Christian Fellowship
“That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving...” Psalm 26:7
Vol. 24 No. 4 April 2015
Things are changing so fast anymore it is difficult to keep up with them. And through it all, it is difficult to keep smiling and enjoying life. But the only life we have to enjoy is that which is in Christ Jesus. The world is falling apart all around us, but we have a God who is “with” us and “in” us to keep us pressing on.
Psa 46:4-5 (KJV) “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. (5) God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.”
Don’t fear, don’t cry. You have hope if you are planted. You shall flourish and bear fruit. You must get your roots down deep in Christ because the worst is yet to come. We live in troubled times, but it is nothing compared to what is to come. You may think you are going through something pretty awful, but it is peaceful in light of the distress that is to come.
If you are drawing strength from Him today, you will endure the darkness, yes the gross darkness that will soon cover the earth. We are being tested and tried to come through difficulty. 2Co 4:17 (KJV) “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;”
Be strong and maintain your confidence and assurance in the Lord of Glory. We are going to shine.
Jer 17:7-8 (KJV) “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. (8) For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”
In Christ,
Pr. Steve
Praying What Jesus Taught
Jas 5:16 (KJV) “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Jesus taught 4 ways of praying, all of which are found in the N.T. and none of which is optional for us. Each is also found in connection with the great revivals of Church history.
The 4 kinds of praying are:
1. PRIVATE PRAYING –
Mat 6:6 (NKJV) “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
This kind of “closet” or “private room” praying is the basis of all the rest of praying. This was the basis of Jesus’ own prayers, life and work. This is one of the things that gave Jesus His power in ministry. His “closet” was usually out in nature: on some mountain, in some desert, under some olive tree, or off the beaten path.
According to Luke 11:1 it was when Jesus was alone praying that His disciples said unto Him: “Lord, teach us to pray.” He was alone and they were watching Him pray; and that is when they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” We are not just learning “how to pray,” we are learning how to pray like Jesus prayed!
Revivals and mighty moves of God usually start with ONE PRAYING CHRISTIAN!
(Luke 11:10) “Everyone who asks receives…”
Elijah on Mt. Carmel proves to us that just one intercessor can defeat Satan and save a nation (I Kg 18:20-40).
Eze 22:30 (KJV) “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”
James was right: Jas 5:16 (KJV) “…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
What if I don’t have a private room or closet? If Jesus told you to go into your private room, you must have one. It doesn’t mean if you don’t have a room you go out and build one. It means that in your life or lifestyle you must have a time and place that you pray alone. Ask Him to show you where it is. You have your own personal “closet.” You just need to find it. It is very important for you to have “a great and good place” to pray. [I often come home in the day time and find my dog sleeping in my prayer chair in my prayer closet.]
Luk 5:16 (NKJV) So Jesus often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
This is so basic. If you don’t have this, then you won’t have the rest.
2. AGREEMENT PRAYING – Mat 18:19 (KJV) “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”
The Amplified version says, “anything and everything.” [agree about anything and everything]. The sky is the limit! When two people pray in agreement, something is going to happen. The key is not just two people; it is two people (someone whose heart and life you know, not a stranger) in agreement = symphony (in tune with God’s spirit); in harmony with God’s purposes, in oneness with each other. He said, “If two of you pray in agreement, in symphony, in harmony, in oneness, in My Name” (vrs.20) -- My will, My purpose, My character --something is bound to happen. He didn’t say, He might come, He could come, He said, “I am there.” This means that two people in harmony with each other and in God’s will are going to produce action from the Presence of God.
Only the Lord can bring two people together like that. And that unity is what is behind great revivals and powerful miracles. Husbands and wives can pray like this. Parents and children can pray like this. Two anointed people can pray like this. If we mean business with God, then we ought to be having miracles occur in our homes and lives because surely we can find someone to pray with us.
But there is a third way Jesus teaches us to pray:
3. GROUP PRAYING –
Mat 18:20 (KJV) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
“…Into my name” [Greek] World-changing prayer usually starts with one praying Christian and then moves on as others become like-minded. (Acts 2:1) “They were all with one accord in one place…” [one place = more than a geographical place; it means in one purpose – they were all praying for the same thing.]
(John 17:11) – Jesus prayed “that they may be one as We are one.” This is the greatest benefit of group praying = “ONENESS PRAYING.”
Wesley, whose meetings became the core and cause of the early Methodist revival that swept England and America, said this kind of praying was the key to what God gave him.
Something happens when like-minded brothers and sisters meet together on their knees before God. Bonds of love and trust are forged here that no social club or dinner meeting can ever produce.
Jesus said: Joh 13:35 (NKJV) “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
The prayer group produces this and the world will notice it. [This is what we do on Sunday afternoon before service.]
