FORYOU&YOU&YOU

"And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus!" -Ephesians 3:9-12
When Heaven Invades Earth | Bethel | BSSM | eric | answered prayer | Pastor Rick | encouragement | music | conviction | newsong | Apologetics Study Bible

Home Archive RSS Ask Submit Theme

♥ 1
→ 30 Aug 12 at 4 pm

I’ve got a river of living water
A fountain that never will run dry
It’s open Heavens You’re releasing
And we will never be denied

Cause we’re stirring up deep deep wells
We’re stirring up deep deep waters
We’re going to dance in the river, dance in the river
Cause we’re stirring up deep deep wells
We’re stirring up deep deep waters
We’re going to jump in the river
Jump in the river and everybody singing now

Deep cries out to deep cries out to
Deep cries out to deep cries out to
So we cry out to, we cry out to, You Jesus

We’re falling into deeper waters, calling out to You
We’re walking into deeper waters, going after You

If He goes to the left then we’ll go to the left
And if He goes to the right then we’ll go to the right
We’re going to jump jump jump jump in the river
Jump jump jump jump, everybody

—

“He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”

-Genesis 28:12, NIV

“Jesus said, “You believet because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.”51 He then added, ‘Very truly I tell you,t yout will see “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’t the Son of Man.”’”

-John 1:50-51, NIV

—

This is all just SO crazy. God is SO Good! Thank You, God!

At a church I babysit at on sunday nights, the children painted canvases of different things— things God was showing them, different things they had learned about Him, from Him.

One boy drew “Jacob’s Ladder.” I did not know what this was. And I told myself that I was going to find out.

Here I am, two weeks later, finding out just what Jacob’s Ladder is. But not because I rememebered to look it up, to find it in Scripture. But because it was referenced in the book I am reading for school, “When Heaven Invades Earth.”

God brought me to the story of Jacob’s Ladder, because even from that moment that I saw that painting, from even while that boy was painting that painting, from even before then God knew that I needed to know about Jacob’s Ladder. God knew that I need to learn more about Bible Stories and the Old Testament and His Goodness in general. And that is why I have been hearing “Deep Cries Out” so often and all of a sudden— the first line of this song references Jacob’s Ladder.

And with learning about this Ladder, this “open Heaven”, this Jesus Christ, this debt, this duty that we have comes encouragement, challenge, conviction, humility, and humbleness. All things I have been asking God for. And here was just a sliver of His answer. Thank You for just a glimpse of Your so intentional and well-thought out Plan for me. And that you have one just unique for each and every one of Your children, even those who have not acknowledged You as their Abbah Father, just yet.

Thank You, God! In Jesus Christ’s Name I thank and praise and pray to you, Amen!

♥ 1316
→ 23 Aug 12 at 1 pm Okay, God. thanks. I get it. I needed to hear this. I am so sorry for ignoring Your Voice even though I constantly keep asking to hear it. Thanks for NEVER giving up on me. Thank You that You never will. In Your Son, Jesus Christ’s Name, I pray, Amen! ^__^

And I cannot help but believe, that if you take even just an ounce of a second to think about it, you really needed to read this, too. You and you and you.
(Source: spiritualinspiration)

tags: God is Able humbled humility when heaven invades earth BSSM Bethel Proverbs answered prayer

Okay, God. thanks. I get it. I needed to hear this. I am so sorry for ignoring Your Voice even though I constantly keep asking to hear it. Thanks for NEVER giving up on me. Thank You that You never will. In Your Son, Jesus Christ’s Name, I pray, Amen! ^__^
And I cannot help but believe, that if you take even just an ounce of a second to think about it, you really needed to read this, too. You and you and you.

♥ 10969
→ 14 Aug 12 at 5 pm “Faith was never intended only to get us into the family. Rather, it is the nature of life in this family.

Faith sees. It brings His Kingdom into focus.”

-Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth
(via m0rtality)

tags: Bill Johnson When Heaven Invades Earth

“Faith was never intended only to get us into the family. Rather, it is the nature of life in this family.
Faith sees. It brings His Kingdom into focus.”
-Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth

♥ 34344
→ 14 Aug 12 at 2 pm Why Tell Stories?

The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”

He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing. The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.

“But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.

-Matthew 12-10:17, the Message translation
(Source: sexpulse, via alifeoftruth)

tags: conviction encouragement when heaven invades earth BSSM Bethel matthew Gospels the Works of the Father

Why Tell Stories?
The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”
He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again: Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing. The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them.
“But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
-Matthew 12-10:17, the Message translation

♥ 100
→ 09 Aug 12 at 2 pm “Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.”

