found in Jesus. We are not stripped of the self life and given nothing in return. No our Jesus is not mean. He gives us all of Himself when we let the Holy Ghost live and work through us. 

This is just like Jesus. He gives royally. He gives liberally. He will give us far more than we actually need in life whatever the need may be at the time of asking. For we will be asking for the work of God to fulfil the every creature commission, that is, making the Gospel message known to everyone in the world. We will be asking for all the broken lives in the world to be restored and made whole in Jesus. We will be asking to know all there is to know of Jesus and His wonderfully fulfilling life as it permeates every particle of our lives and even our bodies are alive with His own life as the Holy Ghost makes our bodies overflow with the life of the Master. We will know the presence of the Holy Ghost with us at all times even when the pressures of life appear in danger of overwhelming us. He lifts us above the circumstances as we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

More than the actual need will be supplied at all times. There will always be overflow. This is the real secret of what life in the Holy Ghost is as He wants us all to live. It is not the laborious effort of the old self life but the almost unconscious ease of overflowing life and power as the Holy Ghost has our bodies to live as He wants to live which is a life filled with the life of Jesus as it is only the Holy Ghost who can live a life like Jesus on earth. This is life lived to the full as it is the life which God wants us to have but very few will accept this offer. The so called Church is blind to this offer. Self centred Christians reject this offer. Those who do accept because they say to the Holy Ghost I am willing to be made willing for you to live in and through me are the ones who will see God work in and through them on a scale which will amaze them. They will receive the faith and courage of the Holy Ghost to say nothing is impossible and all done through them will be to the glory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost as they have given God His rightful place as they have said God is holy and because of this they live lives which are holy.

Lord Jesus Christ you have shown us the holiness of God. Your very essence is that of a holy life. Whilst on earth you lived the perfect life which at all times was dependent upon your Father and sought to bring glory to His holy name. Your life, Jesus, was lived in the power of the spirit. Your love was perfect love and reached out to meet the needs of others no matter that need may have been. Why is it Lord, that in our own day we cannot or will not acknowledge the holiness of God and seek to have lives which are like your own. The Church of today instead of being living stones filled with your own life of love reaching out to all who are in need is as dead as a sepulchre filled with dry bones. O God just as in Ezekiel’s ministry bring the dry bones back to life as the lifeless Christianity which is ruled by self is crucified with Christ and the resurrection life of Jesus brings the Church to be a spiritual home as this spiritual home will be lives through whom the Holy Ghost is able to live His own life to the glory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. This prayer seeks only to bring honour and glory to the name of our God. Amen.

2) MESSAGE 13 11 12 

 

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

2 Peter chapter 1 verse 1

What encouragement St Peter gives us in these three words “ like precious faith. “ If only we can grasp what is being offered our walk with our Lord will become even closer. The offer is that God will do great things for us if only we are prepared to receive them from Him. Instead of keeping the lines of communication open wide between God and ourselves it is so easy to let the cares of this world get in the way.

Because of who He is God wants to fulfil in us what we would not believe to be possible. It is only those who give God His rightful place where He alone has the right of way in every part of our lives that are able to obtain “ like precious faith. “ Have you fully grasped these words of Saint Paul?

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

 

Romans chapter 12 verse 1

Unless we are fully surrendered to God and allowed him in the person of the Holy Spirit His rightful place in our lives then we will never be able to obtain the “ like precious faith “ to which Saint Peter refers. This comes at a price. Nothing in the Christian life comes without a price. The greatest price of all was when Jesus Christ paid the price for our sin when He voluntarily laid down His life on Calvary’s cross. It cost Jesus every drop of His blood to redeem sinners from the curse of sin. For those who have received a revelation of Calvary then the words of Isaiah will be written deeply upon their hearts.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.

 

Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5

The Lord Jesus Christ called His followers to be fully identified with Himself. His was the way of the cross. Have the words of our Lord impacted upon your life to the extent that they have become the only way for you? 

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

 

Saint Matthew chapter 16 verse 24

Just as Jesus went the way of the cross and accepted His Father’s will the message down the centuries has always been the way of the cross. This is not a popular message as evidenced in our own day. Where are those who will answer God’s call to come and study at Bible College Of Wales Continuing? It is unlike any other college as its standards are higher than those colleges which have placed them selves under a degree system which follows higher criticism. No this is a college which is led by the Holy Spirit and standards to be able to obtain the honours degree free from higher criticism are much higher for God has shown to set the standards higher than those of the world. Even more importantly is the spiritual side of the college. This is to train men and women who know their God because their lives have been fully surrendered to the Holy Ghost. Not an easy life which brings comfort to the flesh but one where the Holy Ghost changes human nature into the divine and lives become like Jesus. 

This is a life which accepts suffering. For Jesus accepted suffering and are we not told that He was:

A man of sorrows , and acquainted with grief.

 

 Isaiah chapter 53 verse 3

It is not a case today of always feeling relaxed and at rest and enjoying ourselves inwardly. This was not the way of our Lord. Where are those today who will go the way of the cross?

Instead of soft Christians who make little impact, Lord so that your command to take the Gospel to every creature can impact in our own day bring us to the place where discipline and suffering are more important than the comfort zones evidenced in present day Christianity.

It is only when there has been a full surrender to the Holy Ghost and he is living within the body of the believer as God that the words of Saint Paul will be fully understood because they have become real to us.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

Romans chapter 12 verse 2

In closing this message I return to the words of Saint Peter “ like precious faith. “ The unchangeable God has always had people that He could trust. It is those who He can illuminate. It is those who have surrendered to the Holy Ghost who He will enlarge until there is nothing within them that will hinder the power of God. Under all circumstances we will be able to triumph. It is not that we have any help on ourselves but our help comes only from God and if our help is only in God then we will always be strong and never weak. The way of the cross means we never murmur, will always be in the place of victory, are not concerned over human order or thinking but of divine order in God. Our faith is always based on “ thus saith the Lord. “ 

Lord Jesus Christ may we never forget that you are a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You know suffering and fully accepted the way of the cross. Lord may those who say that they are Christians realise the cost of their salvation. Lord may this not be a mental understanding but come through a revelation that you were despised and rejected and suffered more than anyone ever suffered. In this light Lord may Christians in our day come out of their comfort zones and fully embrace the way of the cross as they are prepared to daily take up their own cross and follow you. Lord you know the effect of the teaching of higher criticism has and is still having on men and women training in universities and colleges today.  Lord you have set up Bible College Of Wales Continuing to be free from higher criticism and led by the Holy Ghost. Lord please call men and women to come and train at this college in which you have set the standards higher than the world and are to be men and women led by the Spirit rather than human thinking. Lord your honour is a stake if you are still to be able to find those who will give their all to you and for the spread of the Gospel to every creature. This prayer seeks only to bring honour to the name of our God. Amen.

3) SPECIAL FULL SURRENDER MESSAGE

25th. DECEMBER, 2012

 

And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.


Acts of the Apostles chapter 20 verse 22

Paul was a man mightily used by God. As far as both the world and Judaism was concerned prior to his conversion he could not have been better qualified or more acceptable. Yet years later in his epistle to the Philippians Paul was able to say:

But the things which were gain to me, those I count loss for Christ.

 

Philippians chapter 3 verse 7

Paul had been a proud man full of his own power and importance going about believing that he was doing the work of God by seeking to prevent the spread of the message of Jesus Christ. What a transformation, though, after he met the Lord of glory Himself on the road to Damascus. No more self sufficiency then but instead to be yielded in full surrender to a mightier power than he had previously known, that of the power of God.

