Pentecost--The Full Blessing of the Spirit 01

Acts 2:1  And as the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled,
they were all together in the same place. (4) And they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit...
Leviticus 23:10 ...you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits
of your harvest to the priest; (15) And you shall count for
yourselves...from the day that you brought the sheaf... (16)
You shall count fifty days until the day after the seventh
Sabbath; then you shall present a new meal offering to
Jehovah [the feast of Harvest].
 
The word "Pentecost" means fiftieth. It was the fiftieth day
from the Lord's resurrection, seven weeks in between,
counting from the second day after the Passover on which the
Lord was crucified. It was the fulfillment of the feast of
Weeks (Deut. 16:10), which was also called the feast of
Harvest, counting from the day of offering a sheaf of the
firstfruits of the harvest unto the morrow after the seventh
Sabbath. The offering of a sheaf of the firstfruits was a
type of the resurrected Christ offered to God on the day of
His resurrection [1 Cor. 15:20].

The offering of Christ as the firstfruit in resurrection
involves His secret ascension to the Father. When Mary
wanted to touch Him, He said to her, "Do not touch Me, for I
have not yet ascended to the Father..." (John 20:17). On the
day of His resurrection the Lord ascended to the Father.
This was a secret ascension, forty days prior to His public
ascension in the sight of His disciples. On the day of
resurrection, early in the morning, He ascended to satisfy
the Father. The freshness of His resurrection was first for
the Father's enjoyment, as the firstfruit of the harvest was
brought first to God in type. On the day of His resurrection
the Lord went to the heavens to offer Himself as the
firstfruit of God's harvest for the satisfaction of God the
Father. That was a secret ascension. The day of Pentecost
was fifty days later.

Commit an Act of Love

“But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” James 2:18-20, New King James Version Do you believe God loves you? Do you really, truly believe it? There’s only one way to know for sure. Look at your life and see if you are acting on that love. Something you genuinely believe, you’ll act on. For instance, if someone were to come into a crowded room and say, “The building is on fire!” everyone who believed it would immediately get out. Those who did not believe it would say things like, “I don’t smell any smoke. Do you smell any smoke?” They’d just sit there, waiting for their physical senses to tell them if what was said was true. Now let’s add another element to this illustration. Let’s say the person who came in and said “The building is on fire!” was a fireman. Now with that added to it, it would really be foolish not to act on his word because he knows what he’s talking about. That’s the position you and I are in today. God—who definitely knows what He is talking about—has said that He loves us. Most of us have mentally agreed. If someone asks us, we tell them, “Oh yes, I know God loves me.” But most of us haven’t done much about it. We’re still just sitting there, waiting for further evidence of that truth. That evidence won’t come until we get up and do something! Why? Because just knowing God loves us isn’t enough. It’s acting on that knowledge that brings results! “What should I do?” you ask. First of all, open your mouth and say something. Start talking about how much God loves you. Instead of saying, “Gee, I hope this situation turns out all right,” say, “Praise God, I have confidence this situation is going to turn out all right, because my Father loves me and perfects that which concerns me” (Psalm 138:8). Use every opportunity to confess your faith in God’s love for you. Second, start acting on God’s WORD. When you read, for example, that as a believer you can lay hands on the sick and they’ll recover, don’t shrink back in fear. Don’t sit around wondering what will happen if you lay hands on someone and they don’t get well. Get up and get after it, believing God loves you enough to back you up. The minute you do that, God’s love will suddenly become more than a religious concept to you…it will become a reality. That’s when you’ll begin to see what the power of love can do.

