end times witnessing: a doctor’s attitude－be a bringer of light

“We write so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” This is the writer’s attitude of Dr. Luke. He writes with a specific focused goal in his mind. He wants to communicate the facts he has personally observed and carefully researched and investigated, in an orderly manner, clearly and accurately. This is how we write too when we talk about the matters of God. I have observed and researched healthcare prevention and treatment and have worked with friends who are in the medical line and my perception of the dedicated ones is that they are serious and very cautious about what they have learned and practiced in their line of profession. A doctor has told me that it is because they have to deal with life and death issue. Life and death issue is the line where we cannot afford to be casual and/or untruthful. This is the issue that our Lord Jesus has dealt with while on earth and taught His disciples to do the same. Luke has followed closely the disciples of Jesus. This is the tenth year of my personal blogging, from an individual Christian viewpoint, learning to communicate what I have personally observed, encountered, researched and investigated. Last night I was led to read the introductions of Luke in Luke 1:1-4, and Acts 1:1-5. How relevant this guide and goal for me is. The Lord has spoken again to me and I know I still have a long way to go. I pray that I shall be faithful and focused.

Luke 1:1-4 New Living Translation (NLT)

Introduction
1 Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. 2 They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples.[a] 3 Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus, 4 so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.

Footnotes:

1:2 Greek from those who from the beginning were servants of the word.

Acts 1:1-3 New Living Translation (NLT)

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

In my first book[a] I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. 3 During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with[b] water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Footnotes:

1:1 The reference is to the Gospel of Luke.
1:5 Or in; also in 1:5b.

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The Biblical baby name Luke is Hebrew in origin and its meaning is bringer of light, morning.

Luke is pronounced loo-k.

Luke was a physician in Rome and an early convert to Christianity. He befriended Paul, and was his companion during his many evangelical journeys and even imprisonment. Luke wrote one of the four gospels describing the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Luke is also called Lucas in the Bible.

Biblical reference for the name Luke:
2 Corinthians 13:14; Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 1:24; Book of Luke; Acts of Apostles
Strong’s Bible Concordance G3065

How does a watchman hear God’s voice? (a testimony)

How does a Christian hear God’s voice? Today I share my own testimony. For years I sought to hear God. I first encountered God in my spirit and was filled by the Holy Spirit in 1983 in a Spirit-filled church during a six-month work assignment living in a hotel. My spiritual journey stagnated when I returned to my home-base and attended a traditional Evangelical church and its Bible school classes for ten years until my transfer to another town. I spent another ten years in another similar traditional Evangelical church without being taught or built further in my walk in the Spirit. I was taught and trained of many theological studies and their traditional church, Bible school belief, and religious work practices. I was not taught anything about and/or how to practice and minister in the Holy Spirit and the power of God in the supernatural reality. I was filled with head knowledge of the Bible but did not encounter the mighty power of spiritual reality of God and His words. Jesus has said that the flesh (head knowledge of the Bible) profits nothing, and the words He has spoken to us are Spirit and life. In my professional and business venture I have experienced this truth (realizing only after having a major and devastating failure and its resultant significant monetary loss).
I have discovered that it is absolutely essential for a born again Christian to know God and hear Him and the only way is through the Holy Spirit. I arrived at the watershed of my Christian walk when I invested my life saving and knew I had failed even though I was armed with the Bible and the words therein and all my education and professional knowledge and experience. I could not carry on not knowing God is Spirit. Jesus has said that the Holy Spirit would tell us the future. What does He mean? I wanted to know. That started my seeking to hear God’s voice. My journey to become spiritual rather than carnal. The rest is history.
I summarize below the journey:
1. I was introduced to a worship place which emphasized on worshiping God in the Holy Spirit.
2. The grace of God gave me the strength and determination to be humble and hang on despite my dislike and prejudices and critical views of the place.
3. I continued to practice what I learned there at home.
4. I read the Bible to confirm what I learned and practiced.
5. The steps I have practiced over the years: seek God diligently, listen to the voice/words in my spirit, and ask to see visions, record down what I receive (in words, pictures, diagrams, or any other journal ways.)
Last week a friend sent me a link to a book. The friend wrote this remark to me: “Over the years you have shared with us what you have received concerning how you have heard God’s voice, and you tried to teach us the whole process but I did not understand them until I read this present book which has confirmed what you have received even then.”
Here is the link to the book the friend has sent. I pray you may find it simple to apply. For those who are already walking in the Spirit and hearing God in your own way, my prayer is, “Press on.”
http://www.cwgministries.org/Four-Keys-to-Hearing-Gods-Voice
Download MP3: To listen later or transfer to your portable player, right-click here and select “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As…”. (On a Mac, hold the Option button while clicking on the link.)
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John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh conveys no benefit [it is of no account]. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life [providing eternal life].

