2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.
|
Happy new year! Let's all pray that this year is better than last year. For me, the year has started out great. This morning I was in my quiet time and the Lord gave me a few words that I felt led to share. Please excuse the first few seconds, where there was a little static. Tech issues even happen to bloggers. Yup. Anyway, in this video I read the words that I felt the Lord gave me, and talk a little bit about what I feel like the Lord is saying in terms of what believers and non-believers should be doing right now. I hope you enjoy it. May God bless you and your family this year.
0 Comments
Romans 12:3
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Faith is a measure of trust in the One true God. Faith is a gift; it is given to us by the Father of Lights in heaven to us so that we might be able to know Him more. He gave us faith to assure us that He exists, but also so that we can do the works that He has prepared for each of us. Hebrews 11 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. God gives us faith to act upon, and He knows just how much faith we have, so when He asks us to do something, He knows firsthand that we have the faith to do it. It isn’t something impossible, and in fact, it is something that we are uniquely qualified to do. Whether that is talking to a friend, a stranger, going on a mission trip, or creating a blog, whatever God asks us to do, He has qualified us to do it. That means there are no excuses. The great thing is that there’s grace as well. We aren’t able to do anything unless we abide in Christ, and when He asks us to do something, sometimes we get afraid of what others will think, or how we will look, or what the ramifications will be, and we act cowardly. It is then when regret takes root, and yet, because God is so kind and generous, He receives us back, forgives us, and gives us more opportunities. And these opportunities are not just opportunities to serve, which they certainly are. They are so much more in fact. They are eternal destiny changing tasks. If God tells us to talk to someone, He has a plan on what to do with that interaction. He’ll even give you the words to say if you ask Him. But there’s more, the Bible talks about eternal rewards that believers will get on Judgement Day if we are faithful with what He has given us, including our faith. So, each time God asks you to do something, be sure to remember that you are uniquely qualified, that God has given you the faith to do whatever He asks, and that He has a plan that is perfect and involves you. And as you listen and obey, you will be blessed with eternal rewards for ages to come. Ephesians 6:19-20
and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. One of the things I completely love about the Word of God is that you can read the same section repeatedly, and the Lord will speak to you in different ways as you mature in Christ. I'm sure you, like me, have had many such moments where you've read a Scripture in a new way, or a familiar verse takes on a new angle depending on where you are in your walk. Isn't it just amazing? The reason I'm writing this post is because this happened for me a few weeks, and it was related to the power and imperative of preaching the gospel. I feel like it's a timely message for everyone in the body of Christ. A few weeks ago the Lord prompted me to revisit the Book of Acts, which I had studied a bit through BSF last year. During the BSF course, much of the conversation centered on the fact that the book should have been called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, which is certainly true, as the Holy Spirit's presence is so amazing throughout this outstanding book. As I revisited this book recently, however, I took note of the order in which the Holy Spirit worked, in other words, when the Holy Spirit showed up. As I re-read this amazing book, I was struck by something: The Holy Spirit always showed up after the Word of God was preached. At first, I didn't think it was much of a pattern. I thought it was just a time or two. But then I took my yellow highlighter out and decided to highlight all the times that the apostles preached the gospel, and I was surprised. Not only was it the sole focus of their lives, but it was only after they preached that the manifestation of the Spirit came. This, of course, got me thinking. How many believers are hungry to experience the power and fullness of God in their lives? How many desire to see miracles, healings, and the gifts of the Spirit? And, how many believers are actually preaching the gospel? Sure, many believers have great conversations with unbelievers and pray for people, which is a necessary thing as it leads people one step closer to knowing Jesus. But, what would change if we took on the same attitude that the early church had, and focused on exclusively sharing the gospel from a place of being on fire to see God's kingdom come. What if we had the drive to preach the gospel every day, from a place of love of urgency? I know as I read and highlighted in yellow all the times that the Book of Acts said that one of the apostles preached the gospel, I felt insight bubbling up inside of me. You see, the gospel is what it's