The Wonder of It All ~ Dr. Lewis Gregory

From Source Ministries Blog

Fri, Mar 18, 2011

Christian Living, Spiritual Growth, TEACHINGS

There is a lot of talk these days about knowing God. Yet most Christians still don’t really know Him. So, let’s get to know Him!

Proverbs 9:10 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. Knowing God begins with a reverence for God. The starting point for becoming truly wise is to recognize there’s a power greater than us. That power is God Almighty through His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord.

We, as humans, think we understand things. But we only have a surface awareness. No true understanding exists apart from the knowledge of The Holy. There is only one who is holy, and that is God Almighty. In knowing Him, we begin to understand what life is all about. Then, and only then, can we truly live life. That is why you must know God! It is time to seek the One Who is all wise.

THE NECESSITY OF KNOWING GOD

The Scripture doesn’t say the knowledge “about” the Holy. It says, “the knowledge of the Holy.” There is a vast difference between having information and having true understanding. We live in an information age. There is a knowledge explosion. Everything is geared to the philosophy that “the more we know, the better we are.”

But that is not the case! The reality is that information is not enough. A true spiritual transformation must occur. Therefore, the knowledge of God is absolutely essential.

Oh, the wonder of it all! Just think, He actually desires to give us the guided tour through life.

The Apostle Paul’s burning passion was that I may know Him (Phil. 3:10). Yet he, of all men, knew Him! Paul knew the Lord in great depth and intimacy. If it was essential for Paul to know him more fully, then how much more do we need to know Him.

Philippians was the first book that really came alive to me. When I read Philippians 3:10 I said, “That is my desire, my prayer. Yes, I want to know you, Lord!” Is it your prayer? May your passion be, “Oh, that I may know Him!” Once I began to know Him, my desire became two-fold. “Lord, I want not only to know You myself, but I also want to help others get to know You.” A few years later I came across a phrase by Dawson Trottman, founder of The Navigators. He said our objective should be “To know Him and to make Him known.” What an excellent summation of the Christian life!

That’s basically it. Once we begin to know Him, we have the privilege of making Him known. We can tell others about how Christ has radically transformed our lives. That is making Him known.

Yet the focus must remain on knowing God. So what does it mean to know Him? It is not learning about Him. It is having a vibrant relationship with Him. This should be ongoing, ever growing and maturing. Do you know Him like this? You can. Let me explain how.

THE FIRST SECRET

I met Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior at age eleven. Ten years later, Lue and I were married. About six months afterward, I discovered one of God’s fundamental secrets. I was so challenged by Lue’s life, that it motivated me to seek the Lord. I began to reassess my relationship to Him. I prayed, “Lord I want to get to know You afresh and anew.” Lue and I began to search the scriptures together. I kept trying to understand them. I wanted to get a handle on this Book.

At age three, I remember my mother, who was a Christian, frequently reading the Bible to me. Over the years, she continued to tell me about the Lord. Most of all, I saw her live out the Bible. So, I knew the Bible stories. I could even debate Bible facts, but there was still something missing. Finally, it dawned on me! What I saw in the Bible and what I saw happening in my life weren’t the same. I concluded that since it happened in Bible times, it could happen now! In fact, it should be happening in my life today!!

“So, Lord, why isn’t it happening? How can I begin to see in my life what those in the Bible saw?” One evening I got my answer. As we were reading John 14:26, I saw it! But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. This was my first spiritual secret to knowing God.

I locked in on that one verse. I said, “Now wait a minute. All this time I have believed the Bible was true. I have gotten information from it. I have tried to follow it. I have attempted to apply its principles.” Yes, I failed in some areas, but I made progress in others. The bottom line—it wasn’t working. “Dear Lord, what’s the problem?” God said, “It’s because the Bible is a Spiritual Book and only My Spirit can make it real in your life.” My problem was I had been reading the Bible like a textbook. Since I had been a good student, I thought I could figure this out. I was able to learn Bible facts and even analyze them, but it never connected with my life. I could see it, but not fully experience it.

I got some further insight from 2 Peter 1:21. It says, The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. What I realized was that this Book is truly God-breathed, inspired by God’s Spirit. The Author of the Book is God Himself. The Holy Spirit worked through human instrumentality. It was God speaking through the uniqueness of distinct personalities with different backgrounds and occupations, but it was always God bringing forth His Word to mankind! The Bible originated with God who is Spirit. Therefore, as a Spiritual Book, it can only be understood by the Holy Spirit.