How To: Flow In The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit

How To: Flow In The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit
By Andrew Wommack
free audio download of complete teachings here at: http://www.awmi.net/extra/article/flow_gifts
I believe that one of the biggest reasons that the body of Christ hasn’t made a greater impact on our generation today is because of our failure to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Without a doubt, Jesus and the first apostles used the gifts like a bell, calling men to their message and confirming that God was truly the One speaking through them.
Hebrews 2:3-4 says, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” The Lord bore witness to the accuracy of their message through miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In Mark 16:17-18, Jesus said all true believers would flow in the miraculous: “And these signs will follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” If a Christian’s life isn’t supernatural, it’s superficial.

Mark goes on to say that messages based in God’s Word would be confirmed by signs following: “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”

Jesus even said, “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not” (John 10:37). That’s a strong statement. If we were to apply that standard to ministers today, most wouldn’t be believed.

The vast majority of preaching done in the name of the Lord today is without the power of the Holy Spirit manifest through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is not the way the Lord intended it to be.
The “main line” denominations have developed doctrines to cope with this obvious discrepancy. However, regardless of the rationale, it’s absurd to think that we can be effective without the power of the Holy Spirit confirming the preaching of God’s Word. If Jesus and the early apostles needed their preaching validated, how can we do any less?
Even the non-denominational churches have fallen away from ministering in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts that operate in most “Spirit-filled” churches are simply words of exhortation or prophecy. There is much more.
The Lord has used the gifts of the Holy Spirit mightily in my life and ministry to confirm His Word. There are countless times when people were still skeptical after hearing me teach, but the demonstration of God’s power through the gifts turned them into believers. It’s like the teaching fills their mouths with God’s Word, then the gifts of the Holy Spirit slap them on the back and make them swallow it. Hallelujah!
One of the most important steps to flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to earnestly desire them. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:31, “But covet earnestly the best gifts.” He repeated that thought in 1 Corinthians 14:1 when he said, “Desire spiritual gifts.” Another way of saying this is, as long as you can live without flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you will. You have to seek these gifts with all your heart (Jer. 29:13).
It’s also very important to understand that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are always flowing. God doesn’t turn them “on” and “off.” We are the ones who are “on” or “off.” That’s a startling statement to many people and one that verges on blasphemy to some, but it’s true. The Lord is always ready to flow through us in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It’s just like praying in tongues. We don’t have to wait for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to come on us to speak in tongues. We can pray in tongues at any time. It’s not us turning on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always on and giving us the ability to speak in tongues. Therefore, whenever we turn ourselves on, the gift of tongues is there to allow us to communicate with our heavenly Father. Praise the Lord! That’s the way it is with all the gifts.
I remember one time that I was teaching along these lines in our Charis Bible College. One of the students said, “So, you are saying that you can flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit at any time?” I said, “That’s right and I’ll prove it to you.” I then started down each row and just started “reading the students’ mail. I was telling them things that had to be coming from the Holy Spirit. It was awesome.
No one has received everything that the Holy Spirit has for them. Therefore, the Lord is always seeking to release more to us through His supernatural gifts. Whenever we put ourselves in a mode to be His channel, His gifts will flow. The old “Pentecostal” doctrine of the anointing coming and going is not a New Testament truth.
First John 2:27 says, “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you.”
Another great truth about flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit is …”the divine flow.” This is based on, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Therefore, whenever we discern the love of God flowing through us toward someone, God is reaching out to them through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is follow that flow through faith.
Once when I was pastoring a little church in Pritchett, Colorado, my heart just went out to a woman in the back of the room. I’d never seen her before, and there was nothing natural that drew me to her. It was just the love of God flowing through me to her. Because of that love alone, I told her that God had a word for her. I didn’t have one single word to say to her, but I knew God’s love was flowing; and therefore, God and His gifts were flowing to her. I just started by saying, “God loves you.” God then flooded my mind with things to minister to her.
It was a long word from the Lord, but I specifically told her about how she was grieving over the loss of someone and was confused about why God allowed it. I kept saying, “It wasn’t God that allowed it. It was the Destroyer.” I said that a number of times. She broke down in tears and was really ministered to.
After the service, she told me that she had just lost her son to leukemia. They believed that God allowed this disease. But just before her son died, he saw this huge demon over their town, which the Lord told him was named the Destroyer. They didn’t know how to interpret that until I spoke to them through the gifts of the Holy Spirit and put it all in order. They were set free.
This was the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom in operation. God gave the knowledge of what had happened and then gave words of wisdom to instruct them on how to deal with it. This all came because I followed the love that I felt in my heart.
This has happened to us all, but most of the time we don’t understand this is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we miss an opportunity. I’ve learned this the hard way.
There was a man who had been my youth director when I was just a young boy. He left our Baptist church before I was a teenager, and I heard how he had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and was seeing great miracles happen. He had one room in his church that was filled with the wheelchairs, crutches, and braces of people who were healed and didn’t need them anymore.
During a three- or four-month period of time, I thought about this man often. It was usually while I was in prayer that he would just come to mind, and I would feel the compassion of God toward him. I would just wonder what was happening with him and then dismiss the thoughts. Later, I found that he had died in a freak accident where a red ant bit him on the thumb.
As soon as I heard of his death, I knew that the reason I had been thinking of him so often was because the Lord was trying to get me to intercede for him. Over a decade later, I met this man’s son, and I confessed to him my failure to pray for his dad. He told me that I was at least the twelfth person who had told him a similar story. The Lord had impressed many of us to intercede for this man, but none of us recognized it as the Lord.
It is imperative that we learn to recognize and flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s not only a blessing to us, but the lives of other people may depend on it. You are carrying someone’s miracle. Don’t let it stay inside. You have to learn how to release it.
There is much more that the Lord has shown me about flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This article doesn’t come close to covering all the material I have on my series entitled, How To: Flow in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. I really encourage you to get this teaching and start moving supernaturally in a whole new way.
My new three-part album is laced with personal examples of how the Lord has used me in the gifts. I share how I learned to recognize and respond to God’s gifts in such a practical way that I know it will help you to do the same. This is very practical teaching about a very supernatural lifestyle. It’s awesome!

