Mary, the mother of Jesus, was expecting. Here is how it happened: The angel said to her, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Our church sent a man to ministry training school for two years. He graduated and is to hold his first “revival” meeting the first week end in June, here in his home church. A lot of churches hold revivals in June, July, and August. Our pastor has exhorted us to “come expecting” God to move in our lives and in the lives of the visitors who come. How do we “come expecting”? When a woman is expecting, what has happened? A male and a female have gotten together and a seed was planted. That seed has been nurtured and grown until the time of birth has drawn near. When the contractions start and continue and the water breaks, it is time to get to the place of birth. In a hospital, that is the maternity ward, which is a place where women get together to give birth to their babies under medical supervision. New life is brought into the world from the maternity ward. One function of the church is to be like a maternity ward. Each person, in daily life, is to spend time with God in prayer and the Word, walking in fellowship with the Spirit and each other, living in harmony with each other. The seed of God is planted in each of our hearts. Word life begins to grow, influencing our life. Then when the church meets together, each person has a “holy thing”, the life of God in each of our lives, to bring into the church and share. This awesome plan is the way it is done in the Bible (1 Corinthians 14:26). So it is not a matter of just coming to the meetings to watch the preacher perform. If we “come expecting”, we have already made a vital contribution to the meeting by spending time with God in prayer, in hearing from God, and then coming together with a mind to be a yielded vessel to simply move with the Holy Spirit. This is important because God desires to have his way in the church, the salt of the earth. Without this salt, the world goes its way with no spiritual influence to preserve it and bring out the best flavor. It putrefies. It goes from bad to worse. We see this happening. It is time for revival in every church. We are to “come expecting” God to move in each of our lives, our faith uniting, yielding to him to turn from sin, receive a fresh infilling of his Spirit, and walk in total obedience to him. God, in his abundant life, has given us this wonderful mercy and salvation for the whole world! Church! Come together expecting!
Author: admin
preachJesus77
When All Else Fails Read The Directions
When all else fails, read the directions. Have you ever heard that? We all have a tendency to get into life and do things our way and mess things up, then we finally have to back up and read the directions to get it all put together correctly. It is much simpler and better, with good directions in hand, to just go right by the book step-by-step and get it right the first time. God has a basic way for us to live this life successfully with his full blessing upon us. First, he wants us connected to him in spirit, in our inner man. Then he wants us empowered and led by his Spirit in daily life. He wants us to abide in his presence each day so we can receive his instruction and guidance to navigate through the ever twisting hoops of life. We get connected up with God by being “born again” (John 3:3). God is holy, we are unholy. We can’t be connected with him the way we are. When you realize and earnestly desire the need to be connected with God, you come to him just as you are and understand that Jesus Christ died for you, paying the penalty for all your sins, errors, and all. He made the connection for you to be one with God. With that understanding, you call upon him asking him to cleanse you and receive you as his son/daughter. It is by the righteousness and work of Jesus Christ that we have mercy with God, sins forgiven, and we become one with him. We live in a spiritual world, and we need the power of God’s Spirit in and upon our lives to combat life’s challenges and carry out God’s will and plan for our lives. When Jesus went back to heaven, he promised to send this power to believers. Today, as we receive cleansing from Jesus and are connected to God, we are empowered by receiving the gift of his Holy Spirit. Jesus taught us to ask for the Holy Spirit just as a child asks a parent for food to eat (Luke 11:9-13). As we lay our life before God for him to do with us whatever he desires, and we earnestly ask him to fill us with his Spirit and power, he will do that for us. With the infilling of the Holy Spirit we receive specific operations of that Spirit to help us in daily life. The first thing we receive is a supernatural prayer language. That is our “walkie-talkie” from God to effectively communicate with “headquarters” when we don’t know how to pray, which is most of the time. There are other operations to assist us, and as we walk with God each day we learn and experience more and more of his goodness, power, and direction for us in life. These are some of the basic directions he has given. Read and follow the directions God has given and start living free.
