Teaching

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According to the Will of God, Part 3 (Romans 8)

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According to the Will of God, Part 3 (Romans 8)

'What shall separate us from the love of Christ?... For I am persuaded that neither death not life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!’ Nothing! This was to comfort me when I was in the communist prison, because the whole time I was in prison from 1972 through 1973, I KNEW that what I was doing, what had brought me into the prison, was by the WILL OF GOD! Whatever they did to me, however they tortured me and beat me – all the time I was there, I had the peace of God which passes all understanding! When the other prisoners were suffering – broken marriages, broken lives, suffering with the ‘prison-shake’ – the peace of God kept me, because I was persuaded, and I KNEW, that neither cancer, nor death, nor danger, nor principalities, nor powers, nothing – no height, no depth – could separate me from the love of God in Christ!

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Called and set apart for a specific purpose (Romans 1:1-16)

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Called and set apart for a specific purpose (Romans 1:1-16)

We are called and set apart for a purpose: it is a divine calling. We are to regard ourselves as a servant of Jesus Christ, following the Master’s Voice. Jesus Himself said, “Many are called, but few are chosen!” We need to serve in such a way as to be considered worthy of the calling of Christ.

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The whole armour of God

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The whole armour of God

We are in constant spiritual warfare – and God is calling us to fight! I want you to be strong, I want you to put on the full armour of God, so that together we can stand and defeat the enemy – and see the Glory of God, the Glory of Christ here on earth! What excites me is this – and the whole of this epistle to the Ephesians leads to it in 6.10: “Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the Power of His Might”! All these things Paul is telling us we have to do, whether it is putting off filthiness of the flesh, whether it’s being obedient as servants, whether it’s recognising and growing into the Body of Christ – and Christ is the Head – all of this is for a very strong reason, that we might be ‘strong in the Lord’!

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Be imitators of Christ - How to be successful in ministry

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Be imitators of Christ - How to be successful in ministry

It’s essential that we grow into the likeness of Christ, that we share His desire, His passion... It was only a few years ago, going on one of my prayer walks, I was saying, "Holy Spirit, You know more about Jesus than anyone, I want You to share with me the secret of how Jesus ministered, how He was successful in evangelism, how He was successful in the ministry of healing. Holy Spirit, I want to learn more about Jesus, I want to be more like Him."

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The purpose of the fivefold ministry

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The purpose of the fivefold ministry

I am moved by the very great depths of this letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians, and I want to pick up on Ephesians 4:11-13 where he is talking about the fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. The purpose of this ministry is to bring the Church, the members of the Body of Christ, the ‘saints’ into the place where they can contribute in some way into the ministry, to ‘edify the Body of Christ’ – until we all come to a sense of unity in the faith, unity in the knowledge of the Son of God – into maturity!

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God has a purpose in your adversity

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God has a purpose in your adversity

We were created by God to fulfil a Purpose! In your life, God sees and God knows the future. I want to encourage you to seek the Lord. Recognise from Isaiah 30, that although the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction in your life, your ‘teachers’ will not be removed from you, but you will continue to see the way through – and your ears will hear a Voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it!” All my life I’ve heard that Voice. And today I’m hearing that Voice again, knowing that it gives me the confidence to live through the adversity and the affliction, because I have heard! Even in this God is saying, “This is the way, walk in it!” I pray God will give you the courage!

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Fed by the bread of affliction

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Fed by the bread of affliction

When you are a child of God, when you are walking in the Will and knowledge of God, many things which happen in your life – some of which may be painful now – are like an instruction, a teaching, to prepare you for the future! In Isaiah 30v20, ‘Although the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction…’ I’m sensing, that although your life’s experience will be of adversity and affliction, yet they will become the very thing which God will use for His glory. When I look back on my life and my 70 years of ministry, it is very clear to me that in order to come to where I am today, the Lord had to take me through adversity. I would not be where I am, seeing the power of the evangelism and the phenomenal miracles unless I had had cancer twice and been in prison.

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The fullness of God's love

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The fullness of God's love

It’s a very lovely thing the Apostle Paul is saying in Ephesians 3.17-19, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length and depth and height of the love of God.”

This is really beautiful, it’s Paul being very expressive and very explicit. We’re so familiar with two dimensions, flat, and with three dimensions where there is some depth and perspective. But Paul’s description of the love of God is higher and greater, more enlightening, it’s wide, it’s long, it’s deep, and it’s high – four dimensions – the height AND the depth! I’m intrigued! God’s love is not just the length which encompasses the world, it’s not just the width, but it has a height – and it has a depth – it’s an almost unfathomable mystery of God. And yet Paul wants us to understand it.

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Held by the love of God

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Held by the love of God

We are held by love, an invisible power that doesn’t let us escape out of the Grace of God! Oh, what a wonderful description of being a ‘prisoner of God’. We are held ‘captive’ to His Love… It so binds us, so holds us… But it’s not only God’s Love for us, but our love for Him! Our love for Him acts as a lock, a guard, to prevent us from getting away! So, you and I, we’re a ‘prisoner’ of the Lord! Not in the sense of pain and suffering, but something full of Glory, full of joy! I follow the Lord because I love Him! I preach the Gospel – because I love Him! I see the miracles – because I love Him! My whole life is governed by love. Love is surely one of the most powerful forces!

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