Another glimmer of light began to dawn on me from 1 Corinthians 2:9. It says, “As it is written eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for them that love Him.” It is not possible to grasp what God has prepared for us.

There is only one way to know God. Verse 14 says, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.” It is humanly impossible to grasp the things of God. The natural mind, which encompasses the physical human realm, cannot possibly comprehend the things of God. They are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. They cannot be known on the human plane. Why? Because they are spiritually discerned.

There it is again! The things of God are known only by the Spirit of God. They are Spiritually interpreted. The Spirit gives us understanding. He alone can make God’s Word real to us. That’s the secret!

So I prayed again. “Now God, I realize that You are saying this is a Spiritual Book, and the Holy Spirit, who indwells me, is going to teach me. Therefore, Holy Spirit, I trust you to cause me to understand the Bible.” I concluded that since the Bible is a Spiritual Book, only the Holy Spirit can teach me. Furthermore, only by God’s Spirit can I know and understand the things of God. Therefore, every time I open this Book, my prayer is, “Holy Spirit, show me what to read, and speak to me through Your Word. Make this Book real and alive in me.”

LIVING EPISTLES

Yeah, what about this matter of Scripture coming alive in us? It’s one thing to talk about it, but quite another to live it. Numerous Christian seminars contain powerful truths that we are admonished to go out and apply. Often we think, “Wow, there is so much here, how can I ever apply it?” Good question!

One man, overwhelmed with the volume of information he got at a seminar, said, “There’s so much, I don’t know how I can possibly apply it, but I guess that’s what God expects.” Or does He? No, He doesn’t! God realizes that we can’t apply Spiritual truth. He knows that it is humanly impossible. Thus, enters the Holy Spirit. He is the Divine applicator. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can apply Spiritual truth.

A MULTIFACETED SECRET

Therefore, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to enable us to live life. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit (Zechariah 4:7). The Lord is telling us that we, as humans, don’t have the ability to live life. It requires God’s Spirit to enable us. It is God’s Spirit that brings forth the life of Christ in our daily walk. Only by God’s Spirit can this happen!

God won’t overload us. He has promised not to give us more than we are able to bear. He also gives us the One Who will enable us to bear it. That, of course, is the Spirit of God. He has come to indwell us in order to empower us. Furthermore, He will guide us. Christ says in John16:13 that the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. He is not an external guide to show us the way; He is a Guide from within who lovingly directs our lives. Just as the internal tracking device of a homing pigeon enables it to maintain its bearings, so the Holy Spirit causes us to go in the right direction. He keeps us on course.

The Holy Spirit guides us by prompting our thoughts, stimulating our emotions and motivating our desires. Words fail to adequately describe God’s marvelous provision through the Holy Spirit. Oh, the wonder of it all! Just think, He actually desires to give us the guided tour through life. Are you letting Him!

Ryan Lawson's Haiti report

Haiti Trip Report - Part V

taken from Ryan Lawson's blog

Towards the end of the night, one of our interpreters pulled me aside and brought me a young man for prayer. The guy standing in front of me was covered in tattoos, had about thirty piercings, with little bits of bone and other stuff stuck in them and he had several amulets hanging around his neck. He looked up at me with some seriously crazy eyes! I could tell by the nature of his trinkets that he was a Voodoo priest. I agreed to pray for him and laid my hands on his head. I called down the fire of God on him and he just stared me straight in the face and smiled. After a moment or two, I grabbed a handful of the amulets hanging around his neck and said, “You are going to have to get rid of these!” When I said that, he let out a nutty laugh and then turned and RAN AWAY! Not walked, not trotted, RAN! My interpreter just shrugged as if to say “What can you do?”

The first night of the crusade was awesome. We came back to the rented house where we were staying totally exhausted, but exhilarated by what Jesus had accomplished. We were eagerly anticipating the second night.


