Monday, August 31, 2009

BE STRONG IN THE LORD!

Paul says to the Ephesians, In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. (Eph 6:10).

As he closes his letter to the brethren he admonishes them to be "strong in the Lord." Most people want God to make them strong, but Jesus did not come to make us strong in ourselves but rather He came to become for us our strength. It is our "UNION" with Him that provides us strength. It is our relationship with Him that ultimately produces the strength (the very JOY) that is needed to live this earth bound life. We are to draw our strength from His Love.

In the face of the battle of life "what are we to do?" BE STRONG IN THE LORD! Rely upon our union our, oneness with the ONE who has "chosen us before the foundation of the world," who "made us alive," who "has seated us together with Him."

Our strength comes from Love. A love that the world had never known before. A love that was furiously focused on restoring His union with us. Into the midst of our weakness He came and rescued us with His Divine Embrace. Within that Embrace all Embarrassment disappears. All our weaknesses and fears are destroyed and we are empowered to receive all that He is and has.

Be Strong! Be Courageous! Put on the whole armor of God. The very Presence of the One who has come not only once as the son of Mary but also He has come to live within our hearts. Yes the Holy Spirit longs to make His home within us. We must allow the ONE who walked the shores and the waves of Galilee to live within us.

To be filled with the Spirit of the Lord is the very hope of every individual and the essence of the church. We are a people who are in need of the very Presence of the Lord who is a "Spirit" and who desires to fill us with Himself.


Eph 3:14-16
14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
NKJV

The Church is in need of a Spiritual Strengthening. A reconditioning of long forgotten muscles. A recovering of abilities that were given to us in the new birth. We need to "RE-THINK" what it means to be the church. The Church is the body of the Christ. We are his family, we are the continuation of His ministry. A ministry that was full of the power of the Holy Spirit. I am truly convinced that we have allowed the rationality of our times to rob us of the potential and possibility of the manifestation of the supernatural realities of the Holy Spirit.

This is a cry! This is a shout to the Church! BE STRONG IN THE LORD. Rather thaN chasing to find or build strength in ourselves we must rely upon the Holy Spirit. It is He who was sent to empower us to be the sons and daughters of the Most High.

So today... Put on the armor of the Lord. and Pray ... Pray in the Spirit ... ALWAYS!!!!!

3 comments:

Kyle Lindenberger said...

In the course of my life I had made mistakes and fell where only the strength of the Lord can pick me up and it is through the love the world does not know, the love His love that consists of patience and forgiveness, that slowly and gently picks me up and restores me to my potential I have in him.

It was the lacking of the spiritual in my journey of faith that had caused me to be unaware of what was going on and therefore caused my fall due to no armor.

I am grateful for those who are strong in the Lord who forgive me when I do make mistakes. These people are the ones I call the Church!

Tonya Andrews said...

You word things so that they not only make sense, but also make me really think about the topic. "A love that was furiously focused on restoring His union with us." I have learned quite a bit in the last few years on my spiritual journey. I know that I know He wants to have that special relationship with each one of His precious children. However, putting the word furiously in that statement really puts His great love into perspective. He loves us so much He gave His only Son, that is indeed a furious love. I also appreciate how you stated "rather than chasing to find or build strength in ourselves, we must rely on the Holy Spirit". Before the moment of salvation in my life, I was a very strong willed person. In some instances, I had no choice considering I am a single mother of three children. However, now it is a different strong willed. I can still do what I need to do for my children, but that strong willed determination has now turned to training them up in His ways as opposed to what I would always think was right or wrong. I have come to the point where I just can't do it alone anymore. Thank God I don't have to! :) He is there, always, never fail and He has blessed us with a phenomenal church family to help us through those rough times. It continues to be a step by step process. There is not a day that goes by that I don't learn something new about Him, where He has me going or what I need to be showing my children. Again, thank you for your thoughts. I enjoy reading them/listening to you and that they make me really consider things. God's Peace.. :)

John Rowden said...

Bishop,
On many occasions when God has entrusted me with the privilege of preaching,I will ask Him to give me what I call the message of the hour. I feel that God who knows the hearts and minds of his people, where they are at in their relationship with him, can give me the word that his children need to hear that day or week. At times he has taken my life's experiences and broken them up like bread to hand to his children. In so doing I have discovered that it then not only edifies his church, but even more so, me as the giver. Amazing how that works!

On August 23 you preached a sermon about joy. You prefaced this message with the disclaimer that you were preaching to yourself. But here's the deal, I too had a rough week. In fact, I've had a lot of rough days lately. I recognize the spiritual attack, and it only confirms to me that something is going on in the spiritual realm and my enemy is nervous. Good for him, he should be. But bad for him, with the Holy Spirit and Bible as my guide, I've been compelled to ask God for what some may consider outlandish request. But that's fine, a few weeks ago when I walked into church, 3 times I heard God tell me to keep asking. Then there was a call to go forward for prayer. You told my wife and I to speak to the wind. Okay, God, thats 4 times, I'll keep asking and speaking.

Awh, back to joy: at least 3 times the week before this message God reminded me to rejoice in my tribulations. Then you also ministered a message of rejoicing and joyfulness. I haven't quit rejoicing yet.

My point then is this: Thank you for sharing yourself with us, your a vital part of what God is doing in my families life, and my esteem for you grows daily.

"Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work." 1 Thess 5:11-13

Be encoraged,
John