___________________________Watchman’s notes:
Indeed the flow in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit has built up many of the believers even in a tiny community where the watchman resides currently. The Lord means every word that has proceeded out of His mouth. Jesus has confirmed this truth. He has declared in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Safety is definitely not the absence of danger but the presence of God

Notes on 2-2-2019: I came across this book by an intercessor-author ten years ago. Since then I have learned that some intercessions and prayers need to be in line with the teaching in the New Testament. I have not deleted this blog because the author's experience and testament have shown us a spiritual realm which is real. I pray that you read it with wisdom and understanding of the God revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ. I refer especially to the prayers we should be making today after we have learned from Jesus that we have the power and authority over demons and sicknesses (which Jesus had borne by His stripes). We also do not need to plead to God as if He is stingy and harsh to His children. The God as personified by Jesus and described by the New Testament apostles and Scripture writers is of love and grace. God wants us well. God wants to save all people because Jesus died for all people. You need to read the New Testament to find out what Jesus had accomplished for you already. (Ephesians 1:3)
The end times tribulations are reserved for those who do not believe in God. Christians need to pray for the lost. On the other hand, prayers will not be able to bring souls to Christ unless believers go out and witness to them. Romans 10:14-15 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who [b]preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

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“If we do not live in awareness of the end, then our present living is nullified and meaningless –we all live as others live…for self and to please self.” (Jeremiah 8:7)”

__________Some powerful excerpts and quotations from the book:

PERSONAL WORD (by the author)

“Yes, God’s mandate and God’s call for every believer is that we fight for our set apart and apostolic faith, without which we can never overcome the world. (1 John5:4)”

“The book of Jude has so impacted me that I know I must be apostolic for if I am not, I may end up an apostate. I cannot be ambiguous in these end-times days.”

“Indeed NOW is the end and the END HAS BEGUN NOW. This is why we cannot be ambiguous, we must either be apostolic or we will end up as apostates.”

“I keep hearing our Lord’s warning so clearly and consistently. This is the reason why this book is written: “watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)”

“We must know that every form of crisis nations of the world…are all a buildup or prelude to the unspeakable destruction ahead of us.”

“If we do not live in awareness of the end, then our present living is nullified and meaningless –we all live as others live…for self and to please self.” (Jeremiah 8:7)

“If we do not have the end in view, we will just flow with the present antichrist culture;” “Jesus did not need to go to the cross,” “Is Jesus in the culture or is He above it?”

“We must live in awareness that society today is not just influenced by education, industry or technology. It is shaped by demons…sin has given them so much influence over the human race, including the Christians. Technology like the mobile phones, the computers and television (which the prophet Jeremiah called ‘windows’ in Jeremiah 9:21) had indeed admitted the spirit of death into so many lives, especially the lives of our youths.”

“Like Daniel, I must possess both the tenacity and the intensity to pray and pray and pray even though I do not feel like praying at times.”

“Daniel, the end-time prophet, mourned and travailed until a breakthrough came into the heavens, a breakthrough which affected him, his nation and the nations of the world.” (Dan.10:12-14)

“There are so many troubled Christians. Is it because our faith is not an apostolic or set-apart faith?”

INTRODUCTION

“Why must the church engage in PURPOSEFUL AND INTENSIVE intercessory prayers in these end times called the ‘beginning of sorrows?’ Because God has called us into it and this may well be the final call to prayers to evict the enemy …just before the great tribulation.”

“If we are the true church we will have the apostolic distinctive of knowing that the end, or the DAY OF THE LORD is near. All universal shakings and meltdowns now are just birth pangs of the coming kingdom of our Lord. There are calamities, upheavals, crises and great stirrings on earth now because there is war in heaven!”

