And I just began to worship! The pure wonder and joy of seeing creation shout aloud the wonders of our God! I enjoyed a blend of my two favourite worship leaders - Kate Simmonds and Darlene Zschech. What wonderful inspiring prophetic women of God! The lyrics of every song began to stir me again and again;
"So when I see the empty tomb, I realise I am raised with You, forever no seated in heaven!!".
"All the heavens shout Your praise, beautiful in Zion the universe will sing - hallelujah to our King!".
We have been called to contemplate the Cross and to never get away from it but a text from my friend Pete came back to my mind. He wrote;
"The Cross is the legal basis for everything in the New Covenant. It deals with all that stopped us entering in. But it is not the essence of the New Covenant. The essence is life in the Spirit. "I baptise with water, but He will baptised with the Spirit".
Today I am focusing on the empty tomb because it tells me that Jesus Christ is alive and His sacrifice has been accepted gloriously and He is now seated in heaven. Because He is there we may walk in confident authority as ambassadors of the highest government in the universe! With that authority we may become ministers of the Spirit and we may indeed see signs and wonders accompanying our words of the Gospel! That fact - that doctrine - leads me to yet more worship! This wonderful prophetic song from Hillsongs just summed up EVERYTHING I felt surging through me about our wonderful God.
"So when I see the empty tomb, I realise I am raised with You, forever no seated in heaven!!".
"All the heavens shout Your praise, beautiful in Zion the universe will sing - hallelujah to our King!".
We have been called to contemplate the Cross and to never get away from it but a text from my friend Pete came back to my mind. He wrote;
"The Cross is the legal basis for everything in the New Covenant. It deals with all that stopped us entering in. But it is not the essence of the New Covenant. The essence is life in the Spirit. "I baptise with water, but He will baptised with the Spirit".
Today I am focusing on the empty tomb because it tells me that Jesus Christ is alive and His sacrifice has been accepted gloriously and He is now seated in heaven. Because He is there we may walk in confident authority as ambassadors of the highest government in the universe! With that authority we may become ministers of the Spirit and we may indeed see signs and wonders accompanying our words of the Gospel! That fact - that doctrine - leads me to yet more worship! This wonderful prophetic song from Hillsongs just summed up EVERYTHING I felt surging through me about our wonderful God.
"No words son, just ENJOY!!". Allow the truth - the wonderful, freeing truth of this rush through you like electricity this Sunday as you go to worship Him. He is seated and reigning and we bear His righteousness as a free gift! He demands ONLY what He has given!! And He has given so freely and with such lavish grace!! May you receive an awesome baptism of His Spirit and fire this morning that fills your sails of faith and enables you to leap forward into the week with such power that non-Christians say "What is different about you?!".
PS: Note the chorus particularly; "Holy, holy God Almighty and forever the Lord is exalted! Hear the angels shout His anthem! Ever living God we adore You!".
PS: Note the chorus particularly; "Holy, holy God Almighty and forever the Lord is exalted! Hear the angels shout His anthem! Ever living God we adore You!".
8 comments:
You heard God AUDIBLY?? Right.
God is there and He is not silent. His sheep will hear His voice and follow Him.
By the way - a wonderful post!!
Thanks Pete, yes He is NOT silent!! Yes Anonymous, I heard Him audibly and it was so gloriously wonderful!! My eyes were streaming with tears that the Beloved Lover of My Soul didn't just save me and let me get on with life, but He has established a relationship with me! Me?!?! He speaks! He comforts! He directs! He challenges and disciplines!
I don't just have to be satisfied with the perfumed love letters - the Lover, the Author of those letters has manifested Himself to those who seek Him and it is the most gloriously wonderful thing in the world, and like Rob Rufus says, I never want to go another day where He is silent or I will get lonely!!
So yes, anonymous TRULY by His grace and for His glory, I heard Him. I pray you do too! Once you do, you will never be satisfied with anything else! That's my prayer for you! :)
"God in these last days has spoken to us in His Son". Jesus Christ is the FINAL word from God. His sacrifice on the Cross is the final word. There is nothing more to say. The Cross is the end - we must never move beyond the Cross. Anything more we imagine He says is not right.
No one who believes in prophecy would argue that God is adding to what He spoke through His Son "Anonymous" as you know very well. To quote Hebrews suggests you are floundering for arguments, to put it politely. You fellowship with people who claim to be "continuationist" so the question must be turned back on you. Do YOU not believe in prophecy anymore? Do YOU not believe in a personal relationship with God by His Spirit? Get down off your orthodox platform where you feel you are safe firing off heresy-detector questions and answer for yourself for once.
And as for the Mahaney quote (taken from the IVP commentary) about never moving on from the Cross, we have dealt with that sufficiently in previous comments and I don't think it needs be discussed again.
Dan, I think you did a great job with this post! I especially love the quote in green....."the essence of the New Covenant is life in the Spirit" Amen!!!!
and anonymous, you can believe there is no more audible voice of God, but don't tell us we shouldn't believe it!!!!
"God in these last days has spoken to us in His Son". Jesus Christ is the FINAL word from God. His sacrifice on the Cross is the final word. There is nothing more to say. The Cross is the end - we must never move beyond the Cross. Anything more we imagine He says is not right.
I cannot believe the depths to which these comments have sunk. :) ;)
Sorry, I don't mean to be flippant - but that is incredibly bad exegesis. Of course Jesus Christ is the ultimate and final revelation, and we do not add to His work or His sacrifice or His revelation of the person of God.
But nothing in that verse says that God doesn't speak today, bringing a fresh quickening of eternal truths, glorious communications of His love, showers of His blessing and revelations of His glory. He delights to speak!
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