One AWESOME Revelation from Joseph Prince!!

I wasn't very happy last night. I forgot my IPOD and so couldn't spend the hours from 02:00 to 06:00 when it's usually quiet transcribing the glorious messages of Rob Rufus! But it actually worked out pretty well - and I wonder if it was a divine coincidence in light of my last blog. It was as though my heavenly Father was having a laugh at my expense and making me sit quietly just reading. Because fortunately I had taken Joseph Prince's book; "Destined to Reign". So I finished reading it last night and WOW am I glad I reached the end!

He shared something so profound and so obvious that I sat back and laughed out loud to myself. I - who prided myself on being well-taught in the Word - had totally missed this! My doctor of theology senior pastor never preached this! But here it is!

"As I was reading these Scriptures one night, the Lord asked me; "Why did that man have great faith?". I immediately replied that it was because he, being a Roman centurion, was a man of authority and thus understood the authority of the Lord Jesus. I was confident of my reply, having been taught that to have great faith, we need to understand the Lord's authority and the authority He has given to the believer.

The Lord said to me; "Good and what about the other person who I said had great faith?". He was referring to the Syro-Phoenician woman who had a demon-possessed daughter ... The Lord continued; "Well if the centurion had great faith because he understood authority, what about this woman? She was not a soldier - she was a homemaker". Now the Lord had got me there ... then the Lord said to me; "Son, look for the common denominator between these two people and you will discover the secret to great faith".

Boy I was excited! I was about to discover the secret to having great faith! But after more than half an hour, I was still sitting in my study, searching for the common denominator. I was searching and searching to no avail. I simply could not find the answer. Finally my "lightning-fast" mind told me I should ask the Lord for the asnwer. So I said; "Lord, You have to show me because I cannot see it".

Then the Lord said this to me; "Both were Gentiles. They were not Jews. One was a Roman and the other a Caananite. Both of them were not under the law of Moses and therefore they did not disqualify themselves. They were not under condemnation and so they could have great faith to receive from Me".

Do you know that there is a verse in Galatians that says; "the law is not of faith?". In Romans, it also says, "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is of no effect". So clearly there is no way we can give people the law and yet expect them to have faith. The law will disqualify them from receiving any blessing from the Lord. It is only faith in His grace that will qualify God's people and cause them to have great faith to receive what they need from the Lord".

You might be asking quite rightly; "But what is faith?". Because the word can be understood in many ways. Perhaps the health-wealth-prosperity preachers have given the word a bit of a bad name. But despite the excesses I think they may have taken the word "faith" to - I still think they started off in their teaching with a point. Joseph Prince defines faith thus;

"Faith is not trying to make something that is not already there happen. Faith is bringing out of the spirit realm what is ALREADY there, what is ALREADY true of you. I am not telling you to confess something you are not".

And note this especially. It was so awesome I had to text it to Pete Day at some unearthly hour of the morning! And if I could have got online to blog it - I would have!

"Whether you confess that you are the righteousness of God in Christ or not, you are still the righteousness of God in Christ. But when you confess it, you become concious of it. You sense it and it becomes powerful and real in your life. You do not confess that you are righteous IN ORDER to become righteous. You confess you are righteous BECAUSE you are ALREADY righteous! ... That's not having faith in faith. It is faith in His goodness - faith in His grace".

Driving home with a big grin on my face looking stupid is becoming something of a habit only this morning I was repeating; "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus"! Oh and if you are wondering why I've put a couple of pictures of Darlene Zschech worshipping - it's because my response to these revelations is worship and adoration at His great grace. And no one sums up a posture of worship like this amazing woman - who is one of my favourite worship leaders along with Kate Simmonds! The Australians have certainly discovered the key to worship.

Miracle Faith, Rob Rufus and John Piper

I just simply can't resist taking time out from transcribing "Invading the Impossible - Part 9" to highlight the odd few key quotes here. I hope that by doing that it will ensure that they are not missed when the entire sermon is published finally some time this week! I have just been amazed by the feeling of being on an ascending escalator in accompanying City Church International with Rob Rufus as he preaches through this "Invading the Impossible series". He repeats similar truths quite frequently but in the past my eyes would glaze over if someone said something like; "We will never move beyond the Cross". Now I see it! This Gospel being preached is truly God's POWER not just to get us to heaven but for daily living here and now and as Rob himself says;

"Folks there is NO distinction between the righteousness to get you to heaven and the righteousness to get heaven to you".

Before I post the various quotes from Rob on this awesome truth of FAITH - I just wanted to draw attention to John Piper's latest book; "The Future of Justification - a Response to N T Wright". I read it rather reluctantly because I am trying to limit my reading to a "grace diet" - but I did have a week's holiday and so fancied something Piper-ish. To begin with I had great sympathy with what N T Wright was saying but as I got into the content of the book, I was amazed at some of John Piper's masterful unpacking of the truths of justification. And how similar he sounds to Rob Rufus!