“More and more we can feel it as these present evil days…”

“It is sad that many Christians are still in denial”

“”The prophets of old saw visions of these dark and foreboding ‘tribulation’ days…” (Ezekiel 21:7; Zechariah 13:8-9)

“The purpose of this book is to call you to return to your basic duty -return to your priesthood and be that house of prayer that God wants (Isaiah 56:7).”

CHAPTER 1 -have we missed the vital signs of the Messiah’s second coming?

“Learned high priests like Caiphas and Annas could stand in front of the Messiah and not discern that He is the One.” “Many who are made to rule in God’s house do not know the Lord nor understand His word.”

“All the vital signs of Christ’s second coming (in heaven and on earth) are pronounced today and yet we carry on as usual; not wanting to make preparations for these coming evil and devastating days that we may be ‘counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)”

Jesus Christ warned us that the day of destruction will come to us like the days of Noah…when people carry on as usual.” “Their time was never deliberately prioritized for God.”

“Also days when Nimrod arose in defiance against God to form his ‘one world government’ and to build his high towers and monuments.”

“Also be like the days of Lot” “when fire literally fell out of heaven suddenly!” “Iran and Israel also have nuclear bombs pointed at each other and should one go off, the entire world will be affected.”

CHAPTER 2 –The end has begun and the beginning of the end, (‘the beginning of sorrows’) is already here

“Today, we too, have talked much about the end times but unfortunately we have also failed to discern that the time is now -it has now come upon us! The next change will be terrible, for almost without warning, the ‘tribulation’ days will come upon us.”

“Why couldn’t they discern? Because their hearts were not right. Ambitions and ego-centrality have often robbed men of spiritual discernment. These ambitious men seem to have enough spiritual light to prophesy and sit in their position as the nation’s spiritual leaders (John 11:49-53), but they definitely did not have enough light to carry themselves through to salvation!” “Caiphas prophesied accurately that Jesus is the Saviour but he himself remained unsaved!”

“There are many modern Caiphases and Annases today” “They have enough light to teach others and to prophesy but they do not have enough light to acknowledge their own sin so that they can be saved.”

“The light that comes from one’s scholarship, study, degrees, etc., must be tempered with the light that comes from our prayers, revelation knowledge and personal experiences with God which must result in self-denial, humility and servanthood.”

CHAPTER 3 -Intensified prayers from the remnant will evict the enemy out of the heaven

“Since Israel as a nation, did not want to keep their distinction as God’s people…the prophet Daniel and his three undefiled friends did it for them.”

“May God, in His mercy, in these troublesome and turbulent days of much spiritual upheaval and natural disasters, also raise up a ‘Daniel-like’ group of people who will remain distinct and whose spirit and intercessory travail will be of the same pattern, in order to reach out to God.”

“Deborah proclaimed that when there were leaders (leading by examples) then the people would willingly offer themselves (Judges 5:2). She was commissioned and she was willing so she just got in there and led by example! And people were willing to follow her. Do you want prayer groups set up? You need to lead by example.”

“The time to pray and travail is NOW, not later when the heat is on because our ability to stand will come from the sum total of the times we have spent in the presence of God.”

“Israel went after God when they were in the wilderness because they had nothing. (Jeremiah 2:2)” “You may find this hard to believe, but God is definitely going to bring both the church and Israel back to the ‘wilderness days‘ again.”

CHAPTER 4 -Halt the enemy’s activities to accelerate God’s work in the spiritual realm

“It is vital we pray with prophetic declaration to declare what God Himself has already declared in these end times.”

“We need to do what Ezekiel did -speak directly into the situation (Ezekiel 36). “

“Such is the power of God’s word! Jesus taught His disciples to speak to the mountains, not pray, if they want the mountains to shift.” (Matt.17:20)

“We puncture these times of great deception, desertion, depression, darkness and desolation with God’s spoken words, God’s declarations that are true and right!” (Notes from this blogger: read 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 the warfare is over our thoughts, in the mind! Paul pointed out that "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,")

CHAPTER 5 -To know the end we must know the beginning

“We have no excuse of not knowing the end because God has taken the end and hidden it in the beginning!”

“To me, the key that unlocks end times is found in Isaiah which says: Remember the former things of old…there is none like Me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done…” (Isa.46:8-10)

“EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE BOOK OF DANILE WILL BE REPEATED IN THE END TIMES”

CHAPTER 6 -Intensified suffering means intensified miracles, signs and wonders

“As Daniel travailed in prayers on earth, angelic activities prevailed in heaven!”

“The ‘open heaven’ coming our way when God’s fullness is experienced is as sure as the coming of the days of tribulation!” 

“We must recognize that Daniel symbolizes a corporate group of God’s people who must rise up in these end times to engage themselves in purposeful and relentless prayers.”