-Romans 8:5-8

—

A friend wise, with wisdom from and of the Holy Spirit once explained an image. Of a pendulum. On both sides of the highest, opposite points of the pendulum are self. On the left, top side: self-confidence and on the opposite, right, top side: self-pity. On both top sides are SELF.

Where we need to be is at the bottom. Not relying on self. Not attracted to self. Not concentrating on self. In any aspect. But completely and only and solely, first, foremost, and ultimately on Him.
(Source: dangerouslyderanged)

tags: chapel gang Bethel BSSM when heaven invades earth the Anointing and the anti-christ spirit footnotes romans conviction

“Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.”
-Romans 8:5-8
—
A friend wise, with wisdom from and of the Holy Spirit once explained an image. Of a pendulum. On both sides of the highest, opposite points of the pendulum are self. On the left, top side: self-confidence and on the opposite, right, top side: self-pity. On both top sides are SELF.
Where we need to be is at the bottom. Not relying on self. Not attracted to self. Not concentrating on self. In any aspect. But completely and only and solely, first, foremost, and ultimately on Him.

♥ 2431
→ 09 Aug 12 at 2 pm allthingsfrench:

arquerio:

Waterfall by Xavier Encinas on Flickr.

(via imgTumble)

Ephesians 3

The Secret Plan of God

1-3 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.

4-6 As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

7-8 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

9-10 And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

11-13 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
(via art-diary)

tags: BSSM Bethel conviction encouragement the Anointing and the anti-christ spirit when heaven invades earth Ephesians

allthingsfrench:

arquerio:

Waterfall by Xavier Encinas on Flickr.

(via imgTumble)
Ephesians 3

The Secret Plan of God
1-3 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you’re familiar with the part I was given in God’s plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
4-6 As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.
7-8 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.
9-10 And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
11-13 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don’t let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
14-19 My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
20-21 God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

♥ 124
→ 01 Jul 12 at 7 pm landyscape:

Life is a climb but the view is great. (by Eint Chu Hlaing)

—

“I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello! Faith Under Pressure

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.”

-James 1:1-18, the Message translation

—

Firsties, I am just going to type a meep. Meep because I absolutely love it when I love reading the Bible. Because I know that it is what I am meant to do. I love it, because I know it is pleasing to God. And because I know the Holy Spirit is interceding on my behalf, to open my eyes, to fill me with desire and understanding, with wisdom to accompany and appreciate the value of this knowledge, that is the Holy Word of God our Father.

This morning the preaching went from Solomon’s answer to God’s asking him of what he wanted from 2 Chronicles 1. Solomon asked for wisdom to guide the people that God had put under Solomon for him to rule over. Not wealth or a long life. But wisdom.

Which was already humbling, because what a great act and man of God that truly was. To truly not submit to the ways of this world, to the temptations, but live truly not only through and thanks to, but also for God.

“God answered Solomon, “This is what has come out of your heart: You didn’t grasp for money, wealth, fame, and the doom of your enemies; you didn’t even ask for a long life. You asked for wisdom and knowledge so you could govern well my people over whom I’ve made you king. Because of this, you get what you asked for—wisdom and knowledge. And I’m presenting you the rest as a bonus—money, wealth, and fame beyond anything the kings before or after you had or will have.” -2 Chronicles 1:11-12, MSG

But then the preaching went into how the wisdom we have comes from the Holy Spirit, the gift that God has bestowed upon us.

And He truly is such a Wonderful Gift.

“So let me say it again, this truth: It’s better for you that I leave. If I don’t leave, the Friend won’t come. But if I go, I’ll send him to you. ”When he comes, he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted.” -John 16:5-11, MSG

That lives within us. That intercedes on our behalf. That can strengthen our inner man. Through praying to Him is the way to get in tune with God spiritually, to truly concentrate and worship Him. To gain the wisdom, the discernment we need to truly understand the Bible, fully and truthfully. Without Him interceding on our behalf, of course we may get something out of reading the Bible. But we will merely only be reading, acquiring information (knowledge), with Him, we shall have wisdom, discernment between right and wrong. Opened eyes and hearts and souls. To fully be dedicated and dwell with Him.

“But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.” -1 Corinthians 2:10, MSG

“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” -Ephesians 3:14-19, MSG

And this Holy Spirit that we have in us, in which our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit for (“Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you.” -John 6:19, MSG) is the same one that lived in Jesus Christ when He walked this very same earth. When He was able to resist temptations, of the devil himself, in the desert, in the midst of a forty-day-and-night-long-fast. When He healed the leper spots and gave sight to the blind. Jesus is God, but He was a human being when He was on this earth. What set Him apart was the Holy Spirit. He was so in tune with the Holy Spirit. He had the wisdom, the discernment, the supernatural powers that comes from Him. And we have this same Holy Spirit in ourselves. Each and every one of us! You and you and you and me! Thank You, God!