A Good Choice To Make
A preacher, who is a plumber, went to one of our church attendee’s home to do a repair. He noticed tall grass growing out from around our church van that had been set aside due to a declined use in the ministry. For a long time, we intended to sell the van, but due to one thing or another, we just never got our act together to get it running and to the church parking lot to offer it for sale. He inquired about it because his young church is growing in an outreach ministry, and they need a van. The customer gave our name and he contacted us. The church board decided to give him the van. At the same time that he came to the house to do the paper work, Barbara’s daughter, who is very confident with this type paper work, just happened to come by the house for a visit on a late lunch break. She normally comes by about 11:30. On this day she happened by about 1:30, while the pastor was at our house. She assisted with correctly signing over the title to the young pastor. In 2013 the van was purchased for $11,000. It was our joy to sow the van into their ministry for a dollar and other considerations, plus, we are now hooked up with a ministry of like mind. The pastor was thrilled to get this ministry tool for which they had been praying. We all feel like the good timing and the connections that were made are “a God thing”. It was like the van was just set aside for this particular ministry to have.
It’s a beautiful thing to see God orchestrate things to bring about answers to prayers. There are many promises to those who “fear” or “reverence” the Lord. If we place God in the forefront of our life, acknowledging and giving place to the work that Jesus Christ has done for us, giving him honor, loving to spend time in his presence, God will honor the desires of our heart. “Delight thyself in the Lord; and he will give thee the desires of thine heart (Psalms 37:4). Delighting in God is a high form of reverencing God. Jesus taught that when we honor him, he will honor us. When we all walk together in one mind delighting in the Lord, in his Word, in his Spirit, and in following his ways, he is delighted in honoring requests made to him for his plan and glory. In this way, we often see his timing in things and the arrangements that he sets in place. Then, as we recognize what he is doing, even more delight and reverence and praise is evoked in our hearts toward him. He wants to be in our lives, in the small things and the big things, to bring about good for the good of all. We can choose to have him in our life, and it’s a good choice to make.
God Wants To Help You
Our church is a part of the prison ministry at the Work Release Center at Haskell. Since the Covid 19 hit, we have not been able to go into the prison to minister, so when I have something on my heart for them I print it up and drop it off there to be distributed in the different buildings. I would always give them a print out of the lesson when I could go in there, so now they still get the print out, but just not the person. The following is one of the lessons that I thought you would all enjoy and benefit from:
When God sees a heart purified by faith, he gives the Holy Spirit to empower you to clearly hear and follow him. He wants us to walk in his plan and purpose for our life and walk in his supernatural power, overcoming all things. Jesus and the early church demonstrated how the Holy Spirit operates in and through our lives. God wants to work in your life today in the same way by purifying your heart, filling you with his Spirit and power, and giving you his directions and his goodness in your life. Lay aside any prideful thoughts that are keeping you from personally eating of his Word and drinking of his Spirit. Lay aside any fear and skepticism. Make place for some time with God, just you and him. Hear the word of the gospel of Jesus Christ and believe that his righteous life and perfect blood sacrifice is the only thing that makes you right with God. Give him your life, your goodness, your sin, and your efforts to be right with God and turn to Jesus as your only right standing with God. You are choosing to put your life into his hands. This is how your heart is purified by faith (Acts 15:7-11). With a heart purified by faith do what Jesus said and ask the Father for the Holy Spirit fullness. Pray for a God encounter, for God to come upon you in power (Luke 11:9-13). When the early church was filled with the Spirit they spoke out praises to God, they shared the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they spoke out loud in other languages, supernaturally. In this way the gospel of Jesus Christ, the healing power of God, and the directions and plans of God were made known. It is the same for us today. God sees your heart, your inner being, your hidden inner motives and desires. When you “give your heart to God”, you are opening your life to him, with all the good, bad, and ugly, with all your strengths and weaknesses, and you are entrusting your life into his care, keeping, and guidance. With that commitment to him, yield your mind, your body, your breath, and all your life to him. Speak out praise and thanksgiving to God. Be filled with God’s presence in Jesus’ name. Jackie Calhoun, Lighthouse Church Benton 5-6-21
Tell the Dogs to Get Into the Truck
Rolling down the interstate, I pulled over at the Flying J truck stop to gas up. While I was gassing up at the pumps, I observed a rather large lady, who was parked in a space in front of the building, trying to get one of two of her large dogs into the back seat of her truck. Talking and pointing was not working and pushing and pulling was not working. Finally, with much struggle, getting the front two legs in first, she sort of pushed and pulled and dragged the dog up into the seat of the truck. The other dog was standing by watching the whole show. He was not going in for her either. A man, I’m assuming her husband, walks out of the building and around to her and the dog, and says something. The dog hesitates. He says something again, and by appearances it was said with more sharpness. The dog promptly obeyed and jumped in the seat of the truck.
