Something to Revive

One of the biggest spiritual, religious topics engulfing our Christian movements today is that of revival. Of course, 11 Chronicles 7:14 is highlighted. It is the epicenter of biblical revival; but look a little bit deeper into God's Word. One person that does not get preached on significantly and is left out in our fervent pursuit of Christ is Holy Ghost. We are called and compelled by the Holy Ghost. We display humility like Christ through the Holy Spirit. We pray by the Holy Spirit. We quench the Holy Ghost with our sin; therefore, abstaining from sin would please him and produce His favor. Striving for revival without the help of the third part of the Holy, perfect Trinity is like trying to run a race with no legs. It is senseless and a foolish effort to even try without the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is introduced to us in the second verse of the Bible (the KJV that is) when God tells us that he "moved upon the face of the waters." The Holy Ghost was moving upon creation before it was even created! Let's then turn our attention to the New Testament. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, the Word of God (likened unto water in the Bible) Himself (John 1:1), lay in a borrowed tomb. The Spirit of God rushed into that cold, damp tomb, expelling every drop of darkness and breaking the very grip of death. It filled my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and fulfilled the promise that He had given! Talk about revival!!! The Son of Almighty Jehovah God stamped our victory in this, the first real "great awakening"! Then turn our attention to Ezekiel 37:4-5. The prophecy that Ezekiel speaks of was toward the children of Israel, God's chosen people. This prophecy indicates that a new breathe would come into the dead, dry bones, and they would rise up as a great army, functioning as a Spirit filled body again. The Spirit of God was and is that breathe that caused them to leave their graves in verse 12! In 1948, this prophecy was fulfilled as the dry bones of the non-existent nation of Israel came together to finally become a nation again! Do you want life? Do you want revival? Then we must have an extreme, fiery passion to be filled, changed and awakened by the Holy Ghost! However, a dead body can't have life it if clings to the disease that killed it! We must confess and forsake our sin of coldness, vain tradition, apathy and complacence! God is pulling back His Spirit more and more in these last days due to our dead rottenness. We can and will have revival if we get clean through the Blood and get filled of the Holy Ghost. Then we as Christians can act as an exceeding great army, a body of one, filled with the Holy Ghost. We need revival; therefore we need the Holy Ghost!

A Big God in a Little Me by: my wife

"One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Have you ever paused to think about God literally dwelling inside of you? That thought just blows me away. This means the very God of Heaven knows my every thought and every word that escapes from my mouth, and even heavier, the things that I keep locked inside. He knows, sees, hears and feels everything I do because, well, He is in there! He knows those secretive things I hold inside my heart: hurt, anger, silent rebellion... He is aware of all of the television shows we watch when nobody is around and those songs we sing and listen to when everyone else can't hear. However, herein lies the real shocker: He loves us throughout it all. He even goes as far as to speak to us and let us know that He loves us and in Him is hope. He can help you find your way back to Him once again. The thing is, when God speaks, it is a still small voice. We must concentrate on Him alone and listen for those words. He won't fight to be overheard by all the menial, earthy things we have crammed into our hearts. We have to make the choice, clean out our hearts and still...the noise from within.....and just listen...... He is there. He is waiting, just as He always has been. He is calmly, patiently whispering....to you. Are you listening?

Holy Branches

Paul penned many great verses under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Romans 11:16 presents a stirring thought for a child of God. The latter part of the verse states this: "....and if the root be holy, so are the branches." My mind immediately races to the thought of a tree. At the base of a tree, going even further than the trunk itself, is the root system. It is hidden beneath the cool, compacted dirt, usually never seen by the naked eye; but its role in the life of the tree is incomparable. The tree itself, particularly its branches, prove that which is underground. The characteristics of a tree and its branches show us an unveiled proof of some life beneath the tree. We, in the same sense, are branches. We are to be extending outward, reaching others. We are to be bearing fruit, providing evidence of the type of tree that we extend from. We should be a living, fruitful evidence of what is below our surface! If we, as Christians, are withering, unfruitful and dead, what is below our surface? If we are broken and barren, what are we proving is under our surface? May we be fruitful, vibrant branches, showing the beholder that the vine that we are engrafted into, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the only source that can provide true life. What are your roots attached to? What do your branches look like? When someone looks at you, can they tell that you are attached to Jesus? If the root be holy, so are the branches.

We Are at War

A sad, but true, reality that we have been lulled into today is the forgetting or ignoring of the fact that we, as Christians, are in an all out war. No, I am not speaking of the war that is going on amongst the ranks of Christianity (which by the way is absolutely ridiculous) over the issues of pants and hair parts. I am not speaking of the wars between the "immergents" and the IFBers. I am not speaking of the rock throwing and rip sessions that are pitted against the non-denoms that use YouTube as their main catalyst. I am speaking of the raging, horrific, often ignored war that is blazing around us each and every second. I am making reference to the fact that every day we wake up, we are faced with a brand spanking new, hot off the press, war. We get so enamored with picking apart our titled Christian brothers, that we forget the enemy is sneaking through OUR back doors, eating us alive from the inside out. It seems that we have forgotten the admonishments of being sober, circumspect and vigilant. It is apparent that the enemy has rocked us to sleep with a false sense of security in our standards and man made convictions. We have forgotten that our enemy is the principality of the power of the air, the lord of darkness, and the ruler of wickedness. I think that we have forgotten that we are engulfed in a battle, as Christians, against the world around us, the flesh wrapped around us, and devil who is walking about, seeking for people to devour. The war is real. The enemy far outweighs us. The enemy has his scope set right between our eyes, and his archers are ever ready at moments notice to strike us through the heart with what he pleases. We walk out of our homes on a daily basis, like a soldier going to war with no gun. We scurry off to war with no protection, no weapon, and no armor! What are we thinking!? The most insane part of our (and yes, I am preaching to myself) condition is the fact that God offers us HIS weapons of warfare, Jehovah offers us HIS armor, and God Almighty offers us HIS power, and we consistently resist and ignore all of His help. We go days without the Word of God, (our Sword of the Spirit) and expect our lives to be hunky-dory. We go weeks with a piddly excuse for a prayer life, all the while wondering why we can't get ahead of the attacks on our life. Pick up the armor that is offered! Pick up the Sword of God and go to battle! The devil is having an absolute hay-day on Christians. He is feasting on statistics of fallen men and women of God because he knows that he has the open door to do what he wants to us. Let's stop offering him ourselves medium-well on a silver platter by not standing in the power of Christ with His armor, shield and sword. Let's stand as Christians together and take the battle to satan himself. He has no place in our churches! He has no place in our homes, families and marriages! He has no right to do as he pleases in our lives! He is and always will be subservant to the power, might and preemmenence of Christ! He is a counterfeit, a phony, a liar, a deceiver, and weakling compared to our King; but yet, we see hundreds of people (and in solemn confession, I myself at times) fall to him every single day. Why? Because we forget that we are in a battle, and we let our guard down. Stand in the power of Christ; put the whole armor of God on; pick up the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God; we have got a battle to fight. Souls, churches, families, homes, friends and schools are at stake. Will we stand idly by and watch the battle be lost? God forbid.