“But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!” -Romans 8:9-11, MSG

And, as aforementioned, the preacher talked of how the Bible is the knowledge that we have at our disposal.

Knowledge is simply acquiring information, but wisdom is discernment between right and wrong. The Holy Spirit is the discernment we need, the source of the wisdom we need to truly have opened eyes to all that God and His Word have for us at our disposal!

So, thank You Holy Spirit, that when I pray to You, even just a simple prayer modeled after Ephesians 3:14-19, that You respond. That You hear me. That You are always listening. And that You open my eyes, my heart to You and what You want me to hear and read and know. I love You and thank You, so very much! In Your name I pray, Amen!

—

Also, it is so encouraging to know, and truly not just believe, but to trust. That if we, if I, just focus on God. On fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, then nothing, nothing, can depreciate the worship. Not the people, not the circumstances, not the church, not the atmosphere, not the quality of the music, because the Holy Spirit is not of this world as all of the aforementioned qualities on the list are. He is of Heaven. And I truly believe and trust, that when we fellowship with Him, the Holy Spirit, when we keep our eyes on God and what He sent His Son to do, and what His Son so obediently did for us (“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16, NIV), that it is then that we will experience unfathomable, unshakable Joy and Peace. That nothing can take that away. No trial or tribulation of this world, of ourselves. Because though satan may be the ruler of this world (“I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry-he has nothing on me, no claim on me. -John 14:30, MSG), God is the Ultimate Ruler of an Everlasting World: Heaven, and when we speak to the Holy Spirit, when we dwell with Him, I truly believe that He brings Heaven down here, to invade earth, to invade us.

Thank You, God and in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen, Amen, Amen!
(via art-diary)

tags: BSSM Bethel I love this Holy Spirit-driven devotional! conviction encouragement when heaven invades earth Pastor Rick

landyscape:

Life is a climb but the view is great. (by Eint Chu Hlaing)

—
“I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello! Faith Under Pressure
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.
When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.
Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.”
-James 1:1-18, the Message translation
—
Firsties, I am just going to type a meep. Meep because I absolutely love it when I love reading the Bible. Because I know that it is what I am meant to do. I love it, because I know it is pleasing to God. And because I know the Holy Spirit is interceding on my behalf, to open my eyes, to fill me with desire and understanding, with wisdom to accompany and appreciate the value of this knowledge, that is the Holy Word of God our Father.
This morning the preaching went from Solomon’s answer to God’s asking him of what he wanted from 2 Chronicles 1. Solomon asked for wisdom to guide the people that God had put under Solomon for him to rule over. Not wealth or a long life. But wisdom.
Which was already humbling, because what a great act and man of God that truly was. To truly not submit to the ways of this world, to the temptations, but live truly not only through and thanks to, but also for God.
“God answered Solomon, “This is what has come out of your heart: You didn’t grasp for money, wealth, fame, and the doom of your enemies; you didn’t even ask for a long life. You asked for wisdom and knowledge so you could govern well my people over whom I’ve made you king. Because of this, you get what you asked for—wisdom and knowledge. And I’m presenting you the rest as a bonus—money, wealth, and fame beyond anything the kings before or after you had or will have.” -2 Chronicles 1:11-12, MSG
But then the preaching went into how the wisdom we have comes from the Holy Spirit, the gift that God has bestowed upon us.
And He truly is such a Wonderful Gift.
“So let me say it again, this truth: It’s better for you that I leave. If I don’t leave, the Friend won’t come. But if I go, I’ll send him to you. ”When he comes, he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted.” -John 16:5-11, MSG
That lives within us. That intercedes on our behalf. That can strengthen our inner man. Through praying to Him is the way to get in tune with God spiritually, to truly concentrate and worship Him. To gain the wisdom, the discernment we need to truly understand the Bible, fully and truthfully. Without Him interceding on our behalf, of course we may get something out of reading the Bible. But we will merely only be reading, acquiring information (knowledge), with Him, we shall have wisdom, discernment between right and wrong. Opened eyes and hearts and souls. To fully be dedicated and dwell with Him.
“But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.” -1 Corinthians 2:10, MSG
“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” -Ephesians 3:14-19, MSG
And this Holy Spirit that we have in us, in which our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit for (“Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you.” -John 6:19, MSG) is the same one that lived in Jesus Christ when He walked this very same earth. When He was able to resist temptations, of the devil himself, in the desert, in the midst of a forty-day-and-night-long-fast. When He healed the leper spots and gave sight to the blind. Jesus is God, but He was a human being when He was on this earth. What set Him apart was the Holy Spirit. He was so in tune with the Holy Spirit. He had the wisdom, the discernment, the supernatural powers that comes from Him. And we have this same Holy Spirit in ourselves. Each and every one of us! You and you and you and me! Thank You, God!
“But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!” -Romans 8:9-11, MSG
And, as aforementioned, the preacher talked of how the Bible is the knowledge that we have at our disposal.
Knowledge is simply acquiring information, but wisdom is discernment between right and wrong. The Holy Spirit is the discernment we need, the source of the wisdom we need to truly have opened eyes to all that God and His Word have for us at our disposal!
So, thank You Holy Spirit, that when I pray to You, even just a simple prayer modeled after Ephesians 3:14-19, that You respond. That You hear me. That You are always listening. And that You open my eyes, my heart to You and what You want me to hear and read and know. I love You and thank You, so very much! In Your name I pray, Amen!
—
Also, it is so encouraging to know, and truly not just believe, but to trust. That if we, if I, just focus on God. On fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit, then nothing, nothing, can depreciate the worship. Not the people, not the circumstances, not the church, not the atmosphere, not the quality of the music, because the Holy Spirit is not of this world as all of the aforementioned qualities on the list are. He is of Heaven. And I truly believe and trust, that when we fellowship with Him, the Holy Spirit, when we keep our eyes on God and what He sent His Son to do, and what His Son so obediently did for us (“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16, NIV), that it is then that we will experience unfathomable, unshakable Joy and Peace. That nothing can take that away. No trial or tribulation of this world, of ourselves. Because though satan may be the ruler of this world (“I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry-he has nothing on me, no claim on me. -John 14:30, MSG), God is the Ultimate Ruler of an Everlasting World: Heaven, and when we speak to the Holy Spirit, when we dwell with Him, I truly believe that He brings Heaven down here, to invade earth, to invade us.
Thank You, God and in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen, Amen, Amen!

