Posts Tagged ‘Mindset’
David Seragih asked:
The word of God is like a piece of soap. The purpose of the soap is to wash away all dirts from your body. But it does not serve its function if it is not used or applied. Similarly, the word of God is useless if you do not apply it into your life. In this article, we will talk about the Holy Spirit and I hope in so doing, it will educate your mind, move your heart, and motivate your will to inspire you to represent Jesus in the marketplace in a new way with a renewed mind.
Acts 9 & Luke 4
In Acts 9, it provides a background to the conversion of the Apostle Paul. Paul, before he was converted, he has a passion of killing Christians. His mission was to source out the Christians and gets rid of them. On the road to Damascus with a mission to kill Christians, Jesus got hold of him. He had a personal encounter with Jesus and this turned his life around. In Acts 9:31, it stated that as a result of Paul’s conversion, he started to preach about Jesus being the Christ. The churches throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria were greatly edified by Paul’s teaching. The churches became united and multiplied. They became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Notice that there were two things at work here in the churches to give them strengths and increase. It was:
1. Fear of the Lord
2. Comfort or Encouragement of the Holy Spirit
What do you mean by the fear of the Lord? This fear is not talking about being frightened. It is about reverence, a reverential fear and respect of God. The believers were living in that mindset of reverential fear, honor and respect for God. It was this reverential fear, honor and respect for God that guided their daily lives, their choices, their relationships, their speech, and their thoughts. It means that their daily lives were lived in constant awareness of honor and respect for God. They lived in an awareness and consciousness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Because of these two things, the church multiplied and grew in the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said quoted the words of the Prophet Joel that in the last days, God would pour out His spirit upon all flesh. Through that very event, it introduced us to a new season in which the Holy Spirit will be the Administrator of the presence of God. Jesus called the Holy Spirit, the Lord of the Harvest – the saving of souls, the redemptive works of God, and the transformation of individual hearts. Without compromising your values and your conviction, the Holy Spirit is the one who seizes and arrests the hearts of individual. He is the One who cause the transformation of the hearts of the individuals.
Is this any different in the ministry works of Jesus? No. In Luke 4:18, Jesus announced that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and He has anointed Jesus to preach the gospel to the poor, to set the captives free, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the season of God’s grace. Before Jesus began His ministry, God announced him as His beloved Son and He was led by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus was brought under specific tests that are critical to every leadership. The success and effectiveness of Jesus’ ministry in the next three years was because of the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
What is true for the success of Jesus’ ministry is true of the success of any ministry today. The Holy Spirit comes to anoint the leadership and the ministry. God began to move us in the power and comfort of the Holy Spirit in order to give it the strength and the increase. You cannot do any ministry and be successful without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is important that we give Him as many tools as possible to use us. Hence, education and training are important. Those these tools, the Holy Spirit show us the opportunity to move up in our career so we are in places of influence to cause change.
How does the Holy Spirit use these tools in us to cause change? Look at this in the part 2 in the Sermon Alive at http://www.sermonalive.com
The word of God is like a piece of soap. The purpose of the soap is to wash away all dirts from your body. But it does not serve its function if it is not used or applied. Similarly, the word of God is useless if you do not apply it into your life. In this article, we will talk about the Holy Spirit and I hope in so doing, it will educate your mind, move your heart, and motivate your will to inspire you to represent Jesus in the marketplace in a new way with a renewed mind.
Acts 9 & Luke 4
In Acts 9, it provides a background to the conversion of the Apostle Paul. Paul, before he was converted, he has a passion of killing Christians. His mission was to source out the Christians and gets rid of them. On the road to Damascus with a mission to kill Christians, Jesus got hold of him. He had a personal encounter with Jesus and this turned his life around. In Acts 9:31, it stated that as a result of Paul’s conversion, he started to preach about Jesus being the Christ. The churches throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria were greatly edified by Paul’s teaching. The churches became united and multiplied. They became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Notice that there were two things at work here in the churches to give them strengths and increase. It was:
1. Fear of the Lord
2. Comfort or Encouragement of the Holy Spirit
What do you mean by the fear of the Lord? This fear is not talking about being frightened. It is about reverence, a reverential fear and respect of God. The believers were living in that mindset of reverential fear, honor and respect for God. It was this reverential fear, honor and respect for God that guided their daily lives, their choices, their relationships, their speech, and their thoughts. It means that their daily lives were lived in constant awareness of honor and respect for God. They lived in an awareness and consciousness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Because of these two things, the church multiplied and grew in the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said quoted the words of the Prophet Joel that in the last days, God would pour out His spirit upon all flesh. Through that very event, it introduced us to a new season in which the Holy Spirit will be the Administrator of the presence of God. Jesus called the Holy Spirit, the Lord of the Harvest – the saving of souls, the redemptive works of God, and the transformation of individual hearts. Without compromising your values and your conviction, the Holy Spirit is the one who seizes and arrests the hearts of individual. He is the One who cause the transformation of the hearts of the individuals.
Is this any different in the ministry works of Jesus? No. In Luke 4:18, Jesus announced that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and He has anointed Jesus to preach the gospel to the poor, to set the captives free, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the season of God’s grace. Before Jesus began His ministry, God announced him as His beloved Son and He was led by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus was brought under specific tests that are critical to every leadership. The success and effectiveness of Jesus’ ministry in the next three years was because of the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
What is true for the success of Jesus’ ministry is true of the success of any ministry today. The Holy Spirit comes to anoint the leadership and the ministry. God began to move us in the power and comfort of the Holy Spirit in order to give it the strength and the increase. You cannot do any ministry and be successful without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is important that we give Him as many tools as possible to use us. Hence, education and training are important. Those these tools, the Holy Spirit show us the opportunity to move up in our career so we are in places of influence to cause change.