I think we all understand that we, the people of God, are the hands, the feet, the body, and the very presence of Jesus on the earth today. We also need to understand that we are the expression of faith and the voice of Jesus on the earth today, too. We carry his authority by faith, but we must give expression to that authority if it is going to be effective. Jesus said to speak to the mountains, the dogs of life, the obstacles, the things needed, in order for them to manifest, move, or change. We must know our place of operation in life and voice the authority that is given to us. We are the officers who give the orders. In the morning when I first get up, the first stretch that I do of my series of stretches, is that I get on my knees and bow down with my face to the floor to start loosening my back. It’s also a good position to submit my life to the Lord Jesus for that day with praise, thanksgiving, and making my requests known unto him. Here’s a good way to pray: “Thank you, Lord, for the faith, righteousness, and authority of Jesus put to my account, the wonderful gift that I did not work for. I praise you, and I speak to…“ and, start naming your mountains, and telling them the way it is going to be. You are not asking, you are telling them the way it is going to be. The man did not ask the dog to get into the truck, he told him with authority. Let the man, Christ Jesus who lives in you, do the speaking. You just give voice to him. He does not ask, beg, or plead. He speaks with authority. Tell the dogs to get into the truck. They obey the man of authority. See things move, change, and fall into place in good time. Give God all the praise, glory, and honor.
The Beautiful Archway
We have a seven foot wide metal archway in the middle of our back yard with a knock out rose bush on each side. Extending on each side out from the archway for seven feet is a rectangular brick flower bed the same thickness of the archway, about two feet wide. In those beds, along with the rose bushes, we have planted two more rose bushes that are started from cuttings, along with some petunias, marigolds, periwinkle, and surprise. “Surprise” are those plants coming up, but I’m not sure what. Next to the archway, at the base of the rose bushes, I have planted morning glory to climb up the archway and decorate it with beautiful foliage and flowers. Everything is coming along great, and the more sunny days we get, with the feeding that I am giving it, it will flourish. However, if the morning glory is going to add its glory to the archway, care must be taken to keep the eager, spiraling tendrils out of the rose bush and climbing right on up the archway. If not tended to every few days, you will have a lot of unwrapping to do in a thorny rose bush in order to get it going up the metal structure. If it was not tended to at all, it would be all wrapped up in the rose bush, never reaching its full potential of “glory” adding its beauty to the ornamental metal archway. By keeping it tended to, we will have beautiful green foliage with blue and light purple blossoms enhancing the off white metal archway. This is what we can enjoy for our morning coffee view.
Just as the morning glory is created to reach out and spiral around something that takes it up, so our spirit, our inner man, is created to reach out and wrap around something that will take it up. As the roots go down, the arms go up to embrace that which will offer support for going to the heights so the beauty of the creator can be seen by all. It is when we get all tangled up in the low-lying adjoining bushes that we fail to attain unto that for which we are designed. What Jesus did for us by offering himself as the perfect sacrifice to qualify us to receive God’s life, God’s presence, and God’s blessings, is the structure, the beautiful archway, that will take us to the heights for all to see the work of our Creator and Savior. With confidence, we can reach out to, and cling to, and wrap ourselves around Jesus, and know that he will provide the qualification and strength to carry us throughout our life and beyond. Our part is to make those daily adjustments to keep ourselves clinging to him and not allowing ourselves to be side tracked to anything less than the best for our life. In him, through his Word and Spirit, are life, healing, strength, and confidence. Stay wrapped around Jesus.
If We Do Our Part
Out of sight, out of mind is an often used truism that I have heard all my life. This is especially true concerning home maintenance. I was in the handy man home repair business for many years and it is roof issues and under-the-house issues that go unnoticed and unknown until problems start arising. Then there is an investigation. Preventative maintenance with periodic inspections is a good policy. Most of us don’t do that. We wait for a problem to arise before we look in to it. One frequent, usually yearly issue that I had to address, was roof leaks due to the accumulation of leaves in a valley of the roof or some other place that would catch debris. When the debris builds up, it creates a dam that catches the water so that it finds its way through the shingles down onto the roof deck. If this continues for years, with the accumulated debris never removed, the wood deck of the roof rots and the water finds its way down into the house. A melting volume of snow will do the same thing with some roofs making a one-time leak. The simple solution is to keep the roof valleys and places that catch debris clean. After the leaves fall is a good time to have your roof valleys cleaned. Give yourself a preventative maintenance Christmas present – have all your valleys cleaned before Christmas each year. You are not doing it so others can see your clean roof and say “Oh what a clean roof they have!” No, you are doing it for your own good and benefit.
