TRANSFORMATION OF THE CHURCH: 1. RESTORATION OF HOLY SPIRIT POWER AND DIRECTION Continued (Part 6)

Today, as we conclude our discussion on the restoration of Holy Spirit power and direction in the church, I simply want to share some of my testimony with you. For I have not always been so keen on the Holy Spirit.

I was brought up in a typical New Zealand Baptist church of the time, where the Holy Spirit was known by name rather than through experience.

My attitudes were typical of my background.

I remember, while at university, being taken to a Pentecostal meeting during a time of revival. I hated it and swore to myself that I would never go again to such a meeting.

A few years later I abandoned the church altogether in favour of the world.

At a moment of desperation in my life, upon bankruptcy many years later, I truly came to accept Jesus as my Saviour and started the ongoing process of making Him Lord also.

At this time my wife, Kathy, was involved with the things of the Holy Spirit, which I again rejected. The Lord had other ideas however! Finally He convicted me (through the Holy Spirit!) that I needed to experience and let the Holy Spirit teach me more.

This revolutionised my life!

From simply understanding the 'words on the page' of the Bible, the Holy Spirit would now reveal the 'words between the lines'. The Bible took on a new depth of meaning that I had previously had no comprehension of.

The Holy Spirit literally wrote the discipleship course, 'Walking With Jesus' while I simply held the pen.

As I grow and mature in His ways He gives the broad revelations that form the foundation of the teachings of this ministry. I then have to research them to fill in the details.

I can testify to the huge difference the release of Holy Spirit power has made in my life. He has brought the Word alive. He has brought me closer to Jesus. He has helped me understand the Father's will for my life more clearly.

My encouragement, my plea even, is that we all make every effort to restore Holy Spirit power and direction to our personal lives and to the life of your church.

This is the necessary first step for the transformation of the church.

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FROM THE WORD

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
"“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” (John 16:5-16)

JESUS AND BEELZEBUB
"Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.” (Mark 3:20-30)

"The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Luke 10:17-24)

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DAVID'S DOODLINGS

VISION
1140. The key difference between a dreamer and a visionary is application.

1141. Perspiration turns dreams into visions.

1142. Praise God when your vision dies for it is one stage closer to fulfilment!

1143. As a flower dies before its seed germinates, so your vision must die, testing your faithfulness, before restoration and fulfilment.

1144. It takes wisdom and discernment to separate our human dreams from God's visions.

1145. Man's pride frequently gets in the way of God's visions.

1146. For visions to be effective, ownership must remain with God.

1147. Without GOD'S vision the people perish.

1148. We are to simply be the conduit for God's visions, not to invent our own.

1149. With vision man we are to be reactive to God, not proactive to self.

1150. We must never place vision ahead of relationship with the ultimate visionary, Jesus.

1151. I am not interested in your vision but excited about the vision God has placed in you.
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CRANWELL'S CARTOON

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the
man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but
you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a helper suitable for him.”

19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts
of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to
the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man
called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man
gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all
the beasts of the field. (Genesis 2:15-20)

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TUESDAY TEACHINGS

A REVELATION OF... GOD'S CALL TO HIS CHURCH continues...

as we look at a change of focus required in 2 areas in the church.

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LAUGHING AT OURSELVES

***Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused***

*** "Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others." ***

656. PRACTICAL MEMORIES
There was a woman who spent some months serving God in Kenya. On her final visit to a remote township she attended a medical clinic. As the Maasai women there began to sing together, she found herself deeply moved by their hauntingly beautiful harmonies. She wanted to always remember this moment and try to share it with friends when she arrived
home.

With tears flowing down her cheeks, she turned to her friend and asked, "Can you please tell me the translation of the words to this song?"

Her friend looked at her an solemnly replied, "If you boil the water, you won't get dysentery."

655. JESUS' GRANNY
The little boy came home from his first day at Sunday School. He told his mother that his Sunday school teacher was Jesus' granny.

"How did you reach that conclusion?", his mother asked.

"Well, she never stops talking about Jesus," he replied.

654. A CROSSWALK?
Daddy was driving with his two little girls safely buckled in the back seat. They came to a crosswalk with a blinking light. As Daddy began to speed up again after getting thru it the younger girl said to her sister, "Do you think Jesus really did die on a crosswalk?"

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FACTS FOR FUN

LAST WEEKS QUESTION: Is it true that the yo-yo was based on a weapon?