I posted a whole host of quotes here - but here's a few that grabbed my attention particularly.

Piper on radical, grace living:

"What makes radical, risk-taking, sacrificial, Christ-exalting works of love possible is the fact that Christ's perfect obedience (counted as our righteousness) and Christ's perfect sacrifice (counted as our punishment) secured completely the glorious reality that God is for us as an omnipotent Father who works all things together for our everlasting joy in Him".

Piper on the ONLY hope for Christian living:

"Our only hope for living the radical demands of the Christian life is that God is totally for us now and forever. Therefore, God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us. That basis is the death and righteousness of Christ, counted as ours through faith alone. On the cross Christ endured for us all the punishment required of us because of our sin. And in order that God as our Father, might be completely for us and not against us forever, Christ has performed for us, in His perfect obedience to God, all that God required of us as the ground of His being totally for us forever".

Piper on the ONLY way righteousness is given to us:

"Imputation is not the conferring of a status without a ground of real imputed moral righteousness. It is the counting of an alien, real, moral, perfect righteousness, namely Christ's as ours".

How awesomely wonderful! I was pleasantly surprised to read a book I thought would be a simple engaging in debate with a fellow theologian - but found my faith was re-inforced by reviewing again the truths of justification ... by faith. Faith! Faith is something I have struggled with as a Christian. In the past I have walked the Christian life by legalism, rules and regulations. Indeed I was once told that I had to go to church - not because I wanted to, but because I MUST. I was assured that the desire to go to church would follow after. I read my Bible by laws, rules and regulations. But faith was somehow absent.

So I found it thrilling that Rob Rufus dealt with this issue of faith - and HOW TO GET IT - in "Invading the Impossible - Part 9". Here's what he had to say (and incredibly this wasn't his main subject in the sermon! He was dealing with reigning in life!).

"How do you enter into reigning to invade the impossible? By resting in the gift of God's righteousness. How do you rest in the gift? By developing your faith more and more and more in the fact that you are currently, right now, irreversibly, perfectly the righteousness of God!"

And then;

"The more your faith in this righteousness grows, the more you rest and the more you enter into rest, the more and more you enter into reigning. And the more you reign, the more you invade the impossible and the more you invade the impossible, the more the Lord is glorified and the more exciting and fulfilling your life becomes".

But then of course the question comes - well how do we grow in faith? Rob has an answer;

"But you see faith has to grow and how does faith grow? Does faith grow by someone laying their hands on you? Not at all. I wish it did. I would ask the greatest men and women of faith to put their hands on my head and then I could walk in faith. No faith is not given that way. Romans 10:17 says; "Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God". So there is something you can do about little faith. You can hear and hear about the gift of righteousness and the more you hear the gift of righteousness, the more your faith increases! When faith in righteousness increases, the more peace and rest increases and the more they increase, the more reigning and ruling increases and invading the impossible increases!".

Faith comes by hearing - and hearing by the Word of God! It is so incredibly simple! Isn't it?!

"So faith comes by hearing the Word of God - but faith goes by hearing the word of law, rules and religion. Faith goes by just watching TV or hearing bad news. Faith goes by listening to backslidden Christians who are bitter and twisted and cynical and unimpressed and oppressed".

What we hear REALLY does matter! If we take time to listen to the Word of God, to hearing positive grace messages then we grow. But if we spend our time listening to TV and other things - our faith goes. It decreases! Rob goes on;

"Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Any person on the planet who is walking with faith - you know they are listening to CD's, that someone is listening to tapes and DVD's on a regular basis - because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith goes by not hearing and hearing the wrong things. Faith is like Vitamin C - you cannot store it for long. You take it today and you are going to need to take it tomorrow because you don't store it for long. Faith can be used today but it will need to be replenished by hearing and the hearing of the word of righteousness.

Because when you use your faith to see a miracle happen, you use your faith for a marriage problem or for a demand or a challenge, then that faith is depleted. And you know that if you keep drawing out of your bank account without putting back in then the day will come when they will say if you keep drawing out of your bank account then you will go to jail. Do you know what a nervous breakdown is? A nervous breakdown is a sign that you are in a faith overdraft and there is nothing left in their account because they have not put faith back in. Faith comes by daily hearing the Word of God".

I heard this and realised that so often I leave myself in a "faith overdraft"! We need faith DAILY! Yet I realised that if I listen to one sermon mid-week I am wrongly proud of myself because it isn't Sunday! We need to be listening to faith-building resources DAILY! Not just any old sermons. And certainly not in a legalistic manner! Faith-building sermons! Sermons that you finish and sit back with your faith bubbling away because the Word of God has been expounded in Spirit and in power!

Finally Rob said;

"If your outflow of faith exceeds your income of faith - then your upkeep is going to be your downfall".

