Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Discussing God’s power is not for the small minded. As you follow the trail of God’s glory and power in the Bible, you will find that there are ‘storage places’ where the anointing and glory can be stored. Let’s look at some of these containers.
Have you ever noticed the words ‘Holy Spirit’ and ‘power’ in the Bible? They are actually synonymous terms meaning when you have one you have the other. When the Holy Spirit comes, there is power. How did Mary, the mother of Jesus, become pregnant by herself without following the normal course of nature? By a manifestation of the anointing. The virgin birth is a ‘power’ manifestation by the Holy Spirit. Let’s look further into this anointing and look at it at work in the life of Jesus.
There are different dimensions of the anointing of God. There is the anointing within a believer, and the anointing that can come upon a believer. There is an anointing connected to spiritual gifts and an anointing connected to the Word of God. Are you hungry for the anointing and the move of God in your life? But, how does the anointing come?
The will of God for your life is by far, of utmost importance. In fact, it may not be out of order to say that it is the single most important area in your walk with God. Our heart attitude must be one of constantly asking and seeking to ascertain what His will is in the areas with which we have to do. Here are some thoughts along this line.
Gifts of the Spirit are mentioned in in 1Cor. 12:8-10. Here Paul gives the church a list of nine extraordinary Holy Spirit manifestations. Many questions have arisen about what these manifestations are. One of the most misunderstood manifestations is the gift of prophecy. What is it exactly and how we can tap into it in our everyday life? What is the secret to unlocking our understanding of this gift? Let’s take a look.
Have you ever heard any one say, when in the throes of having to make a major decision, “You know I have peace about it?” Is there anything to that? Thank God, there is. You can learn to follow the peace of God and learn to flow perfectly in His will. In learning this essential skill, there are three areas in scripture you should take note of, three sets of words for the Spirit led life. Take note of the words, peace, conscience, and the inward witness.
Every born again believer on planet earth has the ‘Spirit of God within’, there are no exceptions, there are no special circumstances. Every single solitary believer has the Spirit within. It is part of the born again phenomenon. If you are born again, you have the Spirit of the living God living in your spirit. Why do you have Him in you and why was it such an important thing to God the Father to accomplish this in the history of man? Let’s take a look.
Your life is a result of the choices you make… If you don’t like your life it is time to start making better choices.
History of the Azusa Revival
The revival started with a gentleman named Rev. Charles Parham who had Bible school in Topeka Kansas. He encouraged his students to study the Word of God on the subject of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. In a watch night service, Dec. 31, 1900 the students waited on the Lord in prayer. Understand that up until this time the vast majority of all believers since the church fathers died off were not filled with the Holy Ghost. A little past midnight, 1901, Agnes Ozman was the first to be baptized in the Spirit and speak with other tongues. Soon, all of the students were speaking with tongues. In the mean time, Rev. Charles Parham moved his Bible School to Houston Texas and meets William J. Seymour, a very spiritual African American man who accepted what Parham taught but did not receive the experience. In the meantime, Seymour is invited to preach at a holiness church in Los Angeles. He doesn’t have the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues but he preaches on it anyway. When he did, the pastor of the church shut down the meeting and padlocked the door. The tiny congregation, despite the pastor, accepts the message of the Baptism of the Spirit. They begin to hold prayer meetings. Some nights later on April 6, 1906, Brother Seymour and 7 others, were seated in a living room at 216 Bonnie Brae Street. The group was engaged in a spirit of prayer and a time of waiting on the Lord when, all of a sudden, the power of God hit and knocked them all out of their chairs. The group hit the floor speaking with tongues. From there, the revival spread like wild fire. The glory of the move of God was so strong until services were held for 3 years in a row. They met everyday, a service everyday, and sometimes they had as many as 9 services in a single day. This revival went all over the world because when people from other countries would land in LA they would hear about the revival and go to the meetings, the power of the Holy Ghost would fall on them and they would take it back to their own countries. Every Spirit filled believer of the modern era can trace their roots back to Azusa. I said all of that to get this point across to you, this powerful revival all started with a Bible study in Topeka Kansas! How important it is to maintain an active ongoing study of the Bible.
Here’s a link to a wikiapedia documentary on the Azusa Street revival published by Mariusz Jurga.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqROdLQQvz8
Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (Baker Academic, 2011)
I was so ‘over the top’ excited when I came across this volume. Scholars who believe in miracles and the moving of the Holy Spirit are rare birds indeed. Craig Keener is an academic and professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. Keener has done meticulous research into the subject of the veracity of miracles. His scholarly conclusion? The age of miracles has not passed as so many in academia have tried to tell us. This is a voluminous ‘wordy’ account but well worth having in your library.
About 1,660,290 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2013, and in 2013 about 580,350 Americans are projected to die of cancer, almost 1,600 people a day. Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the US, accounting for nearly 1 of every 4 deaths. Is there no remedy? Yes, there is! Cancer cannot stand before the miraculous power of God. Here a man is healed of cancer of the spine.
Is God a God of miracles or have miracles ceased as some have proposed? See for yourself and know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever more.