ANSWER: Yes. American Donald Duncan thought of the toy after
watching a Philippine yo-yo in action. It was made of large wood disks
and twine and used to hunt animals. The hunter would hurl it at his prey
and the twine would catch the animal by its legs and so throw it to the
ground. The name ‘yo-yo,’ was a word from Tagalog, an Indonesian
language used in the Philippines. Duncan made his yo-yo smaller, but
kept the name. This wasn't really the first yo-yo toy, though. Kids in China
played with similar toys way back as far back as 1,000 BC. (Small things
amuse small minds – and smaller minds notice them!)

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: When did ‘Superman’ first appear in print?

Answer Next Week.

SOME FUN FACTS

618. BULKY SPRINTER
The hippopotamus can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot (120cm) child inside yet can still run faster than a man. (Hippopower heads horsepower handsomely.)

619. PI PLEASE
If you need to remember the formula for ‘Pi’, simply count the letters of each word in the following sentence. ‘May I have a large container of coffee?’ If you are extra polite and say ‘thank you’, you will get 2 further places. (3.141592653 to be exact!)

620. POKER PLEASE
There are 2,598,960 possible five card combinations available when dealing from a deck of 52 cards. (Stop! My memory can’t take it all in.)

A WORD PUZZLE FOR YOU

Make another word from this word using all the letters.

AMBLES

Answer at the end of A David Musing

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BIBLE QUESTION - JUDGES (You be the judge!)

4) Who was Jabin's commander?

A - Sippai
B - Sisamai
C - Sisera
D - Sotai

Source: www.biblequizzes.com

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IF ONLY I'D THOUGHT OF IT!

"""OTHER'S SAYINGS TO ENLIGHTEN, AMUSE, OR BEMUSE"""

!!!!!!! Unless you can create the WHOLE universe in 5 or 6 days, then perhaps giving "advice" to God, isn't such a good idea!

!!!!!! Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, and faith looks up...

!!!!! Words are windows to the heart.

!!!! A successful marriage isn't finding the right person - it's being the right person.

!!! The mighty oak tree was once a little nut that held its ground.

!! Too many people offer God prayers, with claw marks all over them.

! The tongue must be heavy indeed, because so few people can hold it.

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MORE BIBLE RIDDLES

Thought we had done all possible Bible riddles in our last, very popular series. However, I have now found some more for you to enjoy, courtesy of Frank Schaefer of javacasa.com

Q. What was one of the first example of maths in the Bible?
>
>
>
>
>
>
A. God told Adam to go forth and multiply.

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JUST JOKES

339. SPELLING POEM
PC Spelling Checkers have become increasingly common and increasingly important... But are they always everything they're supposed to be? Having read this I can now blame a lot of my mistakes on the spell checker!

Spelling Poem

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

338. THE EMERGENCY
To address an emergency call a doctor came to see a rich patient at his home, who was screaming with extreme stomach pain and was surrounded by many anxious relatives. The Doctor kicked all the relatives out of the room, closed the door with patient and he inside.

After a while he came out and asked, "Please give me a pair of scissors." People gave him stainless steel scissors.

He again went inside, closed the door and soon came back. He said, "Please give me a hammer." He got one.

A number of times he repeated the routine of going inside, closing the door and then coming back again for a new tool.

Finally he came outside one more time and asked, "Please give me a screw driver." The oldest son could not stand it any more and lost his patience. In a crying voice he pleaded, "Doctor please tell us what has happened to our dear Dad. Will he live? Could we open his will?"

The doctor said, "No, I don't know yet... I am still trying to open my stupid bag."

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BIBLE TRIVIA

WORMWOOD.......

is used to symbolise bitterness because of its unique bitter taste. It has many species and although it is shrub, it can grow quite tall.

Although Palestinians thought of bitter things as being poisonous, and so, as symbols of calamity or sorrow, wormwood was actually used as a seasoning, a tonic and a worm medicine.

Adapted from: '1001 Surprising Things You Should Know About The Bible' MacGregor & Prys