Not only had Paul met another mightier power than himself but the same happened with Peter and John and all who throughout the centuries have been vessels of God through whom He has used in mighty ways. Paul knew what it was to have the same Holy Spirit who had come on the day of Pentecost living in him a life which manifested the life of Christ wherever he went. The Holy Spirit had so replaced the human nature with the divine that it was the Holy Spirit living His own life through him for a lost world.

 

Paul’s life was so divinely in the Holy Spirit that he knew the Holy Spirit was holding him and guiding him. Paul was so at one with the Holy Spirit that his thoughts and words were those of the Holy Spirit.

 

This is why Paul could say I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem. Paul knew he would go to Jerusalem because the Holy Spirit had shown him that this must be.

 

Similar experiences of being so at one with the Holy Spirit have occurred with God’s chosen vessels wherever He has been able to find someone who has been prepared to accept God’s invitation on God’s conditions.

That God’s conditions have to be accepted is because we read that:

I am the Lord: that is my name: And my glory will I not give to another.


Isaiah chapter 42 verse 8

Paul would have known this scripture. I believe that he was so humbled when He met Jesus on the Damascus road that this experience was similar to that of Isaiah had when he also had seen the Lord.

Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips :for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.Isaiah chapter 6 verse 5

I like Isaiah have experienced seeing myself even after conversion as a man of unclean lips. This is because of self which is corrupt to the core. I am not speaking of sin here for sin has been dealt with at conversion. No here I am speaking of the effects of the fall of man because by nature even a Christian can live for him or her self, their family and friends. We can still be very selfish people who take our Christianity very lightly because we do not see God for who He is. Above everything else God is Holy. What does the Word of God call us to be?

Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.


1 Peter chapter 1 verse 16

In our day it is as though many who call themselves Christian have never heard of this verse. There is no respect for the holiness of God. There is no sense of the One who is the creator and sustains all things by His power. Instead God is treated with familiarity as though He was only there to be asked to meet our selfish wants. Where is hunger and thirst after God Himself and His holiness? Unless the Church becomes serious and becomes hungry and thirsty after God we will not see revival. There has to be obedience to God’s Word. When the Word calls us to be holy we are to seek God as individuals and not let him go for we need the Holy Spirit to come and live His own life in us. It is only when as individuals we become serious and act in earnest that God will respond. There will be no response to the counterfeit church like that of the charismatic and other similar self centred churches. These only manifest the flesh as there is nothing of the holiness of the Holy Spirit in their meetings. These follow another jesus and because they do so manifest the works of the devil. They seek to influence people rather than give God His rightful place and can be seen to be false because they are devoid of both the Holy presence of God and His power.

Which way have you chosen? The way of the self centred counterfeit life or the life of the Holy Spirit living His life of holiness in you. You may not have been deceived by the counterfeit church but you may also not be fully surrendered to God and although saying you are a Christian still live unto yourself. We are in serious days where only the remnant Church will be able to stand. That is those who like Paul can say for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Have we died to self because the Holy Spirit alone lives His life through us rather than ourselves in charge? Brother, sister if you are serious and have seen the holiness of God you will only want the Holy Spirit to live His life in you, a life like that of Jesus himself. It is a painful process to reach the place of being at one with the Holy Spirit but until we do so we are like the majority who call themselves Christian today we would not frighten the devil and destroy his strongholds because we have no power. This is what the church today apart from the remnant church is like a church so inward looking that it does not have the power of God for the glory has departed as God is not to be found in these churches.

Lord Jesus Christ may your Church be that of the living stones who see God as Holy. Today there is not the respect given to God which He demands. Lord above everything else God is Holy and He calls for His people to be holy. Alas Lord there is little seeking after holiness. God is looked upon as someone who is constantly asked for things rather than to be acknowledged for who He is. Lord please open the understanding of those who know you as Saviour because they have been cleansed through your precious blood of the need to move on into a deeper life with yourself. Like Paul and all those mighty used by God may there be the acceptance of the plan of God for their lives and let a mightier than themselves in the person of the Holy Spirit live His life in them. This prayer seeks only to bring honour and glory to the name of our God. Amen.

4) MESSAGE 05 06 13

 

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 

Psalm 51 verse 10

 

What a glorious position to be in when the heart is clean.  A heart clean because it has received the cleansing of the blood of Jesus.  It is at the cross alone where the sinner finds the Saviour.  This is the old cross known to the early Church.   Not the new cross which is sweeping through the world with its deceptive message that no longer calls sinners to repentance and the God given way of the  cleansing of the blood of Christ in order to be reconciled with a holy and righteous God.  The new cross is a lie from Satan  for the old cross is a message which God has never changed.

 

The Christian life is one in which the sinner has been brought into a right relationship with God.  Sin not in part but the whole has to dealt with through genuine conviction, repentance and cleansing of the blood of Jesus where sin is  nailed to the cross never to be remembered again.

 

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

 

Psalm 103 verse 12

 

It is only when the sinner has been reconciled to God that a clean heart is created.   The renewal of a right spirit too can only come through reconciliation with God.  Our only guide in these matters is found in the unchangeable Word of God.  The words “it is written” and “thus saith the Lord” are our sure foundation.  Here we have the full authority of God for the Word of God has stood the test of time. God’s word has not just to be heard but surrendered to.

Let us consider God’s Word which is contained in the King James Authorised Version and  has not been decimated through mans’ destructive ideas as contained in other versions.  To receive a clean heart and renew a right spirit there has to be an understanding of the total depravity of man and Christ’s sufficiency to cure it.  The new cross of modern day thinking and the new bibles refuse to accept the total depravity of man and Christ’s sufficiency to cure it.   Instead the new cross flies in the face of God and suggests there is no need to repent of sin but instead to look to improve mans ’own life.  What a lie.  What a deception.  None other than a lie and deception from the pit of hell.  Yet this is what has gripped present day Christianity through the worldwide charismatic movement, especially in  western Society.  What has happened to the message of the old cross which formed the basis of the Protestant Reformed Religion?  Even here many have been deceived and been drawn away from the need to be cleansed through the blood of Jesus in order to have their sins washed away.  There has been a failure to see that the enemy of Jesus today is still the Roman Catholic Church.  This is still the church of Satan for it is the church which uses its own ideas of man rather than the  Word of God as its sole authority.  A church which according to its own bibles no longer accepts Jesus as the Son of God so how can there be forgiveness of sin when there is no longer the belief that it was Jesus, the Son of God who died for sinners.

 

Christianity today apart from the small remnant which God has preserved to be a witness to Himself is as idolatrous and corrupt as when God raised up Luther to challenge the Roman Catholic Church.  Lord God raise up those with  the courage to go against the flow and  challenge the teaching of the new cross and stand up for the old cross on which Jesus shed his blood for sinners. 

 

The new cross centres upon the flesh life.   The Word of God states that  God is a spirit so therefore a living relationship with God has to be a spiritual relationship and can never be one of the flesh and based on feelings instead of faith.   Feelings not faith are characteristic of the charismatic movement.  A leading  Protestant Ministry is suggesting that this is a post-Protestant era with the Pope as the spokesperson for western Christianity.   How Satan as the god of this world has deceived, entwined and ensnared the  vast majority.  However, faith does not rely on the world, the flesh and the devil for these are the exact opposite to faith.   New Testament Christianity as evidenced at Pentecost relied on the unchangeable Word of God as the base for faith. 

 

What does modern day Christianity have as its distinctive mark in choosing the way of the new cross?  It is of the earth.  It is of the flesh.  It cannot do that which Jesus said when He said that God is a Spirit.  How can those who are fleshly minded and not born again because they  have not had their sins washed away worship God in spirit and truth. 

 

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

 

St John chapter 4 verse 24

 

Those who have not accepted that they are sinners in the sight of a holy God and instead look to improve their own life can never worship God because they have not entered into a living relationship with God who is Spirit.  The new cross centres on earthly things rather than heavenly.  Have you noticed that the Roman Catholic church and that of modern day Christianity is man centred and not God centred.  The Word of God given through Paul could not be more clear that Christ and Christ alone is to be pre- eminent.

