I had the privilege to be raised in a
Christian Home and had the input of my parents and grandparents into my life,
they were involved in a small Pentecostal Church in the South Wales
Valleys. My foundations were established
in Pentecostalism and The Bible, and although I spend
a number of years in the Restoration/New Church/House Church movement , I have recently returned to my Pentecostal
roots and heritage and have become a member of my local Elim Church.
I was raised in a small Pentecostal Church
and one of the things that has remained a constant in my Christian Walk is my
memory of a plaque on the wall of the Church I spent both my childhood and
early teenager years in.
Hebrews 13:8New American Standard Bible (NASB)
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever.
Towards the end of her life, and after both
my Granddad and my Mum had gone to be with the Lord, I used to run errands and spend a lot of my
time with my Gran, she spent a lot of time studying the word (Bible) and
praying, she would tell me about the early
years of the Pentecostal movement here in the United Kingdom, one story she
told me a number of times was about the time my Great Grandmother (her mother)
took her and her older sister, who both
had issues with their eyesight from the village they lived in to Swansea
because the Evangelist George Jeffreys was holding Evangelistic Meetings there, both
my Gran and her sister were healed, and almost 80 years my Gran remembered that
time how the Lord had healed her and saved her.
I mentioned earlier that I have recently
joined the local Elim Church, although
I have never been part of an Elim Church previously but because of my shared
Pentecostal heritage and roots with Elim,
I have found myself drawn to become part of the Elim Movement,and in 2015
we celebrated and commemorated our 100th Anniversary . I have seen a number of old photos both in
our Direction Magazine and our website and facebook page, I found an old photo of an Evangelist George
Jeffreys Evangelistic Campaign and there was a banner on the side of the hall where this meeting
was being held and it said.
Hebrews 13:8New International Version (NIV)
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever.
I have become an avid reader (well I’ve
always been an avid reader) of our Direction Magazine, and one of our retired
Pastors, Pastor John Lancaster writes a
regular article called “And Finally” and
in the January 2015 copy of Direction. Pastor Lancaster writes these inspiring,
challenging and encouraging words.
“ Where do we go from here…. Elim must continue to be Christ-centred, preaching and practising the Foursquare
Gospel of Jesus Christ as Saviour, Healer, Baptiser and Coming King, She must continue to be unashamedly Pentecostal, in practice as well as doctrine…. At a time
when evangelicals are ambivalent about some doctrines of the faith, she must
continue to submit to the authority of the Scriptures. She must be moved increasingly with
compassion for a broken world and seek to minister to those deep needs in
whatever form it takes. Above all, Elim must seek to glorify the Lord Jesus.
Her supreme task is not to be ‘successful’ in human terms, but to be a community of humble men and women
who walk with God and respond to the promptings of the Word and the Holy Spirit
wherever that may take them.”
Called
By God from The Oswald Chambers Daily Devotional
I
heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go
for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." —Isaiah 6:8
God
did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “…who will go
for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether
I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what
I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are
chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The
chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus
Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened.
Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “…who will go for
Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not
force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard
the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say,
“Here am I! Send me.”
Remove
the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead
with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible
pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow
Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we
will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear
what Isaiah heard— “the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say,
“Here am I! Send me.”
“, Pentecostalism, in its purist form,
tries to do. It tries to erase the smudges on the church for the last 20
centuries and get back to what the early Christians believed and practiced.
That is our goal—to get back to biblical, original Christianity…..So Pentecostalism,
at its roots, is basically a restorationist movement. We believe that we can
cut through 20 centuries of church tradition and get back to the original
church. It doesn’t mean that we do everything like the original church, but
we’re trying to have the same doctrine and experience of the Early Church.”
Dr George O Wood, Assemblies of God, USA
"The first thing that impresses us about the call of God is that it
comes to the whole man, not to one part of him. The majority of us are godly in
streaks, spiritual in sections; it takes a long time to locate us altogether to
the call of God. We have special days and religious moods, but when we get into
contact with God we are brought in touch with Reality and made all of a piece.
Our Lord's life was all one reality; you could never cut it into two--shallow
here and profound there. My conception of God must embrace the whole of my
life." –
Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your
common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back?
If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every
time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And
the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what
Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing,
until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we
tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about . . .