RAINED OUT!
When Pastor Paul picked us up for day two of the crusade, the weather was nasty. The closer we got to the crusade grounds, the worse the weather was with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. I placed a call back home to get our folks praying for the event. Our team stayed in the van praying for the weather to break while it poured on the crusade grounds. The weather didn’t’ let up at all, in fact, it got worse. In spite of the terrible weather, there were still a few hundred people out milling around the field. The crusade grounds backed up to a makeshift tent city and most of these people only had simple stick and sheet shelters to protect them from the sun. They would get just as wet inside the tent as they would in the field and had no real protection from the harsh weather. The band was under a tarp on stage and started to play. So instead of sit inside their tent and get wet, they began to worship as the band played and the singers sang.



Some of the kids we worshiped with

The children came out in force and began worshiping with all their heart. Humbled by their commitment, we got out of the van and began to worship the Lord with them. We worshiped the Lord with all our hearts, singing and dancing with the people for 2-3 hours out in a lightning storm! Maybe 1,000 people were out there before all was said and done. Darkness settled in and the stage lights would not work due to the rain, so we worshiped in the dark, illuminated only by the lightning strikes. It was surreal. Thinking back about it though, this was one of the most memorable moments of our trip and the most powerful. Here were these folks who had absolutely nothing materially, yet they possessed everything of value, the Presence of God! We were ruined by their worship.

After praying for all the sick in a very wet fire tunnel, we went home completely soaked and worn out.


THERE ARE WITCHES IN THE MEETING!
The third night was our last night at the crusade and our last night in Haiti. We prayed fervently that day for good weather and an explosion of God’s power. The meeting began like the others, with fervent worship and praise. We were down in the crowd worshiping with the people when a chill ran down the back of my neck and a tingling ran down my spine. Without even turning around I knew that a Voodoo priest was cursing us. I turned around and there he was, about 50 feet away and staring right at me! It was the same guy from the first night of the crusade. He had all the trinkets, earrings, but now he had a little PVC staff with fetishes hanging from it. He looked me right in the eyes and smiled with a wicked grin.

He was there to make things interesting!

I turned and faced him and smiled right back as if to say, “Let’s do this!” I watched him and he began pacing around the crusade grounds. He pulled things out of a little bag on his neck and spread them on the ground. He spit, he urinated, and he made little circles with his feet and was doing all sorts of weird stuff. I scanned the crusade grounds and could spot a couple other Voodoo priests as well. They were pretty easy to spot. While everyone was worshiping, they would stand there motionless and every once in a while do weird stuff with the hands and face. I walked over to where our team was worshiping and said, “There are witches in the meeting, PRAY!” I walked up and stood on the stage with Pastor Paul to scan the crowd.

Healed of Rheumatoid Arthritis!



OPEN HEAVENS!
Worship took off! The presence of God rolled in like a cloud and people praised and worshiped with all of their heart. Pastor Paul broke the moment to introduce the team from our church and they all told testimonies of God’s power to heal, save and deliver. He then brought up a gentleman we had prayed for several days before. He testified that he had severe rheumatoid arthritis in his legs and knees and for the last 3 years had received cortisone shots EVERY DAY! He had been in severe pain for years and was totally healed when we prayed for him!

Come on Jesus!

After telling testimonies, Pastor Paul took us through the huge crowd, praying for many people in his church that needed healing and deliverance. A group of about 15 women that were being terrorized in their sleep by demons received deliverance instantly. Wherever we went, people would reach out to touch our clothes and would grab our hands and put them on their bodies for prayer. I was getting totally messed up in the Holy Ghost and for a while totally forgot about the witches in the meeting. We were all done praying for the select folks from his church and made our way back to the stage. There was a guy standing next to the stage in a striped shirt and a big afro. When I walked by, he made all these weird hand gestures at me like he was doing kung-fu. In my Holy Ghost inebriated state I thought, “I need to whack him in the face with my hanky!” He just looked like he needed a good hanky whacking! So I stood there for a minute and hit him in the face with my hanky again and again. I walked away and thought nothing more of it.



The Presence of God in Worship!



THE REST OF THE STORY
The meeting was amazing. The presence of God rolled in during worship and you could feel the glory of God settle across the people. We encouraged folks to reach out and receive their healing and the life of God. We preached a very simple message of the Kingdom, brought many more people to the Lord and then prayed for the sick.

It was glorious.

