Rev Dr Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings
check the following homepage: www.livinggracetoowoomba.org
The Father’s Son
Jesus is the Father’s Son. This is what mattered most to him and this is what stirred up the most opposition among so many people. For instance, John 5:17-18 – I read from the Bible: “ … For this reason the religious people [original: the Jews] tried all the harder to kill him … he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God … ” This was at the heart of his mission. Miss his sonship and you miss everything. Jesus came to introduce us to the Father – our Father-God in heaven. One Bible book states in the very first chapter – John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God, but the only Son [Jesus Christ], who is truly God [himself] and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like” [CEV translation]. Jesus never tired of making this plain – John 6:46-47: “No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father … he who believes [in me] has everlasting life.” John 3:35-36: “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.” John 10:38: “ … understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” John 14:6: “ … No one comes to the Father except through me.”
How are we traveling with this? Chances are that we are struggling with this core revelation of Jesus – the Son of the Father – (What is God like – as a Father?) because none of our fathers are perfect. You may have a really great relationship with your dad but the general statistics are against us. In our culture – far too often – fathers are absent. Long hours at the office make them cranky at home and when divorce strikes a family, dads become even more remote. Then there are problems with raising children – discipline – either it is too harsh or there is simply not enough care to give firm directions on anything. Further, according to one writer: “If you’re a young man and you’re not being admired by an older man, you’re being hurt.” “Not seeing your father when you are small, never being with him, having a remote father, an absent father, a workaholic father, is an injury.” “Between twenty and thirty percent of American boys now live in a house with no father present, and the demons there have full permission to rage” (Robert Moore). This is not good. Fathers – so many of them – are not coping with fathering. [They may not have been fathered themselves.]
It gets worse.
Fathers even betray their calling. One resource Website in
Therefore, what does it mean to us that – according to Jesus – God is our Father? What goes through your mind when you connect the words “God” and “father”? What do you think that he is like? We are now having a debate where numerous Christians say that God must not be called “Father” because this term is masculine, patriarchal, and oppressive to women – and men. So many people are struggling with Father-God. One pastor writes: “I thought ‘Jesus is OK, but watch out for God …’” (John Arnott: The Father’s Blessing, Orlando: Creation House 1996, p23).
Maybe you recognize this kind of logic: “God is an angry God who wanted to punish us because we are not good. But Jesus loved us and died to pay for our sins, so God had to let us go free. God would still like to get us, but he can’t, because Jesus keeps him from it. Jesus, our Saviour who loves us, saves us from God, the righteous Judge, who hates us” (Shirley C. Guthrie: Christian Doctrine, Atlanta: John Knox Press 1968, p91). Is this what we think? Many do – but it is not true. Jesus came to introduce us to the Father and he hammered the point that the Father was exactly like him – same will, same love, same compassion. Jesus said – John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.” John 14:9: “ … Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father … ” Therefore – just as Jesus loved us – the Father loved us: so much so that he bore the pain – endured the breaking of a Father’s heart – when he gave his Son Jesus to be a sacrifice for our sins.
If – right now – you still find that you are not comprehending the depth of God’s fatherhood, then this is a good starting point for learning more this morning and please know that you are in good company. I read to you a conversation which Jesus had with his disciples – those that had lived with him for years – John 14:6-14: “Jesus answered: ‘ … No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well … ’ Philip said: ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work …’”
Knowing Jesus is knowing the Father because everything that Jesus did – who he was – came out of his intimacy with the Father. Jesus opened up something for us – introduced us to the Father. Philip said: “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” The good news is that Jesus did show us the Father and it is enough for us – today – this morning. [Consider also that God tolerates no substitute fathers – Matthew 10:37: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me … ” 23:9: “And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.” Yet, there is positive fathering in Christ Jesus – 1 Corinthians 4:16: “ … in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.”]
Jesus knew that
the Father was so good. Even when he was in absolute agony, crying out –
Mark 14:34: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death … ”, he knew that he
was praying to a loving Father. At night – when everything was dark – he kept praying – Mark
The same
experience sustained the first Christians when they faced their own darkness.
