YIELD TO THE HOLY SPIRIT You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. –Acts 7:51             The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost to enable us to be witness and disciple-makers in Jesus authority (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).   This is His call upon our lives and we do not want to be like the “fathers” Stephen was talking about and be “stiff-necked people” and “resist the Holy Spirit” as He is speaking to us, guiding us, prompting us and desiring to work in and through us. Yet as followers of Jesus we can quench the Holy Spirit…

BLAMELESS AND UPRIGHT! “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” —Job 1:8 “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” —Job 2:3 To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. —Proverbs 8:13             Every time I read these verses in Job I wonder what God says about me. God said about Job “that there is none like him on the earth,…

KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING! It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. —Acts 6:2  But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. —Act 6:4 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. —Acts 6:7             The Lord has given each of us a spiritual gift or gifts and we are to apply these in the work He has prepared for us (I Corinthians 12; Ephesians 2:10). Prayer and God’s Word…

  YOU ARE FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS! For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this? —Esther 4:14 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” —Acts 5:19-20 So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for…

LIVE TRUE! You have not lied to men but to God. —Acts 5:4 How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? —Acts 5:9                        Are you and I being honest before God? In the case above when Ananias and Sapphira lied to Peter about the price of the sold land they were actually lying to God. This couple had agreed together to lie and Peter said they actually were lying to God and were testing His Holy Spirit!                        So here is a challenge to you and I— Is there anything in our lives we are “lying” to men about? Well don’t we think…

PRAY TO BE BOLD! So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. —Acts 4:18 ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’ —Acts 25-26 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. —Acts 4:29 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word…

COMMITTED TO HIS WORD, TO WORSHIP HIM AND PRAYER OF REMEMBRANCE  And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God. —Nehemiah 9:3 “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in…

HEAR, UNDERSTAND AND OBEY GOD’S WORD! And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the…

FOCUS ON HIS DESIRES FOR YOU! And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me. —Nehemiah 6:4-5 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. —Nehemiah 6:15 And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid. —Nehemiah 6:19             What is it that God has called you to?   You can be assured that the world, the flesh and Satan will be in opposition to God’s desires for you. You and I need to be on guard “in order that Satan might…

PRIVILEGED POSITION INDEED! They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. —Nehemiah 1:10             Nehemiah spoke of the Jews at that time.   But it is also true of anyone who is following Jesus today. Nehemiah said the Jews of that time were God’s servants. Jesus said of us that “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35). As servants we need to have a proper perspective on who we are and Who our Lord is— “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the…