“This is why God told us to be a generation of priests -why have we forsaken our destiny? If the church is not a kingdom of priests ministering to God and apprehending His fullness for the nations of the world, what then is the church?”

“Remember, as long as the hands of Moses, representing the prayers of the nation, were lifted up towards heaven, Israel has the upper hand over the Amalekites.”

“To watch and pray means we pray with the word of God into every situation and see all present situations as God sees them. We keep our spiritual antenna up and we are to be alert to present signs and world events.”

“Pray with intensity and pray fervently, which means your spirit, soul and body must be in agreement.”

CONCLUSION -we are now in the end times

“The end has certainly begun…twenty-four hours a day God’s ears are bombarded by the outcries of sin in the nations of the world but He wants to hear prayers, confessions, supplications but they seem to be getting lesser and lesser.”

“May God…also give you the courage to change and prioritize your time to pray, to be ‘thrown in’ together with this great network of intercessors spanning both heaven and earth.”

“So many people complain of being lonely…But when we are bonded up with God and threaded together into His prayer network and are aware that prayer has eternal validity, it will rid us of all loneliness.”

“Safety is definitely not the absence of danger but the presence of God, but this presence is not to be taken for granted. We need to spend time to be connected with Him and to bring His presence into where we are.” (This blogger's notes: God is not far from us. he is in every believer. When we pray by faith we know He always hears us. He is our ever present help!)

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Postscript added by this watchman:

Jesus gave this to His disciples: Mark 16

The Great Commission

¹⁴ Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. ¹⁶ He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they^[p] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Christ Ascends to God’s Right Hand

¹⁹ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰ And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.^[q]

Your Power in the Holy Spirit (miracles are for today!)

your power in the Holy Spirit

Excerpts from this book.

The Miraculous Mind of Christ

 Jesus’ mental processes were miraculous. Ourlibraries are full of books written by great thinkerslike Thomas Edison and others who were incessantthinkers. With Jesus there is something different. Hespoke out from the Spirit that dominated Hisspiritual faculties. The Spirit of Christ ruled Hisintellect. Gems of divine truth dripped from His lipsas honey from the honeycomb. The Sermon on theMount and great portions in Luke and John are asuntouched as when they dropped from the lips of  Jesus. Men’s writings grow old and out of date. God’struth is ever fresh. Yes, Jesus’ words and life andcontact with men were miraculous; they are still miraculous.His death on the cross, His three days in the tomb,His dramatic and startling resurrection, were allmiracles. His presence among the disciples ondifferent occasions and, finally, His ascension in thepresence of five hundred witnesses were miracles.

They do not belong to the reason realm; they belongto the miracle realm. Jesus was in the realm of theSpirit, the realm of faith, the realm where God acts,the realm where the real child of God lives. You see,Christians have been translated out of the realm of human thought and reason into the kingdom of theSon of His love, the realm of the Spirit.

It would be uncharitable if we were to criticize aman of reason who knows nothing about thespiritual realm.

Christianity is not the product of human reasoning. Christianity is a divineintervention. Christians are those who have beenborn from above. They have been re-created. Thislife of God that comes into their spirit naturedominates the reason so that they have “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) to think God’s thoughtsand live in God’s realm of miracles.

Friends, when a Christian tries to live by reason, he is moving out of God’s country into the enemy’s land.

We belong in the miraculous or supernatural realm.

Christ was a miracle. Every Christian is a miracle.

Every answer to prayer is a miracle.

Every divine illumination is a miracle.

The power of Christianityin the world is a miraculous power.

God, help us torealize that ours is a high and holy calling.

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Miracles Are For Today

I want to talk to you on the subject of miracles thisafternoon. From the year 400 until now, by and large,the church has assumed the attitude that the days of miracles are passed—without any scripturalevidence whatever. They have taught that miracleswere to demonstrate the divinity of Jesus and that, therefore, the divinity of Jesus having beendemonstrated, there was no longer any need formiracles.

We had a local incident that demonstrates the effectof this teaching. I think my conviction on the matteris that it has done more damage to the Christian faiththan any other teaching that has been promulgated.

There is a gentleman who works at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, O. A. Risdon, who is one of theengineers there. He had a son with a deformed head.The top of the head raised up like the ridge of a roof; the forehead and back of the head also were forcedout in similar manner, giving the head the appearance of the hull of an upside-down yacht. He was born with what the physicians call a closed head. The boy was always slobbering. The pressure on the brain caused the right side to become paralyzed, and the boy was dumb. He was five yearsold at this time.

The physicians said there was nothing they could do.Then, in desperation, he appealed to his pastor. The pastor told him that the days of miracles were past, that the Lord did not heal now, and that miracles were given to demonstrate the divinity of Jesus. The father replied, “If Jesus would heal my son, I would be convinced that He is divine now. If He is divine,He could lift this damnation from our house.