They wrote – 2 Corinthians 1:8: “We were under great pressure, far
beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” Yet, they also shared – 2 Corinthians
1:3-4: “Praise be to … the Father of compassion [the Father of mercies] and
the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles … ” God is good and
he is your Father.
Consider some
more Bible references on how much you can trust the Father whom Jesus – his
Son – introduced to us – Matthew
6:25-34: “ … do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or
about your body, what you will wear … do not worry … your heavenly Father knows
[what you need] … ” Matthew 7:11: “If you, then, though you are evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in
heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Then, Jesus told a story where a son demanded his inheritance before
the death of his father and then squandered all of his wealth in wild living.
He came back in rags and not a penny to his name but this is what the father did
– an image of what Father-God does for any sinner coming back to him – Luke
15:20: “ … while he was still a long way off, his
father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw
his arms around him and kissed him.” God
is good and he is your Father. Trust Jesus in this.
Now I want to become practical. How do you get a relationship with God where you know deep in your heart that he is your Father – the Father of mercies and comfort? The key to knowing the Father is in the following words of Jesus – John 14:18 – he said: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:16: “ . I will ask the Father, and he will send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you.” Jesus – the Son – introduced the Father to us and when he returned to heaven, the Father did what Jesus asked him to do, that is: the Father made the Holy Spirit come to us – with the result that now the Spirit of God is active (even this morning in this church) in establishing and growing the same relationship between us and the Father which Jesus enjoyed here on earth. The knowledge of the Father will never go away. Consider two more Bible references – Romans 8:15: “ … you received the Spirit of sonship [daughtership]. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” Galatians 4:6: “ … God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’”
Therefore, the key to the Father is the Holy Spirit because it is by him that we cry out – in trust: “Abba, Father.” If – so far – God has remained alien to you. The concept of a Father-God is in your head but not your heart, then you need more of the Holy Spirit. Ask for him. Every Christian receives the Holy Spirit and this morning you may allow him free access to your heart, mind, will and emotions. Sometimes the Bible talks about the person of the Holy Spirit as if he were a substance which can be poured out on people. He can drench you and fill you and saturate you until God is no longer just God but a Father – who loves you so much that he did not spare his only-begotten Son but gave him for you.
I will remain
practical and look at what God has done in our own – more recent – history and across
the world over the last few years. On
While I was
preaching, I had a new experience. I felt a “wave” of the Holy Spirit go through me and –
surprised – I thought: “Oh – God,
you are pleased.” Then, for no
particular reason – with no hidden agenda – I concluded by preaching that our opposition to the
This is what I
said:
“As far as maligned movements go, what God poured out on the Toronto
Airport church in 1994 ranks among the most maligned movments in modern church history … When
you hear the word ‘Toronto Blessing’ is your reaction a good one or a bad one –
and if it is a bad one (which it was for me for a long time) what do you
actually know about this church and their leaders? …
I was confronted with my own preconceived ideas when I happened to
listen to another mp3 sermon on the internet which happened to be by the pastor
of that particular church. I expected a preacher from that kind of church to be
loud and noisy and energetic and entertaining (drawing people in) but he was
rather the opposite – a bit slow and unemotional – preaching basic Bible
truths. I scratched my head and then a few months later I bought a second-hand
book which turned out to be written by the same pastor: ‘The Father’s Blessing’
…
Let me give you a few quotes: ‘In October 1992, Carol and I started
giving our entire mornings to the Lord, spending time worshiping, reading,
praying and being with him. For a year and a half we did this, and we fell in
love with Jesus all over again. Intimacy with Jesus is what we signed up for … ’ (John Arnott: The Father’s
Blessing,
One of Toowoomba’s local Anglican priests – whom I trust – he has been
to that
There was and there is good fruit coming from this
After the
message – as a church – as Lutherans – we
repented before God. One person after another came forward, took the microphone
and prayed – humble prayers – bringing
before God our families and denomination, our pride and culture. We were sorry
for opposing the moves of God.
