February 2012 I have taken a break from reading the New Testament and for the last month. I have read the Old Testament. I split it into four parts and have taken a week to read each part. Genesis to Ruth ,1 Samuel to Esther, Job to Isaiah, Jeremiah to Malachi. If you are at University and you have completed your first year of study, when you go back to University for the second year you don’t expect to be at the same level as you were when you started. You say to yourself,” I have completed year one, now I am going to a new level, my second year”. Because I know what I have done, I also expect to go to a new level in my second year. If doubts or arguments come against me I just refute them with logic. I have done it. It is finished. I am moving on. I act like a second year student. In your second year at university you are bolder and more confident. You know your way around. You carry more authority, now you are telling first year students where to go and what to do. A few months ago my son Samuel asked me to go with him to a large shopping mall. He said “Dad I want to buy you a new set of clothes because I believe you are going to a new level in life!” Thank you Samuel! At Church recently the pastor said prosperity means going to a new level, his words had real life on them. Here is a letter my son-in-law sent me. Tony, I was reading the gospel of Luke last night and I believe God gave me a word for you. Luke 18:27-39 He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible for God.” Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.” “Yes,” Jesus replied, and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.” I know that you have given up much in your life to follow after God’s purpose and will, that you have had to sacrifice relationship, friendship, money, time and opportunity for the sake of God’s kingdom and purpose. I believe that God will repay you for the faithfulness that you have shown him and that impossibilities will become possible. You have risked much for the kingdom but there is much to be returned to you. Your family, myself included, is incredibly proud and inspired by you and Lorna for the relentless faith that you have demonstrated throughout your life. That is a great letter. It is an encouragement. Thank you Joshua.Here is a key to help you hold on to your new level. Don’t fix your eyes on what you can see. You may see some great results. If you put your confidence in those results you are building on sand. You may get a promotion at work but that promotion may disappear. Then what are you going to believe. Mark 11:24 “Whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” I believe my faith has increased not because of my circumstances. It has increased because the amount of God’s word has increased in my life. How could I be worse off. I have read the New Testament every week for a year. I must be in a better place than when I started especially if you allow the word of God to work in you. It has gone down into my spirit. It has strengthened and encouraged my spirit. Ephesians 5:26 To make her (the church) holy cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. I have been washing myself through the cleansing word of God. Acts 20:32 Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance. I have been built up by the word of God and I want my inheritance in every area of my life and the lives of my wife and children and their loved ones. John 8:32 Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free! John 17:17 Your word is truth. I have spent a year in the truth of God; there must be a change for the better. The bible exposes the lies and distortions that oppose us. Do I sound a bit cranky? You just cannot afford to be passive. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. Right now across Australia people are training for the Olympics. They believe to go to the next level. They don’t believe they are going backwards. When I completed my first year I did look to my circumstances for confirmation. I then realized that I had to believe before I could receive it. So I decided to give myself a promotion of faith. I said to Lorna, “I have gone to a new level of faith.” I believed what I said was true. I could prove it. James 2:18 Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do. I have shown my faith by what I have done. If someone says to me“You haven’t changed much, you look the same to me,” I just say to them “my faith is invisible but my actions are visible, judge me by what I have done. If someone comes up to me and declares they are in their second year of university, I believe them. And I also believe they would be at a better level now than when they began university. Here’s the good news you don’t have to do what I have been doing. What you have to do is believe that every time you read the bible you are gaining ground. Even if you are only reading the bible a little at a time, you should believe that you are being washed and cleansed. You are being built up, you are being strengthened. A little of the bible can go a long way. It depends on what and how you believe. Most people will never do what I am doing. But they can believe what I believe. Every time you read the bible you do go to a new level. When I was in Mildura all those years ago we went through a lot of different phases until we closed the church because it really wasn’t going to work. During this period I felt an urge to spend a lot of time praying in tongues. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:18 “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” After about three months a series of circumstances came about that enabled us to conduct some meetings on Sunday nights. The emphasis was on evangelism and we had a great response. A few of our friends came along and supported us. As we were leaving our house to go to the first meeting we were in our car and about to reverse out of the driveway .We heard the phone ringing from inside the house. Lorna jumped out of the car and got to the phone in time. The lady on the phone was ringing to enquire about the meeting and asked who we were. She had seen our advertisement in the paper. Because of that phone call the lady did turn up to the meeting and she said she could see the glory of God on me as I preached. This lady was a centre of influence in the local area and she told a lot of people to come to our meetings. There was a real sense of the Holy Spirit resting on the worship and the teaching of the word. When the meetings became successful I stopped speaking in tongues, I thought it wasn’t necessary. The times of refreshing lasted about 8 weeks. Then the life slowly lifted off what we were doing. At the time I really didn’t know what part my prayer life played in those two months. But I have always remembered that time of blessing and wondered what could have happened Recently the urge to speak/pray in tongues has returned. Romans 8:26 In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. I have always found that when you are in a small confined place and you want to move to a larger place, the Holy Spirit will pray through you and for you. Job 36:16 He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. So why do I feel to pray in the Holy Spirit at this particular time? At the beginning of February 2012 the church I go to announced a month of prayer and fasting. When Lorna came home from church she also felt to do something in that area. We both decided to fast television for the month of February. That is no big deal! We have no children at home and now we have got rid of the television. An opportunity to pray has surfaced. More prayer can mean more anointing which can mean more happenings. I would love to go to a new level of signs, wonders and miracles because the old level was basically near zero. It always helps to start from a low base because any improvement looks good!
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 02:54:37 +0000
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