Psalm 27:4

Much of our lives are spent being busy.  Time is a valuable commodity and we are always taught to make the most of it, getting everything we can out of each moment.  We are driven by goals and tick lists and we rely on schedule and agenda.   It can often be the case that when we come to God we are much the same.  Our time spent with God can follow a routine of praise, thanksgiving and then asking for certain things making sure we have fitted everything in we were meant to and said all that was intended.  All these things are good.  It is good and right to praise and thank God because He is good!  He is worthy of all praise.  We can thank Him endlessly for all the things He does in our lives.  We are also told that we can come boldly before God and He will hear our prayers and provide our every need.

But there is something so precious in having relationship with God that doesn’t have to be prescribed.  Recently I have experienced amazing times with God on my own as I have broken free from a mentality of fulfilling the criteria of  what God needs to hear from me for it to be a good prayer and then remembering everything I need Him to do for me.  God showed me a freedom in coming to Him in peace, in joy, in praise and with no agenda.  I was no longer softening Him up with praise and thanks so that I didn’t feel so bad sharing all my problems with Him!  Instead I was speaking in tongues, tuning my heart with His, praising Him seeking Hi s face for the sole reason I wanted to know my King and my Saviour in a deeper way.  I then found myself having a hunger for reading the Word that I’d never experienced before.  I would spend time during the day whenever I could just dwelling deeply in His presence.  I didn’t always need to speak.  I would just sit with my friend and enjoy His company.

This didn’t mean that situations wouldn’t come my way that were hard.  They did and do.  But when I sit and gaze at Jesus, everything pales into insignificance.  I hold firm to the promise that God will provide my every need.  I can live in the reality that ‘God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.’ Romans 8:28

Psalm 27 reveals a heart in David that I am passionate about.  It is a heart that longs to see the face of God.  The psalm talks about dwelling in the house of the lord, which means to live and have a home in the very presence of God.  It then speaks of gazing at the beauty of the Lord. To gaze means to look for a long time with unwavering attention.  And it then goes on to speak of seeking Him in His temple which means to go in search of God Himself.  What an amazing life we lead as we can spend time making a home with God, just gazing at Him and searching the wonders of who He is.

Allow God to transform the time you spend with Him.  Let this be the one thing your heart longs for above all else.  As you spend your time enjoying Him, you will receive life and life to its fullest, joy, peace in abundance and a deeper revelation of your father, king and friend.  What an awesome life we have been saved into.

When you became a Christian, God placed within you the most wondrous gift. The gifts that is placed in you is very different to anyone elses gift. For some, it’s the ability to teach and preach. For others, it is the ability to hear from God and see prophetic visions. For others still, it may be the ability to sing or dance. Whatever your gift is, Paul exhorts us to “fan it into flames”. The gifts that are within you are supposed to be used. And yet… it is so easy for these gifts to be forgotten about. In the trials and tribulations of life, we can overlook it, ignore it, forget about it. Let us remember that the gifts you received was not cheap, but very costly. Let us not be found guilty of neglecting them.

What wonderful news! God has put His very seed into us. He has placed within us gifts that have the power to equip the church and transform the world! Oh, how we long to see the glorious bride of Christ (us, the Church) make herself ready. How we long to see the prophets prophesy, the dancers dance, the singers sing and the teachers teach! God’s people released into all that God has for them!

Today, have ears to hear God’s Word to you. Take hold of the gift that God has placed within you. Don’t neglect it. Fan it into flames. Spend time in God’s presence everyday. Speak in tongues. Stir yourself into action. You were never created to be lukewarm, but to burn with a passion to see the name of Jesus glorified…

Fan into flames the gift within you!

We here at New Life Church believe that we can hasten the day that Jesus comes back. More than that, we believe that we can bring His rule and reign down here on earth right now, through the way that we live our lives. Every time someone gets healed in the power of His name, every time someone gives their life to Him, every time a situation or troubling circumstance is overcome, God’s Kingdom is expanded… and we believe that is why Jesus has given us His Holy Spirit and filled us with His power.

If you believe in the name of Jesus and confess Him as your Lord and Saviour, if you have been born again by the Spirit of God, then you are a Christian and have your name etched in the Lamb’s book of life (Rom.10:9, John 3:3)…. However, far more than that happens. The Lord makes you a brand new person, He gives you a new nature, calls you His child and gives you all the power that you need to live this new life.