♥ 23229
→ 01 Jul 12 at 7 pm franticfeathersandricewrists:

Blue skies, here I come. Sunday.

—

“Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”

-Ephesians 4:31-5:2, the Message translation

—

I cannot even fathom.

And that is only part of the beautiful perplexity that is found in admiring our Lord God, our Saviour Jesus, our Precious Holy Spirit.

Jesus is so humbling for me. And I love that about Him :) He is THE Best and Only Example of how we are to live our lives, here on earth. I want to live like Him. I want to Love like Him. I want to Love Him well.

Because I am so unworthy. He is so Perfect, Loving and Just in all that He does, has done, and is yet to do.

I sit here in awe and reverence for just Him and all that He is and always will be.

Thank You, God that I have this opportunity to know You. That You would even take the time to convict me, to encourage me, to Love me as You continue to do.

I pray, that I will just not ever, be too lazy, be too consumed by the world to spend time and Love You.

Let my life song sing to You and only You, truly!

In the name of the Worthy Father, the Lovely Son, and the Holy, Holy Spirit, I praise and pray. Amen!
(via art-diary)

tags: conviction encouragement when heaven invades earth Bethel BSSM

franticfeathersandricewrists:

Blue skies, here I come. Sunday.

—
“Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”
-Ephesians 4:31-5:2, the Message translation
—
I cannot even fathom.
And that is only part of the beautiful perplexity that is found in admiring our Lord God, our Saviour Jesus, our Precious Holy Spirit.
Jesus is so humbling for me. And I love that about Him :) He is THE Best and Only Example of how we are to live our lives, here on earth. I want to live like Him. I want to Love like Him. I want to Love Him well.
Because I am so unworthy. He is so Perfect, Loving and Just in all that He does, has done, and is yet to do.
I sit here in awe and reverence for just Him and all that He is and always will be.
Thank You, God that I have this opportunity to know You. That You would even take the time to convict me, to encourage me, to Love me as You continue to do.
I pray, that I will just not ever, be too lazy, be too consumed by the world to spend time and Love You.
Let my life song sing to You and only You, truly!
In the name of the Worthy Father, the Lovely Son, and the Holy, Holy Spirit, I praise and pray. Amen!

♥ 203
→ 01 Jul 12 at 7 pm animals-animals-animals:

Koala and Joey (by tomosuke214)

“You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus.”

-Philippians 4:19, the Message translation

tags: when heaven invades earth encouragement BSSM Bethel

animals-animals-animals:

Koala and Joey (by tomosuke214)

“You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus.”
-Philippians 4:19, the Message translation

♥ 121
→ 01 Jul 12 at 6 pm animals-animals-animals:

Giraffe (by rabbit.Hole)

“God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.”

-2 Corinthians 9:8-11, the Message translation

tags: when heaven invades earth Bethel BSSM encouragement

animals-animals-animals:

Giraffe (by rabbit.Hole)

“God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.”
-2 Corinthians 9:8-11, the Message translation