 

And he is the head of the body, the church:  who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre- eminence.

 

Colossians chapter 1 verse 18

 

In all things Christ has to be given the pre- eminence.  Most of western Christianity today is incapable of doing this for Christ according to their bibles is only a son of the gods rather than the eternal Son of God.  Instead of Christ being pre- eminent the cross of  Baal is worshipped along with the worship of man in the form of the Pope and every form of idolatry imaginable.  What an apt description of hell.  Worship of the creature rather the creator has one end and that this terminates in hell.  God could not have done any more than He has done in providing the means for sinners to be reconciled with Himself through the blood of His own Son.  The Word declares there are no exceptions to sin.

 

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

 

Romans chapter 3 verse 23

 

Moreover there is a price to pay for sin.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Romans chapter 6 verse 23

 

Note the finality here.  Sin equates to death.  This is spiritual death.  Man in his natural state has no communication with God.  There has to be a go between and that man is Jesus Christ.

 

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

 

1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5

 

The Word of God could not be more clear on the need for the offering of blood for in order to receive forgiveness of sins.

 

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

 

Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22

 

Categorically no remission: no forgiveness.  The shedding of blood in the Old Testament was God’s way to cover sin and through Christ is God’s only way to remove sin from the sinner as though sin had never been there. 

 

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14

 

Note the word Spirit once more.  Everything in relation to being in a right relationship to God today as it has been since Pentecost has to be through the Spirit as how otherwise can man communicate with his creator.  Nothing here of the old flesh life which has had  to be crucified with Christ when the old self life is destroyed at the moment of repentance.  This is deep repentance when the Holy Spirit shows the full extent of the depravity of man and mans’ corrupt nature in the sight of God.  No saying sorry and I will try better to improve.  No signing of a card to show I have decided to give my life to Christ but on my own terms.  No it is a going to the root cause and getting sin nailed once and for all to the cross and by faith accepting that Christ died in the sinners place and that it is Christ’s blood alone which washes away sin so that in God’s eyes the once sinner is now whiter than snow.  No wonder the chorus “ There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb” has mighty power when still sung.  Sins forgiven.  New life begun for this is a new life, Christ’s own resurrection life within.  A life with a clean heart and a right spirit for this is God’s own life come to dwell forever.  A life now able to worship God in spirit and truth.  The new cross cannot do this for there is no blood with the new cross. 

Which cross have you chosen?  The old one which still brings conviction of sin and the need for repentance to receive the cleansing of the blood of Christ.  If not the old cross then you have chosen the new with its rejection of the need for conviction of sin and the need to repent and be washed in the blood of Christ.  The new cross betrays both Christ and God’s Word for it rejects both Christ and God’s unchangeable Word.  This ministry still keeps to proclaiming the old cross and denounces the new cross as from Satan and that the Roman Catholic Church is still the enemy of God.   Because this ministry keeps to the old cross it is rejected by the majority. There has even  become fear to stand with and support this ministry so great has become the deception and popularity of the way of the new cross.  Reader dare you be different and give Christ the pre- eminence and say to Satan I am Christ’s and Christ’s alone and I will have nothing to do with your deception which is populating hell.  I belong to a ministry which has not only become marginalised but now faces open persecution.  To Christ be the glory for he has overcome the world, the flesh and the devil.  What a Christ is ours when we know we are His and He is ours.  Looked at from this standpoint, like Luther one with God is still in the majority when that man hears God’s voice and obeys.

Can we say “ He cleanseth me in His precious blood.  Through the blood of the cross, the precious blood of the cross, I’ve found in Him a resting place.”  How many can say this today?  Only those who know the God given way of the old cross.  Let all who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb of God sing his endless praises for they are kings and priests unto God to worship him in spirit and in truth.

 

When Christ is a living present day reality these words of the first verse of a hymn by Charles Wesley are engraved in our hearts.

 

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's blood!

 

Died he for me? who caused his pain!

 

For me? who him to death pursued?

 

Amazing love! How can it be

 

hat thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

 

Amazing love! How can it be

 

that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

5) Message: 18 09 13

 

And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.

 

Philippians chapter 3 verse 9

 

There can only be one righteousness and that is of God.  This is the righteousness as seen in the life of  Jesus.  There is not even a possibility of anyone being righteous unless they receive the righteousness of God in Jesus and this is part of God’s plan of salvation for our lives.  The Word of God is clear that there is a position which the Christian has to come to and that is where he or she has ceased from their own works.  Believers have to know that power of God which Jesus knew and be clothed with this power so that they may be exactly as Jesus was knowing the power of the Almighty.  This cannot be done by any merits or strivings of our own.  It comes through the finished work of the Savior.

 

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.

 

Hebrews chapter 4 verse 10

 

What a blessed position to reach, though, where by grace the believer becomes complete in Jesus through having made a total surrender to the Holy Spirit.  Let us consider righteousness as in the scriptures.  That righteousness is considered vital by God can be seen by its many references.  Righteousness is an attribute of God : it is part of His nature.  All His acts come from Him acting as a just God.  Those who become sons of God will have lives which must have this standard of life so that they too act justly and do that which is right both before God and as a witness as a Christian.  Yet to be righteous is a human impossibility for how can frail human flesh display acts which are like those of God.  The nature of God is holy and pure together with being righteous.  He is called righteous.

 

For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.

 

Psalm 11 verse 7

 

Not only is God righteous He loves righteousness and expects this in His people.  The master Himself during the sermon on the mount shows how vital righteousness is to God as this is included in His teaching  on the Beatitudes as being part of God’s standard of life for those who are His.

 

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

 

St Matthew chapter 5 verse 6

 

Note here there is a requirement to seek after righteousness with such a hunger and thirst.  It is those who are hungry and thirsty who will be filled for there is a promise here.  This can be seen when Jesus had gone to the feast at Jerusalem and was speaking to some of the great crowds which had come to the temple to make their offerings.  The people were about to return home.  They were dry for the teaching of the religious leaders had failed to fill their inner needs.  Jesus, though, stood up and cried out to the crowds.  Some would have seen His healing of the sick and deliverance of the demon possessed during His ministry in the various towns and villages.  Some would have been there when He healed the impotent man at the pool.  He would have been easily recognizable as a Jewish Rabbi and over the feast have shared His interpretation of the scriptures.  Jesus, though, recognized the people wanted something more.  They wanted a life which would please God and meet their own deepest needs.  O to have been there when Jesus uttered these wonderful words, for these were words of Life.

 

If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

 

St John chapter 7 verses 37 and 38

 

He who is Life was speaking of a time coming when the Holy Spirit would come after Jesus had been glorified (John 7:39).  The time was coming when the Holy Spirit would be outpoured upon those who were so thirsty that they would cry out to be filled.  When filled there would be the Holy Spirit living through those whom He had come to indwell through receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit His own life, that like Jesus.  This life would be one where the scriptures would become alive.  The very words of scripture making known our lovely Jesus would pour out from those who had become like the master.  It is because the Holy Spirit has taken over the lives of those who have surrendered to Him that they not only become righteous but as the Holy Spirit changes their self- nature into His own divine nature a nature which becomes like that of Jesus.  It is in this light that we come to understand what Paul was saying to the Philippians when he spoke of God working in the believer.  Not only in but also doing His own work through His vessel.

 

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

 

Philippians chapter 2 verse 13

 

It has to be remembered, though, that God the Holy Spirit can only indwell cleansed vessels, that is lives where not only sin no longer dwells but are totally separated from the ways of the world. The Christian is in the world but not part of it ways as its standards are not those of God.

