To Preach or not to Preach?

ACTS

The New Covenant proclaimed and activated in full force on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came in His fullness and the church began.

Author of Acts is Luke. Luke writes about the birth of the church and the early days.

  • Purpose of Acts– To give an accurate and orderly account of the development of Christianity and to give a written defense of Christianity and more….
  • Theme is the Great Commission given to Christians. Christians are to be witnesses for Jesus Christ, spreading the good news that He died and rose again in order to redeem mankind.

Act 1 (Curtain is rising!! On the edge of my seat)!

Acts 1 starts with brief overview of Jesus appearing after His resurrection over a period of 40 days (teaching and instructing them to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem). Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.”

Awesome! Wait for it….the gift is coming to an upper room near you! Bam, Jesus is taken up to heaven and Jesus will return the same way in the near-far-any minute future!

Okay, scene is set.

The 11 apostles and others are in the upper room with the women. I’ll call the women “The Faithful Club”-they followed Jesus and cared for Him all the way to the cross and stayed near the cross at Jesus’s death. The Faithful Club was Mary- mother of Jesus aka (wife of Clopas and mother to James and Joses), Mary Magdalene, Salome- (the mother of Zebedee’s son -James and John (the apostles) and more daughters of Jerusalem.

There were about 120 believers constantly in prayer in the upstairs. Peter stands up and takes the floor. He tells of the fulfillment of the scripture regarding the death of Judas and his place of death called Akeldama or Field of Blood.  Peter reads Psalms 69:25- May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it, and Psalms 109:8 – May another take his place of leadership.

The time had come to choose one of the men who was with them from the beginning of John’s baptism until Jesus was taken to heaven. Who will it be? They prayed and cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added and now there were 12 again. Who are they, you ask..?    Peter aka Simon and Cephas, and his brother Andrew; John and his brother James aka sons of Zebedee (Boanerges, Sons of Thunder); Philip, Thomas aka Didymus, Bartholomew aka may be Nathanael; Matthew the tax collector aka Levi and son of Alphaeus and James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Thaddaeus aka Judas son of James, and lastly Matthias.

There are so many other aka’s….

 

 

To Preach or not to preach

I was recently told not to preach and they said “no one likes to be preached to.”  However, Christ instructed us to go out and preach the gospel. Jesus said tell others about me. Do I listen to man/woman or do I listen to my God? You guessed it right, I’ll listen to my God. I want to please HIM not people.  If you love someone, don’t you want to tell others about the love you share?  Don’t you want to tell others about the amazing love? I could go on further, but I think I’ll get right to the preaching…LOL

I’m going to start by sharing from an insightful book and then give you my take.

Here are some excerpts from the book “How You Can Avoid Tragedy and Live a Better Life” by Charles Capps.

Jesus told a parable of the sower. He said, The sower soweth the word (Mark 4:14).

In this parable, He speaks of four types of soil. When you get His interpretation, you find that the soil represents the heart of man and the seed represents the Word of God.

You sow the Word in your heart.

Paul said the Word is first in your mouth, then in your heart. When it gets into your heart, your human spirit works night and day to find a way for it to come to pass.

Here is an example: There is a thermostat on the wall of your home. The thermostat is the goalsetter of your furnace and air conditioner. When you turn the dial to 70 degrees, the heart of that unit will work day and night until it brings the house to that temperature.

That unit is designed to produce whatever temperature is set on the thermostat.

The spirit of man is what the Bible calls “the heart of man.” (Gen.45:26-27; Rom.2:29.) The spirit is designed to operate in the God-kind of faith.

The human spirit is the production center. Whatever man feeds into his spirit is what the unit (spirit) will work to produce. The heart of man will work night and day to produce what he “dials” in it (by his words), the same as the thermostat (the heart of that unit) will work to bring the temperature to that setting.

The heart of the unit does not say, ‘Wait a minute! I think you need cold air instead of hot.” It cannot think. It does not have the ability to think. The unit is only designed to produce what you dial into the thermostat.

The inner man (your spirit) will lead you according what you have fed into it-whether good, bad, or indifferent. The spirit of man devised his ways. Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the forces of life. (Prov.4:23). This is where it all comes from. Good or evil comes from the inside of man.

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,  blasphemies. Matthew 15:18-19

Your spirit will guide you into a position to cause what you are saying to come to pass. This may explain why you have been misled at times. You have deceived your heart with words.

Your spirit worked night and day to bring you into a position to cause to come to pass things you really did not want.

But you spoke wrong words into your spirit day in and day out. You prayed wrong words. You prayed the problem. Your heart received that as being your will and worked day and night to bring you into a position where the things you were saying would come to pass.

Don’t open the door to the devil. Don’t invite tragedy into your home by praying foolish prayers, inspired out of self-pity or defeat.

According to Proverbs 18:21, Death and Life are in the power of the tongue.

The reason the devil comes to some houses is because he is welcome there. Some people think the devil is doing God a service. Some have actually invited him in. They have invited tragedy by not knowing the purpose and will of God.

James 4:7 says, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. That is the will of God.

The devil will stay where there is least resistance. If you think sickness, disease, problems, and troubles are making you stronger and perfecting you, then you will have no resistance to disease and problems.

But if you will walk in the principles of God’s Word, keep God’s Word in your mouth, and apply what God has said, you can be victorious over these problems of life.

A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. Proverbs 18:7

The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead. Proverbs 11:8

You can confess: “No evil will befall me, neither shall any plague come nigh my dwelling. He has given His Angels charge over me. In my pathway is life; there is no death.”

Why? Because these are direct quotes from God’s Word.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

The fear of Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil. Proverbs 19: 23

My summary of this book are as follows:

Study and gain knowledge of the Word of God, because the Word has the answers. Use your tongue to build up people not destroy others or yourself. Think about what you are saying. Pray the answer using the Word of God. Speak life! Example: Thank you Jesus for healing my body, your Word says, By your stripes I am healed. Therefore, I believe and receive your Words in my heart and declare health and healing over my body.  Jesus, I believe that when I pray and ask you for healing. It is done. According to Matthew 7:7 says ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Jesus, you are the great Physician and nothing is impossible for you. Thank you for healing my body!

From the book by Charles Capps: Wrong praying can destroy you. Prayer releases spiritual forces. When prayed accurately according to the Word of God, the forces of God will become activated in your life. But a prayer that is filled with doubt, fear, and unbelief will activate the evil forces of the enemy in your life.

Mark 11:23, Jesus set forth a principle: “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.

I’m adding this, because it is extremely relevant- Mark11: 24-25 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

By the way- God’s Will is always healing! Don’t say, “If it is God’s Will” when praying for healing or wholeness! Jesus died on the cross – pierced for our sins- He took all our sins on the cross..BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE… He also took all our sickness and disease on the cross! Yes, it is always His Will- you can’t separate the TWO… If a person believes Jesus took our sins on the cross and has been born again-set free- will spend eternal life with God, then why is it so hard to believe Jesus took all our sickness on the cross and WE AS BELIEVER’S HAVE VICTORY OVER SICKNESS AND SIN…

Jesus gave us victory, because WE have the Holy Spirit that lives in us. Jesus gave us tools (lots of tools)..He didn’t leave us alone… no, no….

(Ephesians 6:10-17) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Knowledge is power. I’m sure most of us have heard this statement over and over. But did you know that knowledge in God’s Word is the ultimate power and the greatest victory is found in HIS knowledge (The Word of the living God). Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge. I think you know where I’m going with this….

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33)

By Tracey Auburn (AKA firebranch)