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A Container Prepared for His Presence

Matthew 9:17 – “Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”” For the past several weeks the Lord has dealt with me about having the right container.    Jesus reveals an important principle in this passage of Scripture, “You cannot put new wine into an old wineskin.”    So often we focus so much on an outpouring of God’s Spirit, which the new wine represents in this passage of Scripture, that we neglect the container. Without a proper container we cannot keep what is being poured out.    Containers are very important.    If a canned good is not perfectly sealed the food it contains will spoil.    God has been visiting us as His people to prepare a container.    Before He pours out the new wine of His Spirit He first has to prepare the container.    If we short circuit this ...
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Pentecost, A Door of Hope, a Door of Harvest, and a Door of Power

  Revelation 4:1 – “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” We are in a time of shaking.  What has been going on?  God is bringing realignment. Most believers I know have been engaged in spiritual warfare. The enemy has come against God’s people. John 10:10 says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The Bible reveals the enemy as an adversary and the destroyer.  He is called a liar, and a murderer.  He seeks your demise and destruction.   We are engaged in a war over three things: 1.      Worship  – one of the very first conflicts was a war over worship/sacrifice. 2.      Wealth  – the...

Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

     In the early twentieth century, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit forever changed the world. This revival that gave birth to what was later called the Pentecostal movement.  The Pentecostal-Charismatic movement today numbers approximately six hundred million.       This revival had its roots in the holiness movements of the late 1800s and the revival that began in Topeka, Kansas, and later spread to the Asuza Street Mission in Los Angeles, California.        One of the characteristics of this revival was the Infilling of the Holy Spirit accompanied by speaking with other tongues.  This experience is defined in the Bible as the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit.”  What does it mean to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?  It means to be immersed into the Holy Spirit, to be in-filled with the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might live an overcoming life.        In Matthew 3:11 – John the Baptist ga...

To See is to Survive

In 1 Samuel 22, David finds himself in an interesting situation. He was on the run from King Saul and hiding in the cave of Adullam. We know previously David had killed a lion and a bear and had become popular in a face-off with Goliath. Now, the honored sling man, singer, shepherd, warrior was suddenly hated, feared, lied about, and plotted against by Saul. David was running through the fields, slimy riverbeds, watery pits, deep ditches, miry mud, and briars. He was half-naked, filthy, stumbling, crawling, and clawing his way into a cave.   What a change from the freedom he had known as a shepherd, singing, and worshipping God everyday, being from a good family with food, shelter, and all his needs met. Now, he was in a dark, wet, cold, stale cave, hungry, exhausted, broken, and alone. David had a destiny of becoming King of Israel, but he was more like Robin Hood surviving day after day. Saul had been successful as King until he began to disobey the laws of the Lord.  H...

Everything Changes

  II Peter 1:2-4 – “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”             What happens when we experience salvation?  We are born again.  Everything in our life changes.  John 5:24 says, “we pass from death to life.”  The Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”  II Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone  is  in Christ,  he is  a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all thin...

Preparation

  Psalms 85:4-7 – “Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?  Will You not revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your mercy, Lord, and grant us Your salvation.”             The Psalmist asks the question, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Then He follows up with this prayer, “Show us Your mercy, Lord, and grant us Your salvation.” We are asking the same question, “will you not revive us again?” Will you show us Your mercy?  Many of us are praying for our families and friends to experience true salvation.             We need divine intervention. We need true revival. Revival is a sovereign move of God. We cannot make it happen, but we can prepare for it. How do we prepare? We need...

Winds of Pentecost

  Acts 2:2 – “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.”              There is a fresh new wind from heaven blowing on the Body of Christ today. This wind is the wind of revival. After Jesus ascended to heaven there were 120 who gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem.    They were praying and waiting on the promise of the Father.    Jesus had instructed the disciples in Luke 24:49, “ Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem   until you are endued with power from on high.”              Throughout the Bible wind is figuratively used to represent the Holy Spirit. In John 3:8 Jesus used the wind to describe the Holy Spirit, “ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it com...