 

Love not the world, neither the things of the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

 

1 John chapter 2 verse 15

 

Is there still a dry condition in the world today?  Do people who say they are Christians know they have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit?  Are there those like the apostles who will still dare to act in order to receive all the fullness of God.?  Are there those who are hungry and thirsty enough to seek all of God?  To receive all of God through the indwell Holy Spirit has a cost as a price needs to be paid.  The price is on God’s terms which is that  of total surrender of the will to Him together with complete separation from the world.

6) SPECIAL BRIAN MASON MESSAGE

01 January 2013

 

And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt.


St Matthew chapter 14 verse 31

What is so pleasing to God? It is when He finds those who act in faith. In contrast the great sin of our day is that of unbelief. 

Jesus had just performed the miracle of feeding five thousand men, besides women and children. Jesus instructed the disciples to get into a ship and cross to the other side of the lake whilst He sent the multitudes away. After spending time in demanding ministry Jesus would go aside to a quiet place and pray to the Father. He always so how essential it was to spend time alone being refreshed in prayer. Now as this was seen as essential by Jesus, how much more should this be an essential requirement by each one who has been baptised in the Holy Spirit. Whether we are in ministry or have another occupation or retired we become in need of refreshing. Each day and more than once a day should the demands of the day permit we need to get alone both to be strengthened through reading the Bible and in prayer.

Whilst Jesus was in prayer with his Father the disciples had encountered stormy weather as a strong wind had arisen and the ship was being tossed with the waves. What a shock it was for the disciples to see Jesus walking on the sea. Yet here was the Lord of life fully at ease with His creation. The One who had created the heavens and the earth was not going to be troubled by a stormy sea. Jesus entered right into the fears of his disciples. The reaction of the disciples was in the natural as they thought in human terms. Not only had they seen a troubled sea but were now troubled as they thought this was a spirit rather than the Jesus whom they had parted company with when they had left Him behind on the shore. As Christians Jesus is always with us even though we do not see him. Are not His promises enough to encourage us through each and every day no matter how overwhelming life may seem at times. Faith takes hold of promises like the one below and makes them our very own.

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
 

St Matthew chapter 28 verse 20

Can there be anything more clear or definite than to know that Jesus is with us always. O what a wonderful Jesus He is, so lovely, so beautiful and kind.

Jesus becomes our strength in our weakness to those who like Paul think in the spirit and not with the human mind.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.

 

2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 10

What Paul said to the Corinthians was all against human thinking. Paul accepted that which the human mind would see as unwanted interference with his life as the means of spiritual growth and making him more like Jesus. Back to the disciples in the storm. It was when the disciples looked at the situation from the natural point of view that they became afraid. Before their eyes was a great storm and their lives were in danger. Into the midst of this storm came the master Himself. They had great difficulty in accepting that it was Jesus who was walking on the sea and had come to their rescue. O but what words of comfort Jesus brought, “Be of good cheer, it is I ;be not afraid.” Can we grasp hold of this, that Jesus is right in the midst of whatever situation we encounter in life. The Christian life is so different from that of all other religions and those who have no beliefs. Christianity has a person at its centre, a person who is God and not a remote unapproachable god but one who if only we will let Him comes to live His own life within us.

Peter looked to walk out on the sea to meet Jesus. Although Jesus said “come” to him, Peter was still acting with the natural mind. Peter saw the waves instead of Jesus. He was thinking with his mind and began to sink. It was only when Jesus stretched out and helped him that he was safe. 

It is the same in the Christian life. This is a life which demands the continual exercise of faith. The Bible clearly states that:But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6Have you accepted that faith is the key to seeing God doing the greater works which Jesus spoke about.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.


St John chapter 14 verse 12

These greater works will never be done through those who lack faith but also cannot be done by those who think along human lines. No they can only be done by God himself as he manifests His own life and power through us. Do you have this life whereby the Holy Spirit lives his life through us, a life like that of Jesus. It is the dynamic of a God-possessed personality, so impregnated by the life of Jesus which changes the ordinary to the extraordinary, the human mind to the mind of the Spirit, the weak to the strong and the unholy to a vessel constantly seeking to be baptised with holiness.

Lord Jesus Christ there is no one like yourself for you are the one who gave Himself for others rather than the way of human thinking today which seeks to satisfy self. Lord, although, the Son of the Father you were prepared to take the sinners place and lay down your life, the righteous for the unrighteous. Lord how can I ever thank you enough for taking my place on Calvary’s cross. If I had been the only sinner you would still have left heaven and given every last drop of your blood in order to provide the means for me to repent of my sin and to be forgiven. Lord risen, ascended and glorified take your rightful place in the hearts of those who ask you by grace to be their Saviour. May they see that you also need to be their Lord in order to come into all that you have for them. Not a life where self reigns through human thinking but where God Himself can live His life through us. This prayer seeks only to bring honour and glory to the name of our God. Amen.

7) BRIAN MASON MESSAGE 02 05 13

 

Lose in order to gain Christ

 

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

 

Philippians chapter 3 verse 7

 

Paul (although firstly called Saul I will refer to him as Paul) was a man mightily used by God.  Before Paul could be used however,  he had to brought to the position which was the opposite of his previous learning and experience.  Paul prior to his conversion was inferior to nobody else in terms of being a Jew.  What does Paul tell us?  He was circumcised the eighth day.  He was of the tribe of Benjamin.  He was an Hebrew of the Hebrews.  As touching the law he was a Pharisee. Paul goes on to say he had zeal in that he persecuted the Church.  As far as the law could be fulfilled he was righteous and blameless.  He had everything as far as the Jewish religion was concerned. Yet it was this same Paul who then goes on to say that “ what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” 

 

Paul’s new  experience through his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road became a complete work of the Holy Spirit as Paul’s life became all things new.  Nothing superficial here.  It was a deep work of grace right from the very moment when he heard these words:

 

Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me?

 

Acts of the Apostles chapter 9 verse 4

 

These were the words of Jesus Christ and they went right into the heart of Paul and shook everything in which he had previously believed or trusted.  Paul was the greatest enemy of the growing Church at that time.  Here was the Church in its infancy but growing daily as more converts were being added. 

 

Paul in his zeal for his own religion was determined to put an end to the spread of this new religion which was a great threat to the one which was so dear to him.  We are told Paul “was breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” 

 

He was one his way to Damascus with letters of authority to bring back to Jerusalem any followers of this new religion.  Paul showed no mercy.  Those taken to Jerusalem whether men or women were to be  bound.  They  were to face trial and be punished by the Jewish authorities.  All was to  change when Jesus Christ got hold of Paul.

 

It was at this dark moment in the Church’s development that the Lord Jesus intervened.  Jesus not only looked to protect the developing Church but transformed the very persecutor to become a mighty apostle and evangelist for the religion which he had previously sought to destroy. 

 

What a transformation.  What a gracious Saviour the Lord Jesus is seen to be in that although he hates the sin He loves the sinner and will go to any lengths to bring even the most hardened sinners to know the way of salvation through Himself.  Although Paul was reduced to “ trembling and to be astonished” he immediately knew that not only had he encountered a greater than himself but that Jesus was a living person who could only be the Jehovah of his own Jewish religion. 

 

Paul had met the living Christ the One who would be the Jews Messiah.  Paul might have been blinded for a time whilst he was being led by others to seek a man named Ananias who Jesus said was awaiting his arrival.  Jesus had appeared to Ananias in a vision and was therefore prepared to receive Paul.  What an insight Ananias was given of the ministry Paul would undertake. 

 

But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:  For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

 

Acts of the Apostles chapter 9 verses 15 and 16

 

The great persecutor was to be the great  apostle and evangelist who would spread the message of Jesus which he had sought to suppress to many parts of the then known world. 

