Keeping the Relationship with Jesus Real

Howard Sands                                  Delivered at  New Life Church NW  22/5/11

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Helen Keller, said
  

I am only one, but I still am one.

I can’t do everything but I can do something

I can’t refuse to do what I can do.

You only have one life to live

You only have one life to give

When its gone will you be satisfied or will you regret what you didn’t do?

What are you going to give your life to?

Don’t be religious on me now and say, “I’ll give my life to God”  put some legs on it

All the pain and suffering in the world, don’t just say, God bless you,

we need to be able to put some legs on it.

We need a people who are filled with the Holy Spirit, with power to demonstrate the gospel.

Pray for the sick, not just wimpy prayers

Pray and command the healing, demonstrate the power of God.

Ask God

Show me what I can do

Message from Ps Louw Ronquest, South Africa

In more recent years, I had the privilege to view some video material of the man of God, Prophet T.B. Joshua, who would stretch his hand towards the blind, the lame and the crippled, and they would instantly be made well. As I sat down to look at the material, I saw the miracles of the Bible happening in today’s life and it stirred my heart. I said: “Lord, if this is You, please I need to witness this for myself.”

Within days, I visited Prophet T.B. Joshua’s ministry and there I was confronted by the manifestation of God’s miracle working power. The dead were raised, the blind made to see, those infected by H.I.V./Aids were set free from their death penalty by the thousands. This I witnessed for myself. Jesus is still the miracle working God of the Bible.

The day that changed my life forever was when I was privileged enough to share the message with, at that stage, a 15 000-member congregation.

As I was coming to the end of my sermon, the man of God interrupted me by applauding me for a great sermon. Since I was ministering on the miracle working power of God and the fact that God is able to do all things, a young man crippled and completely deformed was brought to the front to receive prayer.

I was then asked to demonstrate the sermon that I have just preached in order for the people to know that that which I had just preached, was actually the true Word of God.

Being in ministry for many years, I’ve heard and seen a lot but this was something beyond my frame of mind.

1 Corinthians 2:4,5 (Amplified)
“And my language and my message were not set forth in persuasive (enticing and plausible) words of wisdom, but they were in demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit and power [a proof by the Spirit and power of God, operating on me and stirring in the minds of my hearers the most holy emotions and thus persuading them], So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men (human philosophy), but in the power of God."

Having been a Bible teacher for many years, I preached great sermons but nobody had ever asked me afterwards to demonstrate the word to prove that it was the Word of God. I mean, as a preacher, you preach the Word with great zeal and enthusiasm and then trust the Holy Spirit to do the rest. But to demonstrate the Word, was something unheard of.

Having 15 000 pairs of eyes staring at you, waiting to see whether or not you are able to demonstrate the Word in the natural realm, is quite a threatening experience. As I prayed, using the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, and quoting every healing scripture I knew, I looked and saw the man in front of me, still crippled and deformed. Then with greater urgency I prayed, binding that which I thought needed to be bound, and loosened that which I thought needed to be loosened. I called down and I cast out. But when I opened my eyes, the man was still crippled and deformed.

Not really a place where you as a minister of the Gospel, would like to find yourself - realizing that you have been preaching the Gospel, using words with no demonstration of power. No power to set the captives free.

To pray for people where the problem is not so visible, is surely much easier than to pray for those whose problem visible for all to see. Headaches don’t take that much pressure. Preaching the Word with great enthusiasm is much easier than having to demonstrate the Word that was ministered.

Since this man was still crippled and deformed, I felt publicly humiliated and heard the following: “Pastor, today we have all witnessed that you are a great teacher of the Word of God. Surely you have an in-depth knowledge of the Scriptures, but we also bear witness that although you know the Scriptures, you don’t know the power of God. You’ve got an intellectual understanding concerning God’s Word, but that’s all.”

While walking back to my seat, the man of God touched the man and uttered softly, “Jesus”, and instantly the man was completely made whole.

For many years I thought I was doing well but that day I realized just how much I’ve missed it!
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Before a person can excel in that which he is doing, he must first find out where he is at. It is like having a fantastic road map in front of you, but unless you know where you are, the map will be of no value. You will not find your way but you will continue going in life’s circles.

God needs all of you dedicated to him, not just Sunday and Tuesday night.

Rom 12.1 He wants people on fire, alive in Him, imitators of God,

people bringing God to man.

Worship should draw us close to Him but it can just be another form of religion.

Revival is the church alive

People talking to God about people                  and to people about God

about salvation - miracles

church in Mexico in two years had more than 200 people raised from the dead & hundreds of other miracles

Matt 13.36 - 43           Harvest of souls is about the end of the world

Matt 24. 13 - 14          preached in the whole world     every ethnos  - ethnic group

Its what we do because of what God is doing in the earth today

He is harvesting the world for the end of time

He is using us (amazing) and millions of others

World harvest is:-

Every believer - every church around the world playing their part in the end time

ushering in the end of the age - Return of Christ

Personally I like to encourage the church to take hold of the promises from a positive position

but we need to see the other side of God

His justice cannot let sin go unpunished

He is loving, kind and benevolent, merciful not wishing to impute mans sins to him but making for him a way of escape, not willing that any should perish

But truth, justice and judgement are also a part of Him

If there is no judgement then there had been no mercy 

READ Rom 11:16 - 22
¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
 ¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
 ²² Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

Bible says, behold the goodness and severity of God

Age of Grace - God merciful, but there will come a day of judgement

some Scriptures we like to ignore

Luke 13.1 – 9 SPADE  AXE

God has planted us on earth with a purpose - To bear fruit

If we're not bearing fruit God will cut us down

Refreshing and revival is to produce fruit

When the time of Grace is over Jesus will come

In the age of Grace will you let him dig around your tree, fertilise, prune it - to produce fruit

He will harvest the fruit or cut down the tree

Gareth Lavell of Chiang Mai, Thailand, shared a message

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.'

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her,'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' 
The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind.

The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected to see him like that and to spend the rest of her life with him looking like that . .

So she refused to marry him . . .
Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.'

This is how the human brain often works. .when our circumstances change.
Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good
And His love endures forever. . Amen

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Let’s pray; Dear Lord Jesus Help me to never forget
What you have done for me . . . Amen
Pastor Gareth Lavell. . . Tribal Discipleship Centre (TDC)
Chiang Mai, Thailand


Isaiah 42:7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

Isaiah 42:16 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, And not forsake them.

Prayer. 

Father you have put your life within us, Lord enable us to live the life you have called us to live, that you would challenge us out of our comfort zones and move us out of our complacency and move us into sharing your word, loving people with the love and God and demonstrating the power of God in and through our lives.