This had
immediate consequences. We repented on Sunday and on Wednesday I found myself
attending the first session of a church conference at the Gold Coast. A friend (another
local pastor) had invited me along and –
without knowing anything about the hosts or venue or conference speaker – I came along – only to find out that the conference was put on by a church that is
part of the Toronto Airport church network [the Toronto Airport church
being the home of the “Toronto Blessing”]. Thus
– immediately – after our repentance on Sunday – without delay – God made me step into the stream of
blessings coming out of
On Thursday
night an impartation was given and I hit the carpet for the first time in my
life. On Friday – “by chance” – before the meeting – I had the opportunity to chat with the hosting
pastor and I told him the story which he then asked me to share with the entire
conference. I did and at the end of my sharing I was able – once again –
before these witnesses – before the “Toronto Blessing” hosts – to repent as a Lutheran pastor for opposing
the moves of God.
The aftermath of the whole experience had some unpleasant outcomes. Within Living Grace there were second thoughts about a more positive attitude to the “Toronto Blessing”. Then, anonymous sources complained about my preaching to the presidents which led to ongoing pressure and meetings in Adelaide where the District President asked two of our denomination’s scholars to examine some of my sermons – including the one on opposing the moves of God – but in the end the District President wrote to all the Queensland Lutheran pastors: “ … I am satisfied that Edgar’s public teaching in these sermons is not inconsistent with the public doctrine of the LCA … ”
Yet, the
pressure only served to underline the importance of what God was doing in our
midst. When I came home from the conference – and as I reflected more on
God’s guidance – I realized that the
blessings of
[From an email – Peter Steicke (
We did have a
good weekend and Peter did pray for an impartation of the Father’s heart into
us but it is only now that I am beginning to grasp the greater significance of
what happened. I have the feeling that – as uncomfortable as it may be to
be exposed to some negative limelight – we
may “take up” the blessings
of
For years I had
the mistaken assumption that the “Toronto Blessing” was about the Holy Spirit and in a sense it
was. At the
And this may be
bigger and far more significant than I first suspected. Our own small history
is swallowed up in something bigger. So much what is going on in the Christian
world right now (at least in the West) has
been touched by
In a book – that covers church history over the last six hundred years – the authors (Fred & Sharon Wright) identify seasons of great interventions by God – tsunami wave revivals – of which (they think) there are four. According to the authors there are a few defining characteristics of tsunami wave revivals. I quote only a few observations:
“ … There are two components that every major revival features. First,
it emphasizes essential truths about the nature and purposes of God that have
been ignored, discarded, or lost by successive generations of professing
believers and well-meaning church leaders and theologians. Second, the revival
is spurred on by hungry and desperate people who are seeking answers to their
needs, the Church’s needs, and society’s needs … Tsunami wave revivals are
preceded and followed by smaller wave revivals … Tsunami wave revivals have two
initial stages in their early development: the gathering stage and the
scattering stage. During the gathering stage, there is a definite local or
regional focal point, often based in a church … Then comes
the scattering stage, which is when many think the revival is over. Actually,
the revival has now moved into the most dangerous phase for the kingdom of
darkness, because now the message and values that it carries are identified. It
becomes a mobile, transferable, and hard-to-trace reality. Instead of impacting
just thousands, now it begins to impact millions, transforming whole nations as
it moves throughout the world … It takes decades for the whole Church to fully
embrace and cultivate the fresh insights that birth tsunami wave revivals … ”
(Fred & Sharon Wright: The World’s Greatest Revivals, Shippensburg: Destiny
Image 2007, p27-29).
We do not have
time to get into any sort of detail but the authors identify these four
revivals: “1. The Reformation
[beginning in 1517], released through Martin Luther, restored the truth that
Jesus Christ is the only means of Salvation. 2. The First Great Awakening [ca 1730-1755], released through John
Wesley, restored the truth that the Church needs to fulfill the Great Commission
(i.e.: disciple nations). 3. The
Pentecostal Revival [beginning in 1906], released through William Seymour
at
Some Christians tend to own only one of these four revivals. For them it is all about Martin Luther or John Wesley but we are meant to rejoice in all of them – walk in the fullness of God’s revelation to us. At this point in our own history maybe we can become more conscious of God’s current world-wide agenda – imparting in us the Spirit by which we cry “Abba” – Father-God – “Dad”. God wants us to know that we are loved. Families all over the world are under attack. Fathers are taken out by wars and work – disease (e.g.: AIDS) and divorce. We need a father that is never going to leave us. God knows and he says to you – and me: “I am your Father. I will never leave you. I know what you need and I will provide for you. I love you. I am pleased with you. I delight in you.”
