Apr. 22, 2009 - Gift of Healing

GIFT OF HEALING

“to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,” 
–   1 Corinthians 12:9 [emphasis added]

Meaning: To restore to health.

Description:  The gift of healing is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to serve as human intermediaries, through whom it pleases God to cure illnesses and restore people to wholeness.

Theory	Practice
1 Corinthians 12:7-9	Mark 2:1-12
1 Corinthians 12:28-30	Luke 10:33,34
James 5:14,15	Acts 3:1-16

People with this gift:

pray with and care for those who are ill or distressed; have a deep sense of compassion, and want God to bring about restoration to the sick and diseased; authenticate a message from God through healing; use it as an opportunity to communicate a biblical truth and to see God glorified; pray, touch, or speak words that miraculously bring healing to one’s body.

A person with this gift is usually:
Compassionate	Prayerful
Humble	Responsive
Full of faith	Spiritual
Obedient	Hopeful

People with this gift:

need to remember that it is not always their faith or the faith of the sick that determines a healing, but God who determines it; need to realize that God does not promise to heal everyone who asks or is prayed for; should remember that Jesus did not heal everyone who was sick or suffering while He was on earth.

Nov. 21, 2008 - Four Ways to Learn

• Hearing - 3.9%
• Seeing - 18.2%
• Doing - 70.1%
• All the above with REPETITION - 92.2%

Nov. 1, 2008 - Baptism of the Holy Spirit

What does the baptism in the Holy Spirit do for you?

You speak to God. 

"For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries" (1 Corinthians 14:2).

You are edified or charged up spiritually.

"He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church" (1 Corinthians 14:4).

"But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit," (Jude 1:20).

You are to pray --- sing in your prayer language.

"For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding" (1 Corinthians 14:14,15).

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:16)

"speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord," (Ephesians 5:19).

When you put on the armor of God, you are instructed to pray in your prayer language.

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:10-18).

When you don't know how to pray properly about a situation, you can pray in the Spirit.

"Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26,27).

You may be used in the gifts of the Spirit.

"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: you know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills" (1 Corinthians 12:1-11).

The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the rest and refreshing promised in Old Testament prophesy, promised by Isaiah hundreds of years before Pentecost.

Your prayer language is a permanent gift, but the gifts of the Holy Spirit are supernaturally given to individuals as the Spirit wills; so we cannot claim any permanent gifts of the Holy Spirit.

You may be used in a church in a ministry gift.

"And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:28-31).

According to Corinthians 13, love is a more excellent way to use the gifts.

May. 16, 2008 - WHERE WE ARE AT IN CHILDREN’S MINISTRY TODAY - Part One

In July 1780, Robert Raikes organized a Sunday school in England primarily for the children of poor families who were forced into labor fields to help support the family. They could not go to schools and hence they had no education. This produced a poverty cycle that continued generation after generation. With the Holy Bible, paper and pencil, these children were taught how to read and write on there only day off. This was the beginning of The Sunday School Movement that eventually hit United States in 1790’s.

Robert Raikes did hear from the Holy Ghost because of the wonderful fruit that the Sunday school Movement produced. However, it is time for a change. The children of today are not the same as two hundred years ago. It is time to change the wineskins. It is time to take notice of what is happening within our Church walls.

It is no wonder the average thirteen year old, in a Bible believing churches, thinks he knows everything there is to know about God and has no further purpose going to Church. The same 13 year old will also tell you he as never heard the voice of God nor felt His presence. We need to be asking ourselves, why is this happening?

We have been doing the same thing for over two hundred years. We expect the children to come into a ‘classroom’, sit down with a pencil, periodicals and a Bible in hand. Many children view Sunday School as boring after all the hard work was put into teaching the lessons. The real tragedy is what happens as a result of this. According to a recent study from Barna Group reveals once children reaches thirteen to seventeen years of age the numbers who continue attending church dwindles dramatically and an alarmingly small number of these teenagers actually take Jesus with them through out High School.

There is nothing more boring than church without the Power and the Presence of the Living God!!

We need to rethink the way we have done Children’s Church in the past! We need curriculum that the core value is bringing children into the presence of the Living God and exposing them to the supernatural. How many ways can we repackage Noah’s Ark? We have this limited amount of things we think the children can handle and keep giving to them over and over again and then we wonder why they leave the church.

We must take Children’s Ministry to the next level as we could die out as a evangelical community in less that a generation.

Seventy percent of the boys and girls in a Bible-Believing Churches will leave the church when they come of age and to never step foot in Church again. We must ask ourselves what is wrong with this picture! When on the other side of the world, children are ready to die for what they believe in.

Hitler knew the value of children. Hitler Youth Movement called for all the children age 10 and older. This movement was an extension of Hitler’s belief that the future of the country was its children. The Hitler Youth Movement succeeded in mesmerizing an entire generation of with the NAZI ideology.  It was this generation that he raised who carried out without question the barbarities of the Holocaust. The scary thing here is some of these children are alive today and are still Nazi’s at heart.

The Catholics knew the value of children as well. The Old Catholic saying goes, “give me a 7 year old and we have them for life.”

The Communist said the same thing. Communist may have fallen in Russia, but there are many communist there today because that is who they are…. In spirit, soul and body! Whatever you put into the heart and mind of a child when he is a small child is what he carries with them all the days of their life.

There is a difference between salvation (knowing that you are going to heaven) and being a Christ-follower. We all have issues in life, even those who were raised in Christian homes. But, as Christ-followers we have the tools that are needed to overcome the issues of life.

Our belief systems are formed during childhood. By the time a child reaches seven to nine years old their moral values are already in place. We have to put the right things into the children now in order for them to handle the issues of life as a child, as a teenager, and even as an adult. Jesus called for the children, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”