Our walk with the Lord is much like maintaining a house. If we stay clean before God, we can weather the storms of life with confidence. The Bible says “Beloved if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 John 3:21, 22). Six times the writer speaks of God’s faithfulness in Psalms 89. God is faithful to his Word. If we are doing our part, he will do his part – without fail. We trust doctors, we trust lawyers, we trust the chair we sit on – don’t you think we can trust God? Yes! It’s embarrassing to even ask the question. If the roof is made correctly, and we keep it clean, it won’t leak, we are covered, we are protected. If a limb falls into our life and knocks a hole in our roof, if we are paying attention to things on a daily basis, we call the fixer – upper right away and get the problem resolved. Jesus gave his life so that we can have a heart change, receive the life of God within us, and keep the debris out of our life. Let God show you what you need and take the blood of Jesus for cleansing. God is faithful to help.
How To Shut The Door To Sickness And Death
Shut That Door! 10 March 2021
When kids are playing in and out of the house, the question is often heard, “Who left the door open?”, or, “Shut that door! You are letting flies in!” When kids are playing, they often forget and leave doors open. Let’s not be like children.
The Word of God plainly tells through the Apostle Paul of an open door to sickness and death. Let’s look at the scripture that many people take as meaning that if you take communion with sin in your life it will sicken or kill you.
- Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
- But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
- For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
- For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
The Lord’s supper is given as a positive reminder for us of what we have in Christ. It is given as a life giving lesson by serving to remind us of what we have in Christ. We are to examine ourselves to make sure we are understanding and applying the word and work of the Lord Jesus to our personal lives and situations. To truly reverence the Lord is to embrace his death as payment for our sins and embrace his suffering as payment for our sicknesses in our personal lives.
Paul said, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”. The “cause” is not because we are partaking of the Lord’s supper. In fact, if we are struggling with sin or sickness in our life, it is good to partake of the Lord’s supper as a confession and identification with the Lord for deliverance from sin and sickness. The “cause” has to do with the meaning of “unworthily” and “not discerning the Lord’s body”. “Unworthily” in the Greek means “irreverently.” It means we do not show worth and respect to who Jesus is and what he has done for us. “Discerning” in the Greek means “to separate thoroughly…to discriminate…hesitate.” From this we can see that failure to spend time to properly understand and personally apply what Jesus did for us is the open door to allowing sin and sickness in our lives.
Whether we are partaking of the Lord’s supper or not, if we are not understanding and applying to our personal lives that which Jesus did for us, then we are leaving the door wide open to any sickness that might come along. The act of partaking of the Lord’s supper does not condemn us. It is failure to understand and apply the Word that condemns us to defeat, failure, and sickness.
If we reverence, if we show worth and respect to, if we understand and apply the blood sacrifice of Jesus so that we turn from all sin, then we are not judged with the world for sin. If we reverence, if we show worth and respect to, if we understand and apply the broken body of Jesus so that we accept the Word that says by his stripes we are healed, then we are not condemned with the world to be sick. We are to choose to believe the truth of God’s Word to change things as we are faced with personal sin and sickness. This is reverencing, showing worth and respect, to the things of God. This is conducting ourselves “worthily” or “reverently.” Failure to believe and apply God’s Word is conducting ourselves “unworthily”.
Communion is our statement of agreement with Jesus Christ on our behalf that we are one with him in his perfect, accomplished work in spite of our weaknesses. It is our statement of identity with him instead of identity with sin and sickness. If we are not taking a bold stand with him in this way of identification, we are leaving the door wide open for the “flies” of weakness, sickness, and even death to reign. We are to get understanding and “shut that door” by daily application of the Word to our lives with praise and thanksgiving for victory over sin and sickness .
We apply the Word by embracing it as God’s promise to us personally and speaking it out loud into our life and situation. We “speak to the mountain” in faith with our hearts clear of any unforgiveness, believing those things we say will come to pass, knowing God is faithful to his Word. With this Jesus said the things we desire, when we pray, believe we receive them, and we shall have them (Mark 11:22-26).
We won’t be like children. We shut the door and keep the flies out of God working in our lives for abundance of life and health.
