Gifts of the Holy Spirit!

What are they for?

A great debate rages in the Ekklesia today in relation to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with many claiming that that time in the book of acts is over?

But if we take time and end our doctrinal blind spots we will take note that in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 4 we are told the essential reason, before hitting the juicy bits!

Gifts, service and activity are the essentials of being touched at His will by the Holy Spirit, one who will remain active and effective in the lives of all believers who remain in fellowship with God.

We cannot preach, teach, witness, share, talk about God without the Holy Spirit, we have to be touched and given each individually our gifting, so that we may serve, so that we will remain active no matter what Satan tries to use to draw us down?

Romans 15:17, 2 Corinthians 9:12, Ephesians 4:12, 2 Timothy 4:5, Hebrews 12:28, James 2:22, Revelation 2:19.

The Prodigal Son! Three.

Jealousy?

Infuriation might be a better word for the son who worked away and did not flout his fathers inheritance!

But like many Christians today in Ekklesia they miss the point when a prostitute or a big time criminal gets saved, it makes the place, reputation of good living look dirty?

Because their hearts were blinded to God’s love and mercy on the lost, just as this father took back his son and so we have a powerful evangelism tool with Luke 15 that can be applied in the community and worldwide today?

As believers we are always now with our father who through the good works of Jesus has bought us with blood and when we see the uncomfortable coming in let us rejoice for God has brought another home!

Luke 15:11-32, Romans 15:9-13, Ephesians 2:1-10.

Angels Ministered!

Great Anguish.

Jesus was moments before His journey to the cross and our atonement, but in His human flesh he was in anguish and many believers may find themselves in these moments of great mental and physical pain from the evil people in this world!

Some modern translations do not have these verses in the text, how sad they have missed such an important point, that we too may go through periods of suffering and may even be attended to by Angels, as our Lord was?

We are warned to be careful about people who brag about the subject and dream also, but that must also be taken that Angels will help us, since Peter was released from Prison and the Apostle Paul saw Heaven!

Luke 22:43-45, Psalm 91:11-12.

The Prodigal Son! One.

The Fathers love for Us?

This story that Jesus told is about the young waster and his failure and his redemption being welcomed back into his family!

The illustration is a lovely one of Gods love for this lost world, the meaning of the story could be applied to each one of us, unless we came to know the Lord as a child?

In this series we will start with the last verse since it is the key of the message that we need to rejoice as we see New believers enter into the Ekklesia the family of God!

Luke 15:11-32, Isaiah 35:10, Hosea 14:9.

The Kingdom of Israel?

Anti-Semitism in the Ekklesia!

We here this time are dealing with some serious facts when it comes to the Christian attitude to Israel being restored as a nation and a Kingdom!

Now for over eighteen hundred years the Gentiles have enjoyed keeping Jewish believers in their Messiah down and part from that justifying slavery, and many other ideals that are to suit their own agenda of oppression?

These ideas have crossed over from the Catholic Churches to the Protestant Reformations and today to the many new Churches, from the Apostolic revival to ecumenical ideas, community types and other revivals that have been overrun by false leadership?

Jesus did not give a time for that question asked 2000 years ago, because He said, ‘He said only the Father knew! We may not accept now that the state of Israel is that restoration, but when Israel is to be restored it will have to be in the same place that it exists now?

Acts 1:6-8.

No Palestine in God’s Plan!

Restored Israel?

The New Testament, if not the Holy Bible makes no mention of a Palestinian State, with its capital in Jerusalem (Al-Khuds), despite the claims of the United Nations and the world community?

The concept of the two state solution and the idea of a road map to peace in the Middle-East all stem from the British and French carve up of the region in 1919 around the time of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, but during this joint European process, the locals were never consulted on the plans!

In 1947 the British gave up on the region, after being caught out doing almost the same thing as the Nazi’s in relation to the Jews who were fleeing the concentration camps of Poland and Germany. Meanwhile the UN gave Tel-Avis the status of an new nation Israel.