“Finally, he came to us seeking help. We began tominister to the child. In a few days, we observed that the paralysis began to depart. Instead of walking onone side of his ankles, he began to walk on the foot, and that indicated that the pressure was relieved onthe brain. In seven weeks, the child was perfectly well. The bones of the head softened and came downto normal. The paralysis disappeared, and the child began to talk. In three months, he was in the publicschool. He is a young married man now.

Dear friends, if we had continued to believe that the days of miracles were past, that boy would be in the insane asylum. But we believed that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the boy was healed.

It is a delight to believe the words of  Jesus. I have used this rule in my study of the Scriptures. If there is any question on any Scripture, I settle it with the words of Jesus. I consider all the Scriptures are a common court of the gospel, but the words of Jesus are the Supreme Court of the gospel.

When I want a Supreme Court decision, I appeal to the words of Jesus.

You can read all the words of Jesus in two hours or less in a red-letter New Testament. Make a practice of reading the words of Jesus on any subject that troubles you, and make a compilation of what He says.

He ought to be sufficient authority on any question, for the heavenly Father called attention to the fact that He is the Son of God and that we are to hear Him. God declared:

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am wellpleased; hear ye him. (Matthew 17:5)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/136399919/Your-Power-In-The-Holy-Spirit-John-G-Lake

Stephen - Thy Witness: Spiritual Christianity

Stephen - Thy Witness
by T. Austin-Sparks

An Appeal for Spiritual Christianity

Acts 22:20 (Acts 6 & 7)
It would be difficult to find a Christian who did not hold Stephen in very high esteem. The reading of the account of his martyrdom, as that of a young man of great gifts and unimpeachable character, stirs every kind of emotion into intense reaction. Sorrow, grief, admiration, anger, contempt, hatred, are all mingled in the tears which are very near when we hear his last words and see his last look. Our heads go down when we seem to see in the darkness of the night the torches of the "devout men" and hear their hushed tread as they go out to recover and bury that mangled body - "And devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him". A young, brilliant, brave, and beautiful life has been taken away by brutal, vicious, bestial fury. The cause we shall examine, but view the event.
True, Stephen had flung some serious charges at the Jewish rulers present. He had supported those charges by long Jewish history and Scripture, but prejudice will never listen to the best documented argument. So, at a given point, they stopped their ears, gnashed at him with their teeth, and rushed upon him, dragging him outside the city. The place for stoning was a ramp higher than a man. The first witness against Stephen threw him from the ramp in such a way that he fell on his back. Then a large stone was thrown with great force on his heart. The blow did not kill him, so, according to the Law (Deut. 17:7) it was the people's turn. The men took off their white mantles and laid them at the feet of Saul, who was present in an official capacity to support the proceedings. The stones rained upon Stephen who, at a point, raised himself to his knees and prayed for their forgiveness, and, as the horrible work reached its climax, he just said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." The deed was done. The mangled body lay motionless.
But, from that point, we have to begin our enquiry. What did it all amount to? What was

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF STEPHEN?

Was Stephen just the first martyr for the faith, to be followed by many more, and so to be JUST ONE of the Noble Army of the Martyrs? Or was there something special and different about Stephen? We answer that in an affirmation, and then proceed to uncover that particular significance.
Stephen was making spiritual history. What Stephen was fighting for to the very death was something in Christianity that even the chief Apostles - Peter, James, John, and the rest - had not yet seen and come to. It was something different, even in Christianity.
That is the affirmation; now for the explanation. The explanation will be found, firstly in his own discourse, and then in what eventuated from his death.