But the best part was when we were back at the house for the night, sharing with one another all that Jesus did during the crusade. Pastor Paul very simply stated that the best part for him was the prominent witch doctor that came to the Lord that night. We stopped him and said, “Excuse me? What witch doctor?” He then told us of this evil witch doctor that was known throughout the region for killing and maiming many people through his voodoo. He was very powerful, feared and well known throughout the region. I asked him, “Well, who was he?” Thinking it was maybe my buddy with the PVC staff. He said, “Oh, you don’t know? I thought for sure you knew who it was!” I said, “I have no idea, who was it?!”

Pastor Paul told me that when we had gone through the crowd and headed back up to the stage he looked down and saw me standing in front of this witch doctor. I was standing in front of him, hitting him in the face with my hanky! It was the guy I was popping with my hanky on the side of the stage! When Pastor Paul saw me hitting him in the face, he looked down and his hands were shaking. Knowing who this guy was, he feared for my life! But I had no clue! I just thought he was a weirdo that needed a smack in the face with a hanky! Ignorance is sometimes bliss you know… Whatever happened in that moment, I don’t know, but what I do know is that this evil, powerful witch doctor came forward at the altar all and gave his life to Jesus that night!



Jesus is King over Voodoo!

Time for Testimony

Not just mine.Anybody's.
A few weeks ago I brought a prophetic word about God opening up a well of Testimony. And I mean a word too!. I mean it was short. One of these short type of prophecies with only one word or phrase in, that I mentioned in a previous post.

Today the worship team took a prophetic line with songs about Jesus being a strong tower or fortress. God spoke to me. What I thought was great was it was before we'd really got going on the fortress theme...so I knew it was all part of today's package.

In 1971 Jean Darnall and other prophets called Christians together to celebrate a Festival of Light. From the coast throughout the land the old fire beacons (for messaging)were lit on every hill top. Then later Christians gathered in London. The promise given was that a great light would come in London then scatter to all the towns and villages, where the light would grow in all these regions.

Through the awakening of Christians through the fresh experience of the Holy Spirit, both old denominational churches and new churches have been growing stronger and stronger in their relationship with the Living God. I felt God saying...along the lines of various coastal prophecies given many years ago, but now featuring just about every town in Britain....

That now the fortresses had been formed. They were bases of God's power. They were strongholds of the Name of Jesus. And as fortresses now was the time "for the righteous to run in and be safe/ saved." as the song and the scripture says. So this also dovetails in with the promise of Wells of Testimony. What God has done in believer's lives ,we can still in our incompleteness, confidently declare that He can do again...myriadfold for anyone in the same kind of fixes. The power of testimony being that it reproduces the anointing for the same thing to occur again.
Some weeks ago we had a seabaptism of most of our Havant youth group, and ex-drug addict recommitting his life properly, and two of our dear friends Jed and Yvette.
Unlike other more evangelistic souls, Christine and I are generally more cautious about pushing people into praying the commitment prayer. But on this Sunday, Christine felt this so strongly from the time we got up. So at an appropriate time in the meeting we encouraged our friend Jed to do the deal, and ask Jesus into his heart. He and Yvette were baptised the same day. You can make out from the stills the glory on their faces as they came out. Jed looked 10 years younger. Forget Botox. We need Jesus!!!.
Thing is, unbelievers have no clue about how things can change the very day that you just submit your life to Christ. See, it's Jesus that does it ! If He wasn't real...what a burden to appear all happy and "Christian" with those gleamy teethy smiles.....but the thing is He is real. All we have to do is submit to Him, accept Him as Lord, and ask Him to come in and take over. He does the rest. Yvette told me today that Jed has been a very different man from this day. When he gets in from work, he nolonger has the whole world on his shoulders. People have greater respect for his role at work. He speaks with more assurance and authority. And this is in little more than a month already. The other guy baptised went the very next day to a drug rehab near Birmingham, where early reports say he is doing very well.

You can see how brave everyone was in the cold English seas. Peter Stott's opening words are "I think we should do a risk assessment of this". Many fine stills were taken by Wendy Wilbraham, but this is the internet...and sadly we cannot show them. I hope these clips that remain are sufficiently vague concerning the actual kids. The film was on my Sony Cybershot and it nolonger seems compatible with Windows programmes...I've spent ages finding edit programmes that bridge the gap. The music is Phil Keaggy : It's Personal-The Poetry of Keith Moore. Track 7 The Blood.