initial salvation. Following that encounter I had a great driving passion for genuine Holy Spirit revival in Canada. That was almost 35 years ago now. That passion remains to this day.
Hellen Keller, was the first "blind deaf" person to receive a College doctorate. She is quoted as saying, "The only thing worse than being blind is to be able to see and yet have no vision."
Pr. 29:18 tells us that where there is no prophetic vision people cast off restraint. In other words when people, God's people, loose sight of His "present day purposes" then we're prone to just go about life with a humanistic understanding. It's not that we're without religion as such, just without God's power and blessing.
The liberal, modern theology, of our user friendly Christianity has lead us into a spiritual "black hole" which purposes to suck all the life right out the Church.
There's no doubt that the Church in Canada is presently living in an incredable void of God's manifest presence and power. That's fact, but that's not the end! Jesus, "I will build My church and the powers of darkness will not prevail against it." (Mt. 16:18)
I don't know about you but I'm choosing, in Jesus name to be identified as one of those who seek God and look to Him to bring a great spiritual awakening among God's people in Canada. Why not? Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He still loves people and wants the best for them!
There is great hope in our God. It can be realized!
Unless otherwise stated Scripture quotes are from the ESV
evangelassemblysussex@gmail.com
I had a very personal and deep
experience with the Holy Spirit about six months after my
I'm convinced that we're in greater need for revival now than we were 35 years ago.
Jesus left the glories of heaven "on assignment". Heb. 10:7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. He lived with purpose, focus and vision. he never spent a day wondering what it was all about. He was here on earth to do His Father's will.
John 17 records what is commonly called the High Priestly Prayer. This records Jesus "pre-cross' prayer to His Father and in it are a number interesting observations. The one that catch my attention is Jesus "pre-cross" fulfillment of His earthly assignment. Let's look at it.
Jn. 17:4 - I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
It's interesting to note that Jesus' accomplishments at this point are pre-cross. Clearly Jesus was sent to earth to do a work for the Father that included the cross but was not limited to the cross.
Two Scripture in the High Priestly Pray of Jesus in John 17 strongly suggest that Jesus was sent to earth to reveal, declare, manifest, make visible and known the person, nature and character traits of the invisible Father who is in heaven.
Jn. 17:6 -"I have manifested your name to the ..........people whom you gave me out of the world.
Jn. 17:26 - I made known to them your name, ..........and I will continue to make it known.
Jesus life on earth was a time in which the Father was revealing Himself to the world through His Only Son. Jn. 1:18 - No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. Jesus said to the disciples in Jn. 14:9 - ... Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Jesus fully and accurately represented the Father in every way. Heb 1:3 - He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, The NIV says, "the exact representation of his being" and the NLT says that Jesus "expresses the very character of God". Clearly the message here is that through Christ we get a perfect expression of the Father. We get a clear and accurate picture of what God is all about through the Lord Jesus.
The work Jesus accomplished prior to the cross that pleased the Father was His accurate representation of God. Jesus is then the ultimate revelation of the Father expressed through physical human form. Clearly through Christ the One and Only invisible God was expressing Himself to humanity. Through Christ we see God.
Jn. 20:21 - As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.
Jesus said something in John17 that carries with it pretty major implications. Implications that we need God's help to understand and receive. Jn.17:18 - As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. This is reaffirmed for us in John 20:21. These are not only words spoken to the original twelve apostles. These are words, God's words to every Believer. Jn. 20:21 - Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."
As Jesus was sent to accurately express God's person for are we. When Jesus was on earth people were able to see God in Christ and now that He's in heaven, at the Father's right hand, people are to see God in us. It is the Believers who represent God in the earth today. It is Christian privilege and responsibility to accurately express and represent the Lord Jesus Christ. Pretty tall order! Nevertheless it's what we're to be all about inside and outside the Church.
2 Cor. 2:14 -
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession
It's great to have goals and objectives in life. Wow, here's one that can be both awesome and fearful at the same time. Awesome, to realize God's call upon us yet fearful as to how this is to be accomplished. Eventually all honest Believers are brought to the same point as the Apostle Paul and they find themselves saying exactly the same words he did. Rom. 7:18 - For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. Clearly our works of righteousness aren't going to get the job done that's for sure. We must look away from humanism in its various disguises. We must learn to look to Jesus who is the Author and the Perfecter of our faith. We must learn to trust in power of the Holy Spirit to produce in us the "life of Christ", the fruit of the Holy Spirit as described for us in Gal. 5:22,23.
The demands are not upon God's people to produce Christ-likeness but rather to allow it. That choice and that challenge is unavoidable as a New Covenant Believer. Life for us is all about change. It's all about the "old self" dying off, being crucified and the "new self", the life of Christ having dominion in us. This is accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit yet is something that requires our personal involvement with. It involves choices and this is something God will not do for us. Oh, He will always encourage us to choose "new life" but He'll never force Himself upon us. To this the Apostle Paul would say, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Ph.4:13) Paul understood both the possibilities and the power source. We need to see this for ourselves. We need to see this for the "here and now". We need to see this for the Church in Canada.
