VIDEO Come Holy Spirit Now

Sept 30, 2011

City Harvest Church

VERSE:
Come Holy Spirit fall on me now
I need Your anointing come in Your power
I love You Holy Spirit, You’re captivating my soul
And everyday I grow to love You more

VERSE:
Come Holy Spirit fall on me now
I need Your anointing come in Your power
I love You Holy Spirit, You’re captivating my soul
And everyday I grow to love You more

CHORUS:
I’m reaching for Your heart
You hold my life in Your hands
Drawing me closer to You
I feel Your power renew
Nothing compares to this place
Where I can see You face to face
I worship You in Spirit and in truth

VERSE:
Come Holy Spirit fall on me now
I need Your anointing come in Your power
I love You Holy Spirit, You’re captivating my soul
And everyday I grow to love You more

CHORUS:
I’m reaching for Your heart
You hold my life in Your hands
Drawing me closer to You
I feel Your power renew
Nothing compares to this place
Where I can see You face to face
I worship You in Spirit and in truth

CHORUS:
I’m reaching for Your heart
You hold my life in Your hands
Drawing me closer to You
I feel Your power renew
Nothing compares to this place
Where I can see You face to face
I worship You in Spirit and in truth

CHORUS:
I’m reaching for Your heart
You hold my life in Your hands
Drawing me closer to You
I feel Your power renew
Nothing compares to this place
Where I can see You face to face
I worship You in Spirit and in truth

ENDING:
I worship You in Spirit and in truth
I worship You in Spirit and in truth
I worship You in Spirit and in truth

Hearing God

Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:10

I felt like I was underwater, sounds muffled and muted by a cold and allergies. For weeks I struggled to hear clearly. My condition made me realize how much I take my hearing for granted.

Young Samuel in the temple must have wondered what he was hearing as he struggled out of sleep at the summons of his name (1 Sam. 3:4). Three times he presented himself before Eli, the high priest. Only the third time did Eli realize it was the Lord speaking to Samuel. The word of the Lord had been rare at that time (v. 1), and the people were not in tune with His voice. But Eli instructed Samuel how to respond (v. 9).

The Lord speaks to His children, but we need to discern His voice.

The Lord speaks much more now than in the days of Samuel. The letter to the Hebrews tells us, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets . . . but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (1:1–2). And in Acts 2 we read of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (vv. 1–4), who guides us in the things Christ taught us (John 16:13). But we need to learn to hear His voice and respond in obedience. Like me with my cold, we may hear as if underwater. We need to test what we think is the Lord’s guidance with the Bible and with other mature Christians. As God’s beloved children, we do hear His voice. He loves to speak life into us.

Open our eyes, Lord, that we might see You. Open our ears, that we may hear You. Open our mouths, that we might speak Your praise.

The Lord speaks to His children, but we need to discern His voice.

By Amy Boucher Pye

How God Works

Genesis 45:3-8

God has been at work since verse one of the Bible, and He is still orchestrating events involving nations, families, and individuals. While He uniquely tailors His plan for individual lives, our Father wants all people to come to saving faith. And He works to conform every Christian to His Son’s image.

Transforming believers into reflections of Jesus is a long process of small changes, which means God’s work may at times seem slow to us. The Lord assured Abraham he’d be the father of nations, but he had to wait decades for the promised son (Gen. 15:1-5). Even though God was at work the entire time, Abraham must have wondered if the pledge had been forgotten. God’s patient timing lets Him coordinate every detail perfectly.

Believers like to share stories about the Lord’s dramatic intervention in their lives. Knowing that He provides, rescues, or heals is exciting and reassuring. But He also works in ways that may seem inconsequential. For example, upon arriving in Egypt, Joseph was just a menial servant in Potiphar’s household—yet this was his first step toward becoming the country’s second-in-command (Gen. 39:1-4; Gen. 41:41). God has a purpose for everything that comes into our life—including friendships, jobs, situations, and conversations. Nothing is trivial.

If you want to experience God in action, you don’t have to wait for Him to do something big in your life. Be attentive, because every day is an opportunity to see Him at work. Get into His Word so you can understand how He has acted in the lives of others. Then watch for His involvement in your own.

The Joyful Sound

“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.” (Psalm 89:15)

Many have been the Christians who have joined in singing “We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves; Jesus saves!” Not all have known, however, that this beautiful phrase comes from a great psalm extolling God’s marvelous works of creation and then His promises of redemption.

