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Showing posts with label born again. Show all posts
Showing posts with label born again. Show all posts

June 19, 2023

Listen to the Holy Spirit to Live a "Balanced" Life

People say all kinds of interesting things these days on social media. One thing that you see often when a person is in some kind of distress is people responding with, “Sending good vibes your way.” You also see other statements about the universe taking care of people etc. These kind of statements have a very strong scent of atheism or agnosticism in them. Not everyone who says these things is an atheist but why not just say, “I had a conversation with my heavenly father about you and I’m asking him to help you.” or “I’m praying for you” I’m not trying to split hairs here but we have a very good opportunity to bring Jesus into the middle of someone’s world and some people choose to send good vibes instead of asking God to send the Holy Spirit to their aid. 

Another thing we’re seemingly trying to do all the time is to live a life of balance. On this father’s day I’m specifically speaking to the men and I, as a father, understand how sometimes it’s a challenge to be a nurturing father, husband and simultaneously providing and protecting. There does seem to be a bit of a balancing act that I don’t really know how to manage to be frank. However I think there is a better way to live our lives. Let's just follow the wind of the Spirit instead of trying to follow all the advice of so called experts. 

Here are some wrong ways to govern our lives.

  • Led by the Flesh 
To be 100% governed by what we like sounds a lot like hedonism. The Bible several times refers to this kind of internal government by saying, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.” (Is 22:13; Lk 12:19; 1 Co 15:32) I understand people want to have fun but it’s clear from the research on human happiness and the teachings of the Bible, true joy and thus happiness comes from living a life of meaning centered around sacrificially loving one another. 
  • Led by Trauma

Sometimes we’re driven by trauma. We have seen trauma or experienced trauma and this drives us to perform. I know my own father saw his parents fight over money as a child and vowed to never be poor so it drove him to work very hard and with a lot of strategy. I know many men like this and I celebrate their drive and accomplishments but would love to see them healed of that trauma so they can live a life that is healthier. 

  • Led by Others 

There are men who are very submissive to others and live their lives being told what to do. For an apprenticeship season this is very appropriate because we need the training but after a while we should be able to move into greater leadership potentials. Most men don’t want to stay in the same place year after year. 

  • Led by our own Intellect 

This is for all the slick guys out there who are sharp. They figure things out and learn how to move through the hierarchies around them and get closer and closer to the top. They see what happens when they do certain things and do what seems to get rewarded. 

  • Led by Principles 

Often this life leads to the best outcomes because many of the principles people teach are also taught in the Bible and they originate from God. The principle of doing good to get good results is a very solid one. I believe in living a life of principle however I believe there is a better way to live our lives. 

  •  The Best Way is to be Led by the Holy Spirit, Like Jesus

Jesus Christ is perfect theology 

John 12:49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 

John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 

John 10:30 I and the Father are one. 

Jesus Prays for Unity John 17:21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 

Can we move with God the way Jesus moved with God? 

The Holy Spirit on the Inside of Us 

Romans 8:11 the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you 

1 John 4:4 the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 

Is it possible to live in the moment with the Holy spirit moving when he says to move and staying when he says to stay? John 3 would seem to state that it is not only possible but it is a huge part of being born again. People who are born again are called to move with the Wind of the Spirit!

John 3:8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 

Can we recognize the leading of God’s Holy Spirit today? 

John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 

Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

1 Cor. 2:16 we have the mind of Christ. 

Romans 8:14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 

So in conclusion I want to encourage you to make it a priority to be governed by God’s Holy Spirit which is always in agreement with the principles and sometimes even the specific details of the Bible. The Word of God, Jesus said in John 17:17 is true and the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. (John 16:13) The Holy Spirit and the Word of God will always be in agreement!  So if you want to know how the Holy Spirit communicates you can read the Bible to get yourself attuned to the concepts and frequency that God speaks on. 

Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Visit with us at Jubilee Family Church this Sunday at 10:30 AM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) and Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) If you can't be with us in person please visit via internet video.

Jubilee Family Church 

45 Thunderbird Dr. Batesville, AR 72501

(870) 793-9124

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August 13, 2013

The Spiritual Birth

By Tony V. Hammack

Abundant Life Today Media
Abundant Life Today Podcast

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These notes are best when used in conjunction with the audio or video.



John 3:34
For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

Eternal Life

John 3:14-21
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

We Must Believe

Believe - who cleaves to Him, trusts Him, and relies on Him Cleave - to adhere firmly, closely, loyally and unwaveringly

Trust - assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something one in which confidence is placed

Rely - to be dependent, to have confidence based on knowledge

Love Gives Sacrificially

Because God loved he gave his very best.

He didn’t come to condemn the world but to save the world.

If you don’t believe you “stand condemned already”.

Come into the Light

Followers of Jesus will come into the light, exposing their weakness, sin, humanity, and failings. Jesus loves us exactly the way we are but loves us too much to leave us this way! His desire for us is for us to manifest or express his kingdom through our lives.

1 John 1:6
If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

Seeing and Entering the Kingdom of God

John 3:3-8
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Signs equated to the Kingdom of God

John 3:2,3
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Born of Water

Water Baptism is a symbol of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus and when we get water baptized we are saying we are dying to our old man and going to live for Christ. Gal 2:20. It’s a covenant ceremony.

Born of the Spirit

Like the Wind

John 3:8
8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Elijah is our Old Testament example of a man led by the spirit.

1 Kings 18:11-15
11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ 12 I don’t know where the Spirit of the Lord may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the Lord since my youth. 13 Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord? I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water. 14 And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!” 15 Elijah said, “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”

Sixty eight times the phrase “Kingdom of God” appears in the New Testament.   Fifty six times or approximately 80% of the time, the phrase refers to the establishment of a Kingdom in the present that’s near or a kingdom in the heart, right here right now. Approximately 20% of the time, the phrase refers to a Heavenly Kingdom or the Millennial reign of Christ, a future kingdom.

Luke 17:20,21
20 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

Matthew 12:28
But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Jesus cast out spirits because his Kingdom is superior to the kingdoms of this world. Demons are of this world and are subject to the superior kingdom in the same way a corporal will take orders from a General, unclean spirits had to submit to the authority of the king of the kingdom of God.

That same King, if ruling and reigning in our hearts will deputize us with authority to do the very work he did.

John 14:12
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Romans 14:17
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, The Kingdom of God is expressed wherever Jesus Christ rules the hearts and minds of his subjects. When the believer exhibits self rule they will not express the kingdom.

The challenge today is to come up to the level of being a kingdom man or a kingdom woman. If you believe in Jesus you are saved according to the Word of God. However, there is a lot of work to do until we meet him face to face. Let’s fight the good fight of faith, believing to become kingdom manifesters, kingdom expressers. Let’s allow the king of the kingdom to touch lives through us.
 
Visit with us at Jubilee Family Church this Sunday at 10:15 AM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) and Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM (Central Standard Time U.S.A.) If you can't be with us in person please visit via internet video on Jubilee T.V. If you live in Batesville please tune into KBAP 88.1 FM to listen to contemporary worship music.

Jubilee Family Church 45 Thunderbird Dr. Batesville, AR 72501 (870) 793-9124
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