?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my
common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those
who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person
is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk
everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ
demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common
sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately
find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but
when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit
with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in
God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to
you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an
entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.
Oswald Chambers.
“Not often, but every once in a while, God
brings us to a major turning point--a great crossroads in our life. From that
point we either go more and more toward a slow, lazy, and useless Christian
life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His
highest--our best for His glory." –
Oswald Chambers, from the My Utmost for His
Highest
Too long have we been waiting for one another
to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is
declared! In God's Holy Name let us arise and build! 'The God of Heaven, He
will fight for us', as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the
bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not
prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before
the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to
trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die
for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts.
We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting
in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the
end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God,
not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have
a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.
CT Studd
Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say.
Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of
the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity,
and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and
hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers
and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ
in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you
will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his
mercy to the world."
William Booth
“While women weep, as they do now,
I'll fight
While little children go hungry, as they do now,
I'll fight
While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now,
I'll fight
While there is a drunkard left,
While there is a poor lost girl upon the streets,
While there remains one dark soul without the light of God,
I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!”
William Booth
Isaiah 6:8New International Version (NIV)
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who
will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Matthew 9:35-38 New American Standard Bible.
35 Jesus was going through all the cities and
villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of
the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion
for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a
shepherd. 37 Then He *said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful,
but the workers are few. 38 Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest
to send out workers into His harvest.”
John 4:35-38
35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and
then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and
look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 Already he who
reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he
who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying
is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for
which you have not laboured; others have laboured and you have entered into
their labour.”
An extract from Kingdom Dynamics from the New
Spirit Filled Life Bible.
, “Shepherding amid the Supernatural, Ephesians
4:11ff teaches us that all leadership gifts are given by Christ the Lord of the
church to “equip” (that is to mend, prepare and enable to function) the whole
body of the congregation............ , true supernatural ministry at work in
the church begets vital, spiritually functional people throughout the whole
church family. The body is to be built up by the mutual efforts of all members
supplying their contribution to the whole. The call to empower people
requires mentoring, training, imparting and discipling/discipleship - all aimed
at preparing the body for stability and increase.”
Too long have we been waiting for one another
to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is
declared! In God's Holy Name let us arise and build! 'The God of Heaven, He
will fight for us', as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the
bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not
prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before
the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to
trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die
for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our
hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live
trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won,
and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness
of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we
will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.
CT Studd.
Should such men as we fear? Before the world,
aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we
will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and
we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud
in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than
live trusting in man.
CT Studd
Luke 5:1-11 & 27-28 New American Standard Bible
5 Now it happened that while the crowd
was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing
by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two
boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them
and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into
one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from
the land. And He sat down and began teaching the [a]people from the boat. 4 When
He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water
and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon
answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing,
but [b]I will do as You say and let
down the nets.” 6 When they had done
this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to
break; 7 so they signalled to their partners in the
other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the
boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon
Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ [c]feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord,
for I am a sinful man!” 9 For amazement had seized
him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken;10 and
so also were [d]James and John, sons of Zebedee, who
were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now
on you will be catching men.” 11 When they had
brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him…..27
After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named [m]Levi sitting in the
tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” 28 And he left everything behind,
and got up and began to follow Him.
Isaiah 6v8 New American Standard Bible.
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and
who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go, and
tell this people
Matthew 28 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)
The great commission
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where
Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some
doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.’
Acts 13:1-4 New American Standard Bible.
13 Now there were at Antioch, in
the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas,
and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had
been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.2 While
they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set
apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called
them.”3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid
their hands on them, they sent them away.4 So,
being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from
there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they
reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the
synagogues of the Jews;
Some 2,000 years ago, our Lord
called his first disciples to take his message to the lost, of the land of Israel and now he is calling us to take his
message to the people of our land.
The Church is a movement for change and transformation but for many of
us The Church has become a monument to our spiritual forefathers who were a
movement for change and transformation !.
We, the Church are the visible representation of God’s Kingdom Rule and
Reign here on Earth, we are his messengers of hope, healing, love and compassion,
salvation & restoration, the people we see every day are the people for
whom Jesus died on the Cross for, we are the ones who are to bring hope and
healing to our communities.
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