Rob then moves into the bulk content of his sermon about reigning in life - and so I will post these quotes with the hope that they are encouraging! I hope the point is clear - let's be careful what we listen to. Let's guard our ears! There is a reason I am positive why Ephesians mentions that the piece of spiritual armour for our heads is the "helmet of salvation". What truth will better guard our minds and our heads and our thoughts than the knowledge that;

"By developing your faith more and more and more in the fact that you are currently, right now, irreversibly, perfectly the righteousness of God!".

Quoting on a Spirit-Filled Blog

A few days ago I shared some thoughts entitled, "The Ethics of Spirit-Filled Blogging" but I realised that I didn't say much about quoting. Quoting is almost a given in Christian blogging I think. Abraham Piper wrote an extremely helpful post recently called "Tips for Better Blogging" which I read with great interest and he made this point;

"With discretion, link to anything that will support your content. It's good when a link itself gives some idea what you will find at the other end. So, as a rule, it’s most user-friendly to connect links to meaningful words rather than words like “this” or “here.”

I realise that doesn't directly refer to quoting but I think I will be forgiven for seeing the two as closely linked. What interested me however was that phrase, "With discretion". I have come across a blog or two where the entirety of their posts consist of something like this; "This is a great post ...". They then go on to reproduce the entire body of the text of the original blog that they read from. I can't quite understand that and it puts me off that blog. If I want to read the said "great post" then I will follow the link they should have provided and read it for myself on the original blog. What I am interested in is exactly why that person thinks it's such a great post and whether there is anything that person disagrees with and again why.

To me, all that a blog full of quotes shows is that the blogger reads a lot. That's a good thing. But it doesn't show me whether he digests what he reads a lot. That's a bad thing.

I was in a church once where the pastor was in the habit of re-preaching sermons he had heard his heroes preach. And when I say "re-preach" I mean the lot. Even the illustrations and jokes were reproduced. Afterwards I heard a lady go up to him and ask him if she could get the tape of the original sermon. He wasn't particularly pleased but I saw her point. If I was to re-preach an Ern Baxter sermon (and I have done it once at our Full Faith church to my shame. Mark and Steph were very gracious!) it wouldn't be very good. Why? Because I am not Ern Baxter and I don't have the anointing that he had to preach a sermon like he did. The Bible says, "To each has been given". Doesn't that mean we've all got unique giftings and while we can draw on our heroes like Terry Virgo or Ern Baxter or John Piper or Gordon Fee we don't try and "be" them and certainly don't jam our blogs full of them and purely them.

I love the way that C H Spurgeon used to describe quotes. He called them "Smooth Stones from Ancient Brooks". What he meant was that a quote can be like a carefully selected stone by David used to kill Goliath. So we choose our quotes carefully and then comment on why that quote means so much to us. Abraham Piper had a really good point which convicted me;

"After I’m done writing, I go back and pretend I have to pay $100 for every word. Seriously".

Finally I think that we don't necessarily have to always quote Reformed scholars to make our blogs good. As I mentioned recently I have been spending a lot of time reading a selection of Charismatic books from the 1970's and 80's and I don't think Bryn Jones or Gerald Coates would have dreamt of describing themselves as theologians. But their writing remains prophetic and deeply challenging. Therefore here's a few quotes that have really struck me!

"It is my conviction that recognising apostles and prophets and letting them function will yet prove the most important restoration breakthrough of our time" - Arthur Wallis - "The Radical Christian".

"The baptism in the Holy Spirit and the fullness of the Spirit are directly related to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Agreeing that we need to be filled with the Spirit will not disturb anything - but once you are filled, anything and everything but God and His Word will be disturbed. He cannot change the future without disturbing the present" - Gerald Coates - "Divided We Stand?" - Kingsway (p116).

"Worship is like a river - it flows. It is not a stagnant pool but a flowing experience. As you pour your heart into the river of praise and worship, so others are provoked to do the same until, from all together there swells a fragrant song of love to God from the hearts of His people" - Bryn Jones - "Worship - A Heart for God" - Harvestime (p48).

Why do I share those quotes?

Really because they are bothering my heart at the moment. They are deepening my hunger for an increased restoration of these things in God's church. "Letting apostles and prophets function" - what else can explain why I get so excited when I see that Terry Virgo is going to be meeting Tyrone Daniels of NCMI? "Agreeing we need to be filled will not change anything" - doesn't this sound familar to Jesse and my discussion and concern with the term "Continuationism"? And as for the worship quote ... well that's one of the things I am most looking forward to being at "Together on a Mission"! Being led by the wonderful Kate Simmonds and Simon Brading and really and truly experiencing the torrent of the river that is worship there.

So let's carry on quoting! After all C H Spurgeon was adamant - we must read. And if we read, let's quote and share what we've been reading. But as Abraham Piper said, let's do so with discretion and share our hearts. After all these are our blogs designed and written for the glory of God and the extension of His Kingdom!