Depending
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Intro: Staff turning to snake
God especially provides supernaturally when there is no other way, not simply to entertain us or show off
When natural means exist, God often works through them
There were no grocery stores for israel in the wilderness,
So God provided manna for forty years
But mana stopped once the Israelites could eat the fruit of the land
The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.
Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread, but it is not unbelief to go out and earn a living
When sufficient food was unavailable by natural means, Jesus multiplied food to feed thousands of people
Afterwards, however, he told his disciples to gather the fragments that remained
He fed the crowd when they needed a miracle, but the disciples’ next few meals would not require any new miracles.
Can you imagine how silly the disciples would have been to throw away the leftovers because they were praying for daily bread?
Why should we neglect natural means of healing any more than we neglect natural means of eating?
The fact that God does a miracle sometimes does not mean that we should expect him to do it every time
Throw the stick again
Faith is not expressed in a formula of action we can simply repeat
that would be magic
Faith is a relationship with God
So far we have covered the importance of
praying
Reading (your Bible)
getting rid of idols and sin that separates you from God
Sharing the Love and Message of Christ with Nonbelievers
Today we are talking about Depending
Not depends, those are an adult diaper
Specifically depending on God in everyday life,
and expecting the miraculous
ACTS 1:8 HAS BEEN A RALLYING CRY FOR THE Church throughout the centuries:
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
In that one verse we see both the mission of the Church-
to reach a lost world with the gospel-
and the empowerment God has made available to accomplish that mission
—the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.
As Pentecostals we recognize that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the fullest expression of the Spirit’s empowering.
We can look at the gospels to see that the disciples,
prior to Pentecost,
were unprepared for the challenge of the Great Commission.
Peter is a case in point.
He didn’t have the courage to stand up to a mere servant girl who confronted him on the night of Jesus’ arrest.
Under pressure, Peter denied his Lord.
After the Pentecostal experience,
Peter stood up preached on the Day of Pentecost to a multitude responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion,
and three thousand souls were saved.
What happened? Acts 2:4 happened:
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
The Holy Spirit’s power,
as evidenced by Peter’s speaking in other tongues,
gave him the ability to preach that sermon with confidence on the Day of the Pentecost.
Our dependence on the Spirit goes immeasurably beyond our understanding.
Jesus said,
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
The Holy Spirit empowers us in perfect unity with the will of the Father and the Son.
The promise of Acts 1:8 connects that empowerment with all of our being:
Our sufficiency lies in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit for us to become what He wills.
Perhaps in the previous weeks on prayer, the Word, and loving the lost,
you have responded to those truths with goals for change.
But any significant change must go beyond the things you do.
Change must include who you are.
That’s where the Holy Spirit steps in.
He will change who you are in order that what you say and do
will be most pleasing to your Heavenly Father.
Your Identity must be firmly placed as a Child of God
That is who you are
first and foremost
1. More Dependent, More Empowered
1. More Dependent, More Empowered
How does Acts 1:8 come to life in each of us practically?
It’s the enabling of the Spirit’s power, the life of Christ in me.
Christ living through us,
Christ’s enabling Spirit permeating our very being
gives us the ability to be living testimonies to a lost and dying world.
That’s the enabling of the Spirit.
The more dependent we are upon the Spirit,
the more we rely upon His work in us,
the more effective our living testimony becomes.
Think of the gifts of the Spirit:
the word of wisdom,
the word of knowledge,
faith,
gifts of healing,
miracles,
prophecy,
discerning of spirits,
speaking in diverse kinds of tongues,
and the interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10).
The baptism in the Holy Spirit
becomes a powerful gateway to receiving these other gifts
that make our lives most useful to the Lord.
The same holds true with the fruit of the Spirit:
love,
joy,
peace,
Patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness
self control (Galatians 5:22,23).
Paul concludes that list in Galatians by saying,
“Against such things there is no law.”
Through the Spirit’s work,
we become the reflection of what Jesus looks like
and what Jesus is
for a lost and spiritually searching world.
Can we do that in ourselves?
No we weren’t meant to even try to do that.
We must depend completely upon the Spirit’s enabling power.
Think of how easily our lives become entangled in sin
or become sidetracked from God’s divine purposes toward lesser things.
things that don’t matter
The Holy Spirit at work in us is the solution to that problem.
The Scripture says,
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
And again,
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
What is Paul saying in this epistle?
Our ability to live victoriously,
to live above sin,
to defeat the temptations of the enemy
is found through the Spirit’s enabling,
through His power,
through His help.
This is an amazing truth.