At first, the
leadership in
“When renewal started happening in our church during the ministry time
on
At first I agreed. I told the Lord that I wanted to see people come to
Jesus, to see them healed. So I started preaching more on salvation, but after
the sermons, I noticed that the ministry time was difficult.
I didn’t understand that. The Holy Spirit was not flowing, and the
people were not receiving from the Lord the same as before. The number of
people who came to Christ was not as great as it was when I had talked about
the joy of the Lord or the love of God or phenomena in the Bible. I asked the
Lord why and was surprised by his response: ‘It is because you are pushing me.’
I said: ‘Lord, I don’t want to push you. What do you mean?’ God’s reply floored
me: “Is it all right with you if I just love on my church for a while?’ … ” (John Arnott: The Father’s Blessing, Orlando:
Creation House 1996, p20-21).
However,
later this man understood what God was doing. He declared:
“ … Most are gun-shy about this kind of love and closeness; we don’t
know what to do with it. It makes people very uncomfortable when we start
preaching about intimacy. They say, ‘Come on. Don’t give us that mushy stuff.
We want to hear the gospel.’ But the funny thing is that this really is the
gospel. You can read it in John 3:16: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave
his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life.’ …
The greatest revelation I hear night after night is that God has come
to people by the power of the Holy Spirit and revealed his love to them
personally, often through visions and dreams and prophecy. They say, ‘I know
now that my heavenly Father really loves me.’ … “ (John
Arnott: The Father’s Blessing,
Another leader
from
“ …
weekly chartered planes … thousands of visitors . came
to see for themselves what was going on. Many of them ended up on the floor,
laughing, crying, shaking, or repenting of sin. When asked what they were
experiencing during these times, they would often answer that God the Father
was pouring His love into their hearts … [the] Toronto Airport Church became
the number one tourist attraction in Toronto during the summers of 1994 … Many
would readily acknowledge that they were having a good time in the presence of
the Lord and that they were enjoying the Lord’s refreshing touch upon them.
Once they were back home, however, as time passed, what they had experienced
was often interpreted as just a nice experience … No one was more surprised
than me when criticism broke out over local Christian radio stations and in
books. The focus of that criticism could be summed up in this question, which
was hurled our way: ‘If this is revival, why aren’t you out in the streets evangelizing?’
Because I didn’t understand what was undergirding this outbreak of God’s
presence, I became confused when the criticisms came our way. We were trapped
between the critics of the revival and the lovely swirl of God’s mighty
presence and wonderful manifestations … As I look back at that time now, I
realize that many of the visitors to Toronto missed something vital to what the
Toronto Revival is all about … Underneath the often mind-boggling
manifestations, the overwhelming sense of His presence, and the displays of His
great power in each revival, there is always an underlying significant truth
that God is moving Heaven and earth to reestablish in men’s minds and hearts.
The two key truths proclaimed throught he Toronto Revival are: 1.
Father God really loves His children, and He wants us to know and experience
that love, and 2. He loves us too much to leave us the way we are, and He wants
to set us free from past hurts that keep us in bondage … ”
(Fred & Sharon Wright: The World’s Greatest Revivals, Shippensburg: Destiny
Image 2007, p36-38).
God was loving on his church for a while – and (this morning)
God can love on us for a while – because
out of intimacy with him there will be an explosion of people coming to him
from all over the world. Who would not want to be loved by Father-God?
