Mary led group in worship…
Mary shared…
Today I want to share something from a book by Charles Finney entitled, “Experiencing Revival.” First I want to read 1st Peter 2:9. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
We are a Peculiar People
If you are filled with the Spirit, you will be called eccentric, and you will probably deserve it. Probably you really will be eccentric. I never knew a person who was filled with the Spirit who was not called eccentric. The reason is that such people are unlike other people. They act under different influences, take different views, are moved by different motives, and are led by a different Spirit. You are to expect such remarks.
I have often heard this remark regarding such a person: “He is a good man, but he is rather eccentric.” I have sometimes asked for specifics. How is he eccentric? Their answer amounts to this: he is spiritual. Make up your mind to be “eccentric.” There is such a thing as false eccentricity, and it is horrible! But there is such a thing as being so deeply imbued with the Spirit of God that you must and will appear strange and eccentric to those who cannot understand the reasons behind your conduct.
Paul was accused of being deranged by those who did not understand the power under which he acted. No doubt, Festus thought he was crazy, that “much learning” had driven him mad (Acts 26:24). But Paul said, “I am not mad … but speak the words of truth and reason” (v. 25). His conduct was so strange, so novel, that Festus thought it must be insanity. But the truth simply was that Paul saw spiritual things so clearly that he threw his whole soul into them. You must make up your mind to do the same thing, and increasingly so, the more you live apart from the world and walk closer to God.
I looked up the scriptures in my Revival Study Bible and here are the notes for Acts 26:24:
If you read the story of the reformation or the testimonies of George Whitfield and John Wesley, you are stuck with a singular spirit that went with the preachers. The world said they were mad. The caricatures drew them as being fanatical beyond all endurance. But their zeal was their power. Of course, the world scoffed at that of which it was afraid. The world fears enthusiasm. The enthusiasm which the love of Christ kindles. The enthusiasm which is kindled by the thought of the ruin of man and by the desire to pluck the firebrands from the flame. The enthusiasm which believes in the Holy Ghost which believes that God is still present with His church to do wonders. This is what the world dreads and what the church wants. Pray for it. Pray to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire. Oh, Lord, send forth this unconquerable spirit. O God, revive Your work.
I found a quote from Wesley Duewel’s Ablaze for God. It says:
Benjamin Franklin confessed that he often went to hear George Whitfield because he could watch him burn before his very eyes. When God gets His flaming Spirit into our personalities, He naturally burns with in us with holy dynamic.
That’s what we all want. Amen? And then I found another thing that goes along with that from the book called “Fueling the Fire.” Wesley Duewel said:
The Holy Spirit revives your spirit, fills you with abundance of life, love, and zeal, and sets you aglow so that you manifest the vibrant, radiant life of God. He will revive your devotion, accelerate your obedience, and fan into flame your zeal.
We have the great gift of God, the Holy Spirit, but we need to hunger more for the manifestation of His presence, and open our hearts constantly in faith’s expectancy for His working, His empowerings and constant enablings in our live. God gives us capacity and the Spirit wants to imbue our whole being with His reality, making us His channels of expression that His holy fire may be constantly visible in us. We must choose whether we will neglect the Spirit, quench the Spirit, or fan into flame the Spirit’s presence.
The Spirit came upon Jephthah (Judges 11:29), and he advanced against strong enemy forces. The secret of advance for God is the same today. The Spirit must come upon us again and again. Slow advance may be caused by our failure to ask and appropriate adequately the Spirit’s power.
There is always a tremendous difference between being a disciple of Christ indwelt by the Spirit, and being clothed with the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit. The Spirit must penetrate and possess all of our being. He must control us in all of His lordship. He must pervade our personality. He must add a dimension of supernatural power. It is not enough for us to say that since Pentecost every Christian has the power of the Spirit. The question is, “Are you and I fully appropriating the power available to us?”
We need a new drenching, a new outpouring of the Spirit upon us. We need again and again to have God’s power descend upon us, enter into us, fill us, and permeate us until we can truly say of our lives, “Not I, but Christ,” and of our ministry, “Not I, but God’s Spirit.”