It stunned Jesus’ disciples when they first contemplated this reality.
Those twelve men were blessed to walk with Jesus himself for three years.
They were at His side during incredible miracles.
They sat at His feet to hear the greatest teaching ever shared.
And then Jesus told them He was going to leave them.
How could they possibly continue in the grand design He had set into motion?
Jesus said,
“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
In other words, in God’s grand design,
the ministry of the Holy Spirit would accomplish more in believers’ lives
than even Jesus’ physical presence did.
The Holy Spirit’s empowering presence carries us through life
to the eternal fulfillment of God’s plan for us.
Consider Jude’s statement:
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Thanks to the Spirit’s work in each of us,
we can victoriously walk in faith each day,
anticipating that glorious day when we are in the presence of God
at manifest on His throne.
The key is our desire to be led by the Spirit.
Jude notes that God is “able to keep” us.
Are we willing to let Him?
We have to be reliant upon the Spirit’s enabling to keep us.
We have to be submissive.
we have to submit
our life,
our will,
our ambitions,
our plans,
our goals,
our desires
to Him so that He can keep us
and present us faultless before His throne with exceeding joy.
The joy of serving Jesus is not contingent on our ability;
that joy comes through Him doing God’s will through us.
When we try to do it in our strength,
it becomes empty works of false righteousness.
When He does it,
our lives become true reflections of Jesus,
genuine examples of obedience
and the walk of faith.
Daily Challenges, Daily Guidance
Daily Challenges, Daily Guidance
How does the Spirit’s interaction with us express itself in our daily life?
I mentioned the gifts and fruit of the Spirit.
I can’t think of a circumstance in life
that would not benefit from their expression.
But there is an even more fundamental expression of the Spirit’s work in us.
James sheds light on this.
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
As we depend upon the Spirit’s wisdom in making even the simplest decisions,
we will discover we are walking more consistent obedience and spiritual victory.
Don’t shortchange yourself.
Don’t hold off asking God for wisdom
just because you think a decision is too small or easy.
Look more closely at what James says:
God “gives generously to all.”
There is an abundance of divine wisdom and guidance available to you and me for life’s every need.
In God’s sight, no detail of our lives is trivial
our willingness to be dependent upon the Spirit
determines the degree to which we are the recipients of the Spirit’s help.
If I strive to include God in all my decisions,
He’ll be included and He will help me.
If I limit my dependence on God to the crisis moments,
I may not have developed the ability I need to ascertain the voice of God.
It is when we daily rely on the Spirit of God working in us
that we consistently hear Him.
The more dependent we are upon the Spirit,
the more sensitized we become to the voice of the Spirit,
the will of the Spirit,
the direction of the Spirit,
the help of the Spirit.
What is the result?
We live under the canopy of God’s favor.
The Spirit at work in us will influence our emotions and how we relate to others.
You see this in the life of Jesus.
the Bible says
and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;
How did Jesus, throughout His interactions with hostile, sinful people
up to the day of His crucifixion,
maintain His composure?
He remained in perfect communion with the Father and the Spirit.
Can we have that enabling of the Spirit when we encounter the inevitable antagonists of life?
Yes, we can.
This goes back to our being people of the Word.
David said,
Your word I have treasured in my heart,
That I may not sin against You.
The Word of God is the most fundamental tool the Holy Spirit uses to
offer “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Friend, the Holy Spirit will use your times of prayer and study in the Word to powerfully speak to your spirit.
Let Him do that.
Expecting, Experiencing
Expecting, Experiencing
When we walk daily under the guidance of God’s Spirit,
when we learn to hear His voice in the midst of our daily routines,
it builds our faith so that we learn to expect His miraculous intervention
in the truly impossible situations of life.
Our daily communion with the Spirit
through prayer
and God’s Word
brings us to the realization of the supernatural
and of the miraculous.
If you want to be someone who effectively believes God for the miraculous,
you must be a person living in the Word.
Remember,
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Everything I’ve shared with you up to this point ties together.
When you pray,
you are inviting God’s Spirit to commune with you
When you read the word
you are inviting God’s Spirit to make it alive in your heart.
When you share His good news with unbelievers
you are inviting God’s Spirit to flow through you
Through these interactions with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives,
we can then see the miraculous daily
and the supernatural in our moments of need.
The miraculous ought not to be an occasional happening.
I believe it ought to be an expected happening.