Love Values People

“Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Romans 13:10, New King James Version Who is your neighbor? Your neighbor is the person who is near to you at the moment. When you’re standing in line at the ballgame, your neighbor is the man standing in front of you whom you elbowed out of the way to get a better seat. When you’re waiting for a parking place at the grocery store, your neighbor is the person in the car who swerved around you and took the place you’d been waiting for. The Bible says love does no harm to those people. Love is considerate of them. Love is sensitive to them. That sounds simple enough. But the fact is, before we can be considerate of someone and sensitive to them, we have to be aware that they exist. We have to be spiritually alert enough to notice them. To do that, we have to get our minds renewed because our culture has trained us to be so self-centered, we don’t even see each other. It’s amazing. People will notice things before they’ll notice other people. They’ll admire an expensive car and never even see the person driving it. They’ll appreciate buildings, clothes and jewelry, and ignore the people in them as if they’re totally insignificant. But when we fall into that, we’re being deceived. People are far more important than things. Never use people to get things. Use things to BLESS and show God’s love to people. The only way we can be sure not to do any harm to our neighbor is to value people enough to notice them. We must esteem others as much as we do ourselves. We must see them as being more important than things. We should never treat someone poorly over a seat at the ballgame or a parking place. But we’ll do it inadvertently if we don’t renew our minds and exercise our awareness of them. That’s why walking in love requires us to cultivate our consciousness of the impact our words and actions have on the people around us. If we hurt someone’s feelings because we spoke harshly to them (or didn’t speak to them at all), we can’t excuse ourselves by saying, “Hey, I didn’t even realize I offended them,” or “I was thinking about something else and didn’t notice they were standing there.” That won’t fly because if we’re walking in love, we won’t be that self-absorbed. We’ll see the pain flash across that person’s face when we’re abrupt with them. We’ll consider them more important than our own thoughts and acknowledge them when we walk by. Love gives us a heightened awareness of others that keeps us from carelessly neglecting them. It ensures we do our neighbor no harm.  From Love Revolution by Kenneth Copland

Love: A Debt You Owe

“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8, New King James Version Because God loves us, we owe love to every person we meet. We owe them kindness and gentleness. We owe it to them to treat them with dignity and respect, as valuable to God and to His plan in the earth. Sadly enough, we don’t always do that. At times, people act like the Christians mentioned in James 2, and give better treatment to people who wear fine clothes and expensive jewelry, than they give to those who don’t have much wealth or social status. They violate the law of love and fail to give others what they are owed. As a result, they are often robbed of THE BLESSING and favor of God. One might pray diligently for God to help in a situation, standing on The WORD and confessing we walk in the favor of God. But selfish actions and unloving ways will thwart the answer to our own prayers. We’ll reverse that favor before we receive it. I have a friend who told me about a time he and his wife were stranded in an airport with a multitude of other people. While they were waiting in line to be booked for another flight, they prayed and agreed for God’s help and favor. From the looks of the man behind the ticket counter, they knew they’d need it. His eyes were bloodshot. His hair was sticking out in every direction. He was irritable and tired. When the lady standing in front of them was rude to him, he just shrugged his shoulders and said all the flights were booked. He didn’t do anything to help. When my friend and his wife got to the counter however, they were kind. They didn’t put any pressure on the man. On the contrary, they tried to minister peace to him, treating him with consideration and respect. “We realize you’re very busy,” they said. “We can see this is a madhouse and you have a lot of problems on your hands…but this is our situation. Can you do anything for us?” Amazingly enough, the ticket agent stepped around the counter and said, “Follow me.” He took my friends to another area, booked them first-class seats and shook their hands. He even acknowledged that he could have helped the lady ahead of them. But because of how she acted, he didn’t do it. That’s a good example of what can happen when you pay the debt of love you owe. It can open the way for God to get you where you’re going. When others find themselves stranded by strife, your faith working by love will not only keep you flying…it will secure you a first-class seat! -From Love Revolution by Kenneth Copland