 

When Paul met Ananias he was greeted as a brother in Christ.  He received his sight but he was also filled with the Holy Ghost.  There was no longer a reliance on human power.  Instead Paul received the life and power of God as he now had the person of the Holy Spirit living in and through him. 

 

What a transformation when Paul immediately preached Christ.  Although Paul would have been as knowledgeable as anyone of his time in the Old Testament scriptures these scriptures could now be used to show who Jesus was and what he had done during his earthly ministry.

 

Those listening were amazed.  They could not understand that this was the same man who had “ destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests.”

 

Paul’s ministry had started.  Over the years and especially when he was set aside in his preparation in Arabia  Paul came to know the great depths and riches there are to be had in Christ.

 

To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:  Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

 

Galatians chapter 1 verses 16 and 17

 

What can be seen in the experience of Paul?  Although he had everything as far as the world could have given him he came to realise that this all counted for nothing.  Everything he had or had done was gain to himself.  When he met with Jesus and received the baptism of the Holy Ghost all changed.  Life took on a whole new meaning.  Everything which had benefited Paul was now seen as loss for Christ.  Let this be considered in the light of another verse of Paul.

 

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

 

Galatians chapter 2 verse 20

 

Paul knew that the old self life counted for nothing: it became irrelevant in the purposes of God.  The life of God comes to the believer through the indwelling Holy Ghost.  When the Holy Ghost comes in He comes in as God.  Old things pass away and all things become new.  There is now a transparency for it is a life like that of  Christ being manifested in purity and holiness.  

 

It is His thoughts and words.  It is His life and power.   Therefore Paul saw clearly that the old life of the flesh had no more purpose.  It had to be the fulfilling of God’s purposes through us and that could only be done by the indwelling Spirit.  The flesh life has to go and replaced wholly by the life in the Spirit. 

 

It is this life through the indwelling Holy Ghost who lives within the lives of  those who compose  the remnant Church worldwide which can and must cry unto God for a revival amongst the remnant Church based on His covenant promises.  One of these covenant promises to be brought in believing faith before God until it is answered is:

 

For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground:

 

Isaiah chapter 44 verse 3

 

Come brothers and sisters in Christ when our hands are clean and our hearts are pure because all known sin has been confessed and forgiven then God is covenant bound to answer the prayer for a heaven sent revival within our hearts.  Revival can only start in the hearts of believers. 

 

God in His mercy is bringing a longing for revival in the hearts of believers worldwide and is also creating links between what may only be small groups from different denominations.  Let us be open to the voice of the Holy Spirit.  Revival in the believer leads to sinners being convicted of sin. 

 

A brokenness in believers when it is no longer I but Christ will be seen over the battlements of heaven and the windows of heaven will open.

 

8)  Message: 17 th. July 2013

 

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.

 

Galatians chapter 2 verse 20

 

There is a finality here for there can only be one outcome when we hear the word crucified.  The outcome is death.  When someone had their hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross there was no means of escape. This was the most cruel death imaginable for the life blood drained from the body until there was no life left. This was the death which the Lord Jesus Christ suffered in order to redeem hell bound sinners from the prospect of being cut off from a holy and righteous God.  O the grace of God, it is beyond all comprehension that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly.  Can we grasp even a little of what God has done for us in Christ. 

 

But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

 

Romans chapter 5 verse 20

 

Grace what a word. The unmerited favor of God. Of ourselves we merit nothing for at best we are worthless in ourselves for by nature we are corrupt to the core living for ourselves without an once of love to worship and live for the God who created us.

 

When our spiritual eyes are opened to see what God has done for us then we realise that we will never have enough time either in this life or in eternity to thank Jesus for dying for our sin in order to bring us into a right relationship with God. The word of God reaches into the depths of our beings when once we can comprehend the plan of God both for ourselves and each and every sinner. Consider these words:

 

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

 

Romans chapter 5 verse 8

 

Words today are often cheap for they are not tested. These words have all the authority of God behind them for He backed them up by sending His own Son Jesus to die for sinners in order to reconcile them to Himself.

 

The only sinners for whom Christ’s death can apply are those who take hold of God’s promises and act upon them. There is nothing arbitrary here.  The only sinners who will be reconciled to God are repentant sinners who when washed clean by the blood of Jesus start a new life.  There is no generality here for if there had been why would Jesus have died. The word of God blasts out of the water and casts the abomination of universalism into hell for should universalism be true why would Jesus have been crucified.  Jesus would only have been a man showing something of the love of God.  There had to be a distinction between Jesus and other religions and this is in a man called Jesus who as both God and man died on a cross to shed His blood in order that repentant sinners could have their sins forgiven and be reconciled with God.

 

At the new birth which Jesus had spoken about during His earthly ministry it is made clear that there has to be a defining moment in our lives when we are cut off from the old life, when we repent of our sin and enter into a new life when the old life has gone and we receive Jesus own resurrection life.  Just as crucifixion was as actual experience in the life of Jesus we too will know that the old life has been crucified.  We shall know that this has taken place for from that defining moment we can never be the same as old things are passed away and all things have become new.  Should your life have not changed then you need to examine your position in the light of  God’s word.  Above this there will be an inner witness in our own spirit that we have passed from death to life.

 

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

 

Romans chapter 8 verse 16

 

Have you moved on from knowing Jesus as your Saviour to knowing Jesus as your Lord. This is at the heart of what Paul is saying to the Galatians. Although at the new birth we are crucified with Christ this is only the beginning. We continue to live in the body yet we can still live for ourselves and not have given ourselves wholly to Christ. This is the crux of Christianity today.  The vast majority still live for themselves, their family and even their church.  They have not submitted themselves to Christ whereby Christ Himself can live His life through them when they have let the person of the Holy Spirit live a life like Christ through their bodies.  Unless we have the Holy Spirit living in and through us there will be no power of God flowing through our lives.  Those in ministry who have not got the risen Christ living within them in the person and power of the Holy Spirit will be speaking the dead words of human intellect without the unction of the Holy Spirit so marked in the lives of those whom God indwells.

 

When the Holy Spirit said to me when I come in I come in as God and you go out was a defining moment for I could never again claim anything in life for, myself.  The words “ not I, but Christ “ have been there ever since and every second is lived for the will of God and that He alone will receive the glory.  Could I do anything else when Jesus gave not just part of his life for me but the whole. For me to have given Him less would have shown that my love was superficial. Yet this superficial love is the norm in Christianity today.

 

Should you not already have done so are you a man or woman who is ready for God to show what He can do when that man or woman will place themselves in His hands.  This does not come without a price for it will cost you everything for the Holy Spirit comes in to live as a divine person whilst we have lived as man or woman.  Over a period of time He will change us to be like Jesus as our thoughts will be His, our words will be His, every part of us will be His but only with our consent at every step of the way which humanly speaking is impossible.  When we are constantly living in the humanly impossible for I know I am constantly tested to prove this is of God for in the test should there still be flesh you will fail every time.  Thank you Lord for keeping me in the test so this is a living faith in a living God who will never fail.

9) MESSAGE 31 07 13

 

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14

 

When  this verse is considered it is clear that there is a natural realm and a spiritual realm.  The one thing which is absolutely certain is that these cannot have anything to do with each other.  They are total opposites for one is under the control of God and the other under the control of the god of this world who is the devil.

 

Man was created perfectly to have communication with God and to be in control of the earth under God.

 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

 

Genesis chapter 1 verse 27

 

Man, though lost communication with God when he sinned.  Adam and Eve disobeyed God by listening to Satan and the perfect fellowship they had with God was forfeited.