A 2006 survey of over 200 million Pentecostal and Protestant charismatics across ten countries and four continents
claim to have witnessed divine healing
Some 39% of Christians in those countries who are not Pentecostals or protestant charismatics also claim to have wtnessed divine healing
Hundreds of millions of people around the world claim to have witnessed such experiences
Such figures are estimates at best
Nevertheless, it is clear that we are talking about alot of people
No one would claim that all these reports involve genuine miracles
But neither is it reasonable for anyone to simply ignore all of them while claiming there are no credible witnesses for miracles
It would be intellectually dishonest to dismiss all of them from the start based on bias or normal human experience
Nor would it be sound to simply cherry pick among the least plausible examples to justify neglecting the more plausible ones
One western researcher was astonished to discover that 83% of the people that he interviewed at a large church in the Philippines had experienced significant healings
Another survey shows that more than a third of all americans claim to have witnessed or experienced what they believe to be a divine healing
Still another survey reports that more than a quarter of all americans (27%) claim to have experienced a physical healing that could only be explained as a miraculous healing aand not solely as a result of normal proces, medical procedure or the body healing itself
While many may be too intimidated to discuss these experiences publicly
some 38% (close to one hundred million Americans) expressed belief that they had experienced some sort of divine miracle
The Spirit is able to make alive in us all that is available in Jesus.
All the power of heaven and earth
is behind each of us
as we walk in daily relationship with God
in the power of the Spirit.
Think of what Jesus promised:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.
Greater things.
Greater things than what Jesus did.
Why?
Because we have the abiding presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
dwelling within us
and giving of themselves to us
and empowering us,
allowing us to experience the miraculous and the supernatural.
The testimonies of the miraculous are not just happen stance.
They come as a result of our intentional,
daily submission to the will of God.
I believe, as a child of God,
as we go through life
we can take either the path of blessing
or the path of the ordinary.
If I want my steps ordered,
led of God,
then I’m going to be sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance.
I’m going to say,
“Lord, what would You have? What’s Your plan?”
I’m convinced things don’t just happen randomly for the Christian.
The purposes,
the provision,
the blessing,
and the work of God in the believer’s life
are all evidence of those “ordered” steps.
When we bring God into the equation,
we give Him opportunity to enact the miraculous.
To see the unfolding of the miraculous should not be out of the ordinary.
Miracles ought to be part of our daily Christian walk
as we experience God at work in our lives.
Does this all come about so we can be blessed?
No, that’s not the purpose of the miraculous.
I am blessed as a result of God’s work in my life,
but that’s not the motivation for His working in me.
As I receive His blessing,
He is to receive all the glory.
My life,
my work,
my calling
are blessed of the Lord.
But God is to receive all the glory and praise.
“I am the Lord, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another,
Nor My praise to graven images.
Divine Direction, Divine Timetable
Divine Direction, Divine Timetable
There is a big difference between
merely hoping for something
and expecting something.
The eyes of faith see God’s future blessing
and answers to prayer as realities.
The Scripture says in
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
That’s what faith is:
simply believing that God is,
and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
This is a very personal truth.
You are to come to God in faith
and believe that He will meet your need.
What often happens in this whole matter of faith
is that a person tries to take someone else’s revelation
and experience of God and overlays it on their own circumstance or a situation.
There are certainly common denominators
in how believers relate to God,
but you can never vicariously live someone else’s faith experience.
The religious landscape of America
is filled with tragic examples
of people who tried to use someone else’s revelation
or confession of faith.
Make the promises of God your promises.
As a result of prayer,
as a result of the Word,
and as a result of the work of the Spirit,
God witnesses to the heart of a person
that He has heard their prayer
and the answer is on the way
When God has given to you that assurance,
it’s already done.
The work is finished.
You might not see the evidence of it immediately.
That’s where faith is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
But you know the answer is on the way.
You know that God has heard,
and you know it is just a matter of time until it is going to happen.
You can be sure of that.
Be prepared for God’s answer to be “no” on occasion.
I believe God never says no to something
unless He has something better for us.
Friend, we “see through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV).
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
We don’t see the big picture.
But God does,
so we trust Him.
And if we trust Him,
we will see the fulfillment of the revelation
of what God has in store.
I can promise you
it’s always better than what we would ever expect.
The biggest challenge in expecting the miraculous
is living with a settled faith in God’s timing.
Sometimes we misinterpret a delay as a no.
But the miraculous is there for us
if we walk with our Lord
in complete trust
and thank Him in advance.
And remember, because of the Holy Spirit’s work in you,
you can look confidently to God
as your loving Heavenly Father.
Your every need in the here and now,
and for eternity,
is firmly in the grasp of His loving hand.
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
