Its Our Turn Now!

Sunday at FPB was another wonderfully blessed and anointed day of the Lord. It was great to see the new faces of first time guest and to see new people in the altar repenting and seeking the Lord. The Lord poured out His Spirit and filled some for the first time and many were given a renewal of the Holy Ghost. To God be the glory.

I just finished reading a book that will no doubt find its way to my recommended reading list for next year. The book has changed the way I look at people and also challenged me to look at a field of labor I really never considered for revival. I promise you will hear more about the thoughts of this book in the coming months at FPB. The book was mentioned and recommended to me a couple of years ago by Misty. I just got to it this year and have enjoyed it greatly, it’s called, Same Kind of Different as Me. It’s a story written by a multimillionaire (Ron Hall) and a homeless man (Denver Moore) It is their story of the slow process of God making them best of friends and how it changed their lives. At the end of the book is an interview with Ron and Denver. In this interview they are asked what message they hope the book gives. It is in response to this question that Denver says, “You never know whose eyes God is watching you through. It probably ain’t gonna be your preacher and it just might be someone who was living like I used to.”

I read that statement and begin to wonder whose eyes God is watching me through. Again my mind went to the words and example Jesus gave in the last section of Matthew 25. Look at your life; I wonder whose eyes God is watching you through. He is you know, how are you doing? It is worth stopping and considering. Why? Eternity is hanging on it, just read the last part of Matthew 25.

This thinking caused Micah 6:8 to jump off the pages of scriptures at me. “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” What does this verse say to us about the attitude we take towards other people?

There is more I’ll say about this book but I challenge you to put it on your summer reading list. It will make a difference in you I promise.

In Sunday’s evening service I knelt at the altar to pray with a lady who was struggling with the chains of this world in her life. As I begin to pray God seemed to remind me that I was here to help with this very kind of thing. It’s my call and purpose.

In the Gospel of Luke in chapter 4 Jesus has just come from a forty day fast and prayer meeting. He walks into church and is given the book of Isaiah. He opens it and reads the first part of the sixty-first chapter. Jesus then says He has fulfilled the prophecy and hands the book back to the minister then sits down.  Jesus did what He came to do and has handed the book to us and now is seeing what we will do with what is written.

I went to the book of Isaiah and read what Jesus read. There are eleven things that Jesus came to do. If He has fulfilled His part and handed the book to us then it is our turn to do the same. Read the first three verses that Jesus read and see what eleven things we are called to do.

The verse starts out with, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because He has anointed me to…” It all starts with the anointing in your life.

You and I will never accomplish anything for God without His hand on our life. The day you start depending on your abilities and knowledge to do the work of God is the day you will come up real short in the Lord. Jesus put it all together in such a fashion that you have to depend on Him. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. First and foremost we need God’s anointing on our life. We get this through prayer and daily touching the throne room of grace and mercy with our lives and living.

After declaring the Spirit of the Lord God was to be on us He list eleven things we are to do.

To preach good news to the meek or lowly.

To bind up or heal the broken hearted.

To proclaim liberty to the captives or those who are led away.

To open the prison to those who are bound.

To proclaim the delight of a brand new time or age.

To proclaim the day of God defeating His enemy.

To comfort everyone who mourns.

To provide for those who grieve in Zion or the church.

To give them beauty for the ashes of their life.

To give then the oil of joy for their tears.

To give them a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness in their life.

Then we are given the reason why we do this. Not for our glory or that we get any praise or adoration out of any of it. It is so that the people we minister to will be planted or established in righteousness that the Lord might be glorified.

When I knelt in that altar last evening and prayed for the lady God seemed to say in my ear this is why I anoint your life, that she will be delivered and set free and be established for the Lord’s glory. It why He handed us the book. It’s our turn now but you will have to get anointed and stay anointed to make any kind of difference.