 

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

 

Genesis chapter 3 verse 4

 

This is the biblical explanation of how mankind became cut off from the spiritual life of God.  Disobedience led to spiritual death.  All since Adam and Eve have been born spiritually dead for however long they may live they cannot come into communication with God through any efforts of their own.

 

Rather than seeking to find God it is usually just the opposite.  Paul in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 speaks of “Not I but Christ.”  With the natural man it is just the opposite for it is not Christ but I.  Everything within the natural man is centred upon self.  It is a terrible state of affairs for not only is man not seeking to know God but of himself he incapable of receiving the life of God.  Because man does not have the life of God even should he hear the word of God he can only think with the human mind.  The human mind will never understand the word of God for the word of God  is in the spiritual realm.  We therefore need to be born into the spiritual realm. 

 

God had His answer in that even before the foundation of the world there was the Lamb of God who would come into this world of His own creation in order to provide the way whereby sinners could be reconciled with a holy, righteous and pure God.  Jesus made clear that there were totally separate human and spiritual realms.

 

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

 

St John chapter 3 verse 6

 

Jesus the spotless, sinless Son of God became the only advocate between God and man to reconcile man with God through the offering of His own blood for sin.

 

If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

 

1 John chapter 2 verse 1

 

Jesus makes clear that in order to see the kingdom of God we have to be born again.

 

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

 

St John chapter 3 verse 3

 

This is a definite word and can only be understood with the help of God.  As stated the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit so we need God’s help to get to the place where we can receive them.  We know that these belong to the kingdom of God and Jesus has said we need to be born again to see the kingdom of God.  God comes to the aid of the sinner in that the whole process of coming to know God is done by God.  This is called grace.  From start to finish we are drawn to God and given the means to see the awfulness of our sin and how to repent of our sin and receive forgiveness.  Once this takes place we enter into a whole new realm, that of God whereby we receive a new life which is spiritual and not limited to the natural mind.

 

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

 

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8

 

Our God is a wonderful God for in Jesus He has given us life, His own life for when we receive Jesus we can then start to grow into the things of God which are limitless.  When we have received Jesus as Saviour and Lord we receive a life transformation as old things pass away and all things become new.  That is what should happen.  If it does not then have you received the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to say you are a son of God.

 

It is as we go on with God and seek and receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit that we not only find ourselves understanding those things of the Spirit of God we also receive the power of God.  What is noticeable in many who are called Christian leaders is that they speak in the natural rather than the spiritual.  There is an absence of speaking of the deep things of God as found  in the life of Christ and in the person of the Holy Spirit.  It is as though they are not in a right relationship with God and do not have a living daily testimony of Christ not only as Saviour but as Lord.  There is also no evidence of the Holy Spirit having baptized them or living as a person through them for there is no unction, that is the power  of God  to show forth the manifestation of God within.  What I am saying here it is still the natural man in evidence saying not Christ but I that lives in me rather than having had a life transforming encounter with Christ so that it is now “not I but Christ that lives in me.”

10)  Message: 01 October 2013

 

He Himself knew what He would do.

 

St John chapter 6 verse 6

 

What is a hindrance to God in the life of the Christian?  It is in the thinking on a large scale that it is the Christian who is working for God.  This thinking and acting upon this thinking is just the opposite to that which is found in the scriptures.  Should it not be that the Christian has to surrender to God then rejoice in Him then let Him in His own way make clear what He wants to do through us.  This is the norm of Scripture as was made plain by Paul.

 

I Beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2

 

What a word is found here, a word which when acted upon will  transform us into living flames for Christ for  we will no longer be our own.  Lives which have said not “I” but Christ are those which are fully committed to all the will of God and everything they are and have is on the altar for Him.  The baptism of the Holy Spirit or others may have experienced the surrendering of their lives to the person of the Holy Spirit for Him to come and live His life in their bodies can be scripturally supported.  These are not just experiences which rely solely upon feelings that something has happened to them.  In the case of the baptism in the Holy Spirit Jesus said:

 

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high

 

St Luke chapter 24 verse 49

 

 This promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost and is still available today for those who will fulfil God’s conditions.  These conditions call for separation from the world (Romans 12:2).  The Holy Spirit came sent from heaven:

 

 There came a sound from heaven.

 

Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 verse 2

 

This was God the Holy Spirit coming to indwell those who were separated unto Himself.  This was God’s thunder, God’s dynamite coming upon earth to live in human vessels and so change them that it could only be Himself doing His own work through them.  Weak, fearful,  self-dependent and previously failing Peter could not be recognized as the same person as  he shed light on the scriptures about Christ to the crowds in Jerusalem.

 

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice.

 

 Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 verse 14

 

I too am on fire for Jesus my Savior and Lord, my life, my all for He through the Holy Spirit lives in me.  I  have staked everything on Jesus so that whatever God wants to do through me every day at whatever the cost and however humanly speaking this is impossible will be done.  I look to follow those who:

 

Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Acts of the Apostles chapter 15 verse 26

 

The difference is that it is God who is responsible for doing whatever  He wants doing and that is why the continual impossibilities are laughed at for all is being overcome for the Father’s glory.  To say my beloved is mine and then know these are not just words they are Life for He is my Life is the life of the over comer. We are to be careful, though, not to choose of ourselves but let God’s Holy Spirit manage our lives at all times.

 

Now Jesus was in complete control when we look at this beautiful  passage of Philip coming to Him about the needs of the great crowds who had listened to Him and were now hungry.  No matter how great the crowd had been or how little was available in the way of food the Master Himself was in control.   Not only did no one go without, there was plenty left over.  This is our Jesus.  It is not reaching the brim with Him, no it is our cup running over.  He alone can satisfy the needs of the heart.  He alone can know the needs of the broken hearted and  the despairing of the world.  He can and will still reach out to them through those vessels who have become His.  Although Jesus is no longer on earth He depends upon the Holy Spirit finding vessels through whom can be lived by the Holy Spirit a life just like Jesus would have lived had He still been on earth.  What a privilege is given to those who accept.

 

Personal ambition will go as all our life comes under the control of the Holy Spirit.  Each part of the old selfish life will be changed and replaced with the divine nature.  It has to be a life not in part but the whole which has been committed to the will of God and all on the altar laid.  This is no theory or mental assent, it is a real dying to self and a taking over by God Himself.  As each area of life is surrendered and taken over this becomes more clear that the one who has surrendered has moved from the real of man to the realm of God.  This becomes the place of authority with God as the man and woman who has accepted a commission from God and  whom He now possesses can prevail with God.

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11) Message: 05 October 2013

 

All the widows stood by him weeping.

 

Acts of the Apostles chapter 9 verse 39

 

What a scene is presented before us when Peter went into the upper chamber where the body of Dorcas lay.  This was a scene which in human terms had a finality about it.  There appeared to be nothing else to do except make the arrangements for Dorcas to be buried.  This was the only option open when looked at  from the realm of man.  Peter, though, had through receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit moved out of the realm of man into the realm of God.  Here was an opportunity to see how God can work when He had taken Peter to his extremity.  Humanly speaking all Peter could have done was to join with the widows in their grief.  However, Peter would have had ringing in his ears the words of the Master who had said:

 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

 

St John chapter 14 verse 12

 

These words had been spoken by Jesus before He became the Redeeming Savior in His death on the Cross.  Jesus when He appeared to the disciples after his glorious resurrection  had made clear that they would receive power from on high and to wait for this power to be sent by the Father.  This power was to be none other than the Holy Spirit living within and acting in authority through them.

 

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

 

St Luke chapter 24 verse 49

 

What a power this turned out to be when on the day of Pentecost none other than the third person of the Trinity came to indwell human flesh.  Human flesh although it may be filled with self-confidence is unable to do the works which God is calling to be done through  faith which has surrendered all to the Holy Spirit.  Not only this the believer is called upon to lay down their life for the brethren.