“The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. The north and the south thou hast created them” (Psalm 89:11-12). Earlier verses note that “the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD” (v. 5), speaking of the angels, “the sons of the mighty” (v. 6), literally, “the sons of God.” It is exciting to realize that the very first “joyful sound” was heard when God “laid the foundations of the earth.” Then it was that “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:4, 7).

There was also a joyful sound when Christ was born, and the angel came bringing “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born . . . a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. . . . And suddenly there was . . . the heavenly host praising God” (Luke 2:10-11, 13).

Whenever a soul is saved, there is another joyful sound: “Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,” said Jesus (Luke 15:7). Finally, there will be a most wonderful sound of joy on Earth when the Lord comes again. “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10). Therefore, even now, “my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation” (Psalm 35:9). HMM

Worship in Spirit and Truth

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. —John 4:24

Worship must be in spirit and in truth!

It must be the truth of God and the Spirit of God. When a person, yielding to God and believing the truth of God, is filled with the Spirit of God, even his faintest whisper will be worship.

The stark, tragic fact is that the efforts of many people to worship are unacceptable to God. Without an infusion of the Holy Spirit there can be no true worship. This is serious. It is hard for me to rest peacefully at night knowing that millions of cultured, religious people are merely carrying on church traditions and religious customs and they are not actually reaching God at all.

We must humbly worship God in spirit and in truth. Each one of us stands before the truth to be judged. Is it not now plain that the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit of God, far from being an optional luxury in our Christian lives, is a necessity?

Lord, fill me with Your Spirit as I worship You today. I don’t want just to carry on church traditions and religious customs. Send the Spirit today, that my worship might be more real. Amen.

Day of the Lord

These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. (Revelation 17:14)

The human race has always been quick to blame the world’s disasters, floods, famines, plagues on natural causes. But in the end of the age, when the final judgments of God begin to fall, how long will it be until people confess that there is another real, though invisible, force in operation?

Truly the wrath of God will leave no hiding place for sinning, alienated men and women!

John, in the Revelation, speaks of the mighty trumpets that will sound and the woes that will descend upon the earth. In my own view, I link these events to the dramatic period throughout the earth when the antichrist has prevailed by deception and force.

When God is finally ready to refine and restore the earth, everyone in heaven and on earth and in hell will know that no human laboratory could compound the fire that will be poured out on the earth. God has promised that He will not hide His wrath forever. He is prepared to speak in supernatural manifestations in that coming Day of The Lord!

If our Lord is so ready to heal

If our Lord is so ready to heal the sick and bless the needy, then, my soul, be not thou slow to put thyself in his way, that he may smile on thee. Be not slack in asking, if he be so abundant in bestowing. Give earnest heed to his word now, that Jesus may speak through it to thy heart. Where he is to be found, there make thy resort, that thou mayest obtain his blessing. When he is present to heal, may he not heal thee? But surely he is present even now, for he always comes to hearts which need him. And dost not thou need him? Ah, he knows how much! Thou Son of David, turn thine eye and look upon the distress which is now before thee and make thy suppliant whole.

VIDEO Burdens Are Lifted At Calvary, Alan McGill

Jun 10, 2014

Are You Ready in Season?

Be ready in season and out of season —2 Timothy 4:2

Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

One of the worst traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you tend to say, “Now that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, and God will make sure of that. Those times are entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.

By Oswald Chambers

Characteristics of a Generous Spirit

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

When we hear of a need, we may desire to give—but then our bank account convinces us doing so is impossible. Although we realize that generosity should characterize believers, sometimes it seems the only way to be generous is to be wealthy.

The Christians in Macedonia prove that this is not the case. Using them as a model of generosity, Paul motivated the Corinthians to follow through on their original commitment to support the church in Jerusalem. Through the example of the Macedonian churches in today’s reading, we see what characterizes a generous spirit.

A generous person is sensitive to the needs of others. Although the Macedonian believers were suffering from affliction, their own troubles didn’t prevent them from feeling compassion for the needs of fellow Christians (2 Cor. 8:2).

A generous spirit sees needs as opportunities. Far from dreading needs, they actually begged Paul to let them help support the saints in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8:4).

Liberality flows from a life surrendered to God. Before offering their gifts, these believers first gave themselves to the Lord in obedience to His will (2 Cor. 8:5).

Generosity is not an emotion but a decision. The Corinthian church was also moved to contribute, but they may have discovered what we often do—that “readiness to desire” generosity is not the same as “completion of it” (2 Cor. 8:11).

A generous spirit has nothing to do with how much money we have, but rather how much of us the Lord has. When we are fully surrendered to Him, He provides the grace we need to share whatever we have—whether time, treasure, or talent.