Love and Pride Cannot Coexist

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6, New King James Version The devil is so determined to undermine your love walk that if he can’t trip you up one way, he’ll sneak around the back door and trip you up another way. You always have to be watching for him. You can never drop your guard! If he can’t draw you out of love with envy or strife, for instance, he’ll get you to think about how well you’ve been doing. Since Satan is a liar, he can go to either extreme—whatever he thinks will work on you. He’ll remind you of all the offenses you’ve overlooked lately. Before you know it, you’ll be silently extolling your own virtues. I’ve done so wonderfully this week. I’ve held my temper. I’ve refused to be touchy. I’m so proud of myself for walking in love! Do you know what will happen next? You’ll fall flat on your face. You’ll do or say something so unloving it will shock you. Why? Because what the Bible says is true. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18, New International Version). Pride is defined as “an over-high opinion of one’s self; exaggerated self-esteem or conceit, haughtiness or arrogance; self-esteem arising from one’s accomplishments or possessions; an exaggerated idea of one’s own dignity or importance.” That’s just the dictionary definition and it’s bad enough. But the Bible goes even further in its description of pride by identifying it as one of the seven things that God hates. Proverbs 6:16-17 calls it an abomination to Him. Don’t let yourself fall into it. When you’re tempted to think about how wonderful you are and how much progress you’re making in your walk of love, think instead about the One who gave you the strength to do it. Stop considering yourself and consider Jesus, the One who loved you so much He shed His blood and paid the price for your sin. Remember how selfish you were before He redeemed you, and how selfish you would still be except for His grace. Pride will quickly give way to humility. Haughtiness will melt into gratitude. And you’ll take a step upward instead of taking a fall, as you give all the glory to Him. -From Love Revolution by Gloria Copland

The Meaning of Repentance

The Meaning of Repentance

Matt 3:1 Now in those days John the Baptist appeared,
preaching in the wilderness of Judea (2) And saying, Repent,
for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.
 

The first significant word in [Matthew 3:2] is the word
"repent." John began his ministry with this word. To repent is
to have a change of mind issuing in regret, to have a turn in
purpose. In Greek the word translated repent means to have a
change of mind. To repent is to have a change in our thinking,
our philosophy, our logic....Before we were saved, we all were
under the direction of our fallen mentality. We were far away
from God, and our life was in direct opposition to His will.
Under the influence of our fallen mentality, we went farther
and farther astray from God. But one day we heard the
preaching of the gospel telling us to repent, to have a turn
in our thinking, philosophy, and logic.

This was just my experience when I was saved. I was like a
young horse running in my own direction. Actually I was not
taking my direction, but the Devil's direction, for the Devil
was directing me through my fallen mentality, driving me far
away from God. But one day I heard the call to repent--to have
a change in my philosophy, to have a change in my logic and
thought. Praise the Lord, I underwent a great change!...All
[believers] have made this kind of turn, which is called
conversion. When we were converted, we turned our back upon
our past and turned our face to God. This is what it means to
repent, to experience a change of our mind.

Baptism -- Termination and Germination

Baptism -- Termination and Germination

Matt 3:6 And they were baptized by [John] in the Jordan River
as they confessed their sins.
Rom 6:3 Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
(5) For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of
His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His
resurrection.

Matthew 3:5 and 6 reveal that many were baptized by [John] in
the Jordan River, confessing their sins. To baptize people is
to immerse them, to bury them in water, signifying death. John
the Baptist did this to indicate that anyone who repents is
good for nothing but burial. This also signifies the
termination of the old person, that a new beginning may be
realized in resurrection, to be brought in by Christ as the
life-giver. Hence, following John's ministry, Christ came.
John's baptism not only terminated those who repented, but
also ushered them to Christ for life. Baptism in the Bible
implies death and resurrection. To be baptized into the water
is to be put into death and buried. To be raised up from the
water means to be resurrected from death.

Whenever anyone repented in the presence of John the Baptist,
John put him into the water....By baptizing the repentant
ones, John indicated that they and all their past had to be
terminated and buried. Burial, however, was not the end,
because burial always brings in resurrection. Thus, on the one
hand, burial is termination, but on the other hand, it is also
germination. Those whom John terminated in baptism were to be
resurrected, not in him, but in the One who was to come after
him.