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MORE ON COLOURS AND METALS

BLUE:.....Heavenly - Holy Spirit.....Num. 15:38

GOLD:.....Divine Nature.....Rev. 3:18

GREEN:.....Life Everlasting.....I John 5:12

IREDESCENT:.....Overcoming.....Rev. 21:11-19

ORANGE:.....Praise.....I Chr. 23:13

PINK:.....Right Relationships.....Rom. 3:25 & Rev. 19:8

PURPLE:.....Royalty - Kingship.....John 19:2 & Jude 8:26

RED:.....Blood Atonement.....Mat. 27:28 & 15:1-18

VIOLET:.....Invisible - Supernatural.....Eph. 2:7 & Ex. 35:6

YELLOW:.....Shekinah Glory.....Eph. 2:7 & Ex. 35:6

WHITE:.....Purity.....Dan. 12:1O

BLACK:.....Sin - Death.....Jer. 8:21 & Lam. 4:8-5, 1O

SILVER:.....Redemption.....Mat. 27:3-9

GOLD:.....Divine Nature.....Rev. 3:18

BRASS:.....Judgement.....Num. 21:9

WOOD:.....The Root Humanity.....Is. 11:10-11 & Jer. 23:5

COPPER:.....(Same as Brass)

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DAVID'S DOWNLOAD

A REVELATION OF... HOLINESS

A Christian is called to walk towards holiness. While not pretending to give you the complete answer, the 5 examples included here should help you in your understanding of what true holiness is about. And if you so desire, in its application to your life too!

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WAXING LYRICAL

It is so easy to blame the Lord, or others, when things go wrong in our life. Yet the answer is found not in struggle, but in submission. Putting our life in His hands.

LORD - HELP ME!

Now's the time when you are feeling low,
All your effort, with so little to show.
When life is getting on top of you,
God's Word doesn't seem true.
You're looking for a boost,
Chickens home to roost!
Nothing's working,
Life so hurting!
Indescribable!
Unbearable!

"Hey!
Pray!"
"Do I hear,
Voice in ear?"
"Now, listen to me,
One plus two, can be three!
If today, you will let me help you,
Your dreams, they can still come true.
When you rest your all in my gentle hand,
Your horizons, I will again, begin to expand."

Why do we ignore His advice?
Unwilling to pay the price,
Of giving all our being over to Him,
Rather let life's light, grow so dim.

Yes I'm still learning to understand,
Life, when it's placed in His hand,
Will simply, so much better be,
Than if it's only guided by me!

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A DAVID MUSING

We have had a houseful of visitors this week, with New Zealand friends from Tauranga, and Christchurch, and also others from Australia and India! All have been 'roped in' to help with 'Seekers Megamart'! Not sure whether they will come back again!

Special thanks to David (and Kathy) Harris for setting up the necessary electronics for 'Seekers'. And to Beryl (an Aussie married to a Kiwi) and Roger for their friendship and support over many years.

Our international visitors Paul Hudson, (a Kiwi who has lived in Australia for many years) is now an expert not only in God's Word, but also in sorting out a mountain of shoes into pairs!

Asher Peri, our ministry's Indian Representative, is standing beside me as I write this, so I have to say nice things about him! He now knows how to hang clothes on coathangers the right way! (He's not going to tell his wife Karuna though!) It is really good to see Asher again. For I haven't been able to get to India since 2003. Asher now has to visit me here! 2004, 2005, and now 2007.

It is a real change for us to have lots of people staying, but good fun.

So, had better get back to the guests!

Until next week...

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOU BLESS GOD.

His servant and yours

David Tait

Today's 'Word Puzzle' Answer: BLAMES

TODAY'S 'BIBLE QUESTION': Correct answer: Sisera (Judges 4:2)

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ABOUT US

WALKING WITH JESUS MINISTRIES is a non-profit, non-denominational, Bible based ministry located in Hastings, New Zealand. A ministry dedicated to developing discipleship, fostering unity amongst God’s people to achieve the Great Commission, and in doing so, preparing for Christ’s return. It is securely based upon the foundational principles of the Apostles Creed while recognising the wide and rich diversity of beliefs amongst Christians in other areas. In accordance with the Lord’s direction, materials produced by the ministry are available, free of charge, to genuine enquirers upon request. The ministry is solely funded by donations, as the Lord provides. A list of materials available (plus some fun!) is obtainable and freely downloadable from our website
wwj.org.nz or by contacting us as follows.

Walking With Jesus Ministries
290 Flaxmere Avenue
Flaxmere
Hastings
New Zealand

Phone: (06) 8799 911 International (+64) 6 8799 911
Email: enquiries@wwj.org.nz
Web: wwj.org.nz

Our role is to bless and encourage those in ministry while promoting co-operation and unity of direction amongst the body of Christ, as emphasised 3 times by Jesus in His longest prayer, immediately prior to His arrest and crucifixion. "… so that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:12, 21, 23-4) Our website is currently being developed to encourage your participation one with another, to share resources, and to enable you to promote events and items of interest to the body as a whole – and have a smile while doing it!

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