Quickly
now – just three examples of
“‘The Holy Spirit hits
The speaker at these meetings was Elli Mumford, a member of the
pastoral team at the South West London Vineyard, a growing church which meets
in Putney. She had recently returned from visiting the
Elli had been transformed by her visit. She had gone there feeling
spiritually ‘burnt out’ and longing for a fresh understanding and vitality in
her relationship with Jesus. As she received prayer and encouragement she
discovered God anew, much of the time while ‘on the carpet’ prostrate before
God …
She asked the congregation to stand while she prayed that the Lord
would bless them and give them all that he had. Soon hundreds were laughing,
weeping, receiving prayer and meeting with God. Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) was
not the first church in the
In the midst of these ‘days of heaven’ an HTB staff member spoke of the
‘Toronto blessing’ and very soon the label became attached to what many
believed was a special ‘time of refreshing from the hand of the Lord’. … Elli
Mumford’s unadorned and heartfelt testimony was to be like a spark to dry grass
in many churches, many of whom played the cassette over the church PA system
and then witnessed astonishing scenes as pastors fell off platforms and keeled
over in the choir stalls … ” (Dave Roberts: The ‘Toronto Blessing’, Eastbourne:
Kingsway Publications 1994, p11-12). Additional comment: We know Holy Trinity
Brompton through Nicky Gumbel and the Alpha Course which has reached millions
across the world.
2.
“Little marked Father’s Day 1995 as more than routine. Families filed
into the
The following months featured service followed by service, attendees
leaving in the wee hours to glean a little sleep, work a few hours, then return
to this powerful deposit of God’s presence. Nightly, Rev. Hill shared fresh,
anointed messages and cast his nets, drawing in souls touched by God’s
convicting power as teen Charity James sang with urgent appeal the summons,
Mercy Seat. Word spread, beckoning the hungry and the desperate from nearby
communities, then surrounding states, the nation, and finally the world.
Worshipers from nearly every continent flocked to the
Rocked by the sudden visitor inflow and awed by this Holy Visitation,
Pastor Kilpatrick, Rev. Hill, Pastor’s assistant, Rose Compton, and church
leaders strategized to accommodate the sudden response. Leadership scheduled
four weekly revival services. Brownsville Prayer, Usher, and Personal Ministry
teams, supported by other community churches, mobilized to host the guests. For
more than eight years, visitors arrived, hungry, to leave powerfully changed.
Over ten years later, God continues to meet visitors from the
nations. Millions have come, hungry to hear from God. Hundreds of thousands
have responded to His call to salvation and a commitment to holiness, and a
fresh charge has issued throughout the world for holiness and fresh intimacy
with God.”
Did you notice the prophetic significance of the day which God picked
for the outpouring? Father’s Day!
3. Rolland
& Heidi Baker,
“I’m just a little preacher in the dirt. I’m just a servant in the
dirt. I just sit with the people in the dirt, with the poor. Nothing special …
My husband and I had both studied 10 years. Everyone said with that kind of education
we should be training pastors. But God said, ‘Just pick up dying children.’ …
And then we went to
So I went back to
And there I was I was so exhausted. My husband put big Scripture verses
all over the wall. He’d print them out for me. I was praying these prophet
prayers. I was angry, Why would such a thing happen?
Look at this, we are in a disaster. All these
kids. There’s no toilet. There’s no bed. There’s no food. What are we
supposed to do? They called me Mama. They said, ‘Where you go, we will go. We
want to follow Jesus.’ The Marxists said they could stay but they couldn’t pray,
they couldn’t read the Bible. But they said they would follow Jesus. And they
all left, all of them. A mass exodus.
No one stayed. We had to escape in the night for our life. There was a
contract out on my life for $20.00. My two blonde children and my husband and myself had to escape in the middle of the night. We had to
leave our clothes. We left everything. We took the little children in our two
trucks who couldn’t walk. The big ones walked 27
kilometers. They were beaten for worshipping Jesus and they refused to stay.
They were singing, ‘But God is great.’ And they are walking and worshipping and
they are being beaten. But they don’t care. They said, ‘We love Jesus more than
anything. We will go where you go.’
It was the first time we had food multiplied. This woman brought chili
and rice for our family of four. I opened the door and said, ‘We have a huge
family.’ All these kids. I don’t know how many
children there were. Probably more then a hundred. The
woman yelled, ‘no’ when I opened up the door … ‘There is only food for four. I
didn’t make enough.’ She was not happy. I said, ‘There’s always enough because
He died.’ I was very tired. I didn’t even think. It wasn’t like I was full of
faith. I was tired. I had all these kids who were tired. They had just walked
27 kilometers. They were sick they were exhausted, they were dirty. So we
prayed. We had a little bowl of cornmeal that we had,
some chili and rice. If you stretched it, it could have fed 10 people, at most.