All of this wonderful news means that as a Christian I need to make a decision to lead a fruitful life. I need to decide how to spend my time, because even though I am now a supernatural person, I am still restricted in the amount of time I have available to me. I still have only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. My salvation is secure… but there are still battles to be won! Souls to win! Sicknesses and diseases to heal! Enemy strongholds and mindsets to be torn down!

Just like an athlete trains for the Olympics, just as a soldier prepares for war, so we need to be a people who are prepared. First and foremost, we need to ensure that our relationship with the Lord is prospering, that we are stirring ourselves everyday by praying, speaking in tongues, singing psalms, hyms and spiritual songs. We are able to arm ourselves for battle by reading the Word of God (the Bible), studying and meditating on it constantly (Josh.1:8). We can ensure that we stay spiritually and physically healthy by meeting each other every day in homes, by breaking bread together and meeting each others needs. We can “prepare the way for the King“ by telling our neighbours the Good News of Jesus and meeting their needs. We can ”prepare the way for the King” by doing the works that Jesus did and even greater things than He did! (John 14:12)

You see… the King is coming back! He is coming! And as Christ’s church here on earth, we need to prepare ourselves. The Lord has been speaking to us as a church here at New Life for the past couple of months to prepare ourselves. The Word of the Lord came to us again this morning to count the cost of following Jesus, to count the cost in our lives, to prepare ourselves, to make ourselves ready…

… Are you prepared?

“If you live every day in the Spirit, you will bear much fruit; however if you don’t, you will fail. It’s as simple as that.”

That phrase, ‘in the Spirit’, appears many times in Scripture. We will take a moment to open the first chapter of the book of Revelation to see what happens when John is ‘in the Spirit’. For an overview, read Revelation 1v9-20 now before we begin.

“On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.” (v10)

The first thing John experiences when he is in the Spirit is a loud voice speaking to him. The rest of the passage goes on to explain that this is the voice of Jesus. That John hears the voice of Jesus when he is in the Spirit is something we can perhaps relate to, that we are somehow familiar with, for we too will at times have been in the Spirit and heard his voice. In fact, we experience everything John records for us about his time ‘in the Spirit’, and his account isthere to both teach and instruct us. So what happened when John heard the voice of Jesus?

“I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me.” (v12)

John was facing the wrong way! But when he heard the voice it caused him to turn and face Jesus. It’s the same for us – in the Spirit we will hear Jesus’ voice, and it will cause us to turn the right way and face Him – to come in line with His word and direct ourselves towards Him.

“And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands.” (v12)

We find out at the end of this passage, in v20, that the seven golden lampstands are a picture of the church. So in the Spirit, John hears the voice of Jesus, turns, and sees the church. That’s us! We too, like John, see the church when we are in the Spirit. We see ourselves. We see and we understand who we really are. Isaiah wrote about a similar experience he had; he says “I saw the Lord“, and his response was a recognition of who he was: “Woe to me! … For I am a man of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6v1-5)

“…and among the lampstands was someone ‘like a son of man’, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” (v13-16)

It is not difficult to understand from studying the rest of the Bible that such a fantastic account can only be a wonderful and awesome description of Jesus. In the Spirit John turns towards Jesus’ voice, sees the church, and immediately sees Jesus in the midst of the church, for that is how God works; a revelation of who we are and a revelation of who Jesus is are inextricably linked. It’s like when Jesus asked Simon, “Who do you say I am?” in Matthew 16. As Simon understands who Jesus is and responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God“, so Simon receives revelation of who he himself is – “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” (v17)

This is the pose of a worshipper. Again and again throughout revelation we see images of worship described in exactly this way. For example the twenty-four elders “fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever”, in chapter 4v10 (and again in 5v8, and in 5v14, and 7v11, 11v16, and 19v4!) ‘In the Spirit’ is the worshipper’s home address.

“Then he placed his right hand on me…” (v17)

At first John only heard Jesus, behind him. Then he saw Him from a distance. Now Jesus takes the encounter to a new level of intimacy and touches John. When we are in the Spirit we should expect a great and deepening intimacy with Jesus; He will individually and personally touch us.

“The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” (v20)

As Jesus touches us when we are in the Spirit, so He brings to us fresh revelation. He is the great revealer of mysteries, as John experienced as Jesus explained to him the meaning of the visions he saw.

‘In the Spirit’ is a place of encounter with Jesus; it’s somewhere where we are compelled to turn to Him, and to worship Him. We understand who we are, who He is, and we receive wisdom and revelation. It is no wonder that God laid it out so simply and clearly for us right at the beginning, even before New Life Church was planted: if we are to be fruitful and not fail, we must know what it is to always live in the Spirit.