The fourth way Jesus taught us to pray:
4. CORPORATE PRAYING –
Act 1:4,14 (KJV) “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”
This was the first record of the Church with corporate prayer. Here Jesus brought prayer up to its highest expression – total church praying.
The church in Jerusalem was called “The Upper Room Church.” These 120 members made up the first congregation and what they did was pray – “intercessory prayer meeting.” {And it hasn’t happened since!} The Greek says they “persisted obstinately” in prayer!! It seems to hint that it wasn’t easy, that there were a lot of demands. There were numerous things pulling at them to get done. But they persisted obstinately in prayer. All the church prayer…together…in one accord…in His Name…Is it any wonder the Church Age began…that the day of Salvation swept in? No, it isn’t any wonder!
Today a great, all-out prayer meeting in any congregation is the most powerful, spiritual force upon the earth. And we need it!
Wesley said, “God does nothing but in answer to a believer’s prayer.”
So where does that leave us? When God is about to do a special work on earth, He always starts by waking up His people and calling them to prayer. First one…then two or three…then a few…finally, all! When praying increases in all its forms, God will shake up our world, right our wrongs, and heal our hurts!!!
So I beseech you in the name of the Lord let this year be a time of PRAYING!
Of course the greatest hindrance to praying is UNFORGIVENESS: Mar 11:25 (KJV)
“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
-Pr. Steve
I am going to be sharing with you thoughts from my journal over the past few years. This is to show you how the Lord has brought about His Word in my life to minister to you and to show you how real this walk can be. Please read and understand by the Spirit about ...
. . . My calling as a pastor
Pastor’s Journal 2014
Apr 02: Do not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint. (Gal.6:9 AMP)
Apr 05: A little that the righteous man has is better than the riches of the wicked. (Psm. 37:16)
Apr 10: A rebellious people who say to the preachers “Prophesy not the right things, but speak to us smooth things, speak to us deceitful things.” (Isa.30:10)
Apr 12: I will show you my salvation. (Psm.91:16)
Apr 21: I am taking care of you!
Apr 22: The Lord is near those that are of a broken heart; and saves those of a contrite spirit. (Psm.34:18)
Apr 24: Let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work so that you may be perfectly and fully developed, lacking in nothing. (Jms.1:4)
Apr 28: Cast all your care, anxieties, worries and concerns on Him for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you. (I Pet.5:7)
Staying Close in the Lord
If we are not feeling close to the Lord we should ask ourselves, “Do I really hunger and thirst for the presence of the Lord and His Holy Spirit?” As Christians, our main focus must be stayed upon God; or it will surely be upon something or someone else. Therefore, we should take account of our interests and honestly reconsider how we should spend our time. Another part of our seeking an audience with God should include asking Him about how we should fast, and how we should fashion our eating habits when we are not on a fast.
Mat 6:31-34 (KJV) “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (32) (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. (33) But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (34) Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
People of God, there is no reason to doubt God. He has always shown Himself strong, faithful, and just to all those who seek and follow closely after Him.
1Ki 17:1-15 (KJV) “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. (2) And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, (3) Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. (4) And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. (5) So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, which is before Jordan. (6) And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. (7) And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. (8) And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, (9) Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. (10) So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. (11) And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. (12) And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. (13) And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. (14) For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. (15) And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.”
Oh Church, what shall we do in the hard times, if we cannot truly set our hearts, and trust upon the Lord in the present age of plenty? And how will we be able to believe the Lord for His help when troubles fill the earth, if we are not trusting in Him in these times of peace? We must stay the course and keep the faith.
2Co 11:3 (AMP) The Apostle Paul proclaimed: “But [now] I am fearful, lest that even as the serpent beguiled Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted and seduced from wholehearted and sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
So Church, we also must embrace the Apostle Paul’s warning, lest we also fall into deceptions and into evil seductions that try to keep us from staying close to God.
-Pr. Kurt Thurston
Quotes:
"The man whose little sermon is `repent´ sets himself against his age, and will for the time being be battered mercilessly by the age whose moral tone he challenges. There is but one end for such a man -- `off with his head!´ You had better not try to preach repentance until you have pledged your head to heaven."
-Joseph Parker
"Revival is war between the Spirit and the Devil"
- Dr. J. Edwin Orr
"Many of those who once were so passionately in love with Christ now run about pursuing their own interests. They're burdened down with stress and problems, chasing after riches and the things of this world."
-David Wilkerson
The basic definition of perfect is: completeness, maturity. In the Hebrew and Greek, the definition includes: uprightness, being without spot, without blemish, totally obedient. It means to finish what was started; a complete performance. Wesley called it “constant obedience.”
A perfect heart is a responsive heart. It quickly and totally answers the Lord’s wooing, whisperings and warnings. This heart says at all times, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears. Show me the path and I will walk in it.”
-Author Unknown
Next course from Christian Life Educators Network - Richmond Center:
Summer Break! Classes resume in August
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