 

 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

1 John chapter 3 verse 16

 

Peter had laid his life down as there was nothing else he wanted to do than be totally committed to the will of God every moment until the Lord called him to be with Himself.  There is no greater privilege in life than to be a vessel through whom the Holy Spirit can live a life like that of Jesus.

 

 When there came a sound from heaven on the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit came He also came to live within those who had obediently and in expectation waited in Jerusalem as Jesus had instructed.  They were then transformed.  They could no longer be their own for they knew they had been bought with a price, that of the blood of Jesus and could withhold nothing from Him.

 

 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

 

1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20

 

Peter then knew that when the Holy Spirit had come he was no longer his own.  He had been taken over by a persona and a power which was not of himself.  This was from heaven the place where his Lord and Savior now dwelt.  This was no longer the same Peter.  He had a boldness for this was the Holy Spirit speaking and empowering.

 

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice.

 

Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 verse 14

 

What a wonderful place to be where we are in the center of God’s will and have received a commission from Him.  Like Peter, all commissioned by God when their lives are filled with the Holy Spirit they become men and women who have authority.  They have authority with God as the name of Jesus changes situations like the one which was before Peter.

 

Dorcas was a disciple who lived at Joppa.  She was greatly beloved by the widows for all she  had done for them.  She not only made coats and garments, she was full of good works and alms deeds.  Her death had left these dear widows without one who had devoted herself to caring for those whose needs were great.  God though knew that at that time there was no other means available to meet the needs of these widows.  In His love He had the provision.  This was the one the widows would have least expected when Peter asked them to leave him.  What did Peter do, he kneeled down and prayed.  He knew he was at his extremity.  He also knew that God was greater than his extremity.  What happened;

 

Turning to the body said, Tabitha (Dorcas), arise.  And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

 

Acts of the Apostles chapter 9 verse 40

 

What joy there would have been amongst the widows when Peter presented  Dorcas alive to them.  What effect this would have had in Joppa as the news spread.  This was the making known of a miracle done in the name of Jesus who had died, had risen from the dead and was now in heaven.  Yet this Jesus’ was still alive through His followers and they were now endued with a power which could do works like those which Jesus had done whilst on earth.

 

May the Holy Spirit find those today who are thirsty for Him to indwell them and be able to work through them just as He did through Peter.  Being brought to our extremity is His opportunity to show that nothing is impossible to those who are His for it is He who lives and works through them.  Lord evermore keep me in this place of total dependence upon yourself so that you who are the Spirit of Christ in the world today can reveal His life as this is poured into human hearts.

12) Message 26 January 2014

 

Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord

 

Isaiah chapter 52 verse 11

 

I believe the Lord would have us look at what is meant to be a vessel for Himself.  In these words of Isaiah he refers to bearing or carrying of those vessels which belong to the Lord, those vessels which would have been part of the life of the worship of God.  These would have been actual vessels which could be handled.  With Christ the vessels are the hearts of those whom He indwells.

 

Even under the old covenant an essential requirement for those who carried the vessels of the Lord was to be clean.  This was to be separated from all that in any way could have defiled them and make their service to the Lord unacceptable.  The Lord calls those who are His to be clean, that is, to be totally clean from sin.  We have a lovely word which is in the Psalms and shows God’s standard.

 

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

 

Psalm 24 verses 3 and 4 

 

God here has set a standard which humanly speaking cannot be met.  It is only through receiving the life of Christ that there can be clean hands and pure hearts.  Christ alone during His earthly ministry showed what it is like to live a life which meets the requirements of a holy, righteous and pure God.  He who is both perfect God and perfect man could do this for He came not only to show what God is like, He came to bring the life of God into those who will receive Him.

 

This life of the clean hands and pure heart can only be entered by a full and total consecration.  This is the yielding of self.  Sin can be described as the claim to a right to yourself.  Consecration is just the opposite for there is the relinquishing of the claim to have the right to self.    The yielding of the right to self in God’s presence leads to a radical experience which is unlikely to be spoken of today for it is too radical for the shallowness of present day Christianity.  This is what holiness preachers of many years ago would have called entire sanctification.

 

Paul knew all about entire sanctification and would have considered this to be the expected norm of that which marks out the Christian life.  His expectation required the response of a full consecration where the whole life is committed to the will of God and every moment of this life is laid on the altar of sacrifice which denies any right to self.   

 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2

 

This is the reality of true Christianity.  It is “by the mercies of God.”  This is not something the natural mind of what goes under the name of Christianity today can comprehend.  This is spiritual for this starts in and with God and is received as an act of faith in the receiving of the life of not just Christ as Savior for this accepts the full Lordship of Christ to take over all of our life.  The Spirit of Christ through the Holy Spirit comes to take full ownership and live a life of consecration to Christ a life which in every part responds to His call to follow Him.  Not just follow, it is to be like Him.

 

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

 

St Luke chapter 9 verse 23

 

The call for clean totally consecrated and sacrificial lives are words which have become alien from practically all of present day Christianity.  What goes under the name of nearly all that calls itself Christianity today is an accommodation to present day living and is unwilling to face the reality of the implications of Calvary.

 

There is little seeking after the deep things of God as found in Christ.  There is an unwillingness to obey any call which requires the denying of self.  Modern day Christianity is an affront to the Christ whom laid down His life so that hell deserving sinners could be saved.  That is saved from never ending torment wallowing in regret over the sins which they refuse to repent off in order to receive a new life, the life of Christ Himself.  The cry of my right to my own life reigns supreme.  This is in defiance of Paul’s description of a life where Christ is able to reign when He alone has taken over the throne of our hearts.

 

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I , but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

 

Galatians chapter 2 verse 20

 

“Christ liveth in me.” Surely this is the reality which is lacking today, a living vital stream of the life of Christ Himself flowing through us in all His cleanness, all His loveliness, all His compassion, all His power through the Spirit, the blessed Holy Spirit who indwelt Christ during His earthly ministry.

 

 

When self-renunciation is rediscovered as the norm of Christian experience then those who have Christ in all His fullness will be possessors of a life of purity and power.  Christianity will then no longer be devoid of Christ at its center for the One who loved us and gave Himself for us will have taken His rightful place enthroned on the hearts of those who call Him Savior and Lord.  Let us press further into Him day by day so that He becomes everything to us and we know we are drinking continually at the well of living water who is Christ Himself.

 

13) Message 22nd. January 2014

 

Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord

 

Isaiah chapter 52 verse 11

 

I believe the Lord would have us look at what is meant to be a vessel for Himself.  In these words of Isaiah he refers to bearing or carrying of those vessels which belong to the Lord, those vessels which would have been part of the life of the worship of God.  These would have been actual vessels which could be handled.  With Christ the vessels are the hearts of those whom He indwells.

 

Even under the old covenant an essential requirement for those who carried the vessels of the Lord was to be clean.  This was to be separated from all that in any way could have defiled them and make their service to the Lord unacceptable.  The Lord calls those who are His to be clean, that is, to be totally clean from sin.  We have a lovely word which is in the Psalms and shows God’s standard.

 

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

 

Psalm 24 verses 3 and 4

 

God here has set a standard which humanly speaking cannot be met.  It is only through receiving the life of Christ that there can be clean hands and pure hearts.  Christ alone during His earthly ministry showed what it is like to live a life which meets the requirements of a holy, righteous and pure God.  He who is both perfect God and perfect man  could do this for He came not only to show what God is like, He  came to bring the life of God into those who will receive Him.

 

This life of the clean hands and pure heart can only be entered by a full and total consecration.  This is the yielding of self.  Sin can be described as the claim to a right to yourself.  Consecration is just the opposite for there is the relinquishing of the claim to have the right to self.    The yielding of the right to self in God’s presence leads to a radical experience which is unlikely to be spoken of today for it is too radical for the shallowness of present day Christianity.  This is what holiness preachers of many years ago would have called entire sanctification.