How does the Holy Spirit use these tools in us to cause change? Look at this in the part 2 in the Sermon Alive at http://www.sermonalive.com
Patrick Roberts asked:
Ambitious churchgoers tend to assume too much about their own spirituality as they plan for their far off, unknown destinations. At the same time, they assume too little about the far-reaching effect of Spirit-led obedience right where they already are.
I myself cannot go abroad in good faith, because I would be wandering (maybe fleeing) away from an unreconciled home base. If all I know is this religious culture, then I’m in no condition to go elsewhere and tell other, far-off cultures about the kingdom of heaven. I say this not according to any fleshly unit of measurement, but from experience and God speaking to my conscience.
I’ve never planted a church in the United States, where I would assume that it should be easy! How can I go to another, hostile land under the label “church-planter” if the Spirit of God has never taught me how to plant a church in my own country? Again, this is not a discouraging new law, but rather an encouraging mindset that might lead us toward reconciled living and true, Spirit-led service.
Here in the United States, lots of people have already heard about Jesus and yet a single Christ-follower is extremely difficult to find. Are God’s people here at all, or are there only cold buildings with pointy towers and stained glass? This country offers freedom of speech for all people, supported by the Constitution and even defended by the U.S. government, yet there is between little and zero sincere proclamation of God’s groundbreaking gospel, to either individuals or publicly to the multitudes.
Missionaries desire far-off locations while they still feel that speaking to their next-door neighbor about Jesus Christ is a terrifying prospect. Granted, many churchgoers are sincere, but many only force themselves to speak to their neighbors about Christ out of religious duty or because they might feel bad if they didn’t. Even on the home front, when outreach-minded churchgoers “share their faith,” this often springs from sanctified guilt-tripping or because “their pastor told them to do it.”
Constitutional law frees our mouths to speak out loud if we should so choose, but the Spirit of God has not made us free to speak spiritual truth with our daily lives.
Excuse my childish thinking, but why not try preaching the gospel here for starters? Call it a warm up for the “big game” across seas if you’re still are stuck on thinking that God is impressed with man-made, political boundaries.
What, I wonder, is so intriguing about other countries? And why do we suppose that our stale American faith will work so much better in another country, where the culture and government and language are openly opposed to the gospel?
Mind you, I don’t want to ask myself these questions. All this talk about being faithful right where I am is unwelcome news for me and my impressive plans for God. I do not want to hear that God’s kingdom also applies to the United States and I don’t want to come to grips with the fact that Christ is fully God in my own hometown. I don’t want to hear that I should sincerely seek God’s kingdom in the U.S. as a matter of first priority simply because I am American. And I really don’t want to hear that God’s kingdom is bigger than me or anything I can figure out on my own.
by Patrick Roberts. Find his book and additional resources at www.BooksByPatrick.com
Ambitious churchgoers tend to assume too much about their own spirituality as they plan for their far off, unknown destinations. At the same time, they assume too little about the far-reaching effect of Spirit-led obedience right where they already are.
I myself cannot go abroad in good faith, because I would be wandering (maybe fleeing) away from an unreconciled home base. If all I know is this religious culture, then I’m in no condition to go elsewhere and tell other, far-off cultures about the kingdom of heaven. I say this not according to any fleshly unit of measurement, but from experience and God speaking to my conscience.
I’ve never planted a church in the United States, where I would assume that it should be easy! How can I go to another, hostile land under the label “church-planter” if the Spirit of God has never taught me how to plant a church in my own country? Again, this is not a discouraging new law, but rather an encouraging mindset that might lead us toward reconciled living and true, Spirit-led service.
Here in the United States, lots of people have already heard about Jesus and yet a single Christ-follower is extremely difficult to find. Are God’s people here at all, or are there only cold buildings with pointy towers and stained glass? This country offers freedom of speech for all people, supported by the Constitution and even defended by the U.S. government, yet there is between little and zero sincere proclamation of God’s groundbreaking gospel, to either individuals or publicly to the multitudes.
Missionaries desire far-off locations while they still feel that speaking to their next-door neighbor about Jesus Christ is a terrifying prospect. Granted, many churchgoers are sincere, but many only force themselves to speak to their neighbors about Christ out of religious duty or because they might feel bad if they didn’t. Even on the home front, when outreach-minded churchgoers “share their faith,” this often springs from sanctified guilt-tripping or because “their pastor told them to do it.”
Constitutional law frees our mouths to speak out loud if we should so choose, but the Spirit of God has not made us free to speak spiritual truth with our daily lives.
Excuse my childish thinking, but why not try preaching the gospel here for starters? Call it a warm up for the “big game” across seas if you’re still are stuck on thinking that God is impressed with man-made, political boundaries.
What, I wonder, is so intriguing about other countries? And why do we suppose that our stale American faith will work so much better in another country, where the culture and government and language are openly opposed to the gospel?
Mind you, I don’t want to ask myself these questions. All this talk about being faithful right where I am is unwelcome news for me and my impressive plans for God. I do not want to hear that God’s kingdom also applies to the United States and I don’t want to come to grips with the fact that Christ is fully God in my own hometown. I don’t want to hear that I should sincerely seek God’s kingdom in the U.S. as a matter of first priority simply because I am American. And I really don’t want to hear that God’s kingdom is bigger than me or anything I can figure out on my own.
by Patrick Roberts. Find his book and additional resources at www.BooksByPatrick.com