Jackie Calhoun, Lighthouse Church, Benton, AR
Trees of Righteousness
At one time I operated a greenhouse during the years of being landscaper at Ouachita Baptist University. In that operation, in order to grow strong, healthy, plants, the first thing you need is a loose, fine, potting soil that is slightly moist so that it will receive the moisture – good ground. If the soil is too dry, like powdery dry, it won’t receive water. The surface will be wet, but it won’t soak in. There must be plenty of sunlight, but not so much to burn things up – filtered sunlight, hence, the black mesh covering of the greenhouse. There needs to be plenty of air circulation to keep mold and mildew from setting up in the moist environment. There needs to be regular feeding, but not over feeding. If the conditions are kept in an optimal way, the plants are strong and insects and diseases are normally not a major problem. During those years I do not remember using insecticides and fungicides in the greenhouse, and certainly not on a regular basis.
The Bible refers to God’s people as “trees of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3). For us to be good strong plants in a spiritual sense, we must have good soil. We should be humble and loose and pliable in heart, not so proud and set in our knowledge and ways that we are resistant to admitting to wrong and being in error. We need to be open to learn and receive new things and discern that they are things according to the Word of God. That is good, fine, soil. We need plenty of daily exposure to the Son so that we don’t get spindly and weak. Plenty of Son light causes our trunks to grow strong and thick and a good root system developed to support a long season of beautiful blooms. The Spirit is the breath of God. Living daily giving place to the presence of the Holy Spirit is good air circulation to keep down fungal growth in our spiritual life due to stagnation of air movement. Expressing praise, worship, and thanksgiving out loud in your own language and in the language of the Holy Spirit keeps that spiritual air moving in the house for strength and health. Regular feeding on the Word, the Son, trusting the Spirit to reveal the greatness and majesty of Jesus, is the food that brings strength and resistance to all the attacks of the spiritual “insects” that would try to devour your life. Leaves catch the sun turning it into food (photosynthesis). Insects eat leaves thus stopping us from feeding on the Son. When we fail to feed on the Son, Jesus, we have no strength of life. Jesus said man lives by the Word of God. The Word is our life source. To be strong spiritually and physically: fine, moist, enriched, loose soil, Son light, feeding on the Word, and good air circulation, keeping the presence of the Holy Spirit moving in our life. Good, strong, healthy, trees of righteousness.
Like a Duck to Water
Living on a farm, and having ducks, I know first hand that you don’t need to teach a duck to swim. Those little fellas, soon after hatching, take to water like motorized little yellow, fuzzy, corks bobbling around in the water. Little farm animals and fowl are cute little critters, and it is fun to watch their antics and playfulness as they jump into life full force. A few weeks back Barb and I spent at least 12 hours over a period of days assembling a swing set for the little ones to play on in the back yard. Upon completion the grand kids came over, and I was reminded, “like a duck takes to water” kids don’t have to be taught to play on the swing set. Those kids made a bee line for that swing set and knew exactly what to do with it. Then, with all the kids over during our church Easter pot luck and party, the same truism was played out again. My thoughts were, “It was all worth it. Following those directions point-by-point and the frustration involved in making some parts line up together to get the perfect fit – it was all worth it.” Those kids were all over that thing enjoying it to the fullest to Barb’s and my delight.
The Bible says “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5: 17). We all are at different levels of knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, and the Bible says we go from faith to faith. There is growth. When we’ve had a real heart encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, it is not a matter of growth, we are changed inside. We don’t have to be taught to delight in the things of God, we just do. It comes with the new nature. Just like the Apostle Paul, when we truly encounter the Lord Jesus, the religious scales fall from our spiritual eyes and the Lord Jesus becomes our focus in life (Acts 9:17-20). No longer is it a duty to do what is right and shun the wrong. There is a heightened knowledge that comes with the new nature to guide and govern us. The Bible comes alive to us, not as mere stories, historical facts, and laws and precepts to follow to “make it to heaven”. It is the good news of what all God did in order to freely give us the kingdom of God. The Bible becomes the revelation of Jesus Christ to us personally. It becomes our swing set that offers a life time of delight and benefits showing us the unlimited plan, purpose, and power of Jesus Christ for our life, and through the Spirit, this is just the down payment. The full payment is the big swing set in the sky. Jesus paid for and assembled it for us. Receive and enjoy, like a duck to water.