 

Paul knew all about entire sanctification and would have considered this to be the expected norm of that which marks out the Christian life.  His expectation required the response of a full consecration where the whole life is committed to the will of God and every moment of this life is laid on the altar of sacrifice which denies any right to self. 

 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2

 

This is the reality of true Christianity.  It is “ by the mercies of God.”  This is not something the natural mind of what goes under the name of Christianity today can comprehend.  This is spiritual for this starts in and with God and is received as an act of faith in the receiving of the life of not just Christ as Savior for this accepts the full Lordship of Christ to take over all of our life.  The Spirit of Christ through the Holy Spirit comes to take full ownership and live a life of consecration to Christ a life which in every part responds to His call to follow Him.  Not just follow, it is to be like Him.

 

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

 

St Luke chapter 9 verse 23

 

The call for clean totally consecrated and sacrificial lives are words which have become alien from practically all of present day Christianity.  What goes under the name of nearly all that calls itself Christianity today is an accommodation to present day living and is unwilling to face reality up to the implications of Calvary.

 

There is little seeking after the deep things of God as found in Christ.  There is an unwillingness to obey  any call which requires the denying of self.  Modern day Christianity is an affront to the Christ whom laid down His life so that hell deserving sinners could be saved.  Thai is saved from never ending torment wallowing in regret over the sins which they refuse to repent off in order to receive a new life, the life of Christ Himself.  The cry of my right to my own life reigns supreme.  This is in defiance of Paul’s description of a life where Christ is able to reign when He alone has taken over the throne of our hearts.

 

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I , but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

 

Galatians chapter 2 verse 20

 

“ Christ liveth in me.” Surely this is the reality which is lacking today, a living vital stream of the life of Christ Himself flowing through us in all His cleanness, all His loveliness, all His compassion, all His power through the Spirit, the blessed Holy Spirit who indwelt Christ during His earthly ministry.

 

 

When self-renunciation is rediscovered as the norm of Christian experience then those who have Christ in all His fullness will be possessors of  a life of purity and power.  Christianity will no longer be  devoid of Christ at its center for the One who loved us and gave Himself for us will have taken His rightful place enthroned on the hearts of those who call Him Savior and Lord.  Let us press further into Him day by day so that He becomes everything to us and we know we are drinking continually at the well of living water who is Christ Himself.

14) Message: 14th. May 2014

 

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

 

Colossians chapter 3 verse 3

 

What a statement Paul brings before the Church at Colossae.  A statement of faith which although this has resounded down the centuries has not really been understood.  What Paul brought out in this statement was that the Christian did not have a separate identity outside of Christ. Until we have been crucified with Christ and are dead to ourselves we are of no use to God. 

 

Whilst we are like Jacob and still want to be wrestling with God then the world still has a hold on us and self rather than Christ is at the center. Only when we become totally dependent upon God by God Himself living His own life in and through us can we be of use to God. Until then like Jacob we would get in the way and our motives would be self-centered. The Psalmist knew that there had to be a change of heart in order to come to know God by being dependent upon God. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

 

How to be dead has been misunderstood.  The born again Christian is one who has a cleansed consciousness (Hebrews (9:14).  Even when Satan makes his accusations this can have no impact when we realise who we are in Christ.  Our life is hid with Christ.  We are a vessel, an instrument or a temple depending on which term you may like to use.  Whichever term is used our body becomes the recipient of the Holy Spirit; the same Holy Spirit who indwelt Christ during His earthly ministry.

 

The old independent life has gone.  Satan cannot overcome for those in whom Christ dwells through His Spirit are no longer the walking Satan’s of the old sinful life for they become walking Christ’s.  Not just a thought for this is the position of resting whereby there is no longer an independent self which can operate outside of Christ.  We in Him and He in us is the position for all to be who belong to Christ.  The “I” disappears when we know our position in Christ through death and resurrection (Galatians 2:20). 

 

Do you know that this is the place where you should have as your inheritance in Christ?  It is not something which the deluded-self life based on works and taught as the norm of the majority of Christian teaching today will ever bring to fruition.  The position in Christ is spiritual.  This is the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). There is still a delusion that it is the self-life which does the work of God. Self cannot do the work of God yet He has chosen to do this through men and women who have Christ dwelling within them through the Holy Spirit.  Then there is a right-self for this is Christ living through us.

 

What a Christ we have should only we look at Him. Not just to have looked and lived when we saw He had died for our sins and been raised so we could receive eternal life. There is far more as Christ is all of the Christian life and the Christian life can only be lived by Him. In His own wonderful way He asks to come and live His life through us. As Paul made clear in his epistle to the Romans this was not considered to be an option to the first Christians, it was a demand. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)  Not only to present our bodies for this called for total abandonment to God as there was the command for total separation from all that was not of God. “And be not conformed to the world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2) When we see Calvary and Jesus giving His all for us can we do anything less than give our all to Him for Him to give Himself to others through us? Until God can find in Britain and the United States of America those who will accept God’s own way and become the answer to their prayers then the revival which has tarried for over sixty years will continue to be withheld by God. Let us be real with God and He will be real with us. 

 

The reality which calls to God in intercessor prayer O God give me Britain or I die or should you be from the United States O God give me the United States or I die. A cry like that of Jesus “not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (St Matthew 26:39)

 

15)  Message: 01 September 2014

 

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

 

1 Peter chapter 1 verse 19

 

What a most wonderful Savior we have when it is fully understood who it was whose precious blood obtained our salvation. As sinners we were guilty, lost and already condemned in the sight of a holy, righteous and pure God. Sin had done its worst and cut off all who have sinned, that is everyone from God.

 

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

 

Romans chapter 3 verse 23

 

God’s word is all inclusive and all must face the penalty of sin which is death cut off from God forever unless there is a reconciliation to bring the individual sinner into a living relationship with the Living God.

 

The position of the sinner looked hopeless. God though in his mercy accepted the sinner’s place. God’s holiness had demanded judgement upon sin. No sinner of themselves could be justified in God’s sight and have the penalty of their sin removed. What man could not do God did Himself.

 

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

 

Romans chapter 3 verse 24

 

Only God Himself could meet the demands which could reconcile sinners to Himself. At what cost though. The creator became the redeemer and met the demands of the law. Jesus Christ, God the Son was the only one who could bring God’s mercy to those who receive Him as their sin bearer.

 

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

 

Hebrews chapter 8 verse 12

 

Can those who know their God because their God took their place on the cross ever be able to thank Him enough for obtaining their forgiveness? It was God’s blood, the precious blood of Jesus, God the Son who held nothing back in order to save them from spending eternity in hell with the devil and all who reject the offer of God’s forgiveness. The opposite both for now and for all eternity is that the redeemed of the Lord have been brought into a living relationship with the Living God for they have the Life of God within them. When we have been born again into a new life then we have a presence with us that is not of this world. The presence of God Himself. May God’s reassuring presence take us through all of life’s tests in the knowledge that God satisfies the deepest longings of our hearts. The same Holy Spirit who indwelt Jesus during His earthly ministry will indwell and live His life through all who will ask Him to do so.

 

May God the Holy Spirit find those who will seek to go to the highest heights and the deepest depths of all that God wants to give to those who seek after all the fullness which Jesus Christ has already obtained. There is shallowness today in the things of God because of human thinking instead of being open to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit speaking to our spirits. Word. O God cause there to be a hunger and thirst after you so that you can build up a holy people separated to yourself who will let you fulfil your plan in each life. In the light of the precious blood of Jesus offered to redeem us from sin this is a small thing for you to ask.    

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