ALL about. The gospel, or good news, is much more than a simple story that we repeat to make sure we're on the right side of our faith. In fact, it's infinitely more than that. It is the embodiment of our faith. It is the reason that so many millions of people have died throughout the centuries. It is the power to set people free and bring them into God's beautiful presence for all of eternity. It is the story of God's redemptive love for each and every single person who has and will ever live. The gospel is the demonstration of God's earnest desire to reconcile us to Himself for all eternity. And it is the most exciting and beautiful and compelling thing that exists. This thread of our collective history is what captured the imaginations and hearts of every single apostle and evangelist that ever took the step of leaving everything to partner with God on this amazing redemptive story. It's also the single most targeted activity of spiritual warfare by the enemy, and perhaps that's why so few believers actually intentionally go out to share the gospel. Isn't it remarkable that at the end of Ephesians 6, as Paul writes about the nature of spiritual warfare, that he asks the readers of the epistle to pray for him to preach the gospel with boldness. He recognizes that much of the spiritual warfare directed against him (and, in actuality, against us as well) was because of his calling to preach the gospel. In fact, for every believer with that inkling, it's exactly what the enemy wants - to distract us, to install a fear of man within us, to cause us to shriek back when opportunities to preach the truth come into our path. This is the constantly shifting, yet single most important strategic location in the spiritual war: the conversation about the gospel. So, like Paul, we should all be asking for others to pray for us to boldly declare the gospel. It is the power to save. And for those that don't make preaching the gospel a high priority in their evangelism or ministries, I suggest pausing and evaluating why. It's time to reflect on these things, invite the Holy Spirit to teach us how to do better, and get out there and watch God work in amazing ways. In these crazy and uncertain times, I believe that the Lord wants to bless us and show us His power through the Holy Spirit. He wants to do this in partnership with us, and it's only through our preaching of the gospel that people this partnership can be complete in its fullness. I invite you to seriously ask yourself these questions and reflect on what you can do to change: Am I going far enough in sharing the gospel with others? If not, why not? What do I have to surrender to go further to meet the will of God? What is stopping me from sharing the gospel, and what do I have to do to move beyond that? Thanks for reading, and may God bless you. It's been a little while since I've posted anything, but I assure you that the Lord has been working in mighty ways. I just finished a three day fast, where I prayed for over 1,400 people. Yesterday was the last day of my fast, and I had an intense dream last night. I woke up just after 4am, and then I entered into my quiet time. The Lord showed a picture of me swimming, and with each stroke, there were two joined visions. This happened three times for a total of six visions. I feel like the Lord wanted me to share this today, and hence, I created this video below to detail the visions for you. Please feel free to share. God bless you. I guess since people are still in quarantine I should probably keep making these Quarantine Kids episodes. Sooooo, here's the latest episode, which is all about vegetable puns. I think you'll enjoy it. Please share this online, and tell your friends. Some people like fruit. Some people like puns. The Quarantine Kids like fruit puns. Explore this exotic and sometimes unusual world of puppetry that aims to inspire laughs and share the truth about Jesus: He's real and He loves you. This episode looks at fruit puns. And, I must say, there's quite a few good ones. Enjoy! Last month the Lord gave me a dream and some words of encouragement for this time. I believe it is a time of preparation, and in this video, I talked about three simple things we can all do as believers during this time to prepare. God bless you. As you likely know, cats get hairballs. And yet, the process by which they get hairballs is a mystery, right? Well, in this latest episode of the Quarantine Kids, we explore how cats get hairballs and share the animal known for having the largest hairball ever. Hmmm. I hope you enjoy it. In our latest installment of Quarantine Kids, we look back at a very important holiday: National Help A Horse Day, which was on April 26. In this video you'll learn about the unique origin of National Help A Horse Day, and witness some of the truly bizarre reasons why horses need our help. Follow us on Facebook: @therealQKids Have you ever heard a good shrimp joke? Me neither. Well, when a puppet tells a shrimp joke, something amazing happens: the jokes are actually funny. That's the premise of the latest episode of Quarantine Kids - it's all about shrimp jokes. |
AuthorDerrick Rhayn is a new Christian and seeks the will and Word of the Lord. Archives
January 2021
Categories |
RSS Feed