1. STEPHEN'S DISCOURSE

In his discourse to the Jewish rulers and his other accusers, Stephen ranged the history of Israel with a single definite thought and object before him. He started with their racial or national father, Abraham, and went on through Isaac; Jacob; Joseph; Moses; the people - in Egypt; the Exodus; the Wilderness; Joshua; David; Solomon; the Prophets.
In what he had to say about all these, one feature and factor runs through all and was governing everything. That factor is that God is ever moving on, and that nothing but disaster can come to those who do not go on with Him. This going on of God, Stephen pointed out, was not just in the progress of history, even the history of a chosen people, it was more essentially a spiritual going on. To Abraham the command was "Get out"; and then, WHEN he was out, a life of pilgrimage to the end; no settling down or taking root. Stephen is quite detailed on this.
When, through Jacob, the national family and potentially the twelve tribes were secured and the possibility of a stop, an arrest, and death by famine was threatening, the continuance and going on was secured by Divine sovereignty as told in the fascinating story of the life of Joseph. From Joseph Stephen went on to Moses - his birth, preservation, education, escape, commission, and the Exodus. God was going on.
At this point some of the strongest and most terrible things are said by Stephen. He is dealing with Israel in the wilderness and he exposes the hidden causes of retarded progress.
Remember that progress is Stephen's subject: God was ever moving on and man ever contrary. Stephen indicates that the retarded progress and the extension of a few days into forty years was due to one thing; it was that, while they were out of Egypt, Egypt was not out of them. Not only were they ever literally looking back to Egypt and inclining to return there but the spirit and principle of idolatry was still strongly in their hearts. This came out in the demand for the golden calf; but Stephen - quoting Amos - said something even more terrible, namely, that, in some mystic way, the very Tabernacle and Temple were, in their souls, associated with Moloch and Rephan - gods of the stellar bodies; and their sacrifices had the same subtle link. While ostensibly Jehovah was the object of worship, actually He was mixed up, in their worship, with other gods. If this is what Stephen meant and what Amos was actually dealing with when this thing in the heart had come out to find exposure in the latter days of the Monarchy, it fully justifies his charge of 'resisting the Holy Ghost'.
But Stephen goes on far beyond the wilderness with the same people. He touches lightly on Joshua, but implies the same spirit. We know that Joshua in type postulated God's movement, ever on, ever up: the going on to exploit the inheritance ever more fully. But, again, that incorrigible disposition to settle down too soon and not go on to fullness marked and marred the history of the conquest.
On Stephen goes to David and to Solomon. David's desire to build a house for God on earth received a very reserved and non-committal response from Him, and was met with the answer that God would build a house of a different order, for
"The Most High dwelleth not in houses made with hands...
The heaven is my throne,
And the earth the footstool of my feet:
What manner of house will ye build me? saith the Lord:
Or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?". (Acts 7:48,49).
What Stephen saw, and what is stated, intimated, and implicit in the New Testament (a monumental document on the matter is 'the Letter to the Hebrews'), was that Solomon was - at most - but a figure of a greater 'Son', and his temple, with all its glory, wealth, and beauty, was only a pointer ONWARD to "A house not made with hands"; what Peter - after a difficult and painful transition - called, God's SPIRITUAL house.
Stephen concludes with a comprehensive gathering of all this history into "the Prophets", and virtually says that the spirit of prophecy was related to this ever-future, onward, and ultimate SPIRITUAL goal of God.
What again, then, does all this amount to? On the one side, it is a mighty exposure and denunciation of the incorrigible habit and disposition of GOD'S PEOPLE to bring what is essentially heavenly down to earth and fasten it there; to make of the spiritual something temporal; to make of the eternal something which will not - and cannot - abide; to make form, means, orders, and technique all-important. In a word, to have things fixed and boxed, so that the Holy Spirit is thwarted and frustrated in His ever-onward and ever-sovereign movement and innovation, if He so choose. The most dominant note, the most imperative cry of the New Testament is "Let us go on". But the context of this cry is - "outside the camp". The writer of those words in the Letter to the Hebrews, who has so much in common with Stephen, makes it abundantly clear that "outside the camp" means outside of all that which in its Judaistic nature systematizes and crystallizes CHRISTIANITY into a set and settled form: into something earth-bound and final.
On the other side, all this is a revelation of how fierce and terrible will be the opposition of such systems to a purely and definitely SPIRITUAL testimony. Unless there is a conforming, there will at least be ostracism, and at most martyrdom.