God tells us that He will restore the Kingdom of Israel and that the events leading to the false Messiah and the rebuilding of the Temple will be for that purpose and the Return of our Lord Jesus Yeshua Ha’ Adonai and the End approaches!

Acts 1:1-11, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, Ezekiel 28:6-9, 2 Timothy 3:1-3, Revelation 13:6-7.

The continued Value of….

Preaching?

We tend in the west today to excuse the need to stand on a soap box and degrade our dignity on a street corner to tell dying society around us of the Good News of Jesus!

Christians have allowed the standards of the world to influence us and so in many places the faith is in decline? Some say it is different now with technology and the Internet, but one did not see much to qualify this during the pandemic in the British Isles so it is not true!

The world cannot see and does not want know, unless someone has the courage to speak and share Jesus and from this point to that of the pulpit, people need quality teaching and the altar call for people to believe that God loves them and gave to us His One and Only son, forgiving us of our pasts and promising to us the Eternal Life!

It is a simple message that needs to be got out and proclaimed by believers who will surrender all, not just the words of a hymn on a Sunday morning, but everyday?

Acts 2:26-31, 8:25, 14:6, 21, Romans 10:14, 1 Corinthians 15:1, 11, Galatians 4:13, Philippians 1:30, Colossians 1:23, 1 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 3:7, 15, 2 Peter 2:5, Revelation 1:9, 20:4.

The Resurrection!

The second element of the Easter Event!

It is strange that many people who claim to be Christians do not fully believe or understand what the resurrection of Jesus is about or even believe it?

But the New Testament is full of scriptures that are related to the raising of Jesus from the grave for our Salvation to be completed and there is really no excuse not to believe by faith this event as to that of the atoning work of the Cross/Stake/Tree?

Without the resurrection of Jesus from the grave we cannot be saved these are the two essential parts of the Easter story and they are both important, since Jesus always told His Disciples and the Gospels still speak to us today of these events of being rejected by people and being murdered and rising from the dead on the third day!

Acts 2:27, 29, 31, 13:34-36, Romans 8:34, 1 Corinthians 15:4, 2 Corinthians 5:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, 2 Timothy 2:8, Hebrews 13:20, 1 Peter 1:21.

The Cross!

Signpost to Salvation?

This is the main emphasis of the Easter story and the fulfilment of Jewish prophecy in relation to the role of the Messiah Yeshua Ha’Adon!

Jesus purpose in coming into humanity was to make that one and final atonement for our failures, no more animals blood and no more keeping rules and regulations for all like us who have faith in Jesus death and His resurrection from the grave.

We are a forgiven people with the New Life of the ever new and the promise of Eternity if we stay the course and for some of us it can be very hard and costly, but onward we must go?

Much uncertainty remains as to wither it was a cross/stake or tree, but it was all, because when the sign was placed by the Romans above Jesus head we get that shape!

Isaiah 53:1-12, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Galatians 3:13, Revelation 2:7.

‘Which Bible!

Translation is the Best or is Right?

Many of us who preach will use a modern version to get what we want to say out in modern language of today to people who do not have any understanding of anything to do with God? But when it comes to our own study we seek the basis of the King James version to get refences to Strong’s lexicon or something similar!

But a knowledge of the ability to read the Hebrew and Greek does not always make it as easy as many lay people think and this has been an ongoing problem for the last two thousand years? Since the Greek raises more options in the choice of words that can be used and many people do not fully understand this getting hot under the collar in relation to the KJV being so called adulterated when it is not!

What is more important is the application of the message that is being taught, preached or shared, by others or in our own reading and understanding of it for daily living?

Proverbs 3:2, Matthew 4:23, Mark 9:31, John 8:51, 1 Corinthians 11:23, 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 6:1-2, 2 John 1:9, Revelation 3:8.