by Tim Cameron | Apr 20, 2016 | HOLY SPIRIT
The disciples had no idea what was really spoken to them in Matthew 28:20. In the upper room they finally experienced the fullness of this “life in Christ”.
The simple truth is, we cannot live the Christian life without the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our attempts to know Christ intimately and be his friend will be but vanity unless we yield to the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that will reveal to us the potentiality of our lives. But, the person of the Holy Spirit has one electric ultimatum, all-inclusive proprietorship of our entire being.
Do you believe Christ’s promise of the Holy Spirit? Embrace this promise—“And God has given us His Spirit as proof that we live in Him and He is us” (1 John 4:13). This promise of the Holy Spirit and being “filled with the spirit” was not something just for the disciples who waited. No, you see in this scripture Paul teaches us that this Holy Spirit is real, empowering, and meant for us every moment of every day! “Let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. Then you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts” (Eph. 5:18-19).
Jesus received the fullness of the Holy Spirit when He was baptized. While Jesus was praying the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and He yielded as a sacrifice to God. Life in the Spirit for Jesus meant prayer, obedience, and sacrifice. If we want a permanent abiding in Jesus Christ that conquers the world, the flesh and the devil, we must be led by the Spirit and live a life with our Father in prayer and service.
We must be simple people who merely believe passionately in Jesus Christ. This simplicity and passion will deal a deathblow to self and everything the enemy can muster. Through prayer and the indwelling Holy Spirit, this passion and simplicity will win the victory.
Is your life in Christ everything to you? Jesus made that promise, “And be sure of this: I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). He could not have meant anything less than, “I am with you every waking moment, every sleeping moment. I am the divine antidote to everything in your life. I am your life. I am your joy. I am your strength.”
by Tim Cameron | Mar 20, 2016 | Holy Spirit
Passion is the power that moves our world and directs the course of our lives. Passion is the soul of prayer. If there is insufficient prayer in our lives it is because we lack passion or our passion is misplaced. If you look at your life and judge whether your desire has been wholehearted, as God would have it, you may see that a lack of passion has caused the failure.
God’s word is true for each one of us. “If you search for me with all your heart you will find me when you seek me” (Jeremiah 29:13).
We may have a strong desire for spiritual blessings. However, alongside them are other passions that occupy a large place in our interests. Our spiritual passion is not all absorbing. And we are puzzled why our prayers are not heard. God wants our whole heart.
Many of us desire the gift of intercession and power to call down God’s blessing on others. Simply put, we must give up other passions and give ourselves wholly to God. Sports, hobbies, movies/TV, and on, all of these distractions and misplaced passions keep us from being wholly given to God in prayer. The first step to take toward possession of intercession is giving up our “other” passions and gives ourselves completely to God through prayer.
The Lord Jesus more than once asked those following him what they wanted. We must cry out for the desire to pray and intercede. We do not inherently have the strength for this task. If you want God to bestow on you the gift of faithfulness in prayer, you must declare this to yourself and God. Continually cry out to Him and ask for the Holy Spirit to stir up the passion in your life for the grace of prayer and intercession.
by Tim Cameron | Mar 15, 2016 | Holy Spirit
What kind of life does a person have to lead to pray and see God answer prayers? Is there something a person has to do to receive what is prayed for?
Here’s the short of it. Power in prayer depends on the life we live. When our life is in line with God’s Word our ways are pleasing to Him, and the Holy Spirit will teach us how to pray. We will see answers to prayer. The scriptures are all to familiar:
“If you stay joined to me, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted” (John 15:7). And in James, it is the prayer of a righteous man that “has great power and wonderful results” (James 5:16).
So, what must we do? The answer is as unassuming as it is guileless, we must live as a branch totally depending on the vine for our strength. All power comes from the vine. You see the branch has but one purpose, to produce fruit. Followers of Jesus live to bear fruit and bring glory to God. With this life of abiding comes the grace to pray in the spirit and receive whatever we ask.
The Father seeks fruit from out lives. He is the vinedresser. God Himself takes on the responsibility to see that we are all we should be. He is the one who prunes so more fruit will be produced. Pray and let the Holy Spirit take the snips to your life.
My earthly father taught me that no fruit-bearing plant like the grapevine produces so much “wild wood”. It must be pruned severely every growing season. Any branch that desires to bring glory to the Father and produce much fruit must submit itself to the vinedresser. All this wild wood pulls away the strength of the vine and hinders the growth of fruit. It is the luxurious, good for nothing wild wood that must be pruned and thrown away.
What is it in your life that saps away your strength and produces ornamental trappings good for nothing? It must be pruned! It is abiding in the vine and seasonal pruning that produces a life that can pray.
by Tim Cameron | Jan 27, 2016 | Holy Spirit
Quote for today
Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Provoking Thoughts on Prayer
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Eph. 6:18
As we go on in intercession we may find that our obedience to God is going to cost other people more than we thought. The danger then is to begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting to a totally different sphere in answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from identification with God’s interests in others into sympathy with them, the vital connection with God has gone. We have put our sympathy, our consideration for them in the way, and this is a deliberate rebuke to God.
It is impossible to intercede vitally unless we are perfectly sure of God, and the greatest dissipater of our relationship to God is personal sympathy and personal prejudice. Identification is the key to intercession, and whenever we stop being identified with God, it is by sympathy. Sympathy with ourselves and with others will make us say – I will not allow that thing to happen. Instantly we are out of vital connection with God.
Intercession leaves you neither time nor inclination to pray for your own sad sweet self. The thought of yourself is not kept out, because it is not there to keep out; you are completely and entirely identified with God’s interest in others lives.Discernment is God’s call to intercession, never to fault finding.
Oswald Chambers
by Tim Cameron | Jan 27, 2016 | Holy Spirit
Article in Community Spirit Magazine. Tom McCloud publisher