I said, ‘Let’s give them a lot, because they are hungry.’ We had these plastic
bowls, I didn’t know God could multiply plastic at the time, but we started
filling them up, everybody ate, even the woman. She was crying by now because
she had never seen a miracle. She told everyone that came to her house about
what Jesus had done …
The revival in
From there, God’s just expanded everything. My husband came to
God showed me that two of them would raise the dead. They went out the
next week, found dead people, and raised them from the dead in Jesus name. It
brought incredible revival. It brought a whole village to the Lord. We’ve seen
16 people raised from the dead in
We have one little woman who is a pastor’s wife who has raised 3
children from the dead in a Muslim province, out of the grave boxes. This
happened in a period of 7-8 months. We now have 59 churches in that province.
The blind are seeing, the deaf hearing, the cripple are walking, the dumb are
speaking, the poor hear the good news. We have 1500 children living in our
centers. This is the best part. I said, ‘God how are we going to take care of
the thousands more?’ He said, ‘I’m going to touch the hearts of men and those
men are going to receive the heart of the Father, and they will take in the
orphans. You model it. I want every pastor to take one to ten children.’ God
has promised me 10,000 churches by October. We will have it. That is 100,000
children taken in. Do you see? So we took in eight boys as our own. With our
two, it makes ten. God said, ‘If you’ll model it, they will follow.’ So we just
asked the pastors to believe God and take the children in.
It’s scary when God asks you to feed the nations, especially if He
tells you not to ask others for anything. He has told us to provide communal
farms for the pastors. So we start a farm for 10 churches and it feeds the
orphans and the widows, and the pastors as well. We have chicken, goat, duck, rice farms … every kind of farm. But we do have a major famine
in one of the provinces. Many are dying, pastors and some children. It shocks
your system to go from preaching where there is a famine to here in the
luxuriant western world. I see dying, I see suffering, I
see pain. The Lord told me that the church would care, and you did here at this
conference. I’m so grateful for the incredible offering. People in the river of
revival do care for the poor and I saw it demonstrated with no hype, no fuss in
this conference … a sacrificial offering for the poor, the hungry, the dying. I
believe that out of this revival in
I’ll never go back. I’ll live in the secret place. My greatest desire
is to live for Jesus and to die for Jesus, and to bring in hundreds of
thousands and hundreds of thousands for His kingdom” (Interview with Heidi
Baker –
Father-God can
do a lot when we allow him to love on us for a while. Can you see it again that
it was in
Father-God can do a lot when we allow him to love on us for a while. This morning we need to experience him – know deep within ourselves – that we have a Father in heaven who loves us more than we can ever imagine. Did you notice how this revelation was passed on? It was by the power of testimony – sharing what God has done. The Spirit began to move in Holy Trinity Brompton (London) when Elli Mumford shared what had happened in Toronto [“ … many churches, many of whom played the cassette over the church PA system and then witnessed astonishing scenes as pastors fell off platform and keeled over in the choir stalls … ”] and the Spirit broke out in Pensacola when Stephen Hill shared his experiences at Holy Trinity Brompton (London). The Bible explains this basic principle by saying – Revelations 19:10: “ … the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” There is power in testifying to what God has done because the words of the testimony have prophetic power which means that they can recreate what has been shared. [This is also what we have done in today’s preaching.] Furthermore, Elli Mumford, Stephen Hill, Heidi Baker and so many others received the move of the Spirit by going to the place where it was happening and receiving prayer by the laying on of hands. This is also in the Bible – Acts 8:17-18: “Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit … the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands … “ Acts 19:6: “When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them … “ Also 2 Timothy 1:6: “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”
Jesus
introduced the Father to us and he called him “Abba” – Dad – which is what we can call him also. Do you
want the Spirit of sonship – daughtership – this morning? Reflecting on our own history here at Living Grace
and what God is doing in the world right now – we can say that God wants us to have this. The “Father’s
Blessing” is already here. Take it.
Be hungry for it. Father-God can do a lot when we allow him to love on us for a
while. Amen.