2. THE EFFECT OF STEPHEN'S TESTIMONY

Now we have to go back to Jerusalem and look into the real meaning and effect of Stephen's testimony, and consider its particular meaning for Christianity.
Stephen had - at the cost of his life - dared to touch the Temple, and the Temple as the heart and sum of the Jewish system and hierarchy. The effect of his pronouncement was to repudiate that whole system and its earthly centre. He had seen that it had been but a pointer to the heavenly and spiritual which was reached and realised in the entry of Jesus Christ into this world. He had been spiritually immanent in all the aspects of that system and that history, dominating all its features and represented in all its constituents. They had never been the REALITY, the ESSENTIAL, but only ways and means by which the real was signified; they were signs not realities. That which they had signified had now come in fullness and finality, therefore, EARTHLY, material, and localised Temples, Priests, Sacrifices, Vestments, Forms, Names and Titles, Cults, Orders, Times and Seasons, and everything else that made up such a system had, at least, served its purpose, and, at worst, become an empty shell, and a hindrance to the spiritual.
Stephen, in statement and implication, said this, and said it in no uncertain terms and manner. There was no equivocation in his declaration, and he made it quite clear that to have been blind to the spiritual significations of their history, and to continue in that blindness now that the One signified had come was nothing less than 'resisting the Holy Spirit'.
Very well, then, that is so far as Jewry was concerned; but there was a twilight transition period in Jerusalem. While the Apostles and disciples had seen that Jesus fulfilled so much of the Scriptures (as see Luke 24), they certainly had but a very limited apprehension of His full significance as to the old system. They were still 'going up to the Temple', and that, AT THE HOUR OF THE SACRIFICE.
Their last recorded question to the Lord before His ascension shows that they were still clinging to the Jewish hope of a temporal Messianic kingdom on the earth, in spite of His parable of the lord returning after A LONG TIME, and all His teaching on the Holy Spirit, etc.
Is that why, when those who stood on Stephen's ground were, after his death, "all scattered abroad", the Apostles were excepted. They had not wholly repudiated Judaism, circumcision, the Temple, the sacrifices, etc., as Stephen had.
Why did Saul of Tarsus immediately seek out, in Jerusalem (Acts 9:13) and unto 'distant cities' (Acts 26:11), those who had identified themselves with Stephen's position, and leave the Apostles alone? True, the Apostles were having a hard time with the rulers, but not on Stephen's ground. James seems to have been able to hold things together with a group on a partial Judaistic ground, a compromise; and Peter and John were, for some time, with him, as 'Acts' shows. In Jerusalem the Christian Church was largely Judaistic, within the covert of the Temple and the ordinances. But, the Holy Spirit was moving on, and a point is reached where it is A QUESTION FOR CHRISTIANITY whether it was going on or going to stand still, which would mean going back.
The fact is that Stephen had caused a division - the first division - in Christianity, a division which has characterized Christianity right down the centuries into our own time.
The Holy Spirit was moving sovereignly toward a position of utter spirituality and heavenliness; the very essentials of Christ now being in Heaven and the Holy Spirit being here as the characteristic of this dispensation. Peter, himself, was caught up in that sovereign movement in the episode of the house of Cornelius. He prevaricated under the influence of James and "certain" others; but his letters show that he made the transition. This was also abundantly true of John.
But the great event in the sovereign movement of the Holy Spirit was the 'apprehending' of the super-Stephen, Saul of Tarsus. It was he who, in the seeing of Christ in a blaze of illumination, saw all the implications of Stephen's testimony. Henceforth the battle between both the immovable Judaisers and the twilight Christians on the one hand, and an utterly spiritual Church and Christianity, on the other, would focus upon him, until that full revelation had been embodied in his letters and he also fell fighting. Paul's spiritual position, as opposed to a temporal or a semi-mundane system was called "a heresy" (Acts 24:24, margin), and was referred to as a "sect which is everywhere spoken against" (Acts 28:22).
If we are prepared to call Paul's position a "heresy" or a "sect", let us remember that it was that for which Stephen died, and let us see clearly what he and his great successor really stood for, and for which he died. It is something very searching. It reached the first Apostles. It sifted the Church at its beginning. It lies at the root of very much Christian history. It explains many spiritual tragedies. It accounts for much loss of power. It is the meaning of much talk about 'schism', 'sectarianism' and 'divisiveness'.
It would be a vain hope to expect that all Christians - even evangelical Christians - would see the distinction that is presented, or that, if they did see it, would pay the price of accepting it. But there is no doubt or question that the most vital consequences for Christianity are bound up with this issue.
Shall we continue in or revert to what is VIRTUALLY a semi-Judaistic Christianity: an earth-tied, man-managed, system? Shall we fall into that pseudo-spiritual mistake which leads only to limitation - at least; the mistake of collecting from the New Testament, either in actualities or by deductions, certain forms and procedures, 'methods', and technicalities, and shaping them into a 'New Testament' formula, 'blueprint', and 'pattern'? Shall we attempt that vain thing of making a fixed mould from 'New Testament methods' and pour everything into it? Shall we constitute OUR churches on the basis of popular votes, majorities against minorities, natural selection, etc., etc.
Or shall we see what Stephen and Paul saw, that the only Prototype of the Church and the churches is Christ Himself; that the revelation of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit is the only true way of building: that the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the qualification by spiritual gift is the Divine way of 'office', function, and responsibility: that this is the true ORGANISM springing and forming out of spiritual LIFE: that it is conception and not imitation, birth and not manufacture: that prayer and definite guidance coming out of it and not the 'Board Room' or its equivalent is the Holy Spirit's 'method'?
Stephen was the only one in the New Testament who used Christ's chosen title for Himself - "the Son of man", and in that designation all the universality and super-national, super-denominational, and super-racial features are embodied.
What we have written CAN be a key to the Bible, especially the New Testament, and while we believe profoundly that it represents the mind of the Spirit, we can only trust that there will be found a sufficient spiritual concern to lead to a re-reading of Scripture with Stephen's testimony in mind.
No one, we trust, will think that there is any intention of FORCING division in mind or act. As we said in our heading, this is an appeal for spiritual Christianity. Christianity has had, and still has, its battles with heathenism and paganism, and this has meant many martyrs. But this does it no spiritual harm. Where real harm is done and loss is suffered, is in the battle within itself against retrogression, downward spiritual gravitation, traditionalism, legalism, and natural-mindedness. It is the battle against superficiality; which often masquerades as 'simplicity', a fear of depth.
Yes, this battle is a costly one, and has not infrequently brought the heavy stones against those who have stood for the essential spiritual character of this dispensation.
From "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine Jan-Feb 1963 Volume 41-1
 http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/001137.html