It is spiritually natural for the Holy Spirit to come upon God’s children again and again, once they have been initially filled with His presence and power. Whenever new special times of need arise, the Spirit is available to empower and fill again. God is delighted to anoint us, empower us, and cause His Spirit to flow through us out to others with their needs. As we walk close to God in obedience to His will and as we seek His face for new enduements, we receive by faith His new outpourings.
Spiritual ministry is dependent upon the Spirit. There is no other way. You can never minister effectively unless you are filled with the Spirit and daily anointed, led, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
To be filled means that the whole personality is so imbued by the Spirit, pervaded by the Spirit, and saturated with the Spirit that the person is not only spiritual but Spirit-full. For you to be Spirit-filled implies that the presence and power of the Spirit rests upon your person clothes you, and is manifest through you.
I love all the different words that describe being filled with the Spirit. Embued is one of them. Those words help you get a better picture of what it looks like.
Prayed…
Father, we go day by day. We’ve been coming together year after year, Father, purposing in our hearts to stay in You and abide in You, staying filled and flooded with You every day. You fill the dryness of every crevice of our being. Father, we desire all that we are, our personality to be a reflection of You. Fill us to overflowing with great purpose. Not for ourselves but to spill out and be a reflection of You, that people would see and say, “My, my, my aren’t they weird, aren’t they eccentric. What is that about them? So unusual. Where are they living?” We’re Your peculiar people, Father. Set apart for Your plan and purpose.
Group enters into worship…
♪ Spirit of the living God, fall afresh upon me… ♪
Prayed…
Now we’re praying for God’s people… let’s start at that place.
Filled and flooded with You, Father… fresh fire from heaven… fresh baptism… set apart and set ablaze… You’re showing them, Father… each one… encouraged… be of good courage… He’s strengthening you… cooperate, cooperate… you will see… cooperate… combination… working together… collaborations… calling for collaborations… working together… the body, all the parts, all the gifts and combinations… calling, calling, calling… come now… respond to the draw… a seeing, a knowing… take hold of that… great days… great opportunities… signs to show forth… you may lay those things down… it’s unprofitable… so get up… get up… it’s time… souls hang in the balance… seek God… seek His face… all the day long… shake it all off now… it’s a command… up, up, up in the name of Jesus… you must cross over… all the way over into the greater… all the way… keys… they open that… that’s it… destination… calling, calling… He calls, He calls… bids you to come now… Come! Come!… sons, sons… the honor… His honor… cooperate…
Mary led group in worship…
♪ It’s the call of the earth… come now… to Me… ♪
Pastor Folu led prayer for America and President Trump…
Father, in the name of Jesus and according to your Word, we pray for those in authority in our nation. We lift up President Donald Trump, his family, his staff, and cabinet members. Let Your Word cling to them, and let them not depart from Your plan. Strengthen them with mighty power by Your Spirit to stand against wickedness, lies, and deception. Guide President Trump’s decisions; let Your light shine upon his path and show him the path of reversal for every evil way. Continually surround him with godly men and women who impart wise counsel to him. Cause the way of the wicked to be set to confusion and come to nothing. Deliver us from the traps and snares the enemy has laid for us, and let the wicked be caught in their own devises and be brought to shame. We take authority over the plots and plans of the enemy against this nation. Let prideful and lying lips be silenced in Jesus’ name. Slanderers will not be established in America. We pray for our congress, our supreme court, our military leaders, and our intelligence agencies. Let the wisdom that is from above reign in this nation and be constantly speaking to our leaders. We exercise the authority You have given us to tread down all the power of the enemy. We cast down and demolish imaginations and arguments that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, and we bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We bind spirits of strife and division, civil wars and tumults, spirits of hostility, lawlessness and blasphemy, and fires from hell that have burned in our cities.
We speak grace and peace over America. We pray and believe for the voice of truth, salvation, revival, and restoration to be proclaimed and heard across our land. Grant unto your servants everywhere that with all boldness we may speak your Word. We pray for a mighty outpouring of your Spirit with signs, wonders, and miracles. We expect the wisdom of this world that is earthly, sensual, and devilish to depart and vanish until Your mighty work in America becomes a beacon of hope for all people everywhere. We expect the voice of rejoicing to be heard in our nation for your goodness, mercy, and prosperity in Jesus’ name, Amen.
